Shake it!

Francesca Kaureen is quite the Dancer! I absolutely love this girl and love her little personality. Dont mind the mid dance spit-up and the hiccups! Now you will see why we Love this little girl sooo much!

HOPPY DAYS!

Yep That's right A very Hoppy Day it was. Several Easter Bunnies came to visit us this weekend. It was just a really nice weekend for family time. Friday night we met some friends out for dinner and bowling. Franki absolutely loved both. Franki loves our friends daughter Sammi and they are very close in age. So they enjoy crawling all over each other and jut staring at each other. Its funny how interested babies are in other babies. Saturday we enjoyed  a quick trip to the French market in wheaton (looking forward to many other satrudays just like this!) We absolutely love the fresh fruit, veggies, bread and flowers that Markets bring! We then held our traditional easter egg coloring at our house and making lots of food for in preperation for today. Franki got a visit from her great cousin Joe and her Great Aunt Rita! She loved visiting with new people and of course got a new octopus toy that she absolutely loves! WE then enjoyed pizza with my parents (I had my first realy pizza with cheese since I started nursing 9 months ago! It was absolutely delicious. Franki is doing much better tolerating milk so I have slowly been able to re-introduce dairy into my diet and it has been so goood! Im happy that her belly seems to be outgrowing some of this intolerance to food. And today is Easter! We woe up and had to find our baskets! Franki and Tyler quickly found there easter baskets and enjoyed all of the contents in it. We then enjoyed some time together outside with hulk. Then all the other bunnies came! Moma, Papa, Elle, Aunt kathy, Uncle Kurk, and Uncle Arch all came to our house for our first Easter. And of course Franki was graced with lots of easter baskets and lots of new toys, books, clothes, bubbles, swimming pools, and sand toys! She is so blessed! As our we to have all of these wonderful family to enjoy it with. We really feel blessed over and over and today just confirmed that God is working for us! And we are thankful for everything and everyone sharing in our lives.  A wonderful easter filled with good food, laughter, and of course lots of baby loving. Did I mention that this girl can dance! It has to be the sweetest things I have ever seen adn se is literally doing it every time she hears music or any type of beep, honk, shake anything. All we do is say shake and she does this little jig, she puts her hands in to little fists above her head and shakes shakes, shakes and it is the sweetest thing ever. She just looks up to you and smiles. Perfect day, weekend and family. One owrd to describe the way I feel everyday. LOVE ...ahhhh puts a smile in my heart just thinking about how great life has been to us.

Can you see all the Love? :) Happy Easter to Everyone we didnt see!

Serious CUBS fan!

This girl seriously loves watching sports. She is taking after her Aunt Kathy, Geema, MoMa and her momma by getting into the Cubs game. (I mean look at her can she get any closer to the TV?) I love thes pictures of her! I dont know what it is but whenever Tyler and I have a sporting event on television she is always mezmorized by the television (not that we let her watch it a lot). It is really cute to see her zone out to watch the game for a few minutes. I am not sure if it is the color on our television that she is mezmorized by or if its that she is just a tom-boy in the making (kinda like her momma was). Im guessing on the first because this little girl definitely so far acts pretty girly! She is making so many strides and hitting milestones everyday. She is a champion when it comes to pulling herself up onto things and recently started to climb up the stairs. What will she do next. I have a feeling she will be walking in no time. She also loves to crawl up and over anything. Tyler will be laying on the ground near her and it is her favorite thing to try to cimb directly over him and flop onto the ground. It is really enertaining to watch. This girl has a lot of adventure in her. She isnt afraid of anything, she climbs stairs, she directly goes after hulk and pinches him and tries to eat him. No fear what-so-ever. She also is eating everything. Anything she sees anywhere goes in her mouth and she gets very very p'od when you take it out of her mouth. Hulk likes to tear apart his stuff animals which in turn leaves lots of fuzzy things lying aroudn that we try to always pick up but recently I have found myself having to pick lots of fuzzies out of Franki's mouth. She definitely understands the word "NO". When I see her trying to put something into her mouth I just say no loudly and she looks up at me and moves the stuff away from her mouth and then slowly attempts to put it back in her mouth to see what I will say or do. She is a sneaky little love bug. Here is my die hard Cub fan! Love it, Love her.

Spring Fever

Last weekend was absolutely stunning, sun, warm weather filled with lots of spring fever! We took complete advantage of the nice weather! Here are pictures to document what a wonderful time we had outside! Franki is learning new things everyday, we cant keep up with all of her new things! She is now crawling up the stairs! I tell you this girl will be walking before we know it! Enjoy some pictures of this sweet girl!

 She loves the Fridge!

 Looking for Hulk

 So Pretty

 Loves to change the Channels!

 Pretty Summer Hat (trading headbands for hats :))

 Hanging out with Daddy!

 Nurse in Training

 She loves Play food and kitchen toys!

 Love summer clothes and sippy cups with cold water!

 My little Italian Spaghetti Eater!

Noodle Lady!

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! If you didnt I recommend scrolling through the pictures of this sweet little gal! Guarenteed to make you smile!

CRY it out

Cry it out and yes that is exactly what we did. I think both Franki and I were getting tired of not sleeping, so we bit the bullet last weekend and let her cry. The worst part: Hearing that cry for almost two hours straight friday night: painful for momma (daddy snored the entire time) also painful for the mom trying to get some sleep. I would go in there every 30 min and just pick her up walk around to calm her down and put her back down again (long behold the second you put her down she would be crying again :(. But it worked. Two hours in and she stayed asleep until 630 in the morning. The next night I only had to go in and calm her down on two seperate occasions and she cried for about 100 total. Sunday night pure bliss (she slept all night, not a peep). She has gloriously found out that sleeping on her belly is so much more comfy than her side, so the second you put her down on her back she rolls onto her stomach and puts her thumb in her mouth. I think she just sleeps and calms herself mush easier on her belly. So here we are on wednesday night and we are refreshed and feeling well rested and full of spring energy. She continues to sleep through the night 7p-6a. Even when I hear her wake up in the night it is usually no more of ten minutes than whining and she is back to sleep: AWESOME! I know I keep saying it over and over again, but I was dying. I was sooo tired all day long, everyday and 8 1/2 months of no more than 4 hours of sleep at a time (and sdaly no I am not exaggerating) was getting emotionally and physically exhausting. You need sleep to be able to function as a good employee and a good Momma. Franki is also at her best now that she sleeps all night long. She naps better and plays hard all day long! So in the end the best part about crying it out is that it works and my sweet babydoll is finally sleeping!

On the flip side, I got a wonderful date with my hubby last weekend and I realized how much I love Golf! We had so much fun soaking up the sun and playing a round of golf together! Life is good!

For your viewing pleasure/entertainment

Franki and Hulk Everyday Adventures

She is just too cute playing her piano!

This is my Flash mob audition. I had no clue I was being taped. Thanks to Tyler you can be entertained by my lack of rhythm.

Baby vs. Dog

 FACE OFF!

 Big Blue Eyes!

 Loving me her Chubby wrists!

These 2 seriously crack me up. 

Stats

8 month Stats:

Weight: 15llbs 10oz (10th percentile)
Height: 27 inches (50th percentile)
Head Circumference: 16 3/4 (25th percentile)

In my eyes: absolutely perfect! For real though isnt she just the cutest most perfect little thing you have ever seen. I know I am biased but yep I love this little chubby cheeks, wrist and thighs baby. The doctor and I both agree she may be tiny but she is totally in proportion. And up until literally this week she has been the healthiest little thing on the block. Currently she is under the weather. We have had lots of playdates and lots of time out recently with other little ones and the truth is we cant keep her away from all the germs out there especially if we want her to make friends! She has a little cough, runny nose and is definitely teething. So the combination of the three are making her just a little more tired and a little more clingy than usual. But overall she still wants to play just a little closer to my lap than normal. With nursing her Im hoping to help her kick this virus quicker than most that is the best part about nursing I think it at least lessons the blow when these kiddos get germs. I can only help manage the teething and she seems to be doing well with our current cocktail of ibuprofen every 8 hours or so, teething rings, frozen waffles, ice cold water, sophie the girraffe, and our humpreys teething strips. Other than a few funny faces she is dealing with these teeth like a mini rockstar! I cant even imagine how much that hurts and they cant do anything about it. Poor baby. I have said that a lot today. POOR POOR BABY, I hate it when she isnt 100%. Im mean come on I am a nurse I take care of sick kids, ive been there done that, it is who I am. It is so different when it is your own kid. It breaks my heart even more than it does when I am the bedside nurse which is pretty hard to do (my heart hurts for any and all kids who just arent themselves and dont feel good. When I am a nurse though I actually feel like I can do something to help the kids i.e lots of pharmacy medications, hospital setting, 24 hour non-stop care, team of people to provide the best care. Well for Franki I feel helpless. I am her mom and I hate making decisions about her healthcare. Yes I can assess her to see if she is sick or not, but I hate saying what is wrong with her. Its just not my place to diagnose her with something (hence when I took her to urgent care just to check her) becuase I dont want to be responsible for being her "nurse" too. I think that makes sense. I just think when it is your own kid that you need to be the mom (I think mom's and nurses do lots of the same things) However a nurse actually makes medical decisions regarding there patients and I wouldnt ever want to miss anything or treat Franki like nothing was wrong when something actually was wrong or the opposite treat her for something that isnt actually there at all. So for now I am her mom in the best sense. I will cuddle her all night if I have to (just like I had to do last night). Ill rub her back and give her kisses and do everything I can to make sure she is happy and healthy. Did I mention I love being this girls Momma. She sure makes it easy.Were on to one more day of R and R before I head back to work. Oh yeah and I forgot to mention we had our first W today and you better believe Franki, Ty and I danced like crazy and sang Go Cubs Go (a tradition we hope to be singing a lot this summer!). Have a great week! This face helps make any day, week better.

P.S. She learned how to high five and thinks it is absolutely awesome and hysterical that she can do it! Videos to come later this week!