Weeks 6 & 7

Much of my day is spent studying Ellie.  I realized today that I will likely get to be apart of most of her firsts. That excites me so much. While I can't tell you if she looks more like Rand or myself, I can tell you her Three favorite things; looking out the window, bouncing, and chewing on my hand, fingers, or shirt. Her personality seems to be gravitating towards some of the tendencies that I have, as she seems certain of the things she does like and seems to delight in, well 'movin and shakin'. Here are a few fun memories over the last few weeks

• She has been smiling SO much more. Rand and I melt nearly every time. She reacts to my expressions and loves it when I coo back at her. She seems to try and find my face when she hears my voice and it really makes me feel special to know that she, well, likes me. 
• Routine is kind of changing. We are starting a sleep, feed, awake time schedule.  I read part of my first parenting book and well, it sort of freaked me out.  With Rand's encouragement and guidance, we are both starting to figure out what bits and pieces we would like to take from the loads of literature and advice we are getting to determine what is best for our sweet girl.  Day 2 of it and she already seems to be catching on fast.  Right now we are waking up about twice a night to feed her, but hopefully we will all be sleeping through the night in now time. 
• She is a drooling machine and I have noticed she likes to play with the bubbles she makes in her mouth.
• Right before Rand cut his hair, it seemed that she really just wanted to eat up his hair.  She would always open her mouth up to try and taste it. 
• This past week her grip has really been growing.  She likes holding onto my hand and has started to grip other objects too. When we put her under her mobile she will sometimes swat at the objects. 
• She took her first trip away from Grand Forks to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Cottage Grove.  She enjoyed the endless amounts of attention and spending her mornings with them while Mom and Dad tried to sleep a bit.  Pretty sure she just about melted their heart.  She was also able to meet her great-aunts and uncle and her Great Grandpa.

First Dress

Sports

Auntie Angie

Grandpa

Dress From Grandma

My favorite story comes from our first trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house last weekend.  We were on our way down and stopped at our midway point Holiday gas station in Alexandria to fill up. While Rand was filling up gas I jumped in the back to greet Ellie who looked up at me with a delighted look, like she hadn't seen me in days.  Yes, it melted my heart. Mood changes tend to happen fairly quickly, though, and a few seconds later it was clear that she was hungry. Neither Rand or I had really thought up a game plan for what nursing her would look like. I had quite literally thought, oh yeah, well just nurse on the road while were driving. Eh-- not so great of a plan. We devised a quick plan, ending up behind the gas station, with our stress levels definitely more escalated as Ellie screams became louder.  I hopped in the back and attempted to take screaming and thrashing Ellie out of her car seat, never a fun time. With not much room in the back and Ellie stretched across my chest I became pretty cranky. Nursing covers basically suck and space wise crunched in the backseat of a ford focus is not very spacious. I felt sort of like what I feel the pegs in the cars of the game of life feel like. And no for whatever reason I did not feel like the front seat was an option. Needless to say, we managed to get through the feeding. I put Ellie upright to burp her and bluppp, pretty sure her whole meal landed all over me, the car seat and her. I looked up at Rand kind of dumbfounded and just said, umm, I don't even know what to do. We couldn't find her burp cloth right away so Rand pulled out a small, 2X2 size cloth and handed it to me.  I started cracking up at our situation almost immediately because the cloth was just not going to cut it.  Lets just say we had determined more of a plan for on the way back!

Rand and I have been enjoying her more and more it seems. Were looking forward to a work review that will be coming up for Rand and have been exploring the idea of homeownership, which is fairly exciting for us.  It has been fun to dream! 

Apartment Garden

Neighbor dog Cuba. One day...