Napping and Splashing

Aspen is about 15 weeks old now and things are getting easier everyday. The biggest accomplishment of this past week (other than the rolling over) is her napping habits. Ever since we brought her home she has been an amazing sleeper at night (only with a few nights were she wakes up and wants to have play time at 3:30am--an early riser I suppose). However, not unlike her father, she has not been the biggest fan of naps. When she would take one it would be 30 minutes tops and never in her crib--always on mom's lap, in the stroller, or the swing.

Finally we have mastered the scheduled nap of the day. It's usually around lunch time and she does it in her crib! I'm so happy because I can actually get some things done around the house--or sit in front of my computer and blog about it (yes I know...not the most productive way to spend my time, but I have to keep you guys updated!). This is my little one waking up yesterday. What a priceless look on her face.



On top of getting control of her napping, she has also really taken a great turn past the colic. For any of you who have had babies with colic I can now say we are part of a club that no one understands unless they have experienced it. Now reflecting on that time, I realize it was a good thing. It tested Jason and I (and we made it through with flying colors) and we figure when we have another child we will be extra prepared for anything to come; have the hard one first and the rest seem easy is my theory.



Bath time has become a favorite around our house. Last night while Jason was giving the bath I sat back and snapped a few photos. Aspen doesn't really pay attention to the rubber ducks, but Bella goes nuts because they squeak. She actually jumped into the tub after we had taken Aspen out and was trying to fish the ducks out of the water--pretty cute.







Thanksgiving is coming up next week and we have my brother and his girlfriend coming into town. It should be an exciting week for everyone. Unfortunately Aspen won't get to eat turkey, gravy, stuffing, and the works on her first Thanksgiving, but she will at least get to enjoy the smells, festivities, and her mom will make sure to eat more than enough for the two of us.

One last adorable pic.

Happy Birthday Mommy--love Aspen

Check out the video below of my baby girl rolling over. She did this for the first time about a week ago, but I've been trying to catch her in the act since then. I know the angle of the camera is awful (I honestly didn't think she was going to do it), but at least you can see her in action.

What a great birthday present :)

Mastering the Swing

This weekend Jason's parents came into town to visit their grandchildren. It also worked out nicely that they could babysit Aspen while Jason and I attended Jason's office's holiday party.



Saturday we had a busy day hanging out with the grandparents and getting some good playtime in with Aspen. She was in such a happy mood all day long, which made for some great pictures.



On the days that I have to go to work Jason always takes Aspen and Bella for a walk up to the park near our house. This past week Jason decided to see if Aspen would enjoy the baby swings--and she did! So we decided to walk up Saturday morning and bring the cameras to get some great shots of her swinging. Doesn't she look like a dancer already striking her poses??




Of course Jason didn't want Bella to feel left out, so he put her in the swing too. I think his daughter and Bella are thinking "My dad sure is silly."



Aspen also has really taken a liking to her Bumbo chair. She enjoys wiggling her head around and building up those abdominal muscles.



Aspen also got a new toy this weekend. She is still a little small for it (she can't quite touch her feet to the bottom), but she still loved hanging out looking at all the fun toys and gadgets.




Thankfully Aspen was good for her Papa and Nanny on Saturday and all in all we had a great weekend. Earlier this week she rolled over twice for me from her belly. Unfortunately I haven't been able to catch the act on film--stay tuned!

Learning the Ropes

Sometimes when I sit back and take a second to think about how my life has changed in the past year it blows my mind. Almost a year ago we found out that we were pregnant and were going to be parents. Now three months into it I can hardly remember all the fears and unknowns I had when I was pregnant.

Aspen has started to show her personality more each day. It's amazing to see her figuring things out for herself ("Oh if I hit this it will make noise--interesting"). As many of you may or may not know, for the past month and half or so Aspen has been having the evening colic/gas. Our doctor calls it grandma's hour--around 6 o'clock she would just become very fussy. I think this is pretty normal with a lot of babies, but on top of her fussiness, she was also extremely gassy (causing pain). Thankfully the gassy part has passed. We both can deal a cranky, overtired baby, but to see our little girl in pain, it was breaking our hearts (not a lot you can do but comfort her til she worked it out).



Since she has been getting more interested in her toys and rattles we decided to go pick up a couple more this past weekend. She loves her cow, Molly. She also has an octopus, Wally (I guess she likes naming her toys so they rhyme--easier to remember I'm sure), but she doesn't seem as interested in him yet. Molly vibrates when you push her head and I think she likes the motion and the little song it plays.




I just had to add these couple of pictures.

Jason and his little girl--seems to be a little bit of nipple confusion here.




I also love this picture. Wise beyond her years (or months??)




I hope you guys enjoy the updates. I love being able to share all the things that our family is going through at different times!

Also, a little shout out: Congratulations to the Witgens (Jason's sister) for welcoming their second son, Trevor John. We are so happy that everyone is healthy and can't wait to meet the newest member of your family.

3 Months Old

Today marks Aspen's 3 month birthday. It's crazy to think just 3 months ago she arrived into our life and was a small, quiet, little newborn...oh how things have changed!

I've been trying to take a picture of Aspen in the same spot in her crib every month so you can see her changing and growing. The first two pictures are from her 1 month and 2 month birthday and the third picture is from this morning.





This is what our little girl has been up to in the past month:

She probably weighs close to 12 1/2 lbs. now and continues to get longer and longer every week. Lots of her clothes fit her body, but are to short in the length.



She continues to work hard at rolling over. She can roll from her back to side very easily, but hasn't figured out how to keep rolling over onto her tummy. Lately when she is on her stomach she likes to just kick her legs and work on looking around the room. All in good time...



She continues to have more and more different facial expressions everyday. Also, she loves to "coo" and practice making all different kinds of sounds with her voice.





Aspen still hasn't decided if she is a fan of the pacifier. Sometimes it can be helpful when she gets upset, but majority of the time she prefers her own fingers. Sometimes two works or sometimes she likes three. Which ever is working for her in the moment, she always has the right hand holding onto a chunk of her hair. I think she picked this up from her Uncle Matt who use to do the same thing when he was a baby.



For a couple of weeks now Aspen just loves bringing her hands together, which is apparently a "developmental" milestone for babies. I just think it looks cute!



She continues to be a great sleeper at night. Although during the day she only takes one long nap and the rest of the day is short "cat" naps. Lots of times the cat naps end up on her mom's lap.



Bath time is one of Aspen's favorite activites. She just loves to splash the water with her legs and arms. Hopefully she will love water and never be afraid of it like her Mom was for so long...what was that about?? I love water now, but I guess I was frightened of it when I was a young kid.



It's been a great month. We celebrated Aspen's first Halloween which was a blast, we have become much more at ease with her in general, and all in all life is great. We are heading into the holiday season, so hopefully Aspen is ready to be around lots of family, food, and fun!

Say What?

Monkey Business

Happy Halloween!



Ok yes we are a couple of days late, but sometimes with a 3 month old you can get a little preoccupied and don't always make it to the blog posts on time. Needless to say, we had a very eventful 1st Halloween weekend for Aspen.



We decided to get a monkey costume for Aspen this year and I think both of us agreed that it was....well....a waste of money. Our daughter is quite the independent child already, and she could not believe her parents were trying to dress her up in this "hot, itchy, silly costume and make me take pictures...not having it!!"



In the end I still think the photos are cute and hilarious.



We did have a cute Halloween themed onesie for her to wear with some cute pumpkin socks.



We had some friends over that night to help hand out candy to trick-or-treaters and Aspen was in a great mood all night. She was especially intrigued by our friend Grant's costume (he was Fred Flintstone).



All in all we had a great weekend. I think in the future we wont buy a costume for a little one unless they can actually get some use out of it...but it's probably a 1st time parent offensive that everyone pulls.