Happy 11 Week Birthday, Chloe! - Mar 26(ish)

So this week has been a busy one. So busy, in fact, that I was not able to prepare my Friday blog post that I have done for the last 11 weeks. A few days late better than never I guess. This weekend some friends of ours tied the knot in San Diego and we made the trip down with Chloe. This would be our longest car ride (which previously was about an hour) and we weren't sure what to expect. We planned to leave a day earlier and take our time driving down..not knowing how many times we would need to stop on what would otherwise be about a 7 hour drive. We loaded up the Element with just about everything we own and headed out.

All in all we stopped twice and made the trip in about 10 hours. We stayed with our good friends, Mike and Cindy, who recently moved down to San Diego to get away from us. Nice try =) It was great being able to see them again as well as being able to introduce Chloe to everybody.

John & Erin's wedding was beautiful and they are headed out on their honeymoon literally as I type. We had a great time at the wedding and I'm sure Chloe looks forward to coming back to SD...soon. =)

Happy 10 Week Birthday, Chloe! - Mar 19

Well it's 3am and I'm up so I figure I might as well slap up a few more pictures from the week. Last week we had our follow up appointment with the dermatologist to evaluate the status of the hemangioma. It has grown in mass since the last appointment (which was obvious to us) but it doesn't seem to have changed much in the last 2 weeks or so..which was good news. Their advise was to continue the course with the topical stuff we have been using thus far but also advised us of another medication we might consider if we weren't satisfied with the progress or if we felt that it was suddenly getting worse. For now they are calling it "superficial" which means it's just on the surface and they are not considering it serious..."cosmetic" if you will so treatment is not necessary at this point unless we want it. With medicine comes side effects, so we have to decide it we want to try it or not. We have decided to wait at this point..at least until she gets a little bit older. There is a chance it may have reached it's plateau and may begin to go away which would be best case scenario...the least likely scenario but we'll see what happens.

So, 10 weeks has gone by and we have seen a lot of changes. Physically, her eyes have become a beautiful shade of blue. We always figured she would have blue eyes because both Heather and I have blue eyes, but it's still amazing to see them change. Her personality is showing up more and she is much more responsive and smiley..making cute little noises and generally much happier with simple activities like just chillin in her crib watching the mobile and kicking her little feet.
And with Saint Patricks Day this week, we had to put on some green and take some pictures. Of course. LOL.

Smiling, Ver 1.0 - Mar 16

Remember I said Chloe has been smiling more lately? Well, this is a first attempt to catch a photo of what I'm calling a "real" smile..where she is looking at us and her entire face lights up...where you really feel like she is happy to see you. =)



There will be better photos, but this is what I got tonight after just a few minutes of trying. She is also making all sorts of cute little noises. people ask us if she is "cooing" yet I guess the answer is yes but she seems to have her own little language. It's funny, one of our favorite things that she does is when she sneezes..she sneezes like 4-6 times in a row and most of the time its like "ACHOO, ACHOO, ACHOO, ACHOO, Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!" and it's the cutest darn thing. We have been unsuccessful in timing a video of it..but we will get it and I will post it when we do!

Happy 9 Week Birthday, Chloe! - Mar 12

9 weeks. Time now is just flying by. I really don't know what happened to this week...it's like it somehow slipped away. I feel like I was just sitting here trying to think of something to write about her being 8 weeks old. I started trying to go to Costco on Sunday and we just finally went tonight. Crazy! The picture above is from our little handheld video monitor thing. Our pediatrician told us that it might be a good idea to start slowly getting Chloe used to sleeping in her crib so we started putting her down for a nap or two during the day. Our house isn't that big but when she does end up sleeping in her own room, sight and sound will be required if we even get a minute of sleep lol. =) Speaking of sleep, we actually had 2 nights this week where Chloe slept what some might call "through the night". We have not had any repeat performances since those two yet, but she is definitely getting into a better/deeper sleep when she is sleeping so that's still good news.

So today we have our follow up appointment with the dermatologist to see what they have to say about the hemangioma. To me it did increase in size since our last visit, but it seems to have hit a plateau in the last few weeks. Hopefully. We'll see what they have to say.

So because I'm not entirely sure what happened to the week, here are some pictures that were randomly taken throughout. She really is getting big now! She's starting to fit into a lot more outfits..which means she is no longer fitting into several also. That's awesome and sad all at once lol. Here's one of her new outfits that fits...lol.



car seat portrait


And she has been smiling since she was 3 days old (as captured on video several weeks ago) but recently she has been smiling a lot more. It's so cute but unfortunately not very repeatable yet so it's difficult to catch a picture. She smiles when she's falling asleep and with certain things we do like kissing her cheek. She makes such good eye contact now it really is neat to see her and have it feel like she's actually smiling AT us. =)

Have a great weekend!
B+H+C

Happy 8 Week Birthday, Chloe! - Mar 5

Two months? Really?? The DMV called to remind us that Chloe's drivers test is 15 years and 10 months from now. Scary. Anyway, our day of excitement really was yesterday so instead of rambling on like I normally might, I'll just post a few favorites from this week and sign off! If you missed yesterday, keep scrolling =) C-ya~



I made Heather take this picture like 10 times lol

This looks like a mug shot or something =p

Shots And Shopping - Mar 4

So, I totally called it. Today was Chloe's 2 month check up appointment and afterwards...Babies R Us. More on that later. We saw a different pediatrician today because our regular was on vacation this week. Chloe was weighed and measured: 9 pounds 6.5 ounces and 21 and 3/4 inches long! She's growing like a weed lol. What's amazing to me is that some babies are actually born this size. She's still our little bean. =)

With measurements, come shots. It wasn't as dramatic as it could have been, but believe me when I tell you...I have never seen Chloe's face turn so red as when they were giving her the shots. It was like she was so freaked out that she couldn't even cry...and then she wailed. The greatest feeling was being able to pick her up right after which immediately calmed her down. I thought for sure we were going to have to leave the office with her screaming but she was a total champ. I guess I'm the big needle wuss in the family. I almost passed out once having blood drawn for a physical.


Love that shot.

So after the doctor we decided it was finally time to go out to lunch. It was the first time we got to go to a restaurant and sit down and eat in months. We both have been craving Fudruckers so that was the logical choice. Afterwards we did in fact end up at Babies R Us to exchange one thing and to pick up some Tylenol drops for infants (since they warned us that a possible side effect of the shot(s) include fever). I think we own at least one thing from every isle in that store, so there is little else at this point that we even need, lol.


Tonight, Chloe is very tired and noticeably uncomfortable. We're hoping she sleeps hard tonight and bounces back tomorrow. Today was fun despite the needles. We got to venture out as a family and we survived. Can't wait to do it again. =)