Fun with Grandma Ruth

I am on my way out of town (my first night away from Reese) for a client meeting in San Antonio. Here's Reese having fun with Grandma Ruth!

I have decided she has Matt's eyes and brows and my nose and cheeks! Her eyes look blue one day and hazel the next...we'll have to wait a bit longer to know for sure.

More Pictures

Here are some pictures of Reese and Daddy from this morning (before Daddy had to go to work):

Reese strolls for babies

This morning Matt, Reese and I walked in the March of Dimes walk at UH. The weather was cool and breezy which made for a nice stroll. Reese did great and slept most of the way. We didn't walk the entire route, but enough to say we did it. We hung out at the EY tent and fed Reese before everyone else got back. Then we enjoyed a BBQ lunch and visited with the EY folks before heading home.

Friday night, Reese and I had dinner with some of my Hitachi girlfriends at Nit Noi. Matt picked her up half way through the dinner as Reese was tired. It gave me a chance to hang with the girls and have a glass of wine. We had a great time!

Reese's Baby Portraits

We finally had some professional pictures of Reese made a couple of weeks ago. Courteney Miller came to our home and captured some special moments with Reese.

You can see Courteney's favorites on her blog: http://www.courteneymillerphotography.blogspot.com/. Karsyn and her cousin Kegan are featured before Reese.

Reese was so patient with us as she had to skip a nap and delay a feeding to take the pictures. I think they really turned out great! Now I've got to pick a few for her birth announcement!

You can see that Reese has many different facial expressions and looks completely different from one pose to the next.

I just had to show this one; I love it!

This was Matt's idea; putting my bridal portrait in the background.

Momma just had to put the headband on Baby Reese. :)

Look at those curled tootsies!

I loved this idea; a symbol of our marriage and the miracle we made.

We are both laughing!

We have so much love for our baby.

Smiling at momma.

I love love love this one!

Back to work!

I went back to work yesterday and it was not too bad. It was not as hard as I thought it would be, but I'd been preparing myself over the past week. I woke up a little late and Reese woke up a little early so that put a small kink in my morning plan. I had decided to pump and just as I started Reese woke up, so Matt fed her a bottle of formula. Then Reese watched me get ready. By the time Matt and I left around 8:00, Reese was falling asleep so it worked out well. I received a warm welcome from everyone at work and it was nice to see them and start getting back into the routine.

This morning was another story. I nursed Reese and then Grandma gave her a bottle while I prepared breakfast. She finished her bottle pretty quickly and then sat in kitchen in her bouncer while I ate. Shortly after, she started to poop and it was huge! I picked her up about 30 seconds after she finished and the poop was up and down both sides and the front and back of her onesie! "My stars!" I said "We've got to put you in the bath!" Matt must have heard me because when I carried her into the bathroom he was filling her tub. It was so bad that I had to cut her onesie off of her little body (this is something I read about in Jenny McCarthy's book; who knew I would ever have to actually do it). Matt brought me wipes and a plastic bag to throw it all in. Whew! What a mess! I'll bet Reese felt better though. :) And I am certain Grandma was glad Reese did it while we were still home. Grandma threw the bouncer cover in the wash as it was covered in poop too!

BTW, Grandma made it to Houston safe and sound and is all settled. Aunt Jamie brought her and spent the weekend. We hung out at our house on Friday night and had pizza and beer. Saturday we shopped and then had dinner at Mom and Sam's. Matt worked in the yard all weekend.

Reese and I went for a walk one day last week and she rode in the sling. I think she liked it! She fell asleep along the way.

Reese has been talking and smiling more and more. She also likes to put her fist in her mouth and continues to drool and blow bubbles. She notices the toy spiders on her Itsy Bitsy bouncer and tries to reach them.

I read her a book the other day while she sat in the bouncer and she just kicked away. She was so alert and seemed to enjoy me reading to her. She is able to make her bouncer bounce when she kicks now.

A busy morning!

I got up at 6:15 this morning and got ready before I fed Reese at 7:15. It was a practice run for the real thing next week when I go back to work. Reese and I were going to see Mom at her office today too, so we had to get up and get with it.

When I got out of the shower, this is how I found Reese and Matt...I think this habit will be hard to break! We are enjoying bringing her in our room in the morning when she starts stiring at 4:30 a.m. I wonder why she starts fussing? I think she may have gas/tummy ache, but don't know for sure. She is still asleep at this time but makes a lot of noise which wakes me up, so I end up bringing her to our room to sleep a bit more. Look how good she is sleeping..I had to waker her to feed her.


Reese and I got to meet all of the ladies Mom works with at Higman. They just adored Reese!

Afterwards, Shelli, Paityn and Kade came over and brought lunch. Shelli and I had fun catching up and watching the kids play.

Paityn loves her little brother, Baby Kade!

Kade is very vocal at 9 months! I really enjoyed watching him play on his tummy and make all sorts of sounds. He kept waving at Reese and me; so cute!

Reese is 3 months old today!

Reese is 12 weeks / 3 months old today. Wow! Baby girl, you are growing up fast. We are loving every minute of it too!

Posing like a little Muhammad Ali:

Charting her growth beside her bunny ~ 12 weeks old.

Compared to 8 weeks. How funny, her arms are doing the same thing in both pictures.

Yesterday, Mom came over and helped us with the guest bedroom. Reese slept most of the time, so we got a lot done. I finally woke her up to feed her and then she played with Mom while I prepared dinner.

Scott and Lauren came over for dinner around 6:00. Reese was so good while they were here. She was a little sleepy but didn't really nap at all. She sat in her bouncer and entertained herself while we ate dinner. I fed her after I ate and then Matt put her in her pj's. Here's a picture of Scott holding her before she finally got tired and we put her down.

Things I love about Reese...

In no particular order:

1. Reese laughing in her sleep.

2. Reese smiling in her sleep.

3. Reese smiling at me and her Daddy.

4. Reese talking to me and listening to me echo her sounds back to her.

5. Reese yawning...the sounds and facial expressions are so cute!

6. Reese coughing...the sound is so cute!

7. Reese's chubby cheeks.

8. Reese blowing bubbles.

9. Reese sneezing...she does this a lot!

10. The intense look in her eyes when she is sucking on her paci or nursing.

11. Telling Reese how much I love her and giving her hugs and kisses.

12. How Reese pulls her legs up, when she is laying down, like she is working her abs or something. She usually lets out a few toots too. She is a funny girl!

13. How Reese has little patience for a dirty diaper. I usually hear her pooping and give her a minute or so to make sure she is finished. If I wait a minute too long she'll scream bloody murder until I get her changed!

14. When Reese is hungry, she is hungry and you'd better feed her ASAP. She gives little warning, if I miss the rooting cues, she'll open up her lungs and let me know it's time!

15. How I call her "Baby Bears" now...I'll have a new name for her in a few weeks I'm sure.

16. Cuddle bugging with Reese.

17. How Reese always has sleep in her eyes just like her Daddy.

18. How she can be mad one minute and happy the next.

19. Making up new songs to sing to Reese.

20. The way all of her different cries sound.

21. The way she gets bored with doing a particular thing (such as watching her mobile) and let's me know about it (so we move to the bouncer).

22. How she changes every single day and seems to be growing like a weed right before our very eyes.

Reese's hair is getting lighter, so I think it's falling out and growing back lighter. She also has major bushy eyebrows like her parents. I think hers are more like Matt's but maybe that is because I wax mine now. :)

We can't tell what color her eyes will be. Sometimes they look blue and other times they look brown.

Yesterday, Matt kept Reese for a few hours while I went to see "The Other Boleyn Girl" with Jennifer. He dressed her in this outfit (I put the bow on her for pictures): a pink Ralph Lauren polo given to Reese by her Uncle Chris and a pair of jeans that Matt bought her at Target the other night. Matt couldn't wait to dress her in this polo, but we didn't have any jeans or khaki's for her to wear with it, so he went to Target the other night and found her some. What a sweet Daddy! I was kidding him that he always manages to find her cute bargain priced clothes (the jeans and pants were on sale big time) while I find her expensive Gap priced clothes. Figures! So here are the pictures we took of her.

What a big bow! ~ Almost 12 weeks old!

When I got home from the movie, Matt had just fed Reese and she was tired. I rocked her and she passed out and slept on the couch for 2 1/2 hours! We worked on the guest room (our current junk room) to get it cleaned up for Grandma Ruth. Matt and I have finally decided to rid ourselves of junk we no longer need or will never use. Thanks to an Oprah show I watched on hoarding, I'm now determined to be more simplistic. I don't need all of that stuff that I've been hanging on to for years, and I'm not going to buy anymore crap! Less is more; however, we are holding on to 4 big boxes of pictures that we just don't have time to sort through right now. I've found lots of pictures of me and the girls in the family as babies/kids. It's neat to see how Reese looks a little like all of us. The girls in our family really do favor each other as we all have the same nose and cheeks. I told Matt, Reese will be able to see my entire life through all of the pictures I have documenting the journey.

Here are some pictures of her sleeping. Reese does the funniest things with her hands and fingers.

Suspended in mid air.

She takes really good naps on the couch.

Reese also likes to sit like this now; she can entertain herself for a good while (30 minutes at least) just looking around and swinging her arms and kicking her legs.



Debbie and Mom came over on Friday afternoon and we hung out and went to lunch at Ruggles Cafe.

Reese and I love to sit on the bed after I feed her in the morning while Matt gets ready for work. She just talks away. I'll have to set some time aside for this playtime before I head out to work each day.

This week Reese started to enjoy her floor gym a little bit more. She noticed the toys hanging down and was very entertained. We sat and played for at least 30 minutes. I was able to read two books to her while she admired the toys. I pointed out the kitten, bird and rattle to her.

Hanging out on the couch with Mommy.