Thanksgiving

I love having a week off for Thanksgiving. {sigh}

We have had quite the productive week... Justin took off work this week, too so we have been hanging around the house together and taking care of business!

1. We rearranged some furniture in the house.

2. Justin worked on a couple of projects that would have taken me forever to complete. I bought this desk on Craigslist forever ago and had big plans to update it. Hadn't happened... until this week! Also, a little Pinterest art project that required wood cutting, white washing, and screwing/nailing boards together... coming along! I will have to share pictures once I get to finishing decorating them...

3. I put out (most) of the Christmas decorations. I really had quite the internal struggle going on since it is STILL November and it is ridiculously EARLY (seriously, you don't have to tell me...) BUT if I do not do it now, I do not know when it will happen. And I LOVE Christmas. And Christmas decorations. They make me super happy and I wish they could stay up all year. (I know they can't, you don't have to tell me that, either!) I would like to put the lights up outside, but that hasn't happened yet and it's not high on my priority list. And for the record... we would be the 5th house on the street to have their lights out if I did it today.

4. I made LOTS of food. Green bean bundles, two pumpkin pies, chocolate chip cheesecake cookies, stuffing, cranberry apple crisp, and a green bean casserole. Plus, I managed to get the kitchen cleaned up entirely. You should see it... you would never know that I was a baking/cooking fiend this week. 

5. We had Thanksgiving on Thursday with Justin's family. Josie is back in town from Savannah, so it was good to see her for the first time in awhile! 

6. We had Thanksgiving with my family on Friday. One reason I did so much cooking was because we threw this together kind of last minute. My dad had eye surgery last week and couldn't travel (as they planned on doing over the week). He's doing better and recovering well, it seems! He still has at least until Wednesday of "face-down" time...

7. I went Black Friday shopping. With Nora. Okay... this wasn't as big of a deal as it might sound. We went to Target, Bath and Body Works, and Old Navy and it was at 1:00 in the afternoon. Old Navy was a ZOO so we didn't stay long but other than that, it was pretty mild and I got some good deals!

8. I took Ford to the vet. Again. Good grief little dog. Long story short... he is still itching. This time it's not cancer. Or fleas. Or allergies. Or a skin infection. It's dry skin and we just can't seem to get it un-dry. I just feel as if we need to keep making sure it is not something from the list above, which it has been at one time or another in the last 3 months. Ugh.

9. I went to work & got everything situated for next week! I am very thankful that I had the time to get up there this week and take care of that.

We will probably just relax and enjoy the next few days with Nora before we both have to go back to work on Monday.

Here are some pictures of Nora in the cute little onesie that I am glad I decided to make and not spend $20 on since all she did was eat it. I thought I could get two days out of it but that surely didn't happen. I could hardly stand two hours of her wearing it!!

 That is the smiley little face I look forward to seeing every day!!

My love.

Too funny not to post!

There's Nora, licking her turkey. 

What mom? You got a problem with me eating this thing?

Yumm!

And lastly, here is a little video I took when Nora was being talkative. The first few seconds are the best. The rest just ended up being me talking to her, but enjoy the first little bit! She's such a cutie, if I do say so myself!! 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! 

Working Mom

As of last Monday, I am officially a WORKING MOMMY!!

I planned out my maternity leave to start the week before Thanksgiving break giving myself somewhat of a transition back into things. I knew I would work a week, be off a week, work a few more, then be off a couple after that (Christmas) and then it would be January! Just like that... Anyways, I knew that I just had to make it through one week. For now.

Well, I am SUPER glad we practiced a few days before last week. I think that made it quite a bit easier leaving Nora all day, and all in all, I did pretty well. I say that because I didn't really worry about Nora or Grandma as much as just me. I just worry about the things that I won't get to see every day...

So on Monday night when I got home I was all ready to see the happy baby I dropped off at Grandma's house, but by the time we got home she was just cranky. And then after I fed her, she was still cranky, so it was time for bath time, pajamas, and rock-a-bye and there was no smiling, laughing, playing, cooing, or talking for me to enjoy.

So... Tuesday was much harder. She must have adjusted a little to the early wake up call, because Tuesday evening she was much more playful and happy and I didn't feel as if I was going to miss out on seeing Nora all week long. As much...

It did get easier as the week went on. Honestly, I didn't have a lot of time to think about much of anything. Being at school keeps me quite busy but it was busy at home, too. Plus, with Justin traveling, I have the whole workload for myself.

Basically, Sunday-Thursday nights, I have about 2 1/2 hours from the time Nora falls asleep until the time she eats last at night to myself. And I learned last week that it is not really "me" time as I spent the entirety of it every night cleaning bottles, making new bottles, pumping, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, completing school work, packing my lunch, showering (don't have time in the mornings anymore...), feeding the dog, getting the diaper bag ready and oh yeah, eating. (SHOUT OUT to my AWESOME TEAM who made me dinner to bring home Monday night... it saved me!!)

I know that there is never an easy, calm and "normal" week to come back to kindergarten (we get excited for just about anything!!!) but I have to say the week I chose was particularly busy. Or at least that is what I am trying to convince myself. I am hoping every week won't be like that!!

Now it's Saturday and this time I go back it won't just be one week. It will be four. And I don't have lesson plans already laid out for me. And I won't have a week in between to get the room and materials ready for the next week at work. Wish me luck... advice and words of assurance are welcome at any time!!

Shots & Tears

Today was THE day - baby girl's two month appointment.

I got myself all prepared to go: change of clothes, diapers, wipes, bottle for later, pacifier, baby tylenol and my brave face.

Thank goodness Krista was with me because it was like she knew it was coming. Nora started getting upset right before we went in to the doctor's office and for no apparent reason. It is pretty hard to fill out paperwork while trying to rock & soothe a crying baby!

I had her all calmed down and she was having a great time when our sweet nurse brought this PLATTER of shots in the room and proceeded to give Nora four immunizations in three different shots.

Boy did that start the screaming. And the tears...

All I will say is that I THOUGHT I had it together, but I surely did not. I cried.

Well, she calmed down after mommy held her and rocked her for a good while and then she promptly passed out. We could hardly get her to wake up to eat for her next feeding. Poor baby girl!

The GOOD news is that she is growing and healthy!

WEIGHT: 10 pounds, 12 ounces

HEIGHT: 23 inches

Nora Videos

This is my last week with sweet Nora at home before I have to go back to work. It's a good thing Thanksgiving and Christmas break are coming up so that I will be able to ease my way back into it.

It will definitely be an adjustment, but I have been able to leave Nora with a babysitter (grandparents!) a few times and Grandma and Nora (and I) even had two days of practice for next Monday! This has helped me out a lot since I now feel more comfortable leaving her, plus I'll be super busy with my kindergarteners all day!

I've been taking some videos of her throughout the last few weeks and just now have uploaded and looked through them. I know I post a lot of pictures, but it is fun to look at the videos since you can see more of what she is actually like when she is awake, sleeping, playing, etc.

This video was taken when Nora was about 2 1/2 weeks old. She was just starting to be awake more often, but was not interactive at all and couldn't hold her head up well! Sorry, it's sideways...

This video is from when Nora was 5 weeks old. She was beginning to develop a routine and stayed awake after eating. Sometimes she would smile, but not too often quite yet. She mostly just cooed and checked things out. And as you can see, she was beginning to use her hands a little better and also make some funny little faces!

Also from around 5 weeks, here is Nora with the pesky hiccups! She gets them after she eats, usually at least once a day!

Starting around six weeks, we started seeing smiles a lot more often. Awake time became a little less "check out the world around us" time and more PLAY time! Here are some of the sweet smiles we got around six weeks...

And the smiles just kept coming! This video from 7 weeks includes some SUPER cute smiles. And for the record, I usually dress my baby but she happened to spit up alllll over her onesie and was totally content with wearing just her diaper so we just went for it. At the end I had to put in a clip I took of her falling asleep... she fights it!

And lastly, I caught Nora talking to her birdies on her bouncer recently... I took the video from across the room so that I wouldn't distract her. You can see how she and Ford hang out in their little corner of the room together!

Phew! :)

Two Months

Today is Nora Lane's two month birthday! We go to the doctor on Friday, so I won't have stats on her growth until then.

Our pretty girl!

Over the past two months Nora has changed SO much! When we brought her home from the hospital she was wearing teeny tiny clothes and diapers, sleeping when she wasn't eating, and was just a little skinny thing. Now, she stays awake for about half of the day, smiles and "talks", and needs bigger clothes and diapers to cover the huge belly she has going on! Just some of the things that she can do:

find her mouth with her hands

bring her hands together

talk/play with her "friends"

lift/hold her head up with some bobbles

sleep through the night!

look at dangly things (fan, mobile, chandelier)

recognize faces to smile at

sleep in her CRIB at night and for naps

not cry during or after bath time (usually)

Fascinated by the camera...

 I was trying to get some good smiles out of her!

When we go out, everyone comments on how small she is though to me she looks so big! Here are some previous pictures for comparison...

Nora at one week, one month, and two months

We just love this little girl!!!

And I took a video, too! Just a snapshot of sweet Nora at two months...

Happy Halloween

We had a busy day on Nora's very first Halloween! She is exactly eight weeks old today and we couldn't ask for things to be going more smoothly. Now, on to the holiday festivities!

We took it easy most of the morning, but we had big plans for the afternoon and evening...

We started off by going to my school's annual book parade. We got to see lots of my current and former students dressed up and talk with some friends! Nora slept until the marching band woke her up, but then she just hung out until she got hungry.

 Happy on Halloween!

 Getting the most out of our pumpkin onesie... 

Such a pretty girl!

We stopped by to see Mimi on the way home. Then, it was time to get ready for trick or treating! I made her a little owl costume for her first Halloween. It was pretty easy to do and it was nice that it didn't cost me more than a couple of dollars since it was only worn for a little while.

 Our little owl!

Happy girl

We went with our friends & neighbors Leslie & Griffin to trick or treat to all of their grandparents. It was quite the task getting in and out of the car with TWO babies, but we did it!!

 Nora and Griffin

Getting sleepy? 

Nora & mommy!

After we'd made all our stops we came home to see daddy, who just got in from Houston. It was definitely bedtime, so Nora went to sleep and we all watched Hocus Pocus!!

All in all, Nora's first Halloween was a success (though she didn't really know the difference)! I hope you all had a fun Halloween, too!