Thanksgiving

This year we got to spend Thanksgiving with some friends here in Indy. Thanks to Brooke and Ryan, (but mostly Brooke) we got to give thanks in style. Her table was beautiful and the food was all amazing. She even made leaf shaped butter for those of us who appreciate details. Even my candied sweet potatoes turned out alright.


I'm thankful for all the friends we've made here. These are the great people we ate with.
I'm thankful for my little familyAnd for a healthy baby, who was almost 12 lbs. at her 2 month check up,

who smiles all the time
And for a sweet husband who is just as silly as I am.
I'm thankful I get to see the rest of my family in 2 weeks!
I'm thankful the weather hasn't been as gross and cold as last year.
I'm thankful to be getting 5 hours in a row of sleep most nights
I have so much to be thankful for!

Happy Thanksgiving!

3!

It's our first baby's birthday!

When we got her she was 3 months old.
Today she is 3 years!

It's hard to believe that this chunk...

Was ever this itty bitty and adorable.

(On her adoption day)

Hazel is a wonderful dog. I complain about all her loose hair and how she licks the carpet and the couch and the throw pillows. And I don't appreciate it when I leave the kitchen for a second and she manages to eat half a pot roast or an entire batch of cookies,but she has been a fun, loving companion, a well-trained and super entertaining sweetheart. We look forward to many more years with our "first child."

And no, I didn't make that ridiculous cake. It came up on a google image search.

First Date

Without the baby, that is.

Today we left our wee little one with a sitter for the first time and went on a fabulous date out to lunch at PF Chang's and then to see Trans Siberian Orchestra in Concert. The lights and music were so cool, but I was left a little confused by the narrative. We were joined by some fabulous friends and it was a great time.

I was far more comfortable leaving my precious little bundle than I thought I'd be. Our babysitter is fabulous, and as far as Daphne is concerned she wouldn't care if it was a kangaroo picking her up just as long as someone gets her out of the crib and feeds her. She was fine. We were fine. YAY!

I just hate that now we have to basically pay double to go out for fun now after incorporating paying the babysitter. So I'm extra thankful for winning free stuff from radio station contests so that we didn't have to pay for the concert too!

Animal

Sometimes I feel like my baby is not quite human.

She grunts like a pig when hungry
Mews like a kitten in her sleep
and has Canine powers of scent.No kidding, She can smell the mama's milk from a mile away.

Example A: If she wakes up early from a nap and I try to rock her back to sleep, no way. She is up and hungry and mad. If Bryce rocks her back to sleep we can get a little more nap time in.

Example B: The other night Bryce had taken his scouts on a camp out, so I decided to just let Daph sleep in my bed. Worst idea ever. She woke up every hour and a half sniffing and snorting and sticking her tongue out trying to find something to eat. She usually sleeps 7 1/2 hours at a stretch at night.

Example C: All I have to do is tiptoe in and stand a few feet away from her crib at night and she starts rooting and sniffing around and grunting for a midnight snack. There's no way I made noise, or that she could have heard me over her noise machine if I did .

Because I am inexperienced, I don't know if she's just a normal baby using all of her senses to their greatest ability or if her furry four-legged siblings are wearing off on her.

Or maybe I need to shower more often?

Blessing Day

Today we blessed Miss Daphne at church. Here she is on her special day

That's ironic

I recently bought a waterproof fire safe for securing all of our valuables, i.e. passports, social security cards, pirate treasure, etc.

When I got it home and opened it, there was no apparent damage to the box. But low and behold when I opened the safe it had moisture and mildew in it and the instruction manual was soaking wet. Hmmmm.

Now excuse me while I go dig through the garbage for the receipt.

Last visit

Since the little queen was born we have basically had a revolving door with all the visitors. Our last one came and went this weekend.

Auntie Ali came from Utah for just a couple of days, so we had to squeeze in all kinds of fun. We showed her the sites of Indy, took her to our favorite restaurant, went to the Museum of Art to start Daphne's art education, made Daf laugh for the first time, watched cheesy movies, felt her baby kick and had lots of fun.

We definitely didn't get enough time with her, but it wasn't too sad to say goodbye because we will get to see her when we go to Utah next month!

Little lady was telling her auntie how excited she is to meet her cousins!

October

October has always been my favorite month. This time around it was extra fun because of everything going on with Miss Daphne. It was a busy month of growing and experiences for her

She started liking her swing, finally.

We had an exchange student from Brazil stay with us

She was a lot of fun and we enjoyed her a lot.

We went to the fall festival at Waterman Farms

with some friends

And look what we found in the pumpkin patch!

Our little missy turned 1 month old. At her check up she was 10 lb.s, 22 inches and in the 75th percentile in height, weight and head size.

Tried on her Halloween costume,

it took some getting used to

Daphne had her first tea party with our friend Carson

Her favorite part was eating the blanket.

Grandma Fortner came to see us

Bryce spent several hours carving a pumpkin as he does every year. It's Link, from Zelda
Daph has started sleeping 6 hours at a stretch every night and taking better naps(thank heaven) but we still get to see her alert a lot of the time.

We had our Annual Halloween party. All of our friends are so creative and came in amazing costumes. We were not crayons, but ketchup and mustard.

And best of all, in the past few weeks we have been getting lots of sweet smiles.

You may not be able to tell that's a smile, but it is. We just love our happy girl.

Best October ever!

Adjusting

My first week and a half of being a new parent went so smoothly, I honestly couldn't have imagined it going easier. As we got closer to the two week mark things got exponentially more difficult. Hopefully we'll level out soon. But for now here are the ups and downs of new parenthood...

Downs first to get them over with:

1. My baby doesn't sleep during the day. Apparently naps are beneath her.

2. Mastitis sucks, and I don't think I even have a very bad case.

3. My bedroom permanently smells like baby poop, even though I can't seem to find any lingering traces anywhere.

4. I'm no longer allowed to go anywhere because my little lady is only comfortable when she's being held or swaddled and it's illegal to drive while holding or nursing your baby.
5.Miss Daphne always cries the loudest and the hardest when I decide to finally get in the shower.
6. My house is messy, and I would so much rather sleep than clean it.

As for the ups:
1: I get to snuggle and kiss this cutie all day long (and I do mean all day long because she is awake all day long!)

2. I've always hated blow drying my hair, and now I don't have to because I'm never leaving the house again.

3.Bryce is such a cute daddy! He literally pushed me over to get to the baby first when she was crying last night.

4. I've never felt so happy and emotionally healthy in my entire life as I do right now.

5. Baby smell, soft baby skin, cute baby noises, baby kisses.

6. You probably can't tell, but in this picture all of the mail is addressed to my infant. This is all the mail we got Saturday; I have become obsolete. That's totally fine-she's welcome to start pitching in and paying some bills!

7. My messy house doesn't even bother me that much because I'm cloistered upstairs snuggling my tiny sweetheart.

8. Half my preggo weight has fallen off! I know I have a long way to go and the rest of the lbs aren't going to disappear quite so easily, but Man! I feel skinny compared to a few weeks ago.

9. Baby laundry is so much cuter than regular old adult laundry. It doesn't even feel like a chore to wash all those pooped-on sleepers.

Wouldn't trade these days and nights for anything!

Every girl is obsessed with her own baby, right?

Pictures of Daphne's adventures:

Receiving visitors in the hospital

Going home for the first time

Hazel trying to figure out what all the fuss is about

Being pretty
Just eating a pineapple
First whole family photo
classic "napping with daddy" picture

Grandma Daines came to take care of us
Visiting Luke and Kim in the hospital. These babies were 4 days apart and almost the exact same size.

Hanging out with Evelyn who is 3 weeks older

And I am really happy to see my feet again. They're no longer swollen to 4 times their original size! They are not the first body part I would like to return to normal if I only got to pick one, but a little progress is still good progress.