My First Mother's Day

We had a great Mother's Day celebration. Kate let us sleep in until 9:30 (I never thought 9:30 would be considered sleeping in!) and then Dan made me breakfast. Since it was pretty nice out, we went on a walk after breakfast, and that was a lot of fun. We then went to a late lunch/early dinner at Outback with Tracy, Dan, Kirsti and Rori. Now we're just hanging out at home, enjoying my first mother's day as a mom. :) I feel so very lucky to have a beautiful, amazing daughter and a wonderful, loving mother of my own; I am very blessed. :)




On her tummy...


We bought this thing called a "Sleepy Wrap" and Kate loves it! She always wants to be held, and this allows me to have her on me, but have my hands free to do things like housework, work, or blogging ;)


So cozy...


Right before we went on our walk; I was addressing Kate's birth announcements


The flowers Dan bought me for Mother's Day; so pretty!


My mom sent me this beautiful mini-rose bush as something to have to commemorate my first mother's day as a mom; we're going to plant this in our front garden, and then take it with us when we move to a house (hopefully in a couple years!)




Outside the Outback; we're squinting into the sun, which is why I look a little weird :) Kate is wearing the dress my mom got her for a baby gift, and that she wore to her baby shower.

So good on her tummy!

Kate doesn't really like to be on her stomach, but we try to put her on her tummy for a little bit each day so that she develops her head and neck strength. Lately, she seems to like it more, probably because she's becoming better and better at holding her head up! I can't believe my baby is almost three months; pretty soon she'll be crawling!

A Fun Day at the Arboretum

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful Sunday (sunny and mid-70s) so Dan, Kate and I went to the UW Arboretum and walked around for a couple of hours. (Well, Dan and I walked around; Kate slept in her stroller while Dan pushed her.) It was such a fun Sunday; very peaceful and relaxing, and great to spend quality time together as a family.


I miss Utah's mountains quite a bit, but one thing I absolutely love about Wisconsin is how green it is. It reminds me of Ireland; or at least, what I imagine Ireland to look like, considering I've never been ;)


Yes, that is a wild turkey in between the two center trees, and yes, my first question to Dan was, "Is it going to attack us?" I'm not real big on wildlife getting too close to me :)


Sitting in front of some crabapple trees (I think that's what they were)


I wanted to get an Anne Geddes-type of photo; you know, Kate looking all angelic as she sniffs the flowers. Apparently, she didn't share my vision; she looks angry as opposed to angelic here!






What a silly smile!


The tail end of a grin


Such blue eyes!


Taking her afternoon nap today; she looks so peaceful.

A Fun Saturday

We had a great day today. It was beautiful out, so we headed downtown to go to the Farmers' Market. While we were waiting for Tracy and Rori, we grabbed something to eat at Gotham Bagels. We sat outside to eat, and it was so fun to just relax together as a family and enjoy the beautiful weather. When Tracy and Rori came, we meandered around the square, and Tracy and I both got some beautiful bouquets of lilacs for only $3.00 each. Nice!

Dan and I are now grilling out; he's making steak with bernaise sauce; yum! I was reading to Kate as he was preparing dinner; she loves this book called I Love Dogs. It's so cute how she gets so transfixed.

So strong!

So, Kate is so strong that she can stand with help. Her little legs don't buckle under her or anything; as long as Dan or I am holding her up, she can stand. And she's only two and a half months!



Ok, so her legs do buckle under her if she stands too long, but what do you expect? She's only two and a half months! :)

More Kate updates

We went on a walk tonight after Dan got home (Kate got a lot of walking in today; she and I went on a walk this afternoon, too!) and since the sun was going down and it was just a bit chilly, we decided to have Kate to wear this adorable bunny hat that she has. She, however, doesn't like it very much, as evidenced by these pictures.






I think she was happy to have it, though, since it was a bit chilly, and after we came home from our walk, she was just sleeping as peacefully as can be!

A Lifesaver

So, Kate has been doing much better sleeping in her bassinet at night (she didn't like it when she was first born, so she's been sleeping with us for the entire time. We liked co-sleeping with her, but Dan was always so worried about rolling over on her that it was hard for him to get a good night's sleep). So, we transitioned her to her bassinet, and so far, our bedtime routine seems to be going well. We change her, put her PJs on, I nurse her, and then as she's drowsy, I rock her for a bit while singing to her. I put her in the bassinet just as she's about to fall asleep, but still slightly awake, so that she can learn to fall asleep by herself. (I keep my hand on her stomach for about five minutes as I lay in my bed so that she still knows I'm there--obviously the bassinet is right by our bed.) So, we've been very thankful that she seems to have taken to the bassinet so well at night.

BUT, naptimes are a different story. She doesn't seem to like to sleep unless being held by someone (usually me!), which can make it hard to get my work done. (As a weird side note, she'll sleep in her infant carseat carrier for HOURS when we're out in public, but for some reason that doesn't work at home. Maybe it's the background noise in restaurants that she likes, and it lulls her to sleep? Anyway...)

So we had heard great things about this Fisher Price swing with regards to getting babies to sleep, so we headed to Babies R Us last night to check it out. We put her in it at the store (no use in paying $$ for a swing she hates!) and she LOVED it. Right away, she was so fascinated with the mobile, and pretty soon the rocking motion was lulling her to sleep. So, needless to say, we purchased it (using a lot of the gift cards I got at my showers, which was helpful!)

We tried it out this morning, and voila! I was able to get a substantial amount of work done, since she slept in there from 7:30 until 9:15. Yay! Of course, she then woke up to eat, and now is sleeping peacefully on my chest (I don't mind; I love cuddling with her!) I don't have a problem editing while holding her; it's just when I have to work on my magazines' websites that it's a problem; it's hard to do html coding one-handed! Luckily, I got that all done this morning while she was sleeping in her swing, and now we can just cuddle while I work.



I feel so incredibly lucky to be able to work from home AND spend so much quality time with Kate! (Whenever she's awake, I'm not working; we're doing stuff like reading, playing on her activity mat, or taking walks). And, when I do have to go in to the office (usually about two mornings a week, for about 3 hours at a time), I can bring her in and she just sleeps, or Tracy can watch her, which I'm so grateful for. It really is the ideal situation!