Mother Daughter Daughter Lunch

My elementary school BFF and I have reunited again. Meredith and I were inseparable from Kindergarten through 6th grade. For most of those years, the Millers lived across the alley from us and we walked to/from school together everyday. We spent most afternoons playing with barbies or babies at one of our houses and now our girls may get to do the same.

Benton and I are on about 7 month lag to Meredith and her husband, Kyle. They married in April 2006, then Benton and I married in November 2006. Meredith and Kyle had Stella Cate in April 2009 and we had Haven in November 2009.

Now, we are members at the same church and Mere and I are in MOPS together. We've kept up with each other through the years, but it's been fun to see her on a regular basis again. Mere's mom, Mary Lee, was truly like a second mom to me and the six of us got together for lunch a couple weeks ago.

Grandmothers with their Granddaughters

We have lots of these. I'll have to dig up some old ones.

Stella Cate, Meredith, Haven, me

check out this girls gut :)

Car Hater

Oh. My. Gosh...this is SOOOO painful. It started in mid January, but it was manageable and is now a predictable nightmare. At first, Haven would fuss in the car but if you could persevere and get her to take her pacifier, she would calm down and be okay. In fact, I got good at driving with my left arm behind me holding the pacimal in her mouth. Don't judge, desperate times call for desperate measures. But this has since escalated to all-out screaming for the entire duration of all trips. Haven starts fussing before we are out of the driveway and is all-out screaming before we are out of the neighborhood.

It's not the carseat because she is fine before we get in the car and in her stroller. I thought maybe she wasn't stimulated enough, so I bought a Baby Einstein mirror that has lights and plays music...but there was no improvement. I've tried talking to her, singing kiddy songs, playing classical music on the radio...yet no change, just screaming. Even when someone is sitting in the back with her, she still wails. I thought she must be at an odd angle and uncomfortable, but I have finally come to the conclusion that Benton is right - there is nothing wrong with her she just hates the car.

Everyone says, "that is so weird, most babies love the car." Yeah, I get that and it's not helpful. It was heartbreaking at first, but I've started to become numb to it (well, as much as you can). My best solution has been to not go very many places and when we do, my only hope for each trip is that she will scream cry herself to sleep. Hopefully she will outgrow this soon. She has to eventually, right?

I'm Coming Out

Thanks to Aunt Amy and Grammy, Benton and I have still been able to go out and enjoy each other without the baby in tow. Haven even had her first sleepover in January so Benton and I could go out with our dear and most-fun-friends, Eliza and Troy. It was deemed our "coming out" party and boy did we! It was weird to drive off without Haven knowing that I wouldn't see her until the next day, but I got over it and she did great! Eliza and Troy are a guaranteed crazy fun time, but we are too old and Haven is too little for us to party with them very often.

a little matchy? I didn't notice that until this picture.

Simon came and met us for a minute since mama and daddy don't get out much

a little two stepping back at our house to end the evening

Grammy's Birthday

Haven and I spent the day in Plano on Grammy's birthday and then the whole fam met for dinner the following Saturday to celebrate. Betsy was able to join us and she got the brunt of Haven's car screaming (more on that in a later post).

Granddaughters

Haven and Grammy

Grammy, you are the best! We are so blessed to have you and get to spend so much time with you. We hope you enjoyed your day. We love you and don't know what we'd do without you!

Two Months

We had Haven's two month doctor appointment on January 20th. She looks like such a chunk, but her stats would indicate otherwise...

Weight - 11.03 lbs (25%)

Height - 21.5 in (25%)

Head - 38.4 cm (50%)

Haven was asleep when we got back into the room, but of course woke up when we had to take her clothes off and she made us pay for it. As we were walking to the scale she projectile spit-up (mostly on their floor), then she peed on the scale when I took off her diaper. I'm sure she's not the first baby to do any of that though. She got shots which are no fun, especially since this girl is a screamer!

Dr. Curtis noticed that Haven has been favoring her right side, so the back of her head was slightly flat. To prove her right, Haven screamed at her when Dr. Curtis turned her head to the left. She recommended that Haven nap on her tummy and tried to get her to turn to her left as much as possible. Hopefully we've reversed the damage, but we won't know until her four month appointment.

not a happy patient

2 month chair pic

Happy girl!

First Trip to Church

We finally made it back to church in January and this picture sums up Haven's experience...

Thankfully, she slept through the service and Sunday School. Benton had to swing her around in the hall a bit to get her to sleep, but once he did, she was out! We went to the mall after church to meet our friends Karley and Brett for lunch, and she slept through most of that too. She is so easy to do things with when she sleeps like that. When she is awake is a different story!

Cute newborn dress and shrug that I squeezed her into one last time. As my mom would say, she looked like a 10lb sausage in a 5lb casing. I just wanted her to get one more wearing out of it!

Bling

In my excitement over our baby girl (naturally), I failed to mention how incredibly thoughtful my husband is. He spoils me rotten and gave me diamond earrings for a "push present." I was completely surprised! Benton was so perfectly supportive throughout my entire pregnancy and labor that this was just the icing on the cake. He gave me the earrings before I got the epidural because he thought it might take my mind off of the contractions. It worked, kind of, but I don't think I gave him the proper attention such a sweet husband deserved.


Benton, you are the best husband a girl could dream of. Thank you for always being such a sweet, thoughtful, supportive gentleman. Haven and I are so lucky to have you. XOXO