Dear Gracie: 3 months

Dear Gracie,

This month has been very busy being that it is the holiday season. We’ve been visiting a lot, especially with your grandmas and grandpas. Everyone loves you and thinks you’re cuter than ever. You’re growing so fast though. At your latest doctor appointment you were 12 lbs 4 oz. I forgot how tall but you’re right on the charts for both height and weight. You still love your car seat and we have no problems traveling anywhere, thank goodness. Our biggest difficulty lately is teething. You are doing it and doing it a LOT. You constantly chew on your hands, drool, and shove blankets up over your face to chew them. You don’t want toys or anything. Your hands are good enough. You’ve also taken to guiding mommy or daddy’s fingers to your mouth so you can suck on them. This is making you VERY fussy and at times it is incredibly frustrating because we don’t know what to do to help you. Usually it’s just cuddles with back rubs/pats until you drift off.

Speaking of hand control, it’s getting there. You don’t yet grab at objects but we can see you’re getting close. Laying on your belly you will lift your chest up but you’re still too little to crawl anywhere and it frustrates you. You don’t like laying down a lot. Your swing is a place you spend a lot of time when we’re not holding you. You also sometimes prefer to sleep in it as opposed to on your back. We think it has to do with it being harder to breathe due to dryness so you nap there a lot. We finally put your crib up 2 days ago and you will sleep in it for a bit, a few hours. During the night if you wake up we bring you into bed with us though. Mommy and daddy try to get some cuddle time in while you’re in your crib since it’s hard with you with us. Night sleeping has been going pretty well. I’d say 12 hours with 2-3 wakeups for food and soon right back to sleep. Daddy has also been helping out with you a lot more and you are definitely a daddy’s girl. He seems to be able to soothe you sometimes when even i can’t. It’s a lovely sight.

Christmas was good. You got a few outfits, sleepers, and rattles/teethers from everyone. We got you the same and a Jumperoo which you’re not sure what to think of yet. You’re a tad bit on the small side to be using it but I see you having a lot of fun with it when you begin actually playing with the toys. Until next month…

Love,
Mommy and daddy

Christmas 2009

Well Christmas was well, Christmas. We visited with family, got presents, and were in bed by 10 because we got up at 5:45 (Thanks brothers) to open presents. I got a mixer, crockpot, fleece sheets, PJ pants, and a few odds and ends from my parents and his parents gave me some candles. He got mainly clothes and a thermos since he’s a coffee addict. Gracie got a lot of clothes, rattles, teethers, and stuffed animals from everyone else. We got her big present as a jumperoo which she is a bit too tiny for. She can’t reach the floor quite yet and she’s not sure what to do with the toys but we put some pillows under her feet and she enjoyed the music and attempting to play with the toys. I can’t wait until she can actually jump with it. She loves to do it when we hold her. Here are a few pics from Christmas morning.

Happy 3 years to us

Today is mine and Randy’s 3 year dating anniversary. Wow. It’s hard to believe it has been so long that we met. We moved fast. We met one day, I asked him out the next day, and 2 days later we began dating/he moved in. It’s been long, it’s been hard. We’ve dealt with prison, jail, rehab, a halfway house. We’ve had issues with each other’s families (mainly mine with his but i adore most of them now) but we’re here and I’m glad. I’ve had to deal with constant criticism of being with someone who was a felon, someone who was in prison. He wasn’t worth it, I was wasting my time so many people said. I love when people see where we are now and they are eating their words. We’re married and have a gorgeous little girl who I wouldn’t trade for the world. He’s at a kickass job career and we’re only going up from here.

Tomorrow we’re going to Outback to celebrate although we’ve invited a friend/his gf with us so we can socialize a bit more. Mmm, outback. *drool* We’ve got the rest of our lives to go and I can’t wait to see what it will all bring.

Gracie’s Christmas pictures

We got Gracie’s Christmas pictures done yesterday and although she wouldn’t smile for us, we got some good shots. She did have a few spit up issues though which was a damper. The photographer was awesome, patient, and gave us a nice deal. She kept trying to eat her dress, haha. Overall we spent $155 and got 16 sheets along with a few edits which she did for us along with a picture CD and a copyright release so we can get prints made up any time for any of the poses. She took 47. We ordered a few different ones I uploaded to Flickr. Here they are.

On daddy’s shoulder here

Randy insisted on this one because she looks purely evil he said

O Hai blogging world

Thank you for the comments on our little “on the fly” family photograph. I feel like I haven’t blogged in forever but it’s only been less than a week. December was looking pretty grim financially but a break here and another there has made it a lot more bearable on the pocket and we are able to still buy Christmas presents for our families now.

On the ick note, Randy finally got the support paperwork that states he has to pay $7,200 or something similar for spousal support to his ex wife. It’s at my parent’s house but we’re going to get it this weekend when we go over. We will be sending the absolute minimum possible per week, especially considering circumstances. It’s a messed up situation all over that never should’ve even occurred but NY is stupid like that. We have each other and our daughter. That’s something she can never have influence over.

So onto bigger and better things. Pictures are Monday at 3:30. Depending on sitting fee costs, I may consider family portraits if possible but who knows. I’ve never had professional pictures done before and they’re mad expensive from what I’ve seen. We have her little dress all picked out and everything. Winter has finally hit and I am NOT enjoying it. It’s cold, it’s wet, it’s windy/rainy/snowy. Welcome to December.

Here is a video of Gracie talking for a full 30 seconds. She was sitting on the couch, toppled over, and this is what she had to say about the whole thing.