A Spoonfull of Sugar

Sorry for the wait on this new post. It has been a pretty busy couple of days for us.

I left off on the note of Raquel's first appointment. Her appointment went really well besides the fact that her doctor was not a very pleasant person. I am starting to believe that she does not have any kids because if she did she would have probably worded things a little differently than she did. My daughter is not "fat", she is healthy. Maybe if we were feeding our girl cookies and ice cream and candy, but were not. My girl is exclusively breastfed. You should also probably not say to make sure I clean between her "rolls" rather than her creases. To some I may be overreacting on the simple fact that she misused a couple words. However, I don't think calling someone fat has ever been a nice thing to do. So to say that to my princess, to me, it was not very nice. And that is my baby, be nice to my baby.

Good news though, she will have our regular doctor for the rest of her visits, hopefully.

Watching my little girl get her shots was really hard for me. She was perfectly fine. Happy, smiling even. I lay her down on the table and she was just staring straight into my eyes. It was like this for what seemed like forever. I love when she looks into my eyes. She is truly my pride and joy. Her gaze was so beautiful and I couldn't help but to feel bad for what I knew was coming next. And just as I had thought, next thing I knew, her face was scrunched up, turning bright red, and she began to scream. I truly felt like I betrayed her. Yes I know that the shots are necessary and that they are for her own good, but at that moment in time that didn't matter. I wanted her happy. I wanted to see her smiling face again. To my amazement, not even ten seconds later, she stopped crying. My little girl is such a trooper. Wish I could say the same thing about her mom. Yeah, I was still crying as we walked out the door.

Raquel slept for mostly the rest of the day. Which is a normal side effect.

However, for the past couple days she has been pretty fussy and not eating much. Which after reading up on the shots, are also common side effects. I hope my princess starts to feel better soon because I really do not like to see her like this.

A couple days ago we drove down to the beach. Brandon and I walked the pier with Raquel, then headed down to the water, took off our shoes, and walked with the waves at our feet. It was really nice to get out and spend a day just hanging out with my little family. Not to mention the water was a pretty good temperature. I have never paid so close attention to all the different things kids do on the beach. I thought back to my childhood a little, but mostly I thought forward to when Raquel will be old enough to play at the beach. Will she be building sand castles, and motes to protect her castle from the torturous waves? Will she boogy board or body surf?

I know that time goes by so fast, and I would love to see my girl stay little forever. But I also am so curious as to who she is going to become. I'm curious of what her interests are going to be. What she will strive to become. I look forward to seeing her become a toddler, a child, preteen, teen, young adult and then finally an adult. I love my girl with all my heart and I know it is my job to prepare her for that world out there. However, that is not for a long long time and until then I am going to take in these moments and cherish them because I know that I cannot have these years back ever, but I will always have my daughter to share the memories with.
And for that I am forever grateful.

<3

I would also like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! To my beautiful friend, partner in crime and sister, Ashley <3 I love you girl and ant wait to see you again soon! This girl is one of my favorite people. She is funny, energetic and an all around caring person. You will always be my sister Ashley and my favorite person to talk to.

One more thing. 8 1/2 hours until my husbands birthday, so a happy early birthday to you as well! I love you!!

11 Weeks Old

Our little princess is 11 weeks old today. I feel like these past 11 weeks have flown by. So much has happened!

When we brought our little girl home she didn't move much, didn't smile, didn't laugh, I would give her a bath and she would just sit there staring at nothing. She didn't recognize anybody's voice nor would she turn to look at where that noise is coming from. She slept about the same she does now, just more during the day and not at all at night. She was a newborn, and to her daddy and I, she was absolutely perfect. Everything about her made us smile. She didn't have to do anything, she stole our hearts the second we saw her. She was absolutely beautiful. March 18th 2012 Brandon and I went from being a married couple, to a family.

I obtained a whole new love that day. This little person who I had just met, turned my life around the second she joined it, but that is not what I am talking about here. I was not only a wife, but a mother as well. Brandon was not only my husband, but the father of our beautiful baby girl, our pride and joy. The love I gained towards him is a love that will never lessen. It is one that will burn strong forever.

When I found out I was pregnant, Brandon was there with me and I have to admit, I was a bit scared. He was happy for us. His excitement made it very easy for me to be so excited. He was happy and I was thrilled to see him so excited to be a daddy, and oh boy was he excited! He had every reason to be, look where we are today. We have this amazing little girl to call our own, and she has a fabulous daddy that loves her so. A mommy too of course!

Since that day we realized that we had so much more to look forward to. So much more to plan for. We started discussing where we wanted to live, what kind of school we were going to send our girl to, what kind of activities we would like to see her take part in. We were curious who she would look like. Would she have blonde hair like mommy, or brown hair like daddy? Small lips or big lips? Blue eyes or green eyes? Who's personality would she have? But however she may turn out to be, one thing was for sure, she would be our little girl for the rest of our lives and we couldn't be any happier.

The past 2 1/2 months have exceeded my expectations. The love that I have for our girl is impossible to describe in words. The entire time I was pregnant, people would tell me "your life is about to take a big turn" "your life will never be the same" "you have no idea" and I always thought they were being negative (because people usually are) but they were right. I thought I had an idea, I thought I knew the love I would experience. I can now admit that I was wrong. I am glad I was though because it is way better than I expected.

Now 2 1/2 months later we no longer have our newborn, we now have our infant, our baby. She has grown so much, it is unbelievable. Raquel was born at 7.1lbs and has now, 11 weeks later, more than doubled her weight to 14.8lbs. She was born at 18.5 inches and last time she was measured (3 weeks ago) she was 23 inches. She oohs and ahhhs, goos and gahhs. She smiles all the time, and her little giggle is the most adorable thing you could even imagine. The way she recognizes mine and Brandons faces and voices warms my heart. She holds her head up like a champ and farts like a man (haha). She has an incredible number of facial expressions and she likes to go through them all in about 30 seconds. Raquel is mad, now she's happy, now she is sad, now something was funny, now she is surprised, and so on and so on. Brandon likes to say that she is just a big ball of emotions. 

She is our beautiful little ball of sunshine who likes to keep us on our toes. Just wait til she can crawl/walk/run! We are looking forward to everything this little girl has in store for us down the road.

Raquel has her first doctors appointment tomorrow morning.  I am very excited, which I am not sure if I should be considering she will be getting her first set of shots. My poor baby. I am happy to say that both Brandon and I will get to be there. Maybe we will take her out for some ice cream after... ;P Im kidding!! Pick your jaws up off the floor!

So I had promised Gramma Tasker that every month on the 15th I would take a picture of her granddaughter next to her big bear. The 15th of May came and went and I completely forgot. However I got one of her today at 2 1/2 months (11 weeks).



Thank you to everyone who has been keeping up with my posts. Also to the ones who tell me how much they love reading them daily. I realized that this is not only for my enjoyment and yours. Years from now I can show Raquel these posts and she will get to see what she was like as a baby and what mommy and daddy were thinking and how much her brother loves her. So I really hope you all continue to enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy babbling about my princess. Let me know if you have any questions or comments and I can cover them in a following post. THANKS AGAIN!

Just For Fun

Today has been a Raquel and I kinda day. I love spending my days with her even though it does make it very hard to get anything done. I have noticed recently that a lot of moms have their babies on a schedule by the time they are Raquel's age. As in an eat, sleep and nap schedule. We are still working on that night time sleep schedule. I don't know how I could possibly have her on a schedule like that already. It is amazing to me that these other moms do.
So today I have made sure to write down every nap and every feeding, and I will do this for at least a week to see if maybe she is on some type of schedule and I just haven't realized it. So far, this is how last night and today has gone.
11pm (last night) - 12:30am: Sleep
12:30am-1:30am: Eat 
1:30am-11:30am: Sleep (10 HOURS!!!)
11:30-12:45: Eat Play
12:45pm-1:30pm: Sleep
1:30pm-3:15pm: Bath Eat Play
3:15pm- 3:45pm:Sleep
3:45pm-4:00pm: Play
4:00pm-5:30pm: Eat Play
5:30pm-7:10pm: Sleep
Now she is slowly waking up I'll feed her and hopefully now she stays up until somewhere between 9:30-11pm.
Does that sound like a good schedule? Between 13-16 hours of sleep a day?

Time for some cute pictures!!!!

"Think outside the cone"- Koda

"Mom, whats with all the pictures?- Koda

"Mom, whats with Koda's head?- Raquel










PS!! My girls farts are REALLY starting to stink! Haha

Rock-a-Bye Baby

We have all had one of those days where we wake up and have no intentions of leaving the house or even getting out of bed. Today did not start out that way for us, however it has turned into that day. Sitting in bed here looking up yahoo articles while the husband is next to me playing Mario Party, the princess lays on my chest passed out full off that liquid gold and the prince is on the floor with his head stuck in a cone.  LAZY DAY!
(I wish I looked that good on a lazy day!! Heck, I wish I looked that good on any day!!)
---------------------------------------------->

Raquel happens to be the queen of lazy days, then her daddy comes in second. Her sleep patterns have gotten a lot better from when we first brought her home and that has been a huge help to mommy. I am not sure if you all knew what her schedule was like in the beginning. My little princess did not understand that night was night meaning we sleep. To her it was more like, night is night meaning we party! We basically had slumber parties every night and I felt we were always having that competition where we see who can stay up later. I always won. I had no other choice.

Our sleep schedule was like this. Midnight - 7am was wide awake, party time, lets eat every hour. 7am- about 3pm we would sleep. Then the time in between I was awake, and she did what she wanted. It was really hard on not just me but her as well because I tried very hard to get her to be awake during the day and to sleep at night and she had a whole other plan. Our plans were clashing and it was just exhausting.

One night, when Raquel was around 6 weeks, I was done. I couldn't do that schedule anymore. So I gave in and brought our little princess into bed with Brandon and I. Like magic, she fell asleep immediately. The next couple nights I tried to get her to sleep in her room like I usually would but after about 2-3 hours of trying I would give in and, again, she would end up in bed with us. I realized what I had been doing wrong, and I remembered being told that every baby is different and they have different needs. I had been trying too hard to do two things at one time. I was trying to get her to sleep through the night and to sleep by herself. I was exhausting myself, which was causing me to be an unpleasant person, and on top of it all I was exhausting my daughter. I was expecting way to much out of my little girl. So I decided that I would have her sleep with us for a couple weeks, therefor getting her used to sleeping through the night. Then when we have defeated that obstacle, I would work back on getting her to sleep in her room. For three weeks Raquel slept with us in our bed every single night.

At around nine weeks I started working with the crib again. First night I tried, she slept the entire night. From about 1am until around 9am. The full night of sleep felt amazing and was just what I needed. At this point I am still working at easing her back into her crib, where as some nights she will sleep in her crib, others she will stay with us. It just depends on how I think the night is going to go. Happy to say that Raquel has slept in her crib four nights in a row. That is a new record!
This makes me feel really good not just because she is sleeping in her room and sleeping through the night, but also because I feel like I know her. Which I know what you're saying, "you're her mom, you should know her". It isn't quite like that. Yes I know her "I'm hungry" cry as opposed to "I'm wet" or "I'm just mad" cry. This was a decision that I made, as a mom, to benefit her and I, and it worked. And even though that may not make sense, it makes perfect sense to me and it fills me with joy knowing that, in my mind, I made a choice, stuck with it, and it is now showing success.

@ Gramma Tasker.
Koda is doing a little better. He is getting better at walking around with his cone. Still wont go outside with it though and if we force him out he wont go potty. He will just stand there looking sad.
We did not get any chocolate covered strawberries :( We forgot that stand does not take cards so we didn't have cash for them but we did have kabobs and cold stone. YUM!
When we go out to Michigan we should make some home made chocolate covered strawberries and bananas! And you will have to teach me your ways of nanananana bread because, I just can't do it like you :p

Soaking Up the Sun

Today, May 31st, was what I would call, a very productive day.
So what had happened was...... ha just kidding!
It all started out with Brandon and I waking up late for Koda's "special" appointment, of course, as always. My alarm didn't ring. When all else fails blame the alarm. My poor little Koda bear had a big surprise in store for him and he had no idea. So as always he wakes up happy, jumping around and doing what I would compare to the "potty dance". Which is unnecessary because Koda ALWAYS has to go potty. We get up, get ourselves and Raquel ready as fast as possible allowing us little to no time to get to his appointment, however somehow we still make it there on time. Okay 10 minutes late, but who's counting? We drop our little man off, the vet tries to sell us more stuff, and next thing we know we are leaving our little man to get "chopped".

While waiting for our boy to be ready to come home we decide to run some errands on base.. forcefully by Brandon's "people". However, worked out great because we FINALLY got our princess set up with an appointment for her 8 week check-up... at 11 weeks. Ha. Sometimes you just have to love it. So next week, Monday, Raquel will be getting her very first set of shots. My poor girl. I already know that I WILL cry that day. I do not look forward to seeing my little princess in pain. I am supposed to be the one to prevent pain to her in any way possible and instead I am setting her up for it. I know she will be okay but what can I say? I am my moms' daughter, and to anyone who knows my mom, you know what I mean. My mom and I are one in the same when it comes to our emotional side. Love you momma!

After about 5 hours we go to pick our big boy up from the vet. They said he did really well and explained to us what we would have to do for him for the next couple of weeks. The ride home was... different. Koda was no longer this hyperactive, 'in your face' dog. He was calm, tired, chill or in other words... drugged. It was definitely a strange sight. I road in the back with him so he wouldn't get car sick, which he does often as you already know. When we got home we had to put him in the 'cone of shame' (vets orders). HE HATES IT!! He was the saddest I have ever seen him and it broke my heart. My poor little man. I know he will feel better in a few days but for the time being my heart is broken for my boy.

NOW!
On a happy note....
RAQUEL WENT SWIMMING FOR THE FIRST TIME!!

My little princess was such a big girl in the pool today! The weather was perfect, the pool was warm, and we still had some chicken to grill. Should we go swimming?! All signs pointed to... YES! So we bought some baby sun lotion, got our little one all ready, and headed to the pool with our friends Katy and Chaz. Chaz grilled and Raquel, Brandon, Katy and I swam. Raquel seemed to be okay, just okay, with it which is all we could have asked for from her. She got to spend some time with mommy and some time with daddy which was a great treat for Brandon and I getting to spend that special moment with her. Now obviously we couldn't expect much from her on her first trip to this giant tub of water, this foreign object that surrounds her with this weird wet stuff and makes her diaper super heavy, and that is when mommy and daddy's job kicks in to know when enough is enough. Our little one had definitely had enough. That is okay though because then we got to enjoy our chicken and time with friends.

 


BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

Thursday nights by the pier, there is a farmers market type set up where there is a lot of yummy, different kinds of food and all kinds of merchandise stands with a variety of fun things to look at. Raquel likes it because she gets ALL KINDS of attention. Who could pass up such a cute little face?!?! I could just be biased BUT she is the cutest dern thing I have ever seen in my life! If anything this farmers market is just a good excuse for a family night out on the town. Which is always enjoyed, and the time with my husband is much appreciated considering it is never promised. I love my little family more than words can express, but I will never stop trying. These awesome people are my life and I don't even care to wonder where I would be without them.

Daddy Picking Raquel's Nose- She doesn't like that very much.

Check out my friend Katy's blog. It's about a mixture of prepping for an apocalypse, and her everyday life. Somewhat of an inside view into the life of us military wives. :p She is good though, check it out!
www.prepperkat.blogspot.com

Boot Scootin' Boogy

Every now and then my little princess will come to the decision that mommy is not allowed to get anything done. Yesterday she made that decision around, I'd say, 4pm. My little mommas girl had to be, not next to, on momma every second of the day. Which I am mostly okay with. I love the time I get to spend with her, but then again, there was a lot for me to do around the house that I had procrastinated on long enough. However, of course, the time my girl wanted with me towered over the dishes and the laundry on my list of priorities. She isn't going to want me like that FOREVER, so I will cherish every bit of it at this point in her life.

Raquel recently started smiling a lot while she is awake and every now and then she will have the cutest attempt at a laugh I think I have ever seen. Her smile brightens up my days. Anything that is currently on my mind, everything that is wrong becomes right for that moment in time. The innocence of my baby girl, the honesty and love in her smile gets me every time. How this little being altered my life is such a large way, I will never be able to explain, but I will always be thankful for the opportunity I have been given to be her mom.
If I would have told myself 3 years ago that in 3 years I would be married, and have a baby, I would have told myself to get off whatever I am taking. But here I am, happily married with an amazing man, and an unbelievable daughter.
So now to what I really wanted to get to in this post.
LAST NIGHT MY LITTLE PRINCESS SCOOTED!!!
I didn't see it happen or I would have taken a video. I put Raquel in her crib when she fell asleep. About 5 minutes later i hear her fussing, which then turns into a cry. So I go into her room to check on her, and her head is up against the headboard of the crib! She has never moved from her spot before aside from the times she has rolled from belly to back. This little miss scooted! I was so proud. Proud mama! She really is growing up so fast it is unbelievable, and even though I want her to stay little forever, it is so hard not to fill with pride and joy as she continues down these milestones.
                                Start:                                                                           Finish:

I am not sure if you all know this but Raquel started rolling over from tummy to back at 2 WEEKS!! You could only imagine the amazement in mine and Brandon's faces when she appeared as if she was trying to roll over. So we grab our phones and start to take a video. She rolled over 3 times that night.

Raquel Emilyn- BATH TIME!! 5/29/2012

Beach Bum

 I would like to start this off by saying that our little man Koda has been absolutely amazing with our little girl since the day she came home. He was so curious of who this little person was. I'm positive by now he knows that she is his little sister. He knows that it is his job to protect, and how can i be so positive of this? She makes the slightest noise when hes around, a cough, sneeze, cry, anything and he is right there next to her sniffing or just staring. When she cries he goes into the room that she is in. Some people think dogs don't know. They're just animals. I say BS, Koda knows who his sister is just as he knows who his parents are. Our little man adores his sister.

Yesterday, Monday May 28th (Memorial Day), Brandon and I decided that a family beach trip was in order. We had a busy weekend and it was Brandon's day off. So we pack up some chicken salad (courtesy's of Abuelita Cecy), chips, fruit and some water all in our giant re-usable shopping bag. Get the kids (Raquel and Koda) ready for a day full of beach fun. We had towels, blankets, and a sun blocker for Raquel, got everyone in the car and we were off on our way to the dog beach. Our first family trip in our first family car. I have to admit, I was super excited. I probably looked like a little kid on her way to Disney Land. I was really most excited for Raquel's first trip to the beach, even though she obviously cannot get in the water yet.

Raquel did really well with the trip. She pretty much slept the whole way there (only 20 minutes). She has always done well in the car. Koda on the other hand, not much of a car dog.

He loves going places, don't get me wrong, just the car and Koda do not get along. He has always had a little problem with getting car sick. We made sure to cover the back seat with a blanket so he wouldn't get it dirty.

So of course, the entire ride, Koda is drooling all over the car and licking the seats. I look back because I start to smell something funky, just to find that he has puked on the back seat, that was expected. At least it was on the blanket. We show up to the beach, payed parking, and no cash. Strike one. I open the passenger door to check on Raquel and OH MY GOD, Koda puked ON Raquel. Her waist all the way down to her toes now looked like Koda's breakfast. I spent the next half hour stripping Raquel down and using the few wipes I had to wipe Koda's puke off of Raquel and her car seat. Strike two. On top of everything there was a car of ladies that pulled up behind us, and the ENTIRE time that I am handling puke, they are staring and smiling at me. I didn't realize I was doing something entertaining. Strike three.
So of course, I was livid. My dog had just puked on my daughter. My poor princess. She had no idea what happened and yet I felt so bad. However, even though I was furious, there was no way I could be mad at Koda. He got sick. What did I have to be mad about? It was hard to be mad at the fact that it happened, not be mad at Koda, and to not be mad at those crazy ladies who thought I was just so funny.
What was supposed to be a fun family beach trip. Turned into the trip from you know where.
Needless to say. We did not go to the beach that day.
But our princess did look super cute :)