Just like her daddy!

Tonight, Eric's grandma emailed us this picture she'd found of Eric. Looking through pictures we put on Snapfish of Hannah reminded her of it. We think she's right... the resemblance is definitely there!! The picture of Eric is when he was 25 days old, and the picture of Hannah is when she was 14 days old. Thanks for the picture Gram!

Fun Weekend!

Eric's best friend Bill came to see us this weekend, and we had such a great time!! Bill and Eric had some good guy time by going to the casino Friday, and on Saturday, my parents came up to watch Hannah so the three of us could go see Transformers 2. The movie was good, although I must admit... I've been so tired from some recent not so good nights with Hannah that I fell asleep during part of it. How tired must I have been to fall asleep while Autobots are battling Decepticons?!?!? Today we took Bill to see the local civil war battlepark and then Eric made his infamous curry for dinner. Yum!


Here is a picture of Hannah with her Uncle Bill... he was really great with her and even changed a poopy diaper!




We wish his wife Melanie had been able to come, but we were happy she let us have Bill for the weekend! Thanks for coming to see us Bill - we had a blast!

Cute Boo Pics

This girl loves her sleep!

Having fun on her play mat


Preppy Boo


Lounge Lizard Boo

First freckle!!

Laughing at Mommy




Contemplative Boo

PTL!

Precious Boo

Finally, here is a cute video (well, I think it's adorable). I have been reading a book called "The Happiest Baby on the Block" that my sister-in-law recommended and it's been really helpful. Part of it talks about the importance of swaddling, and so I've been trying to swaddle Hannah like they say in the book - arms in, super tight. She usually sleeps with her arms out, so this has been a bit of a struggle. I will say though that when we can swaddle her with her arms in, she really does sleep better. But we took this video the first time we tried to do it and she was clearly confused!

Hannah's New Ride

So, in an effort to comfortably drive people around with Hannah in her car seat, as well as all of the baby paraphenalia one needs... I traded in my trusty 5-speed Camry for a 2005 Toyota Sequoia. It is super comfy and roomy, and very fun to drive :) I had forgotten how hilly Fayetteville was when I got a standard, so this is also much easier! If we get Hannah this for her one month birthday... imagine what will happen when she's able to drive herself! Ha!!

Memere and Pepere came to visit!

This past week, Eric's dad Norm and his wife Jeanne came to visit us and we had such a great time! They are Hannah's Memere (pronounced mem-A) and Pepere (pep-A), which is french for Grandma and Grandpa. Every morning, they would take Hannah out on the back deck with them while they drank coffee and Eric and I slept in. Then, Eric and his dad would do some sort of project around the house and then we would all spend the rest of the day either hanging out around the house or going around Fayetteville/Northwest Arkansas. We were excited that they got to meet their new granddaughter and that we were able to show them our house and the area we live in. We will be going to Connecticut in November, but by then Hannah will be six months old. It will be interesting to see how different she is between now and then!

Overlooking the mountains on the way to Van Buren, AR

With Memere and Pepere

I love the look on Hannah's face here!

So sweet!

Trying to pack Hannah to go back to CT! Something tells me we would have noticed she was gone!



Thanks to Memere and Pepere for their visit... Hannah misses you already! (And I am definitely missing those early morning sleep-ins!!!)


Also, a big thank you to Norm and Jeanne for helping us with so many projects! Norm fixed some electrical issues around the house, helped Eric put up a gate on our deck, installed outdoor ceiling fans and helped Eric shingle the roof of our shed! And Jeanne weeded our landscaping, and also knitted the cutest scarf for Hannah. Jeanne - I promise we will finish the mulching soon and I will be sure and show you the finished product! Here are some pictures of all that got done...

Happy Father's Day!

Happy 1st Father's Day to my baby-daddy :)

One Month Musings and First Father's Day Reflections

This is Eric...

I know it has been a while since I posted so I thought I'd take this opportunity to make up for that.


I've known Hannah for a little over a month and I wanted to share my feelings on how it has been going.


So far, she has been everything we could have hoped for. She is beautiful, healthy, calm, alert, and lovable. We have learned how to read her emotions and get her to respond to our interaction with her.

It is still hard to believe that she is really a part of this family. I look at her and see a little bit of both of us (mostly Michelle though). I think its funny how everyone in our extended families want to assign a part of her anatomy to them. If everyone's observations were correct, her hair would have come from 8 family member, her eyes from four of us, her cheeks from everyone who was ever a baby, etc. The truth is, God formed her and all of her little parts exactly how He wanted them. She is God's perfect little girl.

I can't say that I've seen a lot of change in her from when we brought her home, but I know she has. She has probably already had several growth spurts and her hair is definitely still growing. We were glad to see her weight get above her birth weight finally and she is actually into double digits now.

I do feel bad about the whole middle of the night thing. For the first few weeks, Michelle had to be the source of Hannah's food every time she wanted to eat. I tried to help out and change her or calm her down and get her to sleep, but I still felt like Michelle was and is really being worn down. It got a little better when she started pumping, but not all that much. Plus, she has been gracious enough to not ask me to help on work nights. I say all that because I want you (and Michelle) to know how proud I am of how she has taken to this whole motherhood thing. I know she had worries and fears before Hannah was born, but I think they were all unnecessary.

So, one month has gone by and I realize now that all of the books I read prepared me mentally for our little girl, but not really for the reality of her. Thankfully, she has been great and made it as easy as she probably could. The hardest part of my day is leaving her in the morning, and the best part is when I get home and have my "Hannah time".

I can't wait to see what happens next month...

One Month Old!!

Saturday was Hannah's one month birthday! We actually spent the day in Tahlequah, so there were lots of people to hold her and help her celebrate! Eric, Norm, Jeanne, my parents, Sheri, Terry, Ashlea and my grandpa all went out on my parent's boat while Hannah and I spent the day driving around Tahlequah and then hanging out with Pam at her house until they came in off the boat. It was a great day and by the time we got home that night, we were all exhausted! Here are some pictures of our day...

Ashlea holding Hannah (preparing herself for babysitting this fall!)

Pami and Hannah

Hannah and her Papa

Celebrating being one month old!

Three great years...

Tomorrow is our three year anniversary and to celebrate, we went out to dinner tonight while my mom and dad watched Hannah. We went to a movie last night and then dinner tonight - two date nights in a row! Here we are before we went out tonight.

To Eric... after three years, two houses, two cities, three dogs, three years of pharmacy school, Air Assurance, one particularly horrible online psychology class, Tresea, Half-Brain, and our sweet, sweet Boo... I am still just as in love with you as I was when I married you.

Happy Anniversary Baby!!

And, because we can't have a post without a picture of Hannah, here is what happens when you let my mom and Eric style her hair... Hannah is not impressed.

More Pictures

So, Eric, my mom, and I spent last night taking pictures of Hannah... what could be more fun? In an attempt to take somewhat artistic pictures, we bought some fabrics from Hobby Lobby and busted out the tripod. Here are a few of our favorites!!!

Also, just to brag on my two week old daughter... in the second picture, she is totally holding her head up on her own!

Funny Eric Story

So, one of the things that I love about Eric is that he talks in his sleep, and it always makes me laugh. He does it whenever I stay up later than him or if I get up and turn my light on and most of the time, instead of shushing him or telling him to go back to sleep, I talk back to him because it's funny to see what he says. This past Monday, we had one of the best sleep conversations ever!

It was 1:30 AM and I had just woken up because Hannah was crying and I could hear it on the monitor. I turned on the light and was putting my glasses on when Eric turned towards me and said "Watch out for the babies." I looked at him and said "What babies?" He started patting the covers and said, "The babies that are under here." I said "No, there's just Hannah, and you're hearing her cry through the monitor... she's in her room." He looked at me and said, "But we have visitors." So, I looked at him and said "It's just my mom and dad." Then he said, in complete seriousness, "Do you mean to tell me that they didn't bring any babies with them?" I started cracking up and leaned over to kiss him and said, "Um, that's exactly what I'm telling you."

So maybe it's not as funny reading it, but man, I've been laughing about that all week!

2 weeks old!

Hannah, you are two weeks old today!

(I promise I won't do this every week... but two weeks is a big one!)

You are still sleeping a lot, but you have been having a lot of "open eye" time and we look forward to it every day!

The big news this week is that you started sleeping in your big girl crib! You had been sleeping in the bassinet in your pack-n-play in mommy and daddy's room, but now that daddy is back at work, we moved you to your own room! You seem to really like it... you will lay in your bed and move your arms and legs and look around. You are such a sweet and content baby!!

You do not like your baths, but we're hoping that will change when we can start giving you a real bath (if only your stubborn umbilical cord would fall off!)

At your doctor's appointment this week, you weighed 9 lbs, 4.5 oz. The doctor said your umbilical cord was very healthy, which means it could be awhile before its gone! Thank goodness your grandma is here to clean it, because it makes your mommy and daddy sick :)

We got you all dressed up for your doctor's appointment, but we don't think you liked it. We just wanted you to wear some of your cute shoes because at size 0-3 months, they won't last long! Someone has big feet for such a little girl!

Finally, we think maybe you've gotten sick of all the pictures?

Happy two week birthday Hannah! We love you so much!!

We love this girl!

We have been having the best time with Hannah!






Eric was off work until this past Monday, so we spent the rest of last week hanging out, just the three of us. We took Hannah on her first Target trip, where she was by far the best behaved baby in the entire baby section! Friday afternoon must be a popular time to take your child to Target, because there were tons of screaming babies around... but our Hannah slept the entire time. Too bad something tells me that won't happen very much longer!


Saturday, our friends from Tulsa, the Beams (Scott, Julie and Addison) came to visit us and meet Hannah for the first time. We were so happy to see them; we miss our Tulsa people a lot!


Also on Saturday, we took Hannah for her first walk around the neighborhood. She loved being in the stroller, and the weather was perfect.


Sunday night my parents came over to spend the week with us and it has been so great having extra help now that Eric is back at work. My mom is definitely more than happy to rock Hannah to sleep after I feed her at night, change her dirty diapers, and watch her so I can nap in the afternoon. It's only been two days and I already feel more rested. Of course, I don't think Hannah is complaining about having her grandma around either...


Of course, when Daddy comes home, he makes sure and gets his share of Hannah-time as well!