Dedication

Sunday, July 22nd we had a dedication ceremony for Allie. A dedication is an opportunity to celebrate Allie's life and for us as parents to publicly commit to raising our child to become the beautiful girl God intends her to be. It also is an opportunity for us to ask our friends and family to help us in that pursuit. It really meant a lot to us to have everyone there with us.

It was a wonderful ceremony and day for us!! Even in spite of the little tooth that decide to start pushing through Allie's gums. It would figure, though, that the tooth would come on a day where she is the center of attention. :)


The ceremony was officiated by Wally Marshall, who is the Palatine area pastor at Willow Creek. He pointed out that Alyssa's name means "bold," which is definitely coming out in her personality. She knows what she wants and isn't afraid to let you know if she isn't getting it!!


We had a party afterwards that was a lot of fun. I think the key (besides all the great guests) was getting it catered!! All of the fun of entertaining...none of the stress of cooking! :)

Four Generations

This past weekend Allie made the trip up to Winona, Minnesota to visit her great-grandma!! She invited Auntie Kim, Grandma Whamond and I to go along with her. :) Unfortunately, Uncle Mike had a busy schedule so he wasn't able to join us. So far she has been a pretty good traveler. I was definitely a little nervous about upsetting the people in the assisted living home, but she kept her fussing to a minimum. The weekend was actually quite wonderful as great-aunt Pam, and the rest of the fam gave my sore wrists a rest and held Allie for much of the time.
Allie got a taste of a true girl's weekend. We spent most of our time talking, shopping and eating the infamous long johns from Bloedow's Bakery. :) I should mention that shopping in Minnesota where there is no tax is a dangerous thing for someone who is such a sucker for a good deal!!! Auntie Kim and I may have blown the bank while great-grandma and grandma watched Allie.

The best quote of the weekend came from great-grandma. She was telling me about her "conversation" with Allie. Her interpretation of some of Allies louder noises: "Allie had a few swears to say." :)
We were thinking about visiting my cousin Jill on our way home, but Allie was ready to get home. She sleeps great in the car, but it throws off her sleep schedule. :(

This is the Sugar Loaf, which is on top of the bluff that great-grandma used to live on.

Two Long, Crazy Weeks

The timing of Allie's birth was nearly perfect. I was able to take a full 12 weeks off, but I had to go back to work for the last week of school. I guess it really was the best timing we could possibly come up with as I would probably have had to go back in to clean up and finalize grades and stuff, so I might as well get paid for it.

Everyone and their mother, literally, offered to watch Allie. It was such a blessing!!! I was mostly nervous about the logistics of getting her to and from the current day's sitter and making sure she had everything she needed. Thankfully, Auntie Kim (and daddy) started off the race. They made the transition to work so much easier as Auntie Kim came to the house and watched Allie while Andy worked from home.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent with the Wolfes, Thursday with Grandma Tucker, and Friday Auntie Kim came back. I'd have to say that she was in very good, loving hands. :)

During this week I got a taste of being a working mom, which included the oh-so-fun pumping!! I believe I may have mentioned this before, but just in case I didn't...pumping is not fun. I had to sit in a tiny room attached to a machine... I did get better at it as the days went on, so I feel a little better about the fall.

The next week I had one of the classes in the program that I had been a part of (working towards 30 more hours of classes to get the next raise.) That week Allie went back to PR and spend the day with Beth Nagel, as well as spend another day with Grandma Tucker. The majority of the week, though, was spent with her best friend Ella. Ella is 3 weeks older...so quite a bit more mature. :) Ella's mom, Kelle, and I have had a lot of fun watching the two of them grow. I love hearing what Ella is doing as I know that Allie will soon follow suit. Kelle was so great...she took tons of pics of the little girls as they played together. They even spent some time "talking," but she wasn't able to get it on video. :(

Look! Ella has a hand!! And a wrist!! And an elbow!!

Time for a photoshoot!! A is for Allie the Alligator. E is for Ella the Elephant.

Roll'n, roll'n, roll'n

It is a guarantee that every child will perform at least one "first" when mommy's not looking. Allie decided not to put off the inevitable...
We were getting ready to take a bath, so I had laid her on her back on the floor while I went downstairs to get a diaper. I came back upstairs...and she was on her tummy!!! I thought that it must have been an accident, but just in case I ran downstairs, and like every good mom, got the video camera. :) She, amazingly, graced her mom with a repeat performance, which is forever memorialized on DVD. I think I'm starting to get this mom-thing down.
Unfortunately, while she was able to repeat the rollover several times, the bath seemed to wash the memory of the newly acquired skill from her memory. When daddy came home we watched and watched and watched, but once she reached her side, as she still does now, she found her thumb and decided that sucking is more fun than rolling. Instead she showed daddy another new trick...rolling from tummy to back. Lots of fun milestones, all in one day. We're still waiting for a repeat performance.
I hope to soon work on loading the movie onto my computer so you can see for yourself. :)

First Trip

Allie took her first trip May 4th-6th. We went to Indiana University to see Aunt Kim graduate from college. First, I have to confess that I am a terrible mom...Allie may be the only 8 week old who has gotten kicked out of a bar!! Ok, so I'm not a terrible mom, I just didn't think that going into a bar at lunch-time (B-ton is a smoke-free town so I didn't have to worry about that) would be a problem. Turns out that a bar is "not a safe place" any time of the day...who knew?!? She was allowed to visit Oliver Winery. It was beautiful there so we took some time to get some family pics...

We are very fortunate that Allie likes driving. She slept the whole trip there and back. Traveling changes though when you have a baby. What used to be a four hour trip no longer takes four hours...we had to stop for half an hour to feed her. It really was tempting to just take her out of her car seat and feed her as we drove, but then you remind yourself that the risk definately out-weighs the benefits.

So my biggest worry about the trip was her nighttime fussiness. Who wants to be stuck in a hotel room next to a crying baby? Fortunately she surprised us and slept pretty well and even refrained from crying in the middle of the night. :) Even the first night that we spent with one of mommy's college roommates, Pam, and her family was relatively smooth. She was a little more fussy there, but overall, it could have been much worse.

Graduation was a different story! Allie must have bottled up all her screams so she could release them at the ceremony. Fortunately she stopped long enough for us to see Kim stand with the rest of the school of education grads.

Say Cheese! :)

The absolute best part of Alyssa Grace's second month of life was that she started smiling. This is my favorite pic from that month...


I honestly don't know what I would do without my friends who have little ones a little a little older than Allie. I am constantly reminded that the "it takes a community" saying has so much truth to it. Stephanie's wisdom really saved the day for me this month. First, she helped me to find a schedule/rhythm that works for Allie and me. It's a simple as eat, play, sleep...in that order...in 3-hour cycles. Also, when she and Isaac come to visit I find that I am motivated to break out a new toy that Allie ends up loving.


The play mat has been a lot of fun this month. Allie loves to stare at the palm tree leaves and Mr. Pineapple. :) This gives me a little more freedom to do what I need to do as she contently stares. It's amazing how babies can be so enthralled by just looking at something, especially lights!! I no longer have to wait until she is asleep to, say, take a shower. The little toys hanging from the bouncy seat seem to just about give me enough time. She begins fussing by the end...no more long and leisurely showers.

We also started having some "tummy time." She didn't love it, but she didn't hate it either. Sometimes she would just contently lay there, but mommy would bug her and try to get her to lift her head so that made it annoying.


One of Allie's most exciting discoveries was her own thumb. She didn't master the trick of getting it into her mouth, but she was able to find it once in awhile. Mommy and daddy were excited about this because they were getting a little tired of hanging out by the swing and continually putting the pacifier back into her mouth until she fell asleep. Oh yeah, the swing is a great placed to nap!!


Allie went to church for the first time when she was 6 weeks old. We sat in the baby room, which is a glassed in room in the back. She was a little fussy, but eating kept her much more quiet. It's hard to cry when you are sucking on a boob. :) She got to share her first church visit with Ella. Afterwards she got even got to play!!

At the end of her second month, Allie took her first trip...

Time Flies When Your Having Fun

I'm trying to catch up to the current time, but so much has happened that I want to share. This post will attempt to summarize the rest of the first month of Alyssa Grace's life...

She started to actually enjoy bath time. The key was losing the umbilical cord so that she could take real baths (instead of sponge baths.) It was still quite cold so being submerged in the warm water felt good.


She was quite a fussy baby up through the first month and a half or so. Looking back I realize that this was likely 75% our fault and 25% hers. We had to learn how much she needed to eat and how to help her fall asleep for naps and what to do when she needed soothing (which is still a mystery sometimes) and how to get her to burp and.... Her portion of the fussiness mostly can be chalked up to GAS. That's the three-letter-word for babies. It hurt so much for her!! I never knew that my arms could get tired from bicycling such little legs. Sometimes at night we would have to keep moving her legs until she would fall asleep.

Allie meet Ella.



Allie's first best friend is Ella Toth. Ella is the older and wiser of the two...it's amazing what a difference three weeks can make. :) Again, it was mostly mommy doing the learning. I learned that wanting to eat every 5 minutes is normal during a growth spurt. (Oh yeah, I first had to learn that she will go through growth spurts...thanks Kelle for all the amazingly helpful wisdom.) We have been truly blessed to have friends with a daughter the same age as Allie.

Allie celebrated her first holiday, Easter, at grandma and grandpa Whamond's house. She, as well as the rest of the family, were anxiously awaiting her new cousin. The hope was that she would pop out in time to celebrate Easter, but she seemed to be comfy in her mommy's tummy. I guess there was an upside to being the only baby...all of the love and attention was fully focused on her alone.

At her one month check-up we found out that Allie is a tall chica. :) She was in the 90th percentile for height, 50th for weight and head size.

I guess that's as best I can do...on to month two. :)

How Do You Take Care of a Baby?!?

I am forever grateful that Andy was able to stay home with me for the first 2 weeks. I had no idea how I was supposed to care for our beautiful little babygirl. Of course I had read some books and talked with every parent I knew, but everything I thought I knew got lost somewhere in the cobwebs in my brain. I was in charge of taking care of a live human being!!

VISITORS!!!!! The first few weeks we had lots and lots of visitors. Everyone wanted to see our beautiful Alyssa Grace. Aunt Kim came home from Florida just in time to visit Allie on her first night home. It was a toss up between Aunt Kim and Aunt Lindsey as to who was most excited about the newest addition to our family. :)


We were all wondering how Toby would handle his replacement as the ruler of the house. (It's amazing how much your life has to revolved entirely around the needs and desires of such a tiny being.) Surprisingly, he completely ignored her. I think that she was too small for him to think of her as anything fun to play with. He is about 10 times her size!!


Allie was kind enough to give us 3-4 hours of sleep at a time during the night. The trouble was that she would stay awake for about 2 hours between her sleep times. That was rough!!
It really is mostly a blur. I already seem to have forgotten what happened then.


Sponge baths...Allie was not a fan! It was still cold outside so being wet was not much fun. With her umbilical cord still attached we weren't able to give her a real bath so me had to do the best we could to keep her warm as we sponged her down. Space heater in the room...towel over the rest of her body...not enough to keep her warm.

I need to take this time to once again thank all the amazing people in our life who blessed us with meals. It was so nice to be able to give Allie our full attention and not worry about cooking. Thank you also to my wonderful mother who came over cleaned the house. She even washed the floors!! Which I have yet to do again. Maybe I should try to do that...or maybe not.

I would have to say that my favorite part of caring for Allie was holding her as she slept on my chest. There is nothing that can possible compare to that feeling!!