It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Since Thanksgiving will be officially over in just a few hours, I am getting super excited about Christmas. I can't wait for Miller's first Christmas. I am ready to put up our tree, buy new monogrammed stockings, make cookies with Miller helping from the Baby Bjorn, and order our first official family Christmas cards! I am also excited about taking pictures for them with our awesome new camera. I think that I would like to go non-traditional and do blue and brown or green and brown cards. I just like brown. I realize that this is a little bit of a wierd color choice for Christmas cards and I thought I might have a hard time finding them, but Snapfish actually has lots of options and you can search the cards by color so it was really easy to find them. Here are some cards that I like. (Disclaimer: If you think you might be receiving a Christmas card from us this year, then you should stop reading here lest you ruin your surprise!)

This is a cute green one. I also like that is says "Merry Everything!"

How cute is this owl? I bet nobody else will send you an owl-themed Christmas card.

And this brown and blue one is pretty. I really like the brown/blue combo.

They also have lots of really cute options in normal Christmas colors that you can check out here.

Merry Christmas Card Shopping!

The Funniest Picture Ever

So, the first Duke basketball game was last Sunday. We felt the need to dress Miller in her Duke shirt and take her picture, of course. This will be very handy one day in case she decides to go to Duke....and become their first female linebacker.

3 Months Old!

I am waaaay behind on this post, because Miller turned 3 months old on November 12th. I seriously need to look into quitting my job so I can have time for important stuff, like blogging. But I can't really do that or I won't have money for important stuff, like eating. Too bad. Anyway, here is Miller's 3 month update:

Miller is finally starting to think about not hating her life, so that is good. She smiles a lot and hardly ever screams in our faces anymore. She goes to bed at 7:00 every night, and she has slept through the night for six nights in a row now. (Hallelujah, praise Jesus!) She can roll over from her stomach to her back, and she can raise up her whole head and chest when lying on her stomach. Her motor skills are very advanced, obviously. She is finally ok with taking a bottle. She loves her playmat, her mobile, seeing how much of her hand she can get into her mouth, and (I don't know where she got this from) looking at herself in the mirror. She also enjoys spitting up on people and then smiling about it. She is very cute, as you can see.

Firsts

Miller has had a lot of "firsts" lately, including mommy's first weeks back at school, which is why I haven't blogged in a while. This whole going to work thing has really been cutting into my days! So, here is a quick recap of some firsts...

Miller's first tailgate (we didn't actually go into the game) was at Wofford homecoming a few weeks back. As you can see, she really enjoyed herself.

The next day was her first Halloween. Miller had fun helping us hand out candy until she fell asleep in my arms promptly at 7:01. (Her bedtime is 7:00.)

The next weekend, Fred and I got to go to our first football game of the season. Um...we may have chosen poorly since we lost. Badly. Here is how we pack for Columbia these days.

We have taken football cookies lots of times.

However, this is the first time we have taken a cooler full of beer and breast milk.

Sleep

The good news is that Miller slept from 7:00 last night until 7:40 this morning only waking up once to eat at 2:30! I hope that is going to become a pattern. Thank you, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child for not being a bunch of malarky like another sleep book whose name I won't mention, but it begins with Baby and ends with Wise. I told ya'll I was going to have this kid sleeping before I went back to work!

The bad news is right now, she is supposed to be taking a nap, and she has been sleeping for five minutes, crying for a few seconds, sleeping for a few minutes, crying for a few minutes etc for about 45 minutes! And I think she just quacked, but she does that sometimes. What in the world? Every time I start to go get her she falls asleep again. What is that about?

Also, for those of you who are keeping track of just how advanced Miller is, you should know that she rolled over from her stomach to her back on Monday. Yep, she can do tricks now!

Here is some unrelated cuteness, just because my baby is cuter than yours.

Happy baby.

I don't know what this face is about.

I think she is trying to tell me that she thinks tummy time is stupid.

Today

Here is a list of all of the things I have done today, in order.

1. Feed baby

2. Get baby back to sleep (me twice, Fred once)

3. Pump (so that we can continue failed attempts to make baby take a bottle)

4. Run on treadmill

5. Make bed

6. Eat breakfast

7. Straighten downstairs

8. Unload and reload dishwasher

9. Shower

10. Get dressed (while skillfully avoiding the 95% of my wardrobe that causes cleavage, muffin top, or nursing issues)

11. Start 2 loads of laundry

It is 8:45.

Here is what I still need to do:

1. Most importantly, keep baby alive, fed, dressed, clean, happy etc.

2. Walk around house with baby while bouncing and sssshhhh-ing for several hours, maybe less if I am lucky

3. Vacuum

4. Finish laundry

5. Attempt intelligent conversation with husband when he comes home for lunch, possibly while one of us is walking and/or bouncing

6. Attempt to eat lunch, possibly while walking and/or bouncing

7. Mop floors with vinegar and water, even though I mopped yesterday, in an attempt to rid them of yucky build-up which had accumulated due to excessive mopping which is due to dirty dogs/OCD dog mom

8. Read blogs, check Facebook, check discount websites etc. (OK, I don't NEED to do those things, but I am going to)

9. Play game with baby where I talk and she moves her mouth around (her favorite)

10. Pump some more in an attempt to store milk for return to work, which won't actually be necessary since baby won't take bottle

11. Figure out how to make baby take bottle

12. Attempt to eat dinner, probably while shushing and/or bouncing (I don't have to cook dinner, because Fred is going to)

13. Put baby to bed (usually 2-3 times before it takes)

14. Watch DVR'd reality television

15. I forgot, I also need to wash the back doormat and the dog bed cover and vacuum the couches (dog hair-are you noticing a pattern?)

I know what you are thinking.....WOW, Rebecca, you are Supermom! And you are right. The only problem is, I am going back to work in 3 WEEKS and who the heck is going to come over to my house and do all this stuff for me then? My mom will be in charge of the keeping baby alive portion during the day until Christmas break, but I am 99.9% sure she won't be throwing in any free housekeeping services. I am in serious need of some domestic help. And a winning lottery ticket.

It Wasn't The Dairy

Because inquiring minds want to know, I thought I should fill ya'll in on the dairy ban. It was NOT the dairy causing my baby to go nuts. I went off dairy for 2 weeks, then went back on it and nothing drastic really changed. I hate to admit this, but it probably was the c-word, because it has gotten 1,000 times better in the past few weeks. They say the c-word gets better at 12 weeks, and Millsy is only 9 weeks, but she is very advanced. I also read that c-word-y babies may be more intelligent than non-c-word-y babies. They might freak out because they are so interested in what is going on around them and want to take in everything in their environment....or something like that. Well, obviously she is more intelligent that your average baby, so that is more evidence that it WAS the c-word I guess. She still won't sleep at all between 4 or 5-ish and 9-ish, but she is only mildly whiny now and very rarely screams in my face. So that's good. We definitely get to see a lot more happy Miller now. In case you aren't familiar, this is her happy face. Is it too early to start waxing her eyebrows, by the way?

(thanks for the octopus outfit, Aunt Erin!)

The battle we are currently fighting is with the bottle. She wants NOTHING to do with it, and I have to go back to work in 3 weeks. Yikes. We are in the midst of a good old fashioned stubborn-off! Miller is definitely winning, because she can scream the loudest. Also, I think that while it is totally acceptable for her to scream at us, it might be bad parenting for us to scream back. She just isn't having it. I think I might have to quit my job. Darn.

PS-If you have advice on the bottle subject, I am totally open to it. You don't have to be a doctor for this one. As long as you don't say anything about it being my fault that she won't take it, advise away!