Ummm, she still likes being in the Ergo, boy am I glad that I have this carrier! (Thanks family!) I have been trying to get her to sleep in her crib for her naps but she seems to sleep most soundly if she is in there. But a reassuring talk with Christy this week helped me be okay with this situation. I love this girl! She has brought us so much joy it is more than I imagined it would be! I am very happy to hold her and enjoy every second.

We have had some crazy weather this week...Thursday it got all the way up to 75 so I trekked out to a field near our house where some students were playing flag football and we watched the game and helped keep stats! She seemed to enjoy being outside, she kicked her legs, smiled and just looked around for quite a while.
I just had to include another one of her with her glasses on! She doesn't have the coordination to pull them off yet so we have been throwing them on her a lot lately and watching her just try to look through them. :)

My busy husband

Lately, the blog has been consumed by Kira...not that that is a bad thing, but there are other things going on. Tom has been enjoying his new position at work, the only problem is, he works a full day at the office, comes home and, because he has two jobs right now, often has meetings and work at night as well. Last night was a perfect example of this...he worked all day, came home, made dinner for an event, and ended up dealing with an issue until late last night. Just to give you an idea, when I got up out of bed at midnight to feed Kira, he had just walked in the door. We knew going into this that it would be a difficult year but we made that commitment knowing that it would only be like this for a year.

That is why I encourage him, when he gets a chance, to get away. Surfing is the only outlet for him right now, where no one can reach him with a problem or issue by phone. He can release stress and enjoy himself and come back refreshed.

Monday, he was fortunate enough to have a day off and a friend snapped these pics of him. I believe the water temp is in the fifties right now so it would be insane to try to surf without a wetsuit.

When I come to the shore with Tom to spend time with him and watch him surf, he always asks me, "how was the spray?" When a surfer does a cutback, the larger the spray, the more impressive the move. You can see he has "spray" in this pic!
This picture is a perfect example of what Tom would call "getting tubed." It is when the wave curls over your body while you are surfing through it.
Coming out of the tube....

More spray on a cutback.

Nice right? Make you want to take up surfing? I have to say, Tom is very focused when he has a hobby, and he is a very good surfer.
I love the beach, but mostly the ocean. Watching the waves roll up onto the shore is a constant reminder to me of God's power and strength in creation. The ocean is vast and strong. We are small and weak in comparison and when I look at its vast expanse, there is no denying God's existence. Thinking of the ocean always gives me encouragement knowing how great and mighty God is to have created everything on the earth.

3 generations

another pic from hanging out with the fam. sunday...

Children are a blessing

Children truly are a gift and a blessing from God! These two pictures were taken with my phone so they are a little blurry since she is a little wiggler :)

This first picture, I took one morning this week when I was really tired and feeling a little down. I was holding Kira early in the morning and I looked down at her and she smiled so big back up at me. It made me realize I needed to be grateful for her instead of complaining in my heart over my lack of sleep. Time goes by so fast, I really felt at that moment the importance of enjoying this special time I have with her, and the blessing of being able to be at home with her and watch her grow every day.

Today, after church, I took Kira over to my mom and dad's house while I waited for choir to start. My mom was playing patty cake with her and she was smiling so big, I managed to get one shot with my phone.

Amy also stopped by with her kids as a last minute decision and it was so nice to see her, even if it was only for a little bit. I am so blessed to have such a great family who loves each other!

Tom's mom took this picture of Kira last week. Who do you think she looks more like, me or Tom?

She slept pretty good last night by the way, going to bed at 7PM and getting up at 7AM (she woke up at 12AM and 4AM to feed of course but much better than she had been doing).

Sleep is a beautiful thing

Ahh, sleep is a blessed thing. This has been an interesting week to say the least. Kira was sleeping so nicely for a while now. Operative word was. One night this week, I got up to feed her for her 3AM feed and I was just patting her back and rocking her back to sleep when the fire alarm went off. Everyone, including me and little Kira, had to evacuate the building. It was 3:15AM and we ended up standing outside in the cold until 4AM until they finally allowed us back into the building. Needless to say, that was the start of our troubles with her sleeping because I think this messed her up a little. No more 2 hour naps 3 times a day.

After that happened, she switched to 40 min. cat naps and would wake up unhappy and still tired but would not fall back asleep. I was at my wits end trying to figure out how to help her sleep more since I knew she was tired. Finally last night, it all came to a head. We had another day of her hardly sleeping (taking very short naps during the day and waking up cranky) yesterday and I had to cart her around to church and a family party last night. The party was slated to start at 6:30PM and many family members were coming to see her. Unfortunately for everyone that came, Kira was not cooperating and obviously tired and overstimulated. So I put her in the Ergo and walked around the block a few times while she fussed a little.

She fell asleep at 6:30PM right when everyone started arriving and stayed asleep the whole time. She slept until 6:30AM this morning, waking up a few times to feed but falling right back asleep as soon as she was full. Oh well. I felt kind of bad everyone came to see her and she slept the whole time but probably that time of night is not the best time for such a little baby. I did some research on the web and it seems that the average amount of sleep a 2 month old baby sleeps is 16 hours! Today I am keeping a sleep log to see how long she is awake, when she gets tired, how long she sleeps so I can see if by understanding her sleep cycles will help me head off potential problems in the future.

Tummy time and "the swing"

A friend from church gave us this swing on Sunday. This is Kira sitting in it before I got batteries for it.

After...

We have been trying to give Kira some "tummy time" but she always complains when she is laying on her belly. Last night, Tom decided to give her tummy time on his belly!