Almost 6 months!

I can't believe that Elaine is almost 6 months old!  She has certainly done a lot of growing and it's been so fun to watch her learn new things. 

This week, Elaine got pinkeye for the first time.  She was a little more mopey than normal, since she and I both now have colds.  Luckily Eric is in the clear, but he could be a week or so behind... hope not!

Here is Elaine sleeping on my chest - a must-do for her when she's not feeling great.  And a snuggly loving time for mommy.  :)

Here is Eric being Mr. Fixit.  He's been knocking it out of the park lately getting things around the house done and fixed.  The high winds did a number on our storm door, blowing it wide open and bending the door parts, so he got it all fixed! 

I have been going to town using my baby food maker.  So far, I've made sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, peas, apples, bananas, and pears.  Just freeze in ice cube trays and empty into ziploc bags, and you're in business!  It costs at least half of the price of Gerber baby food (depending on the food item you can save much more) and there are no preservatives, so we feel better about what she's eating.

Looking forward to having Monday (MLK Day) off and getting Elaine's 6 month photos! 

All smiles in 2012.

We are enjoying record high temperatures here in Iowa this winter, with one day last week reaching 60!!  We have all these winter clothes/supplies that in a normal year, we'd be putting to good use, but I guess our snow boots and ice scrapers get the year off!

We all went back to our normal routine this week, luckily, with ease.  Friday night we got together with the Syversons and Grefes to do a little baby shower planning, and I finally got my picture of our 3 girls, Elaine, Alivia, and Quinn!

Elaine is really enjoying her gift from grandma and grandpa Morse, her bouncer!  She is really funny to watch in it.  For your viewing pleasure, here is a video!  We put a blanket under her so she can reach her feet to the ground and she has been bounce, bounce, bouncing away!

Elaine also enjoys a good tickle.  We just LOVE getting good belly laughs from her.  Eric's a pro at getting these from her!  Oh Elaine, we love you to pieces!!

Happy New Year!

The third leg of our blissful 11 day vacation was a return to Des Moines for 3 days of relaxation, catching up, and getting settled back in with our new Christmas goodies!
I got right to it with one of my gifts - the Beaba - baby food maker!  I had some squash from Mike and Julie that was just begging to become baby food.  It was a really fun afternoon chopping, steaming, and pureeing!  Here is the squash in action.  I also did some green veggies, and froze in ice cube trays for dozens of meals perfect for Elaine!

 New Years Eve we spent with friends, two families with kids over a year old, and three pregnant mommas expecting in January and March. I managed to snap some photos of Elaine before the party. She's ready to ring in 2012!!

Happy New Year!  2011 brought us so much happiness and joy welcoming Elaine into the world and watching her grow, I know 2012 will bring a year of growth, discovery and excitement for all of us. 

Over the river and through the woods

To Grandma #2's house we go!  Monday, we drove from Wisconsin to Illinois to celebrate the holiday with the Frosts.  We had our family meal and gift opening at Julie and Kevin's this year.  Of course I forgot the stockings for the dress Elaine was to wear, but she had gotten some gifts that she was able to wear. 

Here are Elaine and Lauren saying hello and Merry Christmas!

Eric and I managed to get a photo with Elaine. 

Here is a great photo of my mom with Elaine, a few days later.

Uncle Andrew is SO silly!  They came over Thursday to play all day, which was fun.

I just love watching Lauren and Elaine check each other out.  Lauren seems to give Elaine the same type of attention I used to get from Julie.  Lots of love!

Lots of love here!  We also figured out that these two will be in the same grade!

Here is Caleb and Elaine having a fun afternoon!

And, something very big happened when we were in Peoria!  Elaine fully rolled over for the first time!  We managed to get one of the rollovers on camera.  We are still perplexed that she can go from back to belly but not belly to back.  They say belly to back usually happens first, but I guess Elaine does it her own way, just like her birth (and her dad)!

Christmas Laughter

It's Christmas night and while the boys watch the Packers play, Mommy thought she'd update the blog.  We drove to Wisconsin Thursday night after work, with the best driving conditions I can remember.  Yet, somehow, we still got detained because Eric got pulled over.  No ticket, but a warning.
We attended the Christmas Eve children's service, which was a dream come true, with children participating in the mass, and lots of other vocal children in the congregation.  Elaine was sure to add to the "choir".  Christmas morning we opened gifts, took a break to feast on the big meal, and picked up where we left off later in the day. 

Here is Eric's dad teaching Elaine how to shake the gifts and play with the ribbon.

This was probably Elaine's favorite gift from Santa, it's a bumble bee that lights up, makes sounds and that is just her size to grab and move things around on. 

Here is our little Santa dolly being extra cute. 

And here she is doing her cute little giggles after I fed her the evening meal.  She loved her first Christmas and tommorrow we head to Peoria to have a Frost Christmas!  Ho Ho Ho!

Ho Ho Ho!

The list of Elaine's "firsts" continues to grow!!  This weekend we had no shortage of firsts!
First Food - PEAS!

Now that Elaine is 5 months, we got the okay to give her "food", and I use the term loosely.  I was convinced if we started her with something delicious like apples or bananas that she wouldn't really want things like peas or beans, so her first food was PEAS!  We captured it on video, just to see that squished up face and look of disgust.  She managed to eat it two days now so we're off to a good start!

 
First Visit to Santa

Well, I can't tell you how much I dislike malls this time of the year, but for the sake of Elaine and a good quality memory of her first Christmas, I decided we needed to go to visit Santa, if nothing else, for one photo.  So we headed to Valley West Mall first thing on Saturday (well okay, 10:00am is NOT "first thing" these days), so that we could hopefully avoid the lines and get a parking spot.  The line was only about 10 - 15 minutes and Elaine sat nicely with Santa for our ONE photo.  She did great!

First Christmas Gift

Nikki and Quinn brought over Elaine's first Christmas gift, which was a handmade tu-tu!! So of COURSE the next day we had to do a photo session. I think I might have another one since she was photographed out from being on Santa's lap and all.

First Packer Loss

We had the realization that since Elaine was born, Eric's football team has not lost a game! So we've been calling her the lucky charm. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end. The Packers were defeated today, and as usual, she joined her dad watching the game. This photo has nothing to do with this, I just loved the cute faces I was getting while she had tummy time on our bed this weekend!

Can't wait to start celebrating Christmas with our families starting Thursday through New Year's Eve!  It has already been such a special time with Elaine in our lives, and babies really add to the magic and that warm feeling inside this time of year!

Not-so festive fever.

Well, this week Elaine got her first fever and I got the dreaded call from daycare that we needed to come get her.  Since Saturday, her fever has gone up and down, so first thing Monday morning, we took her to the doctor to get her checked out.  We got the okay as her temperature was normal, and all other checks turned out fine.  Just said it was a cold and sent us on our merry way!  I decided to even go to daycare over my lunch hour to feed her a bottle and give her some extra TLC, since they were having trouble getting her bottle down.  She drank it for me like a champ and I got her situated for a nap.  An hour and a half after I left, they called saying she had a temperature and that we needed to come get her.  So, back to daycare I went, and sure enough, she was red-eyed and whimpery in her crib.  I would describe her noises as like that of a newborn puppy, very high pitched and sad.

We gave her a bunch of extra snuggles last night, and I even slept in the bedroom next to hers, doors open, leaving the baby monitor off for the night.  It was as close to sleeping in her room as I was going to get.  Eric enjoyed an entire night of uninterrupted sleep, and I also slept better, only getting up when she really needed me, not for those fussy sleep sounds that keep me tossing and turning, checking the monitor all night. 

Today I stayed home with her in the morning and Eric took the afternoon.  She seems to be doing much better - her smiles have returned, she took an interest in her toys, and I am funny to her once again. 

This might be funny to only me, but I had to video her making sounds the other night.  Eric is rocking her in the yellow chair by the X-mas tree.  I'm calling this "singing Christmas carols".