from one daddy's girl to another

Lainey,

It's hard to believe you are already 4 months old, and it's even harder to believe how much you have grown since your crazy entry into this world. Since you got here, you have spent over a month in the NICU, moved into the nuthouse, rocked our world, gone to the beach, spent countless hours surrounded by people who love you, and have even made friends with your four-legged brothers. You have also experience an earthquake and gone nearly 2 weeks without electricity!  Not to mention, in your free time, you have discovered Nick Jr., your feet, your gorgeous reflection, and that bath time is fun time.

The joy you are bringing to our lives is insurmountable. 

But I must say... from one daddy's girl to another... goodness gracious do you have your daddy completely wrapped around your little fingers!  You know, your fingers - those things you keep shoving in your mouth and gnawing on... yes, those things. Those things are called fingers.  The look on your face when your daddy sings to you is enough to take this mommy's breath away.  Your daddy loves you with all of his heart and I know he is the best daddy God could have ever blessed upon you.  At Adam and Lindsey's wedding, when he thought no one could see him because everyone else was watching the father/daughter dance.  I must admit, I was watching a different father/daughter dance.  As "My Girl" played on the dance floor and Lindsey danced with her daddy, I looked to my right and caught you dancing with your daddy.  I caught him singing to you and watched as he bounced you around in the landing on the staircase - I nearly cried.  No, not because I was sad, but because my heart was so full of happiness.  It was the cutest thing I have ever seen.

As much as I tell Daddy that you are Momma's girl... I know, deep down, you are a Daddy's girl.  And from one daddy's girl to another, enjoy every minute of it, because there is nothing like being a daddy's girl.

Love,
Momma

I have feet and I like to smile and dance

Lainey has accomplished some pretty "big girl" milestones in the last couple of weeks. 

She is ever-so-close to double digit weight!  This momma is going to have a party for that 10-pounder when we get there!
 

She is "talking." And by talking, I mean she is making noises back at me.  At least she isn't looking at my like I am a crazy person when I talk to her anymore.
 

She is smiling - all the time! No, I am not talking about the gassy smile or the dreamy naptime smile. I am talking about a full on, "I'm happy and excited" smile! She smiles back at us when we play and she smiles when she sees colors on Nick Jr.

She is lifting her head all on her own, and holy cow is she strong! We still get an occasional/unexpected headbutt every once in a while, but they are becoming less frequent.

It's official... 

Lainey has discovered her feet!! It's too funny to sit and watch her as she tries to grasp at them. It's even funnier to watch how excited she gets when music comes on! She will kick those little feet just as fast as she can! (look at how blurry they are in that picture!!)

I have also caught her:

• Staring at herself in the mirror
• Grabbing her Lamaze Hippo toy to hear it crunch
• Posing for the camera
  

Love from the proud momma,
Linda

{the venema} registry

Since Lainey was born, we have found out that Lainey is going to have herself some friends!  That's right - the world keeps turning after your daughter is born and others have babies too! What a concept!  The good thing though, is this means we are not alone in this game called parenting and Lainey has people to grow up with.  It also means that since we were the first baby in this "wave," I get a lot of random texts that say things like "What do you use for this..."  "How do I pick that..." or "What do you recommend?"  

Now I am not going to lie... I sent my fair share of these texts/emails/phone calls/facebook posts when we were prepping for Lainey! 

I would have been lost without my Biggie and Blair at the Ellwood Avenue Chronicles!

I figured I would share some of the stuff we registered for before Lainey was born and some gadgets I have purchased since then, but totally recommend to any expecting moms!  Just so you know, as I find new stuff, I usually "pin it." You can also check out some of the things I find in my pinterest.  There's a link on the right-hand side of the blog to follow my pins!

Let's get this party started... 

Here's the Venema top 7

1. 4Moms mamaRoo - who needs a traditional swing when you have a mamaRoo?! Not us - that's for sure!  We like to call this thing the "space pod" at our house.  It does so many neat movements; if Lainey gets bored with one, I switch it up and she resumes her regularly scheduled happy baby programming.
2. Munchkin formula mixer - yes, I know this seems a little extreme, but it's true.  Now, we usually use ready-made formula but the occasions when we use powdered, we use this little mixer to blend the formula powder up rather than shaking it.  Less bubbles = less gas = happier baby.
3. Wubbanub - holy moly, where would we be without Wubba?! For a while I thought I was becoming more dependent on this adorable Binky with a stuffed animal attached, but I had proven myself wrong... thank goodness I am NOT a crazy person. (ok, maybe I am...) but still - I tried to give Lainey a regular old gumdrop/soothie binky the other night and she was not having it! All she wanted her little friend, Wubba.  We have Wubbas stashed in 3 places - downstairs, attached to the car seat and in the crib.  I have even contemplated buying more of them. No, I am not kidding. 
4. Children's Pandora stations - bed time is glorious at our house.  When 9pm rolls around, everyone starts to get sleepy and a little hungry. A bottle, a good book, and then it's bed time! Every night when Lainey goes to bed, we turn Pandora on her iPod and let it roll.  Some nights it's Disney, others it's Baby Einstein.  The kid loves music and I am totally cool with that.
5. Combi travel system - I am not one for bulk so I knew early on I did not want a regular travel system.  Those things take up your entire trunk and I don't drive a bus! I need the space I have, dag gonnit! So we opted for the Combi Shuttle system.  LOVE IT! The carrier is easy to lug around and stroller is like an umbrella one on steroids.  All the conveniences of a regular travel system, but with no bulk.
6. PB Kids Comfort Glider - after a few nights spent in my glider, I knew I had made the right decision.  Never have I ever sat in a more comfortable chair! I'm not sure how comfy it would be to sleep in a chair with wooden arm rests, etc.
7. Eddie Bauer Travel Bed - I will be the first to admit, I didn't think any one would get this for us at the baby shower.  But low and behold, someone did! I will also be first to admit that I wasn't sure how much use I would actually get out of it either - at one point I remember saying, "Damn1 I should have registered for the shopping cart cover instead!" But I digress... this travel bed has been a godsend! When Hurricane Irene was in town, Lainey and I moved into my aunt's house because that's where the power was, and I used this bed next to me in a "grown up" bed! I didn't want Lainey to get the idea that sleeping in Mom's bed was better than her own so I wanted to make sure she had her boundaries.  Now, yes, I could have taken the pack-n-play, but it's so big and it was only a couple of nights!  Fast forward a couple of months and it's time to head to the beach.  Again - the same argument! Why take the pack-n-play when I have this nifty travel bed?! Plop that sucker in the between Philip and I and it was perfect!

For some reason, I can't get the other pictures to sit where I want them to, sorry about that.  But all of the links should take you where you want... err need.... to go!


xoxo,
Linda

First family vacay

And we're back... probably against our will.

For about the last week, the Venemas have been on our a mini-vacation in the Outer Banks.  Close friends of ours got married down there over the weekend as we decided to take advantage of the opportunity.  

I packed our bags and hit the road! Who would have EVER thought we would need so much stuff?! This will certainly be good practice for next Summer too!

Travel bed? Check! 

Clothes? Check!

Diapers? Check!

Formula? Check!

Bouncy seat? Check!

Wubba? Check!

Boppy? Check!

Baby? Check!! 

We stayed in a bangin' house with some great friends, including the bride and groom!  We were a little hesitant to stay in the "the house"  because we didn't want to damper the party, but who are we kidding?  Even sober with a baby in tow, the Venemas are a good time! Lainey had a great time hanging out with all of her new "uncles" and we enjoyed being with our friends, relaxing, and having a great time.  A lot of the time, it was rainy, but that's okay - the sun made some appearances too!

You didn't think I would leave you without photos, did you?!

I will admit though, we are terrible at the family photos... so you'll have to wait with your fingers crossed that the ONE family photo the photographer took at the wedding comes back to us! 

the Walkers

So happy to be an OBX baby

Sometimes we got dressed

Incredible sunsets on the Sound

 the one missing the beach,
Linda

A love song

This morning on my way into work, I heard a love song on the radio.  Now, I will admit...I sometimes wish I was sappier, a little more romantic if you will. I have my moments, sure, but all in all, 

we are a sap-free home.  

Unless it's about Lainey - then sappy tends to ooze out of my pores 

because I can't think about that little girl and not smile.

Now... this morning was not an unusual drive to work - 

no traffic

no crazy drivers

no rain.

Just a regular drive into the city.

Except for this love song.

I don't even know the name of it.

I barely remember the words.

But

It gave me goosebumps.

I stopped for a second and thought about my life.

Especially the love in my life.

I realized....

If a love song can make me think of my husband

and

give me goosebumps...

Then we must be doing something right.

Oh, how I pray you get to feel this love someday, Lainey.

It's amazing.

love, 
Linda

Newborn photos

Right before I went back to work, Lainey and I had the opportunity to work with my friend, Blair, from Mott Photography to do some newborn photos!

I can not tell you how much we enjoyed this photo shoot! Little Miss Hadley, Blair's daughter, even came to the shoot and kept me company while Blair was taking pictures.  Having Hadley there really made me excited for when Lainey gets big enough to interact and play. I certainly don't want to wish away these moments of Lainey right now, but a Momma can certainly look forward to what is coming our way!!

The few days leading up to the photo shoot, I pinned my little heart out on pinterest looking for some inspirations for the shoot and then tore my house up looking for all of the perfect props! Then, of course, I had to frantically put everything back together so my house was clean enough for company!

 Here are some of the photos from the shoot...

Having Blair at the house also made me miss the time I used to spend behind my camera; I used to say, "I only really see the world through my camera lens."  But in the last couple of years, work, school, wife life, advising alpha gam, and volunteering have consumed my life, all in good ways. And now as a new mommy, it's hard to believe there are enough hours in a day to add anything else, but since I am taking some time off from school and am putting lots of things in to perspective, I think I want, no... NEED... to find some time for myself to be creative again.   All of that being said, I am making a personal resolution to find some time to be more creative. So don't be surprised if you see a little more creative work showing up on here.

xoxo, 

Linda

Lights on in the nursery

Thank you Baby J!! We have electricity again! Now we can stop cooking everything on the grill and ordering take out! Momma's wallet couldn't take it much longer!  And probably Lainey's most happy thought of getting the power back on is that we can start hanging out with NeeNee again!  As some of you may know, I work for a local utility company, and so does my momma!  Well in the wake of the hurricane that stole our electricity, we lost our NeeNee to storm restoration and crazy around-the-clock work hours!! 

We still don't have cable, which means no TV or internet, but at least we can watch movies on a screen bigger than the laptop.


But enough about that... today is the day! The day that you have all been waiting for... a peak into Lainey's nursery!! Yes, yes, I know... this post is a little dated since oh, you know, we've been home for almost 2 months now! But whatevs - we do things on our own schedule, obviously!  I thought about using Instagram to make the photos looks super cool, but then I quickly realized, that wouldn't let ya'll see what the room actually looks like!  I do apologize, the photos are a little grainy, because I took them on my phone.  Maybe someday I will take "real" photos and share those... but for now, you take whatcha can get!

Where Lainey dreams

Where Lainey gets all pretty

Where Lainey snuggles and reads with Mommy