Thursday, February 25, 2010

Feels Like Spring

Well, for a couple of days last weekend it actually felt nice out!  The temperature was up into the high 60's and low 70's which is super nice considering that it just snowed like two weeks ago!  It was so nice to be able to get Lorelai dresse and not have to worry about a million layers.  It was also nice to be able to play outside for a little bit!  I have been getting major cabin-fever the past few months because it's been so cold and rainey outside that we've been trapped in doors. 

While I was at Praise Team practice last Sunday, Gigi and LL played outside for about 45 minutes in the georgous weather.  Gigi got some great shots! 

It's back to being cold again.  Boo.  But it's given me a little hope that spring won't be too far away!

She wants to play with the dogs!



My favorite!




Gigi did so good with this one!



Monday, February 15, 2010

An Open Letter to Lorelai on Her Birthday From Daddy

My little Monkey Munch,

You are one year old! I can't believe all the joy and happiness that you have brought into your Mommy's and my life. From the very beginning you have made our family so much more complete. You are not an accident. Mommy and Daddy planned and prayed for you for a very long time and when God knew we were ready for you He reached down and gave us the most precious gift in you.

I'm so proud of you and I promise that your Daddy will always be your biggest fan. I will be there at your recitals and games chearing for you when you're growing up just like I will be there chearing as you take those first steps or when we take your training wheels off your bike. Daddy will always be here for you and Daddy will always love Mommy. I promise to protect you and Mommy from all the bad things in the world and always give you the best I can and that includes my time and attention.

Thank you for being exactly who you are. You're beautiful, smart, funny, and you always bring a smile to my face. I love you baby girl and I am so excited that I get to see you grow up.

Daddy

Sunday, February 14, 2010

No More Formula!

At Lorelai's 1 Year Well-Baby Check-up, we got the go-ahead to start her on whole (or 2%) milk.  We have so been looking forward to this!  We have been spending approximately $120 a month on formula for her!  Over the course of her life, that's been about $1000!  That's a lot of money!  Even if we had to buy a gallon of milk for her a day - at $4 a gallon, that equals the same amount of money.  And there's no way this girl is going to drink a gallon of milk a day!

Dr. Megow said that when we got finished with the formula that we had that we could just start giving her real milk.  I asked her if she thought that the transition from formula to milk would be hard and she said no.  Wrong!  She did let us know that her milk consumption would probably drop pretty dramatically when she went on regular milk, though.  At 12 months, LL was still drinking betwee 21-24 oz of formula a day!



When we got home from her doctor's appointment, I decided to give her a sippy with just a little milk in it to see what she'd do.  She grabbed the sippy, took a couple of big gulps, and gagged!  She tried it a few more times with the same results and then quit drinking it and refused any more.  I could tell this was going to take some work!



We decided that we would just slowly start mixing it in with her formula a couple of ounces at a time (thanks for the tip, Emily!).  We started that night with 6 oz of formula and 2 oz of milk.  She did great!  We kept doing this and dropping it a little more every day.  Once we got to about 1/2 milk 1/2 formula, we noticed that she wasn't drinking it again.  Why?  It was cold!  Once we started warming it up to room temperature, she started drinking it again!

She is officially on 100% whole milk right now! Woo hoo!  The only catch is that she still doesn't like it cold, yet.  We're still having to warm it up enough to take the chill off of it.  Our next step is to warm it up less and less so that she'll drink it cold. And she is finally a pro at holding her own sippy!  She's been doing it with her water sippes for a while, but never with her milk sippies.  Now she does!


An Open Letter to Lorelai on Her Birthday From Mommy

To my sweet baby girl,

What a wonderful day this is for you!  Gone are the days filled with words like "baby" and "infant", counting your age in months, and carying around this tiny little bundle of happiness.  Now our days are replaced with a smiling, talkitive, almost walking toddler who teaches us new things every day.  You are 1 today!  A single number that is finally measured in years instead of months.  What a huge milestone for you! 

Precious Angel, this has been the best year of mommy's life and it is all because of you!  Mommy and Daddy prayed for you for an entire year before you were conceived, every day that you were inside of my tummy, and every day that you have been here with us.  You are loved, wanted, perfect, and better than my wildest dreams could have ever come up with. 

You have been an easy baby from the start - very much like your Daddy.  You are loving, kind, carefree, and happy.  You have a smile that is infectious and eyes that draw people in.  You are so beautiful that you literally stop people in their tracks and you are perfectly made by God.  He crafted you to be an awesome blend of both your Mommy and your Daddy - with a little bit of unknown thrown in!  You are unbelieveably tall (not like us!) with blue eyes (also not like us!) and a face that looks just like your Daddy with your Mommy's smile and eyes thrown in.

You are stubborn and strong-willed, both traits that come from your Mommy.  :)  Those traits are what make you such a fast learner, though.  You pick up quickly on things and, once you have mastered them, move onto something else just as quickly.  You have a way to make people smile even when they don't want to.  You melt me when you give kisses, even when they are as sloppy as can be.  I love it when you crawl over to me and stand up, holding onto my legs.  I adore it and I hope you never grow out of wanting to hold onto Mommy.

I love you more than you will possibly be able to imagine until you have a child of your own.  I was so happy the day that we found out that we were having a daughter - - - you!  I was secretly praying for a little girl to love and dote on!

Lorelai, I have loved this first year being with you.  I look forward to watching you grow and mature into a wonderful little girl.  Know always that Mommy is constantly praying for you and loving you.  I am your biggest fan and I promise you that I always will be. 

I love you,
Mommy

Lorelai's 1st Birthday Party!

We had Lorelai's 1st birthday part last Saturday, but I've been waiting to post this until I got some pictures from my mom, Matt's mom, and Emily.  I've finally gotten all the pictures, so I can finally do this post! 

LL's birthday outfit that Grammy made (it says: Kiss me, I'm the Birthday Girl)

I took the day off on Lorelai's birthday so that we could spend the day together as a family.  I just couldn't see going to work and spending the day with other people's children, while my child was at home with her daddy celebrating her first birthday! We couldn't really do a whole lot that day because it was very rainy and very cold. We had plans to meet Kye and Emily at the park, but that couldn't happen. We ended up spending most of the day at home. The only time that we left was to go eat lunch at Cracker Barrell.


On Saturday we had Lorelai's party scheduled for 3:00. We dropped her off at Matt's mom's house around 11:00 so that she could eat lunch and take a nap while we went to the church to decorate. 




Mrs. Becky took on the job of making Lorelai's cake - and she did an AMAZING job!!



We ended up having so many people show up for the party! My guess is that there were between 30-40 people there!  We decided to let her eat her cake around 3:30 because it seemed like some people were getting ready to leave.  I don't know if she just looked up and realized how many people were singing to her or what, but all of a sudden that girl broke down!  She doesn't "ugly cry" very often, but boy did she this time! 



I ended up having to take her out of her highchair and let her sit in my lap while she ate cake. 









Eventually I was able to put her back in, but she never really got overly-interested in eating any cake.




We opened presents and man did she get a lot of stuff!  I was amazed at how many people love our daughter and wanted to share in this special day with us!  So many people (more than I even realize - I'm sure) stayed and helped us clean everything up.  That is an amazing blessing - to have friends that will help without even asking or wanting to be recognized for it!
 








What it looked like when we got everything home!




After the party was over, my mom, Victor, Laura, Gino, Ben, Emily and Kye all went out to eat at Pizza Hut.  LL was SO exhausted, but she still did so good.  Group shot minus Emily and Kye:


I guess now it's time to start thinking about next year's party!  :)