5 Months Old

Another month has come and gone. They are going so fast these days. I can't believe Sawyer is almost half a year old!

This month she has MASTERED rolling over. She only really struggles when she's up against a wall. She's not an ambi-roller and if she tries to roll towards the wall or the edge of the couch she gets rather frustrated. It's pretty dang cute to watch her try though.

She has also found her feet and apparently they are rather tasty. As soon as she is laid on her back her feet are up in the air and in her mouth. Makes diaper changes really fun (if she's not eating her feet, she's trying to roll over. Babies are hard to wrestle)

We also started her on solid foods. I don't know if you can call them solid, they look pretty mushy to me. So far she's had, bananas, mango puree, and some other fruit combinations. She didn't seem to like them too much. Probably a combination of learning how to eat and liking what she's eating. I held off on the mixed veggies and stuff, because that just sounds so gross to me, but, as it turns out, she LOVES them. The mixed veggies are the first ones that she has actually finished.
Feeding her is also a battle. She REALLY wants to help me with the spoon. It's so fun to watch her try new things.

She has a pretty good sleep schedule. We're still working on getting her naps back (4 month sleep regression is real my friends) but thankfully her night sleeping has been awesome. She typically goes to bed by 7 and wakes up between 6 and 7. I never know when she's going to nap or how long. They'll either be 25 minutes or 3 hours.  I was talking to my sister this month and telling her, "It's amazing how much you can get done when your baby could wake up any minute."
 I have to stay in her room with her as she falls asleep because if she's not tired yet she'll play in her crib and roll to her back and then she won't be able to fall asleep. (She doesn't know that if she just rolled back over she'd be fine) So I sit next to her crib, out of site, and wait. Once she starts laying her head down I know I can leave, but if she's propped up, I wait. My favorite thing is going into her room after a nap, or in the morning. She'll be just cooing away and I walk in, she's normally on her back in the corner of the crib, holding her feet or playing with one of her stuffed animals. She sees me and she gets so excited. AH I love that I'm her mom.

In the last couple of weeks she has started pushing herself up on her hands and knees and she'll do the rocking thingy. I am quite familiar with this motion after watching my nieces and nephews. Crawling is right around the corner.

She is a hand sucker too. If she's really tired and about to fall asleep she'll suck her thumb, if she's awake it's THE WHOLE HAND. I'm not kidding, it's pretty amazing.

She is a pretty happy baby. It's pretty easy to get her to smile. I just watch her all day in amazement.

Every month I seem to love her more. I look back on the other months and KNOW I loved her then, but did I love her THIS MUCH??

Likes:
Peek-a-boo
When mom sings to her
Baths (LOVES)
Eating
Everything in her mouth
Being on Mom and Dad's bed, she loves to watch me get ready or fold laundry and ESPECIALLY loves watching me brush my teeth, it's so fascinating to her. Honestly if she's fussy, I can put her on our bed and she's usually entertained for a while.
Being outside (but she does NOT like the sun in her face, so it's hard to take her out very often. Over-cast days are the best.

Dislikes:
When I make a bottle in front of her (she gets hangry like no one's business) if she sees a bottle she needs to eat RIGHT THEN. Yesterday I fed her and when it was gone she cried and cried, then she calmed down, then she saw the empty bottle and started crying again. I couldn't help but laugh. It just takes her a minute or two to realize that she's not hungry anymore.
Being put down to bed. She usually falls asleep pretty fast, but when I put her in her crib she gets real upset for a minute.
She's starting to get a little stranger danger.
Crowded, chaotic restaurants (learned that the hard way)

 This was the beginning of the month. She'll go up on her hands now too

 Feeding herself like a boss. (She doesn't do this much, just holds my hands mainly)

 Typical stance

 I mean... come on with the cuteness.

 This hurts me just to look at her, but mmmmm feets

 Seriously, she tries to eat everything

 Our little cheerleader. I will be out of my element if that comes true.

My 5 month old baby!

Chapter 2: The First Two Weeks

October 6, 2013; Sunday.

I was over at a friend's house watching general conference and I got a text from Matt

I knew I wanted to go, but I did NOT want to go by myself. So I asked my friend Ali to come with me. I picked her up that night and said, "So do you know Matt Halls?" She stopped dead in her tracks and said, "Um... yes, that's my [recent] ex-boyfriend's good friend." It was a recent wound and I felt terrible opening it so I told her we did NOT have to go. She assured me that she was fine, that he probably wouldn't be there. So we went.
As soon as I got there I found Matt in the back playing ping pong. He lit up when he saw me, which was the cutest. We sat in the kitchen and just talked for quite a while. (Ali was the perfect wing woman. She knew some people at the game night so she just made herself comfortable while I got my flirt on).
I remember that I was venting about my job and looking back it was like word vomit. I just KEPT TALKING ABOUT IT, but he feigned interest, which I appreciate.
By the end of the conversation we had a date set for the following Tuesday.

October 8, 2013: Tuesday
For our first date he picked me up and we went to Toby Keith's Bar and Grill. We just kept the date short, had dinner and a nice convo and then he brought me home. A few things I remember from that date was him eating fries with a fork and the fact that we were like the only people in the restaurant. Probably because we were at a bar at like 6:00.
He dropped me off that night and I knew I wanted to see him again. I also knew that I was going out of town that weekend for my nephew's baptism. I didn't want to wait until I got home to see him again.
The next day we were texting and I mentioned that I was going out of town Thursday night. So we set a date for lunch on Thursday.

October 10, 2013: Thursday
Matt was on his lunch break from work, so I met him at Spinato's Pizza for lunch. I got all excited when I saw him. At the time he was going to school for construction Management and was working as an intern for Okland Construction. He looked the part. Plaid shirt, jeans and work boots. I didn't hate it. After lunch I was thoroughly disappointed that I wouldn't see him again until the following week.

The whole time I was in Utah we were texting constantly. I flew back into Arizona on Monday night and Tuesday the 15th we had plans.

October 15, 2013: Tuesday DATE 3!

I emphasize the fact that it was date 3 because that has special meaning. In the LDS single's scene (especially for those of us in our late 20's [which I was at the time, am not anymore :(] ) a third date means that both parties are interested in seeing where this goes. If both parties are interested in pursuing this, that means that the physical barrier will likely be breached on date 3.
We were going to a movie. Going to a movie is basically saying, "I'm gonna start holding your hand now" so I had expectations.
During the movie (Captain Phillips) I could barely focus because I was thinking about holding his hand the whole time. "Should I hold his hand? Should I make my hand available to him? Is he going to do something?" Then he leaned forward. I know that this is the international sign for "scratch my back" but I got SO nervous. I sat there and stared at his back... "Should I scratch it? I'm sure he wants me to, but what if he doesn't? I don't want to make things weird..." And then he leaned back and I felt bad that I didn't accept the invitation. I decided I wanted to test him and see if that is, in fact, what he was trying to get me to do, so I leaned forward. Almost immediately he started scratching my back and I felt like an idiot.
I sat back and again, all I was thinking about was holding his hand. I feel like my thoughts were practically audible. "Just do it... just hold his hand... you know he likes you... just do it. JUST DO IT! DO IT!" And then in a rapid, totally unsmooth motion, I grabbed his hand, and he laughed. From that point on, things were super comfortable.
He brought me home that night, walked me to the door and gave me a sweet little kiss goodnight. For some reason the hand holding made me way more nervous. I do remember at that point feeling like holding hands was more of a statement than kissing. Holding hands in public mainly. Plus it was the first contact. I think once we were holding hands, we both knew that we would kiss that night. I really appreciated that the first kiss was just a peck goodnight. I feel like it was very respectful.
From that date on, we saw each other every day.
To be continued...

Chapter 1: Love at first sight???

I decided I wanted to write down our story piece by piece so I can have it printed up.

September 30, 2013: Monday
My single's stake had a talent show. I was singing a song I had written (Just Friends) and had a guy in my ward playing the guitar for me (I don't do so well at singing and playing at the same time, so I taught it to him).

Matt was there with his ward band, he played the drums for them. I remember being in a room to practice and he came in with another girl to practice also, but left when they saw us. No words exchanged.

The talent show was so fun, but I pretty much was there alone, so once it was over my plan was to just bee-line it out of there. I am a total introvert and I get anxiety and the thought of talking to people after I sing, so I just wanted out of there.

As everyone was standing to get refreshments I looked over across the aisle and saw Matt sitting there, looking at me, with a little smile on his face. Honestly, I can still see it when I think about it and it STILL gives me butterflies. I definitely thought he was cute, but because of my introvertness I knew I wouldn't talk to him, and would probably never see him again. He assumed I was dating the guy that played the guitar for me, so he wasn't going to talk to me either. So, what's the harm in a little eye flirtation? We locked eyes for a good 3 seconds. That is a LONG time to make eye contact with a stranger, if you think about it. It was totally intentional, you could cut the tension with a knife. Then I got up and left.

October 4, 201: Friday
My friend Ashley had invited me to meet up with her and a group of people for dinner and a movie. She had become a really good friend of mine over the summer so of course I went. At dinner she was telling me about these guys that were going to be meeting us at the movie. I remember her talking about Matt and saying, "You guys might actually hit it off...". I was interested in a guy in Utah at the time, so I wasn't really "looking" but hey, it never hurts to have options (especially options in the same state).

After dinner we went to the movie and the two guys came and sat down. I was sitting in between Matt and Ashley (at this point I did not recognize him from the talent show). As soon as he sat down Ashley started asking him about all the girls in his life. Again, I was sitting right between them so I kind of leaned back to get out of their way. I remember Matt was giving her one word answers and a lot of "oh... yeah... not interested in her anymore." or "Oh, that's not happening...". Honestly, my first impression was, "Oh he's one of those guys... Always dating a different girl. Probably cocky. No thanks." Once the movie started, and throughout, he and I would just kind of make jokes (we were seeing Austenland which was really silly so there was a lot to make fun of) He was fun to flirt with, but I still had my reservations about him.

When the movie ended and we were all walking out he said to me, "What stake are you in?" I said, "Tempe" he said, "Were you in the talent show on Monday?"
This is when I realized who he was and I was MORTIFIED!!! You guys... I STARED at him for multiple seconds. As mentioned before, it was flirtatious and it was intentional and I thought I would never see him again! I was bright red in the face, but thankfully it was night time.
I kept my cool, outwardly, and just said, "Oh yeah... I was there."
Little did I know, as soon as he saw me in the theater he knew who I was. He sat down next to me on purpose, and when Ashley was talking to him about all the women in his life, he was trying to SHUT THAT DOWN!

At this point there was about 5 of us standing outside the theater talking. It was getting to the point for him to ask for my number and I thought that would be SUPER awkward in front of everyone. I figured if he really wanted it he could get it from Ashley, so quite abruptly I said, "K, bye!" and went home.

The next day I got a text from Ashley that said, "So... I know you have that guy in Utah so I didn't want to do anything without talking to you first, but Matt was asking about you." I said, "Did he want to know my story?" She said, "Yes, that's exactly what he said." I said, "Well nothing is happening with the guy in Utah, so I'm fine with you giving him my number."

October 6, 2013: Sunday

To Be Continued...

4 Month Update

I cannot believe our little Sawyer Mae is 4 months old (as of Feb 8). Time is just flying by.

This last month we had a lot of changes. I started working part time, which has been so nice. When Matt and I made that decision my mind raced at all that I would be able to get done at home. I made a chore chart for each day, I had a menu for each day, I had a workout...

Turns out, I have time to accomplish one of those things each day OR I can shower and get ready. I usually do pretty well with keeping the house tidy, and keeping the laundry done, but as far as deep cleaning goes, I'm not able to get to as much as I'd like.

I also have done pretty well at making our dinners a few nights a week. Matt has been working late this week so I haven't been doing anything special for dinner.

Even though I don't have as much time as I thought I would, I am LOVING spending this time with my baby girl. Every time I go to pick her up from the sitter, she gets a big smile on her face. I love that she knows who I am.

It's so fun to watch her learn and grow. It's fun to listen to her experiment with her voice. Lately, when she's crying for attention, it's a lot deeper. She's so funny, she'll learn how to do something with her voice, and then that is how she'll cry for a couple of days.

She started rolling from her back to her tummy on her 3 month mark and now if we put her on her back she won't last longer than 5 minutes. That makes diaper changes SUPER fun. The problem is, once she rolls to her tummy she can't see as much as she did before so she gets frustrated. If she's on her tummy, it's best to have her on our bed or on the couch so she can see what's going on. We have to keep a good eye on her though because she rolls all over the place.

We are still waiting to hear her little giggle. I thought she was right on the cusp of laughing like 2 months ago, but she is just dragging her little feet. She gets so excited that her whole body will tense up and her smile gets so big she can barely contain herself, but she does NOT laugh.

She sleeps like a rock star! She typically goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 and she'll sleep for about 12 hours. She'll take one good 2.5-3 hour nap at some point during the day, and a few 30 minuters throughout the day. If she's tired and we lay her down, she doesn't cry at all, she just finds her little thumb and falls asleep pretty quick. She only sucks her thumb when she's tired and ready to sleep, but I'm sure that will increase over time. I haven't been used to her sleeping through the night, so I'm still not getting very good sleep. I do think that is starting to change though.

Last little note. I have been singing to Sawyer a lot. It's so fun to watch her watch me sing. Her eyes go from my mouth to my eyes, back to my mouth, over and over. She smiles so big and coo's along with me. Sunday night we were at Matt's brother's house to watch the 2nd half of the Super Bowl. We left at about 8:15, which was way past her bedtime and she was MAD. She was just screaming in her car seat, so I climbed back there and started singing to her. She stopped crying almost immediately and just watched me as I sang to her for the rest of the drive, probably at least 10 minutes. I wrote about this in my journal that night. It was definitely in my top 3 life moments.

Yesterday was her 4 month wellness check. She is 14.5 pounds (52nd percentile, up from 32nd) She is 25 inches long (93rd percentile up from 67... this just blows my mind. The doc thinks she probably just had a growth spurt recently. I'm sure that percentage will go back down. Matt and I are not tall people) and her head is in the 87th percentile, which hasn't ever really changed.
Dr Milius said she was just perfect. When I told him she rolled from her back to her tummy at 3 months he looked at her and said, "That is NOT normal. You, little girl, are advanced!" Course she is... she's a genius. He gave us the go ahead to start her on solids. We are so excited to try that. Once Matt isn't working late we'll do it. I think it's something we should do together for the first time.
She also had to get 4 immunizations yesterday. I'm so glad they are so fast with those. She cried, of course, as they pricked her, but it was over so fast and I picked her right up and she calmed down pretty quickly then slept on the way home.
All day yesterday she was so happy. Even when she got tired she just had such a big smile on her face. The only way I knew she was tired is she kept yawning and going for her thumb so I put her to bed.

It's crazy how much she has changed our lives and what a BIG part of our lives she is now. Last night I waited up for Matt and we chit chatted when he got home. This is the second night that Sawyer was asleep when he got home and we ended up spending a good chunk of time looking at pictures and videos of her... that cracked me up.

We sure love our little one.

She always holds our fingers when she's eating her bottle

 Thumb sucker

 Holding her own bottle, like a boss.

 Sunday Best

This has got to be one of my favorite pictures of us.

 That smile just cracks me up

 She had a few days where she wouldn't nap longer than 30 minutes, so she was tired all the time. She fell asleep on us a lot in those days, and we kind of loved it

 Nother Sunday best shot.

 Getting better at sitting up.

Holding her own bottle again, and looking like she just got caught.

 4 months old

 about to get her shots

if she's not sucking her thumb, shes' sucking her whole hand.

 

 



Life is Boring

More often than not, when Matt and I are getting ready for bed (around 8-8:30) the question arises: Are we a boring married couple?
These are my thoughts...

My typical day right now consists of, being woken up by my beautiful daughter. I feed her, change her, pick out a cute outfit for the day, put her on the bed, lie next to her and we look into each other's eyes while she is smiling and cooing away, flailing her body with all her might. I'll go to work for a portion of the day, then pick up my baby from the sitter's, come home, feed her, put her down for a nap, get some chores done around the house and/or a quick workout. She wakes up, I change her and feed her and we play for a while until Daddy comes home. He takes the baby and I'll get some dinner together (or I'll take the baby and he'll whip something up). We put on a show, eat dinner and play with our baby, trying our best to make her laugh (to no avail). We feed her, change her, get her in some jammies and put her to bed, then we get ready for bed ourselves.

Gone are the days of staying up till all hours of the night hanging out with friends. Gone are the days of late movies and leaving the house past 8:00.

I suppose that does make us a boring married couple, but the thing is, this "boring" life is what I've dreamed of having for my whole life.

When I was a teenager I'd fantasize about who I'd marry, how many kids we'd have, where we'd live. I'd imagine our kids and their names. I'd imagine being a stay at home mom, and all that that would entail. I'd think about my extended family and how much fun we'd all have when we'd get together and that one day my immediate family would become that extended family. I'd imagine my family getting together and all of our kids playing while we chit chatted and caught up. I'd imagine the stories our kids will tell later on of things they did right under our noses that we never knew about.

When I was in my 20's I longed for all of that and wondered if I'd ever actually have it. The dream became a wish and one I didn't think would be granted. I had so much fun in my singleness but I knew all the time that I was living life "in case". I was working as though I'd always have to fend for myself. I played as though this was the best that life would ever get so I better make it a good one. I was living my life to be mentally and physically prepared to always be on my own. The typical day, mentioned above, may as well have been a fairy tale.

Two years ago Monday (January 18th) Matt asked me to marry him, and the dream was starting to become a reality.

It's so cliché, but to say I love him more now than ever is an understatement. In the last two years we have encountered so much and grown together so much. Every time I talk about him to someone else, especially when I'm talking about a disagreement we've had or a misunderstanding (I still wouldn't say we've ever been in a fight) they say, "Wow! What great communication!" They tell me how lucky I am to have a husband who will sit down and talk things through the way he does. They don't need to tell me how lucky I am.
When Matt and I got engaged I knew I loved him. I knew I was lucky to have him want to marry me. I didn't know how seriously he would take his role as a husband. I didn't know how well he would take care of me and how much he would sacrifice to make sure I was happy. I didn't know I was marrying a man who would be so devoted to me. I didn't know I was marrying someone who would make me feel that I was the best thing that has happened to him and how often he would make me feel like he thought HE was the lucky one. I didn't know that he would be the best thing I could have by my side as I had our baby. I didn't know what having a baby could do for our love. I didn't know what kind of a father he would be and how intensely he would love our child. I didn't know that I was marrying someone who would make my biggest fantasy come true.

I didn't know that having a boring life could make me happier than I have ever been.

 

3 Months, The Golden Age

When Sawyer was born and throughout that first month, people kept telling me that 3 months was when everything got better. So many times in that first month I felt guilty for wishing time would pass faster. As much as I loved this adorable little girl and has happy as she made me, she was a difficult baby. Sawyer will be 3 months old Friday and everyone was right!

This last month has been a doozy. Honestly it's been a big challenge on our little family. I was back at work and taking Sawyer to babysitters. She was such a difficult baby in those 4.5 hours of being watched that we had one babysitter quit and another one threaten to quit. She told us that she would give us one more day and if she cried the whole time (again) she wouldn't be able to help us. I understood. That night we bought the expensive formula and some gas drops our doctor recommended to us (more expensive stuff) spent almost $100 on three items. The next day and since then, she was a different baby. She has been so happy and SO MUCH FUN.

Her first two months, in the evenings, we used to pretty much count the minutes until 8:00 when we would put her down for bed. Typically she'd be crying from 6 until we put her down. Now 8:00 comes and she's still smiling and happy and we wonder if she's even ready for bed. She only cries if she's hungry, tired or bored.

This month she also got her first cold. I'm doing things as a mom that I could only do as a mother. You know, things like, literally sucking boogs out of your child's nose. I got a Nose Frida at one of my showers, its this contraption where you stick a little thingy on her nostril, it's attached to a tube, the tube goes in your mouth and you suck the boogs from your child's nostril into the contraption. There is a filter so no boogs come up the tube, but that doesn't stop someone like me from imagining it and gagging anyway. It actually works really well, a lot better than the little bubble things from the days of yore.

We both got pretty sick, I loved snuggling with her.

We also celebrated our first Christmas with Baby Girl which meant another first, a 12 hour road trip. Wowzers, when we planned that, months ago, it seemed like the easier option. I will say that Sawyer was a champ and did a lot better than we thought she would (thanks again to changing her formula) but I imagine traveling that long with even the best baby would be taxing. One issue with Sawyer is, she hates being in her car seat and when she cries she gets very hot and if we leave her in her car seat she gets soaked with sweat. It's so sad. So to avoid that as much as possible we woke up at 3:30, fed her, packed up and were on the road by 5. She slept for most of the morning, both ways.

It was great to be home with my family for Christmas. It was definitely a white Christmas, it snowed most of the week.  We played wallyball, I had lunch with the girl cousins (on the Bingham side), we played games, we even got to go on a one on one date. Jennie and Brock had us for Christmas this year and I told them I wanted a date with my husband for Christmas. They got us a gift card to Ruth's Chris and babysat for us. It was so nice to have that night with just the two of us.

Jennie sent me these pictures while Matt and I were on our date. Sawyer was well taken care of

 

Hanging out with Daddy at my parent's house.

 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were my favorites. Dane and Annie and their family stayed the night Christmas Eve. They woke up super early to open presents (as families with young kids will do) and were nice enough to let us sleep. The one downer to this trip is it messed with Sawyer's sleeping schedule, big time, so being able to sleep in was nice. We woke up around 8:30 and opened our presents. Family trickled in throughout the rest of the day. Nolan and Treo were going to drive up, but it was snowing really hard and the roads were really dangerous, so they turned around. That night we played games with all my siblings (minus Nolan) and laughed so hard until late (being about 11:00).

Her cousins loved her so much. Especially Talon. He was always hugging her and holding her hand. They watched Jurassic World and a scary part came up and he runs over to her "Oh Thoyo!!!" and gave her a big hug (protecting her) So cute.

We decided we'd drive home the next day so we could have a day to recover after the trip. On the way home, we stopped in St George to see Nolan and Treo. I realized that I hadn't seen Treo and the kids since last Thanksgiving. Can't believe it had been that long. It was nice to see them and for them to meet Sawyer.

She is getting better at taking a binky as well.

 

The week after Christmas we had been talking about what to do for New Year's. Hard to make plans to be up that late when you have a newborn. We decided that we'd celebrate by getting take out and watching a movie at home. Honestly, I was really looking forward to it. I told Matt I likely wouldn't last until midnight, he gave me grief and reminded me that we could sleep in and I agreed. Neither of us even wanted to stay up once 10:00 hit. I put a post up on Facebook about how my first act of 2016 was changing my daughter's diaper and feeding her. I'm honored to be able to have that be my New Year's.

Sawyer is changing so much every day. She's more alert and it's so fun to watch her discover things. She's almost always clasping her hands together and she LOVES sucking on her hand. Now that we have changed formula she is so much better about taking a bottle, though sometimes she still prefers to nurse and will refuse a bottle. She is so happy, and happiest when she's on her changing table. We can't figure out why. As soon as we put her on there she is smiling and kicking and cooing like crazy. Sometimes we'll just stand there and talk to her for 15-20 minutes because she's so dang happy and cute.

She is on a pretty good schedule these days, sleeps pretty well at night. She has a pretty consistent 7 hour stretch at night, sometimes longer, rarely shorter. She takes a good 2.5-3 hour nap during the day with a few 30-45 minuters as well.

I still can't tell who she looks like more. We get differing opinions a lot, but I feel like people mostly say she looks like Matt.

This last month had a lot of challenges and some we are still trying to work through, but for the most part it was wonderful. Now not only am I looking into what the next month will hold, but 2016 as well. 2016 is going to be so much fun.

3 months old means no longer a newborn. Sawyer  has officially graduated to infant status.

Likes:
Being naked,
baths
her changing table
Mommy's singing
talking
being lifted in the air
being on her tummy
her  play gym from Grandma Halls

Dislikes:
Car seat (still)
Being taken out of the bath
being left alone (when we are out of her sight)
sudden noises or movements (she scares easily)

 Extras

This is what it looks like to work from home.

 

She loves to have her hands by her face. When we give her a bottle she's either holding our hands, has her hands tucked under her chin, or by her face.

Someone's getting chubby

Christmas present from Gma and Gpa Halls. She loves it.

Sunday Best.

 



2 Months

Wow! What a difference a month makes.
Miss Sawyer had her 2 month appointment yesterday. She is at a whopping 10 pounds 3 oz, which puts her in the 23rd percentile for weight, she's in the 63rd percentile for height and the 81st percentile for head :) She also got her shots, poor thing. She slept like a champ when we got home though.

This second month has been so fun. She is getting more smiley all the time and has started making cooing noises. This happens the most when I sing to her, which just makes me the happiest. I start singing and she starts smiling and cooing, I like to think she's singing with me.
She is right on the cusp of giggling and I can't wait for that.
She is starting to out-grow her newborn clothes and fitting into the 0-3 month size. She's getting some rolls in her thighs and some extra chins. Love it. She's also inbetween diaper sizes. The newborn size she'll pee right through, but the size 1 diapers don't stand a chance against "number 2", so that's fun.
Her sleeping schedule has been a pretty consistent 5 hour stretch at first, then another three. A couple of nights in a row she slept for 7 hours straight and I'm hoping that starts to happen more often.

This last month I went back to work. I had bad anxiety after I first had Sawyer but never really felt depressed, until I went back to work. It was a rough week. It didn't help that that week I also had my choir concert so it was a LOT of time spent away form my little girl. That was really hard for me.
I'm trying to decide if I should keep working or not, right now I'm really not wanting to work, but I also know that I need time to adjust to this new schedule, as do my bosses. I need to be able to figure this out, and once I get into the swing of things, if I still don't want to work, then I'll make that decision. I'm trying not to make it before I really give this a chance. I just miss my baby.

Yesterday I took her to her babysitter (my good friend Breah) and she had a rough morning. She slept really well that night, so she didn't want to take her morning nap. Apparently she had been fussy all morning. When I went to get her and picked her up, she calmed down. Breah said, "She's a mommy's girl" Even though I don't want her to be one of those babies that is ONLY calm if I'm holding her, I loved that she knew who I was and I was able to calm her down. I love that she knows I'm her mom. It also helps that I am the one that feeds her... but still.

This last Sunday was her blessing day (shared with her Grandma Halls' birthday). I was so excited for this. We borrowed a dress from her cousin Bo, bracelets from her cousins Mazi and Leila, and shoes from Leila. She looked so cute. It was also the first time she didn't mess with the bow I put on her. AH I love her.
When we got to church, she started getting a little fussy. Matt looked for a binky, but I didn't pack one, because she normally doesn't take them anyway. He stuck his finger in her mouth and she fell right to sleep. She slept through the blessing and the entire church meeting. She was a perfect angel. Matt gave her the most perfect blessing (That I cried the entire way through). I am so lucky to be married to such an amazing man, and I'm even happier that my daughter gets him for a daddy. It was just a perfect day. It was so strange to be the mother of the baby being blessed, but it was such an honor.

Matt and I were talking last night and saying, it's amazing how much more we love her with each new development. My heart feels like it could burst when I think about her.

The first month was so hard, we were both learning so many new things. This second month has been amazing. I feel like we are both figuring things out. What will month 3 have in store for us?

 I love the little bracelets and bow.

So glad Jennie was here this weekend.  We didn't plan to match, we're just awesome like that. Someone in my ward was talking to Jennie and said, "Oh good you're here! Oh you cut your hair" Jennie had to explain that she was not, in fact, me.



 Three generations. A Momma, her baby and her baby's baby.

 There are a LOT of men in our families, so we opted to just have Matt and the grandpas be in the circle to bless her. How I love these men.

 Matt and his best friend Ben (not to be confused with Jesus)

All the Halls that were in attendance

All of the Sanders clan that was in attendance (I didn't really make an announcement about it, I didn't want my family to feel obligated to come, so instead I just didn't give them the option :( Sorry family)

 The whole crew, (minus photographer, Ben)

 How Sawyer was through all of church. Good Paci, Daddy.

 My beautiful baby

 And this one, just because... look at that face