Baptized in Christ

Sunday was one of the most important days of Greta's life.  She received the waters of baptism.  

Thank you, Pastor Bo!

Our family of five

 

Greta and her godfather.
We chose Karen to be her godmother.
Unfortunately, Karen was sick with
the flu and unable to attend.

Almost 94.
3 months.

Proverbs 31:25
She is clothed in strength and dignity and
laughs at the days to come.

Congratulations, Greta Pearl.  May you grow up to know and love the Lord and serve Him to the best of your abilities.  Today He gave you one of the greatest gifts imaginable. 

Greta: three months

As I write this post, we have no height and weight stats.  Her three month appointment isn't until Nora's birthday.  It has been a pretty eventful month.  As the doc said, she is far more alert and wants to see what's going on.  She is very happy and content when she's on the floor while Nora and Myles are playing around her.  Greta just kicks away while watching whatever it is they're doing.  

One of my faves.

Greta sleeps pretty darn well for three months old.  I am looking forward to her falling sleep earlier in the evening and can already tell that's starting to happen.  We are getting closer to a 9/9:30 bedtime rather than 10:00 or after.  She'll usually sleep until the 5 o'clock hour.  She'll wake up for a snack and snooze a few more hours.  She'll be awake for about an hour and a half or two hours and then needs a nap. 

Greta stopped taking a bottle which we found out on New Year's Eve when she had her Gram worried sick because she was crying up a storm yet wouldn't eat. (Not to mention I wasn't answering my phone because I was in the middle of a movie...)  I've worked pretty hard on getting her to take one again. It has worked a couple of times and not on other attempts.  So I'll keep trying.  I have lots of stored milk to practice with.

Christmas 2013

What?  Most bloggers don't do their Christmas posts almost a month late?  Oh.  I guess I didn't get that memo.  Maybe I'll remember for next year.  Lucky for me, by the power of the 'schedule' feature it will be posted like I was extremely timely.  

One of my favorite parts about this year's Christmas was that it didn't seem to go by as quickly as it normally does.  Sometimes I feel like there's so much preparation and anticipation and Christmas comes and goes before you realize it started.  This year seemed much more relaxed.  It was the best. 

Last year, we broke old traditions and started new ones for our family.  It seemed to work well so we stuck with it for this year.  We invited my mom down to our house for Christmas Eve.  She comes to church with us and then we have a delicious dinner.  For Christmas 2012 we opened all presents, even the ones from Gram, Christmas morning.  That overwhelmed Miss Nora so we tried something new this year.

On Christmas Eve, the kids opened all the gifts from Gram.  And they got to open one gift from Dan and I - their Christmas pjs.  Every year on Christmas Eve they'll be able to open their Christmas pjs.  

Even this naked lady got a pair.

Christmas morning!! SO much
to love about this picture.

Then, Christmas morning, they opened presents from us and Santa!  That worked much, much better.  

After every gift, Myles wanted to take a
little time to play with it.  Nora on the other
hand, while grateful for her gifts, wanted
to move right along and see what else
was waiting under the tree.

All done opening.  Time to play.

While the kids played with all their new items the adults got ready and cleaned up a bit.  By nap time, we were on the road to Wisconsin to celebrate with the other side of the family.  

Cooing for Grauntie Mary.

A girl and her godfather.

"Reading" a new book to Jess.

After starting to get fussy, things turned
right around after she got her clothes off.

The arms and legs flail when she's talked to.  Love the
dickens out of her.

It's hard to imagine this girl will be walking around, tearing open her own presents, trying to eat the wrapping paper and sitting in the empty boxes (which, who are we kidding, will be the most played with "present") next year.  Amazing what the first year does to a child.

Advent

Last year, I started the tradition of the Advent Activity Calendar where the kids and I do an activity or act of service every day during advent.  I was looking forward to doing it again this year and had many things planned. Last year we didn't miss a day. This year was different.  

Making Christmas cards to send to our soldiers overseas who can't
be home for Christmas this year.

We missed a handful of days and didn't do all the things I had planned (good thing Nora can't read yet because the cards in the calendar didn't say what we actually did but what they don't know won't hurt them). 

Put up our nativity scene.
Our nativity set looks much different from years past.  Gone (for a while)
are the days of my beautifully hand-painted ceramic set.  There will be a
time for that later.  For now, my kids have the perfect set to hear the
story of baby Jesus.

Honestly, I felt a little guilty about missing days in the beginning.  Then I made the decision to cut  myself some slack.  I have a small baby at home that's very demanding of my time.  My kids are just as happy if we miss days or if we put on Christmas music and dance... again.  So why stress myself out?  I just won't do it.

We still did lots. Scattered throughout the post are some of the things we did.

Hang ornaments on our Christmas tree.

I'm looking forward to all the years of schooling
coming up to get more gems like this one to hang
on our tree from year to year.  

Watching a movie Greta got from St. Nick...
Veggie Tales: a Tale of Joyful Giving

Snowman out of mini marshmallows.

Popping popcorn to make a sweet treat we included
with our cards for the soldiers.

Making our super-secret gift for the grandparents. 

Crafting with the Kojaks.
Color a picture of Santa and give him a beard of
cotton balls!

Mailing our package!

Wrap presents!

Make a Christmas tree using a toilet paper roll.

He was just checking things out.
But we did have dinner by the tree one night too.

We delivered cookies to the fire station to thank them for their service.  They invited us in for a look around!

We also made quite a few cookies, drank hot chocolate with peppermint whip cream, and had a photo shoot for our Christmas cards. 

Tonight is Christmas Eve.  I plan on making "reindeer food" (dry oatmeal with glitter) to sprinkle on the front lawn.  Although this year is bitter cold so we may be just putting it in a bowl for Santa to take out to his reindeer... yeah, that sounds much better. And of course, we will be going to church to begin celebrating the birth of our Savior. Tomorrow, we'll open gifts and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Can't wait to see the excitement in their eyes. 

Greta: two months

10lbs 1oz (30%)

22.5 inches (60%)

Last month I mentioned I talked with the doctor about her puking issues.  He said he thought it might be that she overeats but would outgrow it but he also told me to keep an eye on it and if it got worse to call him and he would give us a prescription for reflux meds since it's so hard to diagnose.  The week before Thanksgiving it started getting worse.  During the day she would be ok but evenings it would really kick in.  She'd scream (you could tell it was from discomfort -- stiff body, arching the back, etc.) for over an hour. We would try to give her gas medicine but that didn't seem to help.  Thanksgiving night was the worst yet.  Cried for a looooong time.  No one could seem to comfort her so I called the doctor for the meds which she started the following day.  We noticed a difference within the first couple of days.  Now she seems much better.  She still has issues but they don't seem as severe and don't last as long.  

In other news... she's developing quite the set of kissable cheeks.

She's growing out of newborn clothes.  Some still fit, others are too small.  

Some 3 month clothes fit.  Some she swims in.

Mornings are her best and happiest of times. 

Things the doc says we can look forward to this coming month are:

* even more cooing and bigger smiles

* wanted to see more of the action (won't be as content laying down... 

she'll want to be propped up to see what's going on)

* she'll LOVE all the Nora and Myles in her face type of action -- which I can already tell.  

She smiles most for them.