Pictures!

Easter Sunday nap

I finally captured a true smile!

Happy Easter!

We were already visited by the Easter bunny (he ate our tulips)!

 These were the two attempts at a good family photo after Easter vigil.  I clearly shouldn't be trusted holding my daughter since I seem to let her flop in pictures.  So I got her head up for try number two, but then she decided to show what she thought of the picture taking, obviously boring.  Oh well.

"O Happy Fault, O Necessary Sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!"  Praise be to God!  Happy Easter!

Random Musings

1.  Today, April 23, 2011, we woke up to snow on the ground!  So much for outdoor Easter egg hunts.  Thank heavens it's gone now.  I think someone up there missed the spring memo.

2.  Just before leaving for Holy Thursday Mass, Miss Monica skillfully managed to spit up down my shirt causing me to need to change and then she continued her bathroom marathon by going while we were changing her.  Good thing I got laundry detergent for .88 cents last week.

3.  I have started couponing (hence the .88 cent laundry detergent).  I'm not like that TV show, "Extreme Couponing," but just give me time.  Just kidding.  It's impossible for me to be that extreme because no stores around here double coupons, but I can already see how much money we will be saving after only two weeks.

4.  Speaking of money, this week we are officially debt free!  I know we don't own a house so it's not that amazing, but I'm proud of no credit card, car loans or school loan debt.

Cutest Family Ever!

No I'm not bias, it's just the truth.

Lent

Lent has been unique this year.  Monica was born on Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday was spent in the hospital.  Even though we received ashes, Christ's sacrifice was the last thing on my mind.  I didn't even really get started with some of my Lenten sacrifices until two weeks in.  But having a new baby during Lent has gifted me with new reflections about the love of the Lord for His children.  As a parent you can't help but be sacrificial.  A baby has needs that they can't meet on their own and sometimes those needs are quite urgent (blow outs, hungry tummies, etc) therefore your needs sometimes have to wait (it's a good thing I got used to the feeling of needing to pee badly during pregnancy).  The truth is, it isn't really that hard to sacrifice for Monica or Tony.  I love them so much and I know I'm fulfilling my God given vocation therefore it doesn't feel like a sacrifice to put their needs ahead of mine.  These reflections make me think of Christ's sacrifice for us not in sorrow, but as the most triumphant and greatest love story ever told.  "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

I've also been trying to focus on the acronym J. (Jesus first) O. (Others second) Y. (Yourself last) and pray for the grace to have this truly be the attitude of my heart in all things I do.  Left to my own devices, I am such a Martha (Luke 10: 38-42).  I am a task oriented person, overflowing with to do lists.  Monica is helping me become more of a Mary because I have to pause from the things I think are important to sit and be with her when nursing.  This has helped me to realize how fruitful it is to reflect, pray, read, etc.  Of course I could have done this better in the past, but the tasks got in the way.  I am so grateful for the blessings this gift from God brings into my life every day.

The Best Weekend

Tony's schedule is rotating shifts of 7 day weeks which make the "weekends" seem light years away from each other.  On Wednesday morning, Tony finished working Mids (10:30pm to 7:30 am) which is a hard shift because we spend very little awake OR sleeping time together.  So after feeling starved for some family time, without planning, this weekend evolved into a relaxing and productive one. 

Wednesday night we got Chipotle for dinner and went to Bingo at the Knights of Columbus hall.  Monica was perfectly behaved, much to the surprise of the bunch of people who told us so.  No, we didn't win.

Thursday morning Tony took care of Monica so I could sleep in and then when I woke up (at 11am! Sheesh- guess I was tired) he brought me breakfast in bed!  Super husband.  Then we went to softball practice (we are going to play on a team this spring).  Again, Monica was perfect.  It was a gorgeous day, so after getting some things done around the house, we went for a drive around the area and got ice cream.  There are a bunch of seasonal soft serve places around here that have all begun to open up.  That night we watched Mary Poppins (I swear it was Tony's idea). 

Today, Tony again watched Monica so I could dive into the couponing world.  When I got home from my adventures in couponing, we went to daily Mass.  Then Tony worked in the yard and I, the house.  We had super yummy homemade mac and cheese from my Deceptively Delicious cookbook (hidden sweet potatoes and cauliflower- trust me, it's great) and watched an episode of Alias.  Now we're off to bed to read, Tony has to be to work by 6:30 tomorrow.

Who knew two and a half days could be filled with so much great family time and fun?!  I don't have a single picture from the weekend (boring I know) because we just spent it in the moment.  I couldn't have planned a better weekend if I tried. 

Cute as a Button

Since Monica was born I've called her a bunch of different nicknames.  My favorite and the one I use the most is Button because she's cute as a button.  Now 5 weeks in, Tony says to me, "Where did the saying cute as a button come from?  Have you ever heard someone say, oh that's a cute button?"  Umm . . . good point.  Oh well, she's still my little button!

Love/ Hate

Cause this is thriller, thriller night.

I LOVE that no matter how much I try, Monica's hair looks like we stuck her finger in an electrical socket (case and point: awesome Flock of Seagulls hairdo above).  No hair gel was used in the making of this picture.

I LOVE her grunts as she tries to work through the poos.  Then the grand finale of an explosive poo sound or two (or three).

I HATE having to hold the pacifier/ repeatedly pick up the pacifier and put it back in her mouth because I was the stupid one who gave it to her in the first place.  She uses it sparingly (mainly at 5 in the morning when she's been fed and changed and rocked and won't go back to sleep) and I've discovered that I use it more when I'm tired and want a quick way to calm her down.  Note to self: laziness on my part just equals more work later.

I LOVE that she sometimes acts like a rabid squirrel when trying to attach to breastfeed.

I LOVE watching her with Tony.  I can already tell that he's the cool parent.  It was always going to be that way, who am I kidding?

I HATE when she chokes and then gasps for air with all limbs spread wide and a panicked look on her face (she usually does this once a day).  Instant heart attack for mom.

I LOVE when she makes eye contact with me or reacts to my voice.

I LOVE that just when I stopped recording the video below she smiled.  It's like she knows. :o)

P.S.  You will probably only find these videos entertaining if you are her grandparents.  She really doesn't do much yet.

Here's the one later in the day when daddy was awake.  She's more active (aka fussy) in this one.

One Month Today!

Happy one month birthday Monica Marie!

It has been a slow month and a fast month if that makes any sense.  It is amazing to see her progress already: she is becoming more verbal with coos and grunts, she can get her fist in her mouth, she can hold her head up higher and longer, she can focus on faces and track them as they move, she is starting to smile in response to Mom and Dad and if possible, she's gotten cuter!

Plus she slept 4 hours straight last night!

Thanks to my friend Dori for the cute hat!

The suns in my eyes Mom!

Leaving for a walk.  It's been sunny and warmer for three days straight now!

Tummy time this morning, she lifted her head to the right and then back again!

My attempt at taking a picture of the two of us. 
Best I could do balancing a baby in one hand and a camera in the other.

And as for progress for Mommy, I can fit into pre-pregnancy jeans again!  Now before you get too impressed, these where the jeans that fit me last March before I lost some weight, not the jeans I was wearing when I got pregnant. :o)  But still, it feels good to wear pants that button.  I was getting sick of pulling up my pregnancy pants because I didn't have a belly to hold them up anymore.  None the less, it's affirming to know I'm on my way back to my true pre-pregnancy weight (and hopefully lower)!

Vaccines

When I was younger, torture was being told to look it up when I asked how to spell a word.  I don't like dictionaries. :o)  Even as an adult I would wonder out loud about something and my roommate would look up the answer online (sorry Julie).  Now as a mom, its up to me to filter through all the opinions and "right" answers and find whats right for our family and my child.  The first of these important decisions came up with vaccines. 

Previous to having kids, I didn't think anything of vaccines.  A friend brought to my attention the following website which claims that vaccines were created with aborted fetal cells.  This greatly concerned Tony and me so we decided to dig deeper.

http://www.cogforlife.org/fetalvaccines.htm

Next, we read the following posts which left us with more questions and concerns about ingredients in vaccines and the supposed link between autism and vaccines.  These posts offer a lot of information to think about and many many more resources.

http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2011/02/the-thoughtful-parents-guide-to-thinking-through-vaccinations.html

http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2011/03/the-thoughtful-parents-guide-to-thinking-through-vaccinations-10-questions-to-ask.html

http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2011/03/the-thoughtful-parents-guide-to-thinking-through-vaccinations-pro-vaccine-and-cautionary-resources.html

Here's where that just wanting to be told the "right" answer came in.  So we decided to ask a logical source- our pediatrician.  Long story short, she seemed to interrupt our questions about vaccines as an intention to not vaccinate our child and therefore condemn Monica and anyone she comes in contact with to death.  We simply wanted to be educated.  Luckily, my aunt is a pediatric nurse and we asked her about vaccines and she lead us to the following information.

To clarify- the supposed autism and vaccine link came from one fraudulent study that has been investigated and refuted.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/06/autism.vaccines/index.html

My aunt gave us the following links and wrote the following:

"www.cdc.gov/vaccines and www.immunize.com. They are both well-thought-of and regularly referenced by the medical community. (And just to be clear, because people sometimes have funny ideas about such things, the CDC does not make the vaccines--it disseminates information about them, and serves as a kind of center and clearing house for state-reported information about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases, among other things).

  I found another link tonight that I think might be helpful to you, since it gives more scientific information about the origins of the human diploid cell lines in which the vaccines in question are grown, and addresses the concerns you raised from a religious standpoint. It is www.immunizationinfo.org/issues/vaccine-components/human-fetal-links-some-vaccines."

While the previous link is still disturbing, it gives the facts about the origins of some vaccines and the Church's reaction and stance.

Last, but not least, here is one more article from Parents magazine that breaks down the individual vaccines.  I found this article very helpful because I could read one small section of the article at a time or look at the particular vaccines that Monica is scheduled to get next.
http://www.parenting.com/article/guide-to-vaccines
There is a lot of information to sort through out there, but hopefully this post gives a balance of information to help other parents make the best decision for their family and children.

Day Two of Clingy Baby

Monica is SERIOUSLY the most laid back baby so I am not complaining, but no one wants to read stories about how perfect my child is so you'll all be happy to know that she has not want me to put her down for the past two days making life around the house a little more challenging.  I am becoming increasingly good at doing things one handed and have composed a poem in honor of our baby bjorn carrier which allows the use of both hands.  Already this morning I rushed the crying child from our bedroom as to not wake Tony (he's on swing shift and therefore doesn't go to bed until 1 am), washed one hand, fixed myself breakfast one handed, changed her and then REALLY changed her after she peed all over the place while changing her the first time (screaming child because I wasn't holding her), washed one hand, ate breakfast, used the restroom myself (screaming child because I wasn't holding her again), washed one hand, cleaned up from breakfast and wrote this post.  All with one hand.  The rest of the day will be interesting trying to do and fold laundry and clip coupons.  Also, I really don't think softball practice is going to work while holding Monica.  Guess I'll be the cheerleader today. :o) 

She's sleeping . . . I'm going to attempt to put her down, wish me luck!

Here's some recent pictures.



She's discovered her fist.




Tummy time! 




Too cute to pass up.




Just cause she's wearing a new outfit.




Her really really pink outfit for church yesterday.



Her reaction to the really really pink outfit.



Her pre-poop concentration face.




Her post poop, I'm pooped face.