Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Catching Up

My hope in this blog is to post the most up-to-date news and pictures of Banner for family and friends. So far, I've been about a month behind. These pics will catch us up and hopefully my next entry will be Easter pictures...next week and not in June. So month 2 to 3 of Banner's life has also caught us up on something very precious and sweet...an old friend...sleep. She has answered our prayers in so many ways, but as much as we prayed for her to be healthy, we probably prayed as much for her to be a sleeper. The 10 to 12 hours of sleep that have become the norm for her are nothing short of God's grace on us. We feel like normal functioning citizens of society and we are kinder and more pleasant than we have been for a while.
She loves her sleep!

She loves her Grammy..

She loves her friends...

She loves basking in the sun...

She wasn't sure what she thought of St. Patty's Day...






She loves her milk...

She loves going on walks with Dad...

and the dogs...

And we're caught up. Have a great Easter!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Settling Into Her New Home


Banner is acclimating to her new home quite well. As new parents we seem to go back and forth between this feeling so natural, like she is just an extension of ourselves, and feeling like we have no clue what we are doing. I feel like a little bit of both is good. I've been reading some books (mostly during feeding times) that are supposed to guide new parents. The first one I read was "Baby Wise". I read it in about two days and was trying to figure out when we could start implementing some of their practices. The next day I went to the Pediatrician and he asked if I had read the book. I was proud to tell him I had just finished reading it, feeling like an equipped mother. "Oh," he said, "I was going to suggest that you not read that book." Soooo, back to square one. I asked him if there were any books he suggests and he said "What to Expect the First Year." I've been reading this book and it has a shocking lack of advice. It seems that its only purpose is to give you broad parameters of what your child might experience over a range of time. It guess our role as parents is not to force our child's ways to fit our ways or to find out how to gently mold her into the child of our dreams, rather to watch her grow and learn, don't let her starve, keep her head from falling off when we pick her up and make sure her poop is the right color. I feel like much more of a spectator at this point. I know some day we will have to discipline and play a large role in molding her character, but for now, I love learning a little bit more every day all the little things that the Lord built into this little girl. Like how she always touches her face with the back of her hands and how sheopens her eyes really wide when she hears a new loud sound. Every day its something new. I can't wait for tomorrow.