one month old

Well, friends, say goodbye to your weekly pictures of our little girl. She is still turning one week older each Sunday, but I'm not going to be capturing it quite that often. I will still be pulling out our camera often to catch those little moments throughout our days (which can be found on facebook), but you will have to chart her growth via the blog only at monthly milestones from here on out.

So, here are her ONE MONTH PICTURES.

On Wednesday Nora turned one month old! And I handled it a lot better than I had anticipated - no tears. I just kept staring at her in awe of how much she has grown and changed, and I just can't fathom how quickly she is growing up. (I'm already saying this stuff... imagine me in 15 years.) I waited to post pictures until after her one-month doctor's appointment, which was yesterday. Little Miss is 21.5 inches long and 9 pounds, 10 ounces. She has gained 2.5 pounds since birth and grew 2 inches! She's quite the little bowling ball now... not so easy to hold for long periods of time. :]

In the last 2 weeks, she has learned to create that melt-my-heart social smile (it's not just gas anymore , folks), and it seriously gets me EVERY time. She also learned to coo/talk to friendly faces (and the ceiling fans, picture frames, and any other easily-spotted inanimate objects.) She is incredibly alert and active when she is awake, loving tummy time (a weird baby, I know), holding her head just fine on her own, and kicking those strong legs constantly.

We went to Michigan last weekend for my birthday and to celebrate my best friend's upcoming wedding with a bridal shower. I was an awful mommy: ONLY in the sense that I took NO pictures of Nora meeting so many new family members. I'm sorry everyone. I really dropped the ball on that one. Big time. Hopefully our next child will be an identical replica of baby Nora and we can take those pictures and just say they were Nora and baby #2.

Nora did amazing traveling. We were worried about the car ride to Michigan, since the longest we ever drive with her in the city is 20-30 minutes (and that is really like 5 miles, just considering Chicago traffic.) We had done a few trips out to the suburbs last week, which takes about 45 minutes and she had slept on all those trips. But she did great in the long car ride, sleeping the whole way. And on the way back, Nora and I took the train, which was supposed to take 3 hours and ended up being a 5 hour trip (plus commuting on public transportation once we got into the city) and she was a gem through it all. Thank God for such a good baby!

And, as I write this, I can hear that little one sleeping her little heart out (per usual)... along with her daddy who joined her 8 pm bedtime tonight (late for her, early for him) because he is feeling a little under the weather. That being said, Mommy gets some time to update the blog for all you lovely readers.
...and maybe a little Martha Stewart time too(?).