Tuesday, November 29, 2011

4 months

On November 14th, Eliza turned 4 months old. She is a delight more than ever.
She weighs 14 pounds 12 ounces which is 4 ounces lighter than I predicted her to be, and 6 ounces away from doubling her birth weight.
Baby Cakes is 24.5 inches long and has a head circumference of 16.5 inches.


I think this picture is so funny! This is the first and only time she will wear that dress. Bruce really had to wrestle her in it. We waited too long to put her in it; rather the weather waited too long.

Her measurements put her in the 73% for weight, 60% for height, and 72% for head circumference. Her head has to be big in order to hold her smarter than average brains.

Her vaccinations this time around were much less traumatizing than the last ones. Although she posed for some cute shots while waiting for the doctor (see 2 month post), she screamed like a distraught Baby Cakes after the shots. I could only get her to calm down by nursing her.
This time she was well rested and fed before we arrived at the doctor. She only cried a little when the nurse gave her the shots, and calmed right down after I picked her up.



I wouldn't necessarily say that she enjoys tummy time, more like she tolerates it now. Before she would lift her head up at a 45 degree angle to show me she can do it. Then she would bury her face in the blanket and cry until I turned her over. Now she will smile, and lift up on her elbows. About 3 minutes later, she rests her head, right cheek down on the blanket. She has managed to roll over from stomach to back ONCE, and from back to stomach ONCE. She consistently rolls 3/4 of the way over and lays on her side while she sucks her fingers.



Her new favorite trick is to stick out her tongue. The beginning of a smile creeps onto her face before that cute little tongue pops right out. She curls it and moves it around from side to side. If you make her smile again, out pops the tongue. It really make me giggle.



She changed her sleeping patterns. Now she goes to bed about 7:45 or 8:00 and wakes up in between 6:00 and 6:30; sometimes as late as 7:oo. I'm actually not sure when she wakes up. Instead of crying to let me know she is awake, she quietly talks to herself or softly whimpers. If I happen to wake up sometime in between 6 and 7, I rescue her from her crib. If I don't feed her within 2 seconds of picking her up, then she will cry - that's when Bruce wakes up.



Baby Cakes has settled with 3 naps a day. One long nap in the morning (long meaning 1-1.5 hours)One long nap in the afternoon, and a short cat nap (about 40 minutes) or so in the evening - that is if I am lucky. If she isn't already napping before 4:30 (when it starts getting dark now days), then she won't nap. Because it gets dark, I think she thinks that I'm trying to put her to bed and she doesn't want to go.




Other things she enjoys: playing with her toes (occasionally sucking on them), belly laughing at her silly mom, singing songs, reading books (or trying to eat them), grading quizzes (or trying to rip them), smiling, going on walks, playing with dad and mom, and holding new objects. She also enjoys watching everything I do.


She also likes sitting in her new high chair.


Just imagine these squealing/laughing noises right in the middle of sacrament meeting, and you've captured Eliza. I promise that I'm not being disruptive to make her squeal and laugh. For some reason, she especially enjoys the rest hymns, and will often sing along.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Happiness is...



Do you remember the happiness song on "You're a good man, Charlie Brown." Lately I couldn't help but think about all the things that make me happy. It really boils down to one thing: my family. And so, here are some of the things that make us happy. (Not in any particular order)

Happiness is...



Playing Peek-a-boo with Daddy




Eating a chair



Splashing in the bathtub



And riding on Daddy's shoulders


Happiness is...



Sitting on the couch





Rolling over for the very first time (and only once so far)



Wearing Daddy's hat



Happiness is... having a buddy



to hold hands with on a walk.




Happiness is enjoying the great outdoors, and coming home again.




Happiness is... snuggling in my Bundle Me



Sleeping on Mommy



a bowl of candy too.

Happiness is singing together when day is through. And happiness is those who sing with you. Happiness is morning and evening, daytime and nighttime, too.






Happiness is Eliza Richards, and Mr. Bruce too. And Happiness is being sealed to you.

For happiness is anyone and anything at all that's loved by you.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Story teller

Warning: These videos are dripping with Eliza adorableness.




Go Illini!

The girl is a chatterbox. She babbles all day long. I don't think she is going to be shy like her dad was as a child. Instead, she will probably get in trouble at school for talking too much like her mom always did. She talks in front of people, when she's all alone. She will talk in her crib when she is supposed to be napping. She talks herself to sleep, and she starts talking again to let me know she woke up. Her first official word is Mom. Bruce can attest that among all the noises she makes, one noise clearly sounds like mom. She only uses it when she wants me to either come get her out of her crib, or she wants me to come back into her room so she can smile at me one more time before she goes to sleep. It is so cute!! I love being Eliza's mom.

Eliza also sang her first trio in sacrament meeting. Our family sang "A Child's Prayer" to end the primary program on Sunday. When I started singing, Eliza joined in. You could hear her sweet voice through the microphone. During the interlude, Eliza thought she would start in on her first solo. She stopped when her dad started his part, and started up again when we sang our parts together. Yeah! IT WAS SOOOOOOOOO CUTE!! Wish you all could have seen it.

I feel so blessed to be her mother. How did I get so lucky to have such a great family?

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Eliza's first Halloween


I'm impressed. This picture was taken at 9:30 at night, way past her usual bedtime.



Thanks to one of my former students for giving Eliza this adorable ballerina outfit. Although I would never wear something like this, it was cute to put Eliza in it. Let's hope that someday she will forgive me. Although, it doesn't seem to bother her too much. I think the slippers are adorable.




Here we are at the ward trunk or treat. Yes, I did take her around trunk or treating. I do plan to let her eat the candy albeit vicariously.
We had a lot of trick or treaters come last night. More than we ever have before, we ran out of candy and resorted to handing out some old candy we found on our junk food shelf. Good thing the kids won't remember which house handed out the old candy when they can't get it open because the wrapper is stuck to it. (Yeah. It's that old) :)


Bruce did dress up to teach his lab on Halloween. He went as a nerdy scientist whose experiment went a little hay wire. His students thought it was pretty funny. One of the things they did in lab was create the digestive tract of cows, horses, and chickens using Halloween candy. That was my brilliant idea, and Bruce said the students really liked it. They even labeled all the parts.



He kind of looks more like Frankenstein in this picture. Still as dashing as ever nonetheless.


On another note, Eliza also experienced her first snow storm. It snowed all day on Saturday causing many trees to fall and the power to go out for 6 hours. Bruce was in New York from Thursday to Sunday morning at the Dairy Challenge, so Eliza and I were on our own in the dark and cold. The power came back on just as I was getting the candles out. If that's all it took, I should have gotten the candles out earlier.


When we came back inside after snapping this picture, Bruce mentioned that his grandma will probably ask him where his coat is.

What a happy girl!! Happy Halloween everyone!