wishing....

for a little of this weather, so i could do a little of this! sigh.....

our daugher, the contortionist

I think maybe she got some of her mom's "flexy" genes....

{she'll do this arch-the-back move and push with her feet and turn herself around in circles, it's crazy}

da bears

Brady's work has season tickets to the Chicago Bears, and we had tickets for Sunday night's game. Brady, Brent, and I were able to go and Reese stayed home with Grandma G. We had great weather over the weekend and had fun at the game. It would have been more fun to watch if they had played better, but it was still a good time just being there.

This picture shows our building in the top left corner poking out from the top of the stadium, with the blue lights. It was nice to be able to walk to and from the game.

three months

Reese hit her three month mark on the 20th of November. I think she weighs around 11 pounds. She's a little girl...long and skinny. Grandma and Grandpa Ahlstrom were in town so we celebrated by going out for Greek food!

She has changed SO much over the past 2 weeks. I can't believe all the new skills she has learned so quickly. A couple weeks ago I felt bad because she didn't have any toys, so I made a very ghetto toy for her to play with. It's a tin foil ball suspended with dental floss. I told you it was ghetto. No worries, though, because she LOVES this thing. When I initially made it, she would stare at it and every once in a while, she'd swat at it. Over the past 2 weeks, she has become a tinfoil grabbing pro. Now once you put it over her, she immediately grabs for it with both hands. It is so fun to watch. In other hand/eye coordination news, she has almost mastered her thumb sucking skills, as well. For a while, she would have to search around for her thumb. Now she can usually stick her thumb right where she wants it. There are still times when she just sticks every finger she can manage in there and ends up with slobber all over her face. I'm her mom, so I think it's really cute.

And now the big news, she ROLLED OVER. Not once, but THREE times. And, of course all of this happened minutes after I left, so I didn't get to see it. I left to go do my visiting teaching, and she decided it was time to roll. Brady and Grandma Gail were the lucky spectators. And of course I haven't been able to get her to do it again. But seriously, I cannot believe that she is old enough to be doing these sort of tricks! sigh...

Sorry about the lack of better pictures, I broke the lens on my camera a few weeks ago, and haven't been able to replace it yet....

other fun facts:
-Loves to "talk" to Dad when he comes home from work at night. He is able to get her making lots of noises.
-Has discovered her screaming voice and loves to hear herself make funny, cute screeching noises. (We'll see how long they're cute!)
-Getting better and better at tummy time. This is obvious as she has rolled over.
-Will grab toys placed in front of her. Today she was laying on the floor while I was eating breakfast and I looked over and she had picked up a toy in each hand.
-Has fun looking at herself in the mirror. She'll smile at herself and watch her hands and feet move around.
-Still a generally good sleeper. She had a short stretch of sleeping 9-10 hours at night. She got a little mixed up with G & G in town, so hopefully she'll get back to her routine soon. She is napping about 3 times a day (around 10:30am, 2 pm, and 5 pm...give or take) for 45 minutes to an hour.

Kyle Korver is Carrot Top

I know many of you ladies will be upset by this post, but the fact of the matter is Kyle Korver is a splitting image of Carrot Top. Maybe they're the same person - Carrot Top is the offseason job? Maybe they're just brothers. Who knows. Either way, you can't deny the fact that they look alike.



I'm sorry if I've ruined your fantasies of this man. But not that sorry, because I don't think Korver likes girls.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 5 year anniversary! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by! It's been fun, crazy, and amazing! We've had the opportunity to do a lot of fun things with one another over the years. Happy Anniversary Brady! Thanks for being my best friend, a great husband, and an awesome dad! I love you.

This picture was taken right after we got engaged. We hiked up to this overlook of Phelps Lake outside of Jackson Hole, WY. Even though we had ordered my ring, Brady still managed to surprise me with it. Everytime we go back to Jackson, we make it a point to hike up here and enjoy the view. On a side note, we look young in this picture, don't we?! Gotta love Brady's long hair!

Halloween

Here are some (late) Halloween pictures! We had a fun Halloween weekend. My mom, Heidi, Kevin, and Sophia came to spend the weekend with us. They got in late Thursday night and stayed until Sunday evening. Brady and I were blown away by how much Sophia has changed since we saw her in July. She was talking a little bit then, but still kind of shy about it. Now she is a chatterbox! She is a funny girl. The funniest thing she did was to practice her fake cry in the hallway mirror. Reese was crying and my mom was holding her, and I think Soph wanted some attention. She walked over to the mirror and watched herself do a fake cry. Then she would whisper 'baby, baby, baby' to herself and fake cry some more. She would then proceed to come in the living room and perform her fake cry. Heidi...I think you may have a drama queen on your hands!

We ate breakfast at the Bongo Room. This time I had brown sugar brioche french toast with vanilla bean and caramel sauce, candied pears, dried cherries, and oatmeal streusel on top. Yes, it was good. Heidi got pumpkin and zucchini flapjacks with white chocolate and caramel sauce. They were delicious as well. This picture is Brady's chocolate banana french toast.

Brady's work has season tickets to the Blackhawks and he was able to get 4 tickets to the game. They were great seats and the game was awesome.

We dressed up the kidlets for Halloween and trick-or-treated at the front desk. Soph was a bee and Reese was a skeleton. I love the picture above of them together. Soph will hold her for just a second then she starts pushing her away.

NBA - where amazing happens

I've been meaning to post this but haven't got around to it - so if you've already seen this I apologize for wasting your time.

Manu Ginobili is the man, I love his game and watching him play. Maybe it's because he looks like somebody I'd play against in a pickup game at the local YMCA and not somebody playing in the NBA, the fact that I can relate to his suffering through male pattern baldness, or simply he's got skills that can translate into his own show on the animal planet.

Now, what you're about to see is purely amazing - and the fact that it happened on halloween increases the whole amazing factor.

Tattoo Mugshots

because what else am i supposed to do while my daughter pretends to take a nap?

(( that's right, she's pretending to nap. she acts tired, so i put her in her crib and she closes her eyes. after about 45 of "napping" i go in to check on her. she's wide awake, just looking around. it's actually very funny until about 8:30 pm when she has a tired meltdown. but, on the bright side, she slept from 10:30'ish until 5:30 am, and from 6 am until 9:45 am. i love her.))

anyway, check out the crazy tats. happy weekend.

8 weeks

we took reese to the doctor last thursday for her 2-month appointment. she got her first round of immunizations and had to get a little silver nitrate on her belly button. (she had an umbilical granuloma...part of the umbilical tissue that stayed around after her cord fell off.)

she weighed in at 9 lbs 8 oz, and was 22 inches long. she's in the 25th percentile for weight and 50th for length.

it's crazy that she's been here for 2 months. it's flown by, but at the same time, it feels like we've always had her.


she was quite upset after getting her shots, but fell asleep on the ride home. brady's family got into town thursday afternoon and she welcomed them with quite the screaming/crying show. after we gave her some tylenol and she got some sleep, she was back to her happy self and kept everyone entertained all weekend long.


here's what she is up to these days:
+ loves her hands, especially her thumb. she'll spend hours trying to get her little thumb in her mouth. it's hilarious. if she can't get her thumb, she's happy with any other finger, or she'll just put her whole fist in there.

+ has discovered her tongue. loves to stick her tongue out and make licking motions. the show gets even better if there is something around to lick. blankets, clothes, people, etc.

+ sleeping. she sleeps pretty well. we have a bedtime routine of getting a bath, putting on pjs, eating, then going to bed. she usually goes to bed around 10 PM and will sleep until 4/430 AM and then go right back to sleep until about 730 am. she's been sleeping in her crib since she was born and she has slept through the night 3 times, but nothing consistent. but, she has been slowly been sleeping longer and longer. also, she is great about taking naps. if i can tell she's getting sleepy, i can usually go lay her in her crib and she'll put herself to sleep.

+very alert and likes to interact with people. she can pick out who is talking to her and will make eye contact and play with them.

+she lost some of her hair a couple weeks after she was born and had this weird, old man receding hairline. it's been growing back in the past week or so and you can see her cowlicks again.

+is starting to 'talk' and make all sorts of noises. if you start talking or singing to her, she'll usually start making noises right back at you. she especially likes if you mimic the types of noise she is making.

+happy, happy, happy. reese is so sweet and happy. we're lucky that she has such a happy personality and is so much fun.
she had fun hanging out with brady's family and i think she enjoyed all the attention.

first celebrity spotting

ooohhh.

ok, it wasn't really that cool. mainly because: 1) i was far away, and 2) i didn't even know who or what movie it was until later.

reese and i went on a walk down to grant park to enjoy the weather while it lasts. as we got closer, you could tell something big was going on. turns out they were filming a movie, "LFZ" and if i chose to walk in that area, they could use my likeness in their film. they had lots of video production stuff, food for the actors, fake street vendors, etc. i had to stand around waiting on the sidewalk forever because they were shooting and didn't want random people in the background. all i could see was an older guy walking with a little girl.

later that day, i was reading this blog, which keeps my up to date on all the happenings in my hood. turns out they were filming "Little Fockers" and the guy i saw was robert de niro. ben stiller and jessica alba were also around, but i didn't see them.

basically, this is what i saw:

unfortunately, i didn't think i'd encounter any excitement, so i left the camera at home. (photo from here.) that's about it. so, when "Little Fockers" comes out, look for the scene at the Agora Statues. then look for me in the background, pushing a stroller.

dear nice person who stole my american express account number:

you suck. thanks for racking up $1200 on my card. awfully nice of you! who spends $115 on movie tickets? did you take everyone you know? luckily you were stupid enough to buy an airplane ticket. you gotta put your NAME on those, friend. and they know where and when you're travelling. so, i hope my peeps at AmEx were telling the truth when they said they'd contact the authorities and have them meet you at the airport and apprehend you. too bad i can't be there!

as much as i'd like to know who you are and how you got my account information, it's nice that i know your name...it's listed on the ticket you bought and i can see it on my AmEx account. i'm currently accepting ideas of what i can do with that information. if you see this man on the street have him call me, he's the smart guy who used my credit card:





thanks to the nice folks at AmEx for being vigilant enough to catch this the day it happened. even if it was due to the fact that a former employee of yours had recently stolen our account information and therefore you were placing additional fraud monitoring on our account. kind of random, assuming the two incidents are unrelated, as you are telling us. anyway, kudos. keep up the good work. also, thanks for not making me responsible for the fraudulent charges.

again, you suck.

p.s. what were the 9 $5 charges at craigslist? also, when you use the greyhound bus ticket you bought, i hope you sit by the craziest, stinkiest, grossest person on the bus. and that they give you the swine flu.

p.p.s. $200 on flowers? and ANOTHER plane ticket?? now i know who you're friends with. nice.

thanks for listening, i feel a little better.

megan

reese smiles

this makes all those late nights and crying jags totally worth it.

One Month Stats

reese had her one-month check-up today. here are the numbers:

8 lbs 8 oz - 25 percentile

21 inches - 50 percentile

37 cm head - 25-50 percentile

we also found out she has a medium sized umbilical hernia (which i already knew/guessed thanks to google. who needs doctors?). the doctor assured us it is purely cosmetic and it will probably remedy itself within 18 months. if not, she'll have a funny belly button. also, if you're bored and search google images for 'umbilical hernia' you'll find some pretty frightening pictures. don't worry, hers doesn't look scary.

lastly, she had her HepB one-month booster. sad, sad baby. she screamed and held her breath, but calmed down pretty quickly.

here's a couple pre-doctor appt pics (p.s. brady got her dressed today! good job, eh?)

4 Weeks of Smiles

As time goes by Reese continues to smile more and more. I’m surprised that she has smiled as much as she has in her first month. We have been blessed with a very happy and content baby. Reese is very aware of what is going on around her and will usually respond with eye contact when you talk to her. These pictures were taken last Saturday. She was smiling a lot and big when I was trying to make monkey noises. Sometimes, like in these pictures, Reese looks like she might be a red head!

Reese @ 3 Weeks

These pictures of Reese were taken almost two weeks ago, but they are too cute not to post. Props to Megan for taking such amazing photos!

last year at this time....

a year ago we were finishing up our 2-week trip to Costa Rica. good times (mostly...). i still crave food from the little columbian soda we stumbled across in jaco. brady craves the coke in bottles. we stayed at quite the wide variety of places: the most disgusting hostel, relaxing rainforest hotels, posh marriott resorts, and some other fun places.

lots of changes have happened over the last year! here are some pics from our trip...CR was a good time and we're looking forward to more fun vacations!

2 weeks!

can't believe she is 2 weeks old today! time has flown by, i have a hard time believeing it's been that long. she's a pretty happy little girl. here's some info about her:

-loves her hands! especially when she's trying to eat.
-makes the funniest faces. smiles, pouts, looks amazed, confused, mad - all in a couple of seconds.
-has been sleeping well at night. i've had to wake her up after about 4 1/2 hours to eat. we'll see how long that lasts, though.
-loves to look out our windows at all the city lights. she also loves to look at the stark white ceiling and grey couch....???
-good cuddler. has figured out how to work her way up your chest and nuzzle up in your neck. this has inspired dad to shave daily.

we love our little munchkin!!

And more Baby Pics!

NorthWestern Hospital has photographers come in and take pictures of your newborn baby when they are 1 day old. These are some of the pictures they took. If you want copies of the pictures you have to pay for them. They call this a "service", but I call it an easy way to make money. Who wouldn't pay for these pics? These beauties should be on the cover of a baby magazine!

More Baby Pics