Three Months

Dear Gracie,

You are now three months old, and I had to bribe you to keep that headband on.  It's like your hands still sometimes have a mind of their own and punch you in the face or pull things off your head or out of your mouth.  I really hope that goes away or middle school is going to be really rough.

Right now you are playing on your activity mat just laughing and talking to this little monkey hanging down.  I think he is currently your best friend, and I wish I could understand the long conversations you have with him, although they are mostly one-sided.  You also have your paci, a blanket, and a toy all clutched to your chest in a choke hold.  As soon as you learned how to hold on to things, you started toy hoarding.  You can relax, Daisy has no interest in your spit up covered toys.  I promise.

At the beginning of your third month, we moved to a new apartment in a new neighborhood, and at first, I thought you hated it.  You slept awful the first few nights and screamed during the day anytime I tried to unpack a box.  I guess you missed the constant Lady Gaga and Katy Perry music or Drag Queen Bingo Mondays of our old place.  Then, you started to warm up to it a bit.  We started taking long morning walks to the park and had play dates with your friend Connor.  You grew to love the trees and birds outside of the front windows and we still spend time everyday looking out at them with Daisy.  The best part of our move, Aunt Ses and Uncle Bri Bri live just across the alley from us.  Unfortunately, their new apartment seems to bring out the worst in you, but I'm sure you'll adjust.

The most amazing part of this month has been watching your growing relationship with Daddy.  Anytime he comes into the room, you smile and giggle like he is your most favorite thing in the world.  You hold two sided conversations together (a step up from monkey) which consist mostly of goooooos and ahhhhhhhs.  At night, he gives you a bottle and puts you to bed never forgetting to read you a story (your favorite is Goodnight Stinkypants) or to say your prayers.  Sometimes I creep into our bedroom and turn on the monitor so I can hear him talking to you. 

There are still things that we probably do wrong.  Last week because I am absolutely petrified of using the nail clippers on you, I bit your nails while you were sleeping.  Gross, I know, but at this point in our relationship, very necessary.  During a visit to see Grandma and Grandpa H, I had you stay up way past your nap and bedtime so that you could see everyone, and you responded by throwing a fit for a few hours.  Lesson learned!  You have a bald spot on the back of your head that we try to cover up with hats as much as possible, and I can't figure out a way to make you enjoy tummy time.  For every possible mistake though, there are the triumphs, like going shopping for the first time with you facing forward in your Baby Bjorn.  You cooed and smiled at everyone that passed you, and laughed at yourself in the huge mirrors.  At your first street festival, in the middle of the crowds and loud music, you snuggled up and took a long nap, and at Connor's first birthday party, you spit up on command when someone touched the flower on your shirt. 

Ok, that last one might not have been a triumph, but it was hilarious, and we laugh with you so much every single day.  Your fourth month will probably bring even more amazing changes in you, and your IQ is going to skyrocket because I'm reading to you out of my US History textbook during story time.  Maybe you can take my midterm for me?

xoxo

Momma

Mother's Day

Dear Gracie,

Sunday I celebrated my first Mother's Day as your Momma.  I still can't believe that I have my own holiday!  All day I just felt like I should be thanking you and Daddy for MAKING me a mother! 

Just because I'm sure by the time you're able to read this, you'll have forgotten what wonderful presents you got me (or maybe because you weren't actually on the shopping trip at all), I'll fill you in.  You are so thoughtful.  You got me a book that I can read to you at bedtime and a book to keep track of all of our little family's milestones.  And, my favorite, was a little necklace with a "G" on it that I'll wear all the time so you'll always be with me, Lil' G (that's your rap name by the way). 

When I was rocking you to sleep after a long day of gift giving, brunch eating, and park walking, you looked right up at me and stretched really big and shook your pompoms (it's this really cute thing where you stretch your arms over your head so big that you little fists shake) at me and smiled.  That was the best thanks I could've asked for.

Gracie, thank YOU for being my daughter.  I'm the lucky one :)

xoxo

Momma

Two Months

Dear Gracie,

On Thursday, you turned two months old.

You are growing in so many ways.  Your toes are at the very end of your 3 month old sleepers, your legs stick through the sides of the rocking chair when I rock you to sleep at night, and your head no longer fits in the hat that was so big on your way home from the hospital that it covered your eyes and nose.  You also spend hours a day staring at yourself in mirrors and smiling .  I often sing "You're So Vain" to you, even though I'm pretty sure there's no way you know you're staring at yourself.

Mornings are my absolute favorite time of day to spend with you.  After your morning feeding, we snuggle up on the couch for a nice nap with Daisy curled up at our feet.  Then we wake up and you do your Jazzercise routine on your activity mat.  I'm not kidding, you move your arms and legs so fast that your breathe sounds like you are running a marathon.  Your hands occasionally get stuck in the rings hanging down, and I usually yell "Yes!  She's going to be a gymnast" really loud until your dad knocks on the wall and tells me to calm down. 

At six weeks, we had to take you to the Children's Memorial Hospital to have ultrasound pictures taken of your hips and spine.  (Just so you don't worry, you were just fine!)  You were such a brave little baby.  While I was using every single bit of  strength I had to keep it together seeing you lay in that huge hospital bed, you were being the perfect patient sleeping through most of the procedure and barely crying at all.  When the doctor called with your clean bill of health, I broke down in tears and you just grinned up at me the cutest little toothless, gummy, slobbery grin ever.  You'll never know how much that little smile meant to me.

You recently started sleeping through the night a majority of the time pretty much all on your own.  The first time you did it, your daddy and I both woke up to the light streaming through the windows and both said "is she alive?!"  You were.  Whew.  Seven hours of uninterrupted sleep was amaaaazing let me tell you, but, I think it was just a peach offering because at the same exact time, you decided to just up and stop taking naps during the day.  Obviously, there are more important things for you to be doing during the day like checking the Dow and writing poems in your diary about how unfair it is that your parents won't let you get a mohawk.  Life is tough, right?

We are all just finding our way through this together, the three of us, and I think we're doing a pretty good job. 

xoxo
Momma

One Month

Dear Gracie,
Yesterday you turned one month old.

This picture of you is quite deceiving since you spent most of yesterday screaming at the top of your cute little lungs.  In fact, you held this pose for precisely .2 seconds - long enough to basically wink at me as if you were just screaming for fun and could stop at any time if you wanted to.  It only took those .2 seconds for me to forget that I hadn't taken a shower and was wearing a seriously breast milk stained shirt and fall in love with you all over again.  I do that probably around 50 times every single day.

I didn't realize that within just one month you would already be changing from a sack of flour that I loved to snuggle on my chest to your own little person.  You recognize Daddy and I's voices and faces over anyone else's (something that brings tears to my eyes almost every time), you have different cries for different things you want, and you smile several times a day in a social way and not in a I have gas or involuntary facial muscle spasm way.  I think you like us!

So far, you seem to love the following things: being swaddled, listening to The Randy Rogers Band, falling asleep with Daddy on the couch, watching Daisy with a concerned look on your face, saving all your blow out diapers for Daddy, being covered in kisses by your Grandpas, and sleeping in your car seat for hours after we actually take you out of the car.

Big events in your life this month:  being born (duh), taking your first stroller trip to the lake, meeting lots and lots of family members, holding your head up for ten seconds during tummy time, your first road trip to Indiana, and your first glimpse of your future boyfriend, Austin.

I can't even explain how much joy you have brought to us, Gracie girl.  It's only been a month and I can't remember what our lives were like before you. 

xoxo

Momma

Photograph...All I've got is a photograph

I'm so sad that when I just googled the lyrics to Photograph by Def Leppard that the lyrics for Photograph by Nickleback came up first.  Ugh.  Nickleback makes my skin crawl.

Dimple Dee Do!

Anyways, for anyone looking for an update, I've got a little something for you!  Here is a link to our Grace Elizabeth photo collection on Flickr:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/77836552@N04/collections/.  We're trying to separate pictures out by week and update them every few days so that you can watch Gracie grow.  It's amazing how much she has already grown and changed.  This morning when I went in to get her out of her crib and wipe the crusty spit up off her face and the back of her head (seriously, there is nothing better to ruin your breakfast appetite than cleaning spit up out of your newborns ear in the morning!), I just stood and stared at her.  She grew two inches and put on 1 pound overnight - I'm sure of it!  How did that beautiful little human being ever fit inside of me?  The stretch marks on my stomach are yelling at me "We know how she fit in there!" right now.

I'm going to continue to write in this blog now that things have settled down a little bit.  I'm not sure at what frequency I'll be updating, but there will be something new to check out at least once a month.  I love setting low expectations!!

xoxo
AK

You're here, and you're perfect!

Welcome to the world, Grace Elizabeth Fleming. 

Mommy and Daddy love you so much.  You have made our lives brighter in mere seconds.  I can't write anymore right now because the screen is swimming through my tears. More later - I'm going to go stare at my beautiful daughter for a while.

xoxo

AK

p.s.  Grace, here is the song that inspired your name.  Ben Folds is one of my most favorite musical geniuses, and your Daddy and I spent one of our favorite nights in Austin ever at one of his concerts.  Gracie girl - you will always have a part of me! 

Oversharing

Last night we went to the hospital to have a baby (we thought).  Three hours later we were on our way home.  Apparently, when I thought my water broke, I actually just wet my pants.  Nothing embarrassing about that...nothing at all....

xoxo
AK

p.s.  Baby, last night I dreamt you were a boy and you were playing in the sandbox on my parent's farm.  I'll just pretend the dream ended right there and that there weren't also giant grasshoppers playing violins walking down the road.  I've completely lost it.