Our funny Grace

James is famous!

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11132/1145806-54.stm

He made the local paper.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to me! It was my first mother's day...so weird. Mother's Day is hard for some women in the infertility community....it would be sort of hard for me, but really not all that harder than any other day when you want a baby but can't have one. But, it was a bit surreal to actually have a child and be a mother on mother's day :-)

On Saturday, we had my mom and grandma over for dinner. James surprised us with a cupcake bouquet from Steel City Confections--seriously the best cupcakes ever. The card reads to three awesome moms!

Then on Sunday morning, I got breakfast in bed (but James is sort of awesome and actually brings me breakfast in bed every morning...) but he gave me several mother's day cards--one was from Grace and then a funny one and a sweet one from him. He also gave me a charm with Grace's birthstone in it :-) Then we went to church...ordered lunch from a great pizza place near us that my uncle gave us mother's day gift cards too (from Grace).
For last mother's day I was 13 weeks pregnant and James gave me an engraved picture frame with our relationship verse...now family verse! James 1:17 "Every good and perfect gift is from above..." (it's also engraved on James's wedding band). So ofcourse with the pregnancy, the gift took on a whole new meaning. So, I really wanted to get a photo with Grace on mother's day that I could put in the frame. But she was sort of sleepy and not into pictures....so above is one of them. I'm not sure which one I like yet. We didn't take as many as I would have liked, because she really wasn't too into it.

Grace Giving High 5s

A Swimming Grace!

First Easter!

So stinking cute in her Easter dress! Can't stand the cuteness sometimes! I could squeeze her chub thighs for days :-) Last Easter we had just found out we were pregnant...what a difference a year makes :-)

So, we took our first big road trip with Grace--all the way to Elkton, MD. She did AMAZING! I was very nervous, but really she slept most of the way down (and still slept fine that night). We only stopped twice and made it in 7 hours (normally takes a little over 5).

We decided to stay in a hotel--which worked out great! It was a big enough room that I was able to move some furniture and give Grace a corner for her pack n play...and there was a lamp and a cushy chair in that area too. We used one of the beds to lay out all of her stuff and make a changing area for her. We brought her bath--and the hotel had a nice big bathroom counter. So we were able to keep her routine very normal. We were even able to watch tv after she went to sleep--as she had her white noise machine blasting right next to her.

The hotel had a pool. Which she loved. I was a little concerned that I went and sprung for the more expensive hotel with the pool and she was going to hate it. But we were in the water for a good hour and half and she loved it. I was tempted to let her go and see what she could do. She was moving her arms and legs and even kept puffing out her cheeks like she was holding her breath when she "swam". So much fun! We were the only ones in the pool the entire time too!

Most importantly. Grace god to hang out with her Maryland grandparents. She loved them and did all of her cute tricks for them.


And ofcourse when we got back home, I had to take some basket photos with her bunny ears. Such a short window of opportunity to take these type of cute photos :-)

Naps

Grace sleeps quite well at night for her age. She's been doing 10.5-12 hours a night since she was about 7-8 weeks. Now, if we also went to bed before 8pm....we'd be set! When she goes to bed at 7pm and sleeps 11 hours....we're still getting up at 6am :-/
Naps are where she's hit or miss. She's a cat napper. 20-30 minutes here and there. MAYBE an hour...but not usually. We've tried doing the mini-bedtime routine and putting her in the crib. The real benefit of that is while she's fighting sleep, we know she's safe and in her crib so you're free to do dishes or whatever. But once she falls asleep...she wakes up in 30 minutes like clockwork. But the girl sleeps best in her bouncer chair in what looks like some of the most uncomfortable positions. That's our Grace!

HAPPY SPRING!

Nice Weather--Park Fail

The weather has suddenly turned amazing! But it will be gone again tomorrow.... :-(

Both Grace and I are a bit under the weather. I have a bad cold and just sort of feel like laying down all the time. Grace is a littls congested, but I don't think it's a full blown cold. She was acting a little off and had a slight temperature (99.7)....we're not sure what's going on with her. We're hoping the congestion thing doesn't get any worse though. I raised the head of her mattress last night and she left for 12 hours! So, hopefully better sleep will help her recover.

So, since yesterday was so lovely when I got home (and James had to leave for work shortly after I got home). I decided to take Grace to the park right around the corner from our house. I loaded up the stroller and off we went. Her naps in the evenings are hit or miss...so lately she's been a bit of a crank pot for the couple hours we get together before she goes to bed for the night (which makes me sad). But, it's been a struggle to get her to take a nap...so do I fight her for an hour to get her to take a 30 minutes nap...to have her in a good mood for another hour and then get ready for bed. Or, do I just deal with a baby that becomes a crank pot and put her to bed a little earlier... oh well.

So, anyways my thought was that I'd walk her to the park. Put her in a swing for the first time, get some cute photos and then walk her around in the stroller. I thought the air would do us good and she may drift off in the stroller. Well, she didn't care for the swing. She started to cry a little until I stopped the swing from swinging and then she watched the other kids. No smiles.

Here's Ms. Serious. Then, I started walking her around the block in the stroller. We got about 2 blocks past our house in the other direction and I looked at her and she was still wide awake. (I think having her in the stroller without the car seat may be part of the problem...it throws her off not to see me). So, at this point, I realize that I'm suddenly so hungry that I'm shakey (the cold has taken away my apetite so I get to the end of the day with out much to eat and then I feel like I'm starving)...and Grace is probably going to get fussy soon and I should really be getting her in the bath and ready for bed so when the meltdown hits we are already in the bedroom. So, I turned the corner to loop around to the house. As I started walking back I took the stroller off the curb and into the street (narrow sidewalk and a side street with pretty much no traffic) and she started to cry. I think the bump coming off the sidewalk scared her. So now I'm trying to get a screaming baby out of the stroller and some lady walks out of her house and up to me to ask to "see the baby" and she's asking me all of these questions about her...can you not see I have a screaming child in my arms? So I get away from the lady. Grace calms down a bit...as I'm pushing the stroller one handed and carrying my almost 16 lbs of deadweight child...and I need to blow my nose and I'm starving. I get back to our house and plop Grace in her bouncer (which she starts crying again) and I drag our very heavy stroller up the front steps and lock it on the porch. The outing was sort of a fail.

But I then fed her and she took a brief nap in my lap...she often falls asleep bfing. And then I gave her some squash...bath...sunctioned her nose which just pissed her off...started the humidifier...and she was asleep. Then I finally got to eat something.

Hopefully when the weather turns nice again, both of us will be feeling better and we'll get to enjoy the park!

February Happenings

Well, the Steelers lost the Superbowl :-( But Grace had a fun time at her first Superbowl party! And it was nice of the Steelers to at least make it there for her.We finally got together with my friend Angela who had twin girls at 31 weeks, about a month before Grace came along. The girls are home and doing great! Grace is gestationally older than these two...we'll let them argue that out one day. We went for our first walk in the stroller sans car seat. She did great, but was a little taken aback by the wind. I can't wait for nicer weather!

And, she got to meet Happy Harry the clown! She met him once before, but slept through it. She thought he was funny (don't we all).

3 months old!

Well, she's 10 weeks in this picture and she's already 12 weeks, but this Saturday she'll be turning 3 months!

She's getting pretty good at holding up her head, but she doesn't like tummy time for more than about 10 minutes. And, she always spits up a little when you put her on her tummy.

She also enjoys chatting away. Here she is talking her dad's ear off.

Here We Go Steelers!

Grace's first playoff weekend :-) The Steelers are more than just football in Pittsburgh. They have such a long history and are more of a tradition in most Pittsburgh families than anything else. I'm not really into football myself, but I love the Steelers. To me, it reminds me a lot of my grandfather who I miss incredibly. James and I wanted to move to Pittsburgh to be near my grandparents while we still had them. We thought we were going to move to Pittsburgh in 2005, but God made it very clear in our lives that we were supposed to go to Buffalo. Then when it was time to job search again, God opened the doors for us to move to Pittsburgh. We moved in July 2008 and my grandfather past away unexpectedly over Labor Day weekend. One thing that was hard about his passing was I knew he'd never get to meet my children if we ever had any. We had planned years before that we ever had a son we'd name him after my grandfather....we didn't know at the time it would take us 5 years to have children....and we never shared that with my grandfather....so it makes me sad that he won't know that.
My grandfather was buried with an original terrible towel....because he loved the Steelers. There is something so great about a city that rallies around something positive and fun like the Steelers. The "Steeler Nation" goes much farther than just Pittsburgh, but it's so exciting to be here when we do win superbowls or are in the playoffs. I hope Grace appreciates being a part of that. And, it would be nice to have them win her first superbowl as well. They won it for me!

Week 2 at Work

Below is your late Christmas photo of our new version of the Cooper Family.

So, last week wasn't too bad. It was a short week, only 3 days, but it went much better than I thought. I'm feeling pretty ok about leaving Grace with James. I do have my moments of anxiety when I quickly call to make sure all is well at home or ask if James remembered to give her her medicine. The harder parts have been when I get home. Grace will seem happy to see me at first, but then she'll get quite angry at me. And, then I realize how much I miss her during the day and get sad. The first 2 nights she would fuss and fuss and just want to nurse. She was eating so much she would just start spitting up. It was hard on both of us. But then on Friday, she was so good. I hope I get that version of Grace this week.