2 Months and Baby Blessing

Sophia is already 2 months old, and getting to be more and more fun every day. Although our girl has gotten a lot bigger, she's still pretty small. Here are her 2 month stats:

Height: 22" (25-50th percentile)

Weight: 9lb 15oz (25th percentile)

Head: 13.7in (25th percentile)

Look at that cute belly! That's the last time we squeezed her into that newborn onsie.

Sophia got shots this week and was SUCH a trooper. Before they did it, she was cooing and so happy. Then they poked her and for a split second she looked confused, and then she just CRIED! It was heartbreaking. Afterwards, I didn't want to put her down. I wanted to cuddle her until everything was alright. I've heard that usually babies either sleep after shots or get cranky. She slept. Poor girl. I'm very grateful my parents were in town so that they could help cuddle and hold her too.

At 2 months, Sophia...

• enjoys baths! She is very calm, but I think she's still a little stressed out about them because she balls up her cute little fists and locks them to her side, above the water. It's adorable. Most of the time she just looks around, and afterwards she is always very cuddly and falls asleep more easily.
• is able to hold her head up very well. She looks like a bobble-head doll, but she's got a strong neck!
• sleeps between 4 and 6 hours at night when she first goes down, then wakes up about every 3-4 hours the rest of the night.
• likes getting her diaper changed. It's one of the only times she smiles.
• coos a lot, will coo back and forth with you, and is starting to watch and imitate us - especially mouth movements
• is SO much more alert. She will stare at us and track us and look straight into the camera (hooray). It's so cute!
• has quite a bit of gas. She'll put her little hands in fists and grunt a little. I wonder at what age it switches from cute to bad manners to just let one rip whenever you want. Unfortunately, she also gets gassy pretty bad at night, which means lots of crying and daddy having to stay up with her for about an hour a couple times a week.
• We are still waiting for big smiles; I say she takes her life very seriously. :P She does, however, do lots of adorable little ones, like this...

Most of my family was able to come to Provo this week. It was fun to spend time with my little nieces (and their parents, of course), and it's always fun when Grandma and Grandpa come to spoil and cuddle.

 Sophia cuddling with Grandpa after her 2 month shots.

 Sophs hangin' out with Uncle Tyler. Sorry you aren't looking, Tyler, but I loved the picture of her sticking her tongue out. That's another one of her favorite things to do.

Grandma and Sophia

Aunt Lissa and Sophia at the school baby shower

Sophia's baby blessing was December 18, 2011. Russ was very nervous, but he did a great job. He got a little choked up in the beginning, which made me start crying. It was a very special day, for our very special little daughter. She was awake but calm during the blessing, took a nap in my arms afterwards, and woke up for pictures. The men in the family were involved in the blessing and my mom, sister, and I sang a musical number.

The whole gang

Just the family

3 generations

On my baby blanket

On the blanket Great Grandma made her

She has fists almost all the time. Is that a normal baby thing? Does anyone else's baby do that?

I am so obsessed with that sweet little face!

She was an angel the ENTIRE day.

Savannah (5 months) and Sophia (2 months). What a difference 3 months can make! They really are mommy's favorite gift. Savannah sure smiles a lot! I hope Sophia watched her and learned how to do it. Maybe they were cousin friends in heaven because when we laid them next to each other, they put their hands on top of each other. :)

 Sophia's biggest fans!

I love our little family!

The baby blessing wasn't the only reason family came into town. My big brother, Tyler, also graduated from BYU and commissioned into the Army. He leaves in a week from today to report to Alabama. He's going to fly helicopters, his dream since he was a little boy. The commissioning was a really cool ceremony. I think somewhere back in history, a woman must have started the Army because of all the traditions and organization involved.

with smiley Savannah after the commissioning

Our family (minus Russ, who had to go to work as soon as it got over and minus Garrett, Krystal and Daniel who couldn't come because of Garrett's own training in the Air Force)

Everyone left today. :( It sure was fun for everyone to visit. (Lissa's family probably wouldn't agree because from their first day here until their last they passed around a stomach bug and spent half the trip sick at the hotel!)

Photographic Evidence

Russ and I have very impatiently been waiting for Sophia to smile at us. It is one of the most popular topics in our home.

Well, Monday night while Russ was working, Sophia did it! She smiled at me. I got SO excited that she immediately switched to her concerned look and got scared. A few minutes later, she did it again.

I called Russ and was so excited he couldn't even understand what I was saying. He denied it. By the time he got home, she was fussy and tired. No more smiles. When I got home from work yesterday, Russ said it must have been gas because he had her all morning and she didn't smile once.

Last night, (again while he was working), Sophia did it again and this time I caught the end of it on camera.

Admittedly, it's not a full-fledged smile, and it wasn't like she saw me and her face automatically lit up in a smile. It took a lot of coaxing and making a fool out of myself for her to turn her face to the side and smile. But I'll take it.

We can't wait for smiling to become a regular occurrence! Today was also an awesome day as our niece, Allison, entered the MTC.  She'll be serving in Peru, and she's going to be a GREAT missionary! :)

6 Weeks Old!

Can you believe our little cutie is already 6 weeks old? We can't either!

Height: 20 6/8 inches

Weight: 8lb 9oz

I took the picture at one month, but didn't get an official weight until Friday...when I took her to the doctor with an goopy green eye! Luckily she's not sick, but likely has a clogged tear duct. It's so sad to see her when her eye gets crusted over! It was mostly only green for one day and is better (for now).

check out that left eye (and her cute mitten hand paw)

If you have a baby, you understand the necessity of taking 20 pictures to get the ONE shot you want. These were 2 of my favorite "blooper" pictures.

 I love her whole body sneezes (as well as her cute little toes).

 This is the last one I took, which is fitting because it looks like Sophia got so fed up with pictures she decided to put the lion in a headlock. :)

We've really started slowing down with the pictures lately. What terrible parents, right? We're no longer taking 100 per week! :P

This past Saturday, Russ got tickets for the Vocal Point concert, making it our first date without Sophia. The concert was a lot of fun and really good, but I MISSED my little girl. As we walked into the concert hall we realized that was the first time since walking out of the hospital that it was just the 2 of us going somewhere. Strange thought. Now we normally have to spend an extra 5+ minutes getting Sophia strapped in and bundled up, like so:

Seriously? How cute is that little face?

I had to go back to work today. If you ever want to feel popular, just teach kindergarten! Being back wasn't as hard as I had anticipated it being, but it's VERY hard to adjust to having 27 people need me constantly. 1 is must easier to handle! Behavior-wise, I feel like we're starting all over again. Hopefully part of their craziness was because they were excited I was back and because of Thanksgiving, and I hope I have the energy (without getting much sleep) to get things back under control very soon. Overall, I think the person who had it the hardest today was Russ. Sophia is going through a growth spurt so he had a fussy, hungry baby all morning by himself while I was gone.

Sophia has already found love...with her reflection! She'll stare into that little mirror forever

Just since yesterday, I think I've noticed a *hint* of a smile. It melts my heart. I don't want her to grow up, but I also can't wait to have her grow up and do new things - does that make sense?

Right before I took this picture, Sophia was holding her head up really well...that's why Russ is so happy :)

 The girls after church :)

36 Weeks

**I never posted this because I was waiting for my 37 week appointment to take a picture. I never made it to that appointment, and I never took that picture! Sophia was born the night after I wrote this draft. It's funny to look back and read it now.**

We're going to be parents THIS MONTH! As in - I no longer have to turn the page on the calendar to look at her due date. Holy cow.

• It seems that in the past couple weeks, everything symptom-wise has been kicked up a notch: heartburn, waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, leg cramps, not being able to sleep because I can't get comfortable or because it's too hot, nasal congestion...all that fun stuff.
• As far as I can tell, I haven't had any contractions. Russ and I joke that it means she doesn't know how to come out. Funny now. Maybe not so funny if she ends up being late.
• Russ and I started going to the gym together once a week. He lifts weights (which I think will come in very handy for carrying a car seat), and I jog/ walk. Honestly, I think this is a great time to start working out because when I stop my ultra-slow jog and start walking, no one can judge me because I figure people will just be proud of me for being there. 
• I have more stretch marks now, or they're the same 3 that have gotten much longer. They look like flames coming up all around my belly button (I know. You're welcome for the visual). I REALLY don't want to get too many more of them. 
• Gained 27 pounds total now.
• This week at my appointment, I was dilated to a 1. Basically, that means nothing, but the doctor has been saying for the past several appointments that baby's head is sitting very low so maybe that means something?

This past weekend, I had a wonderful baby shower. Although I forgot to get a group shot, I did get pictures of all the wonderful food!

Check out these cute pacifier cupcakes!!

For one of the games, everyone had to guess how many toilet paper squares around I am. Turns out it's 10.5 squares. :)

Here I am NOT winning any of the baby shower games. :)

Adoration

Russ and I have truly been learning the meaning of adoration these past 3 1/2 weeks. We can't get enough of our little Sophia! Here are some of the 742 pictures and videos we have to prove it!

First of all: Happy Halloween!

 We celebrated Halloween by going to my classroom to see my students in their costumes and introduce them to Sophia (from afar, that is). The night before Halloween, Sophia had a REALLY rough night. She was up with either Russ or I literally all night. SO one day when we're all rested and a little less cranky, I may pretend it's Halloween again and take another picture in her in the second outfit for the scrapbook.

 Sophia looks so TINY in her first church dress!

The video is Sophia and I hangin' out after church, waiting for daddy to get home (since we girls only braved the first hour).

 I can't get enough of this picture. The part that keeps her strapped in is so huge I felt like she was getting strapped into a roller coaster. Plus I love the look she is giving the camera.

This is supposed to be of her cute hiccups, but she was also suffering from a dirty diaper at the time:

This afternoon, I took Sophia over to my friend's house, and Sara set up a little photo shoot. We both have nice cameras, but I for sure don't know how to use all the cool features on it, but with the two of us snapping away, we got some pretty dang cute pictures!

Russ just likes this one because he said she looks like she's running :)

We love, love, LOVE our tiny little one

Love the personality :)

Tricks to calming her down: pacifier, mom, and food

We tried to take the pacifier out for this one, but she was holding it very tightly

I think she looks so grown up in this one

Almost smiling for the camera!