Stella's first laugh!!!

Let me tell you what a dream baby Miss Stella has been lately.  She has become so fun! She has been smiling up a storm and as of this evening, she is laughing!!

We drove from Spokane to Auburn today and she was so happy for the entire drive and as soon as Grandma started talking to her, she let out the cutest little giggles!

I hope you enjoy :)

Email Stella!

I stole an idea that I heard about and I created my daughter an email address.  I will be emailing her about things she is doing, how life is going and things I want her to know.  When she is old enough, she can look back at the emails that I've sent and know what it was like for her growing up.  If you are interested in sending her a little note, let me know and I'll send you her email.

Now let me tell you about how fun Stella is getting.  She is quickly growing out of the newborn phase and entering into baby stage.  She is very aware of her surroundings and starting to show a great interest in toys.  She loves watching her little lamb that hangs above her bouncer and when it moves, she starts kicking like crazy.  We bought little wrist rattles but we put them on her feet because she kicks so much.  Here is a little video of Stella having fun:

She is still sleeping like a champ...usually 6-9 hours every night.  We are still amazed by how much she is growing every day!  She is almost outgrowing her 0-3 month clothes!  Time has really flown by since she has blessed our world!

Where oh where has my little dog gone??

Coach had me singing this melody yesterday when she decided to escape from the backyard yesterday!  Here is the picture of the escapee:

Ok - now that can picture my little escape artist, let me paint you a picture of how she began her adventures beyond her fence.  As you know, I'm a new mom and whether it is right or wrong, I have a new focus in my life these days.  Anyway, little Stella was showing signs of sleepiness but really fighting it so I was making a strong effort to get her eyes to close.  While I was rocking her to sleep, Coach decided that she HAD to go outside at that very moment and started whining like crazy so I stood up (which of course sent Stella back into her awake mode) and let Coach into the backyard.

About 10 minutes later, I heard her scratching at the back door asking to come in but I had just gotten Stella to fall asleep and figured Coach could wait to come in, especially since she was so insistent about needing to go out.  I was sitting on the couch with Stella on my chest sleeping and about 10 minutes later, Matt got home.  He did his usual routine and then he asked, "Where's Coach?"  I replied that she was outside so he opened the door and called for her.  No answer, no dog.  So I thought...maybe I let her in and didn't remember so he went and looked upstairs.  No answer, no dog.  At this point, I was thoroughly freaked out.  I stood up, put Stella down and went running outside...no dog.  I ran upstairs and looked in every room, under every bed and in every closet...no dog.  Matt came in and said, "I think she crawled under the fence" and sure enough, there were little paw scratch marks in the dirt at the front of the fence.

Matt grabbed his keys and quickly got into his car.  He took off down the street on our normal walk route.  I couldn't just stay home so I grabbed Stella and put her in her car seat and popped it in the stroller.  I knew my dad took coach into the fields near our house so I chose to walk the stroller to the end of the cul de sac, hoping I would see her somewhere because I couldn't roll the stroller into the fields...it isn't really made for off-roading.  Now keep in mind that right now all of the brush in the fields is a yellow/orange color which is almost identical to Coach's coloring so I knew it would be difficult to see her. 

So there I am at the end of our cul de sac with the stroller and I'm calling out Coach's name.  Sure enough, I see her about 100 yards South of me in the field next to the railroad tracks.  This is where I become a bit spastic and I'm sure it was hysterical to anyone watching...I start getting that excited voice you use when talking to dogs, "Come here Coach...come here," while slapping my legs and clapping at her.  Since Coach is a Shiba and Shibas are a breed known for bolting, I didn't want to run towards her because I knew she would just take off.  I remembered a trainer telling us that they love to chase so if they ever got out or off leash to call their name, clap and run in the direction you want them to come (essentially run away from them) which is so counter intuitive but that is what I did.  I started running away from her and back to our house. 

Sure enough, Coach started to come and chase me.  I almost got to our driveway before I realized, I had left the stroller in the middle of the cul de sac!!! Like I said, I was a bit spastic!  So I ran back for the stroller and Coach zoomed past me and right up to our front door.  I pushed the stroller back to the house, ran up the porch steps and let her into the house.  I closed the door behind me and gave her a huge welcome home pet and then realized that, once again, I had left my baby!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!?! I ran outside and brought the carseat and stroller inside.  Now before you go calling CPS on me...keep in mind that this all happened in a matter of seconds and the baby was never in danger but my brain was not functioning correctly at that point!

I finally breathed a sigh of relief knowing that Coach was home and I had my baby inside and she was safe too.  Just as I start to calm down and relax, I was snapped back to reality by the wailing cries of a hungry baby.  So I sat down to feed her and then the rest of the night was life as usual. 

We have figured out why, after a year of living at this house, Coach decided to escape now.  We just recently installed a sprinkler system and hydroseeded the backyard so the sprinklers are going off 4x per day to water the seed.  Well, those of you that know Coach know that she is a pretty skittish dog and scares easily.  We think the sprinklers went off and she didn't know what to do so she crawled under the fence to escape the evil water monsters invading her sanctuary.  We aren't really sure exactly how long she was outside but we don't think it could have been much more than 20 minutes.  I'm just hoping and praying that she will never scare us like this again!

Now on to a Stella update...She is growing wonderfully! She is now 10 weeks and 3 days old.  It is hard to believe that it has already been 10 weeks!  She is now over 12 lbs and 22" long.  At her 2 month appointment, she measured 50% on height and head circumference and 75% on weight, which the doctor said was great!  She is developing a little personality and smiling more every day.  She is also blessing us with a 6-8 hour stretch of sleep every night.  I feel pretty blessed to have such an amazing baby!  Here are a few pics of her from this week:

She's pretty perfect if you ask me...but I'm her mom, so I am a bit biased!

Stella's 4th of July Pics

Matt, Stella and I headed back to the Seattle area this weekend for Stella's baptism.  I have to download the photos but as soon as I do, I will post them up here.  Her baptism went wonderfully.  She was a perfect angel through church and didn't cry at all during her baptism.  Then we had friends and family back to my parents house for a celebration barbeque.  We set off to make the 5 hour drive (should be 4 but the baby adds an extra hour) back home.  She slept almost the entire drive, only waking when she was hungry.  It wouldn't be fun if we didn't dress her up in some red, white and blue so here are Stella's 4th of July pics:

I hope you all had a wonderful 3 day weekend!  God bless America :)