Our beautiful baby girl

Courtney sporting her leg warmers

Chilling with her daddy before the wedding

Hmmmm..... Avocado

Yummmy, greeeeeen fooooooood

Are we really that evolved?

All dressed up for the rehearsal dinner

I'm always intrigued by peoples reactions to Courtney. They seem to fall into three different camps. 1) Those that could care less, 2) Those that are interested and could care but aren't going to embarrass themselves and 3) Those that LOVE babies and want to gush all over them and generally make fools of themselves. It's those in the 3rd camp that crack me up and I have to admit, I'm a member of.

Friday night we went to our dear friends Steven and Tiffany's wedding. Courtney was invited and while certainly not the center of attention, she received quite a bit of her own. She was dressed in a beautiful dress that was made by the brides mother and she looked quite adorable. I certainly wanted to eat her up and nom nom nom all over those chubby thighs.


What I love though is how grown adults of all ages would come up to us, open their mouths so wide, to the point where Courtney could see down into their kidneys, and make funny faces and noises at her. All to get her to smile and laugh at them. And I will admit, 9 times out of 10, it works. She'll see your kidneys and general goofiness and give you this big huge smile and maybe even laugh and you'll find yourself being even more ridiculous in an effort to get her do it again. And on and on it goes. You make this silly face, she smiles, you make some crazy noise, she laughs and you continue in this vain until she decides that you're just kind of weird and she'd rather be sucking on her shoe.

Yummmm, shoe.

Happy 5 Month Birth-iversary

Today is Courtney's 5th month birthday - already? Really? Where has the time gone? To mark her 5th month, she rolled over in her sleep last night and woke me up. She was making all kinds of noise, I'm not sure she was really awake, and I kind of panicked so I rolled her over. I'm quite sure she would have been fine but I'm not sure I would have gone back to sleep.

I'm amazed that Courtney has been with us for "only" 5 months yet how can it be 5 months already??? I feel like she's only just arrived yet, hasn't she always been here? I feel so fortunate that she is such a happy baby - she smiles all the time and laughs and is generally a joy to be around. We met some new people on Saturday and they wanted to know if she was always this happy. Well, yes, she is. (One lady was kind enough to tell me that her first baby was a joy and her next one was a terror. Excellent.) She loves to play with her feet and is constantly pulling off her socks and trying to suck on her toes. When I walk into her room after her nap or in the morning, her face lights up and she's so excited to see me. And every time she gives me that big smile, I melt.

Just 6 months ago, Courtney was this baby that I couldn't wait to get out of me. I had no idea that I could have so much love for LBH.

Maybe it's the sleep

Courtney and I had a wonderful day today. Maybe because it's a beautiful spring day. Or maybe because it's the day after tax day. Or maybe, just maybe, it's because my little angel slept through the night and she's very well rested.

Today we ran some errands, napped and met Paul for lunch. Courtney was adorable. I'm not just saying that, she was really adorable. She smiled at everyone and she talked and talked and talked. She even napped a couple of times but when she was up, she was UP and happy as could be.

We were sitting in the food court at the mall, enjoying our lunches, listening to Courtney hold up her end of the conversation. Paul leans over and pulls on the little toy that's been hanging on her crib for 4 months, at least. He pulls the little bug down and it vibrates it's way back up. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say the bug has been pulled down at least 200 times if not more. Seriously, 200. Maybe 300. Any number of people have pulled that thing down. I should probably wash it... Anyway, Paul pulls it down and it vibrates back up and Courtney saw it. I mean she really saw it - I'm pretty sure for the first time. And her eyes got really wide and her mouth opened up into this big O and she was amazed. It was like she'd never seen it before. Which I guess she hadn't. Maybe she hadn't really noticed it because she was too tired from not sleeping through the night.

A little bit of sunshine

I feel like I could sing out loud today and dance a little jig - Courtney slept through the night last night! What sweet relief!! It's been almost 2 months since she last slept through the night and I was beginning to the think the bags under my eyes were permanent. OK, I still have bags but at least I got some sleep! I was starting to think that we'd never get to this point again. I'm hoping this is a sign of things to come. Mama needs some sleep!

So Grateful

I've become quite the fan of blogs. Clearly, I write my own, I read my friends, and I read those of people I've never met. I read a lot of blogs by other moms, SAHM's (stay at home moms), and even some dads. I like to learn from other people's experiences and see what kind of tips I can pick up. I like to read other people's stories , they make me laugh and some times they make me cry. I have a few that I read fairly regularly and sometimes I'll get sucked in to the Interweb and end up jumping from blog to blog to blog.

The other day I found myself on the blog of a woman in California who had a very difficult pregnancy and delivered her beautiful baby girl 11 weeks early. Little Maddie had a difficult time of it but was a true beauty and brought her parents a year-and-a-half of true joy. And then poor little Maddie passed away. I can't imagine what her parents are going through. Maddie was a joyous little person who brought her parents laughter and love and then all of a sudden, she's gone. I don't know how a parent can cope with the loss of a child. It makes me cherish my little girl all that much more.

Sometimes life is unfair. Sometimes your baby won't sleep through the night or throws up on your outfit when you're getting ready to go out. Sometimes a loved one gets a terrible disease. Sometimes you get laid off from work and you have to make drastic life changes. Despite all of that, or maybe because of it, we still need to cherish the special times. We need to remember what is important and be thankful for the little things because sometimes life is just unfair.

So sleepy

I feel like we're turning the corner on the sleep thing. Courtney has been getting up around 1 or 2 and we'll give her the pacifier and she'll go back to sleep. Then she'll get up around 5 or 6 and I'll feed her and she'll go back to sleep until 9 or so. We need to get her past the 1 or 2am bit, it's exhausting.

But that's not why I'm tired. Last night I couldn't fall asleep and once I finally did fall asleep, Courtney woke up right after that. So I did the ol' "stick the pacifier in her mouth" trick and then I couldn't fall back to sleep. Once I finally fell back to sleep, she woke up shortly after that for a feeding. I'm too old for all this wake up and fall asleep garbage. I'm hoping to spend the next couple of nights trying to get her to sleep through this 1am garbage.

Other than her middle of the night sleeping habits, Courtney continues to be adorable. She's eating more solid foods, and wearing them all over her face. She's pretty entertaining with the eating thing, I'll bring the spoon up to her face and she'll dive bomb towards the spoon. And if you don't get the spoon to her mouth fast enough, she gets quite angry. These solid food diapers are disgusting though, they almost make me want to go back to nursing solely.

4 1/2 months

Her first time rolling over from her back to her front.

"MOM!!!"

Chilling out after some apple sauce.

Where's my laptop, mom?

Happy Birthday

Anyone who is a regular reader of my blog (of which I am sure there are 2) knows that my grandmother, Baba, is the #1 super hero in my life. Well, today she's celebrating another special day, it's her 91st birthday!! Happy Birthday Baba!!!

Love

Fourteen years ago, I got my first dog ever. Little Hunter. He was so cute and small and lovable. I remember that I lived in an apartment with 3 steps leading up to the door and he was so little, he couldn't even get up the steps. But everyday I would come home from work (or the store, or even from the mailbox) and whether I'd been gone for 10 hours or 10 minutes, Hunter would always be so excited to see me. He'd wag his little tail so much, his entire butt would shake. And no matter what kind of "argument" Hunter and I would have, we always forgave one another and he always loved me. Unconditionally. My love for Hunter is something that I just cherish. But poor Hunter, he's been moved back to second fiddle because here comes the baby.

Fast forward to November 20, 2008 and here comes Courtney and a love that I never knew anything about. Here is this tiny little person with these itty bitty fingers and toes who needs us for everything. We clothe her, feed and change her, tickle her little tummy and feet, provide her with a comfy home, and basically dote on her all the time. And with every passing day, she rewards us with a little bit more of her self. She smiles when you smile. She laughs when you tickle her. She puts up with my swimming and pilates classes. And very rarely does she complain. Even when she throws up the banana you just fed her or spits up on the clothes that you JUST put her in, you can't help but love her.

Courtney often wakes up around 6:30 or 7 am for a feeding (well, she wakes up all hours, but that's one she wakes up at fairly regularly) and I bring her into the bed with us. I'll nurse her and inevitably we'll both fall asleep for a couple more hours. And here is where my heart just melts.... Several times over the past couple of weeks, I'll wake up and there she is, just looking at me. She has these big hazel/gray/not-quite-blue eyes and she's just looking at me, waiting for me to wake up. She's so innocent and so peaceful. And when I open my eyes and see her there, loving me unconditionally, I melt into the mattress and my heart fills with joy. I smile and she smiles. She'll throw her legs up in the air and grab her little feet and we'll both be as happy as we can be. I just love her until the ends of the earth.