She Looks Like Who?!

I am constantly asked, "Who does "Bean" look like?"  Well, the answer is simply, both of us!  I think Bean is quite the mix between the two of us.  She may have a few more features like me, but she has her daddy's coloring (as of now).

When she was first born, I would have said she looks exactly like me!  Her newborn photo and my newborn photo are very similar.  Unfortunately, I don't have a digital copy (or currently a hard copy) of my picture, so you'll have to take my word for it.

However, I do have some baby photos of Steve and I to try to compare with who she looks more like.  So here you go -- who do you think Bean looks like?

Steve?

(Steve)

(Bean)

(Steve)

Lindsey?

(Lindsey)

(Bean)

(Lindsey -- Note, my eyes are blue and not brown as they appear in these two pictures.)

One thing is for sure --- she has Steve's profile as far as mouth and chin:

(I could tell from the ultrasound that she had Steve's mouth and chin.  I'm pretty sure her forehead and eyes are more like mine.)

And last but not least:

She can have some pretty crazy eyes!  Hmmm. . .who does she get those from?

Me??

Or Steve??

A Muddy Story

I had another first this week.  I got my car stuck in mud, and boy do I mean stuck!  It took 5 girls, 1 guy, and a tractor to finally free my car.

What was supposed to be a surprise party for a lady from church.  I picked up my friend Sara and headed towards the lady's house who was throwing the party.  On the invite, she had stated to drive through her yard around to the back of the house to park and hide the cars.  I did just that, or at least I tried.  I had only gone about 8 feet in the yard when  I started thinking, "Hmmm, I'm leaving tire marks, it's going to be obvious cars are driving back here.  Oh man, this is really muddy, I might get stuck." I'm pretty sure I said the last part out loud, because Sara responded with a "maybe you should back out".

Well, it was too late.  I wasn't going anywhere, at least without tearing up the yard.  I left Sara in the car with Bean and I went to find the host and let her know of the situation.  She came out and we decided to try to get the car back on the driveway.  She and I ended up pushing the car while Sara manned the gas.  We got the car rocking, but would need more help in getting it free.  We decided to go inside and deal with the car later since the birthday girl was due to arrive.  However, I'm pretty sure it was going to be obvious that something was up by the car randomly parked in the yard :)

We had a good time at the party.  Ate delicious food, laughed, and met some new ladies.  After cake and presents, I had to ask for help with the car so that I could get Bean home and to bed.  The ladies donned some extra clothes and shoes from the host and came out to help.  There were about 4 of us pushing on the car.  We could get the car rocking, but in the end, it was just digging deeper holes (and kicking up mud all over -- sorry Candace!).

(This is where the car first got stuck and we are attempting to push it backwards onto the driveway about 10 feet away.  Since it was my car, I tried to make sure I was always doing the most work - I felt awful having women who were all dressed up for a party pushing my car in the mud!  The next day, my arms were so sore!)

(Tht's one pretty stuck wheel!  We tried to use planks to give traction to the tires, but we couldn't get them down in the mud at the right angle.  There are no more pictures of the rescue attempt because from here on out, it was pretty dark.  The beginning of the rescue started at 8pm.)

One of the wives called her husband (he was to pick her up) and he brought his truck and some cables.  Only problem was that he feared driving his truck on the yard and getting stuck himself.  So for some reason, he ended up in the driver's seat with 4/5 girls pushing from the back (so far we had been trying from the front since that would be the shorter distance to get the car out of the yard).  Ironically, his wife ended up slipping off the edge of the back as we were pushing and landed in the mud (this was the first time I had met these people, too!).  We regrouped after laughing and continued pushing.  Finally, the car lurched forward!  I yelled, "Don't get the back tires in the holes!", just as the back tires got stuck in the holes. HA!  We had to push it some more, and it was free!

The guy continued to drive the car, making a big arc pattern around the edge of the yard, only the further he got, the muddier it got!  We had to keep pushing on the back and helping him out until the car ended up getting stuck again, only this time it was much worse! At this point, it was decided that the only way the car was coming out of the yard was by being towed.  The husband who was helping out found a chain that would work.  At this point, the front of the car was closer to the driveway, but the front end of the car was down in the mud and there was no way to get under the bumper to find a place to attach the chain.  So the decision was made to attach it to the frame at the back, and have a tractor tow the car all the way back around the arc back to the original starting point.

At this point, I got in the driver's seat and put my backing up skills to the test (don't worry, I have good backing up and parallel parking skills).  I had the car in reverse (neutral did nothing) and I let the tractor do most of the work.  A couple of times, I had to give it some gas if it started to get stuck.  It seems like this whole ordeal should have lasted way longer than it did, but in just over a half hour, my car was back on pavement!!! Oh, and I forgot to mention, that Steve had decided to come and try to help.  He pulled into the driveway as the tractor was finishing the arc and nearing the driveway -ha!

And what about Bean?!  I had snapped her into her carseat at the get-go of all the pushing.  When I realized that us girls couldn't just push the car out, I was going to unsnap the seat, and put her inside with a couple other ladies; however, in the 5 minutes of pushing the car, she had fallen asleep!  I made the decision to just leave the sleeping babe in the car that whole time.

I feel absolutely terrible for the yard my car tore up :-/.  I'm hoping that just filling in the holes and throwing on some grass seed will do the trick.  I've been having nightmares and anxiety all week stressing out about their yard.  If it was my own yard, I'd laugh it off as lesson learned, but it's really hard to do that with someone else's property.  And the worse part of the whole story?!  Had we just hooked the chain up at the back of the car at the get go, the damage would have just been 2 holes from the front tires, and not long car tracks, numerous holes, and mud everywhere.  UGH

(I was able to document the damage the next day.  Well, the "damage" to the car.  Luckily, we live close to a car wash.  It just so happened to be a rainy day the next day, so I pulled the car out of the garage and into the rain.  It rained just enough to wet the mud on the car.  I then loaded Bean up and we headed to the car wash.)

(Aaaaand the other side of the car.)

5 Months!

It seems that in this last month Bean has gone form being a baby to a big girl!  I guess what I really mean is we've transitioned from that newborn stage of being an observer in the world to an infant and active participant in the world.

It seems like in one week, Bean transformed over night.  She now plays in her jumper/exersaucer for around 20-30 min at a time.  I can leave her in there and get other things done around the house.  When she's done jumping and playing with its toys (she can't spin herself in it yet, but she can reach from side to side, hit the buttons that light up an sing, and grab at the other toys), she'll lay on her activity mat for another 20-30 min playing with the critters that hang as well as with her own feet.  She loves her feet and loves taking her socks off her feet.

(She LOVES this thing.  We have a pillow currently placed under it, but she can finally reach the floor with her toes.  She holds herself up so well in it and can reach from the left (toys on yellow tray) all the way to the right (toys on orange tray).  You can get her excited while in it by pretending to jump and telling her to jump.  She'll mimic you and make herself bounce!  She can also hit the buttons to play music.  What a big girl!)

Bean has also started eating rice cereal.  She gets a serving of it at night in between nursing sessions.  I try to get her to eat the cereal around 6-7, with her last nursing session between 7-8.  She loves the rice cereal!  I mix it with breastmilk and make it thick in the beginning, but by the end of eating, it has thinned out (breastmilk has an active enzyme in it that thins out the rice cereal).  She's doing very well at using the spoon (even though she often grabs at it and tries to shove it in her mouth) and swallowing the mix.  When we first started, I wasn't sure how much was actually getting in, but now it is all going in.  Also, the frist 3 nights we started the cereal, she slept through the night!  I had very high hopes of that continuing, but after night 3, she went back to her waking up once (sometime between 4-6).

Bean isn't set on a schedule according to time, but I am working on trying to get her into a better routine.  This past month, we did some traveling to IN.  I am usually pretty lacks when we are visiting with family as far as her routine.  I try to get her to bed around the same time each night, but don't stress out about the naps.  If she has a couple of days of limited naps, I know she'll make up for it when things settle back down.

(On a trip to Indiana, we were able to get all the grandkids together - minus an add on- which is quite the rare occasion!  Another rare thing - everyone was looking at the camera!  Well, at least all who were awake for the picture were looking!)

In general her schedule looks like this:

8am - wake up, nurse, play in jumper & mat
10:30am - nap time!
11am - nurse, play in jumper, nap (or we do errands at this point)
12:30pm - nap!
2pm - nurse, play in jumper & mat
3:30pm - nap!
5pm - nurse, play with mommy &/or daddy, sit in Bumbo or bouncer seat while mommy makes dinner
7pm - bath time, eat rice cereal
8pm, nurse
9pm - if she hasn't fallen asleep while nursing, we go upstairs, rock & read stories
4:30am - nurse & back to sleep by 5am

Now, that schedule isn't the same time every day, but it is that general routine.  Recently, she's back to picking up a little catnap in the evenings (around 6:30) for 20 minutes.  I think that's a sign that maybe we should be moving bedtime up sooner.  That's one of the new goals I am working on.  We've at least achieved eating every 3 hours which I started working on in January! I'm also trying to figure out a more consistent nap schedule.  I never know how long a nap will be.  Generally, her morning nap is around 1.5 hr, and then her afternoon naps are around an hour each.  Although, sometimes she'll randomly have a 3 hour nap that screws up her sleeping the rest of the day.  I've often gone into her room to wake her up, but seeing her so peaceful while sleeping, I usually just leave her and let her dictate her own nap needs.

Other accomplishments this month - Bean can roll over both ways! She doesn't last long on her tummy when we put her on it.  She immediately flips either to the right or left to get on her back.  She can go from her back to her tummy, but doesn't do it often.  Usually this happens when she's craning to see the tv or reach for a random toy.  I still lay her on her back on her mat and leave the room to do other things.  I try to peak in on her every 5 min or so to make sure she's still doing okay.  A couple of times, I've heard her struggling and return to find her flipped on her tummy with her arm pinned under her - silly girl!

(Almost there!  She can completely roll over, but usually she likes to roll into this position.)

Bean shows no signs of crawling, but often scoots around on her back, especially while sleeping in her crib!  Every morning, I never know where she'll be positioned in her crib.  Sometimes she's wedged up in the top corner, or even perpendicular to the way I left her.  I'm waiting for the day where she's a complete 180 degrees turned.  I also never know how her blanket will end up.  Today, I found her hiding under it, but usually it's wrapped around her wasted with her arms and legs out and in the air.

(Wedged in the corner after a nap.)

(I heard a bunch of coos and laughter on the monitor after a nap.  When I went into her room, all I could see was her little feet above the crib wall.  What a goof!)

And the last big change this month -- her poop and farts now reek!  This is one of those negative side effects of the rice cereal.  From here on out, it's just going to get worse! We don't plan on introducing any other foods for another month (even though she is totally ready! She watches us eat and knows what food is.). Sometimes when she now toots, you can smell it when you are close to her.  There have been many toots that I would swear had substance behind, but sure enough, her diaper is just wet.  Oh and because you want to know Bean's pooping schedule, she has gone from pooping multiple times a day to pooping just once, maybe twice.  You go girl.

(I loves this photo, not just becuase of that little cutie, but because it's all washed out from SUNSHINE!! The weather is finally starting to show signs of spring.  Last week, we even pulled out the stroller and went for a walk when Daddy got home from work.  We tried to explain to Bean that this is what the real world looks like - since she usually is in her car seat, under a blanket.  I don't think she believed us, though.  It snowed the next day and we went back into hibernation.)

(Another new thing - Bean can pull her pacifier out and attempts to put it back in.  A couple of times, she's actually put it back in properly, but usually just chews on it.  Yesterday, she took her paci out of her mouth and put it correctly into mine.  I guess that's a sign she likes to share??)

Traveling Babe

This past week/weekend marked the longest time we were apart as a family! Steve had some business to attend to in Knoxville, TN.  As tempting as it was to go on his little business trip with him, the thought of entertaining Bean in a car and hotel room for 3 days wasn't too appealing.  Instead, she and I headed to Indiana for a few days!

Indiana trips always seem to fly by.  We left Lima Wednesday morning and got into Kokomo around lunchtime.  Bean decided she did not want to wait to Ahm & Abo's house to eat, so instead, I had to park in a parking lot to feed her.  That was a first!  The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling with Ahm & Sara (we even made a quick trip to Sara's school).  Abo was busy with a crazy work project, but we did see him later that evening.

Thursday was a pretty big day for Bean.  She got to meet another one of her "adopted grandma's" -- Mrs. B! Bean warmed up to her pretty quick and cuddled with her while mommy and Mrs. B chatted away.  About the time she headed out, Gabbie & Aunt Amber showed up!  Gabbie and I dove into playing with all my old Barbies while Bean shared in Aunt time.  Later in the afternoon, my friend April came over and brought a friend visiting from Israel!  Bean got to meet so many new people this trip!

(Mrs. B! Who would have known the lasting friendship I'd have with my 7th grade history teacher?!  This lady is truly a precious gem!)

(We like to call her GranBerry, especially since she now claims Bean as her own!)

On Friday, I got to have some me time and went and got my nails done!  I got a new gel polish kit for Christmas and have been doing them myself, but I wanted to see how to do some nail design and also just wanted to be pampered!  Bean hung out with Ahm at the dentist while Sara was getting some teeth worked on.  I heard she was the office hit and of course showed off to everyone! After our appointments, we reunited for some lunch then went back to my parents for the rest of the afternoon.  Nieces showed up after school and we all hung out.  The evening seemed to fly by!  Mom & I made some Galushta so that I could take it to an international dinner at our church.  We started after Bean went to sleep and it only took a couple of hours.  Thanks mom!

Saturday, I woke up early and was out of the house by 7am!  My brother picked me up and we headed to a piano contest to judge.  When I was younger, I actually participated in the contest.  You go in and out of rooms and play prepared pieces according to the event (Hymns, patriotics, etc) and a judge grades your pieces.  You acquire points and earn trophies throughout the years.  Back in college, my teacher called me up to see if I wanted to help out and judge.  I've done it off and on for the past 5 years and love it!  It's neat to see the other side of the process and help kids develop their piano skills.  This was going to the longest time I was going to be away from Bean.  I had it all set up for my mom to just bottle feed her all day while I was gone, but during my lunch break, I decided I needed to feed Bean for my own comfort!  My parents brought her and I was able to feed her while my sister filled in my judging room (She was judging, too.  She was actually placed with a co-judge, so she was able to leave her room for a bit).

(Bean & Ms. Margie.  Margie was my piano teacher and hasn't changed since the first time I met her!  She is another one of Bean's adopted grandmas.  A girl can't have too many grandmas, right?!)

Judging finished up around 3 and I headed back to my parents' to change and quickly pack up the car.  It worked out that I got to feed Bean before we headed out.  Our trip back was uneventful and went smoothly.  We were hitting a small town about an hour before home and it was around the time she should eat again.  I chose to wake her up and feed her (while feeding myself!).  It was hard to take care of feeding her and myself at the same time.  I tried to make it simple by eating nuggets and fries.  I knew it would be impossible to eat a burger one handed (even though I prefer burgers over nuggets!).  Oh well, just chalk that one on the list of things I do for Bean.

As much as I did not want to leave my family in Indiana (or drive at night!), it was good to be home and out of the car.  Especially since Bean felt the same way the last 30 minutes.  She made her presence known in the car by lots of whining.  Once we got home, she was all smiles with daddy. After some playing and cuddles with him, she got a quick bath and bedtime!  Woooooohooooo!!

Sweets from Our Sweet

For Valentine's Day, I got Steve a valentine kit with nerds.  It was cheaper to by the little kit than to just buy a bag of candy.  Little did I know what he'd do with those little Valentine's:

(I first spotted this one next to my bed, complete with a cute little note on the back)

(Then I spotted this one on Bean's bookshelf complete with a cute note for her.)

What an amazing husband and dad we live with!  Although, if you want to get technical, I bought the kit, so are these really from me?  Haha, I kid.  Thanks Steve! We love you, too :)

A Busy Weekend

Bean got to experience her first Ikea experience and boy was it memorable.  Before telling the story of her experience, I need to back track and set it up.

On Valentine's day, Mommom & Poppop came to visit!  This was a pretty laid back visit with the focus on Steve for his birthday and of course time with Bean! The next day, Uncle Scott and Aunt Ashley came up to "observe Bean in her natural environment" (their words) for the afternoon.  We then caravan-ed to Dayton for pizza at our favorite place - Dewey's. The wait was almost an hour, but we had come to Dayton just for their pizza and decided the hour wasn't too bad.  That was before they gave our reservation away... There was some miscommunication between the host and manager and the wrong party of six got seated at our table (we knew it was ours because they had a baby sling at the table).  The host immediately realized what had happened and the manager admitted fault.  We ended up getting all our pizza free, but had to wait another 15-20 min.  Finally at 8pm we were seated!  After dinner, we headed back to Lima while the others continued to Cincinnati.

The next morning, we woke up and loaded Bean back into the car and head to Cincinnati.  About an hour into the trip, she decided she was done with being in the carseat.  She cried a lot and I couldn't console her.  I knew she wasn't hungry so we just powered through the next 45 min to Ikea.  We got some Sweddish pancakes and tried to regroup.  Bean was much happier so we just chalked it up to not wanting to be in the car (even though she typically loves it).   After most of breakfast was eaten, I got her out of her seat/stroller and discovered that she had pooped through her diaper and through her cute new outfit from Mommom.  Good thing I had an extra outfit packed. . .

(Good thing we snapped this photo of Bean wearing her cute new outfit.  This was right before I discovered the poop up her side.  I'm pretty sure right after this photo was taken, I said, "I should probably change Bean".  Famous last words.)

(Steve wanted to capture my frustration and he got more than he bargained for.  Bean was not cooperating in the picture taking. Although, even with her eyes closed she's so cute!)

(Get your act together Bean! We have Ikea to explore and a schedule to stick to! No more unscheduled blow outs!)

(Success!  Notice, the look on my face here is not an act.  This was right in the middle of the Great Poop Clean-up - hints the naked baby. I was also sad she was going into a backup outfit.)

After cleaning Bean up and feeding her, we powered thorugh the crowds at Ikea.  We found a couple things that we wanted to get and headed to the checkout.  We soon discovered how busy Ikea really was -- the checkout lines were long! We had plans to meet Steve's family at 1, but had to change that to 2.  We checked out, grabbed a hotdog, and continued our journey in Cincy to the old Union Center Terminal.  Bean decided to throw a fit on the 25 min car ride.  I skillfully gave her Tylenol while the car was in motion from the front seat.  She began to calm as we got close to train station, just in time! We met Steve's fam (minus Scott) just in time to make it to a tour of the old train station.

Because we had to delay an hour, I realized Bean's eating time was going to fall right as the tour started.  Luckily, the first part of the tour consisted of hearing about the history while sitting in a meeting room.  I used the opportunity to feed Bean.  She was a little fussy until I got her all situated, and then she cooperated (although I had to stand with her while feeding her).  We had the stroller with us, but ended up parking it for most of the tour.  Bean did great being passed around and eventually fell asleep with me holding her.

(Learning about the murals in the old train station. )

After the tour, we headed into the history museum within the train station.  Bean was still sleeping while Poppop pushed her around.  They ended up finding a spot to hang out with Mommom while the rest of us went through the rest of the museum.  After we were done, it was getting close to feed Bean again.  We made the decision to just wait longer at the train station, feed her, then head back north to Lima.  We stopped for dinner on the northside of Cincinnati.  I was worried Bean would fall asleep between the train station and eating, so I did my best to entertain and keep her awake.  It worked!

(Bean and Mommom getting in their last cuddles! Note her "back-up" outfit.  I was really concerned she was going to poop though this one, too.  Good thing she didn't! Otherwise she'd have to go back into poop outfit #1.  And for the record, she's wearing shoes because they keep her socks on!)

Everything soon began to fall apart halfway into eating.  We had made the decision to leave her in the carseat while we ate, and she soon decided she wanted out.  She started squirming and grunting, so we crammed down our food and hit the road.  We thought once the car was going, she'd fall asleep and be happy.  Definitely not the case.  She decided crying and throwing a fit sounded better.  I ended up throwing in the towel and giving her some Tylenol, but that ended up doing nothing for her.  Finally about 45 min later, she fell asleep (I had to hold her paci, rub her head, & hold her hand that whole time.  That doesn't sound too bad until I say that i was doing all of that from the front seat!  With the stroller and Ikea purchases in the car, I didn't have the option to pop into the back to sit with her.  We got about 30 min of silence before she woke up and started squirming again. We were 15 min from home and just powered through.

When we got home, I took her out of her seat and discovered she had another pretty full diaper.  I'm not sure if she was so fussy in her carseat all day because her tummy hurt or if it was because she had a dirty diaper.  All I know, is that bedtime couldn't come soon enough!  Bean got a bath, was fed, and fell to sleep quickly!  The busy weekend really wore her out!  She was able to recuperate on Monday, but got her shots for her 4 month appointment on Tuesday.  Poor girl!