Two Months Old!

Mallory hit the ripe old age of two months old yesterday! We celebrated by taking her to the doctor and getting her some shots. She did not enjoy the shots (surprise...surprise). She is up to 10 lb 12 oz and is doing great. We are so in love with our little girl.

Mallory was extra sleepy and fussy yesterday after the shots so I was sitting on the couch holding her while she slept. While I was sitting there I was watching an old episode of er (in another blog I might tell you how much er I've watched since Mallory was born). It was an episode where Carter and Luca went to Africa. While there they treated children that had typhoid, whooping cough, and polio among other things. People had walked for miles through dangerous conditions to get the medical treatment. Some would live and some would die. It made me so thankful that I was able to just drive to the doctor's office that morning and with four simple shots my baby was protected from these diseases that could easily kill her. We are so blessed.

Today was a little more fun than yesterday. Mallory and I went to lunch with Tina. Tina and I must have been boring because half way through our lunch Mallory was snoring. We followed this up with a trip to the mall with some shopping for me.

I couldn't let this big day pass without a few more pictures of Mallory. Enjoy! :)

What Do You Think?

We've been trying to figure out who Mallory looks like. We had been thinking she looked more like Matthew, but now that Matthew and I looked at my baby picture we see some of me in her too. We think she may have my nose. Her eyes started out looking blue, but now it looks like they will be darker like Matthew's. So...what do you think?

Sawing Logs

Matthew is to my right on the couch snoring and Mallory is to my left snoring also. I wish I knew how to record this and share it with the world, because it sure is sweet and funny!

FOOD!

I got this from Lisa's Blog. Here are the rules, share 7 things you didn’t realize you needed to know about me and food.

1. I love sweets! After watching Elf, Matthew and I decided that I am definitely an elf. Pancakes are one of my favorites because you can soak them in syrup.

2. I love corn on the cob. I can't stand canned corn. I used to struggle just to open a can and pour it in if a recipe called for it. Now that my braces are off, I'm looking forward to my next ear of corn.

3. I will eat vegetables, but there are none that I really love other than corn on the cob. I hope that Mallory will like vegetables more than her mommy and daddy do.

4. I really like bread and pastas! Maybe I secretly run just so that I have a reason to carb0load.

5. It really bothers me to drink out of a can without a koozie. If I am out somewhere and there are canned drinks, I will wrap a napkin around the drink just to avoid the naked can. One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year was a koozie from Matthew. It is lime green with hot pink polk-a-dots and has a M monogrammed on it. I also have a koozie in my desk drawer at work that I cut down to size to fit one of the half Dr. Peppers. Maybe I'm a little crazy on this one.

6. I rediscovered last night how much more enjoyable popcorn is without braces.

7. When I was a little girl I always wanted to get mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese for my two vegetables when we went to Luby's. My mom never let me because she said it was too much starch. I guess she was ahead of her time with the low carb diets. I know this one is random, but I was running out.

I tag any one who wants to share and the person in Panama that is reading my blog. I really want to know who you are amigo!

Now what you really want. ..pictures of sweet Mallory!

This was her tonight when we were hanging out. You can see how much her cheeks and chin are filling out in this one. Her hair is starting to grow back in nicely too. My mom and I were talking about it yesterday. She no longer has a receding hair line. We couldn't figure out what the opposite of a receding hair line is. All we could come up with was preceding, but that didn't sound right. Anyone have an idea?


Last night she screamed the whole way home from Life Group. This is her as soon as I set her down where she could see the ceiling fan.

A few days ago I came out of the bathroom after taking shower and found this little sweety resting on my pillow. Don't worry, Matthew was awake.

Thankfully she doesn't make this face too often.

I just couldn't resist this one. Her expression is too sweet.

My days at home are passing by too quickly. We are still looking for someone to take care of Mallory on Friday afternoons. If you know anyone who might be interested in watching out little sweety for a couple of hours, let me know.

HOCUS FOCUS

Here is a little game for all you bloggers out there. Can you tell what is different between these two pictures of me?



Need a hint? Something is missing in the bottom pic. Give up???

NO MORE BRACES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The day came this morning when my orthodontist finally removed my braces. It was not a moment too soon. When he put them on, he estimated it would be 2 years. That was in August 2005. I'm just thankful my obstetrician wasn't 7 months under with her estimate of how long I would be pregnant!



I have to share that the braces removal process was one of the most painful things I have ever experienced. After one of the assistants snapped the brackets off, my orthodontist came back and with a grinder to get rid of all the left over glue. IT WAS HORRIBLE! There was cold air blasting my teeth nonstop. The polisher was digging into my gums. I usually handle pain ok, but I wanted to scream! I was so not prepared for the pain either. I had asked Matthew what it was like when he got his braces off. He thought he remembered them using some kind of solvent to loosen the glue. He must have blocked out the painful memory from way back then.



At least it wasn't all bad, I left with Pappas and Starbucks gift cards plus a box of Crest white strips and a bottle of champagne. Something tells me that they don't give the bubbly to their teen-aged patients.





Since you've probably come to expect a picture of Mallory in all of my posts, I don't want to let you down. Here's a shot of her in her favorite spot these days. She'll just swing and look around forever. She is also really into looking at the ceiling fan even if its turned off. Go figure!



She and I were getting all geared up for a fun weekend with Anita, Nathan, and Abby but it looks like that is going to fall through. They've all been sick and now Abby is coughing with a virus and ear infection. After the last time Abby was sick and sharing germs at our house, we don't really want her to come share them with Mallory. I guess she and I will just sit around swinging and drinking champagne instead. ;)

Happy Valentines Day...a few days late

We took Mallory on her first road trip this week to see my parents. She did great! She slept for almost the whole ride there and back.

Mom and I took her shopping on Wednesday and again she did great. I realized that she is destined to be a big shopper because after all, her name is MALLory. :)

I bought this Valentines outfit for Mallory back in January. Its 3 month size. I bought a newborn one a few weeks later, because I didn't think she would fit the first one. Wrong! The first one was the one she wore. Of course, I had already washed the small one before I figured out it was too small. I hated to take her valentines outfit off of her at the end of the day. She sure wont be able to wear it again next year.

Changing subjects...Until this week I had a streak going that I was very proud of. I had not been to Wal-Mart since last summer. Yesterday I broke down and went because I needed a storage bin for my maternity clothes and groceries and didn't want to tote Mallory to two places. When I go to wal-mart I quickly realized that I had not been missing anything. The worst thing is that Mallory started screaming towards the end and I didn't get my storage bin and I forgot to use the gift card I had. If only we had a SuperTarget!

This was Mallory before we left for Wal-Mart. I know now that this face is saying, "Please, Please, Please don't take me to Wal-Mart Mommy!"

Changing subjects again...I put a map back on my blog a couple weeks ago. I'm so very curious who the hits from Europe have been. There's even one in Croatia. The only person I know from Croatia is Luka (from er). I've started to think someone I know went on a european vacation and didn't tell me.

ANOTHER WEEK WITH OUR CUTIE!

Mallory is one week older, so I have just a few more pictures of her. She seems to be growing and changing every day. Because of this her aunt thinks I should update my blog every day. If only I could be that on top of things.

You may not know that Mallory's full name is Mallory Hey You're a Duck Quacker Poke Poke Joy. Nathan added a few of those names. I'll let you guess which were his additions.

Just saying "Hey!"

You can really tell how much hair she's lost in this picture.

Mallory started sleeping in her crib in her room last week. It must be super comfy because last night she slept from 9:30 until 6:00 this morning! It was wonderful!!!! This afternoon she took a great nap in her room too. I think I got more done in those hours than I have in the last 6 weeks. It is tempting to post a picture of my kitchen sink without any dishes piled up in it.

We went up to church today so all my friends in the office could see Mallory. It melted my heart when she kept her eyes locked on me as everyone took turns holding and loving on her.

WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT DIGITAL CAMERAS?

I don't know how many times in the last 5 weeks I've thought how thankful I am for digital cameras. Today was another one of those days. I put this super cute onsie on Mallory this morning that Kellee made. It's a good think she's wearing it today, because I don't know if it will fit tomorrow. Since this will probably be the only shot for it I decided to take a few pictures. I ended up with 40-50 pictures of Mallory. Good thing I don't have to pay to develop all of those!

Check out that big belly!

Mommy sure does like to take my picture.

I'm not so sure about this tummy time stuff

Could they look much happier?

We took Mallory to church for the first time last week. We almost forgot to take her picture, but thankfully Anita was here to remind us. We took three pictures; unfortunately this was the best we got.

Now a little warning...If you haven't been to the grocery store in 5 weeks, stick for the store you know for your first trip back. I went to the grocery store Friday for the first time since before Christmas. For some reason I decided this would be a good time for Mallory and I to try out our new fancy HEB. She did fine, but man was it overwhelming for me. I think I better stick to my familiar Kroger for now.

One Month Old

Monday marked the one month mark for Mallory. Its been a great month with our baby girl. She's grown and changed so much already. I told Matthew that sometimes when I go to pick her up, it looks like she grew since the I had put her down to sleep. We had pictures of her taken yesterday. The first one is my favorite.

I have been watching A LOT of daytime TV in the last month since I'm home. Matthew and I actually had a conversation today about the wonderful commercials on during the day. I think that 75% are probably for weight loss products. The rest is a combination of technical schools, workers comp lawyers and a sprinkling of feminine products. Our favorite ad is the weight loss product that actually says "We couldn't say it on TV if it wasn't true." So persuasuve!

HI HO, HI HO, ITS OFF TO WORK HE GO

OK so I had to change that up a just a little, but after being off three weeks Matthew went back to work on Friday. I had really been dreading his going back, because prior to that Mallory had not been going to bed at night very well at all. I got some feeding schedule tips from my sister (and her friends that read my blog) and it seems to have helped because she has been a totally different girl the last three nights.

The other thing I'm thankful for is that we finally got out of the house today. I think the last time we had been out was Wednesday and I was going crazy! I have decided these last few days that I don't want to have another baby during the winter when its too cold to get out or when its freezing getting out of bed during the middle of the night. But I guess it could be worse and I could be living in Green Bay where its -4 degrees with a -24 wind chill. THAT'S COLD!

Since I'm sure you're dying to know where we went to today, we went to Target of course. I saw an Adventures in Babysitting DVD for only $5.50. I was very tempted to buy it, but the 29 year old Marcia talked the 10 year old Marcia out of it. I'm sure the 31 year old Matthew will be pleased with my restraint.

BECAUSE HER AUNT WANTS SOME NEW PICTURES

Matthew was getting on to be for not updating my blog today. This afternoon Anita was complaining that it had been WAY to long since she had seen new pictures of Mallory. So, here are some from the last few days.

I took this of them a few minutes ago. Her little hand holding on to his thumb was too cute to pass up.

It isn't the girliest of outfits, but I couldn't pass this one up when I saw it. The shirt says "hello, I'm new here". After my last post you might be thinking that Mallory is only going to wear clothes with sayings on them. I promise that will not happen. I think these are the only two shirts with saying on them. They just happen to fit her better than a lot of other things she has right now.

Unfortunately, we see this face from Mallory too often from 9 to midnight. She is very sweet and doesn't cry too much during the day, but some nights she falls apart and just screams. Matthew goes back to work on Friday so I'm hoping she will decide to save these colic fits for when her Daddy is home.

Our sweet girl!

A Week at Home

We've survived our first week at home. Here are a few pictures (since that's what you really want) of our week. They're all out of order, but I don't think you'll complain too much.

Last night we ventured out for Life Group. We were only 30 minutes late by the time we got there, but other than that it was a successful outing. She was wearing her "I Was Worth the Wait" outfit that Anita bought her. She was definitely worth the wait and the kidney stones too.

We bought this onsie for Mallory hoping that she would be born this year. It says "Tax Deduction". Good job little girl, that's more toys for having a '07 birthday.

Mallory got to have her first bath yesterday. You can tell from this picture just how much she loved it.

Mallory's cord fell off on Saturday. Here is a shot of her Daddy and her brand new belly button plus her growing belly.

Matthew is not a fan of bows. Finding Mallory like this in her car seat last night didn't do anything to change his mind but it sure did make him laugh.

This one is for Kim. She wanted a shot of Mallory's feet.

After letting us have Mom for a week, Dad and Aunt Ruby came back to get her on Friday. Here they all are on Saturday getting their last bit of Mallory before leaving.

Where to start?

The last four days have been amazing! We are so excited that our sweet girl is finally here. Everything went great during her delivery. We got started at the hospital with the induction around 7:30 and were holding her in our arms at 1:05. We have been totally in love with her ever since!


The three of us, with help from my mom, have survived our first day and a half at home. Matthew is great at changing diapers! He's actually so great that I only changed one the whole time we were in the hospital.

I was a little worried unnecessarily about how Mallory would do with all of the fireworks tonight...she and Matthew are both sleeping soundly with them going off in the neighborhood as I type. I can't think of a better way to spend New Years eve!

We only have about a million pictures of Mallory so far. Here are a few of our favorites so you can all see how precious she is. Enjoy!!!

Mallory Joy is Here!!!

Mallory Joy arrived yesterday, December 28 at 1:05 pm. She weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. She is precious! Marcia and Mallory are doing great and headed home tomorrow. I am quite partial, but she is one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen. I love you Mallory! -Proud Aunt Anita

FRIDAY!

I got the call from my doctor this morning that Friday was going to be the big day!!! We have an appointment at the hospital at 5:30 am to be induced. Obviously, we're pretty excited!

Hopefully I'll post again before long with some pictures of our little Mallory. :)

NO NEWS

Just in case you are eagerly checking my blog today for news of Mallory's birth, here's my big exciting update. No baby today (at least by induction)! When I called the hospital at 5, the nurse said it looked they would probably be able to get me in today and they would call me. So I somehow went back to sleep. Finally when I hadn't heard anything shortly after 10, I called back to check and give them my cell number so I could leave the house and not go crazy sitting by the phone. The nurse told me then that I was next on the list. I felt pretty good about this news! Less than an hour later I got a call from my doctor. Apparently things didn't look as good as the nurse made it sound. Even though I was next on the list, they were too busy and it wasn't going to happen today. Surprisingly, I wasn't too disappointed by this. I think I was just relieved to know. So now we're just waiting for little Mallory to decide on her own when she would like to join us.

BECAUSE HOW CAN HE TELL ME NO THESE DAYS

Matthew and I were thinking positive tonight and decided to have a last date night before Mallory is hopefully born on Friday. We went to Ruby Tuesday for dinner. This is a special place for us because nine years ago Matthew took me there on our first date. I was a little worried going there because we hadn't been in years, but it didn't let us down. The fries were especially yummy!

Next we were killing some time and needed to do a little Christmas shopping. We took a gamble and went to Toy's R Us. That was an adventure. Things were a little shady there, but we survived.

Our next stop was going to be a movie but we couldn't decided on which. We were debating between American Gangster and Enchanted. Matthew offered me a deal. He said that if we went to Verizon and looked for me a new phone we could see Enchanted. How could I turn that down? So, we headed to Verizon where we got me a new almost free phone and got my monthly rate lowered too. After Verizon we had some time before the movie, so I suggested a trip to the slab for ice cream. Matthew usually isn't a big slab fan, but how could he really turn me down right now?

After our ice cream, we were right on time for the movie. Unfortunately, my perfect night got a little less perfect. As soon as we took our seats I realized that they were not very comfortable for a 38 week pregnant person. I sat there debating during the previews if I could make it or not. I decided no. Thankfully, they were nice enough to give us all $18 back for our tickets. So, here were are sitting on our comfortable couch watching Castaway. I guess we'll go to a movie again some day.

Is my husband great or what?

Check out my new phone...isn't it pretty!

CALL ME MARY

So we went to the doctor for my weekly check up this morning. We had talked to her last week about possibly inducing on Friday, so I was really hoping for that. After my exam today she said, "OK, get dressed and I'll make a call to labor and delivery." When she came back she did not have good news. There are 7 ladies past their due date in line before me to be induced on Friday. So, I'm on stand by for the stork. We can start calling Friday morning at 5:00 and hopefully these 7 ladies will have had their babies on their own by then or maybe Mallory will decide herself to pop. Until then, I'm Mary...pregnant and no room at the inn!

FUN WEEKEND!

This was the third weekend in a row that Matthew actually had a night off. This time, he had Friday night off so we could have a fun date. We did a little Christmas shopping, ate a yummy meal at Pappadeaux, and then went to a Third Day and Jars of Clay Christmas concert. Except for the climb all the way up the stairs to our balcony seats, it was great! I was seriously wiped out when we got to our seats. The usher that was showing us our seats obviously wasn't very observant that I was just a little pregnant. When she saw where our seats were, she took off so fast that Matthew even had trouble keeping up with her. After we finally got to sit down, I told Matthew I thought I might need some Gatorade and a GU! When I left to go to the bathroom and saw that there was an elevator, I was probably the happiest girl at the concert.

During the concert Third Day sang O Holy Night. O Holy Night always makes me think of Carol of Lights at Tech. For you non-Red Raiders, this is a tradition at Tech going back to the 50's I think. It is a big deal in Lubbock. People gather on the Tech campus and they light more than 25,000 Christmas lights. Part of the ceremony every year is a man singing O Holy Night. We have always made fun of the guy because he sings it in his best "opera man" style. Friday night it hit me what a big deal this is....on the campus of a public university, thousands of people gather each year to hear the singing of a song about the birth of Jesus. I hope and pray that this tradition will continue for years and years to come.

On Saturday I did almost all of my Christmas shopping. I figured since there are 12 days until my due date and less than that until Christmas it was time to get serious about my shopping. It was actually a very successful shopping day with a couple of funny sights. When I was at Linens N Things waiting in line I really felt that someone should tell the lady checking her pores in the magnifying mirror she was buying that she might want to wait until she at least got to the privacy of her car before doing something so personal. A little later I was at the mall. I noticed a booth selling wooden nativity scenes. The name of the booth was Star of David. The irony was too funny for me not to share.

This morning we went to church for what could be the last time as just the two of us. Tonight, I finally packed my bag for the hospital. Its pretty full, so I should be prepared even without leg warmers.

ALMOST THERE!

I'm thinking positive with my "Almost There" title. I'm now 37 weeks and can't wait to meet little Mallory.

Here's the latest picture of she and I plus the Christmas tree.

I think that just about everything is ready in Mallory's room. Matthew would still like a chair or rocker in there, but other than that this is pretty much it...except for her!