Our Little Piglet

You never thought you'd hear 'piglet' in the same sentence as 'Helen Grace,' did you? Well, it's official...our little girl now weighs 6 pounds and 7 ounces! She's also grown half an inch. Yay!!! That makes Mama and Daddy so happy- and relieved!

Our third week with Helen Grace has flown by, and we are still learning what works and what doesn't work to make our princess happy. While we had mild success with the swing one night to help get her to sleep, she soon changed her independent mind and it hasn't worked since that night. She will sometimes be content in her vibrating Boppy seat, but she likes cuddling with Mama on the couch the best. She *must* be wrapped in her pink 'burrito' blanket though- a must have for any newborn.

Helen Grace and I have started venturing out of the house by ourselves more often, and we are slowly getting braver. Today, I took her to get some professional pictures taken so that we can remember her at this itty bitty stage. She did very well, especially after we got a bottle in her. I am learning that I need to add at least an additional hour to my preparation time in order to get us both out of the house on time...and prepare myself mentally for at least one terrible diaper and/or vomit at the very last minute. I have been carrying around an extra outfit for her in her diaper bag in case of any disasters while out in public, but I'm beginning to think that Mama ought to carry an extra outfit as well!

Helen Grace survived her first tornado this weekend! The weather started getting nasty around 4:30 or 5:00 on Friday afternoon, so we took cover in the downstairs guest bathroom with lots of pillows...and HG promptly threw up as soon as the power went out. Lovely! Well, at least I couldn't be completely grossed out by the throw up since I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face! Ugg. We were lucky- the power came back on in the middle of the night, and I really wanted to kiss the man from the power company who got it working again. Taking care of a newborn in the dark was not a fun experience.

We found her belly button this week! She lost it very early on, and I was traumatized that I had not been able to recover it when it fell off (I'm such a terrible mother, etc.); however, as I was looking for an outfit in her makeshift closet (a.k.a. her Pack-n-Play) the other day, I found it! It must have fallen down into the Pack-n-Play as I changed her that day. Such a relief! Now that I know where it is, I don't really know what to do with it, but I just feel like a better mama now that I know where it is. Is this just the hormones talking?! :)

We are looking forward to celebrating John's first Father's Day this weekend. What an exciting and rewarding day now that we have experienced parenting from this side of life! I just hope that HG and I can express to him how appreciative we are for all he does for us!

I'm three weeks old! June 15, 2009

Finally asleep in her burrito in the wee hours of the morning
Giving Daddy a High 5

Tummy Time

Rebel was DYING to get on the playmat with her and swat those dangling toys, just dying!

Cuddled up after a bath

A day in the life of the Toohigs...welcome to my world. Don't they look just like peas in a pod?!