2009 was a good year...

On my way out to party.... Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas celebration

Yesterday we had a great Christmas. We were sad about not being able to make it back East to see family but it felt like the right decision to stay put here to avoid any health issues. We had an amazing day at Auntie Alice and Uncle Bob's house and really felt like lucky to be surrounded by such great family.

Brian and I opened our gifts on Christmas eve after church once Miss A went to bed. We wanted to wait until Christmas day for her gifts once she was awake and a happy kid (we got in late on Christmas eve). Well the morning got away from us because one of us got to sleep in (not naming any names!) and then we were scrambling to get ready and make it in time for dinner. It seems as though I need to build in almost an extra hour some days to make it out the door - in between feedings, diapers and dog duty. We thought that we would get the chance to open Aubrey's gifts with her once we got home but we didn't get home until super late. That being said it is now Saturday evening at 9:46 pm and most of her gifts still remain unopened! We are slackers! Today we did open the ones that we got for her because I wanted her to play with this really cool ball that Brian had bought for her. Tomorrow we are heading to church in the morning, then to a friend's house for lunch and then to Grandpa Tom's house for a visit so I vow to get home at a decent hour to have her open her gifts.

Although we haven't done the gifts yet from family here are a few cute pics for your viewing pleasure...

Camera crazy!

So we went a little bit crazy with the camera today...but you only have 1 first Christmas! We have a few more to post that won't fit on this posting so more to come!

What's in a name?

Last Thursday we went back to the Breastfeeding Support Group and they had a Santa there. I took Aubrey over to him and this is how the conversation went:
Santa: "Now who is this?"

Me: "This is Aubrey."

Santa: "Now is Aubrey a boy or a girl."

Me: "Aubrey is a girl".

Now there was much more that I wanted to say such as, "Look at her shirt with the flowers...do you think I would dress a boy like that?" However I was good and didn't say anything rude. This is not the first time that someone has asked if she is a boy or a girl after hearing her name!

In choosing potential names for the baby we were very careful about considering names that were either female or male and not gender neutral. I have had my share of run in's with people thinking I was a male based on my name; some of the highlights - I was assigned a male roommate freshman year of college, recently attended a conference where I was housed in a suite with three men and battled insurance for over a year to get them to cover my yearly healthy woman exam.

We didn't want our little one to have these same issues but looks like we bombed with that. Seems like Aubrey will have the special joy of letting folks know that she is female and not male. That and she will forever be correcting people with the fact that her name is Aubrey and not Audrey (which we get questioned about alot)!

Looks like we'll have to think harder about names the next time around!

poor baby

It's been another busy week and I have been bad with the blog...sorry! We ran around most of the week but the good news is that the Christmas gifts all got mailed out today so they will make it in time! Christmas cards will have to go out on Monday.

Aubrey had an amazing week. She was just a happy little kiddo which is so much fun! Whenever we went to the store she was on her best behavior and so many people commented on her big eyes. We went to school two days this week and hung out there for an hour each day. The teachers all seem nice and one of them held her for a bit yesterday. Aubrey was just looking around and taking it all in. I think she'll like all of the action that goes on there.

Yesterday we went to the doctor's office because her diaper looked a bit weird ( I will spare you the details). Turns out she has an allergy to milk protein which is fairly common in babies and usually they outgrow it. Her body has alot of trouble breaking down the milk proteins that come to her from my diet. This means that we can switch to a special formula or I can change my diet to cut out all milk and products containing milk. The doc gave me a list of things to avoid such as butter, yogurt, milk, soy, etc. I started that diet today and it is tough - so many things contain some type of soy or soybean oil...looks like we'll be doing an overhaul of our pantry! Hopefully we can get this straightened out so that her little tummy starts to feel better. I will keep you posted on her progress.

A few weeks ago Aubrey started to find her hands and as you can see from the above pic she has now discovered her fingers as well. She usually has 2 or 3 fingers in her mouth at a time. I think she'll end up as a thumb or finger sucker very soon.

Sorry...I have been bad about updating Aubrey's blog lately. We've been busy! Here are our fun times in a nutshell:

1. Last Thursday we went to check out a breastfeeding support group. We got up late so basically ran out of the house to make it there on time. We get there, run up to the 3rd floor to find out that not only is the class in a different building within the hospital but it doesn't start until 1:00 which meant we had two hours to kill. We met up with Brian for lunch at Joe's BBQ (sooo good)! We then went to check out the group and we were super out of place. The women were all clicky and had no problem whippin' them out to feed their kiddos. Next week they are having a holiday party and the hubby's are invited...the women said they didn't mind feeding in front of the men. However, if the men were uncomfortable they would cover up - um....all just a little too open for me! But yes we are going to go back...Aubrey gets weighed before she eats and then again afterwards so we can determine how many ounces she has eaten. This will then determine how many ounces for each bottle at school. We haven't had alot of luck with the bottle situation - one day she takes it and then the next few days she wants nothing to do with it:( - we are going to try again tomorrow!

2. Friday Aubrey and I went shopping for a Christmas outfit. We couldn't find the one little outfit that I wanted in her size so we settled on something else at Babies R Us. We then went to JC Penney and found some other things. We got home and found out that the JC Penney dress didn't fit :(

3. Saturday Brian went to play a poker tourney and figured he'd be gone most of the day. Didn't work out that way so he surprised us by coming back early. We went to do some exchanges and returns from the previous day's purchases. Late that night we went to bowling. Aubrey was very good and got passed around between our bowling partners Don and Laurie as well as Brian and myself.

4. Today we had church, did some Christmas shopping, met Katherine for lunch and had the Christmas musical at church this evening. The most exciting part of the day was....pictures! We went and had her pics done...of course she was not giving up any smiles for the photographer. We did get a few cute ones though and we can pick them up on Friday!

5. We have been trying out a baby carrier from Becky, David and Isaac before purchasing one of our own because we want to make sure we get one that she will like. Tonight we went for a walk with Osito and Aubrey was not a happy camper. We had her facing forward in the carrier and she screamed and screamed. We turned her around to face out and she liked that. Here are a few pics for her trying out the carrier...look how little she looks!

Some cake and some babble...

Today Miss A was on her best behavior! We went out to lunch with Auntie Alice and she slept through the entire lunch! She then was hamming it up for the camera with Uncle Bob as you can see from the huge smile! She helped me to blow out the candles on the yummy homemade carrot cake that Brian made and then talked up a storm tonight. All in all it was a good day :)

It's Beginning to Look Alot (or a Little) Like Christmas...

This weekend was a Christmas weekend. Saturday Osito went to Petco and had his picture taken with Santa. Yesterday at church Aubrey was first in line for a pic with Santa....no other kiddo germs for her!

Also, yesterday we put the tree and stockings up. Aubrey woke up just in time to help me hang the last of the ornaments. We went to Home Depot and got some tacky flashing lights for the tree and a stocking for Aubrey. Brian figured she would like the flashing colored lights and he was right - she loves to stare at the tree.

Hopefully this weekend we'll go shopping and get Aubrey and Osito their presents to put underneath the tree.

Aubrey had her 2 month doctor appointment today which meant....shots! She took them like a champ and has war wounds to show off.

She weighed in at 10 lbs. 8 oz. which puts her in the 50th percentile for her age. She grew a little bit too...now measuring 21 3/4 inches which puts her in the 25th percentile for her age. Hopefully she'll get some height from Brian's side rather than my short side.

Her doctor said that she looks good and that we don't have to do dream feeds with her because her weight gain is good. She typically gets her last meal around 8:00 pm and then won't wake on her own until 5:00 am. I started dream feeding her bewteen 2:00 and 3:00 am because I was worried that maybe she wasn't getting enough during the day but the doctor said no worries there! She's doing great :)

Oh - and update on the bottle situation...last night did not go well. She was having NO part of it. We'll try again tomorrow night!

I'm a Big Kid Now...

Aubrey will be heading to daycare soon (I am calling it school though because that makes me feel better about it). This past weekend we decided that we would try out the bottle to see how it works for her. Our friends Becky, David and Isaac were kind enough to share some of Isaac's bottles with us since babies are known to be picky about which ones they'll take.

We only tried one and she did ok with it! There were 3 oz in it and 2 oz of it disappeared - she drank some and then decided to wear some! We are going to try again tonight with a different one to see if she can keep more of the milk inside.

We are starting to stock pile some milk now in the freezer for school. If we can ever kick this thrush we'll have to dump it all but it's good to have the stock pile just in case.

Bath time is fun

A picture is worth a thousand words!

2 months already

I can't believe that Aubrey is already 2 months old (as of yesterday officially)! She has changed so much and seems so much bigger. I call her my little sack of potatoes because she actually feels heavy now when I pick her up. We have been weighing her at home and think she is somewhere near the 10.5 mark. We have a doctor's appt on Thursday so we'll post new numbers then.

The other night she was rockin' some tummy time and this happened. Brian said it was just a fluke but she then did it another 2 times. Check it out - but ignore the really annoying voice!

She also has discovered her hands. She has two little fists that she stares at in amazement when we are in the car. Here she is pretending to have an ice cream cone one day recently on our walk.

We are thankful

Today is a day to really reflect on all of the blessings and miracles that we have experienced this year. Brian and I are so thankful for Aubrey and all of the joy that she has brought to us. We are thankful for the family and friends that have helped us celebrate Aubrey and have provided love and support to us along the way. We are thankful for our health (Brian is finally feeling better!), our jobs, the community at church that is phenomenal and of course Osito too! Babies that sleep through the night are on that list too! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sign Language

Seems like Miss Aubrey

already knows how to

communicate with her hands...

Growth spurt?!?!?!

So Aubrey has napped this week! That is awesome and no small feat - but you probably wouldn't understand unless you were here when she was having an overtired meltdown. She actually napped for one full hour on Wednesday (longest nap ever)! I thought maybe we were just finally into a nap groove but then I googled baby growth spurts and found that extra eating and extra sleeping can be an indicator of growth spurts. I found out that babies typically have a growth spurt around 6 weeks - I think she is one week behind. Big surprise there though seeing as Miss Aubrey seems to follow her own time schedule as we saw with her due date that came and went.

The bottom picture shows her napping in her chair - I was pumping and went over to the sink to clean up and found her sleeping so I needed to get a pic to commemorate this incredible accomplishment :)

Yesterday was Osito's 2 year anniversary with us. We have a little picture where he actually was looking straight at the camera for once (must be because he knew that it was a special day)! We celebrated with him by getting some yummy cinnamon frosted pumpkin cookies. I swore I would never spoil my dog...but it has happened, however I blame it all on Brian because he is worse than I am. If you have seen him with Osito then you know what I am talking about.

As mentioned in a previous blog Aubrey is starting to get some fuzz on the top of her head. She is now losing it in the back though too. She's sportin' quite the hairstyle!

She's also getting better at tummy time. Here is a picture of her taking a little break but looking all girlie in an outfit that Nana and Papa sent to her.

Happy Veteran's Day

Today we ventured downtown to have lunch with Jenny. Aubrey was awesome and slept almost the whole time! This was good because not only did we not have an unhappy camper in public but she was also happier at home because she napped for more than 10-20 minutes. Everyone was a winner today!

Here is a picture of the happy little one as well as a sleeping pic from last night which was just too cute not to post. If you click on the sleeping pic you can see that little hairs are starting to sprout on her head - yay for hair!


She recently just started smiling a whole lot more which I thought meant that she was lovin' life and mommy and daddy when she smiled at them. Today she started smiling up at the ceiling...what does that say about the smiles she gives to us?!?!

Randomness...

Last week I got the all clear from the doctor to go back to the gym which was great news!!! I then got hit with a nasty infection so didn't hit the gym until today. It was AMAZING!!! Brian and Aubrey bonded at home - doesn't she look happy hangin' with her dad?

Osito decided to make himself comfortable in Aubrey's chair tonight. Brian then turned the vibrate option on which will guarantee that he never jumps in there again!

And this other picture was just too cute not to post because she looks like a little tiny burrito baby. That was at 7 am this morning and I was trying to get Miss Aubrey to fall back to sleep for awhile - and yes I was successful! :)

The rub down!

Yesterday we went to a baby massage class being offered at the chiropractor's. Aubrey was not all that into it at first but once we got going she loved it! She actually was making happy noises while on her belly, which is a first for her! There were a total of 5 babies there and she was the youngest but one of the most well behaved! Yay!!!! She loved looking around and checking out all of the other little ones. She's pumped to get a little massage from Dad tonight after her bath :)

Meltdowns...

Poor Aubrey has had a rough week! Wednesday we had a doctor's appt and she had a complete meltdown in the waiting room. There was no consoling her for a good 5 minutes...which means that I have officially become that person with the screaming child!

Once we got into our own room she was happy as a clam. We saw the nurse practitioner, got some antibiotics for me and were on our way. We went to CVS to fill the script and she had a meltdown in the store. We went to the car and she ate right there in the parking lot. We've gotten really good at scoping out feeding spaces in various parking lots!

We then went to meet up with Brian for dinner which worked out well because she through it all. Once we got to the parking lot she freaked out so she got to have her dinner there in the Joe's parking lot.

Yesterday her grampa came to visit and she did well until late afternoon when she started melting. That lasted most of the evening!

Today I figured she would make up for the lack of sleep from the past 2 days but I was wrong! She slept in the car on the way to the chiropractor and then woke up and started freaking out throughout my massage. It ended early as a result! Some of the ladies at the front took her during my adjustment and she was happy, happy, happy for them!

We got back in the car and she slept for a bit and then woke up very unhappy. We took Osito for a walk and she snoozed for about 25 minutes and the woke up screaming again. She is now finally getting a much needed nap!

Any ideas for an overtired baby that fights sleep? ??? All advice is appreciated!!! She is a great night sleeper but doesn't sleep much during the day (most days) so we have days like above. Poor baby!

Even though she had a rough week I was able to get a few good pics...Enjoy!

The little frog...

We searched everywhere for a costume for Aubrey but everywhere we looked had things from 0-3 months which were huge. We finally found something at Wal-Mart but the only choices were a flower or a frog so of course we went with the frog! I was so excited for her 1st Halloween and to have her dressed up and wanted to get some good pics. She of course had other plans (is that any surprise)????? She ended up sleeping the entire evening away and totally missed out on the night. Not next year though...

We went to Alice and Bob's on Tuesday and Uncle Bob got some good pics of her in the costume.