Sleeping Beauty

Here are some more random photos of Dani sleeping in my lap. Her sleep patterns are getting better. Daytime naps are still kinda iffy and she does nearly all her napping in the swing, but she is getting much better and I'll get one, if not more, hour+ nap out of my arms -- which is all I was asking for. Night time rocks! I don't want to jinx it, but for the past week+ she has been sleeping from about 8:30 - 3:30. That's 8 hours!!!! I am thanking the "magic swaddle' for the 8 hours. She was sleeping in a new light weight swaddle, but after she spit up on it, I had Chip get get one of Lily's old swaddles and he came back with a heavy, soft, winter swaddle. Since I have the a/c on pretty high and she was in a light weight nightgown, I used the soft, fluffy, heavy swaddle and every night since she has slept like a champ! We are never switching back!!! :) I don't quite get 8 straight hours since I shower and get ready for bed. But I try to be asleep by 10/10:30. Then usually around 4am, I have to pump one side before I get back to sleep. The rest of morning isn't that good and we are up every hour or so until we finally get out of bed to start the day at 7:30/8:00. I am sure all this will change again, but it is pretty great for right now!!

She always smiles right before she completely falls asleep. It is so sweet.

My Artist

We've spent the past week painting whenever we had a free moment (aka whenever Dani was napping and I had a caught up some with housework and work). It was a relaxing activity for both of us.

Some of our masterpieces!
(please ignore the box of Huggies wipes on the table) :)

Happy Birthday Chip - part 2!

Saturday night we went to my parents house for dinner and to celebrate Chip's birthday. It was a very nice evening, until the end when Danielle got over tired and super fussy. But she was excited to get out and go to Grandma's and Grandpa's house too!

Dani and Grandpa

Something on TV caught their attention while they were looking over the Disneyland map.

Lily even got horsey rides from Grandpa!

You can't tell in the still photo -- but here Grandpa is a bucking bronco and trying to knock her off. Those two are super silly.

Happy Birthday, again, Chip!

Homework

I can already tell a big difference between this year in Pre-K and the last two years of preschool. For one, Lily rarely comes home with art work anymore. Instead she brings home work sheets and work books. And this weekend she had homework! She didn't have to turn it back in or anything, but she brought her latest workbook home with pages stamped "homework" for us to do. She was VERY excited to have homework. I am not sure if it is because she loves the work (which she does -- she actually wants to practice her letters and try to read her books) or because it meant she got time with me all to herself. We both had fun doing her homework and I was very impressed with how well she did. Unfortunately, at this point I have to leave practically all of Lily's education up to her school. She refuses to let me teach her anything at home. She is SO stubborn and she fights against it -- she has for a couple years now. So it is great that she is excited and eager to learn again. . . . I hope it continues for the next 20 years.

We had to match pictures that started with "C" and "O".

Drawing an octopus and then working on making the letter "o".

Happy Birthday Chip!

Thursday was Chip's birthday and not just any birthday . . . his dreaded 40th birthday! It seems like just yesterday we were in Vegas celebrating his 30th! I felt bad that we couldn't celebrate like that this year or really do anything too exciting, but it is kind of hard with a 5 week old baby to party too hard. But he had the day off work, so I though it would be fun as a family to go miniature golfing and get out. I wanted to do something outdoors to try to keep Danielle away from germs and in the fresh air. It ended up being a cool and cloudy day, so it was perfect to get outside.

But first, Lily and I had to make him a cake:

Licking the batter is always the best part!

He got special birthday morning cuddles from Dani.

There aren't really many mini golf courses here. I found this one online and it wasn't far at all, but it was kinda of generic and lacked any real fun obstacles. No castles, no windmills. It was pretty boring, so needless to say it didn't really hold Lily's attention for too long. But she had fun for a little while.

Danielle was in charge of keeping score.

After golf, we played around in the arcade. It was nice since we were literally the only ones there on a Thursday afternoon!

..............

After all that family fun, we were pretty hungry. But I was unsure how Dani would do in a restaurant. She is not a normal newborn that sleeps constantly. She hardly sleeps at all during the day, especially once you stop moving. So sitting still in a restaurant concerned me. But, I refuse to live in fear of my newborn and Chip really wanted a steak on his birthday so we got brave and went out to eat. Just as I suspected, as soon as she stopped moving she was awake. So I literally rocked her in her carrier the entire time we sat there. I had the worst cramp in my arm, but it was worth it to get Chip his birthday meal.

After lunch, Chip wanted to go to the PGA Superstore and since it was his birthday, we obliged. Lily and I had fun while he shopped. I think we were both just so excited to be out of the house that even the golf store was fun!

Lily: "Take my picture holding his hand!"

Lily: "Take my picture in the mirror".

Then we found the hats . . .

She looked SO cute in this hat, we actually bought it for her! She was the only one to get anything at the PGA store -- who saw that coming?!?

Danielle wore her "I Love Daddy" shirt for his big day. She even sat with him more than once, which is pretty significant since she usually only wants me.

Chip and his girls.

Opening his present. He got a stadium seat autographed by three Dallas Cowboys -- Jason Witten, Demarcus Ware and Miles Austin.

Happy Birthday Chip!

Congratulations Daddy!

Chip has been taking classes at the local community college since we moved here, mainly one at a time with the ultimate goal of getting into the Nursing Program and then ultimately continuing on to get his masters and Nurse Practitioners license. It isn't an easy program for anyone to get into. In fact, it is one of the most competitive in the country and continues to get recognized as one of the best programs in the state, if not the nation. To make it even harder to get accepted, they are having record breaking applications due to the economy and SO many people going back to school to change their careers. Last semester, they had 400+ people apply for 49 spots. You literally had to have perfection to get in. Chip was put on the waiting list last semester -- even with a 3.8 in the pre-requisites and a very good score on the entrance exam. For any other school, it would be more than enough, but it was not good enough here. He seriously considered driving an hour to another school since he could have gotten in years ago, but decided to keep trying here. He retook the entrance exam this summer and got a perfect 6/6 and finally got acceptance letter he had been hoping for for the last year! We are SO proud of him! And, he is pretty damn proud of himself too -- as he should be. He had worked very hard for this all while working 6 days a week and talking care of us. It is a two year program and he starts this January. In some ways it is nice that it took so long since he won't have a full schedule in the next two years. He has already taken all the pre-requisites AND all the non-nursing mandatory classes while waiting to get in. So, all he has to take now are the upper division nursing and clinical classes which is good since it shouldn't be too overwhelming with work.

Lily and I got the mail with the good news right before he came home so we quickly made him a Congratulations sign to surprise him when he came home! He was so shocked he just stared at the letter for like 10 minutes letting it all sink in.

Dani's One Month Stats

The last week has been more of the same. In fact, so much so that I am starting to go crazy here in the house. It is like groundhog day around here! I don't think it would be so bad, if I hadn't been stuck at home for 8 weeks prior on bedrest. I did start working again last week, which was actually a much welcome diversion from the day. I had to find a way to work on the laptop with Dani sleeping on my lap, but at least I had something to do while she was sleeping! I got so desperate to get out that Lily, Dani and I went to the mall on Sunday to walk around. It was a a little stressful going out with the two of them for the first time alone. Just little things, like how to work the new stroller were a challenge (I brought the instruction booklet in my diaper bag!). But we got out and it was nice, and then I couldn't wait to just get home and relax. :)

On Monday Danielle had her one month doctor appointment. She looks great and is a happy, healthy baby. Here are her one month stats:

Weight: 8lbs 15.2 ozs 40%
Length: 20.5" 27%
Head Circumference: 15" 67%

She is my little runt baby and short like me! It is crazy to me that at nearly 5 weeks old, she is still smaller than Lily was a birth!!

Danielle's Announcement

Danielle's Newborn Pictures

When she was two weeks old I had my good friend Rhiannon, who is also a photographer, take Dani's pictures. They turned way better than I could ever have imagined! I waited to post them since I used some of the photos for her announcement. Amazingly, I was actually able to narrow the pictures down from 87 to the ones you see here. But they were all beautiful . . . maybe I am slightly biased.

I love this one since she is so awake and alert.

Behind the scenes I am standing over her with a blow dryer. It was a genius idea on Rhiannon's part since Danielle would wake up as soon as we put her down. But the combination of warm air and white noise kept her totally relaxed.

Big sleepy yawn.

My two angels.

I love all these. It was so hard to narrow it down!

These are my favorites!
And I have to give Rhiannon all the credit since it was entirely her idea. I think they turned out amazing!