Happy Mother's Day!

Ok, so it's officially my first Mother's Day. I have waited and prayed for this day for years (probably since my early teens). Now, last year at this time I had just found out I was pregnant. I was excited, but cautious, it was all very surreal. I prayed that I'd make it to today and have a sweet baby in my arms--and I do! (well, right now she's sleeping in her bassinet...but you get what I mean)

So, the day started pretty early--actually very early (2am, 4am, 6am) because my baby is going through a growth spurt and she's up every 2 hours to snack. It was a nice reminder that I am indeed a mommy today and will be for the rest of my life. We finally decided to get up around 9 and Mike had Logan give me a sweet card. (p.s. did I mention that I have the BEST hubby?!) We got dressed and got ready to head to church when I noticed a nice pool of drool and spit up on my shirt, which normally would make me gag, but today I wore it proud, again, being reminded that I AM A MOMMY! We had a nice time at church, Lo actually made it about 40 minutes before losing it and needing to be taken out.

Carolyn and John are in town and we all made lunch today for mom and spent some of the afternoon with her. Mike and I left there around 2:30 and brought doodlebug home for a nap. She took a short nap and allowed me to clean a bit. Mike ordered dinner for us which we got to eat together (not in shifts, like we usually do) because Logan sat and sucked on her little fingers the whole time! It was incredible! We gave Lo a bath and now she's sleeping peacefully in her bassinet. Woohoo!! Here are some pictures celebrating the day:

Happy Mother's Day mommy! I'm keeping myself entertained and quiet with my own fist (which I swear can fit all the way in my mouth).
So excited that it's Mother's Day and I get to celebrate it with my sweet, sweet girl!
For Mother's Day I got a mommy/baby workout video. Here we are after we finished it.

And here is the beautiful girl who made me a mommy waking up from her nap. Love her!

Today I also remember the heartache I felt a little over a year ago after losing my first baby. A time when I thought I may never have a Mother's Day of my own. When thinking about that I also remember to pray for others who are hurting after lost babies or are hurting because they haven't yet been able to conceive the baby that they've dreamed of.

Happy Mother's Day!!

What Have I Done?

Ok, it's no secret...I l-o-v-e clothes. On any given day you can find me in Old Navy, Target, Gap, the list goes on, browsing for good deals and cute clothes. Well, this changed a bit when I had a baby girl. Instead of browsing for clothes for myself, I now look for good deals for my little girl. This has resulted in quite a large wardrobe for our baby girl (never have paid full price for any item). What's not to love about sweet baby clothes that are a good deal? :)

Anyway, onto the point of the story. Last night, Mike and I took Lo out to dinner and I went to pick out her outfit (took her with me to do it) and this was what resulted:

Mommy, I want to pick my outfit!

Which outfit do I want to wear tonight? :)

Yes, she did indeed grab the drawer as soon as we sat down to look and tried to pull herself up. I did end up helping her on the pull up part but she's standing nearly on her own here. So, what did Logan pick to wear?

Don't you love the jeans? We couldn't believe she fit into them! When we got them (at the shower) we thought she'd never fit into them and when we pulled them out last night we were sure that her little legs weren't long enough...lo and behold...they are long enough! They look really sweet on her, too.

I'm throwing in a few extra pictures because I just can't get enough of them. This is from today in another pair of jeans.

3 month old updates

Ok, little girl, you are now three months old! Here are some things you can do:

-Hold your head up high! When you are on your tummy you love to show us how high you can get your head, it is so sweet!

-Giggle, giggle, giggle. You love to laugh! It's really cute because you can't quite get it out, so your giggles just sound like you are sucking in air over and over again. It's the BEST sound!

- Sleep 6 hour stretches (on rare occasion). You usually just wake up once after about 4 hours for a snack but sometimes you'll give me six.

-Recognize yourself in the mirror. We got one for the car so that you can look at yourself while we drive and you make ALL KINDS of faces at yourself while you look. You'll also look for mirrors when you know they're around...you're just like your Tia Carolyn! (though, she'll tell you that you're just like me)

- You did this last month but you're learning more and more how to keep your bouncer going when it stops. You hold your foot up and just go up and down and up and down until the bouncer moves.

- You recognize mommy and daddy. You even have started to reach for mommy on occasion (which makes my heart just MELT)

- You've just started to want to roll over all the way. You kind of bobble from side to side until you can get yourself around. You've only made it all the way around once (last night) but I'm sure we're in for more, soon!

- You love love LOVE to suck your little fist. You try desperately to open it up and stick a finger in your mouth but it just doesn't work so well, you end up with almost the whole thing shoved in your mouth most of the time. In fact, you love it so much that you'll spit out your paci just to stick the fist in.

We love you, Lo!!!

1 month

2 months

3 months

Can you tell I've grown this month?!

I think she's looking more like a baby and less like a newborn this month. What do you think?

3 months old!

Our sweet baby is 3 months old (as of Tuesday). I desperately wanted to post on Tuesday and give an update but time with work and baby and family in town just did not permit it. Oh well!

So what have we been up to lately? LOTS OF WORK! I'm winding down the year with my first graders so there's a lot of extra paper work that comes along with finishing it out. It's both a blessing and a curse because it means the end is near but it also means I've got a TON of work to do before it's all over.

Logan has been spending a lot of time with her paternal grandparents (Nana Kathy and Grandpa Don). They've been such a HUGE help to us this week as we've both been swamped with work. She's loving all of the sweet snuggles and fun things she's getting to do with them.

Mike has been working like crazy to finish his seminary stuff. He got his tetanus shot on Tuesday and that was really the last piece he had to complete to send off before we can hear yes or no from them. We have no doubt he'll get in academically, it's really all dependent on what God wants now--if that's where he wants us he'll open that door wide, if not he'll open another one. Right now we just both feel pretty strongly that he wants us out of here (but that could definitely change, too...remember, we thought we were headed to NC from Tallahassee and that all changed in a matter a month or two).

Ok--onto the part you really want :) Pictures!! (I'm going to post another post this afternoon with her 1, 2 and 3 month pictures together.)

Spent the afternoon dreaming away...yep, on her tummy. I've given up the battle, if that's where she wants to be, and she'll sleep for HOURS and HOURS on end...wonderful!

Sitting pretty in Olive Garden. (Thank you Miss Shannon for the sweet bow!)

Man, Mom, did ya really have to take my tete (paci in Spanish...yes, I'm trying my hardest to have a bilingual little one...won't my little Northern European girl shock people when she starts babbling in Spanish?)

And one from a couple of nights ago. She had such a sweet BIG smile and we captured it just at the right time!!

All Better Mommy

We are done with tylenol--hopefully for a long time. We are so glad that L is finally feeling better! (She's actually watching the NFL draft right now...she is definitely her father's daughter...and her Tia Carolyn's niece)

Logan and I spent the afternoon together while Mike was at work. Thankfully, she slept for several hours so that I could start cleaning our casa (which has been sorely neglected while she and I have been sick). She woke up in a very sweet mood. I tried to catch her smiles during our little photo shoot but I was just too enamored with them when they were happening that I didn't get the camera on her quick enough. Here are a few anyway.

C'mon mommy, another picture?

So, anyway, fast forward a few hours. We went shopping, had to get a few things from Babies-r-Us, including a mirror for the car so that she has something to look at while we're riding (I've had way too many hours in that car of screaming so I had to find SOMETHING to help). It seemed to work a bit, she cooed and cooed at herself on the way to the next store. We also hit up Michael's (for some more ribbon to do more bows--like the one I did on her head today?) and then went to Marshall's. Little did I know when I got in line at Marshall's that I'd be in it for TWENTY FIVE minutes!! Ack! It was like a Disney line, I'd go and feel like I was at the end and then they'd loop me around again. All would have been fine if I didn't have a poopy baby with me...luckily it didn't smell TOO bad so I don't think anyone noticed. People kept commenting on just how precious she is. (I think so, too)

And here she is after a long afternoon PASSED OUT in Nana and Grandaddy's bouncer.

Sweet dreams!

Sickies

Whew! We've had a rough week at the Kayle household. Sunday night as I was going to bed, I thought I felt a little bit of a chest cold coming on...you know the feeling--tight chest, kinda tight when swallowing, feels like impending doom. And what do you know? Monday morning rolls around and it hit me HARD! I got up for work but knew immediately I'd have to take a half-day just to get the sleep I lost the night before with both baby and cold.

It's turned into a nasty case of laryngitis, lost my voice (yes, my first graders did try to find it...looked under desks, on the playground, in the cafeteria...when I told them I had lost it they thought it was an invitation to a scavenger hunt) and I had a lot of chest congestion. As of Monday, L hadn't shown any traces of it. Tuesday she woke up congested, I sucked her nose up and she seemed ok. Tuesday night everything changed.

My sweet little angel got the worst of it at about 7:30pm and I could just tell she was going to lose it. She started whimpering when she swallowed and then got very congested and the whimpering got louder and then I pulled her out of her warm bath and the whimpering turned to screaming. She screamed and screamed so much that my mom, a nurse manager at Miami Children's Hospital, rushed down to check her out when she heard her over the phone because the noise scared her. No fever, no rashes, no other visible symptoms. At about midnight she finally calmed down enough (yes, do the math, that's 4 1/2 hours of straight screaming) to nurse and fall asleep but was up about every hour after that in need of suctioning.

Mike took her to the Dr. on Wednesday who informed him that it was nothing more than a mere cold and she was probably just uncomfortable. She hasn't felt well but we haven't had any screaming problems since. Poor thing fell asleep last night at 10pm and slept until about 11am this morning (not straight, just woke up about every 4-5 hours to eat and go back to sleep). She woke up at 11 this morning and we had a snuggley rest of the day together. (I think she's feeling better than I am... I'm still trying to kick the congestion)

This is how she spent most of the morning, I don't think she even so much as winced.

This is after she woke up and had eaten. Much happier baby! She's wearing one of the bows that mommy made for her.

Finishing a smile for mommy.

Isn't she sweet? I know, I'm partial because I'm the mommy but I just can't get enough of her!

Stretching in her swing. She makes the sweetest noises when she stretches.

Don't worry mom, I'm feeling better!!

Weekend With The Greats

Logan had yet another busy weekend as she was the star of the family show. :) This weekend she got to meet the last of her great grandparents, she met Mike's a couple week's ago and my dad's mom lives only about 30 minutes away from us. These are my grandparents on my mom's side. She also got to meet her Great Aunt JoAnne (my mom's sister). Saturday morning I loaded Logan up in the car with extra diapers and wipes (knowing we'd be out all day long) and headed to pick up my mom, my grandma and my Aunt and we headed out to SHOP!

We had no idea when we left (I SWEAR!) that we'd end up at the Falls on the day that they had their sidewalk sale. They had all kinds of stuff that was crazy discounted. Of course, my favorite stop was at Janie and Jack, my FAVORITE kids store (thanks Rebecca!), and we got a ton of fall clothes so that Logan will be ready for a cooler North Carolina fall. Here are some of the pictures from the weekend--

Great Grandma Natalie and Logan.

Great Aunt JoAnne and Lo.

Great Grandpa Niels and Logan (I think he was the most excited to meet little Lo)

Here is Logan with daddy this morning. We had a little projectile spit up incident this morning while she was snuggling with us in bed so we all had to take showers and Logan and I hung out in our robes until we got ready for church (wanted to avoid ruining our outfits just in case the projectiles came back).

Logan and mommy in our matching pink robes.

One of my favorite finds at Janie and Jack- Logan's cool shades! I thought she'd throw a fit when I put them on her this morning but she spent about 20 minutes on the way to church just hanging out and looking around with them...then she got sleepy and was having none of them. Such a sassy little thing!

Great Grandma and Grandpa with mommy.

4 generations strong!

Here is a GREAT picture of her big baby blues. She has red eye in so many of her pictures because of her light eyes so we are hard pressed to find one where you can actually see the deep blue with no red. Here's one! :)