No Patience for Pictures

Words about Vera aren't as cute as pictures but my internet is soooooo slow that if I try to add pictures I will give up entirely. Vera is six months and five days old. She has sat independently for a while now. She can now crawl but her coordination still needs some improvement and over the last few days she has learned how to sit up on her own. She loves everything we give her to eat. Today at her appointment she was 17 lbs and 27 inches. The Dr. also told me I can give her biter biscuits and vanilla wafers and crackers to eat. Before I was nervous about chocking and only gave her food that dissolves easily. He informed me that she can learn to chew now and probably choke a little in the process or she can learn to chew later and probably choke a little then too; just be sure to watch her and know what to do if she does choke. I thought that made a lot of sense. So this afternoon Vera ate vanilla wafers and did very well with them.

In non-baby news
    Work and school are going well. I went to Edinburgh Scotland three weeks ago and presented some of my work. It went well and I really enjoyed Edinburgh. In two weeks I'll be in Paris presenting some more of my work to a working group (VERY VERY nervous for that).
    I inherited a beautiful black Baldwin upright piano that is getting moved in tomorrow and I'm very excited (thanks to those who gave me the piano and my dear daddy for going and getting it from Florida for me!)
   I've been asked to play to organ for a musical number in church. Bleh! (at least I have a new piano to practice.)
   While I was in scotland Brett started redoing our bathroom as a gift to me. He painted out tub. It was an ugly yellow and now it is pure white. It looks like a brand new tub!
   Very is no longer the youngest Marshall. She has a sweet new cousin named Gwen. We are hoping to go and see her and her family at the end of the month.

On blogging and babies

Less adorable topic first… blogging. So I work for the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project or IC$BEP (you will find out why I used a $ and not the S in the acronym). I sort of have two bosses John who helps me with my benchmarks the most and Blair who is the actual boss who actually controls the funds that pay me (making him the ‘real boss’, sorry John). The other week I was talking to John in his cube when Blair comes by saying I both need you to come to my office when you can. Now normally I would have immediately been nervous but he seemed too happy and had an extra spring in his step. When we got to his office he explained that he wanted to see how many Google hits IC$BEP got (he had reasons for doing so that really aren’t relevant here). He got about 6,000 hits but wanted to see if most of them for scholarly hits so he scanned through the pages. He then turns to his computer as he says on the very last page I found this… At this point I know he had found my blog. I cover my face with my hands, turn bright red, and say “you found my blog didn’t you!” I was even more embarrassed when I read the sentence “my boss is like way up there in IC$BEP”. How I wish I had left out the like in the sentence! It makes me sound so illiterate (which normally doesn’t bother me when I’m just blogging but when my boss reads it…). Blair was rather entertained at finding my blog but couldn’t believe his luck at being able to so thoroughly embarrass me at the same time. (Now you know why I messed up the acronym... so it doesn’t mean more hits from Google!) I’m still contemplating going private but am leaning towards not. However, I am interested to see that I have 11 followers. I’m not sure what that means but I am curious how they found me and why they follow me. (in other words I’m asking anyone who reads this blog (and who I don’t know personally outside of blogging) to just leave a quick comment and how you found me)

In more adorable news… Ah Vera. She just melts my heart. She is just over 4 months now and I love her more each day. Cliché I know but any parent understands. She has now started ‘solid foods’.  (As a scientist I must point out the rice cereal is most certainly not a solid at room temperature.) She has an adorable laugh that took me a while to realize was a laugh. She still wakes up at least once in the night to eat but it doesn’t really bother me since she eats quickly and goes right back to sleep after.  She now goes to sleep by being read to. This means no more hours of pacing the house trying to get her to fall asleep.  

Brett taught Vera how to make his triple decker pp&j sandwich .

 She was not happy she did not get to eat the outcome of the lesson.

 Always the little princess.

 Generally she is happy but sometimes she gets really angry.

 Until she finds her thumb to suck on. Yes I let my child suck on her thumb... it seems to be out of fashion to have a child suck their thumb but she can put herself to sleep and I never have to stick the pacifier back in.

 She is stunned at the thought that anyone would try to stop her from sucking her thumb.

 Now that she rolls and puts herself to sleep occasionally she sometimes ends up in the cutest positions.

 And she loves to suck on her toes especially when she has socks on.

 She absolutely LOVED the Marshall family camp out. The only time she really fussed was during the hike... when I would stop hiking she would fuss.

 Day or night she's adorable! (You gotta love the messy closet in the background)

Here are two videos. I'm hesitant to add videos since they are rather long, I appear or can be heard in them, and I doubt other people watch the videos of someone else's child EXCEPT... I'm fairly certain grandma and grandpa watch then so I'll add them. Here is a tickle fest (which melted into tears) and her first feeding of 'solids'.

two new tricks

Around July 4th Vera discovered her tongue. She stopped talking as much (like you saw in the last post's video) and started doing this instead...

 

within a week she had moved on from just playing with her tongue to making nice wet razzes. She will sit happily and do this for minutes on end. 

She is now also rolling over... only one direction though meaning she rolls to her tummy and then gets angry.
She loves to sleep on her side.
She is just barely beginning to laugh. Only I hear it but I swear it is the start of  joyous happy laughter.
She loves to chew on her hands, anyone's  fingers (she'll gag herself with my finger sometimes) and burp clothes... oh yeah and shirts sleeves.
She is her mommy's good little eater. She's still a milk only baby but she intently watches and grabs for our food during meals.
She LOVEs standing and probably wishes she could do it without our help.
Bottom line.. I'm completely smitten with my daughter and can't imagine a more perfect baby for me.

Here are a few pictures from her 2month-three month birthdays

Vera LOVES bathtime

One morning I was making breakfast and Vera was playing. Brett came over and whispered "I think she feel asleep" This is the only time she has fallen asleep on her own (not counting the ca rseat). It was also cute because she has her hand over her eyes which is supposedly how her grandma marshall naps.  (I know it is blurry)

That pillow made tummy time bearable and has really sped her development. Before I gave up on tummy time before she really got to work her neck muscles. Now she likes tummy time (even without the pillow) and is pushes off with her legs. Sometimes she'll push herself over the pillow and get stuck with it under her legs and her head in the ground.

We wanted a warm hat for the fireworks just in case. This one was a bit big still but oh so cute.

sorry it is rotated but Vera (and Brett) LOVED the fireworks

We put Vera to sleep on her back like 'they' say we should but sometimes she ends up on her tummy.

11 weeks last night

Miss Vera turned 11 weeks old last night. To celebrate my parents took her for the night and I slept ALL night long (We were already at my parents since Brett's gone). Vera is of course the apple of my eye. There isn't a thing the the world that I love more than her and her daddy. She is an excellent baby and I count my blessings. What is most crazy to me is if I had taken a full 12 weeks of maternity leave that some moms do I would just be going back to work :o!! I used to think I would hate working while having a baby at home but the time away allows me to use my brain, talk like an adult, talk about more than poop and naps and feedings, and I cherish her so much more the time I spend with her. To each their own but I have discovered that working 20 hours a week makes me a better mom than if I were with her all day. And really since she sleeps almost the entire time I'm gone.. I'm really not missing much but a few diaper changes.

Vera is a talker already. She likes talking back to me and even sings a long with music. This video was from when I was working from home the other week

Thumb sucking

Last Sunday after watching a young girl suck her thumb and pick her nose at the same time with the same hand I decided I would be more willing to use the pacifier in hopes of Vera not being a thumb sucker. I know stopping a child from sucking their thumb is harder than taking away a pacifier. Yesterday for the first time Vera actually got her thumb in her mouth and sucked her thumb rather than her entire hand. Today when she did it again I put the pacifier in instead. She was fine with the pacifier but when I looked back down at her she had her thumb inserted into the pacifier (the pacifier is one of the ones hospitals give out that where you can stick your finger into the nipple). I tried getting picture but wasn't able to. Now I know it was probably chance she got her thumb into the hole in the pacifier but I'm still beginning to think she will such her thumb like her dad and I'll be fine with it and deal with giving up thumb sucking when the time comes. After all she is so cute and has Brett and I wrapped so tightly around her little finger she will probably always do whatever she wants and we won't stop her.

One Month

Our dear Miss Vera is one month old today. I can't believe it's already been a month and at the same time I can't believe I've only had my baby girl for a month.  We've done all sorts of things in the last month 

We've enjoyed meeting cousins

We've worked out in our cute onesies and tennis shoe socks

We've loved our grandma and grandpa marshall

And our grandpa and grandma fitch

We've slept like an angel on our daddy's chest

And put up with mommy taking a gazillion pictures of us.

We've practiced our tummy time

And of course slept a lot

We've learned that good food comes from mommy and a bottle

and we watch TV with daddy.

We cook with mommy

and melt everyone's heart

(not sure why I used the pronoun we and us when really I mean Vera but I just went with it.)
The last month has been an adventure but we are settling into a routine. I've started working again this work and luckily Vera has been an sweety for grandpa and grandma every time they have babysat. Happy one month birthday my darling Vera.