Talking

Peyton has become quite vocal lately. She has been “talking” to us for awhile, but in the past week or so, she has really found her voice! She can carry a conversation for quite awhile. The two of us will go back and forth, speaking “Peyton”, for a minute. She also enjoys talking to the animals on her mobile, although she usually does more squealing at them than talking. She has a few different noises that she makes.

- Squealing – this is usually reserved for extreme happiness or excitement although it has also been used to get our attention when we aren’t paying attention to her (she is training us already!)

- Grunting/growling – she usually does this when she is starting to get fussy; it’s almost like she is warning us that if we don’t do something, then she is going to start crying

- Talking – this can sound like a few different things, it usually sounds like a vibration/gurgling in the back of her throat, or a “guhhh” sound

It’s hard to describe; so, here is a link to her talking:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh9n6Eqp1Wc

Austinite

Peyton is a true Austinite!

Do you recognize this? A true Austinite would!

Bumbo Chair

She looks so grown up!

Peyton's First Easter

Grabbing

It is so fun to see how much Peyton is changing from day to day! In the past few days, she has really begun to start grabbing things on purpose! I’ve been trying to get her to do this for weeks, but she wasn’t interested. Well, over the past few days, she has really picked it up! She does it the most in her bouncy chair below. She reaches for the orange monkey and will push and pull him and also the bird. It’s so fun to see the concentration in her eyes when she’s doing it! She also tries to lean forward while she’s doing this (she is going to have rock hard abs under that chunky belly!), almost like she wants to get as close as possible!

The other day, Peyton was in her car seat, and I put a toy in her lap thinking she may find a way to play with it. Sure enough, she did! She picked it up and even brought it to her mouth! I was so proud :) I’m sure that very soon I will wish she hadn’t developed this skill when she starts putting all things in her mouth, but for now, I am one proud momma!

Daddy's Girl

Peyton is quite the little Daddy’s girl. It is so sweet to see how she lights up when she sees Matt. She almost always has a huge, open mouth grin for him and will follow him around the room with her eyes. As she has become more vocal lately, she will squeal at him when he stops paying attention to her…she doesn’t like to be ignored! Matt has played his guitar for her a few times, and Peyton just stares and smiles at him! I definitely think we have a Daddy’s girl on our hands!

Yummmm

My fingers sure are tasty! They are so yummy that I can't seem to keep them out of my mouth. My mom and dad keep telling me to stop because sometimes I gag myself (I even accidentally made myself spit up once), but I don't listen to them. After all, they aren't the boss of me!

3 Months!

I'm 3 months old!!!

Wiggler

Peyton is quite the wiggler. When we put her in the middle of her crib, we would always find her right up against the close side of her crib. She would wiggle her way from the middle to the side. So, we started putting her up against the far side of the crib, and she would still work her way to the close side. Well, one morning I was surprised to find her like this...

She had managed to turn herself 90 degrees! Not an easy feat when you're swaddled. I thought this was pretty funny and impressive, until a couple days later when I found her flipped 180 degrees facing the complete opposite way!! I didn't get a picture because it was in the middle of the night, and (1) I didn't have a camera handy (2) I didn't want to wake her up anymore than necessary with the flash (3) I honestly didn't consider it until later because I was just so shocked to see her turned around!

Just Because

I love this outfit (thanks Mackenzie!)

Back to Work

Today was my first day back at work since Peyton was born. I have been dreading this day for the past 12 weeks because it would mean that I wouldn't be at home with my baby. I have become more attached to Peyton than I could have ever imagined (it really is true what they say about a mother's/parent's love), but I also knew in my head that I wanted to continue to work in some capacity because Peyton isn't going to be a baby for forever, and I am sure I will be happy that I continued my career 10 years from now. So, back to work I went this morning.

I woke up around 6:15 to get ready for the day before I had to wake Peyton up at 7. I fed Peyton and we played for about 45 minutes (she was in such a good mood; it was a really sweet time together).

Lauren (our sitter for the day) came over while we were hanging out, but I stayed to put Peyton down for her first nap of the day a little before 8. I quickly finished getting ready and headed off to work. I wasn't as sad leaving the house as I thought I would be because Peyton was sleeping when I left, and it wasn't like I was missing anything at that exact moment. She also seemed to really like Lauren (she kept smiling at her), which made me feel better. I would have been crushed if Peyton seemed scared of Lauren or cried around her.

When I got to work, I was reminded of how blessed I am to have some of the best coworkers! They had decorated my cube to welcome me back!!

It made me feel so loved and made the day that much better :) I caught up with my boss a little later and was reminded again of how blessed I am to have such an awesome boss that understands how difficult it is to return to work after having a baby. He has three kids and his wife worked after the first two.

Since I work so close to home (about 10 minutes), I went home during lunch to see my baby girl! I got there in time to feed Peyton the last half of her bottle and play with her for about 30 minutes before I had to go back to work. It was so relieving when she smiled at me that first time after I returned home. I know it's silly, but I had this fear that she wouldn't remember me or would be mad at me for leaving her. She gave me lots of smiles and reassured me that she still knows and loves me :)

The afternoon was a little harder, but I had a lot to do; so, the time went by quickly. Matt called at 4 to let me know he was home already! That made me feel so much better to know that Peyton had her daddy at home. I left work around 5:15 and was home by 5:30. As I pulled into the garage, the door opened and Matt and Peyton were there waiting for me...such a wonderful sight!! She rewarded me with a few more smiles to reassure me that yes, she still remembers me and loves me :) I fed her, we played, gave her a bath and put her to bed by 7:45. It was a great 2 hr and 45 minutes; Peyton was super happy and in such a great mood.

Overall, it was a much better first day back at work than I had imagined. Thank you God for reassuring me that this is what I should be doing and that we, as a family, will be more than okay!

More Bubbles!

I bet you can't blow this many bubbles!

Prim and Proper

This may be my most favorite picture of Peyton so far! Look how prim and proper she looks sitting up so straight with her little hands crossed! (Just ignore the little drool coming down her chin.)

Rolling Over!

Peyton rolled over today for the first time!!! She was on her tummy doing tummy time, and I was looking down at my phone. When I looked up, she was on her back. I was momentarily confused as to how she got that way (we'll chalk that up to the lack of sleep last night), and then I realized she must have rolled over! I wanted to be sure that I hadn't put her on her tummy at an awkward angle (with one arm more underneath her than the other that would make her unbalanced or leaning to one side); so, I put her back on her tummy and made sure she was nice and balanced. Lo and behold, she rolled over again! I was so excited; I immediately called Matt to brag. Then I put her back on her tummy to see if it was a fluke....nope! She rolled over a third time! I was so proud :) She went down for a nap soon after, and when she woke back up, what do you think I did? That's right, I checked to make sure she could still do it :) She rolled over two more times! I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I didn't get any of these on video! After her next nap, I tried to get her to roll over again, but she wasn't having it. Sadly, she wouldn't roll over for Matt when he got home either. I'll post video as soon as I can get her to do it again, but until then, here are some pictures!

On her tummy

Starting to roll onto her side

On her back!

Sleep?

So, I knew I shouldn't have posted about Peyton sleeping 8 and 9 hours a few weeks back...I was asking for trouble. Peyton did really well for about a week and a half averaging about 7 hrs of sleep at night (for her "long" stretch). Well, for the past week and a half, she is down to 5.5 hrs :( I don't know what happened! We are doing the exact same thing as we were before. She even has digressed a couple of nights and woken up twice during the night! At first I thought it was because she was breaking out of her swaddle; so, we started trying a new swaddle. Well, she doesn't break out of this one as frequently, but last night she woke up twice again! Now, I am hoping it is a growth spurt and that it will only be a couple of nights like this. I'm really hoping she is just getting all of this out of her system before I go back to work on Friday because I'm not sure how well I will function at work if she wakes up twice in the night! I have been tracking her feeding and sleeping times for the past few weeks and finally got around to entering it all into Excel today (yep, I'm an accountant/nerd). It seems like she sleeps for longer stretches at night when she hasn't napped as well that day, or at least hasn't taken a long nap in the afternoon. This seems contrary to what I read in all the books...they all say that the more sleep babies get during the day, the better they sleep at night. This does not seem to be the case in our household! I guess we will see how she does the rest of this week with her naps!