Twas the weekend before Anna's first Christmas

I get so excited about eating, that my hands are able to hold my own bottle.

I have also mastered the art of turning on my side from my back.

I'm getting so big!

Mom's making me smile to get a good picture in one of my new dresses!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Love,

Gary, Christie & Anna

The Banana is 2 Months!

Our attempt at a beautiful family picture. :)

Oh, the sleeping beauty

Little did she know, her pipe fell out of her mouth.

Gotta love a pipe up the nose!

We have found our fingers and if there isn't a pipe or bottle near, we suck on them!

I'm so behind....

I'm not on top of my game this year. I do have a valid excuse, but this is the closest I've cut it to Christmas shopping and Christmas cards. I have about half of my presents purchased, some to be assembled yet. Since I can't do a normal Christmas card or Christmas letter, I had to finish it up and print it out last night only to cut and fold today on my lunch. Oh well, the shopping will get done before Christmas anyway and the cards should go out tomorrow to arrive Saturday or Monday. :)

I started work last Monday. The day was a little easier than I thought it would be. A few tears were shed on the way to work after Gary and I dropped Anna off at daycare. Gary brings Anna in the morning. She's usually sleeping when they arrive. I pick her up at the end of the day. The woman who is the primary care giver in the infant room, Ms. Mamie, is a sweetheart of a woman. You can tell she truely cares and loves her job. Everyone loves Anna there. She always gets great reports of how well she does, very social as she now watches the bigger ones in her room roam around. She's always happy, takes good naps and just seems to do well there. That makes me feel good, even though I wish I could be home with her, I know that this will be a good experience for her and she's so good when she's there. Work is going fine for me, a little slow right now, but that's alright. Gary's job is going well, still learning, but the sense of being overwhelmed is lessoning. He heads to Virginia in the middle of January for a seminar on the program he's working with. It'll be weird not having him home with having Anna now, but I think Alex is staying with me some or all of the week.

Anna is still a peanut, but I know she's gotten bigger. Her face is filling in, the wrinkles on her arms and legs are less wrinkley and you can really see her hair now! She's like a little Q-tip after her bath. Love that! She's smiling a lot now, letting out little squeaks and "a's" every once in awhile. She want's to talk so bad but hasn't quite figured out how she does it every time. She's looking more like an infant instead of a newborn now. She'll go to the doctor with daddy next week for her 2 month shots and to see how much she's grown.

Well I better get back to work as I need my lunch to finish those Christmas cards! I'll post again later this week or over the weekend with some pictures.

Have a great Wednesday!

Gary, Christie and Anna

Hi ho, Hi ho, it's back to work I go....

Well the time has come. Monday I head back to good ole Spring Lake to get back at it. I'm looking forward to having a little structure back during the day where I can get a little odds and ends done without worrying about Anna's eating, playing and sleeping schedule, but I really don't want to leave my little girl all day everyday. I know Monday is going to be hard, but I know what we have to do as a family and pray that we all remain safe each day.

The past week we've introduced prune juice and soy formula to Anna. As usual, she took to both of them just fine, she'll even take them both cold if need be! What a tropper she is. She didn't poop (yes more poop stories) for a week, my doctor said use a rectal thermometer to stimulate her and walla, we have poop. Then she wouldn't poop again, lots and lots of stinky gas, but no poop. So in comes prune juice and walla, we have poop again. The soy formula is easier to digest, so we have her on that right now and an occasional prune juice 1oz bottle.

She's a smiley thing these days. Right after she eats, she's usually in a really good mood and you get her to smile for quite awhile. She's also really trying to find her voice and I'm sure we'll soon hear different sounds coming from her. She's filling out, still a little peanut. She won't be going back to the doctor till the end of the month so I won't find out her weight and height till then. My guess is she's about 7 1.2 to 8 pounds and about 22 or 23" long. She has to get her 2 month shots at the end of the month. Daddy gets to do that with her. :)

This weekend we're debuting as Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus for Journey of Joy at my home church. No speaking parts, unless Anna has something to say, so that's good. It should be a good time and a good witness to those who haven't heard the true Christmas story.

Otherwise, Gary's doing well at work, doing a lot of training sessions and has a couple business trips to learn more about what he's doing for Calvin. It's a nice environment with great people. We are certainly blessed to have great places to work.

Well back to business here. Have a great weekend and stay safe with the snow that's coming!

Love,
Gary, Christie & Anna

6 weeks old already!

Anna is plumping up slowly but surely. We don't go back to the doctor until the end of December for her 2 month shots, but I would have to guess she's about 7 1/2 to 8 pounds and about 21-22" long now. She's definitely becoming her own little person. She's smiling a lot now, even to her butterfly friends on her mat. It's really cute. She's trying so hard to talk but hasn't quite come out with it yet. We introduced her the bottle a couple weeks ago and this week we started with a bottle each day of formula. She's taken to both of them just fine.

Only one more week left of maternity leave. :( Then back to work I go. Anna will be going to Busy Feet Daycare down the road from us. It's on the way to Gary's work, so he'll bring her and pick her up most days. It's a nice place with very caring people, so we feel comfortable bringing her there but still don't want to. But we wanted to provide her with a nice place to live in a nice area, so this is what we have to do to pay the bills right now. Hopefully someday Gary will work up the ladder and I'll be able to stay home or at least work from home doing my side work or for my current job. It's going to be an adjustment, that's for sure.

We've been spoiled again. We have a contact for someone that works at Gerber and they gave us a ton of bottles and bath stuff for Anna and can get a lot of other things too when we need them. What a blessing to have such generous people in our lives!

Gary started his new job at Calvin this week. He's got a very large cube in the basement of the library and has found that he's going to be in charge of a lot of different areas. It's an overwhelming week, but it's been a good week for him. The staff is very nice and I think Gary will be a good fit there. There are a lot of perks to working there, so we're ready to take advantage of those! :)

I went for my 6 week post pardum appointment on Tuesday and everything looks good! It's crazy that I'm saying this, but I won't see my nurse or doctor for another whole year! I've been seeing them every month or more in the past 9 months and have established a great relationship with them.

I guess I'm ready for structure to be back a little with me going back to work, but I'm certainly not wanting to be away from Anna. But God will take care of us when we're all apart as he has so far and will continue to do. We just pray each day for safety and that He'll bring us through another day.

That's all for now, but I know I had avid readers that I'm letting down by not writing as much, so I had to do something! Enjoy the pictures (I'll add more soon)!

Love,

Gary, Christie & Anna

Pistol Pete

Our darling little Anna is just a perfect angel during the day, with other people, but at night, things change. The past couple nights, Anna has decided to burn the midnight oil and stay awake until 2am or so. Gary set the tone the first night by putting her in her "Party in my Crib at 2am" onesie on, from there she spit up in his mouth (I saw that coming, never put a well fed baby in the air over your face). Hehe. It's been a bit frustrating as she is usually just fed and changed, yet she continues to scream at the top of her lungs. We've decided today that she sleeps too much during the day, gets cuddled a little too much and isn't in her crib with it dark and quiet, so she's in her crib sleeping right now with it dark and quiet and when those 3 hours are up, we'll get her up to feed her and keep her awake for awhile again. I'm going to try to get her on a better schedule, have her sleep more often in her crib and have her do more tummy time and awake time during the day, so at night, she sleeps for goodness sake! We're also introducing the bottle this week so she gets used to eating from that as well. She's a cronic sucker anyway (she sucks on her own hands, our fingers, her pipes and even Gary's hairy arm!). She did well this morning, she drank almost 3 ounces. So that seems to be an easy transition. Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, pumping is an interesting event and just another new thing to add to the list.

Other than her days and nights being terribly mixed up at times, she's doing wonderful. She's starting to smile a lot more (mostly in her sleep, but still..), her cheeks are filling out, her wrinkley legs and arms are not as wrinkley anymore, she's more alert and responding to toys, she likes laying on her Rainforest mat and looking at all the animals, and hopefully gaining weight at a good pace. She's still as cute and adorable, probably getting more so each day. :) We also had our last baby shower and boy did she get a load of clothes! This girl has more clothes than Gary and I combined! I hope she's able to get use out of them, if not, hopefully we have another girl at some point. She also has a ton of books, a whole library now and a box full of toys and stuff animals. What a spoiled little girl... and it's only the beginning. :)

Gary and I are enjoying our time together at home, getting some side work done, going new car shopping (yay!) and just having some extra time adjusting as a family (the help at night has been great!). God has truely blessed us with our awesome marriage, our beautiful home, our amazing little girl, our great jobs and wonderful family and friends. He truely has been with us through all these ups and downs and will continue to do so.

**This just in..... Anna decided to save up some quality projectile poop and pee for dad this morning. Hehe. It was great.

Have a great mid-week!

Love,

Gary, Christie and Anna

Projectile poop and a programmer position

This is her sleeping face. Aww.... :)

(Above and below) This is how we hang out during the day when I need to do some work and she wants to be held. :)

Sheilding her eyes from the bright basement lights.

Usually she likes her baths, but today she wasn't having any part of it (expect under the faucet, she loves!)

Our big eyed girl!

Too cute. :)

Well life isn't dull, that's for sure. As cute and adorable as Anna is, her bowels are alive and well. She was fussing, so I figured I'll see if she needs to be changed. Yep, she had a wet diaper. I took that one off, wiped her up and as I was putting on the new diaper, she started to pee. I was like ok, we'll have to change the onesie, no biggie. Nope, she wasn't going to stop there. She proceeded to poop all over her clean diaper, on the changing table, on my shirt and pants and on the floor. So it wasn't just a little squirt, it was projectile poop. (I know this is gross, but as so many have told me and I've heard, you start talking about such lovely things.) That was just the start of my day, with a long night before, with everything taking extremely long and me not really getting anything done all day. Oh well, it's such a joy to be home with her and watch her grow. I forgave her, but have learned to cover up in the midst of the diaper change. :)

Well the call came. Gary got the job at Calvin College! What an answer to so many prayers. Sometimes we felt that this day wouldn't come for quite some time, but the Lord is right there with us, urging us to trust in Him even when we're getting impatient. He starts on November 26. He'll get full benefits with 4 weeks vacation and 1 week at Christmas. They are very family oriented and seems to be a great place to be a part of. Gary will be done at GFS at the end of this week or mid next week, so we'll have some extra time together as a family and be able to be in Chicago for a few extra days. We're looking forward to that.

I started doing some work from home. A few things to work out, but so far it's going alright. Anna certainly takes up a lot of my day, but during naps I'm able to get some things done. Anna has only given us a couple hard nights so far, otherwise she is eating a lot and sleeping a lot, but is still staying awake longer. She's filling out little by little, but is still a peanut.

Well back to work before the little pistol wakes up again. :)

Love,

Gary, Christie and Anna

She's 2 weeks old already!

Our little pumpkin

Great Grandpa Tiemens came to visit Anna on Thursday.

I think she was thoroughly bored with mom today. :)

Daddy and Anna all dressed up for church!

Me and Anna

Gary said that's my scowl on her face. Hehe.

How can you not love this face!?

Well we got to the 2 week mark already. We went to the doctor today and everything looked great. She was supposed to be back at her birth weight by this point and we're a whopping 6 pounds 10 ounces (1 ounce heavier than when she was born)! She's 20 inches long now, growing right now a half inch a week. So obviously I'm doing something right. :) She definitely lets you know when she's hungry or needs her diaper changed, but otherwise she's wide eyed or soundly sleeping.

Last night was not the best of nights. She wanted to eat about every hour and wouldn't go to sleep till about 4. She slept till I got her up at 8:30, so that was good but it made for a very emotional and frustrating night. So it's quite possible we're hitting a growth spurt right now.

Otherwise she's wonderful. She starting to develop a personality (more Gary's right now, than mine, hehe), she gives so many facial expressions, it's hilarious. She can go from a smily smirk to the face where she is just going to wail. It's great. She's filling out in her face and her little arms and legs are getting there. We're so excited to see what each day and week brings.


I'm going to start helping my office do some work from home next week. They are quite busy. Gary is still waiting to hear back on his interview from Calvin and the one way back from Gentex. It's trying, but we know the right opportunity will present itself.

Well that's about all for right now. Hope you keep enjoying the pictures!


Love,

Gary, Christie and Anna

Keeping busy

Everything is going well at the Tidd household. Anna certainly takes up a lot of the day, so we're establishing a new normal around here. Dad and Martha just spent 4 days with us, helping us tremendously with yard work, window washing, putting up blinds, wash, organizing the crazy amount of Anna's clothes, preparing meals for us and just being grandma and grandpa to Anna. It was great to have them here. I know they miss her already!

She had her first doctor's appointment Friday. She lost 8 ounces in the hospital, but has gained an ounce back. So she's a whoping 6 pounds 2 ounces. She grew a half inch and everything else looks good. She was a little jaundice when we came home, but she's looking a lot better now and will be looked at again on Friday. Her umbilical cord came off on Thursday, no more worries about that. She's pooping with the best of them (yes, this is our excitement now as I was getting worried b/c she didn't poop for 3 days, but we're totally over that). She can sleep for 6 hours at a time if we let her and will let us sleep about 4-5 hours at a time at night. She's really good tempered. I know all this could change, but she's been a really good baby for us.

Gary is starting his new internship position at GFS on Monday. This could be temporary as he's had 2 interviews with Calvin College and they've already been checking references. We're very hopeful that Gary will get this position at Calvin, but we're being patient and letting God do the work.

I'm feeling pretty good. I think I've recooped fairly well, still quite sore of course, but doing well. Don't hate me, but I'm back to my pre pregnancy weight (could be under that actually) and can fit back into some of my regular jeans. It's nice. :)

Otherwise we're doing well. Family and friends have been poking their heads in, we're keeping busy running errands, doing stuff around the house and just spending time with Anna. She truely is a blessing and it's so much more than we thought it would be.

Here are some more pictures for you! Enjoy.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15674&l=94928&id=501622976

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16579&l=dc2d9&id=501622976

Love,

Gary, Christie and Anna