Music

She may be a musician yet! Isla was quite intrigued this morning.

Then, 20 minutes later, I came upon this....

(PS-I'm still trying to figure out our video camera...not sure how to make the clips bigger just yet.)

Music

She may be a musician yet! Isla was quite intrigued this morning.

Then, 20 minutes later, I came upon this....

(PS-I'm still trying to figure out our video camera...not sure how to make the clips bigger just yet.)

One Month Old

Bellingham Baby Shower

My sister Lani, sister-in-law Tash and mom hosted a beautiful clothing shower on Saturday for Miss Isla. Since we did not find out we were having a girl until delivery, we had a lot of necessities collected but no clothes (with the exception of a few boy outfits since everyone assumed we were having a boy). Now our little girl has a closet full of pink! Brunch was served: scones with clotted cream and jam, fruit, yogurt and homemade granola, baked sausage and egg cups and juice and coffee. Guests included many women from the church where I grew up as well as the moms of kids I used to babysit (who are now in high school which just makes me feel OLD!) Thank you for the wonderful shower ladies!

4 weeks!

Look at her leg rolls!!

Isla is 4 weeks today! Here's a little taste of what's been happening this week:

-New nickname: Peanut. I'll admit that I'm using this one quite often. I have to keep reminding myself to call Isla by her name so she'll learn to respond to it too. :o)

-Isla is much more alert this week. It is such a drastic change from her first week when we could not keep her awake worth beans. She sometimes is awake for 3 hour stretches now and looks adorable as she absorbs her surroundings.

-I think we have a major cuddle bug on our hands....much like both her parents. Isla LOVES being held pretty much all the time. She will only lie on her own for about 2 minutes before she begins to cry to be picked up. Hmm, that's gonna pose some issues eventually.

-Night times are still unpredictable. We had about 3 really great nights midway last week but then the last few night have been rough again with both Graham and I taking turns hanging out with a very awake daughter in the middle of the night. A few things I may have discovered about Isla's preferences: 1) she likes to be tightly swaddled 2) when I lay her down after night feeds, it really helps Isla go back to sleep when I place my hand on her arms and "shhhhhh" her. This seems to reduce the grunting as it gets her into more sound sleep but it's a huge time commitment and not a habit I want to get into permanently.

-I was wrong. Isla's acne was not at its peak last week. I think her worst day was of course the day of her shower when she was meeting everyone. It's looking better now though.

-Isla has been taking her bottle wonderfully everyday. We have yet to figure out a good regular time for these "Daddy feeds."

-We left Isla for the first time last night so Graham and I could go on one last date before Graham heads back to work and starts grad school. Isla went to Grandpa and Grandma Crozier's and did great (although she did have a blowout on Grandma and was a bottomless pit, eating 2 whole bottles during the 3 hour window that we were gone). I only cried for the first 5 minutes after dropping her off. :o) I was worried maybe we were leaving her too early, maybe that meant we were horrible parents etc. Graham reminded me that our relationship is our number 1 priority and my mom said that Isla needs happy parents--both good words of wisdom. We had a great time and it was refreshing to spend one-on-one, undistributed time together.

1st trip to Bellingham (G & G's)

This weekend our family took our first overnight trip away from home. My sister, sister-in-law and mom were throwing a clothes shower at my parents for Miss Isla on Saturday so we headed up Friday late morning to enjoy the day in Bellingham.

Bellingham was recently featured in a summer issue of Sunset Magazine so we decided we'd better try out one of the "must-dos" outlined in the article which was to get the "Avalanche" from Woods Coffee at Boulevard Park. The drink was a super yummy (calorie-laden I'm sure) concoction of espresso, ice cream, caramel and coconut all blended up with whipped cream on top....To balance out the indulgence, we spent an hour or so walking the boardwalk and trails at the park (one of my favorites growing up).
The weather couldn't have been better for our little outing.

It was on this walk that we realized we have trouble on our hands....our daughter a pick-pocket? No joke, we just looked over and found her this way, trying to steal from her Grandma.

That evening, Isla got to spend some time with Grandpa too when he got home from work.

And then it was bathtime so she'd be fresh for the shower. My parents sink is a bit smaller than ours but Isla LOVED it! She just laid there, quietly sucking on her binkie the whole time. She even kept looking sideways and dipping her eye in the water but still didn't let out a peep!

Hang tight for pictures from the shower!

Grunting Video

I finally captured a short clip of our nighttime grunter. The video is not great because I didn't want to turn on the light and wake Isla up but it's mostly for the sound anyway. She does this every night for sometimes hour long stretches. THAT my friends is why I've had a hard time sleeping. :o)We were up at my parents last night and my sister was sleeping next door. She said she thought she heard a goose in our room....As loud as it is, it is an absolute crack up! Enjoy!

Grunting Video

I finally captured a short clip of our nighttime grunter. The video is not great because I didn't want to turn on the light and wake Isla up but it's mostly for the sound anyway. She does this every night for sometimes hour long stretches. THAT my friends is why I've had a hard time sleeping. :o)We were up at my parents last night and my sister was sleeping next door. She said she thought she heard a goose in our room....As loud as it is, it is an absolute crack up! Enjoy!

1/2 Anniversary

Today is our 1/2 anniversary! When I informed Graham of this, he said "Do we celebrate those?" Ha! Guess not.... :o) I like to at least acknowledge them though. So we're "celebrating" by attending a nice formal dinner and reception at SPU for the grad students and their dates. Free dinner? That's what I'm talking about! Graham's been at his orientation all day and Isla and I have been testing out what our days will look like when we're home alone with Graham back at work.

Anyway, Happy Half Anniversary Love! Here's to 2 1/2 more years!

Happy Anniversary

Today this happy couple celebrates 30 years of marriage! Congrats Mom and Dad! You set a great example of what a loving and godly marriage looks like. We love you and are so thankful for your many years together!

3 weeks

Isla is 3 weeks old today! How did that happen? Time has flown by! We had a bit tougher of a time with her teddy bear photos today.

At first I couldn't get her to wake up

-Tonight she gets to try her very first real bottle! (She did have one tiny 10 ml bottle of formula in the hospital--much to her mommy's frustration-- because she was hypoglycemic and wouldn't nurse but we're not counting that). Our plan is to feed her one bottle/day of pumped breast milk to make sure that she'll take the bottle. I'm thinking this will be great bonding time for Daddy and her.

-Today she can also have her binkie if she'd like (our pediatrician recommended waiting for binkies and bottles until 3 weeks to make sure breast feeding was well established). We're certainly not going to force her to take a binkie if she doesn't want one but part of me thinks it will REALLY help with her nighttime grunts.

Cute, even when asleep

-Speaking of, she is still grunting and groaning throughout the night. We've have started to notice that the grunting seems to take place when she is in her light phase of sleep. She's definitely still asleep when she does it though--it's crazy! We're not sure how long we're going to be able to keep her in our room with us as I'm not able to sleep through the noise. It's funny--I was talking to my mom and she was reading through my baby book and said I used to do the same thing. She found a note that said I "grunted and groaned like a weight lifter." :o)

-Isla seems to have found her voice. She still doesn't cry much but she is starting to make it a little more obvious when she wants something. She has also begun to coo and caw a bit--more cawing than cooing. It's pretty cute!

Pouting

-The past couple nights we have decided to try to wait until she really starts crying before we do anything. Previously, we'd been responding to the grunts, thinking they meant something, and also to avoid the hour-long grunt fests that ensued if we let her be. We decided however to bite the bullet, lose sleep and see if that helped at all with our night trouble. The jury is still out.

-Isla may be going through a growth spurt as she is more consistently feeding every 1 1/2 hours in the evening and into the night. Over the past 2 nights, my longest stretch of sleep was two hours. We'd been trying to feed her every 2 hours in the day (per her dr) in hopes of having longer stretches at night. So far, minimal success.

Karate chop!!!!

-Isla is going through her baby acne phase. I think we've hit the peak though and it's starting to taper down.

-I really do think I see strong evidence of Graham's personality in her. She's fairly laid back, is a night owl and seems not to want to "play by the rules."

Relaxing

-Isla is getting more and more alert and is having longer sessions of awake time. It's fun to watch her look around and absorb her surroundings. She can track for very short amounts of time but mostly seems to stare at our bright red wall.

-She started to spit up a little this week. Nothing projectile. Mostly just when she gets the hiccups after eating. Each hiccup brings a little back...

-Thankfully, Graham was able to get another two weeks off work. It has been a lifesaver to have him around so I can nap! My mom and sister both took a morning this past weekend where they took Isla at 7AM so I could go back to bed for a couple hours.

-Isla is developing an adorable little belly and double chin. :o)


Even though our sleep troubles are leaving us a bit weary, we are doing well and are completely in love with this 3 week old little girl.

Got Giveaways?

Graham's cousin is a new missionary with MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) and will be working as a pilot mechanic in Africa. Our extended family is planning a yard sale to help raise money for him, and we are looking for items to sell. If you have a giveaway pile collected and would like to off load some goods from your closets or garage, let us know as we are looking for as many donations as possible to make this a success. The sale will be on September 25/26, so we're hoping to have the donations by September 23. Leave a comment on my blog if you have anything you'd like to donate--it's a good motivator to do some Fall cleaning people!!!

Thoughts on Beets

I always thought I hated beets. I've realized recently though that maybe I don't really know what a "real" beet tastes like. What I have had as a youngster were those disgusting canned (pickled maybe?) red things that, quite frankly, I don't understand who created and why anyone buys them. Anyway, beets seem to be all the rage in gourmet cooking magazines and fine restaurants as of late so when Graham ASKED if we could pick up some golden beets at the Kirkland Farmer's Market, I immediately obliged. (For one, it has proved to be a challenge to get the boy to try root veggies other than potatoes let alone ASK for them). Apparently he'd been paging through one of my recent Cooking Light issues and came upon the recipe that follows. He tried it out earlier this week and I must say that it was quite fabulous! You always hear beets described as being "earthy" which I think is just a glamorous way of saying they "taste like dirt" but my feeling is that the "dirty" taste is much more subtle in the golden variety. Paired with a nice sharp parmigiano-regianno (which we used in place of the Kefalotyri), they are quite nice. Be brave and try something new! They are a great source of fiber and also contain vitamin C and iron.

Beet and Arugula Salad with Kefalotyri

Kefalotyri is a hard, salty Greek cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano can sub in a pinch). For more visual appeal, use golden and red beets.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: about 1/2 cup beet mixture and 1 1/2 teaspoons cheese)

Ingredients:
3 beets (about 1 pound)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 cups arugula
1/4 cup (1 ounce) shaved fresh kefalotyri cheese

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Leave root and 1-inch stem on beets; scrub with a brush. Place beets in a baking dish; bake at 425° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until tender. Cool; peel and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices.
3. Combine vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper, stirring with a whisk. Arrange beet slices in a single layer on a platter. Drizzle beets with half of vinegar mixture.
4. Combine remaining vinegar mixture and arugula in a large bowl; toss gently to coat. Top beets with arugula mixture. Sprinkle with cheese.

Photo Shoot

Last night, Isla had her first professional photo shoot. Graham's brother John (www.crozierphotography.com) came over to try and capture this precious girl in her newborn state. She was quite the poser at first, lying on the bed with eyes closed and arms by her head. Then we tried to attempt the naked baby shots....I knew we should be prepare for an accident or two but four messes!?? She pooped on 2 towels in 2 minutes time and then I guess she pooped a third time but I was busy downstairs cleaning up the first two so am not sure where that one ended up. As we were finishing up the shoot, we decided to get a couple family shots and so I wrapped up naked Isla in a towel and held her in my lap. I smiled for the camera and then my smile grew wider as my hands started feeling very warm and wet....silly girl peed through the towel and onto my leg and our bedspread. Thankfully it's warm tonight and therefore we're not missing the bedspread on our bed.
John specializes in wedding photography and I think tonight may have reminded him why.... :o)

Open vs Closed

Does she look so different with her eyes open vs closed? I can't get over it!

2 Weeks

Our little peanut hit the two week mark today! It's hard to believe that much time has passed already...I am trying to remember to cherish every moment.
Here are a few more tidbits about our life together:

-Isla is definitely a little night owl! We've had a couple really rough nights the past two nights as she is waking up at about 10 PM and staying wide awake and alert until about 1 or 2 AM. She'll finally sleep until about 4 AM and then wake up for the rest of the night. Graham has been taking her for the first half of the night "shift," rocking her and trying to get her to fall asleep on his chest. She will fall asleep but then the moment she is laid in her cradle, she begins her grunt fest (which we are trying to capture on video to share--it is really quite hilarious, just not when it happens constantly through the night.) I have found myself wishing she would learn to scream and cry (rather than grunt) at least so I'd know she was upset or needing something. People have asked what happens if we just leave her in the cradle when she begins grunting. Well my friends, she will grunt for an hour straight and never seems to wear herself out!! We are trying to wake Isla more in the day and gradually hope we can sneak her awake hours earlier into the evening. Until then, I may just be going to bed at 8:30 to get a couple hours of sleep in before she wakes. I know we will get through this but it is proving to be quite the challenge. People warn you about the lack of sleep you will experience with a newborn but I don't think there is any way to fully prepare for what that looks like--I mean, how hard can it be? Yeah you have to wake to feed the baby in the middle of the night but then you just go back to sleep again, right?--HA! If only it were that simple... My dear friend reminded me yesterday that my job right now is to keep our sweet baby girl alive--which I am doing--and therefore, I am a success. That was encouraging to hear!

-Isla is gaining weight wonderfully (so is feeding well). We had to bring her in to the doctor on Labor Day because her belly button had been spotting little bits of blood for more than three days and they wanted to check it out to make sure there was no infection. It turns out she has a small granuloma (a small area of inflammation in tissue due to injury per the mayo clinic) in there but nothing bad enough to treat. She weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces at 13 days of age which means she has gained more than an ounce a day over the past 6 days--she's a real foodie I'm thinking.

-We've been trying to sort out a lot of important details this week such as when Graham has to go back to work. He initially was going to take the entire month of Sept off but then was told by Human Resources that he couldn't use his sick time to care for Isla and I and therefore would have to use all his vacation plus have a couple of weeks of unpaid leave in order to be off for the whole month. So he was going to have to go back this coming Friday instead. BUT, people kept telling us that it's ridiculous that he can't use his sick leave and that we should fight it. So we are. And I think we're winning. Tomorrow we will pick up a note from my OB stating I need him at home to help care for Isla and I. I mean seriously, isn't that a no brainer?! I definitely need his help--I honestly don't know how single parents do it! Anyway, I don't think HR can argue with a doctor's note so Graham may get to stay home for a few more weeks after all!

-Isla is quite the pooper. And I'm not really talking about frequency here. More force. It's like she's shooting a missile out her little behind. And I must say she has the most audible poop I have ever heard come out of a baby. So loud that I usually have to ask "Graham, was that you?" It's great in church...I'm sure we're going to get a lot of funny looks. Anyway, Auntie Lani was over last week and sweetly volunteered to change Isla's diaper. That night after she got home, she was recounting her day to her husband and the story went something like this:

Michael: "So how was your time at Kelsie's?"

Lani: "Good! Oh and you'll never believe what happened!!! I was changing Isla's diaper...." (Long pause, wide-eyed expression on face, giggle). "That reminds me!! I forgot to change my clothes!!" (Off she runs to her room for a clean pair of pants).

She didn't even have to finish the story for Michael to know what had happened. So far I have managed to avoid her poo missiles during diaper changes but Daddy has not been so lucky. He got hit a couple nights ago. Thankfully, we see the comedy in it all and just have to laugh.

-My turnover time for laundry is 5 days (meaning, if I start washing a load on Monday, it is finally dried, folded and ready to be put away by Friday). We'll get better I'm sure!

-Isla and I vacuumed for the first time yesterday. It was during her awake and alert time (which we're trying to prolong during the day so she'll sleep more at night). I decided it was a great activity that would keep her alert for longer. I put her in my Moby wrap and she did great. She was awake for the first 15 minutes but by the time I was done, I looked down and the loud roar of our vacuum had lulled her to sleep--go figure!

All for now....

Blackberry Pickin' with Isla

Make sure your volume is turned up before watching!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Krpu-ttP6Lk

Meeting Uncle Josh, Time with the Wilsons

Unfortunately Isla's arrival was not quite early enough to beat WSU's start date so my brother Josh was not able to meet Isla until he could make a trip home this weekend. He came into town Friday night and the rest of my family came down as well to spend more time with us.

Uncle Josh holds Isla for the first time when.....3 seconds into it.....

OH!!!! I think she's squirting her pants!!

Josh of course loses it as I don't think he's had much experience holding babies while they squirt their pants. It ended up being the joke of the weekend how the two of them "got started on the wrong foot" but she won him over in the end. :o)

I mean look at them! I think that's the face of a proud uncle!

On Saturday, we decided to venture out to Woodinville and take Isla on her first winery tour at Chateau Ste Michelle. She slept the entire time and Uncle Ben and I enjoyed their selection of pre-wine (i.e. grape juice) at the end of the tour.

After the tour, we picked up teriyaki and ate it at a park.

A family shot

Finally awake

But never for long

Loving his niece

Family Time with the Croziers

Yesterday we went to the Croziers for a goodbye lunch for my brother-in-law Scott who is heading back down to CA for school. Of course I didn't get any shots of the guest of honor...oh well. He won't be back until Thanksgiving and I'm sure Isla will be practically walking (or at least holding her head up) by then so I was sad to see him go. I actually didn't cry though which is a miracle in my current state. Graham said I should have but you can just never predict when the flood gates will open.

Napping on Auntie Tash


Isla June with her middle namesake, Great Grandma Juna

Susanna gets a turn...child, when will you wake up!!??

EVERYONE!! Come look!!! She's opening her eyes!

I love these candid shots, seeing how excited everyone was to see alert Isla. I guess I didn't realize how little she's been awake around the Croziers so they were pretty thrilled to see the whites of her eyes.

Getting in some Grandma time with eyes OPEN

The past 13 days has really reminded me what wonderful families Graham and I both have. I can't even describe how it warms my heart as a new mom to see others so excited about our baby. We are truly blessed.