Baby Olympics

Jared has always been a great Dad and is always willing to watch the baby and play with her. But as she is getting older and more stable he is enjoying it a LOT more! And he is so excited for when she can crawl and walk to do even more playing! Today he played "Baby Olympics" .....

We have Baby Football....
Baby balancing/sitting....
Baby javaline throw.....
Baby basketball toss....
And baby, well I don't really know what sport this would be, maybe syncronized swimming

And baby dive/roller coaster drop. This is the first step of this event...

And a perfect 10 landing!! (second step)

*please note no baby left the hand of her father during these events =>
Thank you to all competitors, you all did well. And the first place prize of the first annual Baby Olymics is.....*drumroll....... Paige and Jared!! Wooooo!!!! =>
Oh the love of a Father for his daughter! It is so cute to see these two together!!
And this picture is just to prove a point. I don't see any of me in my daughter, I just see a mini Jared. Jared does not agree with me. He says he can not see any of either of us and that she just looks like Paige. I direct your attention to exhibit A (the picture) They have the same expression on their face! I am happy that we have a family resemblance, but I hope some day I come out in her too. =>

Growing Up

Paige has grown up so fast already! I can not believe it! She is just over a month old now! Since 2 weeks old Paige has loved to look around and hold her head up. Now she is getting very good and stable at it!

She loves tummy time too (most of the time). She is already trying to crawl, and able to scoot herself if there is something for her feet to push off of.

These two pictures were taken on Jared's back. That was the best place to see how much Paige was holding her body up. My hand is just there because she is learning how to wiggle and contort her body, thus maing her fall off haha.

Paige is not the best sleeper. She will sleep when people hold her, but lay her down away from any person and she will wake right up. This can come in handy when she falls asleep when she is not supposed to, but it is also very frustrating when she will not sleep when she is supposed to. Paige also hates being swaddled tight. She sleeps with her hands above her head and feet spread apart. But sometimes she gets too tired to sleep, and we have to resort to swaddling her in what we call the "straight jacket". It is a velcro swaddling blanket. This one particular day Paige had not slept since 7:00am and it was 5:30. That is over 10 hours of a baby being awake. No bueno. Babies need to sleep, but she refused. So I swaddled her and layed her in her crib to cry herself to sleep. She only cried 10 minutes and then stopped. I went to go check on her. She was asleep. Halelujah! But she had also escaped! Her little hand was now by her face! So cute! She is one crafty little escape artist! haha

This was on another day. Jared had been gone since early that morning and Paige was having a SUPER cranky day. I have never seen her so cranky! And it was definately taking a toll on me. That night I called Jared just sobbing and told him he needed to come home now because I couldn't do it anymore. (I might have been a little dramatic, I'm working on that) So he came home, calmed me down, and took over watching Paige while I took a nice shower. When I came out, very much relaxed and back to normal/sane, I came out to see this. All Paige needed was to cuddle her Daddy! And Jared had fallen asleep too! What a cute thing! And Jared is an AMAZING man! I love him and could not do this without him!

This Tuesday and Thursday I had the opportunity to go over to my aunt Lindsey's house and play with family! Tuesday was Paige's one month birthday! What a great way to celebrate! And it was a much needed opportunity to get out of the house! (and Paige's first besides the doctors). My cousin Raygan was so excited to be able to hold baby Paige! It was precious! We just love playing with family! And are so excited to start going out of the house and playing! After a month of staying at home, who owuldn't be? haha

Playing With Paige

Ok, so when I was pregnant I promised myself that my blog would not be all about the baby, and still be about mine and Jared's life/doings. Well, I am failing miserably at that. haha Mostly because our life consists of Paige and playing with her. And I am ok with that (for now, but I would like more adventures with Jared haha)

But today we took pictures of us playing with Paige. We just love this girl! And love playing with her! (and we can't wait until she gets a little older to be able to interact wiht us more!)

This one is while we were all playing with a fun toy my grandparents gave her! Jared had this idea for a picture, I think its pretty cute! =>
Then we wanted to see what Paige would look like with longer hair. haha SHe had fun with it for a while, and then got frustrated with hair always being in her face. So cute! =>
After hours of playing and story time Paige was out for the count! I guess playing with the parents really takes a lot out of you! => She was lying on Jared's chest while he was lounging on the bean bag. I fell asleep on the couch next to him, and she fell asleep on his chest. After letting her sleep there for a couple hours (and after I woke up) he decided he wanted to get up and tried an experiment of leaving Paige on the bean bag (seeing if she would stay asleep, thinking she was still cuddling Dad). It totally worked! And she looks dang tiny on that huge sac! We love our little girl!

EcoSure Wives Meet Paige

On Thursday "the wives" came over to play and meet the new addition! We have not been together since Denver, so almost a year ago! And we are all living in Utah, relatively close, how fun is that!?It was so fun to see Julie and Danae again! They came over and we just chatted for HOURS! It was great! And a much needed break from being home alone all day with Paige (for almsot a month!) I am so excited that Paige is getting healthy enough, and old enough for interaction with other people! It makes my life not so lonely and mundane! haha I LOVED seeing these girls again! Thanks for coming over, both Paige and I enjoyed it very much!!

Memorial Day Nature Walk

I do not always enjoy Jared's job and the hours he works, but I love that he can take off when he feels like it. He took holiday on monday, so we had the whole day with him!! To celebrate Memorial Day we went on a family nature walk! It was our first family outing, and it was GREAT!!

We went to the Bridal Veil Falls area and walked along the trails. Jared and I had gone here once, when we first moved to Utah, and the nature was all fall colored. That was pretty, but it was fun to see it all green!
Jared was champ at pushing the stroller! I LOVED watching him push it! He is such a cute dad!!
Me and my little girl in nature! => Ok, nature with a paved walkway, but it still counts haha. Paige did so good on our walk! We were walking for about an hour and a half and she only started fussing at the end (because it was her feeding time). It was GREAT to get out of the house! And it was even greater to be out and playing with Jared! I think it should become a regular occurance to go out in nature and play together. We will see how good we get at it =>
When we got home I wanted to take a picture with my little girl. The only ones I have of us are in the hospital, and now she is 3 weeks old!
And of course we had tog et a family picture! Look at our cute little family! I LOVE those two so much!! I am so glad we were able to go out and play and celebrate Memorial Day!!

"K Paige, Now Be A...."

Jared likes to play with Paige. He can not wait until she is older, but he still plays with her. And I LOVE watching them! The new game they were playing is a face game. I don't really know what to call it haha. Jared would say "K Paige, now be a ....." and insert an animal or some funny face. And Jared would help her make the face. For example...

This was Paige being a pig. So cute! And believe it or not she really enjoyed it! She would have the biggest smile after each face! Too bad I am slow with the camera and could never capture it! That is my new goal! => haha
This is Paige being a monkey. Again, huge smile after but I'm too slow to capture it.
The fish face is my all tiem favorite! How adorable is that!? You can just tell she is made to enjoy the water! A little California girl! haha Ok, I might be pushing it a little haha
And this is why Daddy is not allowed to do her hair. haha I know its not the best picture, but Jared took sections of her hair and twisted it into a spike. It looked pretty comical. And Paige was too squirmy to get any other decent picture.
This is just a post of Paige update pictures haha. I had to post this one to show how good she is at holding up her head! Everytime we hold her up on our shoulders, even to burp her, she will not put her head down! She just wants to be up and looking around! What a big girl!

She is Growing Up So Fast!

For the past two and a half nights Paige has slept in her room, not mine and Jared's. (yes half because the first night we started her out in her room but I moved her into ours half way thru. I was not ready quite yet haha) I have mixed feelings about it. My baby is growing up and sleeping in her own room! I am not ready for that! But I like it because Jared and I sleep better. Paige is a sleep talker. Yes, this young and already a sleep talker. She makes noises (some quite comical) in her sleep, and will even sleep cry but be sound asleep. When she sleeps in our room Jared and I would wake up every 20 minutes if not more frequently because we would hear her make some kind of noise. So her sleeping in the other room we don't hear quite as many of her sleep noises so we sleep for longer stretches of time. (I still go in and check her frequently becasue I am a nervous mother, but it is not nearly as frequently haha)

Last night Jared and I made the mistake of letting Paige sleep from 6:30 to 11:30, thinking that it was great because she hadn't slept all day. BIG MISTAKE! Paige was up from 11:30 to at least 3:30am. Jared was nice and took over watching her/trying to get her to sleep around 1:00am and let me sleep (but he was up helping me the whole time before). When we started our day today he had to show me a new "trick" Paige learned.
These pictures don't do the best at showing it, but Paige has been holding her head up lately. She is doing a great job at it! And actually doesnt like to lay down, but likes to sit up and look around. Her "trick" was that Jared propped her up in her crib and surrounded her with stuffed animals. SO CUTE! I call her my little cabbage patch (like the dolls) because she has chubby cheeks and big eyes, so this fit perfectly with making her my little doll!
I can not believe how big she is getting! Not only is she getting rolls everywhere and looking so different from when she was born, but she is holding her head up and wanting to be awake and interacting! And she is outgrowing clothes! Yes, today we discovered she is not fitting into her newborn onesies anymore. How sad and exciting at the same time! My little baby is growing so fast!

2 Weeks Old!

Our little girl is 2 weeks old!! Holy cow! And how do we celebrate? By going to the doctor! Yippie! (not). Before we went to the doctor I dressed Paige in one of my obsessions. I LOVE this skirt! I saw it at a store when I was 7.5 months pregnant and could not stop thinking about it! I finally went back and purchased it a couple weeks before I had Paige.

And the wait for Paige to come was made about 100 times worse because of it. I would see it in the closet and just could not wait to put my daughter in it! Look how cute it is!! And it is made fifty billion times more cute by my adorable daughter! =>
I think this picture is so cute. Paige looks like she is giving a little attitude with her hand on her hip! My little diva! =>
So I might have gotten a little carried away taking pictures of Paige. haha But how could I resist these cute little feet surrounded by the cute skirt? =>
And last one of the pettie skirt, but I just had to post this face! Paige makes the funniest faces sometimes, and I am glad I caught one in a picture! => I love this little girl!!

After playing around with the camera and cute skirt it was time for the doctors. (ok not right after, there was time for feeding and spitting up and pooping...you know,the great things that come along with babies). Jared was going to come to the doctors with me but work got crazy busy and he wasn't able to get away. So it was me and Paige. I was SUPER nervous! Let me just say, the trip was not off to a good start. She woke up from her nap right as we needed to leave (3:30 because the appt was at 3:45). But that also meant that she was hungry and it was feeding time. But Paige is a good baby and was not super fussy yet. So we get in the car, but the gas light was on....we had no gas. I went to the gas station and filled up just enough to get to the doctors and back. We get to the doctors and Paige is getting fussy, and with good reason, she had not eaten in 3 1/2 hours. When we first got to the doctors I had to fill out at least five pages of papers. Let me tell you I go pretty goot at writing while balancing a fussy baby. => But it did take me quite a bit longer to get them all filled out.

So I will not bore you with the rest of the doctor visit challenges, but I will just say we got home at 5:30, and I could not feed her the time we were at the doctors. But we survived! => Oour first trip all by ourselves and we are still alive and kicking! => haha

And the news at the doctors was good news. Paige has grown almost 3 inches and is now 22 1/4 inches long, in the 97th percentile. And has gained over half a pound, and is now 8lbs 6oz. Way to grow girl! And she is good and healthy! Yay! But the doctor still advises about a strict visitor policy for a while longer. So still no introducing to the whole family and friends yet, but its getting closer! Yippie!! Horray for healthy growing girls!

Nursing Preparations...

My aunt posted this on her blog a while ago. I read it and thought it was pretty funny, and now it has reached a whole other level of meaning. Breast feeding is no walk in the park or bed of roses. I should have listened to this list haha.

This was in BabyTalk magazine..."How to prepare for nursing:”

"Forget that old advice about "gently rubbing your nipples with a towel" If you really want to feel ready to breastfeed, here's what you do:

Day 1: Gently rub your nipples with sandpaper.

Day 2: At bedtime, set your alarm clock to go off every two hours. Each time it rings, spend 20 minutes sitting in a rocking chair with your nipples clamped in a pair of chip clips.

Day 3: Draw branching lines all over your chest with a blue-green marker, then stand in front of your bathroom mirror and sing "I feel pretty."

Day 4: Open your already-crowded freezer and make room for five dozen plastic milk bags.

Day 5: Fit the hose of a vacuum cleaner over one breast and set on "medium pile." Turn off vacuum when nipple is three inches longs. Switch breasts.

Day 6: Obtain "Do Not Cross" tape from your local police station, then wrap firmly around your chest. When your spouse asks about it say: "Get used to it."

Day 7: Tape a water balloon to each breast and squeeze into a maternity bra. Repeatedly hook and unhook the nursing flaps with one hand while using the other hand to balance a sack of squirming puppies.

Day 8: Dine in the fanciest, snootiest restaurant you can afford, making sure to arrive with a big wet spot directly over each nipple.

Day 9: Record your mother proclaiming, "Just give the baby some cereal like God intended, and she'll sleep right through the night," Play in an endless loop at 1am, 3am, and 5am.

Day 10: Slather your breasts with peanut butter, top with birdseed and stand very still in your backyard.

Day 11: Go someplace public - a museum, a courthouse, the steps of your office building - and stuff a lifelike baby doll under your shirt. Use the doll's arm to suddenly hike the shirt up past your collar bone. Lower shirt. Feign nonchalant smile.

Day 12: Suckle a wolverine.

Congratulations! You are now ready to nurse a baby. Maybe."

Meeting Some Family

I can not believe our little one is already 11 days old. In some ways it seems like she should be older (it has been a LONG 11 days) and in some it seems like she is growing too fast already! I guess I am just hard to please haha. The doctor did originally say no visitors for at least 2 1/2 months, but then the day Paige left the hospital that doctor (a different one than the one who had been treating her the time she was there) said two months was a little excessive and that she can have some visitors just no big crowds and to make sure anyone who touches her is clean. Well, Jared and I took middle ground. We are not taking her anywhere, or really introducing her to most of our families until later (when exactally we are not sure). But my Dad and brothers drove up from CA last night to pick up my Mom, and Jared and I figured it would be alright if they met Paige.

The little boys were in awe. They would pet Paige's head like a little tiny dog haha. I guess thats all they can compare a baby to since they have never really been around one.
Grandpa (CaliPa or Pop, those are his three names) and Paige! He just loves her!
Now its time to meet her uncles! => The 'cool teenager' uncle Trey.
Kaden is such a little poser => But it seems like our daughter is too haha
The brunettes of the family. haha Cam was such a natural holding her! It was impressive.
Cole on the other hand needed some guidance. It was funny to see his reaction to holding Paige, as well as her reaction to his kisses. He is laughing because he kissed her and she made a funny face.
Today Gram (Gigi) and Pa came over to meet their little great-grandaughter. Paige had been awake and active all morning and about five minutes before Gram and Pa got here she fell asleep. Deep asleep. So she was out when they came over and there was no waking her up. haha
But they still showed her they loved her. And next time they see her they can see her beautiful big eyes.
A four generation picture! Hopefully this summer we can all get together for a five generation picture! How fun would that be?!

I have just LOVED having my family over to meet the newest member! And I really want the rest of my family to meet her, but I think we are going to take a break from introducing for a while. We want to see how Paige reacts to this group of newbies, and see what the doctor says on tuesday (her next doctors appt). Hopefully she will handle this marvelously and she will be super healthy at the doctors appt so we can worry less when we introduce her to the next group of new family! If it were up to me I would have taken her to the family party today (Lindsey's little girl's birthday party) and introduced her to everyone then, but I know that would not have been smart. I have to keep reminding myself that "slow and steady wins the race" haha But eventually Paige will be strong, healthy and old enough for all our family to meet her and even play with her! Oh I am so excited for that! =>

First Bath

Today Paige had her first bath! Ok, she had baths in the hospital so its her first bath at home. Jared was workign for a part of the day and the goal was to wait for him to come home to be part of this bath experience. That did not work out so well haha. Paige had some "incidences" that could not be ignored. So my Mom and I went on and gave her a bath.

After all her explosions had finished she fell right asleep. It was tempting not to wake her up but it needed to be done. =>
This little girl does NOT like getting her diaper changed or changing clothes. She makes the funniest/cutest angry faces too haha. Is it cruel that I like changing her because I get to see them? haha Maybe I will get over that soon.
When I first started the bath Paige did not like it one bit! She would sqwirm and cry. I felt guilty, like I was torchering her or something.
But as soon as I started washing her head she became tha calmest baby in the world. She LOVED it! She is truly her fathers daughter (Jared loves getting his head massaged/played with) Now I know, when bathing Paige begin with her head, then everything else will become much easier!
After her nice head massage she really enjoyed the bath, and went back to her calm normal self.
And now we have a nice clean baby! And she smells like baby, which I love! => I feel bad Jared missed her first bath, but he liked her nice clean smell. => And no worries, I am sure there will be plenty of baths for him to give =>