About Me

Hi! I'm Abby. My husband, Carl, and I are happily married since October 2007. Our little family of 2 (well, 3 if you count Chief, the dog) added one more in October 2011 when we welcomed Audrey Elizabeth, our first child into the world. Our life was forever changed. And to add to the joy and excitement, we added another daughter, Clara Marie, in May 2014. I wanted to create this blog originally to document all the milestones throughout my pregnancy with Audrey so we could remember that special time in our lives. And now I get to write all about Audrey and Clara and our life with these amazing "Larson Ladies", which is so much more fun!

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

God Bless Audrey Elizabeth Larson

Our baby girl was baptized on Sunday, February 19, 2012 at the 10:30am church service at our church, Shepherd of the Hill Lutheran Church in Lockport.


It was a wonderful service where both Audrey and another little boy were both baptized.  Audrey was such a good little girl.  She didn't even cry when the holy water was poured on her head.  

After she was baptized, Pastor Dealy and his assisting minister, Meredith, "introduced" Audrey to the congregation as the newest member of the church.  She looked so beautiful in her gown!     

Carl and I asked our good friends Cynda and Andy Marr to be Audrey's Godparents.   Cynda and I have been best friends since High School and we've experienced a lot together.  They are really important people in our lives, and it was an honor that they want to be so involved in Audrey's life.  Audrey is so lucky to have Cynda and Andy as her Godparents.  They care about her so much and are such great role models for her.  Even though they live in Springfield (about 2 1/2 hours South of us), I'm excited for our families to grow up together.     
Audrey's Godparents: Cynda and Andy Marr

Pastor Dealey
Grandma and Gramps Patton

Great Grandpa Hahn

Grandma and Grandpa Larson 
Aunt Amber & Aunt Ashley

We wanted to celebrate the occasion with our family and friends and have them all over to our house for a luncheon celebration.  

We had a lot of people travel in from out of town to be with us:  
  • Audrey's Godparents, Cynda and Andy Marr and their son Colby (10 weeks old) came up from Springfield
  • Cousins Kadie and Bella also came up from Springfield
  • Cousins Keely, Matt, and Chloe traveled here from Indianapolis
  • Aunt Faye and Uncle Jim and Grandpa Hahn came up from Decatur on Saturday
  • And of course my parents (Grandma & Gramps Patton) and Ashley came up from Decatur/Forsyth on Saturday morning


It really was a beautiful celebration.  Grandma Patton is so creative and so talented and worked so hard planning for this party.  Isn't it just beautiful?  We cannot thank her enough for this amazing party!
We moved out the furniture so we could fit the tables and chairs
Beautiful fresh flowers decorated each table and the dessert table.
These containers are the same ones that we used for the pew decorations and
cocktail decorations at our wedding.  
The main feature was the dessert table.  Grandma Patton made the sign, all the
tissue pom poms, and the paper chain. Isn't it amazing?


Desserts: Cupcakes, White Chocolate Covered Pretzels, Jordan Almonds, Hershey Kisses,
Puppy Chow, Wint-o-Green Mints, M&M's,  Sugar Cookies in the shape of a Cross,
Iced Rice Krispie Treats, Pirouettes, Sugar Cookies shaped and decorated as Baptism Gowns,
White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Squares (not pictured), and Cream Puffs dusted with powdered sugar (not pictured).

As soon as the church service as over, Amber and Ashley started cooking.  Here, they are making the pasta for the salads and the soups.  
We served homemade Portillo's Chopped Salad, Pasta e Fagioli, and La Gondola (Decatur, IL) sub sandwiches 
Grandma Patton and Aunt Amber

Gramps Patton, Great Grandpa Hahn, Ryan, Kadie Patton, Keely McClure
Keely with Audrey
Gramps Patton and Great Grandpa Hahn
Great Grandma & Great Grandpa Bockelmann, Aunt Janet, and Grandma Larson
The Larson's: Carl, Uncle Tom, Aunt Jeanie, Aunt Cheryl, Ross,
Uncle Ross, Aunt Keri, Jennifer, Jill, and Grandpa Larson
Aunt Faye with Audrey, Matt and Chloe McClure
Last picture... I have to post it.  Check out Audrey's bloomers!  She wore them under her baptism gown.  Love them!
The bloomers were a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Grider


Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Carl's 31st birthday was on Saturday, February 18th!  Carl is such a special guy, the best husband and Dad that Audrey or I could ever ask for.  It was so fun getting to celebrate him on his birthday.  Here is a pic of Audrey and her Daddy on the morning of his birthday:

Audrey just loves her Daddy.  She laughs at him and is always smiling at him.  And whenever she gets fussy, Daddy can really soothe her by just holding her.  She really adores him!  And it really is a sight to see Carl playing guitar for her.  Sometimes she just watches him, studying his hands and his face and the guitar; other times she shouts out in excitement.  She is such a happy girl spending time with her Daddy.

Audrey wanted to give her Daddy a really special gift for his birthday:
Underneath Audrey's picture is a guitar pic that is engraved.
It reads, "You rock Daddy! Love, Audrey"

Carl go to spend his 31st birthday getting ready for Audrey's baptism.  Lucky him, right?  We really put him to work making him run errands and clean and move furniture.  But the cool thing is that we had a lot of family in town.  It was neat being able to have them over to celebrate his birthday.  On Saturday night, we had Grandma and Grandpa Larson (Carl & Joyce), Aunt Jennifer, Grandma & Gramps Patton (Tim & Donna), Aunt Amber, Aunt Ashley, (Great) Aunt Faye and Uncle Jim, and (Great) Grandpa Hahn over for Nancy's pizza and black forest birthday cake (at Carl's request of course).

Carl's birthday also marks the 1 year anniversary of when we found out that we were expecting a baby.  We had no idea then if our baby was a boy or girl and what he/she would be like.  It's an understatement to say that being Audrey's parents has really exceeded our expectations.  She is the best!  So fun and so beautiful and funny and happy.  We could have never imagined being so lucky to have Audrey as our daughter.

It's hard to believe that last year we were on a Metra Train Pub Crawl celebrating Carl's 30th birthday, and this year we were celebrating our daughter's Baptism.  What a difference a year makes!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Audrey is 4 months old!

Audrey turned 4 months old on February 15th.

We were scheduled to have her 4-month checkup with Dr. Tess on Thursday, 2/16, but Audrey was sick all that week with a bad cough.  So we rescheduled to today, 2/21/12.  Overall, she looks really good.  Dr. Tess was really pleased with her development, growth, and overall health.  She had to get 1 shot today.  Thank goodness it was only 1 shot... it was a combo with 3 shots in 1.  I held Audrey on my lap while the nurse gave her the shot in her right leg.  She took it like a champ!  No crying at all!

Weight:  12 lbs 15 oz (30th percentile)
Length:  25.5 in (75th percentile)
Clothes:  size 6 months (3-6 months)
Diaper: size 1-2 Huggies
Food:  Breastmilk with 1 feeding of rice cereal mixed with breastmilk at "dinnertime".
Sleep:  Audrey is sleeping through the night!

My Mom's friend, Mrs. Grider, gave Audrey this headband. Isn't it the cutest?!





I can't get enough of these leggings!


Audrey still continues to entertain us and make us laugh.  Her smiles are the best thing in the whole entire world.  Here is a recap of this month in pictures:

This is our "Snap Out of It" picture.  It makes me laugh so hard, and now anytime anyone needs a "snap out of it", this is what we email.  So funny!  We've joked that I should send this in to Ellen, but we need to come up with a good caption/back story first.  Suggestions welcome!

One early morning before daycare: 
Audrey loves her teachers at daycare (or "school" as we call it), Ms. Andresson, Ms. Craig, and Ms. Hill.  They are so nice and really enjoy Audrey.  When we get to daycare in the morning, Audrey looks up and just smiles at Ms. Andresson.  And in the afternoon either Ms. Craig or Ms. Hill will be watching her, and she just looks over and smiles at both of them, too.  That's reassuring to me.  I love seeing our little girl happy.  

Audrey is now sitting up with the help of pillows around her.
Audrey sitting up in her Boppy pillow

Audrey still loves sucking her thumb.  She loves bringing both of her hands together then bringing them to her mouth together to suck her thumb.  Now, she's interlocking her fingers a lot, too.    
Audrey taking a nap one morning.

Audrey loves to nap at daycare.  If she only naps for 2-3 hours on a given day, Carl and I joke that "we got our money's worth" that day.  Many days she naps from 9am-1 or 2pm... 4-5 hour straight without waking to even eat!  She's still sleeping through the night (for the most part), so we aren't concerned.

Audrey and Aunt Jennifer

I love this girl!  Look at that face. Seriously.


"Look! I want to wear bows in my hair when I play sports, just like my Auntie Amber does."

Seeing Audrey smile is the best thing in the whole world.  She has even started laughing a little bit, especially when Chief "speaks".  Love it!  And she really "coos" and makes a lot of sounds.  We have conversations sometimes where she will "razz"... like a wet gurgling sound that she makes.  Once she makes that noise, I will make it too.  We go back and forth.  I wonder what she's trying to say!

SuperBowl Sunday. Aunt Jennifer got Audrey this onesie, and ironically, this was the only outfit she didn't poop on that day.

Audrey now rolls over from her back to her stomach.  It's been about a week now that she's been able to do this, and it's really fun to see her playing on her activity mat.  The only problem is that now she's rolling all over the place in her crib.  She'll roll over to her stomach and start crying, not wanting to roll back over to her back.  As a result, naps at home have been a little more challenging. 
 
 

We started Audrey on rice cereal at "dinnertime" on 2/10/12.  Here is the video of her first taste of cereal.  It's runny, but it's cereal.  So cute!

We are just feeding the rice cereal once a day, but in about a week, we will add in another feeding.  By 5 months, Dr. Tess wants her to have 3 rice cereal feedings a day at standard mealtimes (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner).  Then at 6 months, we will start with baby food.  Oh boy!

Each day keeps getting more and more fun with Audrey!  We love our little girl!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Audrey is 3 months old!

Wow!  Audrey is already 3 months old today, January 15th, 2012.  I took a number of pictures in her 3 month outfit(s).  What a beautiful girl!


Audrey doesn't like the bows so much, but she does LOVE her pacifier.  This isn't her favorite, but it does the trick most days.  Audrey prefers the NUK pacifiers.  The clear one is her favorite.
 And here's the tutu for the 3rd month in a row.  Do you think it will still fit next month?  I hope so...it's so cute!
 
 Audrey is so much fun.  A highlight for me each day is going in to wake up Audrey in the morning.  Once she opens her eyes, she just gives me the biggest smile and kinda laughs.  Is there anything greater in the world?  Look at those bright blue eyes!


Audrey weights 12.2 pounds and is approximately 24.5 inches long.  We took our own measurements here at home since we don't go in for a checkup this month, but I think they're pretty accurate.  She sure is getting big!  I think that puts her in the 50th percentile for weight and close to the 90th percentile for length.  The lines on this growth chart make me cross-eyed... CDC.gov WHO growth standards.  

Audrey is right in between clothes sizes.  It seems she can wear both 0-3 months (depending on what it is) and 3-6 months.  She's wearing all 3-6 months sleep 'n plays and onesies.  Although, some 0-3 month onesies still fit her and most of her 0-3 months pants still fit.  We'll try and get the most that we can out of the clothes that still fit before we fully transition over to 3-6 months clothes.  I have a feeling that will happen really soon, though.

Audrey is still in size 1 diapers.  I think we only have about 2 weeks (max) of size 1 diapers left, and after they're gone we'll start using the size 1-2  and 2.


Audrey rolled over for the first time at 12 weeks old.  See the video and blog post here.  She is so happy on her activity mat.  She holds her head up for several minutes at a time.  She's getting so strong!  And we put her in her Bumbo seat this month.  She's not completely self-supporting in that seat, but she's close.  The Asst. Director at the daycare suggested putting a blanket behind her in the seat, and that worked!  We put her in the seat and she just smiles.

Audrey found her hands this month.  I'll catch her just studying her hands.  Then she brings them together and then apart.  It's cute.  She's so focused and just amazed by them.  She looks like she's trying to figure them out... "what can these things do for me?"  And we've noticed a big difference just in the past week/week-and-a-half in how she plays with her toys and the objects on her activity mat.  She can now grasp onto them.  She's been pulling my hair and grabbing at objects for several weeks now, but now it seems like she's very purposeful with her movements.  With every movement.  And sometimes she gets those hands in her mouth and starts sucking.  There are times when she prefers to suck on her thumb and her hand over her pacifier.  Here is a pic of her from today munching on those hands...
She loves her activity mat!
 

Right before Christmas, I noticed that Audrey's arms were rough and a little bumpy.  I thought it might be dry skin, but then I saw it spread to her chest and from her knees to the rest of her legs.  I called our doctor, Dr. Tess, and he referred us to a Dermatology practice.  We went to see Dr. Fox who is in one of the doctor's office buildings at the new Silver Cross Hospital (opening February 26th).  He said Audrey has a mild case of Dermatitis, which he explained is a very general term.  She also has a case of cradle cap that causes her to have a really dry scalp and lose her hair.  Basically, Audrey just has sensitive skin.  It doesn't necessarily mean that she'll always have sensitive skin or develop eczema, just that she has sensitive skin now.  He gave me a prescription for a medicated ointment that he said will clear up her bumps and dry skin in just a few days.  He made me feel comfortable about using the medicine if we want to do that.  He also gave me an option to treat the cradle cap with mineral oil and Q-tips.  But he suggested just not doing anything and letting it get better on its own.  That's what we're going to do.  And we decided to try the non-medicated route first for the Dermatitis, which Dr. Fox supported:  Audrey gets a bath every night.  He stressed that the bath should be no longer than 5-7 minutes and in lukewarm water.  We only wash the body parts that are sweaty or dirty (i.e. armpits, hands, neck, etc.) with Dove Unscented bar soap.  And for the cradle cap, we shampoo with Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo.  Then, twice a day, we apply Cetaphil cream... immediately after her bath and while I'm dressing her in the morning.  It's been about a week and a half and her skin is so much better!  Just over the last couple days, we turned a corner and her skin is so soft again.  She's still a little dry and bumpy in some areas, but nowhere near what it was.  It's winter and so dry.  If it gets worse, we will use the medicine.  But for now things are looking good!

Audrey still loves her bathtime. And now she gets a bath every night.  It's a good routine for us... I feed her for the last time, Audrey gets a bath, and then Carl puts her in her sleep sack and puts on her mittens, reads her a story, then she goes to bed.  This past month, she has really started kicking and splashing around.  She's so funny.  We took a video tonight of Audrey in the bathtub and it is hilarious.  I hesitate to put a video of my naked child on youtube, so we're going to try and figure out how to edit it so we can post it.  You know, black bars across her chest and private parts.  Haha.  I do want everyone to see how funny she is.  Stay tuned.


Audrey is sleeping through the night!  We're not consistent with every night yet, but I'd imagine we'll have consistency pretty soon.  I feed her for the last time around 9pm most nights, and then she has proven this last week that she can sleep until 6am.  This morning, she slept until 7am!  And when she sleeps, she sleeps on her back with her arms straight out to her sides.  She starts off with her pacifier, but loses it at some point after she falls asleep.  Some nights, if she wakes up, she just needs her pacifier then goes right back to sleep.  I feel so spoiled with Audrey and how good and easy-going she is.

Audrey loves listening to her Daddy playing the guitar.  Even if it's a night where she's been a little fussy, Carl can soothe her by playing for her.  He puts her on the couch in the Boppy and plays and sings for her.  She looks at him... his face and his hand strumming.  She is so content and so happy watching her Daddy.  Some of her favorite songs include those by Barenaked Ladies (If I Had a Million Dollars, Brian Wilson), Sister Hazel (All for You), Pearl Jam (Elderly Woman, Better Man), Foo Fighters (Everlong), Led Zepplin (Over the Hills and Far Away), and much more.



Audrey's making a lot more noise... both talking and crying.  It's like she's really found her voice over this past month.  When she's excited (like when she's playing on her activity mat), she'll shout out.  And sometimes she talks to us.  She does a lot of "goo's" and "aah's" and sometimes full-out shouts.  She also has found her really loud cry this month.  If something's wrong or not feeling right, she sure wants us to know about it!  She's been crying a lot more at night before we put her to bed or if she needs a nap.  There are some nights when it takes awhile to console her, but Daddy has the touch and can always make her feel better.  


It's been another fun and exciting month with our Audrey-girl.  She's our little angel, and we love her so much!  

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Audrey rolls over!

Tuesday, January 10th was a monumental day for Audrey.  She rolled over!  You might remember, 2 months ago, Carl saw Audrey roll over on her activity mat from her stomach to her back.  But I didn't believe him and he didn't catch it on video.  I gave Carl the benefit of the doubt... he wouldn't joke about a thing like that.  :)  We chalked it up to Carl putting her on her tummy in a convenient position where she had a head start on rolling to her back.

But this time, we got it on video and she purposely rolled over to her back from her tummy... all on her own!  Check it out...



Our baby is getting so big!