Look What Sara Found!

Toes!

A Visit with Aunt Melissa

Aunt Melissa came to visit and hoped to enjoy some Texas sun ... we weren't able to provide any nice weather, but we had a great visit nevertheless. Sara even managed to play hooky so she could stay home and chill with Aunt Melissa on Thursday and Friday of last week. As is usually the case, we ate too much, perhaps drank too much, and had lots of laughs and good conversation.

Here's Sara during her first full day at home with Aunt Melissa, who helped Sara make some excellent wardrobe choices throughout the weekend. On her first stay-at-home day, Melissa even found time to make us a potpie for dinner!

Sara and Melissa spent most of Friday prepping for the KU game. Yes, Sara is wearing a KU bow. Yes, she tried pulling it off multiple times Friday evening. Good girl.
We tried to get a good group shot last night. Sara was being anti-camera-social and my hair is a little puffy on the right side. Those important tidbits aside, here we are!

Thanks for coming, Aunt Melissa. We miss you already!

Doing My Part

While standing in line at Kroger this afternoon, guilt got the best of me and I finally joined the reusable bag club with the purchase of ten of the fine bags pictured here. I don't always turn off the water when I brush my teeth, and I take many showers that are much too hot and long, but at least now I can say I'm doing my part to go green. I don't think there is a total transformation in the works, but I've made a start.

Four Generations

Here's the link to the "Four Generations" pictures Allison took when Mom and G. Lou were here. As is usually the case, my hair needs help. Still, there are at least a couple of shots where we all managed to look decent enough to make it into a frame. Thanks, Allison!

A Visit from the Grandmas!

We had such a fun visit with Grandma W. and Great-Grandma Lou, and, as always, it was sad to say goodbye. Sara was full of smiles for her grandmas, and we all agreed that she did quite a bit of growing in just the short time they were here. People always say that kids have a tendency to make liars out of their parents, and I recently got a dose of that reality: I'd been telling my mom how well Sara had been sleeping through the night for the past month or more (completely true, mind you). On their first night here, Sara reverted to her newborn days and woke up every three hours on the dot to eat. Although it hasn't been that long since we were up multiple times in the night to feed Sara, my body has quickly forgotten the feeling of operating on, well, nothing but caffeine. All this to say that, as a team, we agreed that Sara is in the midst of a growth spurt and she did noticeably change over the course of just a few days. How exciting that the grandmas were here to see the progress! I know that Sara's hungry belly will be more than ready to start rice cereal when we get the go-ahead from the pediatrician at her 4-month check up in a few weeks.

Over the past few days, Sara has taken more and more interest in the toys dangling from her activity center. She even managed to grab and pull on the yellow lion to make the music play on more than one occasion. While playing on the floor, Sara has started to kick her legs a lot, and she's getting quite a bit of momentum behind her kicks, which is very entertaining to watch. It would not be a bad idea to take the cue from her and practice the high-kicks myself because, as my mom pointed out, she's getting a great ab workout! Sara still hasn't rolled from tummy to back, but she's this close. When we had her on her tummy, she was moving her legs and hips a lot, and making grunting noises to indicate how hard she was working. She just needs to figure out how to move her arms out of her way so they aren't blocking the roll. Soon ... soon ...
The Easter Bunny came a little early this year. Here's Sara being presented with her first Easter basket. It came complete with a cozy new blanket from Grandpa W., a stuffed bunny, a summer hat, and this super fun toy that will no doubt be a huge hit in Sara's kitchen before long.

Next up on the visitor's schedule is Aunt Melissa. She's coming next Wednesday and staying through the following Monday. We're so excited to see her and to show her everything that Sara has learned since her last visit. And this time she's definitely changing diapers!

3-Month Report

Sara is 3 months old today! Here she is yelling at her Dad because he made her lay down to take this picture:

At 3 months, Sara is just over 12 pounds. She can blow bubbles, hold her head upright with only an occasional bobble, and she is more and more talkative everyday. Sometimes when we're playing with her, she gets so excited that she lets out a big gasp and a little squeal. Sara is moving her arms and legs a lot more, especially when she hears music or other noises. She's gotten very squirmy when she's on her tummy, and we have a feeling that a tummy to back roll is in her near future. Sara is continuing to do well at daycare. She's actually the youngest child in the entire center right now by just a couple of months. I love the fact that she gets to interact with other babies all day long, and I think that a lot of her new talking/noises can be attributed to her spending time with -- and listening to -- other people around her age. Wow, look at me throwing around theories on babies like I know what I'm talking about! To be honest, I haven't read the parenting books and I haven't done my research, so I really have no true idea as to when the different baby milestones are supposed to happen. What I do know is that Sara is happy and healthy, and she appears to be growing and learning more everyday ... I couldn't ask for more.

Steve and I are going on our first official post-baby date tomorrow night to see Ian Moore at The Granada, and I can't wait! I don't care at all that I'll be super tired and perhaps have a slight headache on Friday because I'm so anxious to have a grown-up evening with my husband. The only dilemma is that I had a really cute outfit in mind a couple of days ago when it was 80; now it's 30 and pouring rain, so I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board regarding wardrobe choice.

On Saturday my mom and Grandma Lou are coming to town for a few days. Grandma Lou hasn't met Sara yet, and my mom hasn't seen her since she was just a week old. My mom's friend, Susan, bought me a "4 Generations" frame when I was pregnant, and now we're going to have the opportunity to take a photo for it. I can't wait for them to get here!

I hope you're all staying warm ... if it's cold here, I know it's cold where most of you are tonight!

12 Weeks