Pretty, Pretty Princess

Tabitha is daddy's princess. He loves going around and calling her "Pretty, Pretty Princess". It's cute, and even cuter when she dresses in her pretty, pretty princess nightgown. My mom and I found this and had to get a couple them for Miss Tabitha. As we have learned, unless you are a master at putting clothes on a baby, it can be torturous to get them on, but once on they are cute!

Class

In August, Tabitha and I began a 6-week "New Mama's" class. Myself and seven other wonderful ladies participated. We learned about sleeping, going back to work, and many other pertinent subjects. It gave us time to get out of the house, get to know other new moms and learn about what our baby is doing. As I told the instructor at on the last day of class, it was the best money I've ever spent. All of us plan on keeping in touch and getting together periodically. It's going to be a great support group!

Here's a picture of the babies from the last day of class.

Tabitha's in the middle with the stripped dress on.

State Park #3

On Saturday, despite being a bit cool, we took a trip to Tabitha's 3rd state park...William T. O'Brien state park. She loved being put in the Baby Bjorn (well, not at first, but eventually she came to like it), and we hiked several miles. The leaves were changing colors and it made for a great morning.

Photography by Daddy! He's getting really good at pictures!

Flailing

Tabitha has a thing with flailing (although I know that it's true in all babies). It's rather amusing and most of the time she scares herself with it. When she was just a little tyke, when you would slowly put her down in her crib she would wave her arms outright like she was falling. It was her natural instinct kicking in that we were going to drop her (no...we didn't either).

Now, as she gotten older her flailing has become more under control, but now she once in awhile flails when she has scared herself.

We shouldn't laugh, but it is rather amusing to watch.

Not a picture of the flail, but too cute to resist!

A productive day

Before Tabitha I used to define a productive day as one that included laundry, dishes, cleaning the house, pulling weeds, baking, cooking, cleaning the garage, etc, etc, etc. I was a little naive in thinking that once she came that I could keep up that level of productivity. Haha! I figured that she would sleep a lot (in her crib nonetheless) and that I would be able to get so much done.


The past 7.5 weeks I have learned a lot about raising a baby--and the biggest lesson--I will not be as productive as I once was. Perhaps this is because when there comes the opportunity to hold your baby--you do, and there comes the opportunity to go on a walk with your baby--you do, and when your baby needs something--you take care of it. A productive day for me now includes making sure Tabitha gets fed when she needs it, holding her, taking her on a 4 mile walk, going to our new mammas class, hanging out with grandma, and reading lots of books. I do manage to get some of my old stuff done...however, not as much as I once did. Oh well....it's about spending time with her and if the house doesn't get vacuumed this second or those weeds don't get pulled for a few weeks then so be. It's much better to spend the time with Tabitha as much as possible!

Spending time on a walk with Tabitha. Both mommy and daddy were able to go that day (daddy's taking the pic).

Learning

It's amazing how much babies learn. I would have to think that they probably learn more in the first year of their life than at any other time. From large motor skills to fine motor skills to talking, smiling, and just being cute! It's been fun to watch Tabitha starting to learn the skills that she will be using the rest of her life. She's got smiling down, and now she's working on focusing on things going on around her.

The other day I layed her in her crib while I folded her laundry and turned on the mobile. Immediately she looked up and began looking at it. Additionally, it also calmed her down. Just that little thing of looking up at the mobile showed me that she is learning and picking things up quickly!

Baptism

This past Sunday, Tabitha was baptized at church. She wore her mommy's dress from her baptism, and looked very beautiful. She only cried once, and not when the cold water hit her head. It was a fabulous day and now she is a part of God's kingdom.