Merry Christmas

Almost 6 month's old! What a fun Christmas present.

5 Months Old

-17.8 lb
-26.5 in long
This past month she:
-Definitely on the plump side of the line
-CANNOT stay awake if she takes a shower with mom or dad
-Talk, talk, talk, talk
-learned to whimper now when she wants something
-really likes to eat solid foods (avocado, bananas, curried potatoes)
-LOVES to drink water out of regular glasses
-Reaching and grabbing everything
-Sitting completing unassisted

Love Photos

Trace got a camera for his birthday- he's a pretty good photographer already!

4 months old

So you know when your friends get pregnant and their blogs and facebook pages change from general life things to only about their children? Well, I've officially reached that point. So you can remove my blog from your reading list if you're not interested, I won't be offended. For the baby followers here are some of my favorite pictures from the last two weeks. I'll post some videos soon too.

Estelle update:
- she started rolling over from her back to her tummy
- she loves adventure like dropping in the air, loud crazy noises, and zooming through the pool
- found her toes
- caught her sucking her thumb a few times but not a habit
- can stand holding onto the table unassisted for quite a while
- falls asleep in the shower with her mom or dad after going to the pool - warms my heart
- several times on our walks when I put her in the carrier she will be wide awake looking around, then I will kiss the top of her head and right then she closes her eyes and goes to sleep. Such a sweet little sleeper. 

Big Splash for Trace's 30th!

Trace turned the big 3-0 on Saturday, October 27th. Unfortunately Trace was scheduled to work at a different office in Kailua that day and I wasn't thinking about dates when I told them to sign me up for every Saturday night at work. But the awesome dad that he is got up that morning with his baby at 6AM then got ready for work leaving at 7:30. He got home a little after 2:30. We went to the pool for a bit then got ready for the ward Halloween party and for me to go to work that evening.

Shortly after I arrived at work there was a tsunami warning due to a 7.7 earthquake in Canada. They put the entire coastline in a red zone, evacuating our apartment. I tried calling Trace but the phones lines were busy so I texted him. He had already heard the tsunami alarms at our place requiring him to wake up his sleeping baby in order to evacuate. He caught a ride with our neighbors to stay at the Moss's apartment (friends in our ward) for the night who live out of the red and yellow zone.

The entire island became a parking lot, water was being sold at $30 a pack, and gas stations went empty and closed down. The waves were schedule to hit on 10/27 at 10:27PM- what a lucky 30th birthday! Fortunately the warning ended a little after midnight and Trace was able to come home to sleep. 

It was a good 30th year as we got to live in Hawaii, visited 5 of the Hawaiian islands, went sailing, learned to surf, lots of sunbathing and snorkeling, celebrated our 3rd anniversary of marriage and 7th anniversary of dating, had a beautiful baby girl, completed the dental residency program in Hawaii, traveled to mainland with an infant for 2 months, and got to start earning actual money as a dentist at two different locations here in Hawaii. Trace you are my very best friend and I'm so grateful I get to spend my life with you. I'm looking forward to many more fun years. 

Happy Halloween

Friday night we went to the Moss's house for a Costume Halloween party. Saturday we went to the ward Halloween party for a bit before I headed off to work for the night. All of the other little girls and babies were cute fairies, princesses, or cuddly animals. Our baby girl was a vampire! Even though she might've looked like a boy for the night, I still think she was a pretty cute vampire. Trace and I were Boo Bees to go along with our milk drinking vampire.

We were trying to get one good photo of the onsie I made for her costume but she couldn't stop wiggling. I like this series as it shows how wiggly and giggly she can get even breaking free of my hold.

On Halloween night we walked down Waikiki. The street gets slammed packed with people in and out of costume. The costumes can be pretty extreme on the Waikiki strip. My favorite of the night was the Ghostbusters van though. Hope you all had a spooky, happy and safe Halloween!

Month 3

Starting to giggle
Loves to suck on fingers
Swatting and grabbing items
Squeals and talks
Kicks and kicks and kicks
Lifting head and looking around during tummy time
Big smiles- double chin when she smiles :)
Loves to go on walks
Doesn't love being in the car seat
Immediately stops crying when put in bath - loves baths and doesn't mind water in face
Went in pool 3 times and loves it- even lays on back in water
Had her first nights without her mom because I went to work- first few nights were hard
Also means she started taking a bottle from dad
Sucker for walking with her head on your shoulder- puts her to sleep all the time
Chosen her own bedtime of 7pm, wakes around 6am - she does rouse to eat during the night
3 naps a day usually 2-3 hours
Can only be awake for about 2 hours (3 hours max) before she's ready to nap again
24" long, about 14 lbs, 16.5" head

2-month old world traveler

2 adults
1 baby
2 carryons
2 personals bags
6 weeks
6 states
3,400 miles driving
5,834 miles flying

House guests

I'm gonna advise to never allow house guests who haven't purchased their return tickets and if you need a place to stay go to my sister Melissa's house because she's a great host. When we came to Reno we figured it would be about a week but then Trace's Hawaii license wouldn't be complete until mid-September and I was still on maternity leave so why leave? Our one week turned into three weeks. Here's a quick re-cap. (THANK YOU David and Melissa, you are awesome and very patient hosts)

David's 33rd Birthday

Pretty awesome ice cream cake to finish off the night. Oreo crust, fudge, ice cream, oreo crust, fudge, ice cream, turtle shell topping

Baby feet!

Baby Estelle turned 2 months old!

Fun smiles and faces in the car

Baby Estelle's first 5 weeks of life in Hawaii were the easiest I could ever imagine. She never cried and slept like a charm. I took her all over the island, prepared and gave two devotionals with meals to our youth group and deep cleaned our apartment. Once we left Hawaii she became a different baby she still slept a lot but most of her awake time was spent rocking, walking, or carrying babycakes in the moby wrap. She wasn't in the best of moods during our travels. Most of her smiles and happy times were only caught by me when she would wake up in the morning and when we were alone. But it kept me walking. I figure it's mother nature's tactic to help me lose the pregnancy weight.

But we did get to see wild horses in Melissa and David's neighborhood several times! Pretty crazy to see a herd of horses walking the streets and be woken in the morning to the neighing of a horse.

We spent a few days at Ken and Tina's before catching a plane home. Thanks so much for the ride to the airport and fort building!