One Month Old!

It's hard to believe it's been a whole month since Caroline was born. In honor of the occasion, we had a little photo shoot this afternoon. I was able to capture a few of the many faces of Caroline...

Daddy gave her a bath and picked out her outfit all by himself today...even with matching socks!

Sweet girl! Her hair is definitely getting blonder (and I think some of it is falling out...doesn't she look a little balder???)BIG yawn!

A rare tummy time moment between screams...note the Cowboys game on in the background.She is either pooping, or she is seriously upset that the Cowboys lost.

A few things about the life of Caroline at age 1 month...

-She loves her pacifier. I had a little bit of anxiety and resistance about giving her a paci. I guess it's the Speech Pathologist in me. I didn't want to create a "paci addict" but as my mom so kindly pointed out.."It's not crack cocaine, it's just a pacifier." I actually think she was wrong about that...the paci is very addicting! But I was CRAZY to think we'd survive without it!!!! :) So we have ourselves a paci girl...

*Daddy even picked a matching paci to coordinate with our outfit...he's so good!

-She loves sleeping on her tummy. "How would you know this?" you ask..."Haven't you heard of the Back to Sleep Campaign?" Well, yes, but while I am terrified of SIDS, I am also terrified of flat heads! SO, we have been taking some of our daytime naps on our tummy, but only in the living room under the watchful eye of Mommy. When in the crib, we're on our back...I promise. :)

AHHHHHH!

-Although she loves sleeping on her tummy, playing on her tummy is a whole different story. "Tummy Time" is not Caroline's idea of a good time. She typically writhes around and screams, but I am committed to having tummy time daily anyway. We are working on that upper body strength! I figure the more she squirms and wiggles around the stronger she is getting... :)

Yuck! I hate tummy time!
Why do you torture me?

-She eats every 3 hours during the day...Breakfast at 7 am, a mid-morning snack at 10 am, lunch at 1 pm, happy hour at 4 pm, dinner at 7 pm, and a bedtime snack at 10 pm...Daddy gives her a bottle for the 10 pm feeding each night, and right now she is taking 5 ounces! That usually tides her over until about 3 am when she is up for her late night snack, and then we start all over again at 7 am the next day! We are trying to follow a routine of "eat, play, sleep," and it seems to be working. She just sort of naturally fell into this little schedule...being the planner that I am, I LOVE IT!!!!! We'll see how long it lasts...

-Between feedings we are having progressively more and more awake time. We have "circle time" in the morning, where we sing songs and talk about our plans for the day. (Remember, I worked with preschoolers for 5 years, so I can't help myself) The rest of the day consists of playing with our toys, reading books, having the dreaded tummy time, possibly running errands, and of course napping! She makes lots of eye contact now and will track objects (especially faces) when you move them in front of her. She seems to do something new every day!

-She already has several nicknames around here...Little Pumpkin (my personal favorite), Punky Doo, Little Bird (she makes the funniest bird noises sometimes...hilarious), Little C, Stinker (she gets that from her Dad), and CP (for Caroline Paige...CP stands for "Command Post" in the Army, and according to my Papa, CP is a very appropriate nickname for a first born baby...In the Army, everything revolves around orders from the Command Post, and in a new family, everything revolves around orders from the baby! My Papa is a very wise man!!!!)

Guess Who Came to Visit???

Grammy! Jon's mom was able to squeeze in a quick visit this week, and we had a blast! We went shopping, and got our first pair of jeans...

Thanks for coming to see us, Grammy!

In other exciting news...Caroline and I are making our first trip to Dallas next week! We'll be there a whole week to hang out with all our friends and family and we can't wait :)

Road Trip!

We took Caroline on her first road trip this weekend...Destination: Erickson Family Lakehouse in Corsicana, TX.

After this little road trip, I completely understand why people don't travel with their children!!!! It required a lot of gear to be away from home for 2 nights...whew! The weather was beautiful and the company was even better, so it was all well worth it :)

Here is a little recap of the festvities...

It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Austin to the Lakehouse, and we have to drive right through Waco. Of course this means, we stopped at George's!!!!

Not quite ready for her first Big O yet, but I think she still likes George's almost as much as her Mommy and Daddy.

We ran into Jon's great friend, Andrew, and his girlfriend, Melanie, while we were there...so random and so fun!

Caroline was excited to meet her Uncle Andrew!

Our friends, the Vietti's, came down from Dallas to hang out with us at the lake. Their daughter Matelyn was born a week before Caroline, so we couldn't wait for everyone to meet for the first time!

Me meeting Matelyn

Ginny meeting Caroline

The girls!

Caroline and Matelyn seemed to hit it off right away! They even linked their little arms together :) We predict the will be BFF's for sure.

We had lots of fun all weekend...

Daddy "fishing" with his girls...Although, he decided it was really more like "casting" since he didn't actually catch any fish :(

The family taking a walk.
Luci following Daddy EVERYWHERE on the 4-wheeler.


Although, I have no photographic evidence, our friends Sarah and Peter joined us at the lake, too!!! We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and we had such a wonderful weekend! Thank you Peter, Sarah, Matt, Ginny, and Matelyn for spending your weekend with us!!!!!

A new 'do...

Check out our new 'do...We have tried headband bows, but now offically graduated to clipping the bow in our hair. So grown up!

We've had a busy week! With Daddy at work and Mimi back in Dallas, Mommy and Caroline have been on our own. So far so good! We've been going on walks in the neighborhood. Last night, we met friends at Chuy's for dinner, which was delicious. Today, we went to the mall for the first time, and Caroline was quite the little shopper...she slept the whole time. It is so nice to get out and about!!

We are getting into a nice little routine with eating/sleeping, too. She is eating every 3 hours during the day and every 4-5 hours at night. YEA! Hopefully we can keep it up...

So Big!

We have had such a fun-filled, busy week! So many exciting things have happened...

Mimi (my mom) came to visit!!!! We have had so much fun with her, and we are so sad that she is leaving today :(

Wednesday, Mimi even got to baby sit when Mom and Dad had a date night...Woohoo!!

Yesterday, Papa and Minnie (my dad and step-mom) stopped by for a visit on their way back to Dallas.

Caroline is lucky to have so many grandparents to love on her!!! We talked to Grammy and Grandpa (Jon's parents) on the phone yesterday, and they can't wait to get back down here to visit, too!

We had our 2 week check up...Caroline weighs 7 lbs. 14 oz. and is 20 in. long. She gained a whole pound since last week! We are so thankful to have a healthy growing baby :)

Her umbilical cord stump finally fell off. YEA! Today we get to take our first REAL bath and we are looking forward to that.

Last night, Daddy fed Caroline her first bottle. She loved it! Daddy was a total pro when it came to his bottle feeding technique.

Complete bottle domination!

Back to Work

Today was Daddy's first day back to work. We were all so sad! We had so much fun hanging out as a family all last week. We'll miss him so much when he's at work all day...Luckily, Daddy came home for lunch today! :)

Some quality time before heading out this morning

The family

Mommy and Caroline waving goodbye...Have a great day, Daddy!

I am so thankful that my mom is here this week! She is taking such good care of us, which defintiely makes it easier. Next week, I'll be completely on my own...SCARY!

Caroline says "Sic 'Em Bears"!

Last week, we were so excited that Caroline was going to be here for the Bears first game. Unfortunately she wasn't born until 11:33 p.m., so she wasn't here in time to bring Baylor any luck. (Don't worry we did watch the game in the hospital...I started pushing during the 4th quarter, at which time we figured it might be best to turn off them game and focus :))

But this week, Caroline was ready to cheer on her Baylor Bears! She couldn't wait to wear her new Baylor gear (from Baby Sew Trendy...so cute!). We kept up with the game online via Gametracker, and were so excited that they won...51-6! Sic 'Em Bears!!!!!!

Celebrate!

Last night we celebrated Caroline's 1-week birthday with a little champagne toast! We received this bottle as a gift the very week I found out I was expecting Caroline. We waited 9 whole months to drink it!
Note the lack of champagne flutes...they are in a box in the garage somewhere, so we had to make due with regular glasses...cool, i know.

It was worth the wait...Cheers to Caroline's 1st week! (She had to miss our little party becasue she was already in bed) :)

Mommy and Caroline...just hanging out.

We ventured out for our first walk around the 'hood today. Check out the awesome sun hat...She also had on coordinating socks...already so good at accessorizing!

Caroline is beginning to "wake up" a little more. She is noticably more "wiggly" and is spending more time awake and alert between feedings. I love it! Even if it brings a little bit more fussiness with it...it's worth it :)

One Week Old!

Today marks Caroline's 1-week birthday! It has gone by so fast! It's so hard to believe that just a week ago we didn't even know her yet. This week has been more than we ever could hoped or dreamed. We think she is pretty wonderful!

She is eating and sleeping really well, so far. We just can't get enough of her!!! Yesterday we made a trip to Old Navy...Caroline is quite the accomplished shopper already. She gets that from her mom :) Today, it was off to Daddy's office. They had a professional photographer in the office taking pictures to update the company website. Jon had to go pose for his photo, so Caroline and I tagged along. The photographer was so sweet, he even took a few pictures of Caroline and I! Also, Jon's office got us a bunch of meals from Super Suppers...such a great and thoughtful gift! We can't wait to try them...yum, yum! Mimi (aka my mom) is coming to visit tomorrow. She is staying for a whole week and we can't wait!

Shopping at Old Navy...There is definitely no mistaking she's a girl with all that pink!
Proud Papa...Watching Jon with Caroline absolutely melts my heart. He is sweet and protective...already such great Daddy. I have loved having him here all this week. We will miss him when he goes back to work next week!

We can't get over how tiny she seems...especially compared to Daddy's big hand!

Having Fun!

We are settling in and adjusting quite well to life at home with Caroline! Here are few pictures of our latest adventures...

Watching football with Daddy
Drying off after our first bath
All dressed up for our first outing...

We went to the doctor, to lunch, and shopping at Babies R Us!
Whoa, Mom! Not so close!
We had our first check up at the pediatrician this morning. Caroline is doing great...she has already reached her birth weight again, and is looking strong and healthy. Yea!