Hi Ho It's Off to Work I Go

Six weeks went fast and I was so sad to leave my baby. For some reason I thought it would be easier then it was to go back to work. The 1st day back I cried on the way to school. The 2nd day was a little easier. I'm hoping by next week it won't be so hard.

One of my "hats" as school counselor is testing coordinator. The week I had to come back also happened to be the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness or STAAR test for all 7th & 8th grade students. I had everything ready for the test before I left to go on maternity leave. I was thinking Caroline would make her appearance later and I could pass testing responsibilities off on someone else. Since she came early I got to coordinate the test for my campus.

The staff and students did great and the test ran smoothly. It is very difficult and time consuming to make it look so easy but we pulled it off. Summer is right around the corner & I know it will come quickly.

Here are a couple of pictures of Caroline about to go for a walk.

Falco Weekend

Gian, Amy & Sam Falco came to visit us this weekend. We were so excited for them to meet Caroline. They got here late on Friday night & Sam put on a show for us. I haven't seen him in 2 months and he has changed so much. He is such a sweet kid.

On Saturday we went to the park. Sam fed the ducks week old Cheerios and then threw his blue and yellow snack bowl into the pond..

Gian tried to rescue it

But it now belongs to the Chicago Street pond.

Sam played at the playground

While Caroline hung out in the baby bjorn and watched him.

We loved having them here and can't wait for our next adventure! I start back to work tomorrow and needed the distraction. She will be hanging with her daddy all week so I know she is in good hands.

6 HOURS!!

Yesterday I took Caroline to work with me. She did so good helping me get 7th & 8th grade test booklets and answer documents ready for the STAAR test on Tuesday. I was really excited to get show her off to all my co workers.

After work we played for a little bit, ate, had a bath & got ready for bed.
Chris is the best at swaddling and putting her to sleep at night. We put her down at 8:00. She woke up at 11:30, ate, and went back to sleep. At 3 am I woke up automatically thinking it was about time for her to do the same. I went back to sleep and woke up at around 4:30 am in a panic and went to check on her.

After realizing she was still breathing I nodded off waking up every 30 min to look at her on the video monitor. Finally at 6:15 am she opened her eyes and was ready for breakfast. 6 hours!! I wasn't able it enjoy it. I'm going to ask her to do it again tonight. Maybe she will listen to me.

Newborn Pictures

www.bophotography.squarespace.com

Caroline’s newborn pictures are in! Brooke Ogilvie did an amazing job bringing out her cuteness. Go check out her website to see more pictures. Birth announcements are coming soon!

St. Patrick's day

Saint Patrick's day Irish jig

Cousin Time!

On Sunday we had Caroline's first outing to Denver City to see her Nana, Papaw, Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Luke, and her 2 cousins Leah and Lane.

Papaw smoked ribs and sausage. Nana made beans & potatoes. Stephanie made pasta salad & blueberry cobbler. It was so fun to get to see everyone.

All her cousins

At one point Caroline threw her leg over to Lane and he decided to snack on it.

Leah showed us a preview of her tap show. Hopefully we will get to see the real thing in June.

Mimi holding Caroline

Lane playing in the Baby Einstein

Papaw holding his grand-babies. Notice Caroline has her arms straight up by her head. She loves to sleep like that.

I Have a One Month Old!

Caroline is one month old today!

• She has outgrown all her premie clothes and has moved up to the newborn size.
• She is in Pampers newborn diapers.
• She sleeps at night until about 3:30am and then feels like it is party time. If she lived in London with her aunt Dondi she would be closer to what would be considered "normal" morning hours.
• She LOVES bath time. The combination of warm water and getting to kick around makes her excited.
• We haven't been out of the house much because of RSV season but the couple of times we have she loves her car seat. We had to get her a car seat insert so her head doesn't move around. Thank goodness her aunt Stephanie told us to get one before she was born otherwise coming home from the hospital would have been a nightmare.
• Her first outing was to Denver City to see her Nana & Papaw, Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Luke,& her 2 cousins Leah & Lane.
• She loves to be swaddled and held tightly.
• She gets the hiccups all the time but they don't seem to bother her.
• She sleeps with her hands straight up in the air or in her face.
• She is starting to smile.

Bottle Time!

Sunday, March 4th Caroline turned 3 weeks old. We decided at 3 weeks we would introduce the bottle. Stephanie suggested the Dr Brown's bottle so I went and got 2 little ones from Target. Our pediatrician told us to start out with 2 oz. I pumped just enough for her dinner.

She was not sure at first...

Then she realized the bottle had the good stuff in it and munched it right down.

A satisfied customer

The Cursed Bookshelf

Back in October I found a bookshelf on Land of Nod that I thought would look so cute in Caroline's room. The price tag for the piece was $349.00. The frugalness I inherited from my mom told me I could find a better deal.

The construction teacher at my school is always looking for projects for his students. All he requires is to buy the materials. I asked him if he would make the bookcase back in October. I got the dimensions from the website and printed a picture off. There were a couple of projects in front of mine but he said he could have it done by mid January easy.

The Monday before the baby shower the teacher told me he was starting that day on the bookcase. During 4th period a student came running into the office and declared the construction teacher had cut his thumb off and was driving himself to the hospital. This student isn't exactly the most reliable so I thought I was being punked.

Come to find out the construction teacher was working on Caroline's bookcase when a student distracted him for a second- just long enough to take his thumb off!!!

Apparently there was a classroom procedure in place for lost appendages. The teacher grabbed his thumb off the table and drove himself to the hospital. {I would have passed out} He got there in record time and the doctor was able to attach his thumb back with a promise of 80% chance of getting to keep it. I would take those odds in Vegas.

40 days later the thumb is back to being a functional part of his hand. He finished the bookcase on Friday and Chris went to pick it up. They did an amazing job but I will never forget the story behind it.

Caroline's social security card came in so this morning I went to Levelland to add her to my insurance. I came home to this adorable scene.