Playing at Grandma & Grandpa's House

Justin's parents, sister, niece and nephew went to Georgia to visit Justin's uncle over Thanksgiving, so we were left to house watch for them. Before they left they replaced the sand in the little sandbox under their swing set, so since it was so nice on Tuesday afternoon I took Rebecca and Elias over to play for a little while. Unfortunately, in order for Elias to experience anything it requires both my hands, so there aren't many pictures of him. However, there are a number of pictures of Rebecca (and I do have a whole photoshoot of just him as well!).

Rebecca doesn't have a sieve like that one (the blue), and I think she was a little confused about how to use it. I tried to show her what to do, but she preferred just repeatedly filling it. Of course, with clean sand you're not going to find much anyway!

She really enjoys tractors and trucks and things. Anytime there is a crew working on our road somewhere she wants to go see the trucks and tractors and see everything that is going on!

18 Days... Parents are gone, Thanksgiving has passed...

It doesn't really seem like it, but it has already been 17 days since Rebecca was born! Sometimes it feels like a LOT longer (like in the middle of the night when she decides to wake up at 1 and 4 am!), but most times she just seems to be growing like a little weed, and way too fast for the time she's been around!

This is the look she was giving me when I finished getting her dressed for her first day at church at the tender age of five days old. She kept giving this look for the next five minutes or so, which really amused all of us. Then she promptly fell asleep!

Rebecca really likes her tongue. Particularly when she can see it going in and out of her mouth! She's looking at a mirror here, and often times when we put her down beside the mirror she will either "talk" to it, or she'll be sticking her tongue in and out. Though this picture doesn't show it, she usually has her eyes wide open when playing with her mirror friend.

We gave Rebecca her first bath when she was 10 days old. She looks a little leary in this picture, but she did decide she liked it after a few minutes. She's had a few baths since, and after the first few minutes usually decides they are okay things to have. She particularly likes it when she can put her ears under the water, which I failed to make the water deep enough for this evening, and she wasn't too impressed by that! She also likes to "float" in the water, which since her ears couldn't really go under water, she couldn't float very well either! I'll have to remember to put more water in that little tub next time.

Yep... she not only likes to play with her mirror friend, but she plays copy cat with us! She will, if we are patient, stick her tongue out back at us. :)

We took the opportunity to have a "photoshoot" the evening we gave her her first bath, and this is one of the resulting pictures. I'll have to keep working with the flood lights and see what I can come up with for pictures of her, but I think this one is kind of cute.

She was looking at Daddy in this picture. She looks a little unsure of herself... or maybe a little curious as to what in the world he is doing to her??

While we spent our first day alone together yesterday, we had a little fun with my camera, but it sure took work to get her to look toward me instead of the plugs in the wall beside me!

Yeah... when she finally looked my camera in the "eye" I got her tongue! And, she wasn't even really looking *at* the camera! Heh. Oh well, it's cute anyway, and I have a TON of other pictures in an attempt to get one of her looking at the camera, lol!

And, this is yesterday evening. :) It was quite a miracle she was asleep at this time, actually, because I took it around 6:30pm, and she tends to fuss from about 5 until 7:30 or 8, and then she'll crash. I'm not sure if she's just being fussy, or if since she wants to nurse that whole time, maybe she really is hungry... or the other possibility is that she just spends a couple of hours fighting sleep, because when she crashes, it is usually mid cry!

Well, we celebrated American Thanksgiving with Justin's family this past Sunday. His family all came over and Mum and I made pies and all the turkey dinner stuff. For the most part it was enjoyable. On Thursday, "real" Thanksgiving, we went over to our midwife's house for a "Turkey potluck" thing, which was fun. :-)

While we were out for our potluck, we did a weigh in of Rebecca. Okay... her birthweight was 6lbs 15oz. Discharge weight was 6lbs 6.something oz. At 6 days old she weighed in at 7lbs 5oz. This Thursday, at 16 days, she weighed in at exactly 7lbs 8 oz! She's putting on weight like crazy, and in my opinion also seems to be stretching out a lot! But, she is almost three weeks old and only just at the "average" newborn size... which would explain why fitted cloth diapers just fall right off her, any applix cover tabs nearly overlap in order to stay on her little waist, and why I'm currently only able to use old fashioned flat diapers... unless I wanted to purchase premie diapers, LOL! She's still swimming in anything that is 0-3 months sized, so I guess we'll get lots of use out of those things. :)

Evening with a friend, among other things

On Saturday, Justin and I went to a park (not sure if it is a city, state, or national) called Dismal Swamp. We found some pretty cool stuff! We think we found a hornet's or wasp's nest, hanging in a tree! There was a flock of geese in the water, which were gorgeous! I particularly enjoyed seeing the wild(?) daffodils growing all over the place! But, the one problem with the place was... these funny little red seed things. There were a number of trees that were giving off red seed cases or something. Turns out they are called American Elm, and we think I may be allergic to them! I managed to have hives all over the place within half an hour of arriving there. And, of course, the red things were the only thing I haven't ever encountered before (to our knowledge). So... there you go. A new thing for me to have issues with. Now I'm just hoping that there aren't many (if any) American Elms right around here!!

Sunday, we went to our church really early, and then to Justin's parents' church for a pot-luck type lunch. It was kind of nice, though I'm always nervous eating out where you don't know what is in anything! Anyway, our niece developed a sudden fever, high enough that it was decided she needed to go see the doctor, so we took our nephew to a petting farm/park while they took her to an emergency clinic thing. Turned out she had two ear infections, and possibly a virus, but who knows. She's feeling better though, so I guess it didn't do too much damage. Our nephew woke up with a super high fever on Tuesday, and her mom wasn't feeling too great on Tuesday either. So, hopefully that 24-48 hour "I don't feel good" thing isn't going to come here! So far we have no sign of it at all (they all had runny noses before the fever, and there are no runny noses out of the ordinary here).

On Monday, I got really brave, and went and visited a friend and her 3 month old baby boy... without Justin going with me! Yes, that's right. I drove into the city, instead of out of it, and actually made it all the way there, and back again, without getting lost, or creamed by any of the nutty drivers there were on the roads! Of course, I stayed way too late, and hopefully didn't wearher out too much... I know *I* still haven't recovered from it, at least, lol! Maybe a nap every day for a month will cure me. I got to use her camera (a Nikon), which was kind of exciting, cause it has a speed light flashy thingy on it, and of course, the subjects of my photography were great! Who can beat pictures of a mommy and (sleeping) baby?? I probably should have dug out my camera as well, but oh well! :-) It was really nice to be able to get out for an evening, and hopefully we'll be able to do it again!

Let's see... other than that... I'm working on a new little baby blanket... it's so super soft! I just needed a break from knitting the purple sweater for my niece. I think this blanket might take me a long time to finish though, because I've been working on it for a few days now, and it is only like two inches long... and the finished product is like 40 inches... YIKES! At this rate it's going to take me to the end of March or April just to have it a foot long!! LOL! The purple sweater is more than half finished-- the front is done, the back is almost done. So, I'll have to put the two sides together, knit the neckband, and knit the sleeves, and then it will be finished. The only thing is, it is going to be quite large for her!

Anyway, I suppose I'll put pictures up sometime later!