Stats, musings, upcoming visitors and hurricanes, etc...

Jared says I am going overboard with posting Leah pictures, so I figured I'd take a bit of a break from that and just ramble on a bit instead. In slightly outdated news, Leah had her first doctor's appointment on Monday and weighed in at 6 lbs and 12 oz, and was 19 1/4 inches long. Considering she was only 5.5 lbs when she left the hospital a week and a half earlier, I'd say she's doing pretty good in the growing category! The appointment was long (ok, the wait was long, the appointment itself was rather short), and while waiting for the doctor to come in the exam room, Leah managed to pee, poop, or spit up on every blanket, burp cloth, clothing item, etc we had brought with us. Poor kid had to wear dirty clothes and was wrapped in an air-dried pee blanket until we finished our errands and got home later that day. Oops. We're not bad parents, I promise.

I have to say, I got my first inkling of parental protection at the appointment because they did the PKU (heel prick) test on her again. As soon as I heard that click of the needle going in her heel, those little lungs let loose. I felt TERRIBLE and managed to keep the tears (yes, I'm a sucker) from squeezing out of my eyes as I heard the little nugget shrieking. (After all, I'm the parent, so I'm supposed to keep it together, right?) What I wanted to do was knock the nurse over, grab my kid back, and run out of the office never to return again. What I did was stand there and wait patiently until they handed my crying baby back to me. Luckily, she calmed down rather quickly and forgot about what had happened.

While leaving the exam room, I saw a scale in the office and took a deep breath and stepped on. Surprisingly, at exactly 2 weeks post delivery, I was only 2 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight. Go me and go nursing.

In between all this baby care-taking, Jared and I have been watching lots of movies and playing tons of ping pong. He's been home from work for the most part as well, and it's been awesome. It'd be great if the two of us could be home all the time. Heck, it'd be great if one of us could be home all the time, but we're just not at that point right now. (One day!) Jared also braved the ridiculously hot temperatures and painted our front and back fences, which we'd been planning on doing for quite some time now. They look great, and I'm extremely appreciative of him for working on that. And of course, I'm also extremely appreciative of all his help with Leah (that goes without saying, but it doesn't hurt to mention it). Our house is certainly not a wife takes care of the baby and all household duties kind of house, and it's great to have someone to share the responsibilities (and frustrations) with.

In other news, we've got visitors coming this week! Dinah is flying down just in time for Hurricane Gustav to meet Leah and spend some time with the fam. We're excited, and hope the weather doesn't prevent her visit or make it miserable. And shortly after Dinah leaves on Friday (and by shortly, I mean one hour later), Leah's grandmother will be arriving for a weekend visit. Jared and I are both really thankful she will be able to make the trip. Hopefully Leah will be a good host for her!

Speaking of Hurricane Gustav, he's a Category 4 storm right now and is expected to make landfall on Wednesday. The stupid "cone of uncertainty" ranges all the way from Alabama to Corpus Christi, so we have no idea whether or not we should be sorta prepared, or board up the windows, pack up the pets and head to my parents prepared.

Lastly, I threatened to throw our daughter out the window the other night/morning (this was at 5:30, after a 3 am, 4 am and 5 am wake up call. You'd have felt the same way.). I think that makes me a bad parent. Or that makes me a normal parent. I haven't figured it out yet.

Tomorrow we are going to the Bark Park Alvin Festival with Heidi, Rowdy and Leah. This will either be an adventure, or a fiasco. Either way, there will be pictures!

Siblings are so much fun!

Bosley-- This is as close as I'll get to that squirming thing. (And it's always good to be prepared for a quick getaway!)

Heidi just wants to give Leah kisses all the time. Leah is not so sure if she's ready for that yet. After all, they've only known each other for a few weeks!

Heidi is whispering sweet nothings into Leah's ear, aka, sneaking in some doggy kisses!

Rowdy will only sniff Leah's feet and only gets this close if we make him. Otherwise, he prefers to keep his distance. We're not sure if it's because she's too loud, or if Rowdy is actually aware that he's pretty big and boisterous and perhaps doesn't want to knock her over. (We may be giving him too much credit here.) What we've learned though is that Heidi prefers infants over toddlers (infants are not so in-your-face) and Rowdy prefers toddlers over infants (toddlers are so much fun to play with!). And of course, Paka and Bosley prefer option C-- just Jared and I and no children, thankyouverymuch.

We have yet to introduce Leah to Rosie and Cheyenne. I'm pretty sure all three could care less about each other and the most that would occur with that interaction would be a huff of warm, horsey breath in Leah's face.

Random shots

Leah is all ready to go for her first stroller ride. We have a jogging stroller (insert laughter here, as you all know how much I love jogging... remember when I said I was going to run the Houston Marathon? Riiiiight....) which we purchased for the large tires since we live on a country road. We just didn't think a regular stroller with plastic tires would cut it. As a result, she looks a bit ridiculous in it. :) (This is the case for most things right now.)
You guys are kidding, right? This stroller is obviously wayyy too big for me!!

Sitting with her daddy and her eyes are actually open! Those cheeks are porking up and that hair is just untameable-- believe me, we've tried. In this photo, Leah actually looks a lot like I did when I was this little.

Heidi is such a good girl. The dogs know they are not allowed in Leah's bedroom, so they (Heidi mostly) often sit right outside the doorway when one of us is in there with her. As you can see, Heidi is pushing her limits right here since she has technically crossed the doorframe, but she's pretty good for the most part!

Tuckered Out!

Leah's grandmother requested to see photos of the teeny one in her crib, so here's a cute one from week 2 that I found. These pajamas were given to us by our neighbors and they look so stinking cute on Leah. Unfortunately, they only fit for about 3 nights and then she couldn't straighten her legs in them anymore. So obviously, she's grown since this photo was taken.

This little cutie sure is sacked out.

Snoozing on the couch...

Gina's first sight of Leah

Not for the faint of heart, but I was looking through our pictures again and thought I'd share this one. It's one of my favorite pics, lacking in quality and composition, but the content is unmatched. Click on the picture to enlarge it to get the full story. Obviously it's right after Leah was delivered (still all gross and whatnot), but Gina was overcome with emotion. It was obviously an unforgettable moment in our lives.

Family Photos

We were fortunate enough to have our friend Laurie over to take some photos of Leah this past week. Jared and I are more than pleased with the results-- Laurie does some amazing work. (And if I do say so myself, she had a pretty cute subject for her photos.) You can see for yourself by visiting her blog page at http://laurieheathstudio.com/blog/Lauriesblog.html and you'll see a smiling little face looking back at you. The pictures on her blog are just a few of the ones she took-- we've got a whole collection to choose from.

Leah was cooperative-- mostly. Although she wouldn't give in and sleep and kept opening her eyes when she heard the shudder click. We also lured the dogs in for some of the photos, and Rowdy was quite anxious as he thought the clicking noises from the camera were just too scary. Heidi of course was unphased and was just pleased we were letting her sniff and lick Leah to her heart's delight. The cats... well, they're cats. There's no coaxing them to do anything so we didn't even bother trying to introduce that chaos. Sorry kitties. :)

Our first walk, Kanga and Roo style

So we took our first walk today, since it was a cool (yet balmy) 77 degrees out this afternoon. We also wanted to test out our sling, which Jenn and Jesse gave us for a baby gift. Wearing the sling is kinda like being pregnant, except with the baby on the outside, and you actually have to think about their head lolling around. It was funny, and the pups were SUPER excited to go for a walk again.