Times, they are a-changin'

In just a few short weeks it will be "so long East Coast, welcome back West Coast" for this family. Chris has accepted a job with ADP (the payroll people, but doing the same thing he does now) in the Seattle area and we couldn't be more excited to get back to our West Coast roots. While I have never lived somewhere with so many gray days, the prospect of no humidity and no snow is quite enticing.

We were taking stock of our time in New York and trying to list the things we will miss most about this place, we came up with....New York style pizza...and our list pretty much ended there. Is that bad? While we have enjoyed being on this coast and so near to many historic sites, we are not too broken up about leaving. I suppose we weren't really here long enough for this to truly feel like home.

We are planning one last hurrah in the city next week and then we are outta here. I am making a pit stop in Utah for a few weeks while Chris is in new hire training in St. Louis, and  then we move into our new place September 1st. I can't tell you how excited I am to rent an entire house for cheaper than our tiny two bedroom apartment here.

Five Months Old

And happy as a clam.

Month five has been a big one for Miss Britta. She has mastered the art of rolling over in both directions. And is so proud of herself when she goes from belly to back but ticked when she rolls from back to belly and realizes she put herself into self-induced tummy time. 

She has been teething on and off all month and let me tell you, teething bites. No pun intended. It took us a while to figure out why our normally happy baby had turned into Mr. Hyde. Orajel, rice cereal, and an earlier bedtime have worked wonders.

So, that brings us to eating and sleeping--Britta's two favorite past-times. When she started teething, she thought it was a good idea to start waking up at two in the morning again to eat. Coincidentally, this was about the same time I started seriously considering foster care. After a few nights of feeding/not feeding/letting her cry, we decided to go with an earlier bedtime (anywhere from 7:30 to 8:00) and sticking to our guns in letting her "cry it out" when we put her down. 

The first two weeks were rough, but once I decided I wasn't going to go in at all unless I knew there was something seriously wrong, it was so much easier. Now she goes down most nights without a peep and at worst whimpers for a few minutes before falling asleep. She sleeps straight until 7:30 in the morning (which is still early for pansy me, but better than getting up with her in the night). And, I am happy to report that this new sleep pattern allows me to be a loving (not witchy) mother once more.

Eating. This baby was born to eat--just like her mother. She still loves to nurse, but is also starting on solids. She gets rice cereal every night before bed and loves it. She has also tried applesauce and sweet potatoes and gulped both down with gusto. Right now I am only giving her solids before bed because I am too lazy to do them at any other time of day as well, but I am sure that won't last long.

Other than that, she is happy and growing. She is about 14 1/2 pounds according to my scale and she looks so big to me. She loves to sit in her Bumbo, chatter all day (she makes this really loud guttural 'g' noise), and is starting to really know the difference between Mom and Dad and strangers. 

We sure love her!

Hair

Some of you may not know, but there is actually a fourth member of our family--Britta's hair. This bad boy is worthy of it's own zip code or soap opera character. If nothing else, it certainly merits a blog post. At first, I was annoyed at the crazy hair that was always popping up in our pictures or making its appearance after nap-time. Over time, I have grown to love this characteristic and have found myself a little sad that as Britta gets older and her hair gets longer, the fewer outrageous do's she has.

Here are a series of pictures showcasing some of the hair's "best hits", if you will. I find that many times it is not until after I take a picture and look at it a few days later that I realize how truly awesome the hair was. After a while, my favorite game became trying to capture the hair in its natural state for posterity's sake.

 The above three are just her everyday looks. 

 I'm thinking there may be some genetics at play here. Just sayin'.

 She thinks she looks pretty awesome, so I guess I can't argue with that.

 This is the infamous comb-over most of you have not seen. She rocks this like it ain't no thing.

 I swear if all you ever saw was the back of this baby's head, you would never guess she had such a cute face.

Not pictured are the really long strands she has behind both ears. I should really cut them because they are almost an inch longer than the rest of her hair, but I secretly love them and can't bring myself to get rid of them.

On suntans

When I found out I was pregnant there were several superficial reasons I was excited to be pregnant. Chief among them the opportunity to get out of fasting once a month. I can't tell you how much joy this still brings me every month. I am considering nursing until Britta is two just for this reason. 

Another example would be the excuse to eat anything I wanted. The close to forty pounds I put on during pregnancy would be a testament to my love of this aspect of pregnancy. 

Being a stay at home mom is not without its perks either. As shallow as it sounds, picking out an outfit for Britta in the morning is still one of the highlights of my day. As is shopping for her. Oh what a wonderful addiction.

Last but certainly not least, was my commitment to spending copious amounts of time at the beach/pool and having the best tan on the block. Aren't you so proud to be my friend after reading these confessions?

How was I to know that my infant daughter would actually be the one to end up with the tan? She even has tan lines in between her fat rolls. I mean, if you are going to have fat rolls, they might as well be tan, right? What gives Britta? You are making my fat rolls look even worse.

Llama Fest

Do you remember Llama Fest in Provo? Oh, those were the days. 

I was just on Facebook trying to find a certain picture and came across this little beauty...the first picture Chris and I ever took together at Llama Fest '06. 

His caption underneath reads: "Pretty sure I was more interested in the llama than this girl." Yup, that's my husband--the charmer.

The Fourth

 We had a great Fourth of July around here. After driving around for what seemed like forever with a screaming baby, we found a terrific firework look out. In this crappy video, the really dark part is Britta staring in awe at the fireworks. She was mesmerized.

I was mesmerized by the food we consumed this weekend. Let's be honest, I love any excuse to pig out. I also found the holiday a perfect excuse to force over-sized flowers and family pictures on my loved ones. Isn't being a mother great?

Here's to sandy toes, pool days, and baseball diamonds.

Aah, we love summer. 

Boston

We found ourselves in Boston, MA over the weekend and I have to say, it was one of the nicest cities I have ever visited. My Dad happened to have a work training in the area and it didn't take much coaxing on his part to get us to make the drive out. 

It was a quick trip, but we enjoyed walking the Freedom Trail, visiting Harvard University in Cambridge, and even a quick stop over in Cape Cod for some lobster. 

 Paul Revere getting ready to lay the smack-down on some British, or Sarah Palin.

The USS Constitution--"Old Ironsides"--the oldest operating warship in the world. Easily the coolest stop along the Freedom Trail.

 We showed up at this bar and everybody knew my name...weird.

 We stayed outside the city, and the first night we ate at the oldest inn in America. It was charming.

And Britta didn't mind being able to log in some snuggle time with her Poppy...

...or chilling in a king size bed.

Four Months

These past four months have flown by at an unbelievable rate, yet I find myself turning to Chris at the end of almost every day and asking, "Can you even remember what life was like before we had a baby?" Sometimes that life seems like nothing more than a distant memory.

At four months, Britta girl is weighing in at 13 lbs 14 oz, putting her in the 50th percentile. She is measuring 25.5 inches long though, putting her in the 90th percentile for length. Our pediatrician took one look at us midget parents before skeptically saying "that's really tall...does height run in your family?" 

At four months, she is very observant and curious about the world around her. She loves to roll around and can get from back to belly, but hasn't figured out how to reverse it yet. Most days my attempts at snuggling result in her wiggling and kicking her way to freedom.

She still loves to sit up and hangs out in her Bumbo all the time. She reminds me of a tiny dictator in her throne. She likes to wait until she is sitting in her Bumbo before she lets off her poop explosions, thus ensuring that the projectile force will send poop as far up her back as possible. This picture was taken approximately ten seconds before just such an explosion.

She is still sleeping well at night, usually a 9-10 hour stretch followed by another 3 hour stretch and we are in the process of trying to work her down to an 8:00 bedtime. 

 She still loves to eat and I was hoping by this point she would be going longer between feedings, but I guess the longer stretch at night is worth the milk factory I still am during the day.

She hates the heat and humidity here, which is making our afternoon walks increasingly difficult. 

She is beginning to laugh and it is awesome. She hasn't quite figured it out yet, and it is really funny to watch her try because it is obvious that she really wants to make noise but isn't sure how. What does come out every now and then is a high pitched squeak. I thought I had hurt her the first time it happened.

And how can I forget her tongue? It is her favorite toy of them all. If she could she would lick each and every item in our house. When there isn't anything to lick, she is content to just move her tongue in an out lizard-style in the breeze. She even does tongue push-ups during tummy time.

She still loves Dad and lights up like a firefly when we Skype with the grandparents, but at the end of the day she has a soft spot for Mom too. 

Beach Babes

One of the great things about where we live is that we are only fifteen minutes from the beach. In desperate need of a fix for my farmer's tan and out of a desire to make sure my girl loves the beach as much as I do, we spent our first afternoon soaking up the rays last week.

I am now nursing a wicked sunburn, but it was so worth it.

 Some of the other hot mamas in the ward joined us as well.

The babies did really well until it was food time. Screaming ensued, but eventually the power of my milk and the sound of the ocean wiped this baby out. And since these girls are BFFs, Lucia decided it was nap time too.

I've got a feeling this is just the first of many beach days this summer.