surviving the chaos of...

...the church nursery!

WOW.

so today was the first time we left Sierra at the church nursery. to be honest, we haven't gone to church all that many times since she was born and when we have, we've taken her in with us in her car seat and she has napped. well, she doesn't nap so well in public anymore because she's sooo curious.

things looked so calm and wonderful as we dropped her off in the baby room - one little boy sleeping in the pack n play, one little girl playing on the mat and another napping in her car seat. the 3 volunteers were just sitting back watching, so relaxed. the room was quiet and all was well. we handed Sierra off and she didn't cry! (that in itself was an answered prayer) it couldn't have gone better.

we got through the whole class and hadn't heard from the nursery! so i guess when we showed up i expected to see the same peaceful, calm scene that we had left. oh, contraire! what we saw stopped us in our tracks and i think we just stared with dropped jaws for a good minute before even locating Sierra.

baby chaos. total chaos. one guy volunteer on a rocking chair with two screaming babies on his lap, two volunteers on the floor feeding baby food to two babies - one turned out to be holding Sierra on her lap at the same time as spoon feeding a baby sitting in front of her (and with as squirmy and grabby as Sierra is, i have NO idea how she managed to do that!), one girl walking around the room trying to put a fussy baby to sleep, one baby playing alone on the play mat, one just laying there, one sleeping in her car seat, etc, etc. all the caretakers were different than the ones who were there when we dropped Sierra off and there were probably 3 too few workers for that many babies. yes, it was chaos...but YES, Sierra survived...and seemed happy about it!

for all you nursery volunteers out there...THANK YOU! whoever you are, thank you thank you. that is not an easy job!

...upon returning home we discovered they fed Sierra the "emergency" bottle from her bag. she shouldn't have been hungry while she was there, so we're guessing she must have been crying at some point for them to have dug out the bottle and fed it to her. and knowing how much she loves food, that might explain the happy state we found her in :)

so one nap less and one bottle more, she made it out in one piece...smiling! i guess in the world of baby nurseries we call that a success :)

a follow up to the last post...


ha, she hasn't quite learned the "sneeze in your arm/elbow" technique yet...and we wonder why all 3 of us ended up sick?!

on the mend

after a week and a half of battling illness at our house (all 3 of us), i think we have finally turned the corner and are all on the mend...and we are ever more thankful for healthy days!!!

here's a picture of our sweet baby one of the nights she didn't feel well:

she was a trooper...and was sooo cute even when sick! it was sad to see her not feeling well and we are glad to have all her smiles and giggles back in full swing :)

and here's one from today...feeling better (and currently talking to herself in her crib during her "nap" as i type this):

so much to say

Sierra is experimenting every day with new sounds that she can make with her tongue and mouth - it's super cute! Although she still grunts when she is frustrated or mad, most of the grunting has now turned into happier noises! (the grunts were pretty funny, but I was beginning to get worried she may grunt her way through adolescence!!)

Last week she was into the shrieking - very very high pitched shrieking. One morning when she and Kyle were playing downstairs, I woke up to sounds that sounded like cats playing in our house!

This week the new fad is blowing rasperries and spit bubbles! It is hilarious and she can entertain herself for a long time! At the same time as she is playing with her spit (or milk) and spraying anyone who is close by, she is practicing her "agoo"s and "gee"s. It is so fun to have these coos and baby talk fill our house :)

...and I see the days of constant bib wearing in our very near future

I'll have to get some video uploaded soon - she's too cute for words :)

she loves to stare at the camera, so it's hard to get a smile when the camera comes out

she loooooooves her Daddy! again, no smile because of the camera, but I promise you that just before I pulled it out she was smiling, talking and blowing raspberries and having a blast!

4 months

Sierra turned 4 months old this week! the weeks go by so fast!

she continues to grow like a weed...only much more filled out than a weed, maybe more like a bean stalk :)

at 2 months she was 75th % in height, weight and head circum. and now at 4 months her weight has leaped up to the 90's % and her height and head circum. continue strong in the 75th!

she weighed in at 16 lbs. 10 oz. and is 24 inches long and checked out to be healthy - we are so thankful!

she still LOVES her hands and holding anything she can. she now likes to scratch things too and sadly her sweet little face has become the evidence of that new skill. she gives us lots of giggles and shrieks and is soooo close to a full laugh! she can roll half way from her back to her tummy but can't quite get over her arm. she is very squirmy and loves to kick. we continue to struggle with naps, but overall she still seems to be a happy little girl!!! we love love love her :)

we have been taking weekly pictures of her in this same chair with the same bear. i'll have to post some of the older ones so you can really see how fast she is changing and growing !

in other news, to celebrate the day, when Sierra turned 4 months we were so excited to try giving her rice cereal. with her apetite, we were sure that she'd be all about it. well...although she didn't seem to dislike it, she just couldn't figure out what to do with it! it was so funny! she just played around with it on her tongue...but never swallowed.

guess she just isn't quite ready yet...we'll try again soon!

doing laundry with mommy :)

braving the cold to go run an errand