Four Generations, again.

As you can see, there is zero family resemblance.

Baptized!

With Father Dick's help, we got the Ellie Bean baptized today. It was a really lovely afternoon and a wonderful ceremony in our backyard. Ellie wore "the dress," making her the fifth generation to do so. Father Dick used the baptismal font that belonged to Grandpa Thiel's grandfather (though sadly, Jake filled it with cold water.) And most importantly, we had a huge group of family there to celebrate with us, and to promise to help us in raising Elizabeth.

Here are some of the highlights. I gave my friend Judy our new camera and asked her to snap a few pictures. 200 shots later, we have a pretty full picture of how the day went!'

Since Grandma Rosie has been there for eight other wearings of the baptismal dress (including her own) I figured she should help us get dressed and ready to go.

The proud parents and godparents

The rest of the fabulous congregation that joined us.

The moment of truth!

Tim showing her off to the assembled group.

Ellie with the Thiels (minus Gramps, who had to stay home due to a fever.)

Ellie with all of the Fords and Father Dick

Oh man, getting baptized is tiring. She fell asleep on my arm shortly after I changed her out of the dress.

Thankfully, mama was able to eat some frosting... err... cake... to refuel. See that piece in the lower right corner? Yeah, I saved that for myself.

Ellie's New Favorite Game.

Grandma Rosie.

I'm pretty sure it's love at first sight.

Life With a Three Month Old.

It's true what I kept hearing - that colicky babies get better around three months. That you wake up one day and things have improved. Miss Bean has really gotten better, and it's just been in the past week or so. It's like she decided that she didn't need to scream all the time. Nursing is pretty much a breeze now and I've figured out how to keep her from gulping too much air and getting gassy. I'm better able to anticipate when she's going to blow out a poop, so I don't try to put her to sleep while she's working on a turd. She can play on her playmat for a few minutes at the time, so I can make a sandwich or go to the bathroom without either having to hold her or listening to her scream. It used to be if we went over to mom and dad's for dinner, she'd spend a half hour eating, maybe a half hour sleeping, and all of the other time SCHA-REAMING like we were murdering her. Last night? She spent a half hour sleeping, she took a bottle and then she spent the rest of the time sitting in people's laps, smiling it up, staring at mom's plates on the wall with only a few incidents of teariness. It's amazing and it makes me so happy to see.

I also feel like we're getting in a schedule. She's usually up around 7am. That first hour is about getting her fed, changed and happy. At 8:20 I meet my neighbor Keri and she and I walk her boys to school and then walk around our neighborhood, getting some sun and talking about mom stuff. Elizabeth usually naps for the majority of our walk. Then we come home, we have something to eat and she takes a nap, and if I'm lucky, I get my butt in the shower before she wakes up. The rest of the day maybe we run an errand, but otherwise we hang out in her playmat, we read books, we practice standing and chase kitties. Once a week we met up with our mommy group and on Wednesdays we go to knitting, where Ellie is the belle of the ball. Usually Ellie can only be awake for two hours before she's ready for another nap. The only downside is that sometimes her naps are 20 minutes and sometimes they're two hours. I can never tell when I actually put her down. Sometimes when I think "oh, she's tired, she'll be out for a long time," she's awake the second I turn my back. And then other times I have to put a spoon under her nose because she's been out for so long that I worry about her breathing.

I love having a three month old. She's so fun! It's amazing to watch her smile when she sees me. She's the most perfect, huggable size. She's learning new things every day, and it's fantastic to watch new little synapses fire and connect inside that giant noggin. I thought she was beautiful and amazing back when she was my tiny 8 pound newborn, but man, I am enjoying her so much more now. And it only gets more fun from here! I am so lucky to be her mom.

WE'RE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!

Ellie is super excited. Party at our house! Milk and beer for all!

Ingrate!

Despite her boogs, Ellie slept great last night. This morning we had something to eat, we hung out a little, and then I took her into the bathroom for a full service spa treatment. First off, I ran the shower to turn the bathroom into a beautiful steam room. Elizabeth had a lovely hot bath to snuggle in to. While bathing, she got a manicure and pedicure. She also got her hair professionally styled. She got a full body massage, all the way down to her cute little piddies.

What more could you want? I mean, if it was me, I'd be totally pleased with my spa service. Ellie apparently was not. Her tip for me? She pooped on her towel JUST as I was going to put her diaper on her.

In other stories of ingratitude - I pretty much let the cats crawl all over the baby's things. They nap in her playmat, they snuggle on her boopys, they lick the baby on occasion. But today I had to draw the line when Lulu tried to climb into the swing with the baby during her nap. Because the number one rule always is, never wake a sleeping baby.