Week 14

It's hard to believe that 14 weeks went by this fast and that my maternity leave has come to an end. I was going to make the best of this last week of J's and my time together and try not dwell on the having to go back to work part.

The week started with J's three month birthday on Saturday. Of course we had to play dress-up and take some pictures with her monthly sticker. Mommy also decided to get a little creative while daddy was out running an errand and put J in a basket with a few of her friends! These have to be some of the cutest pics I have taken to date,  I wish I would have video taped her too. She seemed to really like being in there and was fascinated with the lamb. The expressions she made were priceless and some have even said it would make a good E*TRADE commercial! Even at a young age you can definitely tell who is in charge and leading the round table discussion in the basket! Like mother, like daughter.

We finally decided that it was probably time to upgrade the TV in our bedroom we got 8 years ago when we were married. With mommy now going back to work we are figuring that J's Baby Einstein time will probably be in the mornings while we were getting ready. So what did we do? Buy us, well her, a new TV. She couldn't go from watching BE's on a movie theatre size TV (well that is what our 48" seems to her) to an airplane size TV which is what we had in our room. I do have to say that it is nicer for us parents to have a bigger size TV too, we can actually now read the guide!

As I have said the last few weeks her vocabulary is growing and she is just talking so much more each day. Her "ah, gee, gee, gee" and "uh, uh, uh, a, e, uh, uh, a, a, e,e,e" is so much clearer now and she just loves to babble away. She is also really cute when she can't figure out if she wants to talk or fuss and you get this mixture of both trying to come out her at the same time, she makes me laugh. She is also starting with the raspberries.

Tummy time is becoming more fun now and she will stay much longer before she starts to fuss or roll herself over (she is rolling to both her left and right side from her tummy to her back). After not really rolling over the last few weeks, she is starting to pick it up again. She is also scooting pretty well on her tummy and back. When she is on her back she is doing about a 270 degree turn over the course of about 10 minutes. When she is on her tummy she is starting to scoot forward and back and is at times almost off her mat! Can we say over achiever! She is also rolling to her side pretty well and it looks as like she is attempting to roll over from her back to her tummy too! Give her a few weeks to strengthen those neck muscles even more and I betcha we'll have a roller in both directions.

Grandma came into town on Wednesday to stay with us for a week while I start back to work and allow us to keep J out of daycare for a little while longer. We had our last going to the mall in the middle of the day with Grandma on Thursday. We had some lunch, did a little shopping and then had an afternoon snack at La Duni. It was a fun way to end the week and my maternity leave, well that and toasting with some champagne later that night! Grandma is learning J's routine and the two of them are going to have some fun over the next week.

Click here for the pictures of the week.

I have really cherished the time I have gotten to spend with J these last 14 weeks and all of the help/visits we have had from our families. While I am a little sad to be going back to work (and that is only normal) I know that I would go stir crazy if I was to stay home, thank goodness I had a conference assignment to work on while I was out, it kept me sane while J was napping these last 8 weeks! And with going back to work, it is only going to make our time with J that much more special when we all get home.

To the next chapter in our lives...adjusting to our new routine that is to come in the next few weeks.