baby's first Christmas!

Well, it was a wonderful and busy first Christmas for little Ramona Pearl. We had my parents' annual Christmas Eve Open House, which I always enjoy. However, it was a little overwhelming with the baby....since she was a very popular item to be ogled. She dealt with it well....mainly by taking multiple naps throughout the party. Sometimes I wanted to join her, because facing the visitors without the baby got me many disappointed comments, such as "Oh, shes sleeping?", or "Where is the baby?".

Ramona seemed more at ease on Christmas, when there were less people surrounding her at all times. She smiled lots for the family, and everyone got some quality time in. She really raked it in as far as presents go, plenty of books and clothes. Today she is wearing the dress she got from her Grandma Fenton, I'll have to get a picture of it, its beautiful and colorful.

Holiday highlights:
1. Wrapping presents with Ramona on Christmas Eve, while Justin went on a walk with Max. We listened to Christmas songs, and Ramona loved watching me tie up with presents with colorful and shiny ribbons.

2. The day after Christmas Ramona rolled over! She was napping on her back (of course!), and Justin heard her crying.....he went up there, and she was on her stomach! Of course, I was at the store, so I missed this milestone. I'll have to be around for her next milestone.

3. On Christmas night, Ramona seemed tired, so we were getting her ready for bed. Then, suddenly.....she was smiling and laughing at her great-grandparents. They were thrilled, and it was a sweet moment at the end of our Christmas tour.

4. We gave Shutterfly photo books of Ramona's first four months to all of the great-grandparents. They were a big hit, and I can tell that everyone that enters their homes will be shown this book.

5. On Christmas, my mom, my brother, Ramona and I went over to Aunt Judy's for the Hoyt Christmas party. My second cousins, Jason(11) and Riley(8?) were there, and they helped keep Ramona busy. It was fun to see the kids helping to take care of the baby. There aren't too many children in our family, so they seemed happy to play with her.

6. Christmas Eve night, Justin and I exchanged gifts. We normally do this on Christmas morning, but the next morning was just too busy. It was a really nice night, we both got each other very thoughtful gifts......and Christmas had a brand new meaning to us this year. We had fun imagining future Christmases when Ramona is old enough to get excited.

Thanks

For the first year, I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving. Not that I don't like Thanksgiving, but it just isn't my favorite holiday. I've never really liked Turkey, and watching football makes me feel lethargic.....so Halloween and Christmas were more my type of holidays. However, this year I'm really excited. Mostly I'm excited because family events take on a whole new meaning. Showing Ramona off to my relatives is just fun. Plus, I actually like my family, so seeing them is fun instead of horrifying. Nobody gets too drunk, nobody yells at each other (unless someone gets in my dad's way in the kitchen), and there isn't any weird tension. Grandma Fenton isn't going to be able to make it this year, because the trip from Bellingham might be too much for her, so I added a picture of her with Ramona in this post.

Halloweenies

Halloween was such a fun day for Ramona (well, at least for Ramona's parents). I met up with Sabrina and Madeline and we took a million pictures of them (air freshener and pea in a pod), and then we headed down to Market street for Halloween madness. There were waves and waves of kids dressed up in creative costumes. My favorites were a homemade robot outfit, a homemade coke can outfit, and a spiky porcupine. Also, we met up with Jenny and Tom and their little Tinkerbell, Ainsley. We went trick or treating at the stores, even though none of our kids can eat candy yet. Then, Justin met up with us and we went to PEPS, which was awesome. The kids in our group were dressed up like Maggie Simpson, a lion, and two pumpkins. The pictures of them all together is hilarious.

Last weekend we went to the cabin with Eric, Sabrina and Madeline. It went smoothly, and all of my anxieties about forgetting to bring something that I couldn't get out there, didn't come to the surface. We found out during our stay that Ramona loves the play mat that Sabrina owns, so we're going to have to get one of those tacky bright mats to clutter our house with. Its worth the time its going to buy me to do the dishes, or dry my hair.

This week I started going to the gym, and Ramona started going to the childcare at the gym. I love the woman who runs the childcare, she has Ramona do tummy time, she talks to her a lot, and it seems like a very stimulating environment for her. Plus, mommy gets to work on getting rid of her huge gut! Yipee!!

Two month madness

Yesterday Ramona turned 2 months old. Bring out the birthday candles! We decided to do something special.....so we took her in to the doctors for her shots. She loved it. Ok, she screamed bloody murder, and turned bright red for a few seconds, but after that she seemed to do just fine. She is in the 90th percentile for weight, and the doctor said she was perfect. Of course she is perfect.

That night we had PEPS, and it was a whole lot of fun. We took some pictures of the babies hanging out together, and all the parents were wowed by Ramona's stillness (well, everybody has to have a skill). We're going on a walk around Green Lake together on Friday (at least the moms are), so I'm really looking forward to that. Having a baby has really helped me meet some cool people. Thanks for the social life Ramona!

We've recently started a "bedtime routine", which I thought was kind of a silly thing to do with a two month old, but it has been wonderful. We bring her up to bed around 8:30, change her diaper, feed her, read a short book (she just thinks we're talking to her, because she never notices the actual book), and then we sing her a song and put her to bed. We turn on the mobile, and leave the room......and she can all of a sudden put herself to sleep all by herself. It turns out she is a very independent little baby, and she spends some time talking to herself, and staring at the mobile, and eventually falls asleep. It really makes our nights easier. She has also started sleeping almost through the night, only waking up once to eat. Its happened twice......so we'll see if its a permanent thing.

Sunny baby

Yesterday was such a marvelous, sunny day! I went to Green Lake with Dana (Ramona and Max as well!), and we had a really nice walk around the lake. We stopped at a Peet's for some coffee and a snack....as well as a snack for the little one. I also changed Ramona in the bathroom....which was my first public restroom diaper change. Big step. Then, we got a call from Dana's parents who were coming down to Green Lake as well. They hadn't met Ramona yet, so we met them at the other end of the lake. It was fun to see them, and have them meet Ramona. She even woke up for a few minutes to show off her eyes. THEN.....we got a call from my friend Sabrina who was also coming down to Green Lake for a walk. So, we met up with her (and Madeline), and continued our trek around the lake. By the end of the day we had spent four hours at the lake and walked around almost three times. It was the perfect adventure for a sunny day.

Today is looking fantastic as well, so I'm planning on walking around the lake with some girls from my PEPS group. I'm really looking forward to spending as much of today outside as possible. Ramona slept amazingly well last night in her own bed....and is not obsessed with her mobile in her crib. Mama and baby are feeling great this morning!

Hangin' in her Crib

Big news! Ramona has made the big leap to her own bed, in her very own bedroom! We are all very excited about this development in the Fenton household. We started this new tradition on Friday night, because we thought we weren't going to get any sleep. However, last night we got more sleep than usual.

I can't believe she is already big enough to be in her own bed. It feels like just yesterday when we came home from the hospital. Now she is two months old, and she goes in for her first shots this week. She reacts to the games we play with her, and enjoys listening to us sing to her. In the morning I play with her and she smiles more and more. She will also "talk" with us now.....with little grunts, and coos.

Today we are watching the Husky game, and Ramona is sitting in her Husky sweat suit. She is a little crabby, probably because she knows that the Huskies will probably lose to Oregon to continue their losing streak. This season is not a good Husky fan start for her.....

hail new moms

Ok.....

I swear this will be the last new blog I start up. Sorry to anyone that enjoyed reading my PI blog, but obviously I had trouble keeping that one up. I think some of that was due to feeling pressure that people I don't know would be reading it (and possibly writing mean comments). So, I decided to start up a new blog aimed towards my friends and family and for recording Ramona's baby "steps".

On to today's blog. Yesterday I met a mom from my new PEPS group at Greenlake for a nice walk with the babies. Unfortunately, I should have paid a little more attention to the clouds since it started raining cats and dogs about halfway around the lake. There was also thunder and lightning, and then I started having horrible feelings that one of the trees around us was going to get struck by lightning. I had no idea I was going to be endangering my 8 week olds life when I walked out the door to go to Greenlake. Then, I heard a loud noise coming from the North......and all of a sudden it started hailing. This hail was like pebbles coming down on us.......it actually hurt. Luckily our babies were covered up, neither one of them woke up. Eventually we got to our car unscathed (except for red knuckles from the hail). Besides all of the obviously unpleasant weather, I had a great time with my new friend from PEPS, so we decided that we would try to do it again next week. I'm just going to do a better job checking the weather this time!