After A Good Workout

We had a session of tummy time on Shelby's cute animal quilt the other day. All the animals distracted her and kept her relatively happy. Generally speaking, she doesn't enjoy tummy time too much. After we were done, I picked her up and set her blanket in this chair. I decided to put her in the chair while I got up and was talking to Kelly for a second. Next thing you know, I look over and this is how she has settled into the chair. What a crazy girl. Good thing she doesn't seem to have any problems relaxing!

Progress & Potential

Shelby is 2 months old now and she is doing great! She has started smiling a lot and has discovered that she can make lots of cute sounds too. We are even starting to see some sort of schedule to our days, which has made my life a little easier. Shelby is still not real big - but she is so much fun. She had her 2 month appointment at the doctor's and here is her progress:

2 Weeks - Length 19.75 inches 26%

2 Months - Length 21.5 inches 16%

2 Weeks - Weight 7 lbs 7 oz 21%

2 Months - Weight 10 lbs 26%

2 Weeks - Head Circ. 34.5 cm 15%

2 Months - Head Circ. 37.2 cm 11%

You may notice that the only category that is increasing is her weight. Her mom is proud that she is on her way to follow in her mother's footsteps as President of the Heavyweights Club. I just hope Baby Bella, Baby Girl Stevenson, and Baby Girl (hopefully) Russell are keeping up so the club will be complete. There is no stat for feistiness, but she has that too. Kelly is always telling me that she is her mother's child because she isn't going to do anything she doesn't want too. I couldn't be more proud!

Life Skills

Shelby and I get to spend our days together and I thought I should be teaching her some important life skills while I have the chance and a captive audience. Most days we work on laundry and putting away the dishes, but yesterday we had a fun day and worked in the kitchen.
We started off the morning by making some bread. There is nothing I enjoy more than when my house smells like fresh baked bread. We timed it so the bread was done baking at lunch time so we could enjoy hot bread with butter and sugar on it. The bread was delicious and consequently I ate half the loaf yesterday. Bread IS the staff of life you know. Lest you get the wrong idea, I did make this bread in my bread machine. I am not going to pretend like I actually made the bread myself!

Later in the day, and since we had to do dishes from the bread anyway, we made some cookies for Kelly. I tried a new recipe so we will have to see how he likes them. They are called Triple Chocolate Chunk, but they do have peanut butter in them too. Hopefully, he will like them and you may see this recipe soon.

We had a good time baking things yesterday and I love having a little friend to keep me company while I am working in the kitchen. We are so excited to have Kelly coming home in just a few hours. I am sure all the excitement will result in someone sleeping very well tonight and I am pretty sure it won't be Shelby Ü

Hangin' Out in Vancouver (not B.C.) Washington (not D.C)

Well I got the opportunity forced upon me, thank you Army, to go up to Ft Lewis, Washington for a couple weeks. I got to get some really cool training to help me while I am on vacation in the big sandbox.

While up here in Washington, I took the opportunity to go see my cousin and her family who live in Vancouver. My cousin, Stephanie and I have always gotten along really well and we try to stay close. I love to see Stephanie's family and I love Vancouver so it works out really well.
While down in good ole Vancouver, we went out for a nice sunday drive and took in a bunch of beautiful sights along the Columbia River Gorge. There are a lot of tall waterfalls in the area and moss-covered trees...well everything is covered in moss around that area.

My time is now coming to a close here in Washington, I get to go home tomorrow! I have only been gone two weeks but I sure miss my girls! I am really looking forward to seeing my wifey and little Shelby boo. (Although, I have been enjoying getting a full-night's sleep everynight.) It's true, there is no place like home, especially when Melanie and Shelby are there.

A New Game

Today Mom taught me all about a new game. What I want to know is how does that Waldo do it? The game sounds easy, but my head gives me away!

Bath Time

Now that we got rid of that pesky umbilical cord, we get to have baths all the time. Here is Shelby getting ready to get in the bath. I worried that she might not like the bath, but she doesn't mind it at all. She loves to look at all the animals on her bathtub and loves lounging in her bath chair.

This is after the bath, sitting in her towel, and getting dry. It is harder to get dry when she pees all over her towel and on the rug like she did today Ü

Next, we have to get lotioned and then get dressed. When Mom is in charge we usually put on a clean pair of pajamas, when Dad is in charge we have to wear real clothes.

Either way, we love to bath and Shelby smells so good after the lotion!

A Girl After My Own Heart

Shelby has been sleeping a lot today. We both slept well last night and the night before, so I am not sure what is prompting this sleepiness, but she can't seem to stay awake. I even put her in her crib to sleep and she didn't wake up - this is unheard of during the day. I selected "I Am NOT Going To Get Up Today" for storytime, but she couldn't even stay awake long enough for a story this afternoon!

I put her in her "jazzy chair" while I was pumping this morning and she fell fast asleep. I was able to pump, clean the microwave, eat breakfast, excercise for 30 mins (!!!), shower, get dressed, watch House, crochet, and eat lunch before she woke up. I haven't had so much time to myself in a long time, but I am a little worried that I may be having a lot of quality time with Shelby tonight. Hopefully the sleepiness will not wear off until morning Ü

Yankee Girl

I guess it was unavoidable and I don't think we did too much to prevent it, but my little girl is a Yankee fan! I think we got her off on the right foot by exposing Shelby to the world's greatest baseball team while she was still in the womb when we watched the World Series, I think her favorite player then was C.C. Sabathia, maybe because she likes people with chubby cheeks like herself...Anyway, we couldn't wait to get her into her little Yankee t-shirt, even if she is still a little small for it.