Alice Has Good Times

Alice has GOOD times!

Alice is a natural beauty.

Alice and Mom chilling in the play room.

Alice is 6 months old today

Baby is now 6 months old...time really flies, and crawls at the same time.

Alice is now up to 6-8 oz per feeding...she still gets "blissed out" while eating

Dad extolling the virtues of a well stocked liquer cabinet

Ain't my butt cute!

Alice is starting to sit on her own...she inevitably falls, so we keep a close eye on her when she sits alone, or makes sure she's in a well padded area :-)

Precious Sleep...and precious little of it

Alice doesn't sleep through the night yet.

We live for that day...We look forward to that day...
But until then, all we can do is our best to survive on minimal sleep.

Always distrupted, always too light, always listening for our little one.

Alice falls asleep anywhere between 7:00pm-9:00pm.

A "good" night is when she can make it 4 hours in her own crib.

When she wakes for a bottle, even though she typically falls back asleep, she will fuss and fuss if I try and put her back in the crib. Our coping plan for now is to start her in her crib for as long as she will sleep, and then move her into our room after her first bottle. The most comfortable way for me to sleep with Alice is with her on my chest, and her little head below my chin. I can usually get 1-2 hours of consecutive sleep with her there. I don't know how long this sleep postition will last the bigger she gets. She has already almost doubled her weight from when we brought her home from the hospital.

Although I look forward to the days she will sleep through the night, and IN her crib...I will definately miss having my little sweety peety sleeping on my chest and soaking my shirt in baby sweat.

Mothers Day 2008

Alice and Mom on our First Mothers Day

Dad was sweet to get flowers - double

petaled tulips!

Mom, Grandma and Alice

"The Girls"

P.S. Alice has learned to roll over..kinda - that darned arm keeps getting in the way!

New skills and experiences!

We have discovered BOOKS!

The hardboard books are the best right now because Alice grabs at the pages.

Our attention span is only one to two books right now

Alice's favorite toy right now is her Dora lovie.

Dora goes with Alice everywhere....the bouncy seat, the swing, the car seat, daycare.

Alice can now grab a toy.
Here, she shakes her maracca, and she hasn't hit herself in the head yet!

Here Alice is in her awesome garage sale find - exersaucer.
Fun story - mom and Kristin go garage saleing. We see this exersaucer with a sticker price of $35 (which is pretty good), but as I am "checking out" with some clothes for Alice, I ask about the exersaucer....the ladies husband says....I think we have it stickered at $15.00 - "SOLD"! Kristin says "quick - grab it and lets get out of here before his wife founds out how much he sold it for!"

The Oscar Goes to: Lights and a Fan

I tried to feed baby this morning, but she couldn't concentrate on eating... She kept moving her eyes and then her head to the object of distraction. The fan. The lights. She is mesmerized by the lights and fan. I made sweet noises and funny faces but nothing was interesting enough to keep her focused. She wouldn't eat. We moved her to her mom's angle, so she could look at her fan and lights while eating. She ate fine after that.

In an attempt to better understand my daughter, I wanted to get a picture of what she was seeing. What was she so enthralled with? While her mom was holding her I put the camera behind her head and took a picture.

This is Alice's perspective:

It never gets old

We are now up to 3....3 times Alice has pee'd on her mom.

I think she thinks its funny, and

it is.

Mom Nirvana

What you see here is the optimal lunch habitat for the lady of the Bickel household. Notice the Dr. Pepper. Notice the Taco Bueno. Notice the video monitor and the daily log. Fresh salsa caps this lunch feast off, combined with a few free moments to converse with the man of the house. She is in command of the baby situation, and enjoys the fresh food he has brought back from his hunt.

She is pleased:

Getting out of the House

I spent the first week (or two) after Alice's birth wearing pajamas and sitting on the couch. After my 2 week incision check, I was starting to feel more normal...still some pain getting up to a sitting position, but once I'm up, I'm just fine.

By week three, I began to get dressed and somewhat "made up"...fix the hair, limited makeup, etc...and along with that, the urge to get out of the house more.

Even though it is January, the weather has been nice and warm, so I decided it was a perfect day to take a walk. I dressed Alice in a pink jumper and cap (given to Alice by her Aunt Sissy) and placed her in the car seat that snaps into the stroller. Alice promptly fell asleep for the duration of the walk.