New Year

To say that i've slacked on this blog is a bit of an understatement. I would like to use the excuse that I have a 7 week old that is spoiled rotten and doesn't ever get put down. I can also say that typing causes my already knotted up shoulder to act up even more.

Parker is fantastic. Her neck is getting really strong. I'm pretty certain that she's trying to launch herself out of my arms sometimes. The sheer force she exudes is amazing for such a little munchkin.

Christmas went off without a hitch. It was wonderful having Jill, Mom and Dad here for Christmas. We all got dressed up on Christmas Day to go take a big family picture. All of the photographers we know were either busy or have moved away. So, we used the timer. It was humorous to say the least. Also, as a side note, 10 seconds is quite a long time to wait for a picture to be taken.

Family Portrait

Parker loved her Aunt Jill and found her most comfortable spot ever to sleep.

Christmas Dress

Big Brother

Jake didn't seem too interested in havin a little sister initially. Lately he has seemed more interested and wants to make sure she's taken care of. Friday I picked him up from school and when we got home I put Parker, in her car seat, in the kitchen. She was sleeping and there's no harm in sleeping in the car seat! I let the dogs out and they love to sniff and lick. We are against the licking. I was running around doing stuff and Jake came downstairs. Maggie was sniffing Parker and Jake says to me "krob, you can't just leave her here. Can you do something else with her please?" I asked him what he thinks happens when he's not home and he responded by saying we must not be taking care of her.

He's already protecting her and we didn't prompt him!

Shots

I forgot the trauma of the appointment! Two needles. One hep B vaccine in the leg. She screamed a little but quickly calmed down. It's the blood draws that are killer. She screamed. Then there were real tears. I held myself together. I was on the brink but handled it.

We are joining a vaccine study too. Why not make some money off this kid. We get a $35 target gift card each appt! Essentially they have combined some vaccines to diminish the amount of pokes. Yes please!

Parker Goes to the Doctor

Today was Parker's two week check up. Really she's almost a month old but I procrastinated getting her appt scheduled. She is 7 lbs 1 oz! She gained two pounds in two weeks! Growing girl. She is also 19 inches long. That's two inches in three weeks. The doctor frowned upon the idea that we tie her up to keep her from growing. Oh well. Parker has a bit of reflux and has been deemed "dirty." it's not painful for her. Just means more laundry for me. She also peed all over the table at the dr. Lots of laundry. Good thing our laundress will be here next week. Mom has lots of work to do when she gets here.

Parker is sleeping about 2-3 hrs at a time throughout the night. I am waking her up during the day around two hours to keep her on a day/night schedule. We don't want days mixed up!

She also has been called him or he more often than anticipated. Everyone likes the name after I politely correct them. Oh well, she'll live. It's a cute name! And, there won't be many Parker's (girls) running around.

I am ready to be mobile with her. Right now it's no errands for her. Very inconvenient. Not that it'll be any easier with her, but at least I could take her.

My thumb is hurting. Too much solitaire on the iPhone in the middle of the night. I need an iPad. With a keyboard. Yeah, that's what I need.

TBNL's Decorations

We have been trying to figure out decorations for our little girl's room and without a "theme" we've been trying to find things that we like but that also work in with the room. I did some research on Etsy and found this:

My thoughts were that it would be difficult to put on the wall being so large, but figured we would line it up, tape it up and then slowly work the backing off of the decal. It arrived yesterday. The box was about 3 feet wide. The decal is supposed to be 90" wide! Something wasn't right. Knowing it came from Malaysia I was worried about returning or exchanging for the correct product.

Upon opening the box we realized it WAS the right decal...

It came in PIECES!!!! Each limb, trunk, flower and butterfly will be painstakingly applied. The good news, it probably won't get air bubbles or get super messed up. The bad news, it's going to take years to apply it!

We worked on it last night for about an hour. This is what we accomplished:

It is just two pieces...

Any bets on who kills whom first?

Catching Up

I'm slowly realizing that there is going to be a human cut out of my abdomen in about two weeks. Of course, this isn't the first time i've thought about it, but it's definitely the first time i've had some anxiety over it.

In two weeks I will first have an enormous needle stuck into my stomach to remove some amniotic fluid. If I live through that, within the next few days I will be strapped down to a table and have a baby cut out of me.

I am excited and ready to get all of the big, gross stuff out of the way so that we can lose sleep, be covered in baby puke and deal with a crying newborn :).

I really am excited. I can't wait.

October

Not too much has been happening apart from worrying about this baby. It really would be much easier to have a single blog. I'll work on that.

After our hospital stay we got everything ready. We've just been waiting now for the other shoe to drop and it hasn't, so now i'm trying to turn over a new leaf. No more stressing or worrying.

We've been plugging along. Work is going ok for Christian and I have been trying to do the things i'm allowed to do. There really isn't much.

Yesterday was our two year anniversary. Since marrying Christian isn't an option we just go off when we decided to make this work and when I confessed my love. We had made plans to go out to dinner with some friends and then I remembered that it was our anniversary. We're both of the mindset that everyday we should treat each other with the kindness and love that an anniversary brings. And we don't really "need" any presents to complete these points. And, generally, we're both a bit of procrastinators, so it works out really well. Christian wrote a really sweet blog entry and for me, it works.

I've changed my name to Gribble and am now one of the Gribble clan. Although, i'm only claiming the two that I like, Christian and Jake. The others, well, they don't really count. I've been trying to get credit cards, insurance, driver's license, etc. changed over so that when this baby comes she will be a Gribble too! It's incredible having my own family. Growing up and having exactly what I always wanted is surreal.

We aren't doing much, mostly because I can't and also because we both really love just being at home hanging out.