My little darling.

It's been a long time since I last posted. I went back to work and found out very quickly that there is simply no time on the weekdays to do much constructive. And the weekends are now used to catch up on errands and spend time with Ellie. Despite the time going by so incredibly fast, things are so amazing with the three of us. During that first year I was so sleep deprived that I really didn't enjoy myself too much and now that we're all getting more sleep, everything is so great. Ellie is so much fun to be around.

We leave for New Brunswick today to go visit Daddy's family. Oh boy, are they in for some fun!!! Because of my nerves and a yell from her at 4am (I wonder what she's dreaming about?), I have been up since then and here I am blogging.

Here's an update on her development:

Ellie can say more than 15 words. They just keep coming! It's ridiculous how well she communicates.

She can climb the couch and get down all by herself.....and now she tries to climb everything else.

She is starting to use utensils. She gets lots of help, but she knows what a spoon and fork does.

She knows where her ear and nose are and will point them out to you when asked.

She loves pushing the cat around on the kitchen chairs.

She has started to walk! Slow and steady, but yesterday she beat her previous record of 4 steps by taking about 6 or 7! I anticipate her running around by Christmas! She definitely has more courage to let go of the furniture.

She loves dancing....especially to something with an awesome beat like Bob Marley.

She will help us dress her by holding out her arms for coats and shirts or putting her feet out for socks.

She loves playing peekaboo.

She has all her teeth (except for the 2 year molars) What a ride that was...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. See you next year!

There's not enough time in a day!!!!

Sorry, folks! There really aren't enough hours in a day!!!

I can't seem to finish my posts from our vacation, so I will end that string by saying it was a great vacay with the family. We all relaxed a bit and enjoyed the fact that there were many hands to play 'pass the peanut'.

A couple of weeks ago, our friends from Germany came to visit. What a fun playdate! E was having a lot of teething problems and was up at night a lot, but she's a trooper and still had fun showing J around the house.

 

After that, J's family came to visit and Pepere made the most awesome tickle trunk for Elizabeth. She loves it!!!!! 

 Elizabeth has really gotten into books. She'll actually sit still for a bit and look through the pages rather than nibbling the corners. She loves to turn pages to see what's on the next page!

Elizabeth is officially walking-assisted! A walker was found at Costco and boy does it ever do the job. She holds on and goes....in a straight line. She has yet to learn how to turn corners.

Elizabeth also started daycare a few weeks ago as I recently went back to work. A few months ago I really wasn't ready to head back into the real world, but the closer it got, the more ready I was to have my own life back. I love Elizabeth to bits, but being at home all the time was hard for me. I hate the fact that I now only have about 3 hours a day to spend with her and that most of that time is spent running around getting food ready and getting people dressed. However, it sure makes me appreciate the weekends even more. We've made it a point to start doing family things on the weekends. This weekend? Buy our first pumpkin!



Elizabeth's First Vacation: Fun Times Inside and Out

During our vacation, we didn't do much. We didn't go to PEI like I thought we would, we didn't go to the Moncton Zoo, and J and I didn't go see a movie. What we did do is just relax and hang out with family. J and I DID go out a few times after Elizabeth had gone to bed.....AND we went out to get ice cream while she was awake, leaving the Matantes in charge (complete with a full poopy diaper change!). You see, we are making progress.

Inside, the Olympics were playing on TV and Elizabeth loved looking at the commercials. Her favourite? RBC commercials with that little cartoon man. She'd laugh almost every time.

She also loved playing in the laundry basket, with her own remote that Pepere gave her, and speed crawling to the kitchen to see what huge things the grandparents brought back from Costco.

Elizabeth loved playing with the music table that we borrowed from J's cousins.

She was just learning to pull herself up and loved playing at the coffee table.

 

We also borrowed a little dino-scooter. Although she didn't know how to ride around on it, she loved being pushed by daddy.

 



Outside, we'd set up the sunshade and play when she got tired of the inside. Elizabeth also loved going on daily tours of the property, with stops such as "Pepere's Garden" and "Front-Porch Niles Household Viewing".

 Vacation Must #2: Relax. Check.



Elizabeth's First Vacation

It's hard being a baby. It's tiring. You're crawling places, using every muscle in your body. Your brain just won't stop learning. Everyone's trying to teach you something. Phew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it! Therefore, we decided to take Elizabeth on a vacation......and Memere and Pepere and Matante deserved a visit from the little one after not seeing her since Christmas.

We were hemming and hawing between driving there (and taking 2 days to do it so that she wasn't in a cramped carseat for 12 hours straight) and flying. Luckily, Porter had a 50% off sale and we got some great prices. It was settled, we would fly.

J and I were expecting the worst: that she would cry uncontrollably the whole way there. Well, Elizabeth threw us for a complete loop (and we should have known better because she's such a curious little gal) and was a total joy to have on the airplane. She made every around her smile and make silly faces at her. She kept herself busy and definitely took my mind off my fear of flying. Two thumbs up for airtravel.

One of the first things we did (and honestly, we didn't do much on the vacation) was take her to see the ocean. J's parents live close enough to the coast that you can see the water from their house, and you can even see Price Edward Island on a clear day. It's not a sandy coast, but a rocky one, so she didn't get to dip her toes in the water. However, she saw how much water there was.

We took rue Niles to get there (yep, a street names after J's family).

When she saw the water and heard the waves crashing, she smiled. We have a sound machine that we use when she sleeps and maybe it reminded her of that, but we'll just assume that she loved the view.

This was the view. Isn't it lovely? Sigh.

What a big bath tub! That's the pier on the right.

Family photo!

Vacation must 1: See the ocean.

Check.

8 months old

Elizabeth is 8 months old. Holy cow! It's just occured to me that I have a little over 3 months left of maternity leave. Ack! Time to make the most of my time off!!!!!

To date, she has reached several milestones:

1. She has 6 teeth.

2. She is mobile! It may be a soldier crawl, but she as fast as a...well...regular crawling baby.

3. She's loving her food. Her favourite? Laughing Cow cheese.

4. She had her first dip in a pool a few weeks back. She loved it.

5. She's pulling herself up to stand....but not yet furniture surfing.

We had our first extended stay away from home by travelling to the cottage to spend time with my family. We were expecting the worst...her not sleeping and us not having any time to relax. We were pleasantly surprised how well she got along with everyone. She napped well, her nights were no different than at home....it was a great weekend.

Next up for us? Our two week trip to New Brunswick to visit Dad's family...I can't wait to show her the maritimes! I hope she loves the ocean as much as I do.

Scooting baby = clean floors

We had our neighbours over for a BBQ on Friday. It's great when we invite people over because we do a thorough cleaning of the house. We were also away over the weekend, so this cleanliness has lasted a good several days! Now, I'm not a clean freak, but we have to keep the floors super clean. "But why??" you ask?? Because Elizabeth started to scoot around a few weeks ago!

A week and a half ago, on the day before she turned 7 months old, my parents came over to visit and on a whim my mom just put her down on the floor on her front and placed her mobile phone in front of her. Ellie quick started wriggling and pulled herself along with her arms and eventually reached the phone! We were all amazed!!!

Already the day after that she was more coordinated and now, a week and a half later, she's using her feet to push and her arms to pull. It may take a while to get her on her hands and knees, and actually it may never happen, but atleast she's mobile! I can tell she's much happier that she doesn't need to rely on me to carry her everywhere. It's a full body workout (I will forever maintain that she learned to scoot because all the times I was lying beside her showing her how to do it) so she gets tired quickly, but some days she lasts a good 20 minutes just scooting here to there and back again.

This weekend we will put up a few gates so that she doesn't get to the stairs. At first I wasn't concerned, but she's moving so fast now that I go brush my teeth and when I get back she's across the room (not to worry though, I'm always taking a peek to see where she is).

The time is flying by so fast and her development keeps amazing me. Babies! Wow!

My free time is dwindling now that Elizabeth is down to two naps. The house also needs to stay clean (for my own happiness) and one nap is usually spent tidying up and watering our little vegetable garden in the back yard and the second nap is spent doing something for me (whatever that may be depends on the day). Therefore, quick posts. My apologies.

This week, Ellie got her first cold. We were patting ourselves on the back that her teething was finally, for the moment, over. She has four new top teeth! Although they aren't out all the way, she's already using them to chew on the hair of her doll, Susie Q. Susie Q already has a bald spot....

Because of the teething, she started making this face where she scrunches up her nose and breathes heavily in and out, in and out. We think she's stretching her gums to relieve some of the pain. You try making the face....that's what it does! It makes her look like she doesn't like peas, but she loves them!



In fact, she's now eating: apple, zucchini, peas, green beans, corn, egg yolk, cheese, yogurt, beef and veg mix, chicken and veg mix, turkey and veg mix, and rice husk mum mums. Depending on the day, she'll love something or hate something. She also loves to explore the food on her own. For instance, because of her cold, yesterday she didn't feel like having dinner so I plopped her peas on the highchair tray and she painted me a picture. The next pic is another time with corn and rice krispies, but you get the idea. There were peas EVERYWHERE.

When she's not sick or teething, she's a good little eater and most of it actually gets into her belly.



OMG

I understand the necessity and value of teeth, but why can't nature give babies a break!?

Solid-arity Sistah!

We've been experimenting with different solid foods. I started her off with rice cereal and after a few days I think she got bored with it. Then I boiled and pureed some sweet potato. Again, after a few days she got bored with it. Then I steamed and pureed some apples and she LOVED them. Especially when I fed her the puree on a piece of apple that I was eating at the time.....but then we found that she didn't sleep well at night because the apple upset her stomach!

Then I tried to boil and puree some peas and she loved those too....only to get bored of them after a few days. Back to the sweet potato.....and back to the stomach upset. So apple and sweet potato are out for the time being. I bought a butternut squash and a zucchini to try next week.

If you remember, a while back she slept two nights without feeding and then she got her second round of shots and was back to 5-6 or 7 hour stretches before needing a feed. Then we decided to do a 'dreamfeed' at 11pm so I went to bed at 9pm, J stayed up until 11 and fed her in her sleep and then went to bed. On this 'regime' she was lasting until about 6:30am. This lasted for about 2 weeks and then the stomach upsets started and everything went topsy turvy. It's a good thing I'm a scientist and I'm good at experiments! To give her a break, and to experiment with her nighttime sleeping habits, we decided not to feed her solids for a few days and not to feed her in her sleep around 11pm to see how long she would last at night without a feed. She lasted ALL night! 7:15pm to 6:30am! The amount she was taking at 11pm had been decreasing and decreasing and if she woke at night, I got the feeling it wasn't from hunger because whenever we picked her up, she calmed down and never went right for the bottle like she was famished. I guess we'll have to work at being patient enough to get her back to sleep without feeding in the middle of the night since she obviously doesn't need it. But I tell you, at 3 am, you'll try anything to get them back to sleep as quickly as possible!

 Elizabeth is also sitting on her own now!!! We were practicing over the last month or so and the last 2 weeks she really started sitting with confidence (a few face-plants will shatter your sitting-self-esteem for a while...). She no longer finds the bumbo comfortable now that she can sit on her own. We sometimes plop her in there, but she wriggles so much since it sort of cups her butt. We've moved her onto the highchair and she loves it!

She sure shows that floor who's boss, huh??

Donate something!

Every year, J and I donate to various causes: Alzeimer's, Cancer, Diabetes and Parkinson's Disease. Because of various family members, we've chosen these causes and are happy with the fact we can help out in some way. If only we could donate more..
On top of those causes, we also donate to the Ottawa Humane Society, various races that we or friends may be participating in, and people who come fundraising door to door. I also donate old clothing when Cerebral Palsy and Diabetes call for it. We do what we can!

Last year, on April 26, 2011, my grandfather, Josef, passed away. He was a long-time sufferer of Parkinson's Disease and left us at the ripe old age of 88. I wish I could have spent more time with him....our relationship grew from my grandparents visits to Canada or when I would visit the Czech Republic. With the cost of airfare, one can only guess how often I really got to see him. I would translate his eulogy for you, but I don't have the heart to do it. As my first loss as an adult, it hit me hard. But enough of my dwelling on the past. He was a feisty one with lots of great sayings like "Your feet smell because they grow from your a$$". He was great at drawing horses, and he was amazing at the violin. I miss you, grandpa!!

Being on Maternity leave, I haven't had much time to devote to my wavy/frizzy/thick hair. It grew and grew and was halfway down my back. I kept tying it back because Little Miss Grabby McGrabberson couldn't keep her hands off of it! Ouch! So, when I finally got the chance to cut it, I decided to donate the hair to the Cancer Foundation so that I could help with the making of a wig for a woman who has lost her hair to cancer. I donated through the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program because I had 8 inches and that's their minimum. I know Parkinson's and Cancer are two totally unrelated diseases, but it felt good to donate something other than money. Hair is a sort of renewable resource, so I'll probably grow it again and make another donation in a couple of years. Maybe at my next Maternity leave??

I quite like the haircut too...although once I washed it and let it airdry (which is all I have time for) it was back to it's wavy/thick/unruly self. But who cares! Someone with cancer will get my hair and that's awesome!!! I ask whoever reads my blog to go out and do some good...donate something. Whether it's a monetary donation, hair, volunteer time, clothing, toys, anything, it'll make someone else out there that much happier. Isn't that worth it??

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat! Part deux.

Well, I have been thrown off the seat off my chair (re: ending of last post). What a week!!

In the last two weeks she has gotten not only one, but TWO teeth. I'm sure the top incisors aren't far behind as her cheeks and nose were bright red all day....unless she somehow got into the melon flavoured vodka last night, haha.

She finally started to roll over. A couple of days ago she was like 90% of the way there, but would always go back on her back. Now, in the blink of an eye, she rolls over onto her stomach. In the wee hours of the morning (last night it was 4:44am on the dot) she rolls over, then gets extremely frustrated that she can't roll back. However, as I write this, she is 45 minutes into her nighttime sleep, she's rolled over and she eventually fell asleep on her stomach. I had rolled her back on her back but she immediately rolled over again!

Her mega diaper rash is finally going away thanks to some prescription cream. The diaper rash is a result of the teething.



Today we gave her Gripe Water for the first time. What is Gripe Water? It's a liquid containing sodium bicarbonate as well as other natural ingredients like dill. It helps with sour stomach due to teething. Babies swallow a lot of drool when they are teething and this can alter the pH of the stomach contents. It seemed to help her get more comfortable as she was obviously in a lot of tummy pain today.

On top of all these things, she got her second round of shots this week and is super cranky.

But at least we get all this out of the way, right? Then it'll be smooth sailing for now on??? Right??? haahahhahahhahahahha

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!

Ellie slept, for the first time ever, all night. That's right. 11.5 hours. 7:00 pm to about 6:40 am. No middle of the night feed. No crying from her teething or mega diaper rash. On the other hand, it was my night and at 1 am...and 2 am...and 3 am...I was looking at the video monitor thinking "Hello?? What's going on??? Something must be wrong if she hasn't woken up yet...". So I didn't get as much sleep as I could have, but that's entirely my problem, not hers!! J turned to me at 4:30 am and says "have you fed her yet?" and I said "NO! I'm lying here going crazy cuz it's weird that that she hasn't woken up yet..." and then I started babbling and he obviously wanted to go back to sleep. I finally fell back to sleep around 5 for an hour before J's alarm went off at 6.

I will be blown away by this all week, I'm sure....and today she gets her second round of shots, so we probably won't see this again for a while. But still, I'm so...I don't know...PROUD of her!!!

There are way too many factors to know how to recreate this blissful night: we ran a fan in her room all night because of the recent heat. She was only in her diaper and a t-shirt under her swaddle, she started sleeping on her side a few days ago and spent most of the night that way (and also rolled over the other day, so now we'll be on to the swaddle-weaning!), she had bad naps all day and must have been exhausted, she got a lot of fresh air yesterday with the gorgeous weather...the list goes on. Either way, now I know that sleeping through the night is at least possible!!!

So along with the rolling over (which I'm not really sure if it was conciously done or if she just used gravity when she was on her side) and starting to sit with only a little bit of help,



she's cut her first tooth. All that drooling and hand-chomping proved me right!



Everyone was telling me it was too early for her to be teething and when I felt the sharp top of that first tooth, I called J at work and left him a message in my "really high-pitched excited voice" (my high school friends out there have all heard this voice!). Jeez, he must think I'm crazy...

It's been a wonderful past few weeks....I'm on the edge of my seat wondering what's going to happen next!

4 months old (tomorrow)

J and I have been worried about the future weaning of the swaddle. It's such a prominent part of Ellie's sleep ritual that I'm scared she won't be able to sleep as well without it. However, I'm sure she'll adapt as all babies do!

Anyways, a couple of weeks ago she started arching her back a lot more and sometimes we'd even find her asleep in that position. She wasn't crying out in pain, so we knew it wasn't from gas or reflux. She was on her way to rolling over.

If I'm behind her when she's lying on the ground, she'll arch her back and throw her head way back and look at me. She'll even swing one arm over to try to get momentum.
Unfortunately, she's not fully aware of her legs and the farthest she'll get is onto her side. Then she turns her head into the blanket she's on and grunts and grunts until she gives up. I can see she's getting so frustrated! I've even helped her along and turned her legs so that she ended up on her stomach. She then smiles for about a full minute while she takes in the new vantage point. And here I was thinking she hated tummy time...

Another thing we constantly see is drool. See the bib in the next picture? It's not from feeding her, it's because once she's in the Jolly Jumper the drool just starts pouring from her mouth. I'm assuming it's because she smiles more and since her mouth is more open it just comes out! She's chewing on lots of stuff: plastic rings, fuzzy toys, fingers...this is another way for her to explore different things.


Lastly, she's discovered her vocal chords and lungs. Specifically that combination. She'll take a deep breath, pause, and then screech. Over and over again. And again, and again. You'd think she's upset, but she's not. She's having fun...especially since we have high ceilings in our family room and her screeches echo a bit. It's like the room is full of babies!

Jumpin' Ellie

After the first few months at home, Elizabeth's activity times were getting a bit monotonous. I think even SHE was bored of lying on her back and gazing at the Baby Einstein hanging toys. I mean, you can only bat them so many times, right?

Once she mastered rolling from her tummy onto her back, she no longer took pleasure out of tummy time. Now, whenever I put her on her tummy, she moves her arms and legs out from under her and wobbles back and forth on her stomach....apparently this is called the airplane pose according to a book I have. She will need to learn how to crawl and the only way is by giving her more tummy time, but she doesn't seem to like it as much as she used to. Boredom, again??

I decided she was ready for some more vertical activities. As much as I could just carry her around all day or put her in the corner of the couch,

I could tell that she wanted to start trying out those legs.

Babi and Deda (my parents) bought a Jolly Jumper for Elizabeth. Babi said: "if she starts to cry, take her out of it, you don't want her to get a negative reaction and never want to go in it again". Babi also said "Children of friends of ours have one and they say that some kids last only 20 minutes, others last up to an hour".

Our Elizabeth?? She'll gladly last an hour in the Jolly Jumper. Closer to the end of that hour, I can tell she's super tired and wants to get out, but her legs just keep jumping away! I think she's also really happy that she can turn a full 360 degrees and see everything that's going on around her.


Her favourite things to look at (the things that stop her in her jumping tracks)? The cat walking by, me doing the dishes, daddy vacuuming, etc.

Most of all, what's awesome is that I can really see how she's mastered the art of jumping. She's learned how to kick down with both legs to get herself bouncing, and she has figured out that all she has to do is straighten her legs to stop. What a smarty pants!

And I must say, all that jumping has contributed to some reaaaaalllly good naps!

Again, Done well, Dunwell!!!

Another new friend for our little Elizabeth!!!

My friend who I've blogged about before, Kelly Dunwell, and her husband, D, just welcomed to the world their little bundle of joy, L!!!

Congratulations guys!!! Ellie is looking forward to getting together with L and gossiping about the latest news from Avonlea....just like Rachel Lynde!!!

3 month growth spurt

This is just a quick post to say "HOLY MOLY, that 3 month growth spurt was crazy!".

Feeding every 2 hours for about 36 hours straight.

A few emotional breakdowns.

Short naps, so not much downtime.

Me saying we are absolutely NOT having a second one.

Her not the happiest because she's so tired, but just needs to eat.

Him being a lifesaver.

Turned out ok....but I'm about to go get the tapemeasure to see if there are at least a few cm of length to show for it!

See? She was so hungry she was trying to eat her do-do!

Barfing Betty

Elizabeth always spit up a lot. Babies just do that....it's more of a laundry problem than anything else (unless it's Gastro Reflux, but only your doc can tell you whether they have that or not...).

The last two weeks, I noticed that Elizabeth wasn't feeding very well. She'd finish in about 10 minutes instead of the usual 20-30 minutes, and she'd be spitting up shortly after. Not regular spit ups either, like completely curdled and a lot more than usual. In fact, it really was becoming a laundry problem because we were running out of facecloths!!

Over the weekend, I really started getting worried because she wasn't napping well either. I think she was waking up hungry halfway through her naps and eventually she was just a cranky mess because she was tired, hungry, and her mouth must have had a bad taste in it from all the spit up.

And off to Google I went, typing in "Common Causes of Baby Reflux". Two common culprits? Chocolate and Garlic. We didn't have that much chocolate in the house, at least nothing that I'd eaten constantly for 2 weeks. But J did buy those Pita Chips at Costco the last few weeks and I'd been having some (probably too much) for the past two weeks. Well, I didn't have any yesterday and Elizabeth is a much happier camper today! She fed for 20 minutes and didn't spit up once!!!! AND, she's enjoying a nice luxurious morning nap.

I have to say that she was still pretty chipper over the last two weeks, giving us a few smiles before spitting up all over her clothes.

The pink shirt? Completely ruined just after that photo was taken!

So, lesson from this post is not to freak out that your kid has some sort of reflux disease if she's normally been ok. What mom eats could affect the baby, so pay attention. If there's something you've introduced recently and she started acting this way recently, try cutting it out. See what happens. It's like one giant science experiment....which is great because I'm a chemist!!!

Our brave girl!

About a month ago, Ellie and I were at the doctor for her 1 month check up. After that checkup, we set up the appointment for her first round of (scary music here) immunization shots!

So, basically, for the last month I was NOT looking forward to seeing my little get two needles, one in each thigh. I know, I know, it's not that big a deal, people get needles all the time. The thing is, she sometimes cries so much that she can barely breathe and her face turns purple (she hates water on her face) and I couldn't bear to see her like that.

Mentally prepped and assured by J's coworkers that it wouldn't be as bad as I thought it would be, we went to the doctor this morning. Well, she gave me quite a surprise because she only cried a little bit. No purple face, she was able to breathe just fine, and if anything, she was just whining because she had missed her first morning nap. Honestly, she cried more then I (gasp) cut her finger accidentally with the nail clippers the day before (Googling calmed me down when I found that I wasn't the first and I won't be the last!).

When we got home, I fed her and we had a bit of activity. Our little trooper was right as rain...although she did grab my hair and pull really hard. Ouch! She is so strong! Was she perhaps getting me back for taking her to get her shots?

No longer a sleepy-head!

From about 4 weeks on, we started reading the book "The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems". Ok, first off, it doesn't solve ALL your problems, but if you have a problem with seeing the reasonable way of doing things sometimes (as J and I do), a book spelling it out for you may help. I will also add that I do know there is no manual or handbook when it comes to babies, so although we are reading and somewhat following the guidelines of this book (ie. the EASY routine - East, Activity, Sleep, time for You) we've realized that you can't tailor your baby to a routine. You tailor a routine to your baby.

I've already done a post about waking Elizabeth up and how hard it can be. Lately, though, she's either been waking up on her own by making cute babbling noises until I come in and get her, or her eyes pop open when I turn on the light in her room and open the curtains after a nap. For the latter, here is the sequence of events:

1. I open the door and say "Time to wake up, Elizabeth!", turn on the light and open the curtains. At this point, she opens her eyes.


2. She hasn't really seen me yet, so I unswaddle her arms. One at a time, they shoot up for a stretch.


3. After the initial stretch, she goes into one of those full body stretches we all have after a good sleep. You know, the one where you actually make some noises at the back of your throat and your face contorts because the stretch is so good.


4. Then, the moment comes when she's done stretching and she sees me. A big smile appears on her face and she starts kicking her legs. "Pick me up already!!!" is what she's obviously thinking.


5. Lastly, and this isn't really in the sequence of events, but because she is sleeping on her back all the time and she moves her head from side to side, she's developped the cutest baldspot!

Nothing a little brown marker won't fix.....KIDDING.

A German friend for our little girl!

This is a quick post to say CONGRATULATIONS to my friends C and S who welcomed their little bundle of joy into the world early this morning (German time).

Remember the advice Elizabeth gave you via video....lots of ups and downs will come your way, but you'll get through each one as a family!

We can't wait to meet the little J!

8 is the magic number???

About 2 weeks ago, J was reading some lists of what your kid is supposed to be able to do at 7 weeks. He mentioned that one thing is rolling is one direction from their tummy.

Elizabeth is a champion tummy-timer, but I just really couldn't see her rolling over. I was probably thinking how a dog rolls over rather than a baby. So when 7 weeks came around and she wasn't doing it, I just shrugged my shoulders and told myself these lists are just averages (and they are, don't worry if your child doesn't start to do something when they are 'supposed' to).

The other day, at about 7.5 weeks, Elizabeth rolled over!

J told me that he saw her do it, but no matter how many times he put her on her tummy for me to see it, she didn't do it.

Well get this: A couple of days ago, I caught it on camera! Unfortunately, I'm having some issues posting a video (I've tried different ways, trust me) so if you'd like to see the video, email me or facebook me and I'll send you the Picasa link.

Please don't judge my use of the phrase "yes-siree-bob!". I was really excited!

As for the number 8: my daughter, who was 8 lbs 8 oz at birth on Nov. 8th, who is currently 8 weeks old, slept for 8 hours in a row last night. What is it with the number 8??? Must be lucky :)