Four Months Old Today

We just got back from the pediatrician visit for Aubrey's four month checkup. She is a growing girl!

Here are the stats:
Weight 15lbs. 11 oz.--92%
Height 26"--97%
Head Circ. 16 1/2"--80%

Apparently we have a very large baby! She and Charlotte (who is also in the 90 percentiles on weight) are poster babies for breastfeeding. Who knew you could grow so fast or get so fat on just milk? :)

I have to say it is one of the hardest things I have to do as a mom is take Aubrey to get her shots. The way she just looks right in my face and cries breaks my heart. :( At least I know she won't have any memory of it. She is fast asleep in her swing now, tired out by the trauma, poor baby.

All the nurses and doctors were taken by her smiles (pre-shots, haha) and were saying how cute she is. Everyone is surprised at how social she is--Aubrey loves looking and smiling at people and often will carry on a "conversation" with people as well. She has just started learning that when she makes noise it gets your attention, so if we aren't paying attention to her she starts yelling. She definitely enjoys being the center of attention--and she usually is.

Happy Thanksgiving

Mmmm, is it time for dinner yet?

Playing with Gramma

Look how advanced Aubrey is, she is reading already!

Baby, it's cold outside...

Bathtime

I thought this picture was so funny because she is looking at the camera like, "what are you lookin' at?" She looks so cute just hanging out there in the little tub. It is actually a deceptive picture because most of the bathtime her little legs are running and splashing. She has a hard time sitting still.

Here we are after the bath getting all dried off in the cutest little bunny hooded towel. Do they make hooded towels in adult size? They seem so nice and cozy. :)

a new lesson every day

Isn't it great how God can teach us so much through motherhood? Patience, flexibility, selflessness, humility, compassion, the meaning of sacrificial love...the list could go on and on. It has been my prayer of late to be a teachable servant of God through my experience as a mother. I should not take any of these precious or trying moments with my baby for granted, but look for the lessons to be found in them. Here is a picture of what Aubrey is doing as I blog. Too funny! I love the hand under the chin.

Happy Election Day!

Please note the cute elephants on what are known as Aubrey's Republican pants.

still not a morning person

Ugh, can I just say I am not a morning person and never have been. Having a baby doesn't change what you naturally would like to do, like curl up under your down comforter and sleep in every morning. Having a baby who is soooo happy it is morning and is all smiles and cheerfulness when she wakes up is hard sometimes. I just want to lay there and she is all like let's play, Mom! The time change certainly didn't help...now she thinks 6am is time to get up instead of 7am. At least the change didn't come on my birthday weekend, but the weekend after. Thank you, Mr. President, for one extra week of sleeping until a sane morning hour.

I may just have to start drinking coffee again...

And now for a picture that has nothing to do with my post but is too cute not to put on here:

Your life will never be the same again...

I can't tell you how many times we heard that as we prepared to welcome Aubrey into our home. Even back when we were talking about having a baby before we were pregnant people would say how much having a baby changes things. Some of our non-parent acquaintances quote it as a reason why they don't want to have a baby. So now, three months down the parenting road I look back on that statement and think in a way it is true in a way it isn't.



Maybe it is just me but I always anticipate things to the extreme. I would always overprepare for tests in college and then walk out thinking that wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. When someone says that labor is the worst pain ever I imagined it as being so awful I would think I was dying. It may be rough, but it isn't the worst you could possibly imagine. When someone says your life will never be the same again I guess I thought that every little aspect would be different. Yes, it is true, things do change, like it taking you longer to get anything done when you are bringing a baby along. But on the other hand we still do what we did before Aubrey joined us. We enjoy going to starbucks, walking in the parks, going out to dinner, visiting with friends, attending church, going shopping, etc. We still do all these things, just now we are three instead of two. I guess maybe if we had been the type of people who liked to go to bars and get drunk all the time and eat at really snooty restaurants and dance in clubs then our lives would have had to make a dramatic change.

So we didn't really have to make the huge adjustments that I thought we would to be parents (which we were so willing to do, by the way). I don't feel like we have had to "give up" anything and our lives have been enriched so much by being a mom and a dad to Aubrey.

Now I know those of you who are more seasoned parents are thinking, "just you wait..." Yeah, yeah, but let us bask in this honeymoon period of parenthood for a little while longer.