Don't call me by my real name...please....

Am I crazy?

So, recently, Jordan has decided to call me by.........my......REAL NAME! Definitely not ALL THE TIME, but sometimes, and I hate it!!! He's not allowed to call me Janessa or I just know he is mad at me!!!

So I made up some rules...

Honey, you can only call me by my real name in the following circumstances:

1. If we're in a crowded area and there are lots of husbands and wives around, and ONLY after you have at least called after me with "Honey!" once. I can recognize your voice you know...

2. If you are referring to me in conversation with a third party.

Ummm...there would be more rules, but there aren't any other instances in which he is allowed to call me anything but a pet name. Period.

Kika's Little Bundle of Joy!

Olivia Vila Nova Windhorst

On Tuesday, I had the great pleasure to visit one of my best friends, Kika, and see her new baby!! Her cute little girl was born on Saturday, and looks JUST LIKE her mommy! It was also wonderful to see Nely, Kika's mom, who flew in from Portugal.

Claire and Olivia--they couldn't believe how BIG Claire has gotten in just two months! Olivia is on her way!

Kika is the only friend I have that I have known since I was 14 or so, and STILL keep in contact with on a regular basis. Crazy. We met in Brazil, when my dad was a mission president. The missionaries brought Kika to church--she was investigating the church at the time. We became friends, and she was baptized, has served a mission, and is now married to Trevor Windhorst, an american, in the temple, and I'm so lucky she lives so close by!

Goodbye to Jonathan!

Monday night we had the BEST time with some of our neighborhood friends! Rachel and Jonathan wanted to go out because it was the last night that Jonathan would have in town before he goes to Iraq this week! We are so sad!! Rachel won't see him for the next 6 months or so, but then he'll be DONE!

It was so fun to hang out with everyone and eat some REALLY GOOD sushi at Mikado. Jonathan is basically Jordan's twin...they love the same things--you know, nerd stuff, machinery, tools, camping, etc.--and they also worked together at ICU Medical (Jonathan introduced Jordan to this job, so we are very grateful!!)

Jonathan, Rachel, Megan, and Gillis

Jordan, Janessa, Natalie, and Rob

Baby Quirks

Doesn't she look like she's talking into a mike here?

I've been "compiling" if you will, some of the funny quirks about Claire:

1. If Claire gets fussy, (like in the car...as usual!) she calms RIGHT DOWN, in fact is practically comotose when you turn on, say... a power drill. Guess who discovered this? Jordan, of course. We now keep a battery operated power drill in the car :) (don't worry we have like 5 others in our garage.)

2. Claire is just getting over a cold right now...a not-too-bad one, thankfully! But, it's been funny because since she's been a little congested, we've decided she sounds like a "Gremlin." Sometimes we call her our little gremlin...

3. She loves music. When she is under her little Baby Einstein Gym, she loves the star in the middle that lights up and plays classical songs (of which I am TOTALLY sick of!!). When the music stops, she automatically starts making noises until you turn the music back on... "uh...uh...uhh" Hard to write them, but they're funny.

4. Jordan says that when he sings to her, when he stops, she'll let out a high-pitched...sound...like she's trying to sing along :) (of course, she will DEFINITELY be a singer! No doubt!)

The Two Month-er

So, like I said, Claire had to go in for her 2-month appointment. That's where they do the SHOTS! Well, I guess they do them every two months, so lucky me, I have to look forward to them again! I actually told the nurse that I would really hate her job. She laughed and said that it can be hard sometimes, and was really hard at first!

But first the fun stuff. They measured her head, weighed her, and measured her length. Unfortunately, they don't do foot size, because I was really hoping to see what percentile her FEET made it into! They're huge!

Height: 23.5 inches - that's 4 inches she's gained from birth! - 89th Percentile

Weight: 11 lbs. 3 oz. - that's up from 8.2 she weighed at her 2 week appt! - 61st Percentile

Head Circumference - 39 cm - 59th Percentile

So she's pretty tall for how tiny the rest of her is! No wonder her onesies are all baggy around the waist and cutting off her circulation lengthwise! :)

What do these percentiles really mean? I don't think they mean much to be honest. She's considered "TALL" now, but it's not like she'll be really tall I think? I mean, look at Jordan and me--we're not that tall...

(However, I'm TOTALLY doing the whole, "double their height at 2 years old and you'll know how tall they are going to be" thing...I hear it really works!)

So then after doing the "fun stuff" they did the "not so fun stuff..." the SHOTS!!!! She cried that red-faced, stop breathing for 5 seconds cry that makes you just DIE inside, but then she was OK after like 10 seconds. Pheww... although, she was up half the night wanting to be held. Jordan was here and already going to be up all night, so he was up with her, yay! I got a good night's rest...at least a LOT more sleep than usual! Hopefully her little legs will feel better soon. I think they're already doing better.

Sydney and Gavin Visit! (and Michelle...and Andrew for a second)

Sydney and Gavin came to visit for Claire's blessing last week. It was so fun to see them! They loved being with Claire and of course, argued over who would get to hold her next :) Gavin was hilarious--when he first got to hold Claire, he would do this little giggle...he was soooo excited! Michelle, looks like he needs a little baby brother or sister :) He also can't pronounce her name...he called her "Clay-uh." So funny--he sounded like someone from New Jersey or something!

We went swimming at Lifetime - Claire's first time, of course. I really shouldn't have put on a bathing suit...seriously...

We also went with Lauren, Shaunie, Kristin, and her kids to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point and to the ice cream parlor after...

It's always so fun to have the Keslers come to visit!!

Claire's Blessing

This past Sunday, we had Claire's baby blessing. It was great to see some family I haven't seen in a while, and get to have them all meet Claire. Jordan's super-talented mom made the MOST BEAUTIFUL dress for her!!! It's definitely frameable and heirloomable... (both not words, I'm sure) and I just LOVE IT!!!

I'm really glad that Jordan stuck with "Claire Michelle Taylor" and didn't do what his grandpa did to his grandma...change the name in the blessing :)

Here are pictures of the blessing dress that Lenore made. It's an ivory silk dupioni and silk dupioni pintuck with pearls... soooo cute:

And here is our little cupcake IN the dress:

And at this point, she was...DONE. ;)

It's Just...a Little Thrush...

My little purple mouthed baby

Yep. She got it. This was a couple of weeks ago (yes, I'm that behind in blogging!)... WOW. Painful. For me. I don't think it was painful for her though. Anyway, I took some kind of pill for like 7 days, and then for her, I just gave her Genetian Violet. Didn't know there were other "cures" that weren't quite as messy!! Next time, I think I'll use the CLEAR grapeseed extract instead. I say "next time," because really I just feel like I'm keeping it at bay, not really getting rid of it entirely. That would actually constitute boiling things, doing a lot of laundry, etc... I can barely keep my house clean...

Claire goes to the doctor today, so I'll talk to him about it. But, any recommendations are appreciated :) (easy ones...if that's possible?:)

Ps. Her doctor's visit is the infamous/scary two-month appointment...I purposefully made it at a time in which Jordan could take her instead of me!! I don't want to see her cry again when she gets her shots!! I know, I'm a wimp...

Jordan got me this time...

I just love her.

Mother & Daughter

We've been meaning to do something like this for a while...and now, two months later... oh well!

Cute Shoes.

I had to take a picture...since this may be the only time she ever wears them... Next week when she has her 2-month appt. we will see that her feet fall into the 90th percentile, whereas the rest of her body in like the 25th :) She has some big feet!

Thank you to Trista for these SUPER CUTE shoes. I'll be saving these for the next girl (hopefully I'll have more than one girl!) And I'm immortalizing them on the blog :)

Welcome Samuel ...?...Pace

So it may not even be Samuel but the middle name is even more hard to tell at this point... Jen, my adopted sister-in-law, and mother to Ava, who I have blogged about, just had another sweet little one. This baby is her first (and last, she affirms!) with her husband of one year, David. She has three other kids from before.

Jen wants to name him Samuel David Pace. David wants to name him something ridiculous (sorry David...but then again I'm pretty sure he'll never read this post!) like Samuel Duncan or Samuel Xavier David... we'll see. Jen is used to getting her way so I'm thinkin' Samuel David may be the winner :)

He is very cute as you can see! AND since he is about the same size Claire was newly born, he seriously made us realize that babies do indeed grow very fast! She's like twice his size!

Samuel with me...still have the double chin...

Hot Date

Last night, Jordan and I left Claire with one of her favorite aunties, Jessica, to go out on the town. We finally used the PF Chang's gift certificate, compliments of Mainha & Painho for our anniversary last year, (yes, we're finally using it!) and had a great dinner! PF Chang's is my favorite restaurant, and the locale of Jordan's and my first date!

I still remember that fateful day... when Jordan and I went out for the first time. I had JUST broken up with my boyfriend like 3 days earlier, who I worked with, and nobody really knew we'd broken up yet. THEN, I went out with Jordan, who ALSO worked at the engineering firm my ex and I worked at (yes, it's a workplace love triangle here) to PF Chang's in Summerlin...WHERE we ended up sitting RIGHT ACROSS from Jordan's boss!! Crazy. It was so embarrassing... we did kinda want to keep our relationship a little under wraps, since I'd just dated one of the engineers, and I kinda also didn't want to be known as the "work dater," you know? What can I say...they all wanted to go out with me :) :) :)

Anyway, back to the present. It was a fun date. We topped it off by....you guessed it....picking up a few things at Walmart. Yes, a very sexy ending to our great night :)

Getting to See Becca and her Little Cuties

It was so fun to see Becca and her kids this past week!

Highlights:

*Going to Rodizio for lunch, Becca, Heather, and me (and the kids...who didn't exactly leave the floor clean under the table :)

*Going to Heather's for Lauren's 1st Birthday, and Becca eating 3 HAMBURGERS. Ha ha!!

* Having Heather and Becca over at our place for pizza and Incredibles

We don't get that chance very often so it was great. Zachary is looking more and more like Phil! And Kaylin is as sweet as can be! It was great to be with them. Come again :)

I'm Just So Crafty!

Not. But my friend, Natalie is!! I call her the new Martha...you know, the one who doesn't have the jailbird past...

Here is my super cute new wipes case!! Don't worry, if you want to make one too (you don't even have to be in the diaper-changing stage in life...it can just be something you keep in the car!) I'm going to start a "how-to" blog for lots of crafts and stuff I learn. I'll keep you posted!

Just so you know, this was my first one...so the "imperfections" you can see....well, maybe I'll get better!

The "Never Thoughts" of Motherhood...

I never thought...

*It would be so tempting to just wear pajamas or yoga pants all day long and not get ready for the day

*I'd forget to brush my teeth in the morning so many times! (while I was on maternity leave...not now!)

*Losing weight would be so hard...maybe I'm one of those that lose weight only AFTER she stops breastfeeding? Or I might have to lay off the chocolate. Either way...

*I would be a PRO at sleeping while sitting UP! I could never do it on the plane (and believe me, I've been on a lot of LONG flights!) Guess when it's 4am and you're feeding the baby, you're just so tired, it just happens. And for me...ALL THE TIME. I need to rethink how to stay awake, because I'll wake up 2 hours later and I've got her on my lap still, and we're both sleeping! Glad the crick in my neck goes away by mid morning though :)

*I'd be so paranoid about SIDS and RSV. I'm always checking her to make sure she's breathing!

*I'd wish every day that my child...remains a child...a baby preferrably!

*It would be so much harder to resist buying clothes for HER than it is to buy stuff for ME (although, I've totally resisted. My mother-in-law, on the other hand...she has a problem. Claire already has 3 swimsuits...)

*That even though I have to make "sacrifices" because now I have a baby... (can't do certain things, go certain places as often, accept invitations to do things, etc.) I couldn't care less. Nothing is a sacrifice really. Having her is better than anything she makes more difficult for me to do.

*That I'd be paranoid about my milk supply and CONSTANTLY thinking about it and thinking about the next feeding, etc.

Motherhood definitelychanges things!