2 Years

It seems like our wedding day was so long ago, yet I remember every last detail and moment. So much has changed since and I wouldn't want it any other way. Happy anniversary to us.

Silly Girl

I could seriously listen to this laugh all day long.

Our First Solo Trip to Disneyland

For some reason I was kind of afraid to attempt this on my own. Juggling all of the stuff, trying to collapse the stroller by myself while trying to get on the tram, stopping to feed her, waiting in line...sort of seemed impossible to me, but we did it! We went on Monday and although it was hot and she wouldn't keep her hat on for nothin', she did really good. We only went on 3 rides, but it was fun just to be there instead of sitting at home. Now that I know it can be done I think we'll be going more often!

Pics aren't the greatest...it's hard holding a baby who thinks my cell phone is her toy while trying to get a good shot!

Easter 2012

Hope everyone had a great Easter!

5 Months

I guess I've missed the mark again on the month update. She's already 5.5 months. It's so hard to keep up!

Scarlett,
I feel like this last month you've grown up so much developmentally. You're eating food now (so far we've tried bananas, carrots, apples, and sweet potatoes). Your favorite is bananas. You open your mouth before you've even finished swallowing because you want more. You're still eating rice cereal and we're gradually just eating plain food. You make the funniest faces when it's just pure food. I'm not quite sure what you think of it.

You can almost sit up on your own...I feel like any day now you'll do it without my help. I love to hold you, but it will be so nice to be hands free and play with you. We've put away your 3-6 month clothes and you're wearing 6-9's now and still in size 2 diapers. We've also put away your newborn swing. It's just too slow for you and you squirm like crazy in it. Not to mention your little chunky butt gives the motor on it a workout. Your new favorite thing is hearing us whistle to you. It stops you in your tracks and you give us a big gummy grin. You've started flapping your arms up and down when you get really excited. It certainly makes it hard to take a photo (see photo above).

Your poor little teeth are still trying to come through. All you do is chew on your fingers and drool like crazy. You've been to Disneyland 3 times now. Our last trip was a few Fridays ago with Auntie Kellie.  Your very first ride was on the Jungle Cruise at 3 months. I know you really don't know whats going on but I'd like to think you really love it. You love the Tiki Room, listening to all the birds sing, and all of the bright colors on It's a Small World. You take it all in. 

In the mornings when I hear you start to fuss (around 6am) I get you from your crib and change you. I get your milk ready ahead of time so when I bring you to our bed we get comfy and I feed you. When your done you look over in our mirror and give your self a big grin. It's the cutest thing. You love looking at babies and little kids. You always smile or sometimes even let out a laugh. Your laugh kills me. It's so contagious.

I know it's really cliché to say, but you're growing up so fast. You're not our tiny little newborn anymore.  It's really bittersweet...I do miss those times when I cradled you in my arms, but I really love how you're so playful and interactive now. I love how when I come home from work you notice that I'm home and give me a big smile and wrap your arms around my neck.

In a few weeks you'll have your 6 month checkup and we'll really see how much you've grown and what's to come.

The Little Red Wagon

My mom and I recently started a little baby biz called "The Little Red Wagon". We'd started a Facebook page but were still contemplating opening up an etsy shop. We'd tried etsy before and hadn't had any luck since things just get buried with so much product going on there. After much thought, we decided to open one up. It took us a while to get semi-nice photos taken...'cause let's face it—if your photos look like crap people aren't going to want to buy anything. Scarlett has been our baby model and I think she makes everything look so cute :) We're still in the process of adding more product but we have a few things up so far. I hope we can market it better than the last shop!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/thelilredwagon

Scarlett's First Attempt at Food*

And by food* I mean rice cereal that smells like cardboard, but I guess she has nothing to compare it to so she loved it.

First bite. "What the heck is this, Mom!?"

Next few bites. "Gimme more!!" :)

Just wait, baby girl. It only gets better.

Happy heart day!

4 Months Old

Where has this month gone? Seriously, I look at those pictures in the last post of Scarlett and she looks so tiny! We don't even cradle her in our arms anymore. She sits on my hip and we hold her like a big girl 'cause she can totally hold her own head up now. Tuesday was my first day back at work. Probably had to have been one of the hardest days since she's been born. My mom is watching her Tuesdays and Fridays and we have a nanny that comes over to watch her on Wednesdays and Thursdays and I watch her on Monday so it hasn't been terrible since I know she's in good hands at home. But it's still hard to be away from her four days in a row for 9 hour stretches. I feel like when I get home there's only a few hours to enjoy her and then she goes to bed :( I've heard it gets better...I hope it does...but of course I'll always miss her.

I wanted to do a 3 month old post of the stuff she's into right now, but I totally missed that one :( So...we'll do a 3-4 month one...

Scarlett–

Right now you love standing on your feet while I hold you up, you're such a strong little girl. You get distracted so easily by the TV when we're feeding you that sometimes I have to turn it off just to get you to finish your bottle. You've been enjoying sitting in your Bumbo chair more and more now that you can hold your head up (I'm not sure how much longer you'll be able to sit in it, your legs are getting chunkier by the minute :) You love your baths. You kick the water and try and kick your rubber ducky. You never ever cry when it's bath time. I'm guessing you're about 13lbs right now, you can barely fit into your 3 month clothes anymore and are now wearing your 3-6 month clothes. Grandma taught you how to blow bubbles and now that's all you do. 

I've started to notice a big change in your temperament. You used to be fussy and now you're so content (most of the time). You're starting to get the hang of grabbing things and today you successfully grabbed your bottle, and fed yourself (for just a few minutes). You hate your swing, but you love your jumparoo. You go crazy in that thing and your smiles are so big.

I love you baby girl! You are the best thing that has happened to me and you make my days so much brighter. I can't wait to see what new things each month brings us.

Our 2011 Christmas Photos

Every year our wedding photographer offers a mini christmas shoot. I really wanted to do it this year to capture our first Christmas as a family of 3. We headed up to a tree lot in Sherman Oaks Thanksgiving weekend to meet up with Jenny. She's seriously the most awesome photographer ever. She's super sweet and it's so easy to be in front of the camera with her. She did the most fabulous job, and Scarlett couldn't have been more perfect that day.

7 Weeks

Man has the weeks flown by since Scarlett made her dramatic entrance into this world. Being a mom has been so rewarding...I never knew I could love someone so much. I just have a few minutes to spare (stink bug is taking her nap right now)...so I wanted to share her one week photos that were featured on the On to Baby blog taken by Kristin Rogers. She was such a fussy butt during the whole shoot (we found out a few days later she wasn't getting enough to eat from me) but I love how it turned out anyways...

Check them out HERE

It seems so long ago we took these! She's already changed so much!

41 Weeks

Monday was my Dr's appt to see if I had progressed at all, and if not, they'd set up a date for an induction. I hadn't really progressed at all so the nurse decided to hook me up to a monitor just to make sure everything was still working and baby girl was doing fine. Her heart rate went up every time she moved, so that was good. I didn't even realize it, but I was having small contractions while hooked up to the machine. It was nice to finally be able to tell what an actual contraction was and when it ended. After 30 minutes the nurses looked at the printed paper and decided that everything looked okay and she was still doing fine. The nurse told me she'd call me the next day after talking to the Dr. and they'd set up an induction date with the hospital. Yesterday I got the call and we decided on Thursday morning at 9am. So, about this time tomorrow I'll probably be in labor! We're so nervous and excited at the same time. I can't believe we'll be able to see her little face in a day or two! I already love her so much.

Here's a pic of her nursery finally done :) All it needs is a baby girl now.

One more week.

One more week (maybe). I really don't know how it's already week 39. It's so crazy how fast it really goes. I remember the day I told Jeff we were having a baby like it was a week ago. Before I know it, I'll be saying how fast her 1 year birthday went by. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm ready. Are you ever really ready? I mean, I enjoyed being pregnant. So far, up 'till now I've really had a great pregnancy. But, I have no idea what it's really going to be like with her here. I keep imagining it...but I'm sure I'm waaaay off...hahaha. I think we're ready. Her room is ready. Our bags are packed. Mini baby girl clothes are washed...

Last week at my Dr.'s appointment she said I'm about 80% effaced, and still not really dilated...only about a half a cm. I guess that's good progress? She keeps asking me how many contractions I'm having. I seriously to this day can't tell you if I've had one. I probably have and just had no idea that it was one. The women that were in our Childbirth 101 class described is as a spider web feeling in your abdomen. Uh... I definitely have not felt anything like that so I have no clue! Hopefully I'll be able to tell I'm in labor when the time comes. I asked her at our last appt. how big she thinks she's going to be...everyone tells me I look so tiny. She said it's hard to really tell, but from the way I'm measuring she's guessing about 7-7.5 pounds.

So for now we're just continuing to wait for her to make her entrance. I'm trying to keep busy. Last week I finished her butterfly mobile. It came out so much better than I thought it would (I'll post pics soon of her nursery). Going to the movies 'cause I doubt we'll be going anytime soon (btw we saw Moneyball...Jeff's loves baseball so I said I'd go with him—plus it has Brad Pitt in it...c'mon. It was actually really good!). It's crazy to think we're gonna have a little baby here in a week! (or two... :)

Week 36 Update

Just had my week 36 check up today and everything looks like it's right on track. Still bummed that we don't get any more ultrasounds. I'm so curious to see how much she's changed. Last ultrasound we got was our 18 week checkup where they measured her head, legs and arms, and made sure all her organs were okay (and we found out we were for sure having a girl). I'm sure she looks so much different than this now:

Whoa! I hope she grows into those lips! I have no idea where those came from.

Anyways...I'm measuring perfectly at 36cm's and she's face down right now so the nurse said there really isn't anyway she can justify ordering another ultrasound. Boo. I guess I should be happy that there isn't a need to order one since everything is normal and perfect so far. Everything has gone so smoothly, it really scares me what labor will be like :\

What I'm craving this week: Strawberries...I've ate about 3 lbs of 'em in two weeks.

Everything is pretty much washed and all of the pictures are hung in her nursery...just need to finish packing my hospital bag. Thursday will be our last week of childbirth 101 class...3 weeks to go! :)

Our Maternity Photos

When I first got pregnant I knew I wanted to do a maternity photo shoot. When I really started researching it I never imagined on how much it would cost. I know good photography costs a lot, but the more I started looking into it, I really wanted newborn photos too. I just couldn't see paying more money on a maternity shoot than what we paid on our wedding photos. We couldn't afford both newborn and maternity photos so I really thought about it and decided that newborn photos meant so much more to me. We hired Kristin Rogers to do a shoot for us the first week or so after Scarlett's born and I decided on just having a family member take our photos with our digital SLR camera for maternity photos.

My mom said she'd take photos of Jeff and I so on Saturday evening we headed over to Oak Canyon Nature Center in Anaheim Hills. It's really an awesome place and I really would love to go back and walk on some of the trails or pack a picnic lunch and go there for the day. Here are some of the shots we got while we were there:

The ones of me wearing the white top were from the next day (Jeff accidently had the camera set to the lowest file size for pics). I'm glad we went again because the lighting seemed a little better.

I can't believe we're gonna meet our little girl in 4 weeks!