Finley looking exactly like Baby Clifton

Baby Katie and Baby Clifton

So, my baby book arrived in the mail today. We have had Clifton's for awhile, so it was easy to compare Finley to his baby pictures. Here are four pictures of Clifton and I, I am surprised how similar we looked as babies. We both changed a lot around six months or so.

My greatest panic is that Finley's hair is looking exactly like my hair was. It has been really spiky the last week or so. And there has been more hair in her crib in the morning. I have my fingers crossed that it is just from her rubbing her head on the crib during the night. It looks like my hair really fell out around 2 1/2 months, so we just have a couple more weeks until I feel we are in the clear. I sure hope she keeps her hair

The Bumbo Lean

Eight Weeks Old

Finley is eight weeks old today. Sadly, I am sick with whatever it was Clifton had a couple weeks back. Finley still shows no sign of illness, so let's hope it stays that way. Clifton still hasn't fully recovered from his being sick. I sure hope it doesn't last as long for me, I want to enjoy my last four weeks home with her as much as possible.

We started interviewing nannies, what a challenge it has been thus far. The toughest part is just getting people to show up for their scheduled interview time. We only have a 50% sucess rate thus far, which is super frustrating.

Here are Finley's 8 week pics, she is getting so long:

Happy New Year!

We celebrated at home with Osso Bucco and Risotto Milanese (recipes courtesy of Mario Batali). Of course we were joined at the table by Finley and Wrigley, neither could be left out of the celebrations. It was a very low key evening, I cannot believe it is 2009 already! It seems like it was just yesterday that I was celebrating it being 2000, time sure flies. Finley is getting so very big as the time keeps racing by. I cannot believe how quickly she has grown, it really is amazing.

I hope everyone had a wonderful new year's eve and I hope 2009 brings everyone great happiness.

Finley's kitty cats love her very much...

Generally either Wrigley or Camden, sometimes both, will follow me into her nursery when she has a feeding or needs changing. They keep a watchful eye over her and have always been very sweet with her. Wrigley loves to sleep on her changing pad, often I have to kick her off in order to get a diaper change in. I hope Finley grows up to love her kitty cats, though I know Clifton is excited about training her to chase them around.




Here are some more pics of her adorable hair, I think she looks exactly like Bob's Big Boy.

Finley's Amazing Christmas

Even though she missed delivering her list in person to Santa, Finley received so many great gifts. She got a ton of new books, which I am thrilled about because I was growing bored with her existing collection. I try to read her one or two books a night, depending on her attention span. She also got some great new hairbows from her Aunt Rose and cousin Faith, I already have caught Clifton taking them off of her!

Some of her gifts she has to grow into (Jumparoo from Grandma and Grandpa Engleman, Exersaucer from Santa), but she is working on head control so she can get to playing! Finley got a great pink pony from Grandma Matuska to go in her pink world.
Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve and day.

Seven Weeks Old!

Merry Christmas!

Visit to Santa = FAIL

With Clifton being sick, we had put off visiting Santa until Christmas Eve. We lucked out with the parking, right next to the elevator up to where Santa was posted at the Galleria. We got in a line, not too long, but noticed it wasn't moving. After realizing Santa was not in his big chair, we did some investigating. Apparently, Santa had been pooped on and was off changing...whoops!

Off to lunch then (which was the non-fail portion of the trip), Nordstroms Bistro is quite yummy and they are super accommodating with bottle warming. Afterwards, we headed back to the Santa line. We had just missed the cut off before Santa took his reindeer feeding break. Whoops again. It would be at least two hours until we could see Santa, so we abandoned the Santa visit. Maybe next year...

I still think Finley will get everything on her list, even though she wasn't able to deliver it personally to the big guy.

Pic from the failed visit, thanks to Auntie Heather for the cute red jumper.
Later that night, Finley decided to try and cast a spell on everyone to ensure she got her Christmas list covered.

Christmas Eve Eve Fun

Fun in the Rainforest bouncer (can you believe that monkey is swinging AGAIN?!?!):

My frog toy is this big:

I think I need more bear accessories:

Auntie Heather comes to visit

And she brought the cold weather with her from Colorado. And she brought a snow suit and boots for Finley. We shall see if she ever gets the chance to wear them here in Houston. Maybe she can make dirt angels instead of snow angels.

We got to spend a lot of time together shopping, which Finley slept through mostly. Clifton is still sick, he and Finley are missing each other. Hopefully, he will be recovered in time for Christmas. Finley and I are still feeling fine, so let's hope it stays that way.

So many smiles!

I finally got something that I could really confirm as a real smile from Finley. And once she did it, she didn't want to stop. She did her normally leg kicking dancing while she played under her Rainforest gym, but she smiled the whole time. It was completely adorable. She still looks completely like Clifton, but I see a little bit of my baby smile in her face.

Here are some pics~ I caught the first on on camera. I love having an SLR, thanks mom and dad!
The first smile action shot: