Three Months

Ansley is three months old!  I can't believe how quickly it is all going by.  Sometimes it feels like just yesterday that I was in the hospital having her.  But it is hard to remember life before her.  Our family of four just makes my heart want to burst!

Yesterday she had her well child visit at the pediatrician's office.  She is between the 25-50th percentile for both height and weight.  Her head (in Hamby tradition) is in the 75th percentile.  Large heads to fit their large brains, I like to say.  She is still sleeping good stretches through the night.  Her pediatrician said that I could add rice cereal to my breast milk before her nighttime feeding to see if that would encourage her to sleep through the night.

She remains such a happy baby.  She loves to watch her big brother and her eyes follow him around the room.  She also likes television, a fact of which I am not proud of nor do I support.  If I am feeding her, I am apt to let Liam watch a few minutes of Calliou on t.v.  She tries to arch her body in the direction of the t.v. to watch the magical glowing box.  If I try to turn her body away from the t.v., she breaks suction and is done with her meal.  She has made her decision on what is more important, and entertainment has won.

She doesn't mind tummy time the way that Liam did.  She is pretty good about raising up on her forearms and lifting her head for short periods of time.  She also likes to sit upright in her bouncy chair or super positioner. She loves to smile and has recently started squealing.  She also "found her hands" a few days ago and spends long stretches of time analyzing her fingers and arms. 

My mom had bought all of these adorable outfits for Ansley, and despite the fact that we have had a few beautiful Dallas days (a few days ago it was 83), it has been a little chilly to put her into many of them.  Now that she is getting ready to grow out of her 3 month wardrobe, I am rushing to make sure that she can wear each outfit at least once!  I remember with Liam we would look in the back of his closet and realize that there were clothes whose tags were never taken off!  However, I have several pregnant friends, so the clothes will always be put to good use.

I love my little Ansley Claire and I feel so blessed to have her!

Family pictures

Recently, my dear friend Amy, took some family photos of us.  I am late in putting them up, but thought that I would take a few minutes while the boys are at Costco!  Here are a few more of the pics she took.

We have been working on a photo wall in our living room.  We hope that we will eventually be able to make it a massive collection of our family and friends.  And with several friends who are amazing photographers, the only difficult decision will be which ones to choose from!

Houston

This past weekend we made a trip down to Houston to visit Eric's grandparents and Aunt Debbie and Uncle Paul.  While Liam has made the trip several times, this was Ansley's first time to meet her Houston family. It also marked our first time traveling with Ansley since she was born.  We comically  loaded up our SUV with a week's worth of goods.  All that was lacking was a rocking chair strapped to the roof!  What is even more embarrassing is that Eric's grandparents have a pack-n-play and bouncy chair and toys, and we still managed to fill our car to the brim. 

Houston is only about 260 miles from Dallas.  However, with the numerous stops we made, what should have been a 3 1/2 - 4 hour trip stretched to over 5 hours.  Fifty minutes into the trip, we had already stopped four times to change two phantom poopy diapers (yay potty training), stop at Starbucks and feed Ansley at a McDonald's.  It was supposed to rain the entire time, but fortunately while the sky was overcast, we never saw a drop. 

 Nevertheless, we made it to Houston safe and sound.  Liam LOVES to visit with his family.  He probably loves the undivided attention he gets from people after being home with me all week and having to share my attention!  While it was a quick trip, we were thrilled that everything seemed to go well. We were a little worried because Liam was going to sleep in a toddler cot, but because he didn't have a nap that afternoon, he actually slept almost the entire night.  And Ansley did great as well.  I forgot what it was like to have her sleep in our room again...babies sure are noisy!  Sunday morning we started our drive back to Dallas in time to watch the Super Bowl.  It was a great weekend and hopefully one of many road trips that we will take as a family.

Hanging out with Papa Hamby on the porch swing

Ansley cuddling with Nonni Mary

Meeting Auntie Debbie

Nonni loved holding Ansley

Watching Cars with Uncle Paul. Paul, by the way, is totally awesome with kids and we LOVE spending time with him.  He is incredibly talented and even has his own kids music CD.

I just love this shot of Ansley looking at her Papa.

Great Grandpa and Ansley

Two Months

As always, I am a little behind in posting Ansley's monthly stats.  At two months she is in the 50th percentile for everything!  She is such a sweet, mellow baby...just the one I signed up for!  She is a great eater and a good sleeper.  She is finally starting to have a sleep schedule and during the night she usually sleeps a 6 or 7 hour stretch followed by a 4 hour stretch.  She takes about three different naps a day.


She loves to be cuddled, but is also ok napping or hanging out in her swing or in her bouncy chair while I tend to Liam.  Have I mentioned how much fun it is to potty train a toddler with a newborn?  Ha!  The process has taken a lot longer than I thought it would.  I love when I am feeding Ansley and hear, "Mommy, I made poo poo!"

To add to the mix, since the dogs can't roam outside without a leash during the pool renovation, there have been several accidents in the house.  Let's just say that I wish I were getting paid by the poop in our household.  Liam continues to be incredibly sweet to his sister.  He will sing to her or try to calm her if she cries.  Sometimes he is...a little too much help!  I have caught him trying to feed her food and cover her entire body and face with a blanket because he thought she might be cold!  I have to remind myself to be patient with him at these times because he is trying his best to help out.  In fact, you should see his pleased expression when I "let" him throw away Ansley's dirty diapers.

Ansley is so much more aware these days, laughing, following us with her eyes, etc. She loves to watch her brother and he has learned the sheer delight of playing peek-a-boo with her or trying to make her laugh.  We have been doing our best to "talk" the siblings up to each other (i.e. "Ansley, look at how much your brother loves you, he brought you your pacifier" "Liam, you are such a great big brother to watch out for your little sister", etc.).  We hope that they will grow up to love each other and not feel competitive or resentful of one another.

Liam loves to "hold" his little sister.  I am not sure Ansley loves it quite as much.

The parenting bible study I am taking advises letting Liam start doing chores like feeding the dogs, getting dressed by himself, helping me bring in the mail, open curtains in the morning, etc.  And he really seems to be thriving with his new responsibilities and the feeling that he is making a contribution to our family.

Overall, things are going well here.  Although there are times where I get pretty frazzled, I love our little family!