I failed to mention in the previous post that Greta weighs 21.4 pounds. Yes, that is 3 times her birth weight. BOOM.

Went to the doctor, and Greta's runny nose and horrid cough are just a cold. Whew. My goal is to get to at least 1 year old without antibiotics.

Greta's first "sick" doctor appointment today. :( My little Button has a horrible cough and runny nose. (Sound the sad music...........)

AND she peed through two sets of pajamas last night.

Awesome.

Poor Greta has a runny nose and a nasty cough. I believe one of suitors, Oliver, passed the magic to her. Boo-hoo. Hopefully tomorrow will make for a happier Greta.

This is what I'm missing this weekend. My little Button getting ready to go for a hike with her Grammy and Dadda. (miss her.....)

My first weekend, alone, in my house, without Greta or Dave. Just me and the Beans. I miss the smell of urine filled diapers and pterodactyl like noises streaming from the TV room. Only 24 more hours.........

(Actually, I plan on catching up with my many sewing projects and smut television viewing. It would be nice to have a little person accompany me.)

I was able to capture this magical moment between Papa and Button. He comes home late in the evening, usually before her last feeding. I'm trying to have him spend as much time with her at the end of the night, knowing I get the entire day with her. I am ultimately trying to avoid the "Mommy only" phase---she's done quite well up to this point. She also has not exhibited any "stranger danger." I hope this continues.

Dave and Greta will be heading up to Ft Wayne this weekend as I am hosting the next Wine Club tonight. Yep, 22 ladies in sweatpants. Should make for an interesting night. Oh, I should also mention that Greta is Napping. In her crib. Unassisted. Yep. Yesterday, she napped for 3 hours! Whoo hoo!

(Please note in the picture the ears---Greta has Dave's ears, as well as his head shape, chin, and baby soft spikes.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXrNksvD4BE

Greta working diligently on one of her experiments. As she tells me, it has something to do with contrasting the relative velocity of intergalactic space modules with urban transit systems in diverse climates. In other words, she enjoys slamming her butt into the seat of her exersaucer.

Greta and her pal, Oliver. He is another potential suitor. We'll just add his name to the list underneath Jack Becker, Griffiin Greer, Sean B Groeber, Logan Jardine.....I could go on.....

Oliver is quite the dashing boy. He enjoys long walks, pacifiers, electronics, and the finer things: Puffs, milk, and yogurt. He is quite the catch.

FYI, Greta is two months younger than Oliver and I believe they weigh the same. Hopefully Sports Illustrated will hold their call to Greta for their annual pictorial, giving her enough time to develop her fitness (losing the "rubberband around the wrist" look).

Greta had yogurt for the first time this morning after sleeping 11 hours! There is a God! (Just when I thought we were dealing with sleep regression......)

On another note, I believe I have a village. By village, I mean a group of people/women who are incredibly supportive in my efforts to raise a nice little person, while being helpful, loving, compassionate, and caring. I love my Cookies, my Hoosier Mamas, and my Indy crew. Snaps all around.

GFP had a follow up visit with Dr. O'Donnell, neurologist to the stars. I had some concerns about the shape of her head----when she is receiving her bathies, I began to notice one side of her head was rounded and the other side 'juts' up a bit---where there had been a suction pop off during her delivery. This was a question I brought up during our visit. I was right, she does have some shape discrepancies, but Dr. O'Donnell is not worried at this point. We go back in six months for another check up and she'll assess it better at that time. I also asked about Greta's not crawling routine she is doing.....again, she told me not to worry, because she has such nice sitting posture. She also mentioned that it can take some time for babies to develop those lower back/sciatic muscles to make the knees come together AND start contracting in a forward/backward motion. If she isn't crawling by ten months, we go back for another assessment.

All in all, it was a great appointment. Dr. O always has this wonderful way of making things okay.

We followed up our appointment with a lovely visit with my wonderful friend Jamie's mom, Judith Ann Ott Vanscoy. She is a lovely grammy to Cole and Sophie and loves all babies skinny and fat. We stayed for several hours catching up on life---she fed Greta and showed me her lovely collection of vintage Fisher Price toys (from when I was little). It was a great visit and I hope she comes down to BTown with one of her grandbabies for a visit soon.

And my parting note: As I was leaving Dr O's office, I ran into the partner of my delivering OB with Greta. Talk about awkward. There was an initial smile and "Hello," which was quickly followed by an even more awkward stare and eye contact. Again, not a pleasant run-in. Thankfully, Beans was ready to greet me with some soft ears when I come home.

Guess who napped in her crib today???????????? Yep, Ms GFP. No rocking, no reading....I simply put her down, turn on her Ms. Cleo dog (it lights up and plays music), and off she went to sleepy land. She slept for almost 2 hours! Whoo hoo!

Lots of Little People. Lots.

Getting ready for bed as the pups get ready for some freshly baked cookies.

In keeping with my previous post, this is a picture of Greta's first bath. The "bathtub" is actually a barf basin or a pee basin---we happened to use it as a Jacuzzi because she fit in it so well. AND, she enjoyed her bathies so much, she fell asleep:

And now we are dealing with a 21 pounder. (Greta was about 6' 15" in these pictures. My foot fits into one of these tubs.) Thankfully, Greta still enjoys her bathies.

Bathies + Lotionies = Softies

This about sums up every morning with Greta. Thankfully, we have a pretty nice routine. She gets up between 8:15 and 8:45 in a fabulous mood. (I think because she knows she'll always have a good hair day.) I change her, prepare her bottle (as she squawks and screams for it), feed her the bottle (as she massages her flowing locks), burp her, then sing a few bars with her (Prince's "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World," and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider.") This is usually followed by 20 minutes in her think tank/laboratory (Exersaucer) while I make a piece of peanut butter toast and coffee. I usually pick her up to find that she has a stink in her fanny (which now smells like sweet bacon), which in turn leads to a new pair of underpants. When I change her, I try to find something she can play with, which is safer than letter her feet and hangs wander. The item of choice is her comb, a shoe, or one of her Little People. She is fancied by the policeman right now. Then, I return her to the TV room where she'll play on the floor for a while as I try to get ready for the day. At this point, she is usually changed into her play clothes and I'm still in my pajamas. I look super hot until about 1 pm, when I realize how awesome I look. She goes down for a nap about an hour and half after she gets up and sleeps for anywhere from one to three hours----I know I'm very lucky to have such a mellow baby. No colic, spit up, screaming, or fussing. I thank the Baby Jesus in the Manger for this everyday. I do not take it for granted. Trust me.

Some of her favorites:

Toys: Fisher Price Little People, hair comb, remote control, her shoes, paper (documents), and her Pooh book with the little blocks on it.

Food: Squash, Prunes, Pineapple/Pear combo, Turkey and Sweet Potatoes.

Songs: Itsy Bitsy Spider, Natural Woman (Aretha Franklin, Dana Monforton version), Sin Wagon (Dixie Chicks), and The Crocodile Song (with the hand motions).

Activities: Johnny Jumper (she likes to crash into the "boards," i.e., door frame), walks in the Baby Bjorn in public places (to scream and stare at people), being thrown into the air by her Dadda, talking to herself about her recent research findings (usually geared toward paper engineering, and color identification), bath time, and most importantly, studying her hands. No joke, she stares and plays with her hands about 20% of her day.

Sleeping habits: Awesome sleeper! She sleeps between 10-12 hours a night with 2-3 naps a day.

Developmental milestones: Sitting up on her own, rolling over, moving her hands from underneath her, beginning to move hands to crawl (and support her), crossing arms over midline to reach for things almost to the point of rolling over, reaching for us for a hug and holding, playing independently on the floor, lots of babbling with consonant sounds and tongue movements, supporting all her weight on her legs for a long period of time.

She is wearing size 9 months clothes, and I'm finding she fits nicely into 6 months pants. I think the belly is a "problem area" for Greta.....she doesn't have much of a waistline. Sadly, she can only wear her Sacagawea moccasins from her Grammy Jan because her feet are very deep, i.e, fat. No shoes for her....Adrienne bought her these beautiful shoes when she was still in my belly and they have only provided her with entertainment, because she could never get her foot into them.

We go back to the neurologist in a few weeks for another follow up. The "owies" on her head seem to continue to heal. There is still an obvious scar and the skin is still healing, but it is looking better. I'm sad to say her "ducktail" is totally gone. Those spikes have been replaced with short, soft baby hairs that do not shape into spikes after long naps or bathtime.

Greta is excited that she spent two whole days with her Grammy Jan in Cincinnati this past weekend. Sadly, we were there to celebrate Grandma Garbon's life, but Greta made for a great distraction. She absolutely was a trooper, getting passed around quite a bit. She met several of her cousins--Shyrah and Zahari. We are thankful she and Z finally met--they are only one month apart. We definitely want to make sure they have a relationship---She was also able to see her Great Aunties and Uncles that she met at Jennie's wedding. She is excited for her Aunty Reesy and Uncle Miko because they are getting a new grandbaby in a few months. Baby Jackie G. will be the first child for my cousin Michael and wife Nicole.

Greta will see her Grammy Joan tomorrow. I have to get more tests done on my bladder and Joan has graciously offered her grandma services while I am at the hospital. Joan is fabulous because she'll stop all of her plans to help us out---She has been amazing during the last seven months. She has come with me to countless appointments and listened to many meltdowns over the phone. I am thankful for her everyday. Greta is blessed to have such amazing grandparents.

Greta is also looking forward to seeing her Great Pepe and Grandma in February. Mom and Dad will return from Hawai'i and we'll make the trip up to the High Five (Michigan) to see them. I'm sure Dad will be floored by how much she's grown.

Happy Wednesday!

I am listening to Greta "talk" to herself in her crib....I put her down thinking she'd stay asleep during her nap time. I usually rock her to sleep before her naps and I always mistakenly don't put her down. Well, today I thought otherwise and she is NOT sleeping. I guess she can stare at her mobile and her pal Ms. Cleo (the light up dog) for a while as I try to pull this house together. A picture to follow.

And I will NOT be giving GFP bananas without some other fruit. This made for an interesting weekend......not exactly movement that I wanted to see. And by movement, I mean poop. I celebrate each poopie diaper, as I know her bowels are working. Sounds stupid, but with a mom with Crohn's and a whole handful of aunts with issues, I will not side step this issue. SO, we went back to the drawing board.....prunes, pears, and spinach. Grandma Edna answered my prayers last night......a blowout that surpassed all my expectations.....up the back, down the leg, and through the onesie. Praise God, there are Angels in Heaven!

We are back on a sleep schedule after little sleep this weekend. I believe the bananas and all the auntie/uncle/cousin action kept her neurons firing on all cylinders. She already misses "Z," her special second cousin. I hope we can have a nice visit this summer in DC; Dave and I talked about a vaca to see Auntie Niecy and Uncle Miko Starshine and Auntie Mary. I think we are really going to try and do this.

Greta's newest thing is tilting her head WAY back. Another trick Z showed her this weekend. This is another move added to her busy repertoire of awesomeness.

And finally, the award show season started. Greta and I loved Charlize Theron's Dior dress and did not like Dianna Agron's laser-cut red bird thing. Yuck. To mark the occasion, Greta wore her green frog pajamas to bed.

Happy Monday!

Clearly, it was quite hard to capture her 7 month picture. She was very much preoccupied with touching the "document" as we like to call it.....anything paper-like, she is sure to touch, crinkle, tear, rip, etc. She is quite nimble with her hands.....she is working out the kinks in using her pointer finger and thumb....regardless, she is obsessed with hands: her own, as well as others. She'll stare at them, eat them, rub them together, run them through her flowing locks, suck on them. (You get the point.) I think we may have a hand surgeon in the making.

We are also working on (well, I'm working on) trying to have her fall asleep independently, i.e., without me rocking her or holding her. This has been very difficult as I cherish my time holding her. She falls asleep quite quick when anyone is holding her, and I feel we are creating a monster. She loves to be held so she can touch the person's face that is holding her......she starting doing this when she was very little. I'm sure it is a comforting thing for her. I understand this, as I rub my feet together, play with my hair, and rub Beans' ear to fall asleep. So her sleep issue compounded with the beginnings of teething has made for an interesting week. If she is unable to soothe herself to sleep, at least she is having quiet time. As instructed to me from Mrs. Sue Lockwood, mother extraordinaire, the more babies sleep, the more they sleep. These are words I have chosen to live by. Hopefully we can make some headway before the end of the weekend.

A few other things we have noticed....she loves all foods she has tried. She gave bananas a tear this morning, and they went down the gullet with no challenges. She likes apricots, squash, and mangoes. We are going to start more on finger foods next week. She is not really into Puffs. She is unsure what she is suppose to do with them......she knows Biscuit loves them.

She is sitting up on her own like a champ. She has a large "core" to support, so I can see how this has been hard for her. She is in the early early stages of crawling....not quite sure what she does with her legs, but she can surely support herself with her arms.

She has been a delightful baby. Practically no crying, regular pooping, and lots of laughing and talking. We are absolutely blessed to have a great baby. I'm not sure if this what happens when a baby is brought into the world in a rough manner, but she has turned out to be a blessing, truly.

She goes to the Neurologist for a check up at the end of the month. I am not sure if she will need another CAT scan, but she has shown NO signs of any developmental delay or physical challenges. She still has fluid on the back of her head, though I've been told that will go away in time.

Happy 7 Months, Margaret Elizabeth!

I'm a bad mommy blogger. I have failed to post a 7 Month picture of Greta. Yes, I'm a bad mom. We've been busy around here trying to finish the closet and BRACE for the birth of Jay-Z and Beyonce's daughter. Good grief.

A better post tomorrow.

My parting note:

Who the hell names their kid Blue?!?! Really?!?!?! And that is front page news worthy??!?!?!?

Game Day

No, this is not Don King. This is Greta Norton after going to bed with a wet head (and after caressing her flowing locks to put herself to sleep). This look, compounded with several happy screeches in the morning always makes for an interesting trip to her crib. It is very nice seeing a happy baby in the morning, who in turn, is happy to see you.

**Do you like the way the sun strikes her hair at just the perfect angle? Are you catching all of the gorgeous layers to her hairstyle?

Because college basketball season is well underway, Greta thought she'd make a shout-out to her parents' and grandparents' alma mater: St. Joseph's College, home of the Pumas. Apparently the men's basketball team is 5-5 in the conference, which is NO BUENO. The year after Dave and I graduated, SJC beat Butler. Yep, you heard it here. Not sure what is going on up there, but we hope they get their act together in time to make it to their conference tournament. GO PUMAS!

Happy New Year!
We were incredibly blessed in 2011, and look forward to many more blessings in 2012.