A royal mess

It is so embarrassing to have to write about this, but we know it will make many of you laugh, so why not bring a little laughter to everyone's day :) I think this happens to even the best of parents, so I don't worry too much about our ineptitude; this is after all our first time through this parenting thing.

Aaron and I have laughed since becoming parents about how openly we talk about Alyssa's bodily functions. For two people whose stomachs turn with foul smells and gross things, this is quite a change. And we have no problem telling others about her bodily functions either, so here it goes (for the weak of stomach, stop reading now!).

Alyssa is not a baby who poops every day. When she was younger (you know, a couple weeks old as opposed to a few months), she pooped every few days, and we'd be soooooo excited when she did because that meant we didn't have to give her pear juice (which works as a laxative). We did give it to her once and vowed after doing so to never do it again! As of late, she's been becoming a bit more regular, usually going every other day. So, I knew yesterday would be the day. Between Alyssa going to day care and Aaron being away last weekend, I also knew it had been quite a while since Aaron had changed a poopy diaper, so I kept whispering to Alyssa all day long "Wait to poop until your Daddy gets home." She tried really hard to listen to me, but at 4:05 she couldn't wait anymore, and out it came. I thought to myself, "Sure, you couldn't wait 10 more minutes til your Daddy got home." So, off we went back to her bedroom, to start changing the diaper. When I took off her pants and opened her diaper, I thought it wasn't too bad, but then I happened to look at her back. I swear there was more poop on her back than in her diaper! Her poor onesie was just oozing with it-

I did the best I could to get that onesie off her without getting poop all over, but no luck...it was everywhere...on her arms, on my sweatshirt, and I think she even ended up with some in her hair! So it was straight into the bathtub! Aaron of course came home to a happy baby, splashing around in her baby tub (which she loves by the way!). I did have him change the changing pad cover, but he missed the worst of it yet again. Alyssa was just laughing the whole time, probably thinking "ha ha, I got you mom!" We've been trying to figure out if I didn't have the diaper on tight enough or what but it was a royal mess to say the least! Good thing she's so cute otherwise. Someday when Alyssa is older, she'll be so embarrassed that I wrote about this, but I thought I'd try to make everyone laugh at least once.

So yesterday I dealt with a stinky mess while Aaron dealt with a white mess outside. We got about 7 or 8 inches of snow yesterday, and most of it came during the afternoon, probably snowed at the rate of an inch an hour, but it's over now, and I got the last of it up this morning so the sun can melt what's left on the sidewalk and driveway.

That's it from her in Minnesota. I'll try to post some new photos and video soon, and I'll be posting a link soon to vote for Alyssa. We entered her in the Star Tribune's (Minneapolis newspaper) Cutest Baby contest. There are 2000 babies, so I'm not sure how they'll ever decide on a winner, but we thought we'd throw Alyssa's smiling face into the mix, so we'll need you to vote when the time comes...stay tuned for more details. Hugs to every one!

And we're rolling

She did it! Alyssa rolled over! We were expecting her to go from her back to her tummy before she rolled from her tummy to her back, but she tricked us; Alyssa rolled over yesterday (February 13) from her tummy onto her back. This is the easier way to roll, but because she spends so much time on her back, we thought she'd go the other direction first. Since then, she's rolled three more times, and she's starting to get a look of accomplishment on her face after rolling, like "Hey! Look what I did!" I have a feeling that tummy time is going to get a lot shorter now that she's figured out how to get off her tummy on her own. She's really close to rolling from her back to her tummy as well, she gets about 3/4 of the way over and then tips back on to her back. I don't think it will be too much longer before we have a roller! I actually caught her first "roll" on video; she had been talking up a storm, so I pulled out the camcorder to record her talking and ended up catching something else. Kind of cool to say the least. You can check it out below!

Alyssa has had a cold for most of the last week. About a week ago, she woke up twice over night, and we ended up (against our better judgment!) having to have her sleep propped up against us in bed that night, and then there was one other night where she just couldn't fall into a deep sleep. The next two mornings we were dragging a little bit, but we said a little prayer of thankfulness since that is not our normal state of being. Alyssa actually likes the blue bulb (aka "the snot sucker") that cleans her nose out, she even giggles sometime. We could only be so lucky for her to continue to like it!

Alyssa is now a little over three months old and she continues to grow like crazy. We can't believe how big she's getting. Aaron didn't realize how big she was until I had pictures of her with the other babies from our Mom & Baby class. In his words, some of the other babies look tiny compared to her. She is getting pretty big, we estimate about 16 pounds; she's filling out her sixth month clothes really well in both length and girth. We're trying to make sure she wears everything at least once before she outgrows it. We just boxed up a laundry basket full of clothes that she no longer fits into.

Alyssa continues to do well at day care; I think she enjoys being around the other kids. You can tell she's getting used to watching others from being there. When we were trying to take a picture of all the babies together at class the other day, she was trying to hold the one other little girl's hand - too cute! And Alyssa now watches Roni when they're both on the same level. She's not reaching out to touch him just yet, and he's not really getting close enough for her to do that, but she definitely knows he's around.

Probably our best news from the past two weeks is that I no longer have to go to San Antonio. After talking with my advisors, they decided that it wasn't necessary and that I had enough data to complete my dissertation. I had to promise at some point to add on this additional component, but it's not necessary for me to complete my Ph.D. - yipee! So now I can get to work on data analysis (as soon as I finish the article I'm writing).

Aaron & I are headed to see Annie downtown this afternoon while Grandma & Grandpa Menke babysit Alyssa. We're excited to go on a "date", but I'm sure we'll be ready to get home and see the real love of our life. And we're all looking forward to next weekend for different reasons...Aaron because he gets to go snowmobiling over in Cable, WI and Alyssa and I because Nana is coming to visit! We're all sure to have a terrific weekend. We hope that all of you have a love-filled Valentine's Day and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

It's February 1 and we here in Minnesota are waiting for two events- the Super Bowl this evening and to hear from the mouth of Punxsatawney Phil that spring is right around the corner. Today is absolutely gorgeous, sunny and warm, so very different from the last time we wrote a post. It's a whopping 35 degrees and we're loving it. We haven't been this warm since November 6, which happened to be the day we went into the hospital to be induced. So it's been almost 3 months since we were this warm. We're planning on taking a walk this afternoon to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine; we're hoping that the warmer temperatures will have melted some of the snow pack on the roads to make pushing the stroller more manageable!

It's been a busy couple of weeks since we last wrote. Alyssa started Day Care and I went back to school. Alyssa is doing great at day care, I think she enjoys being around the other kids. Aaron drops her off in the mornings and picks her up most afternoons. He says that all of the kids love her (what's not to love?!); I guess when she arrives in the morning, they swarm her, wanting to say hello, check out what she's wearing, and get her to smile. The day care provider does a great job of keeping track when she ate, napped, and changed her diaper. She also writes us a little note each day to tell us what she did; we've been keeping them all because they're kind of fun. This was her comment from one day last week:
Alyssa loved group time. We all get on the floor and sing songs and clap and read a story. Today she joined us. She smiled the whole time. She did great with tummy time and was also a great eater!!

Aaron and I are learning just how quickly an evening goes though on the days she goes to day care. By the time we get her home, play with her, give her a bath, eat dinner, she naps, and we feed her, it's time for Alyssa to go to bed.

I'm finding the balance between work and Alyssa a nice change. I'm really enjoying being back at school and getting back into my research. Monday and Wednesdays I focus primarily on preparing myself to teach and teaching, and Tuesdays and Saturdays I work on my dissertation. I've actually made a little (very little but it's something) progress in the analysis. Right now I'm preparing the paperwork to possibly travel back to San Antonio again in May to collect some more data. We're not quite sure how this is going to work with Alyssa yet, but we're working on it.

As I said, Alyssa is enjoying day care. She's become so much more aware of what's going on around her. At our Mom and Baby class, she's starting to look at the other babies, and when we were at the stores yesterday and today, you could see her checking out all the colors and shapes. She's found her hands in the past few weeks; she likes to look at her fists and suck on both hands. She's got chapped skin on both hands on the area around her pointer finger and thumb from so much sucking; I think at times she'd put her whole fist in her mouth if it would fit! Since she's found her hands she's begun to reach for more things, mostly the little toys that hang on her activity mat and bouncer seat. She doesn't have the best aim, but she's getting there. She'll even pull on some of them enough to get them to make noise.

It's amazing how quickly she changes. Sometime in the past week she's gotten so much stronger and is really holding her head up while she's on her stomach; she's pushing herself up while on her stomach also. This is a pretty big step for our little one. I think the next milestone will be rolling over. She's almost there, she's definitely rolling onto her side, but hasn't quite made it over yet. Yesterday I helped her roll over onto her tummy, and she immediately rolled back on to her back, but I think that might have been a fluke. Maybe by the next time we write a post, she'll be rolling. She is definitely squirming though. We'll put her in her crib at night with her head by the monitor, and in the morning her head is at the other end of the crib and her feet are by the monitor - silly little girl! Good thing she's in a crib.

I think Alyssa is becoming a Daddy's girl. She recognizes him immediately when he comes home from work, even stopping from eating to give him a smile. She really likes bathtime with daddy and dancing with him. We've included a video of her laughing while dancing wtih Aaron and of her getting a "facial" from me. These are her two favorite activities for the moment. We hope you enjoy the photos and videos and we'll update you again soon on Alyssa's newest accomplishments. Thanks for humoring us and letting us share all about our little one. We look forward to hearing from you soon!