First time at the babysitter!

Today, we had to leave Elle with a babysitter/friend Pam. It was so funny how we ended up getting to know her and her family. We first saw their family during Eleiana's christening back in November. We did not know them back then but they were in the same church to have their baby Henry christened as well. Turns out that Henry's godparents are friends with the Jarbs family and Daddy Jarbs' sister's business partner. Long story short, we found out that Pam's family live just a couple of blocks up from our house. Such a small world! We had been corresponding and have visited each other's houses since then. Since Pam stays at home with her two kids, she offered to help us out one day a week this month when Elle is not in day care and when Grandma Jarbs is not with her.

This is the first time that we left Elle with a non-family member. I am happy to say it went well! When I picked her up in the afternoon, Pam said Elle behaved and napped really well. She had a fun time playing with their 2 yr old daughter, Elodie and 8 month old son, Henry. Pam sent me these pictures while I was at work.

Here she is playing with Henry on the activity mat. Look at Henry checking her out ;-)

Pulling Henry's shirt! Haha. That's our girl! ;-)



Can't stop laughing...

I got home early from work today so I got a lot of time to play with Elle. While waiting for Daddy Jarbs to get home from work, I decided to fold her clean cloth diapers. We were in bed so I sat her in between my legs, facing away from me as I was folding her diapers. When I was done folding, I tapped the top of the diaper pile to flatten it out. All of a sudden Elle bursted out laughing and won't stop! It was cracking me up too. I was able took a video with my free hand.

The laughing went on and on. She was laughing non-stop for a good 3 minutes! Silly girl!

Cherry Blossoms!

After the family lunch yesterday, we drove out to Hanes Point to check out the cherry blossoms. It was a tad chilly so we only stayed for a short while to take pictures.

Hanging out on top of the cherry tree.

Don't worry, no baby was harmed. Daddy Jarbs was holding her really tight.

She was closely studying the flowers and then wanted to eat them :-P

 Daddy's girl



Elle - our tax deduction

The tax deadline is just around the corner so today we drove out to Silver Spring to meet with our tax accountant. Of course we had to bring Elle - our tax deduction ;-). Elle napped pretty much the entire time during our appointment. She woke up just when we were about to leave our accountant's office and in time for lunch. We stopped in downtown Silver Spring to grab  lunch. Elle was so wide awake and behaved well in the restaurant. She sat down on our lap while Daddy Jarbs and I ate lunch.

                            Checking out the lobsters while waiting for our table

 The waiter offered us the booster seat so we thought we'd give it a shot. She did okay for a few minutes but since she still cannot seat up on her own, we still had to put our arm across the seat to make sure she does not topple over.

She's always been fascinated with my Pandora bracelet. She'd stare at it and try to eat it.

Check out her cute Puma shirt and matching leggings



Cool baby!

Here's Elle looking cool in her new Baby Banz sunglasses! ;-)

 

I took this video while we were playing on the bed. I wanted her to practice rolling over while unswaddled (if you remember, she has only rolled over while swaddled!). You can see her effort in this video :-).

Four month check up!

We are a little bit behind on Elle's 4 month check up. Daddy & Grandma Jarbs took her to the doctor yesterday for her 4 month check up. She now weighs 13 lbs 4 oz and 25 3/4 inches long! Her height is still above average! She definitely did not get that from me :-)

Elle's 1st St. Patrick's day!

Today is St. Patrick's day! Elle has no Irish blood but she still got dolled up and wore something green today. Daddy Jarbs picked out and bought her shirt from Tar-jay ;-).

Daddy Jarbs took off work early to take Elle to her 4 month check up. Grandma Jarbs came with them. After the doctor's appointment, they picked me up and we all had early dinner at Matchbox. Elle was knocked out from the vaccine shots she got so she napped while we ate dinner. She woke up just when we were almost done each eating so we got to play with her a little bit.

Her pacifier clip was more important than looking at the camera :-)

Elle with Grandma Jarbs

 With Mommy & Daddy Jarbs

Elle and her first slice of pizza!...kidding :-). We wanted to see if she'll want to eat "real" food. She practically puts everything in her mouth so we were not surprised when she wanted to suck the pizza lol.

Busy mornings..

Mornings are a crazy time in our household. I get up around 4:30 am to pump milk, go back to sleep, wake up at 5:30/5:50 am, shower, get ready for work, wake up Elle, change and feed her (if she wakes up early, Daddy Jarbs feeds and changes her diaper while I am in the shower), prepare my packed lunch, prepare my pump accessories to take to work, pack Elle's milk bottles for daycare, pack Elle's daycare bag (I do this the night before but I take a look one last time to make sure I do not forget anything), finish getting ready for work and pump again before I leave! Whew! Tired yet? :-)

Here is Elle sitting on our bed and playing with her soft block while I finished getting ready for work. She looks at me with amazement every time I dry my hair and put my make up on lol.

Mornings are a little less crazy when Grandma Jarbs is in our house to help take care of Elle. Thank God for Grandmas! :-)

We got a side sleeper!

Elle has rolled over from her back to her tummy two times over the last couple of weeks. She has not done it again recently but has mastered partially rolling over though. Since she has learned to do this, now she prefers to sleep on her side! It's so funny to watch her in the video monitor roll over from side to side, while swaddled!

Sunny Sunday!

The weather was really nice today so we headed out and walked to our favorite neighborhood coffee shop to have breakfast. The coffee shop was packed. Good thing Elle brought her own Bumbo chair and sat on the bar :-).

Here she is playing with Mr. Monkey, her favorite toy these days.

She loves to suck and eat the monkey's face! :-)

After breakfast, we walked around the neighborhood. Elle fell asleep on the BOB stroller! During our walk, we discovered a new park that is being built a few blocks away from our house. I hope it will be done in time for summer so we can take Elle there to play.

                     

Stalking Elle @ Day care:-)

I LOVE the webcam at Elle's day care! I get to watch and see Elle any time I want. It also makes me feel better seeing how the teachers care for the kids. I've seen them clean the room everyday, sanitize the floors, mats, swings, which is great! Here are some snapshots I took today.

Elle is doing tummy time in the middle of the room

Elle is on the rocker, sitting on her teacher's lap

Daddy Jarbs picked up Elle today. You can see him and Elle on lower right side of photo

Daddy Jarbs knew I was watching the webcam so he lifted 

Elle in front of the camera to say hi to me lol

4 months old!

It has been a busy week at the Jarbs household with Elle going to day care and trying to figure out a new schedule that would work for us. We missed celebrating Elle's 4 month birthday on Thursday. She was already tired by the time Daddy Jarbs and I got home from work so we needed to put her  to bed early. Today, we finally got to do her monthly photoshoot and she got to "blow" her monthly birthday cupcake :-). 

 4 months! Where did time go?

This is my favorite photo in today's shoot. She did not want to lean back and kept wanting to tripod sit!

 Check out the cute and yummy smiley vanilla cupcake from Crumbs Bakeshop

With Mommy & Daddy Jarbs

 Fun facts at 4 months:

* Eats about 5.0 oz breastmilk per feeding. I can't keep up!
* Loves to put everything in her mouth
* Gets frustrated when she can't fit the oball rattle and winkel in her mouth!
* Just this week, has started using her left thumb (she has discovered her right thumb a long time ago but not her left)! It's been tucked in for the longest time.
* Goes to bed between 8:00 - 8:30 pm and wakes up around 6:30 - 7:00 pm the next day.
* Has now learned to sleep on her own at night. We used to rock her to sleep but now, we just put her down drowsy but awake and she puts herself to sleep. Still have to work on doing this for her naps!
* Loves her Goodnight Hawaii book. After her last feeding before she goes to bed, she would lay her head on my shoulder while we're sitting on the rocking chair. As soon as she hears me start reading her book, no matter how tired she is, she would look back and listen to me read the book. I would turn her and have her sit on my lap while I read. She loves turning each page as I read :-).
* Loves doing raspberries! She just recently learned how to do this and would sometimes do it nonstop!
* Her tickle spot is on her chest :-)
* Started to outgrow her 3 month pajama footers. We had to replace them with 6 month pajama footers. She's long! She definitely did not get mommy's height!
* Loves having moisturizer put on her face. She puts on a huge smile whenever we apply the moisturizer.
* In the last couple of weeks, she has rolled over twice, while swaddled!