3 months

This past weekend we worked on our 3 month photo shoot at home. It was hard to narrow it down but we managed to only put 9 on here.

Anna is doing a little better at tummy time lately. She has to be in the right mood for it though. I've been taking her to the library for play dates with friends and she does well with it I think because of the different scenery. 

Last week I met a friend for coffee and Anna discovered her love of ceiling fans. It entertained her for at least 20 minutes. Yesterday I was at a Midland Mom's event and she found another one. It's pretty cute watching her stare at it. I wonder what she's thinking about while looking at them.

She wasn't cooperating too much for this photo shoot in the smile department but she's been smiling a ton over the last month. It's cute when she wakes up from a nap and you walk in and say hi and she'll give us the biggest smile. Or when Daddy comes home from work. 

Anna has been more grabby lately but at nothing intentionally. As soon as she does get a hold of something it tends to go straight to the mouth. She discovered her hands a couple weeks ago and now loves sucking on them. Spit will be covering them as she happily slurps away at them. She also has been super 'spitty' in general. She is constantly blowing spit bubbles and I feel like I'm wiping her face all day long. 

Anna has been focusing on faces for awhile but the last couple weeks it is very noticeable. She'll make eye contact and keep it for such a long time and that is when you can usually act goofy and get lots of smiles.

She's also been very talkative the last week or so. I love hearing her chat to us and to funny things like the circle pattern in her pack n play. Her favorite thing is the butterfly mobile we made that is above her changing table. We'll hit it to make the butterflies move and she'll be still and stare at it. Then once it stops moving her arms and legs go crazy in response. It is so much fun to watch!

She hasn't really shown much interest in rolling over yet although it happened by accident a couple times. I think it was the weight of her head and the way she was positioned on a memory foam mattress for tummy time that lead to the roll.

We are truly enjoying watching her take things in and we love knowing she's learning all the time. Her favorite songs right now are "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" and "The Hokey Pokey" We can typically get lots of smiles with those.

Through a friend I found a very reasonably priced photographer and had Anna's 3 month pictures taken last week. She put one up on her facebook page as a sneak peak and here it is. I can hardly wait for the rest!

It did make me realize I never put up Anna's newborn pictures (even though she was 2 weeks old when we took them) so I thought I'd post one now just for comparison.

 We love our little bug so very much and it's crazy that she is already 3 months old. We love her bright eyes and all of her expressions. Looking forward to what the next month brings!

Grandma Paula's Visit

Even though our Kansas trip was way too short we were excited that my Mom was coming back with us to stay for the week. It was a long travel day between delays, a missed connection, and the drive home from the airport but we finally made it back.

Anna was pretty excited to have her Grandma here to help out!

We didn't make any grand plans during her stay but we did grocery shop and plan out meals for the week and we stocked up our freezer with various goodies. I say 'we' but my Mom did most of the food prep and it was great. We did get a little shopping trip in though!

Anna in one of her new outfits!

Kevin and I were able to have our first date night and it was wonderful. Just to get out and spend a little quality time together for a few hours was nice and much needed. It was also nice because we could enjoy our time knowing Anna was in great hands.

Poor Lupin

 I mentioned before that Kevin couldn't make it to Anna's 2 month check up and I was very very happy to have Grandma Paula there. Anna got tired during the appointment which lead to her crying very loudly and that was before the shots. She was not a happy camper once she got poked. She was a bit fussy the rest of the day but not too bad considering.

Napping in Grandma's arms

Even though we were mainly hanging around the house (It's cold out there...brrr) it was so relaxing and we had a lovely time visiting and enjoying Anna. 

I can't even remember the last time I had this much quality time with my Mom and it was wonderful. We were so happy she was able to come out this week and help take care of us.

On her last day we did manage to get out of the house because Kevin insisted Mom see the Tridge before leaving town.  I mean it's not every day you see one. I stayed in the car with Anna while they went to check it out.

Paula on The Tridge

As usual our week ended too quickly and it was time to get Mom back home. Unfortunately for her, her flight out of Cleveland was canceled and she had to get re-booked onto a later flight. She was initially supposed to get to K.C. at 3pm but didn't make it back until after 10pm. Talk about a long day!  

Thanks again Mom for spending the week with us and helping us out so much. We love you and miss you!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I thought that Anna's first Valentine's Day called for a little photo shoot. She was a little cranky for part of it and then flailing her limbs uncontrollably for the rest so even though I took a million pictures only a few turned out alright. Here are some of my favorites.


Anna has been a bit fussy about tummy time lately but she is getting better and better at it!

Our little cutie bug is ready for size 2 diapers! We're just finishing up a few that we have left of size 1 (and we had to stop using one brand in size 1 that she kept blowing out...the clean up just was NOT worth it)

This is my favorite picture of the day. We just love our little Valentine so much!

 

Anna in Kansas: Part 2

In Part 2 you'll get to see a rare sight. Grandad holding a tiny baby! This is something that in general he does not do. Well, I guess nobody told Kevin this and before anyone knew what was happening Kevin plopped Anna down in Grandad's arms. I ran to get the camera because I had to document it. The moment was brief because Anna started fussing but here is the proof!

Grandad and Anna

 Next stop was my parents house. Kevin and I dropped Anna off and then drove to pick up Hailie and Seth from school. We thought it was a surprise but as soon as they saw us we realized they already knew. The first thing Hailie said was "Where's Anna?". 

Hailie was pretty stoked to finally get to meet her cousin! She was very helpful too. I remember holding her when she was that young and here she is holding my daughter. Crazy!

Hanging out with Grandpa Chuck!

 Both Hailie and Seth change so much each time we see them. This trip, however, it really hit us how much Seth has changed. Where did that little chubby blonde haired baby go?!?!

 Being a 10 year boy, Seth isn't particularly interested in babies. After we picked him up from school he went straight to his room. A little bit later I headed over there and asked him if he'd like to meet his baby cousin. His response was, "Oh yeah". He'd pretty much forgotten. Seth did seem interested in holding her later on and luckily we got a picture of it. 

Kevin and I had planned on going to church with my family that Sunday. We were over at their house finishing up getting ready to go when I started having some back pain. I look some ibuprofen but it did nothing and in the 10 minutes or so it took to drive to church I was in excruciating pain. Kevin and I had to leave Anna in the arms of my Mom and we were headed to E.R.

 Long story short...I had a kidney stone and I'll get to look forward to the pain again in the future because there is one in my other kidney. It wasn't exactly how I'd imagined spending the day on our already short visit but what can you do? Luckily Anna was darling at church and they had a blast showing her off.

Because of the pain medication I was given I wasn't able to nurse Anna for most of the rest of the day. I had one bottle of pumped milk but my freezer stash for emergencies was in Michigan so we had to do formula for the afternoon/evening. What are the chances? Luckily she switched back fine and we've had no problems since. 

Although Hailie wanted to see us more at least Anna was over there and she had a blast helping take care of her. That was the longest Kevin and I had both been away from her since she was born. Thank goodness we had the family around so Anna didn't have to hang out in the E.R.

 

 The trip went way too quickly. We so wish we'd had more time and didn't have to waste half a day at the hospital. Hopefully we'll be back very soon and things won't be quite so crazy.

 

 Thank you to everyone who came to see us while we were back and if we missed you this trip hopefully we'll see you next time!!!

Anna in Kansas: Part 1

I have way too many pictures from our trip to Kansas and it was impossible for me to choose! I would love to put them all but I can't. Since I'm so behind on posting this I'm going to attempt to let the pictures tell the story but I often say that and it doesn't happen. I have split pictures up so this post features more of the Kent's and the next will be more of the Copp's.

We had an incredibly early flight and although we had some hotel drama the night before the flight went great! Anna slept most of the time and didn't seem to care about pressure changes at all.

Baby's first flight!

We were both fairly exhausted by the time we made it to Topeka but luckily there were tons of people ready to get their hands on Anna so we could get rested and cleaned up.

Uncle Scotty!

 Adell and Anna got to meet for the first time and it was pretty cute. Adell was a little timid but seemed pretty interested in Anna. It will be fun to see them playing together when Anna gets a little older.

Grandpa Kevin introducing the grandbabies

 We were very pleased with how well Anna did with all the new people. She did start using the pacifier much more than she ever has. Now that we're back she doesn't seem to need it very often so we think it was her way of dealing with the traveling and so many new faces.

Nap time with Uncle James

 Anna got to meet so many wonderful friends and family during her brief visit. She is one lucky kid!

Chillin' with Grandpa Kevin

Patti had some darling matching outfits for the girls to wear. So cute! 

Family photo

Patti was not excited at all to be holding both girls. :)

Grandma Patti and the girls

 We loved getting to see Adell. It had been since summer and she has changed so much. Since she is 11 month older than Anna it is sort of a preview of a year from now. Crazy!

Hugs!

 

I love this one of Thomas and Kevin looking down at their daughters. 

Anna's hair is starting to come back in on the top. I love her hairline and how it scrunches up when she is concerned or surprised. 

Kevin also had a blast with the dogs. I failed at getting a family shot with Kevin and his parents or brothers but somehow I managed to get one of Kevin with the dogs...go figure. 

Jackie, Bella, and Maddie loving up on Kevin

I apologize if your photo with Anna didn't make it in. It took me forever just to go through the photos and then get it narrowed down to this many. That many pictures and I still didn't get all the one's I would have liked...

2 Months old!

Last week Anna turned 2 months old! It's hard to believe 2 months has already gone by. She's changed so much and in looking back at older pictures I'm truly amazed by how much. I have a bazillion pictures to sort through from our Kansas trip and the week with my Mom here but I figured I'd get this photo shoot up and work on the rest later.

We had Anna's 2 month appointment this last week and I was very happy to have my Mom at the appointment with me. Kevin was unable to come due to some work craziness and I appreciated the support since Anna had to get a bunch of shots :(

Kevin sat Anna up for this picture and I managed to get a picture or two in before the inevitable happened.

The inevitable.

Anna weighed 11 lbs 2oz this appointment putting her at 39%! She measured 22 inches long (21%) which was exciting since she was only 8% last time. Her head is still big: 16 inches (96%) and to quote the doctor "she has a big melon". 

She's been smiling a lot more but especially in the last week. She'll have moments where you know she's looking right at you and she'll smile and coo and it is absolutely adorable. 

She's been getting stronger and really enjoys laying down and moving her arms and legs like crazy. It did make getting pictures a bit challenging since she is a bit unpredictable in her movement but it was still fun.

Anna has had a few 5 hour (or close to) stretches of sleep over the last week or so which I will say was pretty awesome for me. It's not consistent yet but I'll take it whenever I can!

We are continually amazed at how beautiful our little girl is and we just love her to pieces!