14 Weeks

My Reme Lynn,

Oh my goodness this is going to be a long letter!! So much has happened!

First of all, you have a new cousin! Gavin Kurtis Huggins was born on 5/21/13 (exactly 3 months and 1 day after you) at 7:02pm and we got to see it happen! We just happened to FaceTime with Uncle Greg right as he was going into the baby warmer! It was like we were there! He's just beautiful and I have no doubt you'll be good buddies!

Our drive to New York was a great success! We made it all the way to Cincinnati the first night and you slept the entire time! We slept in a bit the next morning and then off we went. You were so great! You played with your car seat toys, napped and just seemed to be in the best mood! You really hammed it up for them when we got there too! You played on your mat and laughed and laughed for them! It was so precious. The next day we just hung around the house because it was really cold outside! Your Mimi got out some baby toys that were your daddy's when he was a baby and you really loved the heart rattle!

 

Luckily it warmed up just in time for the "Meet Reme Lynn Picnic"! The sun was shining and it was just lovely outside! You received so many wonderful & thoughtful gifts! We are so blessed kiddo!

Gina Valent made you this adorable headband!

I'm so glad that you finally got to meet your Cousin Aubrey too! She helped pick out which outfits to wear and she also played "peek-a-boo" with you! She thinks it's really neat that when you're five, she'll be ten!

Sunday was a very beautiful day! You were baptized and dedicated to the Lord! It was something we felt was very important to do. We want you to know Christ and His Love and we want Christ and our family to know that we are committed to sharing God's Love, Word and Will with you. We chose to do this with Pastor Josh who is the Pastor at your Mimi's church so your Godparents, John & Mindy Collins (your daddy's sister & husband) could attend. We chose them to be your Godparents because, well first of all they are awesome and they would take such good care of you. They know us so well and I know they would raise you the way we would raise you.

It was a very special & intimate ceremony. However, none of us were expecting Pastor Josh to pour so much water directly on your face. I thought he would just pour it on your forehead but he got you good! It was freezing cold water too! You were definitely shocked but recovered so well!

God loves you my sweet child, unconditionally and forever. We will do our best as parents to raise you to understand and develop your own faith. May God continue to bless our family indeed!

Our drive home was just as successful as the ride up! It was smooth sailing! You are one cool cat!

You also started a new school this week but I'll tell you more about it next week!

Love you my sweet angel,
Mommy

13 Weeks

Dear Réme Lynn,

You're officially one quarter old! It's a funny way to look at it but I'm in advertising so I always think in broadcast calendars! 

We have had the most wonderful week!! You have been in the best mood! You're even starting to laugh! It's subtle, sort of a "gafaw" kind of like my laugh really. I'm also starting to understand your cries better. I can tell when you're hungry, that's your grunt cry! You do this little whine & turn your head when people get in your face. Not a big fan of people just yet. You totally lose it when you're tired and that one is pretty close to when you're feeling needy and just need to be on my shoulder but it stops in a split second! So even though you have been super happy knowing this makes it easier when you're bummed out! For example we went to Lauren & Mitch's gender reveal party on Friday (it's a girl!!! So super happy for them!) and at first you were all happy hanging out on my shoulder just taking in the sights then BOOM you were all over the place! Hungry, tired and over being touched, held & kissed! Meltdown all the way home!

Saturday could not have gone better! You did such a great job! Look at all the great shots we got! Your Aunt Brooke is amazing!

We love her a lot!! She loves us back! You are so beautiful my love! Inside & out!

Later that day while your dad slaved in the yard we took Stella for a walk. It was fun. We tried out the Baby Bjorn, you liked it for a while but of course were happier on my shoulder! That's how we grocery shopped on Sunday too! You propped up and checking it all out! Until you got tired and then it was meltdown time. I was so glad that we were at Publix because those people are so nice & helpful! Three people came to our recuse! They actually unloaded our cart, loaded our cart and put them in the car!!! Man, I love that place!

We are driving to New York as I type this letter! We decided to start at night and break up the trip, hopefully it'll be easier on all of us!

Thank you for making our lives complete and so full!

Love you so much,

Mommy

3 Months

Happy 3rd Month in this World

 

Reme Lynn,

I love your nose

I love that you're not a morning person

I love the sound of  your voice

I love your chunky cheeks

I love that you're starting to laugh

I love the way you stare at your toes

I love the way you suck your hand, desperately looking for that thumb

I love dressing you up

I love when you make the kissy noise

I love how serious you get

I love your Shakespearean cry. Nay nay nay

I love how gassy you are

I love your smell (even your gas)

I love how much you enjoy getting a massage

I love changing your diaper & watching you smile at your stickers

I love that you've been sleeping through the night

I love how good you look in pink

I love that you enjoy "working out" with me

I love watching you entertain yourself

I love that you're noticing the dog

I love your Elvis lip

I love that you sleep with your hands by your ears

I love the way you stretch in my arms in the morning 

I love that you prefer a different boob each week
I love rubbing the peach fuzz on your head
I love the way you love me

I.LOVE.YOU

12 Weeks

Hey there Cheeky Monkey,

You are such a sweet little cheeky monkey too! You have been (for the most part) an angel this week. Not to jinx it but according to the "Wonder Weeks" this a "sunny" week, a week of clarity and you have just been a joy! No long fussy spells or inconsolable cries, just sweet smiles, coos and gurgles.There may be something to that book after all! If there is then you have a leap coming up in the next week or two and dark clouds are upon us! Uh oh!

Daycare continues to go well. Each day you're getting better about taking a bottle. Although you wouldn't take one from your daddy over the weekend and you were sort of back to square one on Monday. Ms. Johnson was not happy that we didn't practice with you more but we promised to try. 

You are a very observant child. You also play well on your own. Sometimes you lay on your mat at school and at home and just take in all of the sights. You like to quietly hang out in your crib too. You love to watch your mobile and look at your "fish tank"!

 

Sunday we celebrated our first Mother's Day together. What an amazing feeling! I'm your momma!! I love being your mommy! You woke up in a delightful mood but it didn't last long. I think you were just overly tired from the exciting weekend we had.I babysat Mollie most of the day Saturday and then Ian & Averie came over later that night so you decided not to take nap so you wouldn't miss anything! Anyway, we went and had lunch with Gabe, Illi, Anna Sofia & Alexandar at Ellendale's. Yummy! You slept the whole time! Then later that afternoon we went for a nice walk in the park with Daddy & Stella! The weather has been so beautiful! Thank you for the sweet card and gift card to Kohl's to start my new wardrobe! (Your daddy is the best!)

Words just can't express how proud I am to be your momma. You are such an exceptional little girl. I can tell you have great things in store for you! You are smart, bright and delightful. Not to mention you're about as cute as they get!! 

I love you baby girl,

Mommy

11 Weeks

My precious Reme Lynn,

What a very special week this has been. It was the last week of my maternity leave. Time to go back to work, back to reality. What a wonderful, precious dream these past 11 weeks have been for me/us. It's funny because about week five I was feeling all unproductive and stir crazy and this week I just didn't care. All I wanted to do was stay home, stay in our pajamas, cuddle and watch Sesame Street all day long and for the most part that is exactly what we did! (We didn't watch Sesame Street all day, just in the morning!) I threw productivity to the wind and decided that I was going to soak up every since second of you. We spent many hours cuddling, playing, dancing, and "chatting"! It was pure heaven!

Monday

 Tuesday

Wednesday

 Thursday

 Friday

 Saturday

 Sunday

Wednesday night we decided to do a caregiver trial run and let your Auntie Brooke babysit for the night while your daddy & I went to see Steel Panther. I was a little worried that you might be fussy but you were very good! She is after all a baby whisperer for a living, you know? She's so good to us! We so love her and her family.You got lots of love from Ian and Averie sang to you but apparently you hate the song "Baby Mine"!

Brooke sent me this text with this picture! "What is this "Witching Hour" that you speak of?"

Your G-Papa (Gerald) MADE you a highchair and it arrived on Friday! Yes that's right he MADE it!!! It's gorgeous! It will be a prized possession in our family for a long time!

Sunday was a very special day. Even before you were born the girls decided to have brunch for a little Pre- Mother's day celebration. Auntie Candace with Harrison, Auntie Brooke with Averie (Ian was with his dad) and us went to Mad Donna's. It was so nice to spend some time with them. As you know they are two of my most favorite people in the world! They know us, love us and will always be there for us as we will be for them!

Brooke made us a beautiful photo book of the day I became a mommy! She made one for Candace too. It's the first Mother's Day for the both of us! After brunch and once you and I got in the car, I sat there looking through the photos reminiscing about that incredible day with tears of joy filling my eyes!  

Then came the dreaded D-day! Daycare day! I woke up extra early and tried not to think too much about how much I was going to miss you! I got myself ready and then got you up. You were so sweet that morning. Just smiling and cooing like you often do. It was a lovely morning. You nursed and we cuddled and about after an hour, it was time to go. You've gone back to "I REALLY hate my car seat" behavior lately and this morning was no exception. You did not want to get in there but your daddy was there to help me and that always makes things a little easier. I want you to know that he even offered to work a second shift so we could be able to spend some more time together at home but it's time for me to go back to work. Work is a good thing. We're both very blessed to have our jobs and we take pride in the work we do. So off we went. Your daddy even came with us! He's the greatest daddy in the world by the way! By the time we got there you were fast asleep. Ms. Johnson was so excited to see you! She gave me many hugs and assured me that you would be fine and my heart felt at ease. She's a very sweet lady. She certainly has her hands full! There are lots of little children there and in no time you'll be running around playing with all of them. I kissed your sweet face goodbye and walked outside with your daddy and he gave me a giant hug. "She's going to be perfectly fine", he said. "Yes she is", I thought. "She's going to be great!". For now I've decided to come back on my lunch breaks to feed you. You're still having some trouble taking a bottle and I hope we're able to find the magic touch/nipple soon. So far we've gone through about three different ones but we have a few other options before I go back to the store. The day flew by and before I knew it, it was time to come get you. We made it baby! It's all downhill from here....EXCEPT the next day, you were not sleeping when I had to drop you off. You were screaming! Oh how that hurt my heart. I didn't know what to do! Poor Ms. Johnson didn't know what to do either. Here she has a screaming baby and a bawling mommy! I tried to feed you, still crying. Rock you, still crying. Pacifier...please, cry-cry-cry. So I threw you over my shoulder and "tada" silence! Your favorite spot. Once I got you good and calm, I handed you over to Ms. J and you were remained happy. She helped you wave to me "bye bye" and I headed to the office. I wanted to throw up. I couldn't stop thinking about you. I was counting the seconds until lunch time. When I finally got there, you were just has happy as a clam. Sitting in your rocker, Ms. J by your side and you were just cooing and smiling. "All better now!" A sigh of relief! Ms. J said that you took a nice long nap and even ate a little bit. So all in all, the first few days have been just fine. Like the first few weeks of your life...we just need to find our groove! We'll get this figured out in no time. We'll find our routine, our sweet spot!

Speaking of sweet spots...MMMM! I just love the back of your neck!

 

You are my breath, you are my heart, you are my everything!

I love you baby girl,

Mommy

10 Weeks

Reme Lynn,

We went on our first road trip this week to Texas! You did a great job! The normally 10 and 1/2 hour drive turned into a 13 hour drive and that's just too long to be on the road, in a car and in that car seat that you love so much! I gotta tell ya kiddo, I was impressed! You hung in there like a champ!

You either sat quietly or slept most of the way until you had decided that you had had enough and cried for about the last hour. We all wanted to cry at that point though. It was a long day and a bit of a beating!

Your Granddaddy could not wait to get you out of that car! This was the first time he got to see you and was so thrilled! I was really surprised that you were so calm with him! He had a tradition with the grand kids of taking them to the toy store and is looking forward to you being older to enjoy it!

 

Your aunt Katrina is about to give birth to another cousin for you! Baby Gavin! You'll have 3 boy cousins that will be your greatest protectors! You loved meeting PeeWee, he's your oldest cousin!


We spent the next day visiting with your great grandparents. First we went to see Mimi Joyce. She's your Granddad's mom. She has all of your pictures from your birth all over her living room! She thinks you are the most beautiful baby she's ever seen. (I agree with her!)

Then we went to visit with your Great Granddad Bill. He's your Granddad's dad. You were not in a very good mood at this point. I'm pretty sure you were sick of being in the car and I don't blame you!

We relaxed the rest of the evening at home and you got to meet your Uncle Mykell, Aunt Shanan, Cousin Meredith and Cousin Lyric. You were so enamored with Lyric! You would look and look for him at the sound of his voice. It seemed to calm you! That was very cool!

Saturday was the day of the big party and boy oh boy was it a big party! It was for Katrina's baby shower and her 30th birthday and your Granddad's 62nd birthday. There were a ton of people there! I mean at least 80 or so throughout the day! It was a little overwhelming for you my love. Again, I don't blame you. You met...well...everyone!

Your new cousin Hannah. She's your third cousin that lives in Denver, CO. She is so sweet! She really liked you too. She wanted to give  you lots of love taps and couldn't take her eyes off of you!

Your Great Aunt Deen Deen, (third) cousin Allen & (second) cousin Shelly & (second) cousin Kim!

After another long and exhausting day, it was time to head home! We made plans to stop and see your Great Aundaw and Papaw in Mt. Pleasant. It was a quick visit but I'm so glad they were able to see you!

 

Phew!! What a ride! I just can't even imagine what must be going through your head! I felt terrible for putting you through all of that at such a young age. It was just a little too much to handle. I wish I had waited for you to be older. Our next trip is coming up at the end of this month. I think we'll break up the trip and stop somewhere in the middle to spend the night. We'll see. You did better than I cold have ever imagined! We're some very lucky parents that's for sure!

 

 

I love you baby cakes!

Mommy