Our Liberty Belle

I've never been much for decorating for holidays. Too much work for only myself to enjoy. However, now that Chloe has joined the family, I hit up the $1 aisle at Target to get some fun, themed, photo props. Here's our Independence Day photos ( a week early! ) because I couldn't wait to share them.

 

This girl was absolutely obsessed with her new glasses. I loved to see her turn them over and stick every angle in her mouth. She keeps things interesting around here and I couldn't be happier.

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

Sharing is Caring

Luke always says "Sharing is Caring" to me when I have the pail of ice cream in my hand or when I've stolen all the covers on a chilly night. But, I wasn't quite ready for Chloe to share her nasty cold with us. So, needless to say, this week has been miserable and by week I actually mean 10 days. Cough, snot, fever, the whole works. Whew! Sick baby=sick mama=sick daddy=sick child=sick mom=sick dad... never ending circle.

Solids are consumed daily and I haven't really found anything she has refused yet. We've tried zucchini, carrots, banana, avocado, apples with cinnamon, and she even sucked on a halved lime. I got a Baby Brezza online yesterday that steams and purees your food all in one container and I'm excited to make her baby food. I've read a lot about spicing up their palate with herbs, garlic, cinnamon, etc and I plan to do some of that for her. I'm really anxious to get started.

Grammy and Aunt Jacy have been tag team watching Chloe these past few weeks and it's been wonderful. We get lots of picture updates through the day, they live right on the way to work for quick drop off, and she always has a great time!

 This girl is the best thing in the world. She's MY world. 

5 months.

At five months, this girl is bursting with awesomeness. Luke & I stood over her crib for about 10 minutes last night talking about how much we love this little bundle. Here are the little things that I want to remember about Chloe Jane Gustafson at 5 months:

* Took her first bite of big girl food yesterday. Carrots! Steamed, smashed and stirred into her rice cereal. She reached out for the spoon, opened her mouth, and seemed to enjoy the experience.

*Reaches out for things (toys, food, people)

*Strokes your face

*Squeals -- loudly.

*Weighs 13.6 pounds

*Picks up then drops her toys.

*Only sucks on her toes when she's naked

*Loves bath-time

*Sleeps 12-13 hours a night and takes 2 or 3 naps a day

*Tries to roll over every time you lay her down to diaper change

*This girl is super duper adaptable. She is shuffled from Mimi and Papas house, Grammy & G-pa's, Jo-Jo & Char's place, spent a day with the Wrights, and still has her days at home with mommy or daddy. I'm continually amazed by her constant smile -- even with new surroundings.

*Teething has been slightly horrible but we fiiiiiiiinally have two tiny bottom teeth. Adds a whole new dimension to uh-dor-able.

 

 

I finally got my YouTube account figured out so here are two videos from the week:

First, she does this new thing where she smashes her face into the bed and tries to bite the sheets while wiggling her butt in the air. Makes me break out in giggles every time.

Second, I woke her up from a two hour nap at 6:30 so she would still be able to get a good night sleep. Wellllll, she wasn't ready to wake up....

Love you Chloe.

Second Honeymoon

This week has been referred to as our "Second Honeymoon" by a few of my friends so I'm running with the title. I kinda like it  :)

Here are quite a few questions I've had (mostly good ones!) that I thought I'd answer for our readers.

What if something happens to her out there? Well, something could happen at any time here too. But, depending on what the "something" was, I'd probably be on the first flight out!!

Did you have to sign a waiver for the airlines? No. They don't have any clue who she is or her relationship to the passenger. All she is to them is "INF" which means lap child when they are doing their final count.

Have you guys gotten so much sleep? I wish the answer was YES but we have both slept terribly. I'm unsure of Luke's reason but mine is because he's been working sooooooo hard which means he snores at night.... I took a video but haven't got spousal rights to share it yet  :)

Do you just not know what to do with yourself? Yes and no. I had a day off the day that she left and I was lost. I walked up and down the hallway expecting naptime to be over at any second, paused the TV every few minutes to listen for a cry, and sat in silence with nothing to do because I haven't had a day off, alone for 5 months. However, after that first mopey day, we've found plenty to do. Each day we've done a little something together. We went out for dinner at the new Texas Roadhouse & enjoyed one of our faves (Tahoe Joes), saw the late showing of Iron Man 3 and caught Now You Can See Me in theater last night, hopped in the car for a coffee & donut breakfast, took a walk in our pajamas one evening, ate junk in front of the TV, I tried sushi for the first time, and we watched a movie in bed.  At Jake's graduation party, we were able to sit and talk with our friends without worrying about feeding, bedtime, or diaper change. Luke allows me to step in her room for about 15 seconds then gently tugs at my arm and says it is time to leave or I'll get sad. He's right. I vowed to "seize the day" and that doesn't include making myself sad.

Do you miss her? If you were one of the people to ask me this, I'm about to make fun of you..... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! She's my firstborn, my only child, my baby girl and I've only got to enjoy 5 months of her young life. That's similar to asking if I love her... Actually, I'm crazy in love with my baby which is why I want her to know both of her sets of grandparents well. Now that I've got my rant out of the way, my simple answer is yes, of course I miss her.

How will you get her back? My mom & I are meeting in Vegas tomorrow to do the baby-exchange. We found CHEAP flights into Vegas, a $30 hotel with a free airport shuttle, and figured it was just another thing falling into place. So, my mom & Chloe will fly in around noon and I arrive at 3. Staying overnight seemed like the smartest thing to do in case there were any airline troubles for either of us. My mom leaves at 7 am the next day to fly back to NE and Chloe & I will head home around 11. And you never know, my mom might want to try her hand at poker and win us the airline expenses back  :)

I'll share a few pics from our week, a few from Chloe's week, then sign off. 

I made one Pic Stitch from every day she was gone....

 

How stinkin cute that the little cousins got to all play together. I love that.

 

Can't wait to squeeze my girl. 18 hours and counting....