Tacoma

In early July we went to Tacoma, Washington. My sister and her family were in the process of moving there. We went to help unpack and to spend time with the whole family. My brother came up from Oregon to help with the move and my parents assisted too. I hadn't seen my sister since Courtney was 2 weeks old, so it was great to see her and my newest nephew who is nearly 4 months old. None of the cousins had met before, so it was fun getting them together and being able to take some pictures of them.

Our first day there we went to a bbq at a friend's house in Gig Harbor

There was this huge beautiful park in Tacoma a few minutes from where my sister lives...I fell in love with it

Jen and mom

 

A cowgirl and a doctor...that is my kind of girl

 

Maddie is so sweet and would go to hug Courtney. 

Courtney was never sure what to make of it.

 

Cute baby Caleb

Cousin love

Nana loves her kiddos

Play dates

Courtney has a friend named Dasha. I met her mom, Julia, in our birthing class. Dasha is about two weeks younger than Courtney but looks older and has hit some of the milestones before Courtney. I love meeting up with Julia. She is a very sweet person and it is fun to compare and contrast the girls. It is fascinating to hear them make the same noises and see them do some of the same things, but they each have their own quirks too. It is nice to have a friend who is going through the same things at the same time as you. We can commiserate and also give each other advice. When Dasha and Courtney first would get together, they would mostly ignore each other and do their own thing. Now they interact more, but sadly that sometimes means Courtney is harassing Dasha by pulling on her necklace, clothes, stealing her toys, etc. It is interesting that they already seem to have a sense of  what is 'mine'. I hope Courtney learns to be a little nicer to her friends.

See how much fun we're having?

I think I will take this...

Why is she crying?

 Happy Dasha

Hi Mama

 

HI MAMA!

Mothers Day

I know I am going back a couple months for this post, but I wanted to share some pictures from Mother's Day (which this year also happened to be my birthday). We spent the afternoon at my mom's house and my grandmother was there as well. I am one lucky girl to have such a wonderful mother. She has been such a great example to me of what it means to really sacrificially love and continually give of yourself. She is also incredibly patient and kind. So thanks mom for being your fabulous self. I love you! 

Such a happy girl

Thanks to my mother in law for the super cute outfit

Where does the time go?

I thought I would be so much better about updating this regularly, but I've clearly been seriously slacking these last couple of months! I don't know how moms (especially ones with more than one kiddo) manage to keep their blogs updated. I find it challenging to just keep us fed and clean ;).

The past couple months have been busy and full of adventures. At the beginning of June my best friend, Sara, came out to California for a visit. It was wonderful spending some time with her and made me realize even more how much I miss having her around. Courtney liked hanging out with her too and we got to see new babies as Sara's sister recently had a little girl as did our friend Tiffany.

A couple of weeks later, Christopher, Courtney and I went to South Carolina for Christopher's best friend's wedding. It was in Charleston, which is where Christopher's parents grew up and they own a condo there so we stayed an extra few days and spent time with family. Christopher's sister flew down from NY to hang out with us too. We all had a nice time. I'll try to add some pictures from this trip later. In the mean time here are some pictures from the month of June.

 A really great hair day:

Sara and Courtney

Best friends for 16 years and counting!

 Did Olan Mills teach you these poses?

Sweet girl

 Huh?

 Learning to clap (she clapped with her feet before her hands)

 I didn't do it

Teeth!

So after months and months of teething, Courtney got her first two teeth. She was a couple days shy of 7 months old when I noticed them and of course it happened to be during the week Christopher was away from home. She is still teething away with other teeth close behind I am sure. She typically wants to hide her pearly whites, but Christopher was patient and I kept working on making her smile or laugh until we got a picture where you can see them.

Happy Easter

We spent Easter with my parents. We attended church with them, which was the church I grew up going to. It was sort of surreal to go back there with my own baby. It was nice to visit with people I hadn't seen in a while. Then we shared a lovely meal at my parent's house and our very good friends Josh and Jenn Gunther joined us. It was a lovely day of fellowship and Settlers of Catan. Courtney opted for a nap instead of Catan...I should have too considering how badly I was beaten ;)

Courtney wearing her cousin, Maddie's dress

Awake Training for Parents

I did not create the letter below, but I swear sometimes I feel like Courtney did. I saw this on one of my mommy message boards and thought it was just too funny not to share.

Awake Training for Parents:

Dear Fellow Babies,

OK, here’s my situation. My Mommy has had me for almost 5 months. The first few months were great – I cried, she picked me up and fed me, anytime, around the clock. Then something happened. Over the last few weeks, she has been trying to STTN (sleep thru the night). At first, I thought it was just a phase, but it is only getting worse.

I’ve talked to other babies, and it seems like its pretty common after Mommies have had us for around 5-6 months. Here’s the thing: these Mommies don’t really need to sleep. It’s just a habit. Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep – they just don’t need it anymore. So I am implementing a plan. I call it the Crybaby Shuffle.

It goes like this:

Night 1 – cry every 3 hours until you get fed. I know, it’s hard. It’s hard to see your Mommy upset over your crying. Just keep reminding yourself, it’s for her own good.

Night 2 – cry every 2 hours until you get fed.

Night 3 – every hour.

Most Mommies will start to respond more quickly after about 3 nights. Some Mommies are more alert, and may resist the change longer. These Mommies may stand in your doorway for hours, shhhh-ing. Don’t give in. I cannot stress this enough: CONSISTENCY IS KEY!! If you let her STTN (sleep through the night), just once, she will expect it every night. I know it’s hard! But she really does not need the sleep; she is just resisting the change.. If you have an especially alert Mommy, you can stop crying for about 10 minutes, just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall asleep. Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My Mommy once stayed awake for 10 hours straight, so I know she can do it.

The other night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to it and just go for it. BE CONSISTENT! I cried for any reason I could come up with:

-My sleep sack tickled my foot.
-I felt a wrinkle under the sheet.
-My mobile made a shadow on the wall.
-I burped, and it tasted like rice cereal. I hadn’t eaten rice cereal since breakfast, what’s up with that?
-The dog said “ruff”. I should know. My Mommy reminds me of this about 20 times a day. LOL.
-Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed on the monitor in the other room.
-Too hot, too cold, just right – doesn’t matter! Keep crying!!
-I had drooled so much my sheets were damp and I didn’t like it touching me.
-I decided I was sick of all the pink in my room so I cried.

It took awhile, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my goal is 3:30am. You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in order to reset your Mommies’ internal clocks.

Sometimes my Mommy will call for reinforcements by sending in Daddy. Don’t worry Daddies are not set up for not needing sleep the way Mommies are. They can only handle a few pats and shhing before they declare defeat and send in the Mommy.

Also, be wary of the sleep sheep with rain noises. I like to give Mommy false hope that listening to the rain puts me to sleep sometimes I pretend to close my eyes and be asleep and then wait until I know Mommy is settling back to sleep to spring a surprise cry attack. If she doesn’t get to me fast enough I follow up with my fake cough and gag noise that always has her running to the crib. At some point I am positive she will start to realize that she really doesn’t really need sleep.

P.S. Don’t let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long you suck on them, no milk will come out.

Trust me.

Sincerely,
Baby J

Who? me?