Fingernail Adventure

So I was trying to clip Anna's fingernails last night, all of them this time, not just the one or two as I had been doing, because she's brutal with those little razorblades for nails. I had her sittting on my lap facing out so I could hold her hands steady (or try to anyway). As I had my hand across the front of her, she started to vigorously suck on my arm! It was hilarious, that girl will suck on anything that's put by her mouth! After I detached my arm from her mouth, I clipped her nails the best I could without drawing blood. Hopefully that'll do for another week or so. :)

I thought that was funny. :)

Giggles and Smiles

Sleeping Beauty

Check out my spikey hair!

Posing for American Baby

Big Yawn!
Anna and her friend Lola (who gives us the abundance of clothes)

More than enough bottles to feed Anna for days

Cuddle time with Anna

Save me! I'm tipping over!

Too cute

Anna has found her voice! On Friday night is when she really started the constant babble. After she's been fed and her diaper is dry, she really gets into talking and smiling. She'll let out coo here and there, but the time to really get her going is when the belly is full.

Her tummy time is longer now, as she tolerates our love to see her bobble her head around and eventually roll over. She holds her head up really well and doesn't seem to mind it. She's not napping as much as she once was, but she'll let us know when she needs to be rocked or cuddled to fall asleep. I think she's getting heavier, she feels like she is. Pooping is going well. Our pooping aid, the prune juice, makes an appearance every once in awhile and cleans the system out. :) Her newborn clothes fit well now and some are getting small. Some of her 3 month clothes fit like her newborns fit when she was born. I have close to 3 full large bins full of clothes that don't fit her yet. If I had that many clothes..... that would be amazing. :)

Gary's taking his first business trip as an employee of Calvin. He flew out today to Norfolk, VA for a week long class learning more about the programming language he is working with. He's doing this trip on his own, but the one he goes on for a few days in March, he'll be going with the whole department. Alex has graciously obliged to stay with me this week and just keep Anna and I company.

You know how the last time I posted, our deer population decreased by 1? Well the following week, we decided to decrease the Taurus population by 1. My beloved Taurus, at 183,000 miles, decided to break down more than we wanted to pay for. So we're in car limbo, waiting for the new Taurus to get finalized which we were going to use to replace the truck, but now we're replacing it with the old Taurus. Sigh. Such is the life of cars.

Back to work I go tomorrow, carpooling Anna to and from daycare. So enjoy the pics.

Love,

Gary, Christie and Anna

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I know my viewers are probably anxiously awaiting a new post from me. Hehe. Well I finally found some time to write a little something. It's been a wonderful and busy Christmas and New Years, but we managed to come out alright on the other side.

We spent Christmas Eve with Gary's parents at their house. We had an amazing dinner, opened up lots of gifts (mostly for Anna of course), watched Polar Express on the big TV and ate too much junk. We had a lot of fun kicking off Anna's first Christmas. She got a big hairy scary doll (you'll know what I'm talking about in the picture), a snail where it's shell rolls out, lots of books, and the basic toys that we all had as a kid from Aunt Sheila.

Then Gary and I did Christmas with Anna at our house Christmas morning. She really doesn't have a clue what's going on yet and because we figured the grandmas and grandpas would spoil her with gifts, she got to go to Build a Bear with daddy (this will be a yearly daddy/daughter event) and got a turtle named Pooky complete with a Pistons jersey (don't worry, she will be introduced to the great Chicago teams). She also got an ornament from us. Then Santa brought her a pair of "vacation" sunglasses for whatever vacation we take this summer.

Then over New Years weekend, we headed to Chicago to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family. We did it up on Saturday complete with a chocolate fountain and guitar hero. We spent the day eating, opening presents, taking turns playing guitar hero, eating some more, breaking out some adult beverages and eating from the fountain the floweth chocolate. We had a lot of fun that day.

In the meantime, Anna has learned how to roll over from her tummy to her back multiple times in a row. She smiles all the time and has managed to find her voice from time to time, but not consistantly yet. She got her first shots just after Christmas and got through that with a couple doses of Tylenol. She's a whopping 8 pounds, 6 ounces and 22 inches long now. The doctor said she's doing great. She goes back in 2 months for her next round of shots. She still sleeps through the night (from about 10:30 to 6) and is on a pretty good daily schedule. She's still the hit of daycare, I have to pry her out of their arms sometimes! She flashes smiles to anyone who looks her way (this could be dangerous later). We're up to 5 ounces of formula at a feeding, so we're hoping to plump her up! We had photo shot with Auntie Jenn to use for Christmas gifts, too cute!

Here's a link to see more pictures of Anna (this thing just takes so long to upload photos and for as many I want to show). http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24252&l=c6682&id=501622976 and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24259&l=58f1f&id=501622976

Just before we headed to Chicago for Christmas, Gary wanted to decrease the population of deer in Michigan by one. He nailed the deer on the drivers side and laid it out. He took Anna for her shots that day and when he hit the deer, she didn't even wake up! We thought the insurance company would total the truck, but they are able to fix it. We're replacing the truck with a 2005 Taurus and hopefully selling it to Gary's dad so we can keep it in the family to use as a hauling vehicle.

Work is going well for both of us. Gary's heading out to Virginia for a week to learn more about the programming language he's working with at work. So Alex is going to stay the week with me and Anna. I've been back for about a month now and we're starting to pick up again. I have my own office now and with that came a lovely raise.

We're excited for what 2008 brings for us and to see Anna grow! We're hoping to change priorites more on our family and our health, than other things that we did before Anna came around. I hope this is a good update and I should be able to keep up on the blog now that the holidays are over.

Love to all of you and hoping you had a great Christmas season!

Gary, Christie and Anna

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