Michigan Meets Justice

Justice and I flew to Michigan during the first week of April.  She got to meet a bunch of family and friends, and she was an excellent traveler. :) She's 18 weeks in these pictures. 

Chatterbox on the airplane.

Discussing life's finer things with Grandpa Craig.

 Four generations of ladies! 

 Giving Great-Grandma a smile!

 Meeting friends!  The children of my childhood/adolescent/high school besties!

(Minus one - Our darling hostess had gone to bed.)

Loving Marinos - and meeting Jenny.

 Being loved-on by cousin Ella.  (Ella will be a GREAT big sister some day!)

 Giggling with Papa.

Receiving one of the best gifts ever.  Each member of the family made one square, and Great-Grandma Mary stitched it together to make this beautiful quilt.  We LOVE it!

Eric - excited to welcome us home, even if it was 7:00 am :) 

A Weekend of Firsts

Spring break is here!  HOORAY!

We've had a weekend of new experiences for our family.  I'll start with Friday :)  

Justice loves to be outdoors, so Friday we spent some time sitting in the grass.  Thus far, all of our outdoor time has been walking, so either Eric or I is always holding Justice, so sitting the grass (or on a blanket) was a first, and fun! 

 Saturday, Justice slept in her crib for the first time.  Confession: this is a bigger deal for me than in is for Justice.  We had a minor setback with Monster...

 But in the end we were successful! 

Saturday night Eric and I had our first date night since Justice was born!!  Thanks to some great friends who watched Justice for us, we were able to have a great meal at a local restaurant in East Nashville, and did a little shopping.  Lovely.

And today Justice went to the church nursery for the first time.  It was during her nap time, so we asked politely that she be put down for a nap.  That did not happen.  But in the end, our daughter was cared for and loved.  And I am thankful.

Justice wore a super cute dress to church today, and I was determined to get a picture.  However, she exploded her diaper before I could reach my camera.  I, selfishly, still wanted a picture.  So here's the outcome of me trying to hold her without getting myself poopy.  Oh yes, she's also spitting up in this picture. 

Because I had convinced myself today was a day for pictures, Justice promptly changed outfits and we tried again.  Except this time her hand was far more exciting than me. 

After our photo shoot we went outside so I could get a little work done.  As previously mentioned, Justice loves the outdoors.  We camped out on the balcony for a bit so I could finish entering grades (boo... but I wanted to finish so I have the rest of the week free of school responsibilities).  Check out our hat!

This week will add several more things to her "FIRSTS" list.  Tomorrow, we fly to Michigan and she'll be meeting lots of family and friends for the first time.  

*Justice would like to add a quick shout-out to her cousin Aaliyah for providing her entire wardrobe.  We love you, Aaliyah! 

Justice Grew Up

I haven't written much anything the past few months because I went back to work.  And it's been difficult.  The time we have at home is sacred family time, and when Justice goes down for the night, I'm not far behind her (pulling blankets off her face)!

But the baby grew up, all in a weekend.  Okay, so I guess it's been happening a little every day, but it just caught up with me today.  Sitting at dinner tonight (at the church), she grabbed my napkin, my plate, and held on to the table with both hands through most of the meal.  Where did this child come from?  She's throwing her weight around, still fascinated with her hands, and just found her toes!  She rolls onto her side, but can't quite make it all the way to her tummy.  We know it won't be long.  Justice is in love with her dad, following his voice everywhere and gazing at him whenever he's in the room.  She has a lot of personality, and it's SO FUN to see!    We all love to be outdoors, so we've been trying to spend some time outside every day.

We're all still amateurs over here - but we're trying to capture the moments as they come.

Baptism Day: A Picture Post

We had Justice baptized on Sunday.  It was a great day, indeed.  We don't have any spectacular photos, but here are a few from the morning. 

We also shared this special commitment with the Emmaus Fellowship Eric leads on Sunday evenings.  It was a special time for our family :)  

Later that evening we gave baby girl her first bath in the tub.

The evening ended with some play/cuddle time with Dad.

Love this girl!

Month One of Motherhood

Justice is one month old tomorrow.  This is both encouraging and discouraging.  I am encouraged by her progress and her growth.  I look forward to new milestones and increased interactions with our little girl.  At the same time, I find myself discouraged by the passing of time.  I have officially used half of my maternity leave.  From this day forward, I have been home more days than are left.  January 23rd hangs over my shoulder like a daunting ghost.  Anyway - here are a few random thoughts on one full month of motherhood.

 My two loves.

• Little tiny babies go through a TON of diapers.
• Baby girl has captured my heart... and every room of our home.
• Lack of sleep used to mean irritability and crankiness.  Lack of sleep is now the new norm.
• Extreme lack of sleep now leads to extreme emotional craziness.  There have been multiple times I've had to call Eric hours later and start the conversation with, "I've come to my senses and I'm sorry."  
• My love for our baby grows everyday.
• So does my love for my husband.  He is selfless and loving.  He serves us out of compassion.  I'm currently lacking sleep and can't seem to find the right words here... but he's amazing.  Except I need a word that means 10x more than "amazing."
• I don't know the words to many hymns I thought I knew the words to.  So I rock my baby with the lyrics to these hymns pulled up on my phone.  
• We need a CD of lullabies.  Except we don't own a CD player - so we need something different.
• If only she looked this peaceful all the time....

Postpartum Cravings

I made it through my entire 41 week and 2 day pregnancy without any real cravings.  Not only that, but I did a fairly decent job not eating a lot of sugary foods at all.  Today is postpartum day 7, and my sugar cravings are taking over my life!

Yesterday I developed a "need" for peanut butter rice krispie treats with chocolate on top.  I'm not sure what the real name for this magical piece of goodness is, but I wanted it.  I have never actually made them before, and only tasted them a time or two (perhaps college?) but the craving came... and so we have them :)

It wasn't until after they were made that I commented to Eric, "I guess we didn't really need a dessert, we have cookies in the freezer."

And then Eric reminded me of all the cookies in our freezer.

About a month ago, our midwife suggested we have a labor project in mind; something easy and enjoyable we could work on when I started early labor, to help pass the time.  She suggested baking cookies.  Sounded perfect to me.  I truly enjoy baking and we hadn't made cookies in a while.  Well, in true-to-my-character fashion, I didn't wait for labor to begin, and I made our cookies weeks ago.  Eric and I worked together on these gingerbread cookies and froze most of them.  The very next day I added a batch of sugar cookies to the mix and most of those are also in our freezer.

When labor actually began last weekend I was in need of a project.  Out came the baking supplies, which resulted in a half batch of chocolate chip cookies.  (Truth be told, the dough got made during labor, but the cookies never got baked.  Eric baked these a few days later).  And the rest of the chocolate chip dough is in our freezer.

Apparently sometime in the last few months I also made oatmeal raisin cookies.  I don't fully remember this, but Eric also found that dough in our freezer.  And I do remember snacking on the dough.

Last, but certainly not least, I also enjoyed the chocolate turtles within the first 24 hours of Justice's birth.  These were the turtles Eric bought me as an "after-the-baby-is-born" treat.

 We are certainly not lacking desserts in this household.

Our First Outing

Justice and I had our first outing yesterday.  Eric came too, but it doesn't count as his first outing since I send him to the store almost daily :)  Justice had her first doctor's appointment, which meant our first car ride.  I realize we could have done this much sooner - but we hadn't - so yesterday morning Eric spent time installing the car seat and making sure all of the settings were just right.  She's so tiny in her seat!

Here we are in the lobby of the Dr's office.  We had a great appointment, everything is looking good.

On our way home we stopped at Target to grab a few baby things.  I was carrying the baby, so Eric grabbed my purse.  Such a good guy :)  I just had to snag a picture!  

Overall, our first trip was successful!