Summer Food Lovin'

Since my family came last, we have had a wonderful bounty of garden fresh veggies :). They brought tomatoes, garlic, potatoes, onion and peppers (oh and one delectable jar of homemade peach jam). I've been enjoying trying to make yummy but a little healthier meals. We eat a lot of rice, potatoes and pasta sauteed in tomatoes, onion and garlic... yummy! I made some lovely chicken salad sandwiches the other day and just thought everything looked so summery between those, the raspberry lemonade and the gorgeous flowers my hubby surprised me with when he came home from work that day!

3 months!

Little Nugget is officially 3 months old! She has had quite the last month. She went to her first (3) wedding(s), her first family reunion, and has had quite the array of visitors!

The reunion was also my first and lived up to everything Daniel had told me. The Volks are truly a family of pig, polka and more pork :). They are also wonderfully welcoming and have great senses of humor! I love being a part of another happy family :). I am so blessed! I had a great time taking lots and lots of pictures (you can see them all here if you're interested) and watching all of the silly games (lots of the first day was spend competing in the different games from "Minutes to Win-It." Our little squeaker was much admired and loved by all.

Also, my sister and her family visited - it was so hectic and happy! Her children are energetic and completely loving to Anni. Even little Mr. Bear Cub (formerly known as "Q") held her hand and worked hard to make her smile. They're going to be best friends...I know it! The two girls kept me company when I pumped and the younger of the two often stroked Nugget's head when she cried and said, "No, no. It's ok, don't cry." She also informed me after a bout of delighted smiling and squealing that Nugget loves her. Melt my heart :). The last day they were here, my mother and baby brother came out to stay until Saturday. It was so wonderful to see so much of my family! Having recently had two bouts of mastitis meant I was pretty worn down - so this gave me a chance to catch a little bit of a breath. Also, these two visits meant that our apartment looks much more like a home than ever and little Nugget's room looks a lot more like a baby's room!

Baptism

Nugget was baptized a few weeks ago. It was wonderful as we got to see my family. Daniel's father is a deacon, so she was baptized by her grandpa. He gave a beautiful homily relating nugget's adoption into the Catholic church to Daniel's adoption into their family. My oldest sister and her husband were the Godparents. I'm so lucky to have a whole slew of siblings that support and love each other (despite a great amount of ribbing). My two sisters are especially wonderful as they willingly answer all of my silly worried parenting questions. So our little girl is officially a Catholic! We also finally met Q, Nugget's cousin born about a month before she was. Isn't he adorably jolly?

With little Miss Nugget's Godparents and Grandpa Deacon.

Little Mr. Q

The 4th in all it's glory

Our fourth was pretty laid back, but wonderful. We decided not to travel to Daniel's parent's place as we had gone the weekend before and are going this coming weekend and traveling is a bit of a pain with all of the extra things we need to bring (including the oxygen, pump, extra milk and bottles, etc).

We started off our weekend with an all nighter on Friday. Nugget is heading towards getting off of her supplemental oxygen and needed to have a monitored night off of it in order for the doctor to determine if she could sign off on it. Unfortunately, our oxygen company only had a monitor without alarms that would require us to stay up all night (unless we wanted to wait a week for the right monitor). The answer to that was heck no, we aren't waiting! We decided to take shifts and just get it done. I took the first shift until around 2 and Daniel, being the wonderful, thoughtful dear that he is, took the rest of the wee hours so I could get a little rest before a photoshoot I had on Saturday morning. As far as we know, the test went pretty well. It looked like she dipped down once, but we're not sure if the monitor was reading well or not...unfortunately if she doesn't pass, I'll be horribly disappointed and if she does, I'll be dreadfully worried for the first few nights that she got taken off too soon. Daniel is, at this moment, turning the test in and will be calling the doctor today in hopes of results (she is off tomorrow, and we'd like to know either way asap).

We spent the 4th bbqing (a first on Daniel's new charcoal grill!), listening to music and hanging out with the in-laws (they came down). It was a lovely day that made up for the awful, exhausted night that followed. Daniel had Monday off and I am sad to see him go back to work today... life as a family is so much better than being apart!

Here's our little patriotic nugget (with a bow made by our wonderful friend Tiffany at Ashley's Inspiration Bows).

Home!

Our little nugget officially came home 8 days ago! It has been a crazy 8 days since. Daniel and I have been learning new depths of sleep deprivation and multi-tasking... but every time I get to just peek into her bassinet to see her, it is totally worth it. My mom came the day nugget came home and just left yesterday, so it was wonderful having her help, especially as we moved last Saturday. Luckily, we had lots of help for our move and are now officially in a bigger apartment. Even though it is just a few inches and an extra bedroom - it feels absolutely huge! It's so nice to have the baby things in their own bedroom and the desk out of our living room. We still have a massive amount of unpacking to do, but we're really not too worried about getting it done.

Yesterday was my first taste of "just me and the baby" for an extended period time. I definitely struggled to balance getting the necessities done, especially with lugging around her oxygen tank for every little move. I can't wait until she's off that - it will make picking her up much less of a challenge and will mean she's on her way to normal babyhood :). Speaking of which, as of her last doctor's appointment, she had reached 6 lbs 2 oz and 19 inches long! She is still a long, skinny little girl, but she's started to get the "Czech Cheeks" that run in my family. We love her so much!