Merry Christmas

We headed up to Buffalo for Christmas this year. We ended up making it in one day, which was nice that we didn't have to stop at a hotel, but threw of Piper's schedule too. She did very well sleeping at Grandma and Grandpa's house and the pack n play. She has been a little sick with a cold too so maybe that helped her sleep at night. She managed to do three whole nights of sleeping 12 hours straight! We had a nice mellow Christmas up in the cold. Lots of hanging out and eating cookies and good food.

I just tested positive for celiac's disease (gluten intolerance) and so this trip might have been the last time I will get to eat my favorite lo mien and the last apple pancake from original pancake house too. :( I go see a specialist at the end of January to figure out what to do from here.

A couple days at home now before shipping out to Cali...should be a fun trip to see the family and friends too! Here is a couple pictures of Piper and then all the grandkids on Christmas:






We also had a few pictures taken of Piper a couple weeks ago. One of them (the first picture below) we used on our Christmas card. But here are a couple more of our darling daughter:





I absolutely love this close up of her:



This one we thought was too funny...we almost used it on the Christmas card, but couldn't bring ourselves to do it:




Lastly, I had a photo taken of me holding Piper's hand holding the necklace with my moms thumbprint. It is a beautiful photo and I have to share it too...


Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their families and friends.

Relaxing Weekend

I felt for the first time this weekend that we were somewhat relaxed. Piper is really starting to get into a routine which is good and she goes down for naps and bed so much easier. This of course will all go out the window when we travel to NY and then CA I am sure. But it was nice just to kind of hang out this weekend.

Because of our schedule we opened up some xmas gifts we had for us from my dad and for Piper. She of course has no clue what is going on, but had fun with a few of her new presents and definitely enjoyed the wrapping paper.

Here are a few photos:

5 Month Stats

Piper turned 5 months old on Monday. Time just flies by it seems but at the same time moves slowly too (when was the last time I slept well...)

A few stats...

• She weighs 13.5 lbs (50th percentile) and her height is the 75th percentile
• We just moved into 6mo clothes
• She was trying to learn how to crawl but has stopped that and is content just being on her belly and turning around in circles
• She can kind of roll from belly to back but I still don't think it is intentional.
• She can sit on her own for a little bit but is to fidgety to stay there and work on sitting. She almost immediately wants to go to her belly or grab her feet or go to the side.
  
• Saturday we tried two new things-we had our first food of bananas and I cut out a feeding, so we are down to every 4 hours of feeding now- 4am, 8am, noon, 4pm, 7pm to bed. That 4am one has just kind of stuck there the past month and we tried different things to change it but nothing has worked yet. So I have a feeling it is there to stay and so I basically have been going to be between 8-9 so I can get a good nights sleep.
  
• She pretty much holds her bottle all on her own now.
• I am still breastfeeding but most of her feedings are with the bottle. Just turns out that way unless I am home with her all day, then most feedings are with me with the exception of the 8am feeding and the 7pm feeding. The 7pm is always with a bottle and depending on my timing in the morning, I might pump and give her a bottle rather than waiting for her to wake up.
• She seemed to do well with eating the bananas and took to opening her mouth and everything really good.
  
• She likes her sippy cup. Of course there is nothing in it, but I have started giving it to her just to learn how to hold it and she does pretty good and chews on the suction piece.
  
• She is starting to nap better.
  
• Her reflux seemed to flare up a little but the doctor changed her amount of medication and it seems ok again.
• She constantly has her hands in her mouth and is chewing on her fingers. I keep think that she is teething and going to sprout some teeth soon, but still no such thing has happened.
  

Here are a few photos...

Piper loves the exersaucer:


Kelsey (9months) came over for a little visit:



Happy baby:



I tried to take a picture by myself of the two of us while EZ was out of town, but it was hard to get her to smile at the camera:

Happy Birthday Mom

It has been almost 8 months since you passed away and I still miss you and think about you all the time. There is still so much sadness inside me and I hope with time I am able to turn that sadness into happiness of all the wonderful memories I have with you. Know that I will always love you and continue to tell Piper stories about you. Happy Birthday Mom.

Almost Done

Ahhhh....the semester is almost over. This has been a really hard one for me. I thought going back to work two days a week and staying home the other three days was going to be a great compromise. What it turned into was basically compacting almost a weeks worth of work into two days and then staying home with Piper the other three.

Don't get me wrong, staying home with her has been nice. But it has also been exhausting. I have to try and squeeze work in on those days too when she is napping or playing or whatever and that has been difficult. If I had do do it over again I would have either just taken the semester off and maybe have felt less stress from work, or paid for an extra day of daycare and had a day each week to myself where I could get work or anything for that matter done.

I am so thankful that I had prepped my entire course before I had Piper. I don't think I would have survived otherwise. This way I really only had to do minimal stuff during the week plus grading and writing tests and worksheets and emails, ect.

On the other hand, I am teaching a brand new course next semester and I haven't done a single thing for it. And this isn't a course that has a textbook or anything, it is a course I created for what is called a first year seminar. I picked the topic of cryptography and coding and I have a semi book but that is about all. I basically have to create the entire course and I haven't done a thing. Yikes, I have some stuff to get done before Jan 10th.

Classes end today and my two finals to give are Friday and Monday. I am hoping to have my grades done by Tuesday and can start working on this new course-at least get a week or two prepped!

In other news, I am home all week by myself with Piper while EZ is at a conference. So far, so good. I decided to make one huge meal for myself Monday night and will eat leftovers the whole week. That makes my life just a bit easier. I also have lots of things planned this week on the days I am home with her-outings with friends or a work xmas party on Thurs, so that will make the days go by a little quicker. And thank heavens, that the last two nights by myself, she has slept very well, not waking up from 8-4:30/5am, and I am going to bed right after she goes down, so that has helped too. Alright...she is waking up from her nap so I better go!