1 Month Birthday!

Happy 1 Month Birthday to our beautiful little love!

 Snuggling with her doll baby for comparison

 Still haven't mastered the whole head control thing

Kicking and playing

SO over the whole photo shoot

Height/Weight: We clocked in at 21.25" and 9lbs, 2oz at the doctor this week. She then proceeded to pee ALL over the doctor's table, so David thinks she lost a few ounces there.

Clothes: Baby girl is officially out newborn clothes (wahhhhhh!) and solely in 0-3 months, but at this rate we will very quickly be in 3-6 months! 

Likes: tummy time, eating, being outside, napping in people's arms, white noise, and her swing.

Dislikes: sleeping on her back, bath time, going to the doctor to get poked and prodded, and having her diaper changed.

Milestones: She has officially rolled over three times by herself now! She also works hard to hold her head up and look around for 15-20 seconds before she rests it on our chests. Our baby girl is growing so fast!

Saturday Outing

We are fortunate enough to live in a pretty awesome location. We're close to the Lake Norman area and a short drive from Charlotte, which means we're always close to fun things. Coming up with a good restaurant to visit or a neat place to try isn't the hard part; what is hard is deciding where to go! This past Saturday we decided to take advantage of the cooler summer temps and wander outside for a "date". Granted, Amelia Grace joined us, but she was so well-behaved we barely noticed her! So where did we take our wee little one?? Why, a beer festival of course!

A local neighborhood was hosting a small craft beer festival and we knew it would be right up our alley. For $18 you received eighteen 2-oz servings. I knew that I was in no shape to be drinking that much beer, especially heavy beers, so David and I split the ticket. There were nine different breweries to choose from with two samples at each brewery. 

A pretty good turnout for the small, not very well-publicized, shindig

David enjoying a little sip of NoDa's "Woody and Wilcox" brew

Baby girl basking in all the attention

The real star of the show, though? Amelia Grace, of course. Just about every time we turned around people were sneaking peaks at the little miss and asking about her. It was so much fun getting to brag about our little love!

A Different First Day

Welp, it's the first day of school and I'm not there. This is actually the first "first day" that I've not been a part of in 21 years. Wowzers. Crazy to think that I've had a first day of school every August since I was 4 years old and now I'm not. It's kind of sad, to be honest. What's even more sad is that I won't have any sort of "first day" this year. After much prayer and discussion David and I decided it would be best for me to stay home with our little girl for a year.

Don't get me wrong, I am over the moon to have this opportunity to spend extra time with Amelia Grace! I cannot wait to watch her grow and help her reach all sorts of milestones, but I really am going to miss the hustle and bustle of middle school. I'm going to miss their crazy "I love you/I hate you" moments and their "my world is ending because he/she won't talk to me anymore" days. My heart will certainly miss the laughter and camaraderie that came along with my school family. And there are no words to describe how much I will seeing the "light bulb" moment on a student's face when they finally "get it".

It was by far one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make, but I know I made the right one. My wonderfully supportive principal said it best, "Teaching will always be here, but your baby won't". I'm keeping those words close to my heart as I embark on a whole new journey with a different type of student. Here's to days of staying in our pajamas and momma learning to curb the sarcastic humor middle schoolers love so much;-)

My new student is VERY serious about learning;-)

Shifting Gears

The past three weeks have been a surreal experience. This sweet baby girl has made our lives infinitely better in such a short time, and for that we are thankful. All the months of prayers and have blessed us way beyond our wildest imaginations. But to be honest, it was super tough at first. Don't get me wrong, Amelia Grace has been such a wonderful baby (minus the reflux episodes during the witching hour) and watching her grow has filled my heart in a way I didn't know was possible. In fact all the toughness really has nothing to do with her; it comes from remembering Emerson.

I've been struggling to put this post into words, because I don't know what to say. As we drove  home from the hospital David and I talked about the importance of keeping our lines of communication open and continuing to talk about everything. That led to one of us (I can't remember who) bringing up how weird it was to be bringing home our baby girl. Last time we went to the hospital to have a baby, that precious little one didn't come home with us. All the emotions of being in the hospital, seeing some of our old nurses, talking with the doctors brought both of us right back to last January. 

I mentioned a few times here how anxious I was with this pregnancy and how scared we both were about everything. There was more than one visit to the doctor that was scheduled in haste because I "just didn't feel right". Thankfully, there was also more than one time the doctors hooked us up and we heard her strong little heartbeat reassuring us. 

Since we've gotten home all those feelings of anxiety that came from comparing the two experiences have disappeared. Instead they have been replaced with indescribable joy and happiness. There are moments of "what if Emerson. . .",  but those moments don't cause overwhelming sadness anymore. Instead we are focusing on enjoying every little moment with Amelia Grace knowing that she has a big sister watching out for her every step of the way.