Snuggles for Independence!

Our 4th of July celebrations were held at my family's lake cabin.  The fireworks were amazing, in fact the best at our cabin in many years.  My husband is a bit of a pyro and so he set up a wonderful show for everyone.  Alyssa wanted to sleep at her normal time of course but I couldn't have her back in the bunkhouse when everyone was down by the lake watching loud explosives.  So I wrapped her up really well (it wasn't cold but it certainly was a bug filled night), and we went down to the deck.  We joined my family for the show and Alyssa loved the colors.  She couldn't tear her eyes away from the fountains at the end of the docks.  She looked in awe of the sparks, then Papa set off one of those screaming whistle type fireworks and the lip came out.

I love the slow motion lip!  You all know it...the lip sticks out, the eyes narrow in a glare then suddenly widen with wetness glistening in them and then the lip disappears behind the chin as she starts to cry out loud.  The facial transformation is too adorable to not feel bad and want to laugh at the same time.

Other than the whistling ones, she was great!  She watched the fireworks intently and as she got too sleepy, she wanted nothing more than to snuggle with her Momma and hide from the loud noises that wouldn't let her drift off completely.  She stared at the sky as the colors burst above her and fell asleep regardless of the booms.  She did wake up and cry once for the only other whistler in our set but went directly back to sleep.  What a Goose!

I absolutely cry for chances at real snuggles initiated by her and last night I FINALLY got a completely baby initiated and desired snuggle!!!  I've waited for over a year for that...I dreamt of it from my pregnancy and wanted to stay down on the lakeside all night to keep them coming!

I hope everyone else's 4th of July was as awesome as mine!

5 Months and New Experiences

Our little girl is growing by leaps and bounds and I seriously swear that I just wrote my last post to this only a few days ago but a month has somehow passed in that time...

I can hardly believe how much has changed in the last month with Alyssa.  She is so close to sitting all by herself.  She smiles and talks and loves anything that plays music.  She tries so hard to control her bottles when they leave her mouth but as soon as she is being fed she forgets the importance of holding it  (we'll keep working on it).  She rolls over every time she is on the floor or in her crib.  She even decided to sleep on her tummy a few times (meaning we weren't given a choice because she kept rolling over after getting her nuk back).  She has pretty good control over grabbing.  She loves playing with rattles, bell toys, and her elephant blankie.  We have been having loads of fun in the jumping play station here and there.  She loves being outside in nice weather in the shade but still prefers being held up to look around instead of sitting around out there.

And on Alyssa's 5 month 'birthday' we decided to give her a new experience.  Carrots were on the menu last night!  She was unsure about them at first but just look at the picture I snapped at the end.  "Can I lick the bowl, Papa??"

My Digital Camera's Story....

Four months ago you would have been shocked at what was happening...NOT THAT PART!!!

Yes, only four short months ago my husband and I were frantically running into Walmart to purchase a brand new digital camera!  (Did you not expect this type of story?  It gets better!)  I was waddling because I was 5 days past my due date and Alyssa was just hanging out as content as could be.  After threatening her that morning for the hundredth time in the last five days that I was going to send the doctor in after her, we grabbed all the bags, tossed them in the car, fed the dogs and cats extra early and then tested the camera.

We are clearly last minute...and of course what better time for a camera to go wrong when you are about to have your very first baby born?  So with less than half an hour before we should have been at the hospital we decided that we would rather be late to our induction than to not have a camera for this event.  At 6:30am we hoped that it would be a super fast trip and maybe only end up 5-10minutes late.  Go ahead, laugh your common sense heart out at me because I know you all realize what I was too sleepy to think of that morning.

6:30am at Walmart looking for a digital camera on December 30th....Customer service representatives were nowhere to be found, the cameras were obviously locked up and it was December 30th.  So many of the models that we liked were out of stock from those last minute Christmas gifts.  Finally we tracked down an associate with keys, selected a very nice digital camera and I ran to grab a box of poptarts and we hit the road to make record time across town to the hospital that was only blocks from our house in the first place.  Looking back, it is a very good thing that we were on our way for an induction instead of running to the car in labor...

Now, over 1,000 pictures later, my little baby is FOUR MONTHS OLD!  Can I curl up on the couch and bawl while I watch her napping in her bouncer??