Good morning sleepy face.

This is me:

Just kidding. I wish. This is my super-yogi friend Nikki who I am insanely jealous of. She's crazy good and gets to do aerial yoga all the time and is studying to be a yoga teacher. If you're reading this Nikki, I can't wait to take one of your classes!

So I cashed in my Groupon-of-all-Groupons today and started my one year unlimited membership at the Yoga World studio in downtown LB. I am SO HAPPY I bought that sucker. I'm such a waffler too with online shopping. I fill up my virtual shopping cart with all these goodies that I want really badly, and then get scared at the checkout page and close the browser window really quickly before the credit card gets pulled out. I knew that this one was too good to pass up though and purchased with no regret.

My first class today was perfect. I'd never been to the studio before so I was hoping it was going to be a nice one but I wasn't banking on it being as nice as the Yoga Works I went to in Newport Beach. It only took me 8 minutes to drive there from our house and the studio looks like this:

I'm a fan of mirrors in a yoga studio. My last one didn't have them and I feel like I have better technique when I can see what I'm doing. Our teacher was great too, although it was an all levels class and he worked it like a power yoga one. Or maybe it felt like that since I've been doing wussy prenatal yoga for the past 9 months. My legs and arms were shaking like dog shapooping peach seeds and I was pouring sweat. I'm so hardcore! I can't wait to go again. It's a nice break away from my beautiful little screamy face baby.

These are probably only interesting to our parents...

Babybabybaby, that's all she talks about...

Here are a few recent pics of my baby girl!

She is such a happy camper (most of the time) in her swing. She's kind of little for it so we have to prop her big old noggin up with swaddling blankets so it doesn't flop over to the side when it rocks. She usually goes right to sleep in it and gives me an hour or two to eat, get dressed, and launder her shapoopie diapers in peace.

Speaking of shapoopie diapers, her little g's are so cute! They've leaked twice when she's been on her side nursing (that's an awesome feeling by the way- getting pissed on while you have a little sucker fish stuck to your boob) because she's still really little and her thighs aren't quite chubby enough to make the leg holes watertight. Other than those fun occasions, they're great, and we save around 8 disposables a day by using them. Plus since she can't wear pants with her harness, she needs some style down below.

She had her first bottle today! And it was the first time daddy got to feed her. It's a little early to be giving her a bottle I guess but she's having no problems whatsoever with nursing, and today of course she woke up starving a few minutes after I finished pumping. I don't think she was getting much out of me so we decided to give the bottle a spin. She sucked that thing down like nobody's business. I think she liked it.

Oh, and a hips update! She saw the orthopedist this morning after having a follow-up ultrasound last week, and her hips are shaping up! The harness is doing its job and her hips are growing in the sockets as they should be so we have another 4 weeks of full-time wear and then two months beyond that of partial-day wear before she's done with it for good and all fixed up. Success!

Thanks Karen!

It's SO good to have friends that know how to take pictures...

You made my dad's life with these pictures Karen! We'll treasure them always. 

Happy World Breastfeeding Week!

I want to participate in The Big Latch On this Saturday, but will probably do it from home because gathering with a giant group of women to whip out the boobs in public is a little too crunchy granola for me (I'm only 42%). I fully support anyone that does want to do it in public though because breastfeeding is awesome and it keeps babies alive. Elsa and I have luckily had a *fairly* easy time with it so far but we've worked hard to get there. Big shout-out to my doula Samantha who has also provided lactation consultation and is a big part of the reason I have a chubby baby now.

Here's a link to one of my favorite mom-blogs, MODG, to a post she did on the 10 hidden benefits of breastfeeding. She's hilarious and awesome and I wish she was my real-life friend. #5 is my favorite.

Our mornings

Elsa hates being put back in her bassinet after her first morning feeding even though she wants to sleep more, so this has become our routine. Two hours of a sweet smelling, warm, delicious baby sleeping on my chest while I savor every second of it.

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Vintage!

Karen sent me this picture of Jeff and I at her wedding back when we first started dating. Jeff looks so young! Elsa has already given him a cluster of gray hairs. It'll be funny to see what we look like another five years from now...

We'll miss you Grampa!

After doing all of our yard work, cleaning out all of the spiders from our porch, buying and planting a bougainvillea in our backyard, and smothering my baby girl in mustache kisses, my dad left for back home and we will certainly miss him. He was so good about whisking up the baby when she was screaming her head off and bouncing her around calming her down while Jeff and I did shots of vodka. Just kidding.

He took a billion and one pictures with his camera and I just got a few on mine, so here they are:

And one of Elsa and me, because she looks so darn cute in it:

Elsa and her Bestefar

My dad is down visiting his little baby granddaughter this weekend, and he was instantly glued to her. She's getting a good exfoliation from his mustache kisses!

Meghan was so sweet and got her these two little flapper headbands. I'm usually against those headbands that look like garters with all the satin and lace that some people insist on putting on babies as soon as they're out of the womb, but these ones are super cute, and don't leave a huge indentation across her forehead when you take them off.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!

40 years... dang! They're in it for the long haul. Congratulations Mom and Dad, we promise to throw you a party for your 50th so keep it up!

Photo shoot!

Elsa was very uncooperative when Karen and her new camera lens came over to do a Glamour Shots sesh but she got a few great shots in. I love the ones with Henry looking at her. :)

2 weeks 2 days and I haven't eaten her yet.

She's still pretty precious... Definitely throws more hissy fits than she did in her first week which made us freak out and think the harness was hurting her, or that she was gassy because I drink a lot of soy milk and have a cup of coffee in the morning, or that she was broken. Our pediatrician said we could try the baby gas drops (which we bought immediately) or I could try an elimination diet (no thanks, I'll take the screaming baby AND my morning cup of coffee thanksverymuch), or we could just get real and realize that babies cry for no good reason. So we're dealing. Sometimes well, sometimes not so well.

She was good last night though and I got a few solid chunks of sleep in, so I feel awesome today. Another great discovery today is that she loves the Ergo carrier!! I still need to figure out how to wrap her in the Moby where it works with her harness, but the Ergo is a snap on and drop baby in set-up and she's a happy camper moving around with me wearing it. Thanks Mark and Lisa!!

No time for hair and make-up with a baby. Well actually, now I might now that I have my hands back!

She makes a lot of funny faces and throws up gang signs with her spastic little hands. It's so cute, and I'm trying to capture them in photos and video so we can make fun of her when she's older.

Our friends have been SO great these past few weeks. I love the texts from people checking in with us (especially since I'm bad at carrying my phone around with me and usually miss phone calls), and how accommodating everyone is when we tell them they can't come over to see the baby because she's freaking out and mommy hasn't changed out of her milk stained peejays yet. Mandy also made us a super yummy lasagna full of veggies and light on cheese (she knows me so well) which sustained us for a solid three days of dinner, and Mark and Karen came over and brought us a sushi dinner! It was great because I could hand off the screaming baby to Karen and she was all over her. Quiet in a few seconds.

They also brought us the sweetest gifts, as if they haven't hooked up this baby enough already. Karen embroidered (and altered!) this sweet little swiss dot dress with her name and kitty, and the sweetest little dedication on the inside.

 It will be perfect over her harness too. The onesies aren't fitting too well with the hip straps so she's mostly in shirts and diapers (she finally fits into her cute colorful g diapers!!) and some dresses.

Mark made her these monogram cardboard letters for her nursery too, and I can't wait to hang them up. The colors are perfect, and it's so sweetly personalized. Artist friends are the best!

She does this a lot. She'll have a major freak out and then two seconds later looks like this:

Such a faker! She's also still doing those random jerky movements where she throws her arms out to the side and does spirit fingers. It startles me sometimes.