History of the Baptismal Dress and other things

I have been asked the history of the dress Gwen wore to her Baptism. The dress was made in 1920 for my Great Uncle Norbert by his mother, Gertrude. In 1946, Great Aunt Norma, Norbert's wife and keeper of the dress, replaced the original silk with silk my Grandfather brought back from Japan when he was in World War II. There is also booties and a sweater that go with the dress and apparently a slip, but I didn't see that. My Grandpa (Ray), my mother and her brothers and sister were baptized in the gown. There is some discrepancy whether or not I wore the dress, but we are pretty sure I did (even though I am not on the list). So, if any of my family has pictures from my baptism, can you let us know if it is the same dress! When Mom goes home she is going to check on that. Gwen is the 1st of the 4th generation to be Baptized in the dress.
In other news, I have gone back to work. They have basically given me busy machinery type work to do, but I don't mind. If I don't do it then they will pull my former lab mates to do it, and they have work to do. But, man is it time consuming! Basically I am working on the electrical work they need to assemble boxes for our government contract. I think they have to have the boxes assembled soon and they don't have a manufacturing group to do it. Kind of boring, they told me to bring an iPOD, so I am borrowing the husbands, his allows me to watch movies, not that I can actually watch them, but I have pulled out some classics and I am listening to them.
Going back to work has not been as difficult as I expected, in the 3 days I have worked, I do realize that I could not go back full time at this point. I find that it is not hard to leave Gwen for the day, probably because I know she is safe with my Mom, but I miss the all day bonding with Gwen. Evening is just not enough time for me to bond with her. By the time we get dinner, feed her it is time to get her bath and get her ready for bed, and I have to share her with Eric! With Eric in school and having to study, I would not be able to accomplish much. My Mom is still working on Gwen taking a nap. As many of you have heard in previous posts she does not like to sleep during the day. Mom has had some success with her sleeping during the day by at most for 45 minutes, usually only 20 though. And, there is great improvement in attitude when she does get sleep during the day. Today was apparently a rough day for napping, I had a Church meeting tonight and we brought Gwen, (the ladies wanted to meet her) she feel asleep in the car on the way home and is still out cold! It has been 2 hours! Maybe when she wakes up to eat she will go right back out with very little fuss. A girl can dream, right!

Baptism

Today was Gwen's Baptism. Kiki & Eric came up and were able to be a part of the ceremony. Thanks everyone who came. It was a nice ceremony and we enjoyed a nice meal with everyone.

This weeks pictures

This picture is from a couple nights ago while I was making dinner. I keep trying to sneak up on Eric and Gwen, but Eric always hears the camera turn on! Sometimes he lets me take pictures, since he was so kind to let me take this picture, I posted a picture he took of Gwen and I, notice the rattles on her arms, she doesn't seem to care!
These last 2 pictures are from when we first started working on reaching for things. First I helped her put her hand on the butterfly, if you pull down on the butterfly it makes the bird go around. After she let go of the butterfly, she put her hand up there all by herself. She has done this for Eric also. She hasn't gotten the pull motion down yet. I am just happy we are reaching for stuff.

These might be the last pictures for a while. I will be back at work on Monday for 2 weeks while Grandma watches Gwen. If work is like what it used to be, I will have plenty of time to post, but I am not sure I will have lots of pictures!

The long run has ended!

Today it is official...I have quit my job after 8 years. Now on to the next chapter of my life, raising Gwen! Of course, I could have done that and worked, but I don't know that I could continue to work there. Actually, I know I couldn't. It has been a long run, and even though I have a lot to say about the job, my boss, and other things, as strong as my feelings are, I felt no need to expound on them today. I still have to work out the details with HR. I am glad it is finally over. It has been an interesting run, without that place, I wouldn't have met my husband lived in CA, or MD. I have also made some good friends and had some experiences I wouldn't trade in for the world. My lovely husband today called me unemployed, then told me since I didn't want to work, technically, I am not unemployed, you have to want to work to be unemployed. I think maybe he has taken one to many business classes!
I hope to find some Mommy groups to join, so we can get out of the house. One thing I know, I need conversation with adults, unfortunately, Eric does not count! (He is an adult, but I can't expect to call him at work every time I need to converse!) I met with the New Moms again today. It was a nice experience, the first day we went, it was like weird and awkward feeling, but today was different. We exchanged email addresses and phone numbers and I might never talk to them again, but it was nice. I do hope that I see them again, they were all very nice. I did have a funny experience one of the women called me Gwen, then Gwen's Mommy since she couldn't remember my name. It caused me to remember something I remember my Mom saying when I was younger, as a child she was known as 'Dottie's daughter', then she became 'Melanie's Mom', now she is 'Gwen's Grandma', sorry Mom, Eric and I made you another alliteration, somehow I don't think you mind. :)

Finally!

Picture time...I know you have been anxiously awaiting pictures! Here is Grandma saying goodbye. :(

On Thursday, work sent Eric to Iowa, so Fri, he took the afternoon off. We decided to go to the C&O canal bike/walk path. It was a nice trail and Gwen slept the whole time. Eric and I enjoyed the walk, I especially enjoyed having someone else wear the sling! I think that is the Potomac in the background.


On Saturday before the AU-LSU game, birthday buddy #3, aka Uncle Ken, came to visit. She wasn't real sure about him at first, but as you can see she warmed up to him, until she got hungry/tired. It was nice to visit with him.

A bust!

Well, I have been trying to post some more pictures today, but the stars are not aligned for pictures today, or at least they haven't been for an hour! Hopefully sometime this evening they will be aligned for pictures, since I have been told that is the only reason people check the blog. This blog was intended to house pictures yes, but it is also importantly somewhere I can write about how the day-to-day is, since I don't always get a chance to talk to anyone besides the husband, and he can only hear of this stuff so much, you know.
Things have been going well here, busy, but well. Gwen's baptism is this weekend and I am preparing to work for 2 weeks. Plus, we haven't really recovered from being gone. Ok, maybe Gwen has, but I have not. The idea of going to the grocery store seemed so less improtant than everything else, but we have finally gone, so things are 'back to normal' until this weekend when everything will be topsy-turvy again. What can a girl do? This week it has been my goal to get Gwen to reach for stuff. I am convinced when she feels with her hands that things are different textures she will want to touch them and grab for things. So, now when she is studying something intently, I take her hand and make her feel it. Today I took her outside to my minature orange tree and she touched the pot (which is about half her height) so, she leaned on it and was staring at the 'tree', she leaned forward and I bent over to see what she was doing and she was licking the leaf! Oops. Mommy apparently needs to learn how to see through her. I guess I am not ready for the everything in the mouth phase, but I guess it is coming sooner than I expect. Hopefully we will have pictures posted soon. Blogger seems to be having an issue with that right now.

Peculiar

After the craziness of the last couple days I decided that today we were going to be more routine about our day. We will not be fixed into a schedule, but I will try to make sure that Gwen takes naps during the day and does not fall into this eat constantly thing that she tends to like to do. I have thought that sometimes she confuses huger for nap time. As I often confuse hunger for thirst! We walked to the grocery store and Gwen started to scream when we got to the check out. As I walked out of the store and grabbed my groceries I put her on her side in the crook of my eblow and went shshshsh in her ear and she immediately fell asleep! Now it was only a 20 minute power nap, but we'll take anything at this point!

New Moms

I have arrived safely from FL with Gwen, I wasn't sure I would be returning with Gwen, her FL 'Grandmas' wanted to keep her, including my Mom, but we have returned. Gwen was remarkably good on the flights, she pretty much slept, woke briefly when she was hungry, then went back to sleep. That is the beauty of mornings with Gwen, she is a good baby in the morning, daytime/evening is a different story.
Today was our 1st 'New Moms experience' last week's was canceled because our facilitator hurt her back. There were 5 other Moms with babies ranging from 7w-3m. 3 boys, 3 girls. One of the girls was in one of the classes we took previously. We did an icebreaker, had a guest speaker chatted and were given a homework assignment. It actually was pretty nice. Gwen was pretty good, all-in-all. The funny thing was that several of us have babies that refuse to nap during the day. The babies sleep well at night in cribs or basinettes, but they refuse to sleep during the day. One of the women that has a 3 month old has given us hope. Her son has started to sleep better during the last week or so. The last 2 days I have gotten Gwen to nap, for a little while. But, I am pretty much inactive while she sleeps because I have to be right there. Maybe soon I will get her to nap on her own. I am just happy she is sleeping! The 2 homework assignments are pretty minimal. We have to call another Mom and learn her birth story. We also have to carve out 15 minutes to ourselves. I am not sure if she meant everyday or just once in the next week. I feel I a pretty good about getting 15 minutes to myself...I usually take a shower and have been known to pop Gwen in the swing or bouncy seat just so I can eat or use the bathroom. I hope that counts, because that is as exciting as it gets around here.
We also had book club. I knew it was going to be a challenge, but I decided to go anyway. I felt like Gwen cried the whole time and I didn't get much of a chance to interact with anyone, but I guess that is what happens sometimes.

Meet Miss Gwen

The title of this party really should have been, meet sleeping Gwen, but at least she wasn't crying, like she is now. Ok, maybe she did wake up for a little bit, but that is because Grandma kept trying to show her off. Thanks everyone for coming. It was so nice to see everyone in a group setting. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures, the bulk of the pictures we did get were taken by Mrs. Worster. Thanks! So looking back at these pictures I notice that Grandma is in every picture, but I am no where to be found. Huh? To be fair, I did take the pictures of the meeting of Gwen & Eddie. Kind of weird to introduce my child to my friend from high school's child. Don't think Dawn and I ever talked about that!

Opening Day

Here are some pictures from today. Opening day of Pro-football. Today is considered a holiday in my family, my parents would have a big open house and every year pray that Tampa would win the opening game, the bottle of champagne waiting in the fridge. This year like most other years, Tampa lost. We didn't have the party or the champagne waiting; some things never change, unfortunately, some things do.

Pictures for Eric

So, we had a successful flight to FL with very little noise from our Gwen, but I thought as Eric comes back from B'ball this afternoon he'd like to have some pictures to remember Gwen by, I would say to remember Gwen and MYSELF, but as many of you know I am visiting my Mom, so unless I have some business to do with Gwen, i.e. eating or changing, there is no room for me! Which isn't so terrible, gives me a nice break. We have already seen several of the family friends and Great-Grandpa has seen Gwen, but he hasn't invoked the crowbar to get some quality holding time. (I think he is secretly holding out for the Packers outfit!)

Gwen studying Suzie, I think she likes her!

More pictures

This weekend my cousin Pete visited. He also shares his birthday with Gwen. We had a nice time with him, so nice we forgot to take pictures, save this one.Uncle Bill, Aunt Nanette, Sammy & JJ also came up to visit. We had a nice dinner with them and they finally got to see how alert Gwen is.

We also took our first family photo, gosh do I love a tripod. We will have to work with Gwen on looking at the camera! We thought if we took a family photo we could see resemblance better, but I still can't tell. I guess when she gets older. Or, I may never know, I have never been real good at telling who babies look like, so please don't ask me!
These will probably be the last photos of Gwen published until we get to FL on Thursday. I have no idea how much time I will have tomorrow. I still have to pack and tomorrow Gwen and I go to the 'New Mother Get Together' at the wellness center.
On an exciting note, Gwen is really taking in her surroundings, although she has always looked around, now she studies stuff. This weekend she noticed her feet. It was quite funny she got this big look in her eyes and kept looking at them. I am not sure she realizes they are connected to her, but she wanted to bend to look at them! I also think her 'receding hairline' is filling in.

Naked baby

More bath time pictures. As you can see she is getting better about bathing. No serious cries this time. The question is who do you think she looks like? I guess you FL folks can vote next week when Gwen goes for her first plane ride! I hope she likes it.