Today

Today we are headed up to the Dunes in Northern Indiana to have a little beach time.  We are picking Jackie up at a train station near by and Jason, Tab, & Bella are meeting us up there.  It should be interesting, but we have packed a beach umbrella & two chairs (that I found on CL for $10) and a pop up baby tent to shade Nora.  Cooler packed with a picnic lunch and bags packed for the rest of the weekend in Chicago visiting the Dimitts! We are so excited...and will post pictures from our trip when we return from our mini-trip

Guilty Pleasure

It's bad...but I've been on a huge s'mores kick. I know you're probably thinking HOW is this a guilty pleasure?  Well, due to time, clean up and availability I make them in the microwave-12 seconds & BAM s'more.  I usually do 2, use 4 marshmallows (pulled apart to make like the number 4 domino on the graham), 1/4 Hershey bar, and Wa-Zing...S'MORE! They are so yummy I just wish the marshmallow had the crisp outer crust like texture you get from the fire.  If I had a gas stove...you know what I'd be doing-LOL. Until we have a fire in our fire pit, they will work as a guilty pleasure. Betcha never thought about doing that before!

Nora: {4 months}

Rolling over at night & sleeping in her crib for naps...new trends @ 4 months

Jake forces this pacifier on her...wonder why?

One of my favorite new toys!

Getting too big for the boppy

This girl is long! And she keeps on getting longer... I think she gets that from her Daddy.  She is now in mostly 6 month clothes-due to her length.  She wears the limited number of 3/6 month outfits we have, but all 3 month clothes are packed away in a tub that she can not wear anymore.  I always wonder how tall she will be when she's older-I think about how I'm pretty tall for a woman and Jake's family makes tall people, so she's got a chance to be at least 5'7". I just hope she isn't super-tall where it makes her self-conscious. Wow, how did I get on that..she's only 4 months old! That's how my random brain works though-LOL. 

{4 MONTH STATS}

• 14 lbs. 2 oz. (50th Percentile)
• 26 inches long (97th Percentile)
• 16 1/4th inches-head circumference (72nd Percentile)

She is 'on-schedule' and doing all things for this age developmentally-so we are proud parents that she seems to be growing and learning A-OK.  I've already mentioned that she has rolled over, but now that is what. she. does! She has mastered both ways to roll- tummy to back...back to tummy.  She loves being on her tummy, arms out, head up and looking around. She is quite content with that position for now.  I tell everyone that she may look like her Dad, but she acts like me. Can't miss a thing, little miss curious or some people say...nosey.  She is a good supported sitter and loves to be up (seeing EVERYTHING, of course) on your shoulder or facing people.  She gets fussy if you lay and cradle her like a baby unless shes ready for a nap. 

Favorite toy award goes to the material book with the hard corners and crunchy sounding pages. She loves IT & we don't go anywhere with out it.  She also has a butterfly that sings & an elephant with the same crunchy-sounding -material for his body that she likes too.  They are good to have on hand..except when she falls asleep in her car seat holding one of them...all you hear is "crunch"  & sometimes she wakes herself up from "crunching" it.  Bath time is another fun activity, but she arches her back and kicks off the sling making it a little more challenging to bathe her, but I imagine it will only get more challenging as she gets older. 

She is still sleeping wonderfully at night and has been all along. We are very thankful for that. She just started rolling over at night. So I find her sleeping on her tummy in the morning-which freaked me out at first, but now I'm OK with it. She seems to like tummy sleeping and as long as she rolls over, I'm fine with it.  About 3 weeks ago we stopped swaddling arms in, so we decided to stop swaddling all together and now she only sleeps in sleep sacks or sleep 'n plays-she's so grown up! The other night I laid her down when she was awake...she reached to the corner of her crib (where I keep her pacifier), grabbed it, and put it in her mouth.  It was like I was watching a 2 year old-crazy, I tell you-I thought I was gonna tear up as she is becoming more independent of Jake and I. 

Monday was the first day that I put her in her crib for nap time. I've been trying to do that for a while now, but it hasn't happened, so hopefully she will get used to taking naps up stairs and then I can be as loud as I want down here without scaring/waking her. 

She likes to eat (or drink I guess).  We are still strong nursing, no solids yet. We are holding off until 6 months if we can make it there! I'm planning on making her baby food so I've been gathering up resources and finding advice to make it a little smoother process.  I'm excited to introduce her to new foods. She stares at me when I eat & if she could talk I bet she would say ... can I have a bite?! I feel bad sometimes-its like Jersey when she watches us eat. every. bite! LOL  Soon enough, it will come soon enough. 

I've decided that after 4 months I might have a bit of separation anxiety-I love her so much & want to spend every second I can with her since she is growing up so fast.  She spent an hour in our church nursery while we were in Sunday School for the first time last Sunday & I was a little anxious to go feed or get her-of course I'm like that when I'm at work T-Thr too.  We are in love with our little Nora as she is so happy and full of giggles, smiles, and coos for us.  Parenthood could not get any better!

Summer, summer, summer

We are always go, go, go in the summer and I get a little side tracked and forget about blogging sometimes.  Oopps! Sorry about that-we are doing great.  We took a trip down to Southern Indiana to visit the Burch family.  We were so excited to see their new house-which is adorable & a ranch-which is what we would love to have.  Lucy & Jersey were able to play-well, Lucy wanted Jersey to play a lot more, but Jers is kind of old and tired so she's a little more laid back!  It was Nora's first time sleeping outside of the house, but she did well, even through a tornado warning that only I was worried about.  Of course, I made Jake and Nora get in Ellen's bathroom-LOL as they were sleeping and didn't care about the storm. I thank my mother for making me paranoid of storms & only ask Jake for a house with a basement so I don't do the same for our kids.  We had a good time catching up and chatting about babies-Austin will be here in a short few months & we will be headed back down to see him and all his cuteness!

We also went up to Lafayette to visit my mom and sister and niece, Serenity. She has gotten so big since the last time we saw her and she is as ornery as they come.  I took a few bow clips and bows up that I made for Nora (well I realized she wouldn't wear them for a while-after I made them).  She loved them and looked adorable with them in her hair.  She's not sure what to think about Melissa holding other babies. She's jealous when she holds Hunter, but doesn't seem to mind when she's holding Nora-we are trying to figure that one out still. 

They came down for the 4th and we had a cookout with my family & John, Rachel & the girls.  Serenity loved playing with Ann & Nellie-we blew up Nora's baby pool & had the hopscotch sprinkler out because it was so hot.  Between the pool and sprinkler, you can't get much cheaper entertainment for two three year olds and an 18 month old!  We have become a "little cooler" in the toy department since Nora has come along since we have books and other colorful toys that kids like. 

This past weekend Jake helped his mom by building a mini-barn that took the entire day Saturday and most of the day Sunday- & it's not yet completed. But, other than that we've been tending to the garden, hanging some pictures in the house, and enjoying the summer sun as much as we can with a 4 month old!

Hunter, Nora, & Serenity-cousins on the 4th

Nana with the grand kids

Nellie, Nora, & Ann- in matching shirts from Gamma

Funny to look through the 10-15 pictures I took and see what the girls were doing to try to get a good picture-LOL Nellie is holding Nora's head up with her hand and managing to smile at the same time! Ann is not sure what's going on here



Ann trying to hold Nora's arm to keep her from leaning on Nellie (not pictured...cousin Isabella, but you can see her HERE)