Cleveland

At the beginning of December, Steve took a day off work and we headed up to Cleveland for a long weekend.  We spent the first day seeing  a few sites around the city while waiting for our good friends Mitch & Alice to get off work and spend the rest of the weekend with them!

We first stopped at West Side Market.  It's a little Market where you can buy fresh food (meat, produce, etc) or they also have some little dessert booths or some "fast" food options.  We walked around a few times in search of what they had to offer.  Right away, Steve spotted a bratwurst but I was hoping to find something I could split with Bean.  Several minutes, many laps, and still no food, I finally got a bratwurst, too and just fed Bean pieces of bread.

(Trying to find food at West Side Market)

After lunch, we drove over to Viaduct Park.  It was a beautiful little park kind of hidden in the middle of the city.  It used to be the site of a working mill, but now is just a stream and tunnel. After the park, we had to make a pit-stop at a McDonald's for a potty break! That was the big downfall of the day. No restrooms at any of our stops, we will definitely plan that one better next time.  We then headed to our friends' house.

(Bean trying to figure out why on earth we are out in the cold.)

(That tunnel used to be the site of a big turbine/saw mill)

We feasted on a delicious dinner of pizza and macaroni & cheese (our friend works for Nestle and shared with us some of her perks!).  After dinner, we moved Bean's car seat into their awesome mini-van, loaded everyone up (4 adults & 3 kids) and headed to the Stan Hywet estate in Akron. The estate was decked out with Christmas lights! You could walk around the grounds through some of the lights and also got to go through the mansion that was decked out in Christmas stuff.  The weather wasn't the greatest, it was cold and rainy, but we made the best of it.  One of Steve's friends from college Blake brought his wife and met up with the group.  It was fun getting to see everyone again!

(Bean's first encounter with Santa! She was unfazed by the meeting.)

(Our group trying to stay dry. We finally decided it was inevitable to get wet and ventured through the rest of the grounds.)

(The Stan Hywet main house on the estate)

(So pretty yet so much rain! If only it was snowing!)

(I carried Bean around the whole time in the carrier. We knew strollers weren't welcomr in the bug house and thought it best to just keep her contained against me.)

(Last two cars in the parking lot!)

After literally shutting down the estate, we headed back to Mitch/Alice's place for the night.  The next morning, we woke up and scrambled to get everything pulled together.  We needed to be out the door by a certain time so that Alice and I could meet up with her co-workers so that we could run the A Christmas Story 5k!  We may not have left the house at the desired time, but it all worked out.  We met up with her co-workers, got to the starting line, and talked strategy before it was race time.  Some of the group wanted to walk while a few (3 of us!) wanted to legitly run.

The race started and we made plans to meet up at the finish line.  I ran with Alice's 2 co-workers Esther & Erin.  Esther was a little crazy and darting in and out of all the other runners.  About 1/4 of the way in, Erin and I decided we couldn't keep up with Esther and we'd just be each other's running buddies.  I was definitely running faster than I was used to, but I was still able to keep up.  We couldn't find the mile markers and were just having to guess how much longer we had.  We were behind the 10 min pile pace guy.  At around the 18 min mark, we knew we had to at least be over halfway.

The route itself was nothing special.  It did start in downtown Cleveland, and we got to run over a historic bridge; however, after that it was just running through neighborhoods basically.  The point of the race was to run to the house that A Christmas Story was used in the film.  The area is really run down and proceeds from the race are helping to build the area back up.  The run got boring other than seeing people in costumes and the occasional kid sprinting by us.  Erin saw a marker for mile 3, so we knew we were close.  We rounded a corner and low & behold, there stood Steve, Mitch and the kids.  They finally spotted me and started cheering.  They were on the final street and we could see the finish line in sight.

(I'm in all black with crazy pink/yellow shoes- right behind the person in blue/green. Erin is just to my right. Homestretch!!)

Erin said, "Let's sprint!" I said sure and started to, but my body had different ideas.  I immediately started heaving.  Yes, heaving! I had to cup my hand to my mouth (I lessened my pace but kept running, after all that finish line was so close!) and I began to plot where on earth to throw up at.  Erin took off and looked back, but I waved her on.  I saw a trash can just past the finish line.  I heaved a few more times but kept the contents down (lovely, right?).  I made it to the trash can but my body had settled down by then and I was okay (I guess I shouldn't have eaten 2 banana muffins right before running, my mistake).  My official time was 29:56 -- what?!  That put my average pace around 9min40sec per mile.  The fastest I have ever been able to run is just over a 10min mile!  I'll take it!  Erin beat me by a few seconds.  She came in 487th place, and I came in 498th place out of 2388 people! Wooo! We waited at the finish line for the rest of the girls to finish up.

(Waiting on the last girls! Alice is super excited in the link all the way to the left.)

(The group after we were all done! There was an error in the medal shipment and Alice got the 2nd to last medal! Whew!! Anyone after her time was shipped a medal later.)

(Bean celebrating Mommy's PR)

I was done at that point, so the guys, the kids, and I headed to the van (my tummy was still a little queasy and I was read to sit!).  Alice hung with her coworkers just a bit longer and then met back up with us at the van.  From there, we headed to an amazing hot dog place for lunch.  At Happy Dawg, you got to build your own hotdog!  Steve's toppings included pork & beans, spaghettios, and mac'n'cheese (just to name a few).  I went with chili, mac'n'cheese, a pickle spear, and sauteed onions.  I shared with Bean and she ate all my mac'n'cheese.  After lunch, we headed to a famous candy store that claims to be the largest.  I'd believe that it holds the largest variety of candy.  If you can think of it, it was probably there.

(The best hot dog in the world. Well, 2nd to mine - I had chili instead of spaghettios on it.)

(Just what we wanted to do, eat hot dogs after running! And look how adorable Libby is. She insisted on sitting in the booth next to Steve and right beside Bean.)

(Bean scored a free candy cane from the candy store. It was her first and she loved it. She's in the Ergo carrier again. I had hopes of her transferring from asleep in the car to asleep in the carrier. Ya, right.)

From the candy store, we had to make a quick stop at a Walmart to buy one of the kids some shoes (and since Bean isn't walking, you can do the math on who needed them).  We then headed to Brandywine Falls to walk around and see a big waterfall.  It was pretty cold, but once we got down by the rocks, we were shielded by the wind.  We loaded back up in the van and drove to another area in the park to see a beaver marsh.  It was too cold for beavers, but we ventured out anyways.  I was getting pretty cold and Bean was due for a nap, so we called it a day and headed back to the car.

(Bundle Bag Buddies)

(Alice braved wearing Libby in my carrier. How awesome is that thing? And check out that waterfall!)

(Learning about Beavers at Beaver marsh. You had to continuously turn a crank to hear the info.)

From the park, we headed to dinner at Melt Bar and Grilled.  They are known for their crazy grilled cheese sandwiches.  Steve got a mac'n'cheese grilled sandwich, while I got a spicy pulled chicken grilled sandwich. As we left the restaurant, Steve's friend Blake just happened to be driving by.  We were actually headed over to his house so Steve randomly decided to jump in the car.  Bean and I crawled back into the van and we headed to Blake's.  Alice and I decided we had had enough taken the kids in and out of the car and since it was close to bedtime, we would call it a night and head back to their house.  Blake, Mitch, and Steve stayed and had a "jam session".  They played all sorts of crazy songs using Blake's band set up. The didn't come back to the house until almost midnight! I crashed once they got home.

The next morning, we got up and decided to go out for breakfast.  We were going to go to a local brunch place, but it was too busy. So we ended up at a Bob Evan's where we were entertained by a balloon animal guy.  The kids were loving it! Mitch and Alice had tickets to a big football game and had a sitter coming at 11 to watch to the kids (that sitter just happened to be my running pal Erin!).  We didn't leave Bob Evans until after 11, haha, ooops!

(Bean got a monkey in a tree from the hilarious balloon guy.)

We got back to their house, packed all of our stuff up, and then hit the road to return home.  On the way back, we took a different route and made a stop in Huron, OH.  That's where Steve's grandparents & dad grew up.  We made a stop at their gravesite, drove by the old house, and made an extra special stop at Toft's Dairy for some ice cream.  Mmmmmm, it was as good as we remembered it! We got home just in time for me to make it to choir cantata practice, unpack, repack, and hit the road for Cincinnati the next morning!

(Getting to "visit" Grammy & Grandpa)

(We did an awkward drive by and snap a quick picture of their old house. The new owner was in the yard. I really wanted to chat and tell him who we were, but Steve wouldn't have my shenanigans. Maybe next time.)

(Tofts! Need I say more?)

(Sharing ice cream with us. I got pumpkin & Steve got cookie dough. Pretty neat to think about Bean being 4th generation Ackerman to enjoy the ice cream!)

(When we got home, we discovered Bean had mastered climbing onto our footstool. Now it is "outside the gate". And don't worry, she only had the balloon under our supervision!)

10 Months!

Seriously?!  Where has the time gone!  I feel like just yesterday Bean was turning 6 months and beginning to discover "real food".  Now she's celebrating the big 1-0 Month (double digits!) and continuing to explore the world around her.

About a week ago, Bean came down with a pretty high fever and was officially sick for the first time.  When I took her to the doctor, she weighed in at 18 pounds.  She was diagnosed with hand, foot, and mouth disease.  I wasn't convinced she had it since there were only a few spots in her mouth and a high fever.  My mom watched her while we went away, and since then, my mom has had signs of h/f/m disease, so maybe the doctor was right. Ha!

She isn't walking yet, but she's finally starting to show a little interest. She can crawl super fast, and hasn't figured out that walking will get her to things even quicker.  However, she loves to reach for things, and will often stand near the coffee table and couches to get to stuff she's not able to reach (especially whatever I'm holding - food, computer, phone, etc).  She's "cruised" a couple steps while holding onto furniture, but only takes a step or two that way.  We haven't really been working with her on walking, but are starting to make her hold our hands and take a few steps that way.

Bean has really started to show her independent side this month.  She is happy to play by herself with her toys, but doesn't necessarily like to be left alone.  She will stand at the gate and cry for me if I leave the room (and not to make it sound like I leave my 10 month old daughter all alone, this is usually quick trips to the kitchen, upstairs for something, or to switch laundry.  I can always hear her when I'm out of the room and know what she's up to and that she's safe).  Most of her favorite toys make sounds and sing songs, but she also loves holding little toys like Weebles or rings and just shaking them around.

She's also really shown independence in eating.  She will no longer happily eat pureed baby food.  She will eat some things by a spoon (like yogurt or oatmeal), but she wants to feed herself everything else!  Her favorite foods are cottage cheese, bananas, sweet potatoes, and mac and cheese.  Although, the past couple days she has started to prefer strawberry over banana.  I've learned the hard way that bananas stain AWFUL! So now, she eats her food naked.  She doesn't seem to mind, and would probably prefer to go naked all day.  I get annoyed with the whole taking clothes off, cleaning up food, and putting clothes back on multiple times a day, but it is better than dealing with banana stains!

She is still on a 2 nap schedule and gets 4 bottles a day along with 3 meals (and a couple snacks).  I'm pretty sure she is just like me in that we don't have a "full" trigger.  As long as you put something she likes in front of her, she'll eat it. When she doesn't like something, she'll clench her mouth shut, shake her head and push the food away.

Sometime in the last 2 weeks, we've had a breakthrough in the sleeping department!  Sadly, it sort of corresponded to quitting breast feeding.  But I don't think that is necessarily related.  At her 9 month appointment, I discovered she wasn't getting enough milk in the day.  So we started supplementing formula, but I still was estimating on how much breast milk she was getting.  Now that she's on all formula, I know exactly how much she's getting and we hit our goal each day (technically she should get 18 oz, but we shoot for 16!).  I think now that she's eating real food, and getting more bottle spread out through the day, she's staying satiated at night and no longer needs to eat.

She still has some nights where she cries out a lot, but usually she falls back asleep before we go check on her.  There have been a few nights where I've had to go in and rock her (give Tylenol) and she'll go back to sleep.  We had to say goodbye to the bird mobile (she decided to reach for the birds and pull it down during nap one day, and snapped the rod).  Now, she has a glow worm that will cycle through songs for 10 minutes.  I will still rock her for about 5-10 minutes and sing to her as she falls asleep.  But most of the time, she isn't fully asleep when I put her into the crib.  I'll turn the glow worm on, and she'll be out in just a few minutes.  She knows how to squeeze the worm to make it go longer, but she typically falls asleep and doesn't mess with it the rest of the night.

We haven't made much progress on the talking front yet.  She will say "da-da" and does seem to say it a lot around Steve; but she also says it about food, toys, and especially me.  I'll say, "Say Mom-ma" and her response, without fail, is "da-da!"  Even though she isn't saying words yet, she is constantly babbling away.  If only it made sense to us! I haven't noticed any specific sounds to mean anything.  I'm starting to work more with her about animal sounds, so maybe next month we'll have some progress ;-).

(Bean has officailly graduated to her bigger car seat and we no longer use the carrier.  since we no longer have the carrier, she gets to sit in a high chair - and shopping car - when we go out.  She does so good about sitting with us!  We have a cover that can go in the shopping cart or in high chairs, and makes it nice to know she's secured in and comfortable!)

(Bean will sometimes stand up next to her jump toy to reach the toys and I'll put her in it for a little bit.  However, one day she decided she'd much rather just lay under the toy instead of play with it.)

(Bean's toys are in the bottom two drawers of our console table in the living.  However, she has just recently discovered that there are remote controls and video games in the upper drawer.  So now she pulls them out and drags them all over like she did with the DVD's before I moved them.  Looks like this stuff needs a new home, too.)

(Ha, one day while playing with her animal boat, she decided that cow wanted to eat puffs instead of being on the boat.  What a goof!)

(Have I mentioned how funny this girl is?  She has several ducks that she loves to play with during bath.  She has two "baby" ducks, that just so happen to fit perfectly in her mouth.  When they go all the way in, they tend to disappear for awhile, as I hate digging ducks out of her mouth and fear her choking on them.  Goodness girl!)

(What's Bean's favorite food?  Cottage cheese of course!  She loves it so much, she decided to save some on her nose for later.)

(Trying out her baby pool.  The neighbor's grandkids are all in love with Bean, and were crowding around her while she was in the pool.  I should have taken a better photo of all the kids, there were 4 sitting around watching Bean play with her ducks. Ha)

(Holding her own bottle!  She actually can "palm" her bottle and hold it one handed with just her palm - like how you hold a football before throwing it.  It's quite impressive. Maybe I have a future Peyton Manning-ette in the works?!)

(These two right here are my life.  I love how much Bean looks like her daddy.  They even zone out to the television the same way. We've been trying to cut back on tv around Bean, and limit her cartoon watching.  She gets to watch a few cartoons spread out through the day.  Typically, she gets to watch a little show while drinking a bottle.  Her current favorite shows are Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Curious George, and Arthur -- okay, so maybe it is more like these are the ones I like and can tolerate!)

7 Months!

I had great intentions of writing this post over a week ago, but my time got spent packing and then I was never able to sit and blog while on vacation.  However, I did take the photo before the trip, so I should get a half credit, right??

This girl still constantly amazes me at how quick she is learning and growing.  Even though she hasn't really changed much from the last update, she's still had a pretty big month.  She got to experience her first Easter (complete with egg hunt at Ahm & Abo's house), she was dedicated to the Lord, and she spoiled me on mother's day (okay, maybe daddy did more of the spoiling, but she did have a really good day that Sunday!).  

This month also marked a big milestone - her first tooth!  Seeing that little sliver of white pop up was such a validating sight! Bean had been quite the grouch and very clingy.  I was fearing her temperament was changing, but when I saw that little tooth, I realized it is just a phase and she is teething!  So nice to finally have something to show for all the fussiness!

She hit another milestone -- even though, technically it happened while on vacation after she turned 7 months, she was so close, we'll give it to her this month -- crawling!  She does a sort of army crawl involving an elbow, or sometimes it's more of a pull with her hands, but she has finally figured out she can go from point A to point B with a purpose!  And somehow, she's always wanting to go where she's not supposed to, which has entered a new phase for Momma & Daddy -- disciplining :(.  We've done a few hand slaps (not hard at all) and has upset her, yet she still does what she isn't supposed to.  She'll learn eventually!

Bean is still very active and a very happy baby.  She makes instant friends with nearly everyone she meets.  She has figured out when people are talking about her, and instantly turns into a ham.  What a goofball!  I've recently noticed that she's always keeping her hands in motion.  She loves to hold things out and shake them, or pat things, or just suck on her fingers.  And another new thing (again, technically it happened this past week, but who's keeping track?) -- she waves!  I can't get her to do it on command, but when she's really excited and someone waves to her, she'll wave back.

Along with the waving back, I've noticed she's really into mimicking.  If you blow raspberries to her, she'll do it back.  If you say "da-da-da" to her, she'll start saying it.  If you pat at the table, she'll pat at it.  This is such a fun phase to watch her learn new things and experience the world around her.

So what about sleeping??  We're in the same position if not worse than last month.  She still gets up at least once every night, and oftentimes 2x.  I had started a sleep campaign, but new vacation was coming up and it was unrealistic to keep with it.  So I got lacks and now we are both sleeping horribly.  I'm giving her through this week to recoup from being in a different environment, and then we're buckling down on a serious sleep campaign.

Bean is still trying new foods and we are starting to notice some favorites - peas, sweet potatoes, avocado, bananas, and prunes.  Tolerable foods - green beans, squash and carrots (only when the carrots are hidden in another vegetable).  She tried pears, but ended up having a reaction from them (rashy bottom and bloody diapers -  Poor little girl!).  Just because she had this reaction doesn't mean she is allergic.  Most likely the pears are too acidic for her system and we will try to introduce them again in a few months.  I also started to give her some little dried yogurt bites.  She has to suck on them and moisten them, which always makes me nervous, but she does a good job.  Only downside is the yogurt really makes her stinky (if you know what I mean!).

(I'm not sure if Daddy was showing Bean something, or if she was showing Daddy.  Either way, I love how these two interact!)

(Showing off her cupcake dress for Sara!  We were at a cookout and it was freezing!)

(Bean's Mother's Day gift to her grandparents, aunts, etc. . .)

(Chewing on them fingers and modeling her new summer outfit!)

(If you look really closely, you can see her tooth poking up - her bottom left front tooth!)

(And another big milestone - Bean has been upgraded in carseats.  She had to change seats to make it easier for us on vacation.  Even though she meets the requirements, I still like how she is more snug in the other seat.  I think we'll go back to using the carrier version, but just leaving it in the car like this new one functions.)

At the Hop!

Last weekend, we got all dressed up and went to a 50's Sock Hop for Steve's work.  We weren't sure who we would know there, as most of his coworkers had already told him they wouldn't be there.  We ended up knowing (and getting to sit with) another couple that we know who just had a baby.  It was exciting to not only have others we know, but could connect with in conversation.

Not very many people dressed up, but Steve was a trooper and put up with my antics.  I already had a poodle skirt (and saddle shoes!) from a musical I was in during my junior year in highschool.  I borrowed my dad's letter sweater from his senior in in high school and had Steve wear it.  For little Bean, I quickly made a poodle skirt for her and pulled together the rest of her outfit from items we had.  All together, the night cost us $2 (the price of the materials for Bean's skirt!).  Sweet :)!

The evening included dinner, root beer floats, raffle, Elvis impersonator, and costume contest.  Naturally, we won "best dressed couple" and got to pick out our prize.  We chose a really nice glass beverage dispenser (you know, for the bazillion parties we have. HA!).

(Daddy & Bean)

(Closeup of Bean's skirt and my dad's letter sweater.  The "K" is for Kokomo High School.)

(Best dressed couple!  Pretty sure Bean stole that award for us.)

(Daddy's Girls)

(Momma & Bean.  I had to refrain from breaking out in song and dance and reliving my musical days.  Don't worry, I spared Steve the embarrassment.)

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 :)

4 months!

I started writing this post last week ago, but didn't get it finished up before a busy weekend.  I intentionally didn't post this on Bean's 4 month mark, because  I wanted to be able to share all of Bean's 4 month stats from her appointment earlier last week.  Bean is weighing in at a slim 13.5 pounds and is 25" long.  That puts her in the 50th percentile for weight and 75-90th percentile in height.  So in layman's terms, she's long and lean!  No "Michelin Man" rolls for this gal.

This past month was by far the hardest month for me being a mom.  I'm not sure if it was because of the freezing weather and feet of snow keeping us bound to the house or the fact that we had zero visitors (other than getting to hang out with friends in Lima).  I also really came to the realization of what being a mom really means -- I no longer do things for myself.  Everything I do, centers around taking care of my baby girl first and then taking care of my husband.  All. Day. Long. The only time I get "me" time is in the shower, but even at that, it usually comes to a quick end with a baby crying (or I have to rush in order to make it somewhere on time).  I love being a mom.  It's what I've always wanted.  It's just a whole lot harder than I ever expected.  I have no idea how teenagers and single moms do it.  Without Steve, I'm pretty sure I'd be balled up in the corner of a dark room sobbing.

Another reason this past month has been difficult is because Bean is growing and changing her nursing needs.  I almost threw in the towel on breastfeeding this past month.  I was at my wit's end.  Bean decided to go from nursing 8-10 min on one side + 8-12 min on the other side per nursing session to maybe 5 min total.  This caused a lot of stress on me.  I was concerned I wasn't producing enough milk and that Bean wasn't getting enough.  In each nursing session, she'd pull away, scream, and even bite (thank goodness she doesn't have teeth yet!).  Many times, we'd both be crying together.  I thought maybe she was teething - she'd pull at her gums and cry a lot, but so far no teeth have come up.  After doing some research, I discovered that babies become more efficient about nursing and become quicker.  I guess all her pulling away and screaming was because I was "forcing" her to eat.  I've now become much more relaxed and letting her dictate feedings and things are much better!  She now nurses 3-20 min a session every 2hr45 min - 3 hours.  Luckily, her spitting up has gotten much better, although she still has days that are bad.

In the past few weeks, Bean has started to change her routine as well.  Instead of eating, playing, and sleeping in a 3 hour cycle.  She has started to establish a bigger nap in the morning, and a couple of catnaps in the afternoon.  Sometimes she'll just do catnaps all day, or she'll go crazy with a 3 hour nap.  She likes to keep me on my toes.  I am starting to be able to tell how tired she is and whether it'll be short nap or a long nap.  She has dropped her "dinner" nap and stays awake from 5-8pm at night.  At 8 is when she gets her last feeding before bed and is typically asleep by 9pm.  She will then sleep until around 4am (sometimes a little sooner, sometimes closer to 6:30 or 7) and be hungry.  I'll feed her and she'll fall back asleep within a half hour and then sleep anywhere from 8-10am.  My goal is to get her sleeping from 8pm-8am, but i'll take what she's doing now!

Bean has really started to show her personality.  She loves to lay on her back and stare up at either the ceiling fan, bird mobile, or activity mat and just laugh.  Tonight, she started doing this crazy thing with holding her feet up in the air while laughing.  She can entertain herself finally!  She will play with her little caterpillar toy, tug at critters on her activity mat, or even play with blankets laying on her.  Her absolute favorite toys are still mommy and daddy.  Bean just lights up when daddy is in the room (which can be a bad thing when it is bedtime!).

She's become much more vocal and has even begun to fake cry.  Oh goodness child.  You can always tell if it's fake by making funny faces at her.  Then she'll start laughing and remember she was throwing a fit and cry again.  She has a cute giggle and little screeches.  Her new thing that just started last week is that she tries to blow raspberries with her tongue. It usually results in lots of spit coming out of her mouth (she always has a bib on now!).  She's also started to show more signs of wanting to be mobile.  She loves to be held upright so that she is standing on her feet.  She'll then pretend to walk by picking one foot up at a time in a "step" pattern.

Tummy time has become a thing of the past.  Every time she's placed on her tummy, she immediately rolls over onto her back.  Sometimes I'll repeatedly put her back on her tummy, but she never stays long in that position.  Just recently, she was laying on her back on her activity mat while we were getting dinner ready.  We heard her crying and Steve went in to find her rolled onto her tummy with her arm pinned under her!  Since then, we've seen her almost roll over from her back to tummy while trying to look at something behind her, but we've never witnessed her roll over from back to tummy.  This is much harder to do than from tummy to back.  My days of being able to leave her propped on the couch or bed are coming to a quick end.  I now make sure she's got pillows all around her!

At her 4 month check, Bean ended up getting 3 shots.  Last time she got shots, she screamed for a good hour that evening until Tylenol kicked in.  This time, I kept on top of the Tylenol for 24 hours.  She didn't seem to be in much pain, but she was very clingy and needy for the next day or so.  The whole next day, she did have a fever and I could tell she didn't feel good.  But my Thursday, she was my happy goofball daughter again.

(Bean is a scooter!  Many mornings, I find her scooted all the way up to the edge of the crib.  The morning I took this picture, she had been cooing and squealing with laughter - as well as hearing lots of toots!- on the monitor for awhile before I went in and got her up.  I typically wait until she is actually crying to get her out of her crib.  When I went in, she was playing with her blanket and covering her face with it.  Such a silly girl!)

(Bean has become very aware of the tv!  When propped up on the boppy on the couch, she likes to look behind her up at the tv.  She definitely gets this from me.  I could watch tv 24/7 if I could get away with it.  I now have to turn it off sometimes when she gets distracted by it.)

(Bean is balding! I started to notice that her hair had been thinning, and just thought maybe her head was growing but her hair was not.  After investigating her bed, I found lots of Bean hair in it.  It's very common for babies to lose their hair like this because they are born with fine hair.  Hopefully, her hair will start growing in better soon!)

(Even though there are no signs of teeth poking up anytime soon, she is definitely in the beginning stages of teething.  She pulls on her gums a lot, constantly is sucking and chewing on fingers and toys, slobbering a lot, and sometimes is just very cranky and won't nurse.  I try not to give her Tylenol often.  But sometimes, she will cry while puling on her gums and I can tell she's hurting.  Tylenol always does the trick in those instances!)

She is growing up way too fast, but we are loving every minute of it!