Our two Essie's

We were so excited to travel to PA last weekend so our little Essie could meet her family! She was a great traveler, and slept like a champ in a strange place.

Our little Essie finally got to meet her Great Aunt Essie. I think they kind of like each other :-)





Little Essie really likes her Great Uncle Warren, too!





The family threw us a wonderful shower to welcome Essie into the family. She was given some adorable clothes and a lot of books. We played 'pass the baby' for a while until she got a little fussy.







Essie loved her Great Aunt Rhoda, too.....just not so much when Rhoda was holding her because of that hard cast. When mommy was holding her, Essie just looked at Rhoda and smiled and talked to her. Monday morning, we went to Rhoda's for breakfast and Barney gave Essie lots of doggie kisses!

There's no place like home

We made it :-)

As wonderful as it is to travel and visit family, nothing quite compares to the joy of coming home after being away - especially with a baby!!! Essie was a very good traveler. Our last couple of hours on the road were a bit rough - we had to listen to the vacuum CD for a while :-). I think Essie was just tired of sitting in her car seat. I sat in back with her for a while....until the nausea set in. Then, daddy had to go to the back and mommy drove the rest of the way home!

I'll try to post more tomorrow - with pictures!!!

Essie's first road trip....

Early tomorrow morning, we leave on our first road trip with Essie. We are headed to Pennsylvania to visit Nick's family and so our little Essie can meet her Great Aunt Essie - and all her other great Aunts and Uncles and cousins.

We decided to rent a car for the trip to keep from putting all the extra miles on ours. When I got to the rental place today, they gave us a free upgrade to a minivan. My mom was quick to point out that I once said I'd never drive a minivan....but I'm kind of digging it! So, now I must go start packing it full. Boy, there's a lot of stuff you have to take for a baby!!

Please pray for safe travel and that Essie does well in the car and in a new place.

I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to post when we get back!!

Thank you for the prayers...

Betty is fine. She was released from the hospital this afternoon after all tests came back normal. She still had some pains in her chest, but an appointment with her chiropractor made them go away! She told him her symptoms and he said it sounded like a rib was out of place. He made some adjustments and the pain disappeared!!

....this is the same doctor who adjusted Essie and healed her reflux. He also fixed Nick's feet last year. We love him :-)

Prayer request

Well, we survived our first night away from Essie. She didn't want to go to sleep for Nana, but did eventually and actually slept pretty good.

We got an early wake up call from Betty this morning...around 7:45. She was having chest pains and called the rescue squad to come get her. Thankfully, her neighbor - a very experienced grandma - was able to come over and take care of Essie until Nick and I could get back to Tipp. So far, the doctors are not sure why she is having chest pains - it may be anxiety related. She will stay at the hospital overnight to have more tests run tomorrow. When I spoke to Betty a couple hours ago, she was more worried about Essie than herself. Please keep her in your prayers and I'll update as soon as I hear anything.

We got home in time for Nick to open the restaurant and I went to get Essie. She was bright-eyed and happy, just looking around the room. Somehow she slept through all the commotion at Nana's house this morning. Now, she is napping peacefully in her own bed :)

Do you hear it?

Probably not. I'm sure it's only in my head. But, it's very loud, so maybe you do hear it....it's the 'Hallelujah Chorus.' Essie slept 6 1/2 hours last night!!!!!!!!! We've been doing bath time at 8:15, then she has a bedtime bottle at 8:30, so she's in bed by 9:00. She didn't wake up until 3:30 this morning for a snack - then went right back to sleep and was up for the day at 7:30!! Mommy actually woke up at 2:00 and flew out of bed to make sure Essie was okay :-) Now, I'm not really a morning person, but I definitely prefer getting up in the morning to doing so in the middle of the night! She slept like this a few nights ago, too. I think we may be starting something wonderful here!!

Tonight will be our first night away from Essie....As much as we both need a night off (especially mommy), I'm really not excited about leaving her. She's staying with Nana Betty while Nick and I go to a food show. We'll only be an hour away....Please pray today for safe travel for us, and good sleep for everyone :-)

So big....

Essie had her 2 month well-baby appointment yesterday. She weighs 12 pounds 4 ounces, and is 23 1/4 inches long. She is in the 80th percentile for both height and weight. She has been growing like a weed the past few weeks.

I'm both happy and sad that she's growing so fast. Happy because newborns are hard! We finally have her on a good schedule - she takes great naps in the afternoons, sleeps very well at night. We're still working on sleeping all night long.....but when she does wake up, she'll have a little snack and go right back to sleep.

But, I'm sad because I've had to box up all of her newborn clothes. The newborn diapers are long gone. In fact, she weighs enough now that the next time I buy diapers, I'll be buying Stage 2. Even some of her 3 month outfits are getting too short. She is officially wearing 3-6 month sized clothes. She's been wearing the 3-6 month onsies for a while now - could they make the neck hole on those things any smaller?!?!?!?! I put away the newborn onsies a while ago - poor baby screamed her head off every time I tried to put one on her!

Essie has been a lot of fun lately! She sits in her swing and watches Pooh, Eeyore, and Piglet spin around on the mobile. She just laughs and coos at them. Piglet is her favorite :-) She smiles at mommy and daddy when we talk to her. We have a toy hanging above Essie's changing table - it has a mirror with some little animals that rattle hanging off of it. She likes to watch herself in the mirror. She'll just lay on the table and kick her legs and squeal. It is so cute!!





...I thought it was about time we posted a picture of mommy and Essie :-)

Story time....

On Saturday mornings, mommy teaches a Zumba class at church. Yesterday morning, Grandpa Rick and Grandma Judy came down. Grandma takes Zumba with mommy so Grandpa was hanging out with daddy and Essie.

Essie had a little bit of a belly ache Friday night and didn't sleep well overnight. Daddy had just finished giving her the morning bottle when the grunting began. Those of you who are parents know the drill. Grunting. Straining. Glassy eyes. A face so red you're concerned a blood vessel is going to pop. Then he said it sounded like an explosion in her pants.

Being the great daddy he is, Nick didn't wait for mommy to come home but laid Essie down to change her diaper. He pulled her pants off, then unsnapped the onsie. As he was moving the onsie up her back to take the diaper off, he got a handful of pooh! That's right, her first blowout! Instead of coming out the legs of the diaper, it went straight up the back!

I think Grandpa Rick thoroughly enjoyed his position as 'grandpa' instead of 'daddy' for this one! Apparently, the extent of his help was to grab the container of baby wipes, hand one to Nick and say, "Here, have a wipe."

Needless to say, Essie had an extra bath yesterday morning! Daddy did such a good job with everything that mommy didn't even get mad at him for taking the pooh-laced onsie and throwing it directly in the hamper without first rinsing it out! ;)

More from the best photographer ever......

I don't know why I didn't think to post this sooner....we had Essie's photo shoot when she was a couple weeks old. I believe the pictures will remain online through at least the end of April.

Essie's pictures

The password is 'essie' and you'll have to enter your email address. When you get in, click on the slide show and make sure your sound is on.

Enjoy :-) We sure have!!!!

PS...If you live in the area and need any pictures, Sharon's website is one of our 'great links.' She is amazing!!

BIG Blue Eyes

Essie has been such a happy baby since we've gotten her reflux under control!

I really hope she keeps her big beautiful blue eyes!

Yesterday, her birthmother came up to hang out for the afternoon (she was on spring break last week). When I took her home last night, I had the opportunity to see some of her baby pictures. Essie has her nose, lips and chin. T says Essie's head is shaped like that of her birthfather (we don't know what he looks like - or really anything about him). The funny thing is...so many people have commented on how much Essie looks like Nick and me. We just smile and say, 'Thank you.'

A little Q & A

Question: How does a burp rag end up with a mark like this?



Answer: Get it too close to a candle.....at church! We won't play the blame game, but daddy did it :-) lol!! Yeah, we're still learning things :0

Grandma Franny and Grandma Judy visited this morning and Essie was all smiles. She's been smiling a lot lately. Unfortunately, mommy's camera isn't always fast enough to catch her in the act!!