5 months today

 

I'm watching Clover sleep while I am typing this entry.  She changes so much each day.  In the last week, she started really digging baby food.  She also is drinking more and more and seems to be having a growth spurt...suddenly she can fit into many of her 6 month clothes...just in time for spring.  She has started holding out her arms to be picked up, rolling completely over and sometimes more than one complete roll at a time.  She loves her playpen and has started gathering her toys around her while on her stomach and holding herself up with her arms.  She will probably start crawling soon.  I have also found that she will fall asleep with her arms in the air and sleep like that without letting them fall down.  Grandpa King had his 68th birthday this week and we went to celebrate at the King house...ham and bean soup and chocolate cake.  Clover had milk and got to play with grandma for hours.  She fell alseep immediately when we got home and slept for 11 hours.

Happy Valentine's Day 2010

This is one of Clover's pictures she had taken last week.  She has changed a lot in this last week.  She is holding her head up much easier.  She had her 4 month doctor's appointment and had more vaccinations.  She was so good and didn't fuss a bit. She weighed 11 lbs 1oz and was 24.5 inches long.  Yesterday, we were watching and listening to an opera at home and she started "singing".  She was really holding notes diliberately and had a heart felt expression on her face.  Today, while we are having our Valentine's feast of ribeye and lobster,  Clover is going to have her first solid foods of rice cereal and possibly a vegetable...of course, pictures will follow:)  For Valentines day, she is getting a lamaze cloth book and Sophie the Giraffe. a really nice teething toy that is made out of natural rubber.

Happy 2010

I can't believe it is already February.  Clover is now 4 months old and learning lots of new things.  She has been laughing up a storm and has started holding a small bottle.  She is more comfortable laying on the floor than being held and is holding up her neck for longer periods of time.  Her dad got her a pack n play for Christmas and she has started to enjoy spending a little time in it everyday, playing or looking at one of her cloth books.  She has also started making a funny face, with her nose scrunched up and a gummy smile.  I hope to get a good pic of that to post before she stops doing it.  She likes hearing herself make singing noises. She likes the attention she gets when she does it. Here are a few pics from January.

Baby's First Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas, with Clover being the center of our joy.  She developed a lot over the holidays. She is humming, grabbing, holding, and trying really hard to talk and sing.  She is holding her head up very good, and doesn't liked to be craddled so much.  She has let out a few giggly sounds and is just on the verge of a full blown laugh. Her smiles are getting bigger and longer.  She loves all the toys she got for Christmas. Her are a few pics of our first Christmas with Clover.

Christmas gifts from Santa

 

Daddy helping Clover with her new ball!

This ball is great for little fingers to hold.

This is her slumber bear.  It makes sounds like she is in the womb and has a little blanket that captures her mother's scent.  She loves the blanket.

Here is her teething rabbit.  It is really easy for her to hold and cuddle.

with her PaPa

in her bassinet while mommy bakes

playing peekaboo

in her new dress

Our precious Autumn Clover.

Just a few days old

Here is Clover at just a few days old when we brought her home from the hospital.

Clover got to see the REAL Santa today.

Today, Clover and I went to Bridge Street with Grandma to do a little shopping and we ran into the real Santa.  He was so lovely. He held Clover and she loved his beard...you can see that she is touching it in this picture. His robe is so beautiful and he was so good with Clover.  He has to be the real thing.  We also went in to GYMBOREE and Clover loved looking at the clothes. We got her that hat she is wearing and she didn't want to take it off.  She loves wearing hats.

Clover's first visit with Santa

I was hoping for the Santa picture of all Santa pictures.  She was in a really good mood and we took her to Santaland at the mall.  It was the first time we took her out in her stroller and she was having a great time.  While we were in line waiting to see Santa, we saw a price list of the different packages and sample pictures.  In the sample picture, this santa had a great big warm smile that made me want to sit in his lap....the girl in his lap was so giddy and happy.  We were asked to order the package before seeing the pictures and if we didn't want them, we didn't have to get them.  We got up there and Clover was in very good mood. After one picture, the photographer's camera froze and it went downhill from there.  They told me to hold her while they rebooted their stuff.  After a few minutes, I was told to give her back to Santa.  When I tried, he snapped at me and told that they were rebooting the system.  I told him they said it was fixed and he told me again in a hick voice (and louder and slower so I would understand) that they were rebooting. Then when he realized they were up and going, he took her.  I think Clover may have gotten a bad vibe from this Santa because after this, she was not happy and didn't really want anything to do with this anymore.  This was the best pose.  And just look at Santa..he looks like he is sitting on a subway train, trying not to make eye contact with anyone.  As unhappy as I was with the ordeal, Johnny seemed pleased that she got to see Santa and we got her first pic, good or bad...that made me feel a lot better about it.  We still had a nice time, getting out with the baby and browsing the stores.  Afterwards, we drove to old Decatur and looked at the decorated houses and the pretty lights.

Clover is 3 months old today!!

Here is grandma with the little one. I can't believe how much she is changing everyday.  She will let us know she was to be sung to by trying to sing herself.  She is sometimes amazed by weird things.  Like last night she woke up in the middle of the night.  I had the tv on while I was on the computer.  I went to go get her and brought her out in the living room.  An infomercial was on and everytime a lady with long hair was on the screen, she would babble at her.  I know, I know, she should not be watching tv.

It looks like we have a big week coming up.  Her cousin, Fox is having a birthday party.  I hope we are able to make it down to Montgomery for it. She had lots of fun with everyone over Thanksgiving.  We also need to find Santa, so I can tell him what she wants for Christmas.  We had a little holiday gathering in Decatur, at my house this past weekend and she slept most of the time.  We will be posting pics from that as soon as we can gather them and see what we have.  My good friends from high school, Alyson and Kim came by for a bit.  I had not seen Kim in 20 years and I still didnt get a chance to talk to her because my dad hogged her up :).   We hope to spend more time with them soon.

Special pictures

We were lucky enough to have visitors come and go to keep us company when Clover first came home...and they still come:)  Left is Uncle Sean and to the right is my friend Liz.  They are both going to teach Clover about the Beatles and their music.

Here is Autumn Clover in her little pooh bear towel.  She was swimming in it when she first used it.  I had to put it in the too small box this week.  I wish she would stay small longer.

This is a pic from Clover's first "real" bath after her umbilical cord came off.  She is loving the feel and taste of water.  .

Here is a pic of my first outting after the baby was born.  We went to Conners Steakhouse at Bridge Street while grandma and grandpa babysat.  We celebrated my 40th birthday.  I gained 30 lbs of water while in the hospital and it took more than 3 weeks to get that off.  It was so hard just walking around, but that night it wasn't so bad. This picture was taken with my new camera that Johnny got for me before the baby was born. It is the new Samsung DualView that takes HD video and has a touchscreen on both sides of the camera so you can see yourself when you take pics of yourself...like this one.

2 month check up

Clover was 10 weeks old this week. She had her 2 month doctor's appt yesterday and weighed 10.5 lbs. She has really gained a lot since we brought her home. I remember being worried that she would never gain the weight back that she initally lost when she came home. She was born at 7lbs 10oz and her first visit to the pediatrician's office she weighed 6lbs 4oz. She was given her 2 mo vaccines and it killed me to see her get her shots. I remembered when I was little, going with my older brother, Sean, to get vaccines for school. I never cried when I got my shots, but I cried when he got his. He would say, "why are YOU crying, I'm the one getting the shot!". I would say, "because I love you!"...anyway, she had her shots, and then came the fever that followed. The first time she has been sick. She slept really good last night and I had to wake her up to feed her this morning. After feeding her I put her back to bed, which normally she continues to sleep with me after her early morning feeding, but she had no problem falling right back to sleep. She is such an angel.

Yesterday, we got a video of Clover's first good grasp at her rattle and she concentrated really hard to shake it up and down. We are so happy with her progress. Hopefully, we will post the video sometime.

We had a nice Thanksgiving with her father's family last week in Montgomery. She got to meet almost all of her family and enjoyed all the extra special attention from everyone. She was wired from all of the stimulation. I was warn out from the drive. I miss her MeMe's pumpkin pie. I put up our Christmas tree on Black Friday and she loved looking at the lights. Her grandma King got her a sweet Lenox Pooh "Baby's First Christmas Ornament" that is now hanging on the tree.

Since I haven't been blogging until recently, I will be posting older pics as I have time. Here is a link to a video of her a few days after we brought her home http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3OjHVKY7EA

2 month portraits

Today Clover got her first portraits (besides the newborn pic at the hospital) taken. She was really good. We were there for 2 and half hours and we had to take a break so I could feed her. She took a nap while I picked out the pictures I wanted to order and we were on our way. I was amazed at how well she held up her head in some of the shots. She is so precious to us and I am so happy to have pictures to remember these sweet moments.