My, How Our Little Girl Has Changed

Through her first 6 months...

From the day she was born, Carl and I are in awe at how beautiful and perfect our little Audrey is.  She gets more and more beautiful every day!

Audrey is 6 months old!

Our Audrey Elizabeth is already 6 months old!  I cannot even believe it.  In another 6 months, we are going to be celebrating Audrey's 1st birthday.  Wow, the time is really flying by!

Weight:  16 lbs 4 oz (50th percentile)
Length:  26.5 in (75th percentile)
Clothes:  Size 9 months (6-9 months).  She's really in between sizes right now, but just this week, I feel like she's outgrown most of her 3-6 months outfits and pajamas.  She is so long that she is outgrowing her clothes lengthwise!
Diaper:  Size 2
Food:  Audrey started eating vegetables (peas and green beans) this week!  Carl and I were looking forward to introducing her to the green vegetables because we thought she'd make some funny faces.  But her first taste of peas was uneventful.  She acted like it tasted just like her cereal.  Again, her easy-going nature carries over to eating, too.  She's such a happy and flexible baby!  Here is her current schedule, as of this week after her 6th month birthday (times are approximate):
6:00am - I nurse Audrey
9:00am - 5oz bottle at daycare
10:20am - Cereal at daycare (mixed with formula)
1:00pm - 5oz bottle at daycare
2:00pm - Vegetable pack at daycare (peas/greenbeans)
4:00pm - 5oz bottle at daycare
6:30pm - I nurse Audrey, then we feed her vegetables and 1tbsp of cereal mixed with formula (oatmeal, rice, or mixed grain)
8:00pm - I nurse Audrey just before bedtime, then we top her off with about 2 oz of formula
I am still pumping at work, so she usually gets about 6-8oz of breastmilk and 7-9oz of formula in her 3 bottles at daycare.  One of the teachers at daycare just suggested that we start mixing fruit with her cereal, instead of mixing it with formula.  They have been impressed with how well she is doing with her solid foods!  We'll start the fruit with the cereal at the end of this week.
Sleep:  As long as Audrey gets the extra 2oz of formula right before bed, she sleeps like a log until about 6am.  Most mornings, she wakes up between 4:30-5am wanting her pacifier, but she falls right back asleep.  In fact, I have to wake her up at 6am to feed her and get ready for daycare.  Over the past week and a half, she has been sleeping mostly on her side and stomach, as opposed to on her back.  We always put her to bed on her back, but she rolls over almost immediately.  Over the past few weeks, she hasn't napped hardly at all at daycare.  Some days, she'll have a couple decent naps, but other days she doesn't sleep at all.

Audrey is now getting her knees under her when she's on her stomach and starting to lift her belly up off the mat.  She is rolling all over the place and moving herself 360degrees using her upper body.  If we put toys in front of her or to the side, she will do everything in her power to reach out and get them.  She's really close to being mobile.  Watch out!  I think she would just jump up and start running if she could.

She is sitting up really well now.  I can sit her up between my legs on the ground and she will hold herself upright.  She's still a little unsteady and tips over to the side if she doesn't have anything supporting her, but she's getting stronger everyday.  She really likes to bend forward and hold her toes and even tries to put them in her mouth.  And if she's on her back, she reaches for her feet and holds them.  Happy baby yoga pose!

Audrey is now reaching for and grabbing everything!  She likes to play with rattles in the car.  She'll hold them and keep herself entertained for a considerable amount of time.  Just 2 weeks ago, we noticed a big change with her reaching for everything.  We were at dinner with Aunt Ashley, Grandma & Gramps Patton, Uncle Scott, and Grandpa Hahn.  Ashley was holding her on her lap before our food came.  Everytime Ashley would pick up her glass to take a drink, Audrey would reach for it like her life depended on it.  And now Audrey is so focused on and will reach for everything, all kinds of different objects.  She has even started reaching out for people.  Several times, if someone is holding Audrey and someone else walks up (me, Carl, Grandma/Grandpa Larson, Grandma/Gramps Patton, one of her aunts), Audrey will reach out to the other person for them to hold her. 

There have been a few times over the past month that I've had to go grocery shopping on Monday night.  So I go to Jewel right after I pick up Audrey from daycare.  Audrey is so happy and fun on our grocery-shopping trips.  And she's such a hit with all the ladies that work at Jewel!  At the fish counter, at the checkout... everyone wants to see our pretty little girl.  And she just smiles at everyone.  I'm a proud Momma!

Audrey has been laughing for all of this month, but it's more and more regular now.  Carl and are I pretty silly... we will do anything to hear that girl laugh.  It's the best sound in the whole entire world!  And over the past couple weeks, she has really started giggling and belly laughing.  Love it!  She laughs watching Chief and Bixby wrestle around, at Carl hopping or dancing, when going up and down the stairs, when we tickle her, when we make funny noises... She is the best baby!

Happy 6 months, Audrey Bear!  We love you!!!

Here are some pictures from this past month:

Audrey got to meet her Great-Grandmother Patton
at the end of March. 

Audrey just loved her!

Colby Marr and Audrey.  True love!

With Grandma Larson at the Dancing With the Teachers
competition.  Grandma Larson won 2nd place!

Look at those baby blue eyes!

I love this picture!  It's such a happy picture.  Audrey LOVES her Daddy!
She looks a lot like him, don't you think?

Grandpa Larson's birthday 4/14/12

Gramps Patton's birthday 4/17/12

Visiting Gramps & Grandma Patton

Happy Easter!

April 8, 2012

Audrey and the Easter Bunny
(at daycare)

The Easter Bunny came to visit Audrey at our house and at both of her Grandparents' houses.  Here she is digging into her Easter basket that the Easter Bunny left at our house:

The Easter Bunny left her some candy.  Silly Easter Bunny,
Audrey doesn't eat candy yet!  

The Easter Bunny left a basket at Grandma & Grandpa Larson's house.  This bunny was in it.  It plays an Easter song while its ears flop up and down.  It's so funny and so cute, and Audrey just watches it in amazement.

The Easter basket at Grandma & Gramps Patton's house had some cute spring/summer clothes and a Mother Hen who lays eggs.  It's so funny!

Dressed to go to church!

We spent Easter with Carl's side of the family at Grandma & Grandpa Bockelmann's house.  It was really a fun day.  I only took a few pictures:

Audrey is 5 months old!

Audrey is 5 months old today, March 15th, 2012!

Weight:  14.6 lbs (per our scale at home)
Length:   {unknown}
Clothes:  size 6 months (3-6 months)
Diaper: size 1-2 Huggies (Still! I think we are on the last package now, though, and will move her up to size 2 soon.)
Food:  I am nursing Audrey in the morning and at night before bed, and she has been getting 3 bottles of breastmilk at daycare (2- 5oz bottles + 1- 3oz bottle) with 2 feedings of cereal mixed with 2oz formula at "dinnertime" and “lunch”.
Sleep:  Audrey is mostly sleeping through the night still!  This past month, she was a little less predictable.  I think she was going through a growth spurt.  A couple nights, she woke up wanting to eat.  And then for over 2 weeks, she was waking up at 5am (instead of her normal 6am) and wanted to eat right away.  She has been napping less at daycare, on average about 2-2.5 hours total.

 I love this sequence of pictures... this month, Audrey wanted to eat the stuffed puppy dog.  Doesn't she look guilty in the 3rd picture?

What a happy little girl!

I am proud to say that Audrey has gone 5 months with strictly breastmilk in her bottles.  We were even mixing her cereal with breastmilk, but then stopped after about a week (I didn’t want to waste the breastmilk!) and started mixing with formula.  But that’s all the supplementing we’ve done.  Now, after 5 months, we’ve decided that it is a good time to supplement her bottles with formula when needed.  When I first started pumping at work, I had a really good supply of milk.  I would get at least 16 ounces of milk between my 3 pump sessions at work.  Well, now 2 months in, my supply has decreased.  I’m not sure if it’s because my body knows it’s not Audrey, if it’s stress because of work, if it’s lack of sleep, or if it’s just my supply decreasing.  Who knows.  But it really stresses me out if I’m not able to get a sufficient amount of milk in 1 day.  Some days I only get 9 oz at work, good days now I get 11 oz.  Most days, I’m usually somewhere in between, right around 10 oz.  For a couple weeks this past month, I was getting up at 3am to pump.  I was hoping that would increase my supply during the day and also just have another session to help get the 12-15 ounces Audrey needed during the day at daycare.  It was really strange waking up to pump, even though Audrey was sleeping through the night.  I’m glad that we made it to this 5-month mark, and I plan on continuing to breastfeed her hopefully until her 1st birthday.  It’s a special time that I get to have with her in the morning and at night, not to mention that I want to continue the health benefits that the breastmilk provides.  

Audrey has been sucking her thumb less this month.  She’ll still find her hand if she drops her pacifier, but she prefers her pacifier.  Although she does like to eat with her hands.  It’s pretty funny watching her eat her rice cereal.  We have to hold her hands down… otherwise she will keep them down so we can put the spoon in her mouth, then she brings her hands up to suck her thumb.  Like it helps the cereal go down.  So cute.  And so messy!  Needless to say, we wait until after dinner for bathtime. 

Audrey’s still a very active little girl.  She loves her bathtime and loves to play and splash around.  That is one of the highlights of our day… giving Audrey a bath.  We laugh the whole time!  She’s still rolling all over her mat (and her crib!), and she can sit up when I hold her hands though she still needs assistance.  She is really growing into her jumparoo... her feet (well, one foot at a time) touches the ground now!  She’s growing and getting stronger every day; it’s really incredible.

Check out that hair!  Overall, her hair is getting lighter, but she still has the
really dark baby hair at the bottom... right below her bald area.  Love it! 

Audrey is laughing a bit more now and cooing and making a bunch of noise.  Carl or I can get her laughing at least once every day.  Carl can really get her going when he is playing with her before bathtime.  Just this past week, she started snorting at him because she’s laughing so hard.  And there have been several times that I’ve been in the other room and heard her laughing at Carl.  They are so cute together!

I’ve been taking advantage of this beautiful weather lately.  It has been in the 60s-70s for the past week.  Every night when Audrey and I get home, we go for a walk around the neighborhood.  This is the kind of working out I can do!  I get to spend time with Audrey and look at her cute smiling face the whole time.  Our normal route is 1.6 miles and usually takes us about 30 minutes.  Our longer route (usually reserved for weekends) is about 2.3 miles.  Carl usually heads out with Chief when he gets home from work and meets us somewhere halfway.  Most days, Audrey falls asleep during our walks.  Fresh air and the rhythm of the bumps in the sidewalk work every time.  

We have established a good nightly/bedtime routine that works for Audrey.  Our nightly routine goes like this:

5:30pm – get home from daycare, change Audrey’s diaper, then head out for a walk (when the weather’s nice) or watch Ellen on TV

6:30pm – feed Audrey cereal

6:50-7pm(ish) – Bath

7:15-7:30pm(ish) – I nurse Audrey; Carl washes bottles and makes bottles and packs my pump bag for the next day (Carl’s the BEST! It’s a huge help that he takes care of this!)

7:45-8pm(ish) – Carl gets Audrey ready for bed, reads her a bedtime story, and puts her to sleep for the night

Happy 5 months, Audrey Bear!  It's been a really, really good month.  It just keeps getting better and better spending time with our happy girl and seeing you grow.  We love you!

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