Bath Time and Other Fun!

Since our last post, we have been continuing to enjoy our little Sophia so much.  We had fun with Nanna who was here to babysit for 2 weeks.  Sophia also attended her first birthday party for our friends Josh and Marcie's little boy Liam's first birthday.  She is continuing to grow and now weighs 11lbs!!  She is getting more personality every day.  She is starting to smile more and definitely recognizes our voices and faces and loves to ham it up when we get home from work.  Sophia started daycare last week and so far so good.  She doesn't get upset when we drop her off, and the ladies who work there and the other kids seem to love her, so I guess that's as much as we could ask for!  Nick and I are finally getting into a routine after 3 months.  While we loved having our parents here to help us out with Sophia and cooking and cleaning, eventually we have to learn to somehow do it all on our own.   Nick spent his first full day and night alone with Sophia on Saturday when I was on call, and I think he did great.  They came by the hospital in the middle of the day to visit and the rest of the day they had father-daughter bonding time!  He's really a great dad!  I've included some pictures below mostly from her bath which she just loves.  She smiles and kicks and splashes the whole time.  I can't wait for summer to see if she loves the pool just as much!

 Sophia and Nanna at Liam's birthday.  Sophia was worn out from all of the excitement!

 Liam liked his cake! So precious!

 All bundled up for a nap.

On her 3 month birthday...getting so old!

 This is how Nick found Sophia sleeping after he laid her in our bed while he was getting ready!

 Smiling!

So excited that Mommy picked her up from daycare early!

 Chillin' in the tub!

 I love my bath!

Happy New Year!

2011 is off to a great start!  Mom Mom and Poppa Joe came to visit on Monday, January 3rd.  Mom Mom was shocked at how much Sophia had grown since the last time that she saw her in the NICU, and Poppa Joe was excited to finally get to meet his newest granddaughter.  We played tourist in Nashville on Tuesday and I took them to the Ryman and to Arnold's, a little hole in the wall that serves delicious Southern food, for a yummy lunch.  On Wednesday, it was back to work for me.  It was definitely a bittersweet day, but I survived thanks to my wonderful babysitters.  It was a much smoother transition being able to leave Sophia with my parents during my initial return to work.  It was good to get out of the house and see everyone at work again, but it is definitely a long time away from Sophia considering I hadn't spent more than a couple of hours away since she came home.  After my short week back to work, we enjoyed watching LSU win the Cotton Bowl on Friday.  That makes Sophia 4-1 for LSU games...not too shabby!  My dad drove home on Saturday, and mom stayed to babysit for the following week.  I'm still perfecting my morning routine with a baby, but it is getting better everyday and I'm starting to get the hang of being a working mom.  Sophia even smiled at me when I came home from work the other day which was just the best feeling in the world!

Mom flew home yesterday and we miss her already, but our next guest will be arriving tomorrow!  Nanna is coming to babysit Sophia for the next 2 weeks!  We are so lucky to have such wonderful family to help us out which has allowed Sophia to postpone starting daycare for 4 weeks.  Now once Nanna is gone, I'll really have to work on the morning routine since I'll have to have Sophia dressed and packed up and drop her off at the daycare in the morning.  We are very lucky that her daycare is literally in walking distance from our house, so at least it won't really effect my morning commute.  I'm sure it won't take long to adjust to our new routine.

Well, we have really enjoyed the first 2 weeks of 2011 and can't wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for us and our life with our baby girl...we'll keep everyone updated!  Happy New Year!

 The Ryman

 Mom and Dad on stage

 Geaux Tigers!

 Poppa Joe and Sophia

 Ready for the Cotton Bowl



What a difference 2 1/2 months make!

Christmas and a visit from the Millers

Well, since the last post, we enjoyed our first Christmas as a family.  It was a wonderful, relaxing day.  It snowed overnight on Christmas Eve, so Nick, Sophia and I all experienced our first white Christmas!  It was beautiful.  We definitely missed being with our families on Christmas, but we really made the best of the day by opening presents and cooking a scrumptious breakfast and dinner.  We also got a short and sweet visit from some of Nick's family a few days after Christmas which was wonderful.  We got to celebrate Christmas all over again and Sophia got to meet her aunt Maggie, uncle Matt (and Becky...ha!), and cousin Parker and visit with her Poppa again.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate too much while they were here so we mostly hung out at the house.  We loved having them!

 White Christmas

 Sophia in her Christmas dress

 Sophia and Becky

 Poppa got a kick out of his gag gift!

Parker...so cute!

Christmas Time!

Again, sorry for the delayed posting. I really want to get into a habit of posting weekly...maybe that will be my New Year's resolution.  Since the last posting we have been continuing to soak up our little baby girl.  She is growing like a weed and has actually outgrown some of her preemie clothes and graduated to some newborn things.  According to my bathroom scale (which actually seems pretty accurate when comparing it to the doctor's), she weighs 8lbs as of Monday!!  She is getting some cheeks and finally starting to look like a newborn and not a scrawny preemie!  Yesterday was actually my due date, and it was funny looking at the calendar at a day that I had marked on it for so long.  I can't imagine the last 7.5 weeks without our little peanut.

Allison came to visit us last week and it was great having her around.  She is a professional babysitter as we all know, and it was good for Sophia to meet her future nanny (well that's what I've been telling Allison for the last few years anyway! We'll see what happens!)  While Allison was here, Nick and I actually got to go out for a night which was awesome! We had a steak dinner and then went to the Garth Brooks concert which was incredible.  I've been wanting to see him in concert for so long and it worked out perfectly.  Don't feel too sorry for Allison for missing out on the concert because she saw him in Vegas just a couple of months ago!  We didn't do too much exciting while Allison was here as it is freezing out and you know getting out of the house with a newborn can be a challenge, but we did run a few errands and Allison was very handy in helping to stuff Christmas cards! We did go over to the Opryland hotel which is known for its extravagant Christmas decorations and just reopened since the floods this summer.  I've included some pictures below.  It was a good outing to get into the Christmas spirit!

 Our little stocking stuffer!

 Opryland Hotel

 Me and Allison in front of the giant tree

 Sophia was not as excited as us about all of the Christmas decorations

Sweet baby girl!

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!  We will miss spending it with our families, but the weathermen are actually predicting a white Christmas here in Nashville which would be nice!  I'll be sure and post some pics.  We look forward to a visit from the Miller clan next week!

Pics from the new camera

Well, as I mentioned in a previous post, Nick and I bought ourselves an early Christmas present...a new digital SLR camera.  Here are a few pics of our favorite subject.  We're hoping to get some good pics for Christmas this year.  Enjoy!

 Nanna and Sophia ready for the LSU game.

 In her pretty dress for Thanksgiving

 Daddy being silly

 Baby Feet!

 A smile??

 Sophia and Poppa