Jenny Bear's Wedding

This weekend Ian went backpacking. You'll have to talk to him if you want more details about that, but he said it was a great weekend! They even made some discoveries!

Mary and I went to Jen's wedding. Congratulations Mrs. Jenny Kenny! We had a great weekend hanging out with family and friends. It was nice to have a bunch of people who wanted to hold Mary all the time! She was thrown off a little by all the traveling, but I think she will bounce back pretty quickly. Here is a picture of me and Mary from the wedding:


And here is a slide show of pictures from the weekend:

Four weeks today!

Well we made it through the first four weeks! She will be one month old this Friday! I thought I would put up some pictures. Here is one I took today:

Here is a picture of how we put her in her crib for a nap:
And here is how we find her when she wakes up:
Sometimes she gets her legs out of there too. It's pretty entertaining for us!

Getting Better???

At the risk of jinxing this family I've got to say that this past week with Mary has been much better than the first two. Parenting is still the hardest thing I've ever done, but I think she's started to settle into a routine. The past four nights she has slept all night except when we fed her! And Ian had the last two days off and tomorrow off. They should just cancel the whole week...

We got power back last night, and cable came back on about two hours ago so we've been watching TV and playing on the internet for the past two hours. We were a little lost today without our toys! Here are some pictures we took of Mary today:

Mary met her cousin yesterday!

Yesterday Mary and I went over to my mom's house and Brooklynn was there too! So we got to see how Brooklynn would react to another baby being around. She was very good with her! In this picture she's rubbing Mary's leg. The only little mishap was when I asked Brooklynn where her eye was. She proceeded to point to her own eye, then poke Mary in the eye and say "EYE!".

Besides that it was very good! Right now we're trying to figure out if there is a reason why Mary cries for 9 hours every night. Yesterday I cut dairy out of my diet so here's hoping that works! Also, she seems to generally have her days and nights worked out...fingers crossed. For the past four nights she has slept through the night except when she gets hungry (usually once between 3:30 and 4:30). So we will remember these nights when she has another crazy one where we want to pull our hair out!

And finally, here is a picture of Mary with Grandma, Grandpa, and her cousin Brooklynn:

What I do all day:

Here is a pretty boring video showing what Mary can do. At the end she gets a little cuter, but it's not a whole lot of action going on. At least she's not sleeping!

Umbilical Cord and the Park

Yesterday Mary's umbilical cord fell off!!!! I don't know why I'm so excited about that but I am! Ian and I got to get out of the house last night and it was amazing! We went to a couple's hang out at Marie and Kurt's house and it was great to see so many people that we love. Today we also went to the park for the first time with our little bundle of joy! We have her all dressed up in Bengals gear despite the fact that Ian is boycotting the team all together. We are going to watch the game today though so I guess that's a step for Ian. Now for some pictures...
Here's a picture of me holding the nasty cord, and what her belly looks like now:


Here are some park pictures:



And here is a milk drunk face:

Week one as a family of three...

The other day Ian asked me which I would rather do again right now if I had to: run a marathon, or give birth. Of course I said run a marathon. Then he said would you rather go through the first week again or train for and run a marathon. This question was hard to answer, but I'm pretty sure I'd pick the marathon. Having a newborn is hard work!

I think this is something that we knew, but obviously hadn't experienced, so couldn't really fathom what it would be like. The hardest part is worrying that everything that happens means that something is wrong with her. We ask ourselves questions like, "Is she getting enough food? Is she sleeping enough? Is she sick?" Eventually we looked at each other and realized we needed to give things up to Christ. We're not in control anyway so why sit around worrying about things??? Easier said than done, but we have such a blessing in our lives now and we want to enjoy her!

I just keep thanking God for everything he's done this week. And now I can be thankful that we made it through the first week! Ian had to go back to school today so Mary and I will see what it's like to do life without him around all day. So far it's ok...we miss him though. She had a Dr.'s appointment this morning and has already gained 3 ounces! I thought that was pretty good for my little girl. The doctor says that everything looks great!

So far her favorite things to do are poop and eat. She's just like her daddy!Overall things are great here, just lacking sleep right now ;)