The Last Photo A Day Post...

Here it is, the last photo a day post- I know you all have been waiting:). Below is the complete list. I found this pretty fun and plan on doing the following months on my Instagram account (csargent is my user name). Which by the way, I am loving that little app.

Day 21: Fav photo of yourself. I love this picture. It was taken in Aug. 2009 on our end of the summer weekend vacation to Austin. It was one of my favorite weekend/bed and breakfast memories with Steve.
Day 22: Where you work. Here is the chair I sit in to counsel. I love my cozy little office.
Day 23: Your shoes. My Ugg slipper- I wear them EVERYWHERE- no lie.
Day 24: Inside your bathroom cabinet. Here is where we keep all our Sam's stock pile:)
Day 25: Green. This has two meanings- green bins for our recycling. One of the many ways we try to be green:).
Day 26: Night. Watching the Oscars with Cora on Sunday night.
Day 27: Something you ate. Vegetarian lettuce wraps from the Pioneer Women- sooooo good!
Day 28: Money. Here is the caveman way I keep track of when we have paid our bills each month. Fancy, I know.
Day 29: Something you're listening to. Gavin Degraw's new album. It is my work out music at the moment:)

Below is the March list. Feel free to join in on the fun!

A Month of Traveling with a Baby...

February has been a month of travel. We have had something every weekend of the month. It was been exhausting and lots of fun. Overall Cora did great on all three trips. I think we have a traveler on our hands- and if you know us at all that is a good thing in our little family!

Our first trip was to Midland. Cora (like I said in a previous post) handled the plane trip like an old pro. Above is Cora in the car on the way to the airport to go back to Houston- she did not wake up until we got back to our house in Houston- we could not have asked for better.
My mom flew back with us and spent the next five days with us. It was great to have my mom in town. We got good, home cooked meals, shopped a bit, but mostly hung out around the house. Thanks for coming, Mom- when are you come back:)!?!
The morning my mom left my sister-in-law and her boyfriend flew in to surprise Steve's mom who was here with Steve's Dad and grandparents at the annual Houston Radio Conference. She was super surprised and it was a fun weekend to spend with the family. We spent the majority of the weekend at a Marriot in North Houston. I am glad they had a couple hotel rooms. Cora and I hung out there most of the time- we got some good naps in:).
And Cora got to meet her great-grandparents on Steve's mom's side of the family. Above is Cora June with June Green. It was sweet to watch Cora with her namesake.
And since we were at a radio convention we had to put Cora in a radio onesie. Thank you Cafe Press for having every random shirt/onesie known to man. Cora was a big hit among all the radio collectors.
That Sunday Cora had her baby blessing at church. I love the look on her face in the above picture. Yes, the outfit was over the top and yes, I loved every minute of it. Not sure how Cora felt judging by the look on her face...
Everyone left after church that Sunday and Steve and I had 3 days to recoup before we headed out that Thursday to Abilene. Cora handled the road trip like a champ. Above is Cora in the new rec center at ACU. I loved having my child on that campus. Gotta start her love for ACU early:)
Steve is on the new ACU Camps Advisory board to I tagged along to hang out with my good friend Molly and introduce our girl to many people we love in Abilene. Above is Bob Strader with our little family. Bob married Steve and I in 2005. We have a picture just like this from Jan. 1, 2005- now we are a plus one:).
Also got to see my good friend Kat and meet her five month good son Graham (what a cutie!). Cora and Graham will be good friends in the future, I just know it. Cora also met a slew of other people- guess I can't capture everything on camera.
Molly let all four (we brought Hope!) of us crash at her house for the weekend. Cora still loves her bath time. Above is Molly helping out. (You can never have too many baby-in-the-tub pictures, right?!).
And then this last weekend we made a quick trip up to Quinlan, TX. The trip was to help out with an auction Steve's dad was doing and to let Cora meet her great-grandparents on Steve's dad's side of the family. Above is Cora meeting Mei-Mei for the first time and below is Pa getting a good first look at Cora in Jim's arms.
They loved her and it was sweet to see Cora with her great-grandparents. And of course Cora was a big hit at the auction...
She got to wear her radio onesie again. Which is good thing- the girl is growing fast! Who knows how much long she can wear it. I love watching Jim do his radio auction. He is so good at it and knows so much about the radios. All the profits for the auction went to the Boles Children's Home. We got to stay on the campus for the weekend. I was pretty impressed with the home. It looked like a neat thing to be apart of.
And guess what I got- a vintage radio for my kitchen:). It is not the above radio but it is similar coloring and is a Crosley- best $15 I spent all weekend. Jim has it and is going to get it back in working condition. I think it will be a good addition to my Fiestaware-themed kitchen.
And guess who I bumped into at the auction- Jenny T's grandparents. I feel like I see them everywhere- so I had to take a picture and send it to Jenny:). Again, it is pretty fun to introduce Cora to people we know.

Now we are at home enjoying this lazy Sunday afternoon. I have had a couple decent nights sleep all things considered, enjoyed a good work out this afternoon, and hoping there is a nap on the horizon. I am feeling good. We are working on getting Cora into a loose routine here in our house. We have a pretty good night time routine down and I plan on starting to get our mornings and afternoons in more of a routine as we enter into March. I think our travels are slowing for awhile. The next time we leave town will be to go back to Abilene to meet the newest Sargent- due to arrive any day now!

Cora June at Two Months...

Yesterday, on the 20th, Cora turned two months. And what did we do to celebrate you might ask- we took her to her two month appointment for four shots. It was a great visit (minus the shots). Cora is growing right on track and the pediatrician said she was gaining weight great (which felt so good!). You know how mom's talk about how hard it is to watch their children get shots? Well, I thought to myself, I am not going to be one of those moms that crying when their child gets shots. Confession- I sure did tear up as I helped the nurse hold her still to give her the shots. Watching Cora in pain was awful- awful. (On a complete side note- we could not have asked for a better pediatrician. I always leave her office feeling respected, listened to, and empowered as a a new mom. Let me know if you are looking for a pediatrician, we would love to share ours with you.)

Cora is 22 inches long (in the 65th percentile) and is 11 pounds and 6 ounces (in the 50th percentile). Her head is growing right on target (30th percentile) and she can hold her head up for very long periods of time. She already has great head control, which the doctor said was really good. She loves her tummy time.

Cora is sleeping just okay. She usually get at least on 3-4 hour stretch and then the rest of the night is up in the air. I have to admit, the sleep stuff is the hardest part for me right now. Most days I feel half dead and all I want is a long nap- I am one of those people who is just a better person when I have sleep. I have also had a freak out moment last week when Cora has started to break out for her swaddle in the miracle wrap- the girl is SO strong. The doctor and I talked a lot about sleep yesterday and she was so reassuring about what I am doing and what is to come as Cora gets older. She said what we are doing right now is exactly what Cora needs and only Steve and I are the parents of Cora- we know her better then any one else. That felt good to hear. Many times I feel like we are out on island all alone and everything feels foreign and wrong. But our doctor is right- Cora is growing and a good baby over all. Sleep will come when it does. So for now I am going to stop comparing myself and her sleep habits to others and the internet(at least that is what I am going to try to do!). Sleep will come again, at least that is what everyone says:).

Nursing has gotten a million times better and it is something I think we can do for the long haul. We still have our challenges at times but over all around week 7 I felt like something clicked and it is getting better and better. She nurses between 8 and 10 times per day (sometimes more depending on the day).

Cora has started to smile- A LOT!! We love it and is especially smiley in the morning. She has also started to coo in the last week or so which is so fun and affirming. My heart melts each time I see her little mouth start to curve up in a smile.

She is also focusing more on objects and is starting to grasp when things are put in her little hands. She is wiggling her hands and feet all the time and last week she discovered her feet. She can not grab them yet, but she loves staring at them. I think she is just fascinated that she can finally see that far:).

Cora has been on two trips this month and is getting ready for her third this weekend. She flew like a champ and loved traveling in her car seat- which made me so happy! We went to Abilene last week and over all traveling with an infant by car was pretty easy. We had to stop 2-3 times to fed and change diapers. And we took Hope- having our family of four in the car was pretty fun.

Cora still has the same nicknames- Cora-Bear, Bitty, Bug, Booger, Beautiful, Pumpkin. Steve is super cute with her and her nicknames.

Over all Cora is pretty even tempered. She has about an hour she is pretty fussy in the evening but other then that she is easily consoled and really just loves to be held. I am working on putting her down more and we are getting better with that- like right now I am typing and she is playing/napping on her play mat.

She is wearing size one diapers and is in 0-3 months clothes. Dressing a girl is so fun- period. The girl has more bows then one should- I can't get enough.

Cora had her first babysitter on Valentine's Day. Thank you Sara P. for watching our sweet girl so Steve and I could have a much needed night out. I was told Cora did great and and we hope to have more nights in the future...

I am seeing 5-6 clients per week right now and so far the transition back into work has been easy and needed. I like going off to work for an hour or two per day and it gives Steve and Cora great time together. I feel so blessed to have the job I do and be able to work when ever I want to- some days I feel like I get to have my cake and eat it too. We are blessed in that way.

Over all we are doing well here in the Sargent household. Now bring on the third month and all it has to bring...

More Photo A Day...

I promise I have other posts coming up, but I wanted to share more photo a day pictures with you. After this month I plan on just using my instagram account for this fun daily activity. Feel free to follow there (csargent is my user name). I know the pics are nothing special but it is fun to find the theme for the day somewhere in my day.

Day 14: Heart. Cora's cute butt on Valentine's.
Day 15: Phone. My dated work phone- we have a love/hate relationship.
Day 16: Something New. The new Twilight movie. Hubby gave it to my for Valentine's Day. I heart the Twilight series:) Looking forward to the final movie soon!
Day 17: Time. Out shopping in big Abilene with my friend Molly and we came across this quirky little clock.
Day 18: Drink. I LOVE water and I love it out of my new cup from my Mom for Valentine's. I seem to drink more water out of these reusable plastic cups with straws.
Day 19: Something I hate doing. CLEANING- specially the bathrooms!
Day 20: Handwriting. The white board in our house- good thing to remember today.

Now I am off to hold a crying baby and get ready for Cora's two month doctors appointment. More interesting posts coming soon!

A Flight and Photo A Day Catch Up,,,

Cora handled her first trip on an airplane like a champ. Thanks for all your input for traveling- it helped a lot! We went to Midland a week and a half ago for family picture with my family, Why you might ask? Well, my dad is in the running for district judge for Midland so they needed family pics. I seriously do not think my family has had pictures together since I was around 10 years old. It was a great time in Midland even if it was just for 36 hours.

Cora seriously slept the while time while in airport both times. She woke up once to nurse in the Houston airport but other then that she just napped. We had no issues with her ears and I was a lot calmer then I thought I was going to be.
We flew as dusk. Such a pretty time to fly. I love flying...
Cora's picture with the pilot. He was so sweet to her. In fact, the whole crew just loved having her on board. I thought everyone was going to look at us as a nuisances, but it was the opposite. We got the royal treatment from Southwest. It did not hurt that Cora was a perfect angel on both flights:).

And now catch up on my Photo a Day Challenge for February...
Day 6: Dinner. I did not capture a picture of dinner so the after dinner clean up will have to do. If I remember correctly Steve had a wonderful Farmers Market Pasta from our Maine cookbook that night- it was wonderful.
Day 7: Button. Oh how I miss jeans with buttons. I want to be back in my pre pregnancy jeans soooo bad right now. But for now I am trying to be patient, it will happen...
Day 8: Sun. Hope loves sitting in the sun. On the days it is out you can always find her curled up taking in the rays- a girl after my own heart!
Day 9: Front Door. I made that Valentine's wreath last year. I really like it...

Day 10: Self Portrait. I know I have another person in here with me, but what I am to do- she is my constant side kick right now:).
Day 11: Something that makes me happy. It always warms my heart to watch Steve hold our daughter- always.
Day 12: Inside my closet. I feel like I have a whole new wardrobe as I am moving out of post pregnancy clothes back into my pre-pregnancy clothes. Looking forward to wearing all this stuff soon!

Day 13: Blue- A vintage Fiestware plate that hangs on our kitchen wall. I do not have too much blue in my house so this picture was a stretch and took some thinking! But it perfectly captures my love for old Fiesta.

It has been raining all day in Houston today- this my idea of perfect weather. I think I could totally pull off living in Oregon or something is that area of the country. Happy Monday to you...

More Photo A Day...

I have really enjoyed doing the photo a day challenge. It is fun to plan out what I'm going to take pictures of and try to capture creative shots. Plus, I have enjoyed finding others on Instagram, Facebook, and blogs who are doing the same challenge.

Day 3: Hands. I love Cora's hands. Right now they are not out too much due to her little nails scratching her face. She is usually concealed in little gloves so I love it when I get to hold her little hands.
Day 4: Stranger. We were around a lot of strangers this weekend in airports. And speaking of these strangers in airports- everyone was SO incredible wonderful to us as we flew with a 6 weeks old. I have a whole post planned about our trip to Midland- it was a huge success.
Day 5: 10am. This is Cora and I at church this morning hanging out in the training room listening to the sermon via speakers. I think I will be listening to a lot of church in this little room in the coming months. It was our first Sunday at church since her birth. What a joy it was to introduce her to our church family.

More photos to come soon...

February Photo A Day Challenge

I have decided to do the February photo a day challenge due to watching so many do the January challenge on Facebook and blogs. Please feel free to join in. I'm also doing the challenge on my Instagram account.


Feb. 1st: my view today. I see my feet and TV a lot while feeding this little one. Sometimes I feel like I'm making a permanent indention in the couch.


Feb 2nd: Words. Here is the book I started before Cora was born and I long to finish right now. I know I'll have time (and hands!) again some day:).

Let me know if you are doing the challenge. I'd love to see your pictures...

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