The Many Halloween Faces of Auralia

I love Halloween! Mostly because I love the fall, but I love Halloween parties, decorations, costumes, etc. I am a little sad that Auralia isn't old enough to take trick-or-treating and we won't get any trick-or-treaters and we don't know enough people to have a Halloween party and we didn't dress up this year... but at least Auralia rocked the costumes & Halloween "spirit" :) *Note to reader: tonight we'll be going out for sushi with some friends and then coming home to watch Hocus Pocus & enjoying some mini candy bars my mom sent. Okay, confession, the candy bars are already gone. But Tyron's mom mailed us some Canadian candy bars & I bought myself a snickers bar today!

Miss Auralia is sporting the classic look- a pumpkin beanie & pants from the clothes swap, and a onesie from G-ma Dedrickson.

Here our cutie has stepped it up a notch with a very adorable glow-in-the-dark bodysuit from G-ma Dedrickson. Glow-in-the-dark pictures to soon follow...

Our cute, little sack of bones at the unusual ward party... didn't stay long there!

Not a great picture, but going the extra mile with a pumpkin bib from Nana Jensen!

"Tired to the bone" (pahaha) from all the Halloween candy & scaring the Jews in the elevator. Just kidding- I didn't give her candy or let her scare the Jews :)

Thanks goes out to all of the wonderful costume contributions from my mom & Tyron's mom! Thanks so much!!! Love you both!!

Happy Halloween Y'all!

Somebody is 4 months old...

Stats from her 4 month appointment: 12lbs 11oz and 24 3/4 inches. 

 4th month pic

So what's new with Auralia?

1) She's sleeping in her crib in her own room!! And it's awesome! Now we can read in bed with the light on before bed! We also got her a mobile and she loves it. She never cries when we put her in her crib, and if she is a little fussy she just stares at the mobile and listens to the music and is out within minutes!

2) She's on a schedule- wahoo!! She goes down around the same time (7pm) and wakes up around the same time (7am). She's had some early wake up times lately (around 6am) so we're trying to slowing push her bedtime back. She also naps 3 times a day for an hour +. This has allowed me so much time to exercise, shower, clean, and get in an occasional nap :)

3) She's laughing! It's not often, but she does and it's so so so cute! Last week Tyron got her to laugh and she started laughing which made him laugh hard which made her laugh hard which made him laugh harder which made her laugh harder... you get the point! They were both laughing, her body was moving with laughter! It was so heart warming to watch :)  I wish I could have recorded it, but by the time we tried, she had stopped and we couldn't get her to start. I'll try and get something up soon...

4) She loves momma & daddy. She definitely did before, but now she recognizes us and smiles at us and will even cry if we leave the room. Being loved & needed by a child was something that I really looked forward to when we were trying to get pregnant. When we were with our friends and their children, it was nice having their kids come sit in our lap and want us to read them a book, but when it was time to cuddle up or if they had a boo boo and wanted to feel safe they went to mom or dad.


To sum it up, she's changing and growing- happy and healthy. Being a mom in a new place (and NYC of all places) without family or many friends to help and working part-time has been incredibly challenging, but I can keep going because I love my daughter with every fiber of my being! And I love my hubby!! He helps out all the time. I take the midnight and 4am feedings and he takes the 7am one and then stays up with her, letting me sleep in until about 9:30am. So nice! He does so much else to help too- changing diapers, putting her to bed, feeding her, cleaning bottles, etc. I love my little family!

Other fun pics of Auralia:

 Thumbs up- so excited!

A little too excited!

Loves sucking on her 2 fingers

Can totally see the Jensen in her in this pic!

"I can't believe you're making me do tummy time, and then taking pictures of it"

 

 

And a favorite- playing butt grab with sock monkey!

A Day at the Zoo

So Tyron had off for a Jewish holiday- gotta love them Jews and their many many holidays!- so we headed to the Bronx Zoo! It's supposed to be one of the biggest and greatest in the country. I told myself it was a no stress day- oh well if we missed the bus, no worry about lugging the stroller around. I wanted to soak in every moment of the beautiful fall day that I was spending with my 2 favorite people in a fun place. {Note to reader: in stressful situations I tend to shut off all emotion and go into survival mode. Unfortunately, I've been doing that since we moved here and it was starting to take its toll. Hence the forcing myself to be happy & soak in the fun day!} It turned out to be a lot of fun- lots to see and do, not to mention a great source of exercise!! It is a beautiful & enormous zoo with lots of trees and forested areas- what I imagine New York would look like if there weren't a gazillion people here.  Here's some highlights from the outing:

Me in my mommy shorts and white mommy sneakers ready to take on the zoo with a baby!

So there were peacocks running around in the outdoor eating area...ya, it kind of freaked me out. Just wasn't sure what it was doing behind my back.

Looking a little grumpy...

Got her to smile

Saved Tyron's favorite picture for last! He laughs everytime he sees it.

Milk Drunk

I first heard the term "milk drunk" from my friend Dani and have loved it ever since. It does a great job of explaining what Auralia looks like during feeding sometimes. She goes limp and rolls her head back, her eyes staring at nothing and her mouth hanging open- no sucking, just hanging open. It's hilarious and so cute. I've captured a couple pictures of it :)

She actually fell asleep here...

She fell asleep and continued to suck like a zombie :)