At the park

R took S to the park yesterday. We are fortunate to have a beautiful park just outside our house, so R walked with S in his arms to get so fresh air. The weather was absolutely glorious - warm, soft breeze, sunny skies. I took these two quick snapshots with my iPhone. Not the best quality photo, but I will treasure the looks on their faces forever.

We might have to teach Papa how to properly fit her for a hat... haha...

Silly S

She loves to laugh - it's as simple as that. Especially when R is involved! You can check out our most recent video in the Video Bar on the left. For some reason she loves to laugh back and forth with her Papa, and it is adorable. I mentioned how Z calls her a jumping bean - watch the second video in the Video Bar and you can see what she means. It's hysterical. I think we might have a tap dancer on our hands.

In other news, both R and I are completely finished with medical school! I had my last day of clinic on Friday and now we're enjoying this down time together as a family. Rob is still working night shifts with Lubbock EMS for the next four weeks. Our medical school convocation and graduation are on May 14th/15th which is so exciting. We have been looking forward to this for four years! I remember being pregnant with S last April and thinking to myself that by the time of our graduation our daughter would be 6 months old, and here we are. Time is passing so quickly. We will then say farewell to Texas and move to VA on May 28th. 2009 is shaping up to be a wonderful and busy year for us!

Here are a couple of pictures of me and S over the weekend:

Cookie Monster

No, I didn't feed my child chocolate chip cookies at the tender age of five months (though I am sure she would have loved that). S is fascinated with my snack wrappers - apparently they are quite the delicatessen. You can watch our two most recent videos (from today and yesterday) in the Video Bar on the left.

Her personality is peeping through more each day. She is happy almost all of the time, sometimes shrieking with glee or charming us with her belly laughs. She likes to have chill time by herself in the swing or Jumperoo and she makes it perfectly clear that tummy time is not her favorite activity, showing us both her independent streak and strong will, respectively.

Z calls her our "jumping bean" because one of her favorite things to do is jump up and down while being held in my arms. It's kind of like she thinks I am her own personal Jumperoo and she can bounce along as she pleases. Her chubby feet hit my lap, her knees bend, and just like that she's sprung up again.

She also loves the spinning toy on her Bebe Pod. I think she is going to be right handed because she definitely favors that hand when playing with toys or picking up objects. Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday:

Bath time

I love her silly faces. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Chuckles

I recently discovered that S is ticklish. The fact of the matter is that I probably exploit this fact more than I should... when she's on the "magic table" (her changing table, so aptly named because it makes her happy in an instant) I give her a moose kiss on her stomach and then nibble on her ribs just a bit. It is hysterical - the poor thing just bursts into a belly laugh! There isn't much that warms the heart like seeing your child's toothless grin and hearing her laughter.

I also love to watch S sleeping in her crib. She loves her bunny lovey and cuddles with it while she sleeps; I even caught her petting the bunny's ears and face while she was asleep last week. Precious girl. I have her positioned to sleep on her side (I rotate her when she wakes up) to prevent a flat spot on the back of her head. This is what I see when I check on her at night:



With every day that passes she becomes more interactive (and entertaining). She's sitting up for longer periods of time now than she had been, she's discovered her feet (and wants to eat her toes), and she loves her num nums (solid food).

She's practically a little lady...

Prayers for two families

I don't know these families. I didn't know these babies. But I do know that no parent should ever have to bury their own child. Please keep these families in your thoughts and prayers.

http://www.gorillabuns.typepad.com/

http://remembermaddie.com/

Every single night I thank God for S and for our good health.

Look how she's grown

At five months, S is in the 74th percentile for weight and in the 78th percentile for height. Wow. It seems like she may have inherited her height from Aunt M or Uncle C. Time will tell! She now weighs 15lb 12oz and is 25.5 long. She grew 1.5 inches in the last month alone! Here are her statistics so far...

Weight
Birth 6lb 6oz (14%)
2 mo. 11lb 8oz (70%)
4 mo. 14lb 4oz (69%)
5 mo. 15lb 12oz (74%)



Length
Birth 19.25in (48%)
2 mo. 22.50in (67%)
4 mo. 24.00in (50%)
5 mo. 25.50in (78%)

Happy Easter! Happy 5 months!

Today we celebrated Easter by going to church with Z, Grampy, C and K. S didn't like the loud sounds that the organ made, so Rob had to take her out periodically when she got scared. She looked beautiful in her Easter dress, though, and made lots of new friends after the service.

After church we had brunch at the Lubbock Club. S met the Easter Bunny for the first time - surprisingly, she smiled and wasn't scared, so we were able to get some pictures with him.

Today S also turned five months. We took some pictures of her with Teddy to show how she has grown. Somehow she gets more precious with every month that passes.

Here are some pictures of our day. Happy Easter!

Sign Language

I now understand the notion that eye rubbing is associated with sleepiness - for S, this sign is approximately 100% sensitive and specific for being tired. The more eye rubbing, the more tired she is.

After a dinner of peaches, oatmeal and milk, this is what she started to do:

(I snapped these pics in the span of a minute with my iPhone)



Not surprisingly, she is now fast asleep.

A New Chapter

S is sitting on my lap right now, making typing a one-handed and ridiculously slow task. She is squealing and grunting, flailing her arms in the air as she shakes the rattling caterpillar toy she has clasped in her left hand. Now she is trying to eat this rattle, rather unsuccessfully. She is a constant source of joy and entertainment. I thought I would start this blog to chronicle our adventures, discoveries and milestones raising S. It seems like a great time to start as we are about to begin a new chapter in our lives.

First, S turns 5 months tomorrow! She is growing quickly and I am amazed at how she seems to learn something new daily. She loves to laugh with her Papa, flirt with her Mama, and cause everyone around to fall in love with her. Lately she has been discovering the different tastes that baby food has to offer (apples and bananas being her favorite), experimenting with the different noises that her voice makes, and practicing how to roll over. Oh, and she loves bouncing in her Jumperoo and chilling in the bath tub. She hates tummy time, but we are working on that with her daily work-outs.

Second, R and I graduate from medical school on May 15, then we will be moving back to the east coast to start our residency training in mid-June. I'm going into Ob/Gyn and R is going into Internal Medicine. We just bought a house last week and are closing on May 27th. It will be exciting to move into our first home as a family of three. Leaving Texas will be bittersweet - we will miss R's parents dearly, as well as all of the friends we will be leaving behind. However, it will be wonderful to be near my family again, as they will be able to see S more often.

I hope that we can use this site to stay in touch with family and friends, posting about our life, residency, and most of all about our sweet little pea.