Grandpa Day's Visit and Stella's One month Check-up

Ok so, she's a little over a month (5 weeks and 3 days to be exact), but Stella had her "one month" check-up today. Everything went great and we found out that we have a bit of a chunker on our hands :) She weighed in at 10 lbs. 15 oz. (90th percentile) and 21.5 in. (50th percentile). We knew she was growing, her double chin gave it away, but I was shocked at how much she's grown in a matter of a few weeks. It's amazing! Here's a picture of her at the doctor's office today, so you can get a good look at her chubby little cheeks :)

This past weekend, Grandpa Vic and his wife Julie came to Philly to visit and of course, to meet Stella. We had an amazing time, just hanging around the house with them, catching up and walking around the neighborhood visiting all of the sites. We love being tour guides and are getting better and better each time.

Hanging out at home...

The Liberty Bell of course

Elfreth's Alley (America's oldest residential neighborhood)

At Fireman's Hall Museum (Ben Franklin invented the firehouse and this is the original.)

At Washington Square Park - where thousands of American soldiers are buried who died during the Revolution.

We also finally were able to give Vic his Father's Day gift, a trip to Amish country and a ride on the Strasbourg Railroad. It was so beautiful, so green and so well kept. And the train was like a time machine back to the 1800's and I'm so happy we all got to experience it together.

Lancaster, PA

Stella also got to go out on a few girls lunches with me (of course we had to eat outside, since she's not quite 6 weeks yet.) She met some more of our friends and she is so great when we go out together. She just hangs out with us, just like one of the girls.

Emily Drown (Sarah's sister)

Steph and Cindy (Friends from my office... Steph is Stella's first babysitter too!)

Heather (My client on Philadelphia Tourism)

Stella One Month

A little about Stella and her first month of life...

When she's falling asleep, she'll keep one eye open as long as she can, watching you. It's always her left eye and no matter how heavy the eyelid gets, she forces it open as long as possible. We lovingly refer to it as her "pirate eye."

When she's upset, there are 3 things that calm her fairly quickly. 1) She loves to swing side to side. 2) She also enjoys the binky quite a bit, she's still not great at figuring it out though because she also loves to stick her tongue out when she's content - a vicious cycle e. We have to hold it in her mouth for her for a few minutes before she really gets it. And Mike always laughs at how she can cry and suck on her binky at the same time. 3) And the final trick is the rocking chair. She crashes immediately after she hears the first creak from the chair.

She loves to spit up and throw up on mom and pees and poops on dad. Every time. :)

She loves bath time and always has the most content and happy look on her face while soaking in the tub and being scrubbed clean.

She enjoys her tummy time, especially when she's getting a back massage.

She's a great sleeper - goes to bed at 10pm and only wakes up around 2am and 6am. Once she eats, she has no problem going back to sleep immediately. We really are so lucky.

She's a good eater. She eats every 3 hours for about 20 minutes (except at night where she goes 4 and sometimes 5 hours between meals)

Morris has been amazing with Stella. Of course, he's never alone with her, but when he's with her he loves to give her kisses and lay with her. He licks her arms, hands and face all of the time. And he fans her with his huge feather-duster tail (which she loves to grab with her little hands.)

Mike and I are adjusting to parenthood well. We basically just love it and dote on her nonstop. She is so much fun, and we're just trying to soak it all up. Because as you all know, time flies.

** It's easier to click through each page vs. the slideshow because it goes pretty fast.

Make a Smilebox photobook

A week of firsts...

Well, it's been a lot of firsts for Stella this week... first day at the beach, first golf outing, first time playing guitar, first time eating from a bottle...etc. She is growing so quickly, it's amazing. She's finally fitting into her 0-3 month clothing and is just now squeezing out of her newborn clothes. It's amazing how different she looks already. You'll notice she's chubbed up a bit and her hair has gotten longer and blonder. We're just trying to soak up every minute of it and enjoy her in each phase, because as they say... it goes so fast. I can't believe she's already almost 1 month old.

It's hard to stay put now that Stella is nearing 4 weeks old. I just can't stay in, so we walk a lot. I love being in the city for this reason. I can just quickly put her in the stroller and we walk around the city for an hour or so every day. She enjoys the walks, especially in our neighborhood - Old City. The sidewalks are so bumpy and there's a lot of brick and cobblestone to keep her happy.

Mike's company had another round of layoffs last week - this time it was big. They cut about 60% of the employees. Although Mike was confident in his position, it was still stressful and scary. Thankfully, Mike made it through again (this has been the 4th round of layoffs at his company since October.) We are so grateful for everything we have and are thrilled that Mike still has a job and a job that he enjoys just makes it that much better. We are also so thankful for family and friends. It's been so nice having family here to visit over the past 4 weeks. I don't know what we would have done without you - Stella is one lucky little girl. And now, Grandpa Vic comes next week and we just can't wait!

Here are some new pictures (remember you can click on them to make them bigger.)

Our new favorite photo... (taken last night)


Just hanging out.

Bath Time!



Walking along the river.



Watching the British Open with daddy, which inspired us to do some golfing of our own.



At the Driving Range - Stella's first golf outing.

My last campaign before my maternity leave was a campaign for Philadelphia Tourism. We developed a large campaign encouraging visitors to come and visit Philadelphia. My client had a special onesie with the campaign logo made for Stella as a gift before I left. Here are the pictures I took to send to my team who worked on the campaign with me and my client.

At the beach. With my sister in town, we decided to take Stella to the beach and loved it so much, we went 2 days in a row. The first day we went to Ocean City, NJ (about an hour from Philly) and the second day we met up with CJ and his family at Point Pleasant Beach, NJ (about 1.5 hours from Philly).

Daddy feeding Stella her first bottle. She took it like a champ.

Morris has been so amazing with Stella. He pretty much just ignores her, but he gives her a lot of kisses too. And her favorite thing is when he fans her with his tail. She loves it!

This time we thought we'd throw in a couple of videos too...

Music Time

Dancing