7 Months (yes, I'm 2 days early)

Merry Christmas and Happy 2012 everyone!

This time last year I was posting my first pregnant picture for the relatives in Louisiana. This year, we got to share the baby girl with them! Very fun. I got my fix of Louisiana yummies and Cafe' du Monte coffee and beignets. Mmm, mmm, good. We had some great games of Banana grams, Wii archery and bowling, and yummy food. Did I mention the good food? (pictures to come)

Downtown New Orleans

Jackson Square

Mississippi River

Congratulations to my friends Sara Scotty, Ashley, and Dustin for their engagements! Very exciting and we are so happy for y'all.

Elsa weighed in at...oh wait, I will weigh her in 2 days (I would tonight, but she's in bed). Hopefully she's gained. I'm sure she has the way this girl eats.

She's tried carrots, mandarin oranges, pears, bananas, rice cereal, ham, and turkey. She liked carrots, bananas, and ham. We'll try the others again in a couple weeks. No pressure Elsa, but good eaters run in the family.

We were able to go to Charlotte the weekend before Christmas and spend time with the whole Kirkpatrick/Harrington clan. We had to some girl time on Saturday at the mall while the guys went golfing. It was a great weekend. We exchanged secret santa gifts, slept in, played games, and ate Grannie's great home cookin'(like we always do).

Elsa is crawling and pulling up like a champ. G and L got her a little assistant walker baby stroller thing (not sure what to call it), and Elsa crawls to it and pulls up so fast that she falls when it starts rolling before I can get to her. Say bye-bye to getting anything done during wake time from here on out Mommy. She's crawling under the coffee table, pulling up on the dishwasher and pulling forks out of the basket, etc. Dangerous stuff. We lowered her crib last week, which was a little sad for me. Wow, big month.

When we got back from Louisiana, my whole family was in town. I have been going over there every day this week while Shane has been at work. Elsa has had some good quality time with her cousins. Grayson tells her multiple times a day how cute she is, Will is teaching her how to count and say her ABC's, and Kate is...in her own world. She's patient with Elsa. Elsa pulls on Kate's long beautiful locks. The only reason Kate puts up with it is because she knows it's all out of jealousy. I look forward to my family coming in town more than anything every year, so it was a fun week catching up with all of the out of town siblings.

M, K, G and Dad went to a Hurricane's game one night...obviously cheering for the opposing team.

Mom, Matt, and Sarah took Kate and Will to the pool

saying bye to the Matt Puffer clan

Wow...long post. Big families make for lots of pictures. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

6 Months, Thanksgiving, and lots of FIRSTS!

Ok, so let's go ahead and pretend it is December 1st...

Happy 6 months to Elsa!

I am flattered that some people have asked me to update the blog this past month. So, thank you for reading, and thank you for motivating me to continue to document all of these exciting times for my family.

November was a big month for us. Elsa weighed in at 15 lb 3 oz and 27 in long. She is in the 58th % in height, 30th % in weight, and 12th % in head circumference. She found her ears in the beginning of November and was touching them all the time. Thankfully it was not due to an ear infection, just an infatuation. We also watched Uncle David run in the City of Oaks marathon with Grandma and Aunt Sarah (pictures to come). He did great! It was really fun to be out there. We saw him probably 8-10 times throughout the race. For him, it probably didn't feel like much, but we felt pretty good about how we did. He was more excited to see Elsa at the end of the race than the rest of us...we didn't mind. He motivated Sarah, my dad, and myself to run in one in March. Sarah and Dad are already signed up...we'll see if I commit...

She started getting into the crawling postition and swaying back and forth. Very cute. She also started sitting up on her own.

Cousin Will turned the big T-W-O! Aunt Meghan, Grannie, and Aunt B also had birthdays!

We made a trip to Asheboro to give Grannie and Papa an Elsa fix. She started saying her "B's" that morning and decided to show off at dinner. Very sweet.

Elsa started reaching for mommy and daddy and then a week later started reaching for other special people.

We spent Thanksgiving in Charlotte with Grannie and Papa, and were thankful for Uncle Michael to finally meet Elsa on our way out of town (and play with baby M again). Elsa actually caught her first fever the day before Thanksgiving, but it only stuck around for 24 hours. When we got back in town, we were able to spend some special time with Matt, Becca, Will, and Kate before they went back home.

And at 6 months...we finally let Elsa try something besides breast milk. She had some sweet potatoes on November 30th!

I love being a mommy, and am thankful that Shane loves being a daddy almost more than I love being a mommy (ok, we are probably equal). Like everyone warned us...she is growing up so fast!!!

5 Months!

Happy 5 months to Elsa!

(once again, a few days late)

14 lbs 4 oz.

26 1/2 inches long

This month:

She met Scott, Jill and Matthew. Her first play date went well. Matthew shared his book and they chewed it together while Jill tried to read.

She started raising her arms up in the air. One day I was dancing around her while she was in her exersaucer and she joined me and put her hands in the air and smiled really big. So sweet.

She also started saying her "m's." Maybe a Mama is in the works?

This month was a HUGE month for us. Shane has been to at least one interview a week in the past 6 weeks. He was offered 3 jobs last week. They all had positive aspects and negative aspects, but we felt the most peace towards one. I am so proud of Shane for his patience, trust in God, and perseverance. I know it has been a discouraging process, but we knew this trial would one day end, and the lessons learned in the process were worth it. We grew together through it all.

I love being home with Elsa! Her personality is developing more and more every day! She is so sweet and happy! We have a lot of fun together. I have my bored and lonely days considering the amount of time she sleeps, but I'm learning how to make the most out of nap times. I've been running 5-6 times a week for the past 4 months, but this week I started P90X during Elsa's mid morning nap. We'll see how long this lasts. :)

I have never been good with change in the past, but marriage and parenthood has been WONDERFUL! Shane and Elsa are huge blessings and I could not be more thankful!

4 Months

I'm a little late with this one. Whoops.

At her 4 month appointment she:

weighed 13 lbs 12 oz (50th percentile)

and was 26 1/4 in long (98th percentile)

Elsa is growing fast! This past month she has started laughing, found her toes and likes to suck on them, reaches for and grabs toys, took her first plane, and started sleeping through the night. Big month! It only took a few nights of ignoring her at 4 am to teach her to hold off until 6 or 7 am. Not too bad.

A couple weeks ago, our friends from Wilmington came in for a visit. We are glad they were able to stop by and meet Elsa. Thanks y'all!

She is rolling all over the place now. She sleeps on her tummy usually, but I went in and found her sound asleep on her back, with one eye open after fighting sleep for 15 minutes.

We put a big quilt down on the floor (Thank you Cori and Sonia) and she rolls and scoots around grabbing toys...or pulling Daddy's hair.

We went to the park the other day. She's not quite big enough for the swing, but it made for some cute pictures.

Yesterday we drove to Greensboro to watch a friend of Shane's run in a 40-Mile Ultra marathon. He and Shane did it together a few years ago, but they didn't train too much for it, so John wanted to attempt it again after training for a few months. He did fantastic! I don't have any pictures of the day, but it was fun and great to see John and Jess!

Cape Cod

This past weekend, Shane and I met up with Mr. K, Mrs. K, Lauren, and Garin in Cape Cod. It was fun to see L and G's house and town, their church, and the Coast Guard base. I forgot my camera when we went to the base, but maybe L will post some pictures on her blog one of these days. ;)

Uncle G got Elsa a cute turtle. She sleeps with it at night now.

Papa and Elsa took a nap together

She woke up really happy!

Then we went to the Coast Guard base and saw the Helicopter G flies.

Saturday we went out on the boat and did some wake boarding, water skiing, tubing, and knee boarding.

Elsa had a blast...

Saturday and Sunday night we played games. Banana Grams and Boggle.

Sunday afternoon a few of us took naps and then G, L, Shane and I headed down to the canal for a run and then went to the coast and saw their beach front rental. Very nice!

Thanks for having us L and G!

Labor Day

We headed to Monroe for Labor Day, another short 1 day visit. It was relaxing and weather was beautiful, until it was time to head home. Our ride home consisted of heavy rain and winds. A bit scary, but thank goodness for Rain-X.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Tyler came over to meet Elsa.

We went down to the pond and fed the fish.

Also, Elsa has been rolling over like crazy since Monday. Nap time has turned into rolling time. She sleeps for 15 or 20 minutes and then just rolls back and forth in her crib, smiling. Very cute.

Here is a video of her rolling from her back to her tummy.