Loral is 7 months now

We can not believe our little girl is 7 mos. old today. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we were heading out to the hospital to have her. She is such a blessing. She now weighs 15lbs 10oz and is close to 28in long. Since her surgery she has gained 1 lb in less than a month. It has really made a difference. She nurses and eats food much better than before. She is sitting up on her own and now is rolling in both directions. She loves to play with balls and her other toys, she has fun changing things from one hand to the other. She will just sit and play for 30-45 mins by herself as long as she doesn't see her mommy she's good. She does get fussy and wants someone to sit and play with her and sometime's she just wants us to pick her up. We are really having a great time with her. Christmas was fun. She got some new clothes and new toys and her first snowbaby ornament. I hope to start her an ornament collection that she will hopefully cherish over the years. I will post some new pictures from the christmas festivities. We purchased a new video camera with our christmas gift cards so we are going to see if we can upload a video or two every once in a while. Well the new year is fast approaching. I am working nights now in OB and Matt is still at Progressive Foam. Things are good in the Shapter House! Happy Holidays may God Bless you and your families in the New Year!

Time just keeps flying by.

I will try and make this short and sweet. The last post was just before Halloween so there is alot to say. We spent Loral's first halloween with her cousins Katy Belle & Lindley then went to Grandmoma's to see her other cousins. She was a monkey and the cutest one ever! November was another busy month in the Shapter House. The first weekend in November Matt & I got an elective sitter for the first time so we could go out to dinner for Tabetha's 30th birthday. So Mimi came over to keep Lola. Although we knew she was in very capable hands, it was very weird for us to leave her when we didn't have to. We did enjoy ourselves but we were ready to get home to see her. She and Mimi had a great time. We spent Lola's first Thanksgiving visiting Uncle in the hospital, he was recovering from a vehicle accident. We ate lunch at Mimi & Pop's she loves sweet potato casserole. The day after Thanksgiving Matt & I went to the LSU vs. Hogs game in Little Rock. I was the ever so intellegent one who left without a coat and got very cold quickly. So we left the game early and finished watching it at Dawn's while we waited on Uncle to be transfered from Conway to Children's Hospital. It was a game I hate that we missed but I was not having a good time being rained on. Uncle did get to come home the week after Thanksgiving and seems to be healing well. God was really watching over him because he could just as easily not survived the wreck and his injuries could have been much worse than what they were. The wednesday after Thanksgiving I spent my last full day in the OR. Thursday Lola had her 6 month check up and weighed in at 14 lbs. 11 oz and 27 1/4 in long. She was sick most of the month of November with a cold, pink eye and teething so it was a rough month and we made 2 trips to the Dr. office so we were not surprised at her weight. She still is pretty small for her age but she is doing great. Dec. 5th she had surgery to correct her tongue because she was tongue tied. She did pretty good during surgery and seemed to feel good that afternoon but by Sunday evening the pain meds from friday were worn off and mortin wasn't really helping. Sunday was one of the longest nights we have had in a long time. We were all up for about 4 hours that night. It made for a rough first day in OB on Monday. The 12th was Lindley's 1st birthday and we went to her house for a party. It is so sweet to see Loral and Lindley playing together and K. B. just loves her baby sister and baby loral. I am so glad that they are so close in age. It reminds me of when Hannah and Arianna were little, they were inseperable. The 13th was a sad reminder of our huge loss last year. Lawson was such a great kid, he was an old cowboy soul in a little cowboys body. We as a family miss him so very much. There isn't a day that goes by that he is not thought of. I only wish he could have met his youngest cousin's. He loved little kids and babies, it was so much fun watching him with Katy Belle. I would give anything to have him back with us, but I know he is always with us in spirit. I know this seems strange but anytime Loral wakes in the middle of the night laughing, I alway's say "Lawson leave her alone and let her get some sleep, she can play when the sun comes out". I guess it's my way of keeping him close to us. Christmas is next Thursday and our tree is up and stocking's are all hung by the front door with care in hopes that St. Nick will soon be here. It is during this time of year that we reflect on they past year. Our lives and family have changed so much we have said good-bye to loved ones and welcomed new members to the family. We are grateful for each experience that God has placed in our life and even though we do not always understand the reason we know he has one.
Merry Christmas and May God bless you and your family in the New Year!
Oh yeah and Loral is sitting up on her own, said dada and she has her first tooth!

catching up

It has been a while since I last blogged. It is so hard to keep up with everything that I must get done and still have time to do things I want to do. I have the best intentions but they only get you so far. Loral has been a very busy girl! We traveled to Nashville, TN with some other ladies that I work with and their little boys for a workshop Oct. 10th. Matt was able to go with me so I was able to take Loral along. She did really well on the car ride over so I was happy. There were times on the ride back that she got fussy but I could feel her pain. She visited the Parthenon replica and the park with her Daddy while I was in class on Saturday and then the group of us 5 adults and 3 babies went to have dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack. We all ate pretty good the kids were all getting pretty sleepy, but still well behaved. Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and had breakfast at the famous “Pancake Pantry”. We arrived shortly after 8:00am and there was a short line, by the time we left around 9:30am there was a line all the way out the door and around the corner down the street. We had a good time and the workshop was very informative.
The following Thursday we flew out to Knoxville, TN for Curtis and Carol’s wedding weekend. It was Loral’s first flight! She did fabulous! I was so proud of her. She slept pretty much the whole time from Little Rock into Memphis and Memphis to Knoxville. We spent the afternoon and evening with the Bridges. Silas has really grown up since we last saw him last November. He is such a big boy now. Matt and Bridges went to hang out with the guys while Erika and I caught up on everything. I have to step back for a second. While in the air we realized that we had forgotten “Mr. T” (Loral’s riding companion) in the car so we were a little panicked. After all Mr. T goes everywhere loral goes. She prefers him over baby Susie. Anyway so before we headed to Townsend Friday afternoon we had to find and Mr.T2 and hope that he would work. Target carried the same looking Mr.T but he was just a little different and she is one smart girl and noticed. She did however let him work until we could get home. Townsend is a small town but this time of year is beautiful with the Smokey Mountains in few at all times and the leaves changing it made for some really pretty pictures. The wedding was very nice and the reception so much fun. Curtis looked extremely happy and Carol made a beautiful bride, we were so glad that we could be there with them. It was Loral’s first time to meet Matt’s Shapter side of the family tree and they fell in love with her at first sight. She was such a trooper through all the events of the weekend and only fussed when tired or hungry. Sunday we met the Bridges Family in Pigeon Forge for lunch and a little shopping then headed back to their house for a quiet afternoon. We took advantage of our extremely talented photographer friend and had him take some pictures of Loral at the same time showing us how to work our new camera. My only regret is that we didn’t get any pictures of Silas and Loral together, maybe next time. We had an early flight out Monday morning and were ready to get home. Loral did just a great on the return flight; she really made me proud all weekend.
We have been working with her over the last couple months with eating baby food from a spoon. With her being tongue tied it has taken longer. We started with just cereal and she didn’t really get much down at first. Now she has really gotten the hang of it and looks forward to her meals. She is not picky right now which I am grateful for. She loves squash, sweet potatoes, sweet peas and most all of her fruits even prunes. We are just now introducing a little juice and she isn’t so sure about that yet. She is growing so fast and is rolling over more now but only in her crib. She will sit-up for a few seconds on her own and loves to jump in her entertainment center. She also loves watching little Einstein’s and Bee-bo her baby signs movie. She makes the funniest noises, sometime she sounds like a prehistoric animal. She loves to laugh and laughs so much at herself. She is just really starting to get the dogs and loves to watch the big dogs (Diggs & Erika) walk around. Diggs now likes to try and give Loral kisses which doesn’t bother her but grosses me out so we try hard to keep it from happening. Loral is such a joy and we are so blessed to be her parents. I love sharing her new adventures with our friends and family and I know that she brings joy and love to their lives as well. We are celebrating her first Halloween tomorrow so hopefully over the weekend I can post a new slide show of pictures from the last month or so.

I am finally getting a chance to update some picture. The ones from play day are from early September and the ones of her in her monkey costume are from our recent trip to Knoxville, which I will write about soon. Thanks Uncle B for taking such great shots.....more to come soon!

Loral's First Play Day

This past Saturday some of Loral's little friends came to play. There were 5 babies, 3 boys ages 7mos, 5mos & 2 1/2mos and Loral who is now 3 1/2 mos and the other little girl is 2 1/2mos. We had fun watching all of them. The younger ones didn't play much but I think they still enjoyed it. Loral was sleepy she was to excited to sleep before her friends arrived so she fell asleep in the party. When she would cry one of the other boys would push his bottom lip out and start to cry with her. It was so funny! It was like he just couldn't let her cry by herself. The oldest baby was the only one sitting up by himself. I think all the other babies were jealous. We had a great time and I think we are going to do it again in another month or so.

Recent pictures

Loral enjoy's her baths. Cousin Daisy & Loral


Loral and I on 8/18 the day I went back to work full-time and her first day of daycare.
Then 8/30 in her razorback attire. This one is of her and baby cousin Axel she is 10 weeks older.

Aunt Lorey-Lorey and Katy Belle at KB's 3rd birthday party.
Loral having her first taste of rice cereal. She liked it better in a bottle but by the 2nd try with the spoon she enjoyed it.
Sweet baby!
Before Josue's Christening 8/30
7/13 Allison, Ella, Loral & I at Ella's 1st birthday party.
Melissa & Paige added to the pic. My oldest friend's and the newest ones.
Aunt Sis & Paige
KB holding her baby Loral
Loral & Cousin Lindley in their matching outfits from Memoma. Lindley is 5 1/2 months older than Loral.
We are doing good! Sorry some of the picture jump around. We had some family pictures made this weekend I will try and get a few of those up soon.

The past few weeks.

Well the past few weeks have been extremely busy. I returned to work full-time on the 18th on the 19th I started a new part-time teaching job with the UAMS Surgical Technology program. Loral went to daycare for the first time on the 18th and I cried until about 3:00 pm and that was only because I ran out of tears. Her teachers were all very nice and understanding. Matt has been able to go by and see her almost everyday at lunch so that has made me feel better. It has been really hard trying to balance everything out. I never feel like I have enough time to spend with her. I have found that I don't talk to many people once I get home, that is my time with her and Matt. It has gotten a little easier but every so often I have a little melt down. This week she will start a new daycare. There wasn't anything wrong with the first one, but the new one will have a smaller class and is a little cheaper per week. She turned three months old on Thursday. Time really has flown by. She smiles and laughs so much now and she will grab things that she wants and pull them to her. We are really enjoying this stage. She had rice cereal for the first time last weekend. That was a rather funny experience. She just held it in her mouth not knowing what to do with it. Since she is tongue-tied it will take us a little longer to get her able to eat from a spoon but I am in not hurry we will just take baby steps. We went this morning and had her 3 month pictures made, we also had some made of the family. They turned out nice. I just wish she had smiled a little more, but she was sleepy and I guess at 3 months you can't really expect to much.