1 Year!

It's been awhile since I've posted - mostly because I've been too much of a perfectionist to post without any pictures. Gotta fix that! Anyway, we celebrated Amy Grace's birthday this weekend with a boston butt and some football - a great way to do it! I kept thinking I would get all emotional during the day, but it did finally hit me when I put her to bed during her party. I didn't want her first birthday to be over (plus she was having so much fun with everyone, but was exhausted too!). As I put her to bed I hugged her tight and told her how much we love her and God loves her, what a great year it had been, and how much I was looking forward to year #2. I'm not gonna lie - I did tear up a little bit!

She is changing fast and is officially a toddler now. We just transitioned to whole milk, and I am so glad to be free of the old formula ball and chain! She has started standing up on her own and taking a few steps as long as she has someone or something to grab onto quickly, though you can tell that at this point it's more of a mental security thing because she doesn't hold very tightly :) Also for the last little while we have been loving being able to make her laugh just by making funny faces or otherwise being silly with her. Brent is especially great at that! He cracks her up. The baby stage is sweet and I have great memories from it, but man this time between babyhood and the "terrible twos" is pretty awesome. However, I know we plan to see that time as not so terrible, but an opportunity to start really teaching Amy Grace about life. And I'm excited about that!

Tales from the Road

Brent has been blogging about our adventures in the Smokies and posting lots of wonderful pics!! Check it out:

Friday-Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday-Saturday

Happy 10 Months, Amy Grace!

Ok, so this post is technically a day late. But Amy Grace has now been a part of our family for 10 months and 1 day, and every day she displays more and more of her little (ok, not so little) personality! At 10 months she is suddenly eating like a horse and tipped the scales at 15 pounds, 3 ounces yesterday. After being fairly apathetic about anything other than breastmilk or formula for a long time, she has really developed a taste for regular food, and it's going to be a lot of fun introducing her to "big-girl food" over the next few months!

Amy Grace is also a TOTAL Daddy's girl - her face lights up anytime he enters the room, and for a long time she has played a sort of game with him where she will stare at him and smile until he looks at her, then start laughing and smiling even more. She loves for Brent to tickle her and roughhouse with her, and her daycare teachers are convinced that this is why she has no problem holding her own with two walking, 20 lb+ boys in her class. I absolutely love watching the two of them together!

Cheering on the Auburn Tigers with Daddy over Labor Day weekend

She has not done too much new lately, except, dare I say it - sleep through the night! A week or so ago I started putting an extra ounce in her daytime bottles and doubled the amount of solids she was getting. She promptly devoured everything that day and slept the whole night, and hasn't looked back since. She is quite the early riser, usually waking up between 5 am and 6:30 am, but this actually works out pretty well since no good comes of my being lazy in the mornings anyway! She even slept through the night at my parent's house, which seemed like quite the feat since she was out of her element, so to speak.

In all ways, Amy Grace is really growing up now, and I know that the toddler years are just around the corner. We have enjoyed AG's babyhood, but I can't wait to see her keep developing and learning and growing every day.

Football Opening Weekend!

We had a great time Labor Day weekend cooking a delicious meal of beef brisket, cheese bread, and "atomic buffalo turds" (jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and a 'lil smoky and wrapped in bacon - YUM!!). Our friend Jessica joined us for the evening, and a good time was had by all. Amy Grace had to go to bed not long after the Auburn kickoff, but we had fun taking pics of her throughout her first real football Saturday. (The last Auburn game she watched - using the term loosely - was the Iron Bowl and she was just 2 weeks old).

Havin' a blast with her Auburn shaker on top of Daddy's shoulders

This is all that was left of a teething biscuit

Me and Amy Grace

Shake, shake, shake!

Fun in the exersaucer

Another half-hearted attempt at the sippy cup. So far it's more of a chew toy than something to get liquid out of.

Training for the Trail, Suburban-Style

We recently planned a hiking/camping/backpacking trip to the Smokies for the end of September/early October! We are super excited but knew that we needed to get in better shape to really enjoy ourselves on the trail, especially considering we'll be taking Amy Grace along too. Our last trip to this area was back in the fall of 2007, which was a lot of fun, but we definitely were not in good condition to do a lot of hiking, like we'd planned.

Luckily, this time around we both have been eating well and exercising for about 3 months and have each lost between 20 and 25 pounds (yay!), so we already had a great head start. However, there is a very steep hill a short drive from our house, and we have been "hiking" up and down it several times a week to help get our bodies used to the demands of hiking in the southern Appalachians.

Just like in the Smokies, you are rewarded with a great view from the top of the "mountain," even if you do have to watch out for cars careening around the curves! From this pic you can definitely tell that the Birmingham area is, in fact, the southern terminus of the Appalachian mountain range. It's like look out over a mini-Smokies, some days even complete with the haze that gave those mountains their name. (For the locals, I believe the last ridge you can see is Oak Mountain, though you can't really see it well here.)

Here is the view from about halfway down:

Garden Harvest

Back in May, we planted our first garden! It has been an adventure and a good learning experience over the last few months, and there is just something about eating food you've grown yourself. We planted tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, squash, strawberries, onion, and cucumbers (and maybe a few others that I can't recall because they never grew!). The jalapenos have done the best of all, producing a steady crop of tasty peppers. The tomatoes were second best, with one plant producing a ton of tomatoes, but they were all a little over grape tomato size! We got a few cucumbers, which are wonderful in cucumber salad. The squash have yet to mature, but from the looks of things I think those will turn out well, too.

Our other plants did not do so well, however - the onion and strawberries never produced anything, while the bell pepper plant has produced lots of peppers -- all the size of a tiny ball!! We are grateful, though, for what God did bless us with and look forward to next planting season.

9 Months: Then & Now

Amy Grace turned 9 months old last Friday! She had her checkup on Wednesday and everything looked great. She weighed in at 14 lbs, 13.5 oz (whoo hoo!) which may have been a teensy bit inflated due to the fact that the daycare gave her two bottles and both servings of solids before I picked her up at 12:30, haha! But still - she is gaining slowly but surely and hanging right around the 5% line. She was also 27 inches long, which puts her in the 25th percentile for height! She is crawling fast, pulling up like crazy (and even daring to let go with one hand), occasionally sleeping through the night, babbling constantly, and clapping! (Note to self: post a video of that soon!!)

Right after she was born, AG got a big-girl version of the sleeper she wore for her hospital Glamour Shots, so I thought it would be fun to see those side by side. I can't believe she is the same baby!

Amy Grace, 1 day old

Amy Grace, 9 months old

Why does she always look drunk when I try to catch her smiling??

Checkin' out the welcome mat

Looking cute as can be! (I never knew that coffee table would turn into a gym/obstacle course)

I Can't Believe It's Not Breast Milk

Anytime Amy Grace is crawling around the kitchen and we open the fridge, she makes a beeline for the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. I'm not sure what's so enticing about it - Dragon surely doesn't need to worry about her weight just yet! (And if we have anything to say about it, never.) Last night I caught her antics on camera - pretty cute!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

How the Shepherds Got Their Bed Back

A couple of weeks ago, the proverbial poopy diaper hit the fan with Amy Grace's sleep habits. Things had been going fairly well until she turned about 6 months old. She slept with us all night every night until about 4 months, then started spending the first part of the night in her crib before I'd bring her back into bed with us around 2 am or so. There was the occasional night she slept through the night (ok, until 4 am, but still!), but for the most part she woke 1-2 times to eat and promptly went back to sleep, oftentimes even in her own crib. Then she cut two teeth and had a couple of colds, which made for a very whiny baby and a tired (and also whiny) mama. Utterly (and incorrectly) convinced that this was normal and just something that had to be fought through for the indefinite future, I started getting lazier and lazier about putting Amy Grace back in her bed because for awhile there she would wake up 20 minutes later, just as I was dozing off back into dreamland. This continued for most of the night and the sleep deprivation was getting the better of me. So by 8 months, she was essentially spending the majority of the night past 11 pm or so with us - which does wear on a marriage after the better part of a year. And things weren't getting better.

Thankfully, Brent got my thinking back on track with this one, especially after talking to many of our friends about their experiences, including a couple who had similar struggles with their 12-month-old and had tried the Ferber method, where you let the baby cry for increasing periods of time (3 min, 5 min, 10 min, etc) until they finally fall asleep. The baby-wearing, breastfeeding side of me recoiled somewhat at this idea, but the Coopers had had such success - along with everyone else - that I decided I needed to seriously humble myself and consider that maybe my "feelings" aren't always the best guide for what to do. God gave me a wonderful leader in Brent and I knew this would be a great exercise in letting go and trusting, which is something I am very weak in but trying to grow towards every day.

I have to admit that in my mind, this was going to be a terribly painful experience involving Amy Grace screaming for hours on end and suddenly losing all trust that we are going to care for her needs. This was not the case at all. At its worst, she cried for about half and hour tops, and most of that was more whiny than anything - she always got the most mad when I would leave the room again. She did fall asleep grasping the crib rails a few times (the video monitor has provided a lot of entertainment AND reassurance during this), and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't hard for me at first. However, the 3rd night was much much better, and last night (after about a week) she just laid her little head down and went right to sleep without any fussing whatsoever! She still occasionally wakes up and fusses for a minute or two at points during the night, but resettles herself pretty quickly until she's ready to eat somewhere between 1 and 4 am. I still put her down awake after that feeding, and one day we will drop that one too - but for now 1 waking per night feels like a dream (no pun inteded), and she's still pretty ravenous then so it seems like she truly is hungry, rather than waking out of habit.

Of course she still smiles as big as ever, and if anything she has even more energy during the day because she too is getting more rest at night! (Uh oh. :)) Our daughter is more resilient than I give her credit for, and its been a reminder to me that I need to grow a LOT in my own resiliency. Our world tends to baby everyone, from actual babies to adults, and I know this is a constant temptation for me, to baby myself and in turn, our daughter. I want her to grow up strong and resilient, and the only way she is going to do that is if she sees her mama growing up in those same things.

Explosion!

Yesterday morning, Amy Grace and I were actually poised to be EARLY to daycare and work. "This is great!" I thought. Diaper bag and bottles? Check. Pumping bag? Check. Purse? Che...Uh oh. I glanced over and saw that there was a puddle (yes, puddle) of green poo all over Amy Grace's legs and her carseat. She had been fussing for awhile (which is normal by this time in the morning when she is tired of being restrained in her carseat and is ready to GO!), but I guess I'd fuss too if I were sitting in a big puddle of poop. I'd been watching her diapers to make sure that the new solids we have been trying weren't, shall we say, thwarting any of her normal biological processes, but I guess my concern was unfounded.

Calmly I began to plot a course of action, but this quickly turned in to a comedy of errors. I grabbed AG by the stomach (trying to hold her away from my body so as not to get any poop on my work clothes) and ran her up to the nursery, mentally weighing the pros and cons of heading to the crib versus heading to the bathtub. The crib won out, since we have a waterproof crib sheet topper that was due for a change anyway, and I'd rather do a load of laundry than spend more time Cloroxing the tub. I got Amy Grace changed on the floor so she wouldn't get dirty again rolling around in the crib (every diaper or clothing change is a wrestling match now), then realized that I had inadvertently gotten a drop of poo on our beautiful nursery rug when I ran her up there. "Ok," I thought. "Time to tackle the spot."

I Googled "how to get poop out of carpet" (thank God for the internet) and found a post from a mommy blogger that recommended using hydrogen peroxide. Worked like a charm - until I realized that at some point when changing AG I had sat on the spot and messed up my off-white pants (which I am freshly back into as a result of the Shepherd 2009 Get Fit Plan). Got myself changed and put the pants in my car to take to the drycleaners. (Note to self: perhaps try hydrogen peroxide on pants?)

I then set about cleaning out AG's carseat and settled on Lysol to disinfect since I didn't have time to wash the cover (note to self: do that this weekend!). Then I wondered if little AG's bare legs would be bothered by the Lysol since it says to avoid contact with skin, so I changed her AGAIN into some footie pajama pants. We finally made it out to the car and I started hooking up the pump to pump on my commute - and had somehow managed to take only one bottle to the car instead of two. I dinstinctly remember grabbing two so I have no idea how that happened. No worries, it gave me a chance to grab the ice pack that I had also forgotten :).

God blessed me with a positive attitude throughout the morning - I was able to laugh about it all and stay calm instead of stressing out (except maybe about the Lysol :)). It was seriously just one thing after another that kept going wrong (though still so minor in the grand scheme of things!) and was another day in the life of mommyhood :)

7-8 Months in Pictures

Trapped under the coffee table and REALLY MAD about it!

Uncle Justin and Aunt Tiffany came to visit - they are expecting their own little one in Jan!

Uncle John stopped by to say hello...AG loved playing with him!
I think Amy Grace looks JUST LIKE Brent in this picture!
Crawling around with Kate Edgerton (13 months) on the 4th of July:

Going to town on a bowl of water on the floor...

She may not "sit" yet, but I think she's got a wider base than her teeny tiny baby butt here:

More water bowl...

If Amy Grace had a Facebook profile, this would be her picture:

Good morning, Mommy!

Video: The Road to Crawling

Here is a video of Amy Grace having fun on the floor before she put two and two together to crawl:

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Makin' Trouble?

Lately I have been getting reports that Amy Grace is making the daycare boys cry. Now, keep in mind that they are all 2-3 times bigger than her and 2-4 months older! But apparently if they get in her "play space," she pulls their hair and they start crying while she just laughs. I haven't decided if this is a good thing because she is sticking up for herself, or if we already have a raging feminist on our hands. For now I'm going with the former, but keeping an eye out to see if there's any man-hating we'll need to nip in the bud as she gets older :) AG is a sweet baby for sure, but she's got some stubborn spunk in there that we'll have to be careful about channeling appropriately. We want her to be stubborn about her faith and truth and God and being fearless, but I know there will be a lot of loving discipline ahead too to shape the strong-willed side of her, too.

Last week was a rough week for Miss Amy Grace, though! She woke up every 1-2 hours for several nights in a row, but it turned out to be her first tooth coming in! It's broken through now so she is sleeping much better this week. She also loves to say "dada" which is wonderful to be able to hear the beginnings of talking! It's been such a crazy couple of weeks - crawling, pulling up, first tooth, babbling - what's next??

More Pics

Amy Grace has been up to a lot these past couple of months! Here are some more recent pics:

Amy Grace surprised us on Monday by learning how to pull up to standing in her crib - I tried to catch it on camera but this is on her way down :)

In Charlotte she was obsessed with cell phones...and car keys...and money. We have got a lot to look forward to in the teenage years :)


Jake Blackman introduces Amy Grace to Chloe - his dog, who raised Star when they lived with Brent a few years back.

Amy Grace, so proud of herself in her pre-crawling days!

Wedding Fun

We had a great trip up to Charlotte last week to visit our friends Jake and Holly Blackman and be in Bekah's wedding. Here are some cute pics from the reception, courtesy of Kristen (Clements) Magana :)

On the Move!

Amy Grace celebrated her 7-month birthday by officially crawling for the first time, making it about a month from the first time she almost launched herself off the bed by scooting until she started coordinating picking up her arms and moving them forward to get somewhere. More pics and videos to come :)

Amy Grace's First Foods

Once Amy Grace turned 6 months old, we started introducing some baby food. So far she has tried pears, green beans, and carrots. The pears were first and I think just confused her, but Brent suggested (rightly) that we should probably do veggies first. She loved the green beans and kept pulling the spoon back to her mouth (see video). The carrots, however, did not go over so well. Brent hates cooked carrots too so maybe it is inherited :)

Enjoy the video - the lighting is not great but it's still pretty cute!

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Happy 6 Months Amy Grace!

At 6 months, Amy Grace is really on the move!  She is working towards crawling and will push herself up on her hands and wiggle in an effort to move forward, but this only makes her move backwards - which produces a lot of frustration :)  She could care less about sitting, though.  I suspect that it bores her, because why would she want to sit if that involves remaining in one place?

Here are some recent pics:

Yay for bathtime!

I'm going to figure out this crawling thing, and then you guys are in TROUBLE!

Night Night, Dick-a-Dye!

That was a favorite bedtime saying of mine when I was little. Not sure where it came from, but it came back to me one night this week as I was rocking Amy Grace to sleep. Bedtime has become my favorite time of day to spend with her. Ever since she started settling into her own sleeping rhythm, I have taken her through a nightly routine: short bath, lavendar lotion rub-down, pjs, bottle, and then nursing and rocking to sleep. She has SO much fun in the bath tub, and I never tire of watching that excited little girl who kicks like crazy in the bathtub be lulled into sweet dreams just a few minutes later. It is such a precious thing to watch her drift off to sleep curled against my stomach, and it feels wonderful to know that I can provide a sense of security and comfort to her in those last few minutes of her day.

Our routine has also helped her sleep more soundly, I believe. She has been waking up to eat a lot more lately, but I think she may be teething and/or having a growth spurt and needs the extra calories. However, she still sleeps from about 7:30 to 1 or 2 am most nights before she needs to eat. What has been funny is that she does NOT mess around about her bedtime. I usually start her routine around 7 unless she seems tired earlier, but a couple of nights we have been out to dinner with friends around that time. Once the clock starts approaching 7:45 or 8, she has a serious meltdown, as if to say "ok guys, I have had ENOUGH and I am READY FOR BED!!" These meltdowns are the only time since she was a newborn that Amy Grace has truly cried, so you know she means business!

Amy Grace Rolling Over

Here's a short video of AG rolling over while playing at the farm!

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Happy 5 Months Amy Grace!

It's hard to believe that Amy Grace is 5 months old already!  She is changing so quickly now.  She is already rolling over from side to side easily, cooing like crazy, and getting stronger every day!  This is a really fun age.

Amy Grace loves her tummy time!

Enjoying the teething ring that Nana gave her for Easter (and wearing her bunny hat from daycare):

Amy Grace put herself down for a 2 hr morning nap at the farm...

She loves hanging out on the porch at the farm!

AG strengthens her core muscles with Superman pose:

Playing with one of the blankets Aunt Anne made for her:

The Bumbo Chair and Other Shenanigans

A couple of weeks ago, Brent's mom got a "Bumbo Chair" for Amy Grace. We had a lot of fun taking pictures of her during her first time to check it out. What is funny is that even though she is developmentally old enough to sit in it, she is still so tiny that it's almost as big as she is! We'll get so much use out of it then, though!

I LOVE my Daddy!!!...

Checkin' out the view...

"Help! I've rolled over and now I can't roll back!!"

Flirtin' with Granddaddy...

Houston, We Have Liftoff...

After a week or so of trying desperately to roll over but getting stuck on her side each time (which made her very upset), Amy Grace rolled over to her tummy at daycare on Wednesday! They wrote us a note to let us know, and she has since done it at home a couple of times too.

Today, rolling over...tomorrow, sitting up! (Well maybe not that soon :))

It Won't Be Like This For Long...

During my adolescent musical days when I listened to all country, all the time, I stayed far away from the popular music everyone else was listening to. Amanda Hagood tried to convince me of the merits of artists like Hootie & the Blowfish and Stone Temple Pilots, but I would have none of it. While I never did come around on STP, I became quite fond of old Hootie and still enjoy listening to "Hannah Jane" and "Let Her Cry" when I'm in a nostalgic '90s mood.

Well, since I moved a little towards Hootie, otherwise known as Darius Rucker, he moved a little towards me. Rucker released his first country single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" in 2008. Recently, however, his hit "It Won't Be Like This for Long" has topped the charts and almost moved me to tears several times. It begins:

It won't be like this for long
One day soon we'll look back laughing
At the week we brought her home
This phase is gonna fly by
So baby just hold on
It won't be like this for long

It's been feeling a lot more like the newborn stage right now, since we're just bottle-feeding breastmilk and formula to Amy Grace to get her weight up, which means I'm up several times a night to pump and feed when before we just nursed in bed...meaning a lot more sleep deprivation!! But this song always come to my head to remind me that it truly won't be like this for long, and how important it is to treasure every minute.

Ok seriously, I'm about to cry again :)

Four Months - In Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of Amy Grace...

Playing with her first toy - a rattle given to her by John Burrett (this is more like 3 months old):

Hanging out in the papasan chair:

Celebrating Daddy's first turkey of '09!


Having decided that she is too cool to sit in her carseat anymore, AG takes in the Texas-Duke game at the farm during March Madness:



Hey guys, I found my foot!