First football game

I can't believe it's actually here (where did summer go?), but the first football game of the season was last week. A Wolves win! 42-21. I attempted to bring Darcy along. Wouldn't have if family wasn't planning to go. I knew I wouldn't see much of the game anyway with Darcy. It was more for Camryn. She loves to go and visit with everyone.

Thank goodness we arrived at the same time. I snagged Chris to help out with hauling the car seat. That sucker gets HEAVY.

Darcy made it until half time and was done. I had her in clothes that could work as pajamas and the little thing was passed out within 5 minutes of heading home.

Visit with GiGi

The first three months

We've made it! Darcy is officially 3 months old today. What an up and down three months it has been. We're still going through the learning curve of having two kids in the house, but have made it so far. Not that our situation is vastly different from others with more than one child, but when you're going through it yourself, you definitely adopt a deeper appreciation.

So, let's see...the first 3 months.
We were so grateful to be given such a beautiful and healthy baby girl. I did not actually breathe a sigh of relief until I was holding her in my arms. I’ve certainly enjoyed snuggling with her as this is the last baby. Even though I always thought I'd want three, two is plenty for us!

She was born with a full head of dark hair which is definitely her unique feature. And if it’s not brushed after bath time it curls up. Craig calls her Newman or Newmie (you know, the chubby curly headed short man on Seinfeld). Not my favorite but Newmie seems to have stuck a bit. Poor thing. Nobody tell her what it’s from. I’ve tried to work on a better nickname…Lady Bug, Little D (which comes from Dad), Bugsy, Punky…but nothing seems to have stuck yet. Camryn calls her Little D a lot which is sweet.

One other favorite feature is her single dimple on her left side. I just have one dimple too, but it’s on the right. It’s kind of like she got my other one.

Camryn has been such a help with her. Seems to have accepted her from day one. She loves to pick out outfits and go get clean diapers from upstairs. She even helped with Darcy’s first bath. And she loves putting stickers on D’s outfits, but she does that to me and Craig too. I feel guilty for not being more patient with her quirks and not being able to give her all of the time she needs. But I suppose that is a life lesson. You’re not always front and center in life and you have to be able to deal with it. She’s learning better how to play by herself and I think school has been a great place for her to go play a few days a week.

Back to Darcy…

Well, she has been to the emergency room twice already. Once with a cat bite on her eyebrow bone and the second after she failed to stick the landing when she flipped off the kitchen counter. I joke about it now, only because she is 100% okay (although I will have something to blame if she gets too crazy down the road); but both of those days were not fun days. I have to say I was disappointed in my lack of take-action skills. I found myself more stunned and feeling helpless after both incidents then keeping cool and jumping into action as the parent. I’d like to think it’s because she is so new to this world.

She’s not a fan of tummy time. Well, I take that back. She doesn’t scream at us anymore, but can’t seem to lift her head. Just plants her nose straight down into the floor. Has a bit more success on the boppy but we’ve got a ways to go. She’d prefer to strengthen her neck while sitting on our lap.

She’s a great eater (as you can see by her super chubby cheeks). Has been since day one. She’s already up to a whopping 7oz per bottle. And she drains it. I bet she eats anywhere from 30 to 35oz per day. I’m sure she’s ready for rice cereal just to fill her belly a bit better.

And now that her colic is gone, we are finally enjoying her. Craig made the comment earlier today that she finally seems like a real baby. We’re looking forward to the next 3 months of watching her figure out how to crack herself up, reach out for toys and tasting every last one of them, trying veggies and fruits for the first time, learning to roll over and hopefully sitting up by then. The hardest challenge I have now with her development and I fear I will do this in the years to come is compare her to Camryn. That has to be a natural thing to do. I mean you go with what you know and if it’s different then it seems wrong. Camryn definitely set the bar high for Darcy. Camryn has her faults, for sure, but she’s such a dynamite little girl. I see a lot of me in her personality which helps me know how to deal with the junk she throws my way on occasion. I need to continually remind myself that Little D is her own unique person.

My beautiful Camryn

I wish so badly you would stop growing up. You can be the biggest drama queen one minute (which you come by honestly, so I can't really be all that upset at you) and the absolute sweetest, most caring little thing I've known.

I wish I could bottle up your energy and your excitement for everything. This morning before everyone was ready to get up, you came in and gave me and daddy a hug and kiss, squeezed each of us tightly and just said "I love you." This has made me smile all day. I love you!

Darcy's Baptism

We had Darcy baptized on 8/7/09, and were fortunate to have a lot of our family attend. Darcy had been a real challenge for us up until this time. I'm not sure Craig and I had more than a minute converation here and there for 2 months. It was madness with a colicky baby in the house. Thank goodness it was summer time and Craig was home for half days.

Ever since the baptism though, and I've laughed many times to myself about this, Darcy has had 2 tough days. I'm writing this on 8/20. 2 days out of 13. I have bad days that often, so I'll take it! It's like the devil was "washed away". She is seriously a joy to hang out with now. She plays on the floor with us. She talks more. She will entertain herself occassionally.

Too funny.

Spinning

Darcy is on the move. Well, sort of. I've caught her sideways several times in bed when I go to get her up. And yesterday we had her on her toy mat. She was just kicking her legs like she's running a race but somehow would also spin 90 degrees.

We let her just entertain herself for about 20 minutes and she wound up traveling off her her mat about 3 feet making a complete circle. Wondering if this is a sign of things to come. I don't remember Camryn moving this much before 3 months.

We've hit that all too important milestone

OK, so many articles will say if the baby sleeps 6 hours, you can consider it "sleeping through the night". That's a bunch of bull because I need WAY more than 6 hours so that's not how I define it. And before Darcy hit 2 months she was averaging about 7 hours. About 9pm to 4am. Would take a bottle and then back to bed. So it wasn't too bad really. Getting up one time at night without a peep out of her before 4:00. Can't complain. Last night she slept from 8:30pm to 6am! Yay for the whole family. Let's hope this trend keeps going. Now it's time to train her on how to take a good nap.

Not sure if it's a coincidence to the long sleep or not, but the whole fam went up to the pool last night for about an hour. Wasn't sure how Darcy would respond, but she LOVED it. I think she could have stayed in the water longer if Craig and Camryn didn't get hungry for dinner. Maybe it wore her out, but there were no crying fits last night, which seem to take a lot more energy then sitting on Mom's lap in the pool.

Random pics of the girls

This turned out to be silly hat day. Camryn has used this old replica football hat for dress up for some time. We went out to play frisbee and she got frustrated that I wasn't throwing it right to her. So I did and it hit her square on the forehead. Well, she asked for me to throw it to her. She didn't say "Oh, I'm not going to try to catch it." She shed a few tears and then said "I have a great idea." Then ran inside and came out with this helmut. Only she had to fancy it up so she asked me to tie a ribbon around it. Ha!


And so Darcy wouldn't be left out, she got to wear a princess crown that Camryn had decorated at a friend's birthday party.





These are just a couple of other pictures of Darcy. She is getting so big. And yes, despite my complaining of her frequent crying fits, she does take a break to smile at us occassionally. And those are the moments that make the rest of the day completely worth it.

And I can't forget my silly Camryn. She falls asleep in the oddest positions. And well, sometimes, I just have to take a picture of it before I reposition her. How in the world this could be comfortable enough to fall asleep, I don't have a clue.






And then, of course the fashionable look of winter slippers with a sun dress on one of the hottest days of the year. Ha!

2 month weigh in

Darcy had her 2 month check up yesterday and weighed in at a very healthy (ha!) 12lbs 4 oz and measured 23". She's at the 90th percentile on her measurements which is very similar to how Camryn stacks up to the growth charts at every physical.

She smiles!

Well, she's been smiling for a while now. Started about 2 weeks ago, but this is the first time I've been able to snap the camera fast enough. (Unfortunately, our home computer is completely dead so I can't access any of my photo editing software to make these pictures prettier.)

My favorite thing she does is stick her toungue out. She will imitate you too if she sees you stick your toungue out. It's a game for her. So cute. Now she is pushing her toungue into her lower lip and putting her arms up in the air. She can't grab onto anything or purposely reach for one particular thing I realize, but definitely appears to be trying.

And, even though it's only been one night, she slept from 9pm to 5am last night! Yahoo. Early morning for me but at least I was a bit more rested. She's been trending that way the last few nights but I can't believe she's already sleeping 8 hours. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it continues.
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Last week was Craig's and my 11th anniversary, but it was also my beautiful niece, Riley's first birthday. The girls and I went to Columbia to watch the reaction to cake!

First, let me say this cake looked incredible. A strawberry cake with pink icing and pink colored chocolate shavings along the bottom. YUM! Too bad it was destined for destruction.


The first taste

She loved the attention and loved her some of that cake too!

And this picture cracks me up. I was getting Darcy in her pajamas so we could make the trip home and go straight to bed. Riley came over to "talk" with us. She loved seeing the baby. She was trying to kiss on her a lot which was sweet. She loved trying to touch her too with just the one finger. She didn't make her cry really, but thought this picture was funny because it looks like it.

Happy Birthday Riley!