They grow too fast...

I realized just now that I never posted a link to our last Vada video. This was the Week 11 video. I think most of you saw it, but if not you'll see it at the end of this post...along with the 12-13 week video! I'm still working on being more diligent about posting here, please bear with me! =D

It's been over a month since we came to visit...boy how time flies. Since we got back home, Vada's been hitting all kinds of milestones. It's really amazing to watch.

She started teething a couple of weeks ago, which means that now she's got a little drool factory installed in her mouth. We never had bibs on that girl until she started teething, and now we go through 4 to 5 every day! It's pretty crazy how much drool comes out of such a little mouth. Despite this, she's been really well-behaved. I was expecting to be completely miserable just because she was going to be so miserable, but we've gotten lucky. She has been sleeping just fine and so far hasn't had too many sad days.

She has also been working on finding her hands and getting more control over them in the past week or so. The first time she consciously grabbed something was in the bath last week. I was pouring water on her belly out of a little green pitcher. She was focusing all of her energy into reaching the spout on that pitcher with her left hand. She reached out and grabbed it with her little fingers and Cindy and I just looked at each other in awe thinking "Did she really just do that?!" Since that moment we've been trying to get her to grab all sorts of stuff, and she's getting really good at it now. I think she has total control over her left hand so far, and is getting better with her right hand every day. We might have a little southpaw in our midst!

One other big thing she's doing lately is trying out new noises. She's been experimenting with the high-pitched squeal recently, and I fear for my ear drums. She's got quite the range! Be thankful we haven't been able to capture that one on video yet ;)

Speaking of video, the new one is going to show off the past couple of weeks. We've been having a hard time remembering the camera lately, but we'll get back on the ball, I promise! You'll be able to see how good she's getting with her hands, and her ability to focus on things. I think Mom also snuck a clip of her and I playing WoW together in there somewhere =p She likes watching the other people run around the city, and in and out of the Auction House where I spend most of my time lately. The older video shows off some of her first giggles...we both cried like wee lasses the first time we got to hear that beautiful noise. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

I've been doing this 10-hour shift thing at work for over a month now and I think I've gotten pretty well used to it at this point. I really miss out on lots of time with her during the week, but I enjoy having the nice long weekends with her. I'm still working out whether or not it's worth missing the extra couple of hours on the rest of the days. It's also really hard to go back to work after that 4-day weekend. I think I'll stick with it for awhile, but I'm considering going for either a 3-day weekend every weekend, or maybe just going back to 8 hour days and going in earlier...what do you guys think? Leave me a comment to read! Just click on that link at the end of the post marked as "(X) comments" to get started with that. "X" will just show how many comments other people have left so far.

Cindy's finally been able to get back into knitting again! Vada is now cool with just sitting next to her or in her lap while Cindy knits. Cindy Claus is hard at work making some really neat Christmas gifts for folks, and she's also been working on some cute socks/leggings for Vada to wear as it gets colder down here. Apparently I'll be getting a new hat as well. This time with ear flaps so I don't lose my ears while riding in to work!



I'm not sure if I'll have the tassels or not, how do you feel about them?

Also a quick mention for everyone -- we'll be coming home for Christmas this year! I should be able to get almost a whole two weeks off from work, and we'll be up in da U.P. the whole time. I can't wait to spend time with all of you. Being away last Christmas was terribly depressing for both of us. I think we'll avoid that from now on =D

Love you all!

New video!

Long time no write

Sorry guys, I haven't written in a while. I've been SO TIRED lately. Vada has had a pretty messed up sleep schedule, and I've been getting up with her a bit more than usual. That and the fact that this girl will not nap during the day. So no naps for me. Boo.

So I was trying to think of fun things that we could do as a family that would either be low cost or free. I decided to look into geocaching. That is when you get a list of clues, decipher them, and find a cache. It could contain items for trade, little surprises, or just a list where you write down that you found it. The clues are always coordinates. So the one we did today had 4 stages, the first was this:

Stage 1: “Ocean of Life”
Located at N42 44.824 W084 32.799
You may able to answer few questions from inside of your vehicle.

Complete the following equations and convert the letters to the number they are in the alphabet, (i.e.: a-1, b-2 up to z-26)

A = How many clown fish in the mural
B = Sum of the value of the letters in who did paint mural?
C = (A + B)

Coordinates for Part 2: N42 44.(A x 430) W84 32. (A + 4.5)*C

So once we got the new coordinates, we went there. And so on. It finally led us to a small film canister stuck in a tree that had a list to write down your name and the date that you found it. It was a lot of fun and took some team work. It was also in Old Town, which is an awesome part of Lansing that is getting redone. There are a bunch of art galleries and interesting shops over there. Once we were done with the cache, we stopped in a few. We got a ton of comments on Vada, who was rocking an adorable pony tail and polka-dot onsie.

The busy day really took it out of her, and she was ready for bed at 7:30. She's been asleep in her crib now for about an hour (it's almost 9:30pm). I'll be hitting the hay here pretty soon, I need to catch up on my sleep!

Hopefully Chris will write an entry in here sometime, I'm sure you're all looking forward to hearing from him again (I know I am, I'd like to be able to READ an entry instead of always writing them, hehe!) That's it for me, hope you're all well! I'll be editing the new vlog tomorrow. It's going to be short, but we hope everyone will still like it! Love you all!

Just for giggles, here is Vada yesterday with her pony tail in, and her after we took it out. What a stinkin' cutie!

Sorry for not posting in such a long time, everyone! We went home from August 25th to the 30th. We "snuck" home a day early, with only my mom and Jessica knowing about it. Unfortunately, our car broke down at the Seney rest stop! My mom made it pretty far out to come help us, but we ended up getting help from an auto shop guy who was near us. Thankfully, the car was fixed up and we were back on the road. Big thanks to my mom and dad for helping us out with that, it was a huge relief to be able to get back into town!

Vada did great on the ride home. She would only fuss when she was hungry and needed a clean diaper (I'm also glad to say we went the whole trip using our cloth diapers, no 'sposies for us!). Once we got home, she was so upset and tired, but slept for SEVEN HOURS! That was a trend that followed the whole long weekend home, but has since returned to her normal 4-5 hour stretch with waking up every 2 hours after that.

We got to spend time with pretty much everyone we wanted. The party for her was great, we had a ton of people show up! I'm so happy that our family and friends were so excited to meet her! All the work that my mom did on the back yard really paid off, I heard so many compliments on how beautiful it looked. She really did an excellent job!

We got to spend some time at Chris' parents house, which was really nice. I love seeing the baby with her grandparents (both sets!). It was so sweet to see Addy interact with her, she was SO INTERESTED! One of the evenings we were home, we went down to Lower Harbor and took in the Seafood Fest. I had some amazing crab legs, and Chris ate pizza. Yep, he ate pizza at a seafood fest. hehe! Vada got to put her toes in the grass for the first time there. She did great!

There was also an evening spent at my dad's house. It was so nice to be able to spend time with him and Suzanne! They made us a delicious meal! But the big news about there is Vada let out her first real giggle in their living room! She has had laughs like that twice since then, one was today and she laughed for such a long time...at me. I'm not sure if I'm funny looking or something, hehe!

The ride home from the UP was HORRIBLE. A drive that usually takes 7 hours took us 12! She was so upset the entire time. I'm not quite sure what the problem was, but it might have been a stomach ache. It was a really stressful ride. But, we made it home and she slept for 8 hours straight!

Since we've been home, we haven't done much. We're spending a lot of time relaxing and laying low. Yesterday, however, we went out and did some shopping. We went to the mall in Okemos and bought Vada some fall clothes (long sleeved onsies, some pants, and a sweater). We also stopped by a store that has gently used baby stuff and bought her a a jumperoo! This is the one we got, for significantly cheaper! She should be ready to use it in a few weeks. I'm so excited to see her in it!

Well, that's all for now! Enjoy the new video, it's a long one! Also, mom, I had to do it (you'll see what I mean!) I love you all, miss you all, and hope you're all well!