Festival of Colors

Last weekend we went to the Festival of Colors. It's a celebration to welcome the spring. It is held at the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork. After the emcee counts down, everybody throws chalk at everybody else. It is such a blast! We went with our friends Mike & Megan and Seth & Cindy. It was so great. We were covered in chalk even before the countdown. But after the countdown, it was crazy! The chalk dust was so thick we couldn't see the sun and could only see about 10 ft in front of us. We had to breathe through our shirts for a bit too. And while the chalk bag says it's edible, that stuff tastes NASTY! It was totally worth it though. We're all definitely going next year and the next, and the next, etc. :)

Before the fight

After the fight - front side

After the fight - back side

The four of us

(We lost Seth & Cindy in the crowd.)

The crowd

My closeup

Play Mat

At Lindy's doctor appointment this week the doctor was telling me about the milestones she'll be reaching soon. Within the next month she should start batting at things we put in front of her and at four months she should start reaching for them. The doctor also said we should stimulate her by putting toys in front of her and that the mats with the dangling toys above the baby is a great thing to use. Unfortunately, we dont' have one of those play mats.

I told my dad about the appointment and the milestones she should be reaching soon. He told my mom and she went out and bought Lindy a little play mat. She just can't resist buying her stuff. I think it's funny. I love it though. So now Lindy has this darling pink and green play mat with lots of toys dangling from it. It even plays music. I put her on it today and she was completely mesmerized. She normally hates being on her back and will cry after just a minute or so. But on the mat, she lied there for about 10 minutes at least before even fussing. She loves it! See?

Some Much Needed Sleep

A couple of weeks ago I got an infection and it has steadily gotten worse. This infection causes excruciating pain and so I haven't been sleeping much the last few days. I think I'm averaging about 4-5 hours a night. Last night, after falling asleep on the couch, Allan got me up and sent me to bed. He took my books and phone away from me (and put my phone on silent even - in the other room!) so I wouldn't be distracted by anything. He then stayed up late with Lindy so that I could sleep. I felt bad because he had to get up early and I didn't, but he wouldn't hear it. He insisted I get sleep (at his expense). Although I felt bad, it felt so good to sleep! And to top it off, Lindy ended up sleeping all day long. It was nice to finally catch up.

Because of the medication I'm on, I was feeling pretty loopy today so after Allan got home from work, he went to town cleaning up our place. He did the dishes, cleaned up the kitchen, folded laundry & even bathed Lindy. I got to just chill & take it easy. I have the most wonderful husband in the whole world! He really takes good care of me. :)

One Tough Baby

Lindy got her 2 month shots today. Originally Allan was going to take her in for them because I knew that I would probably cry right along with her, but after having to take a sick day, he just couldn't. I was dreading it so much. It's so hard to watch your child hurting. I had a hard time watching her get her heel pricked in NICU so I knew this would be really bad. However, all my stressing was for naught.

When the nurse gave Lindy her shots, she definitely started crying, but it wasn't the scream I was anticipating. It was just a mild cry. And she only cried for 20-30 seconds. My baby is SO TOUGH! I should've known. In NICU she didn't even cry when they pricked her heel. I was so relieved! And to top it all off, when I was putting her pants back on her she was smiling! Once again, so tough!

She is now 9 lbs. 6 oz. & 20 1/2 in. long. She's getting so big! She's now in the 13th percentile for her weight and 1st percentile for her length so technically she's not that big, it just seems like it to us. But she's beautiful and very healthy.

Smiles

As of Wednesday, Lindy is officially smiling! It has to be the cutest thing I've ever seen. I absolutely love it! I've been putting off this post because I wanted a picture of her smiling, but I just can't get one. She'll only smile at our faces so if I'm holding a camera in front of me, she won't. I'm stilling working on it. I'll get one just as soon as I can. In the meantime, here's more cute pictures of her.

St. Patrick's Day

Growing up my mom always did a lot for holidays. Although St. Patrick's Day is a small one, she still celebrated. She would dye our food green for the day. I decided to carry on this fun tradition. For breakfast I made green eggs & ham and cream of wheat. For dinner it was ham with a mustard brown sugar glaze and mashed potatoes. And then of course there was milk for both meals.

Cream of wheat

Green eggs & ham

The completed meal

Mustard brown sugar glaze on ham w/ mashed potatoes

While these all look absolutely disgusting, they were all very delicious! Allan thought it was pretty cool. I love food coloring!

Preview Pictures

Last weekend I finally got to have professional pictures of Lindy taken. My friend, Whitney (Whitney Lewis Photography), took them & did a great job! These are just a preview. I can't wait to get the rest! Aren't they darling??

With pacifier

I love her tiny little feet!

Without pacifier

My absolute favorite. She's so dang cute when she's sleeping.

Date Night

Tonight my wonderful cousin, Felicia, watched Lindy and Allan and I got to have date night. It wasn't anything extravagant, but we had a good time. We went to Nickel Mania. It definitely isn't my favorite place, but I owed Allan a trip there. He recently figured out how to make going back to school possible after hitting several roadblocks. I was so proud of him for his persistence that I agreed.

Allan really likes the arcade video type games. I like the ones where you waste your nickels away quickly trying to get tickets. Needless to say, I went through all of my nickels and Allan still had about 3/4 of his so I graciously helped him use the rest of his. It definitely wouldn't be my first choice for a date, but I had a great time just being with Allan and was happy to do something that he really wanted to. I'm happy that he loves me enough to want me to join him in what he loves doing. Date nights are great.

Dance Performance

About a month ago, somebody asked Allan and I if we would choreograph a dance routine, teach it to a few couples and perform it at a stake activity. We willingly agreed. Because I had just had a baby, I wasn't up to it when we needed to start so Mishimmy graciously stepped in for me. She helped (and by help I mean she did most of it) us choreograph it and teach it.

It turned out really well! We had so much fun teaching and especially performing. We both love to perform but hadn't done it for a long time. And it felt so good to dance and even do a lift so quickly after having a baby. It inspired a bit of confidence. :)

The whole group

(Don't the boys look great in bowties?)

Hot Ladies

Bath Time

I just had to post this darling picture of Lindy. I think it's my favorite. She looks so dang cute. She really loves sitting in the bath water. She just doesn't like it when we start to scrub her down. We obviously took this picture pre-scrubbing. :)

Diurnal vs. Nocturnal

Yesterday we had a technological breakthrough in the Ambrose household...we got the internet! WOOT! I am so excited to have access to the outside world. We got it so that I can get a stay-at-home job. The internet is a requirement for that. Now that we've got it, I'm going to start searching hardcore. If anybody has any ideas or leads for me, please let me know!

The latest news here is that my darling daughter became nocturnal for about a week or so. It was fantastic (spoken with dripping sarcasm). First she slept through the night for a week and then suddenly, stopped sleeping at night completely. Apparently babies go through a transitional phase every once in a while. I can't say that I enjoy them. I dealt with it pretty well for a while but after about 5 days, I had a breakdown. I was changing Lindy's diaper and she somehow had some kind of jet propelled poop. It splattered all over the wall, up over the changing table & onto our lamp and all over the clothes on the changing table. At this point I was so sleep deprived that I just couldn't handle it. Luckily my mom was actually pretty close to my house. She came over and took Lindy for the whole day so that I could sleep and even shower - something I hadn't gotten to for a couple of days. Gross. I love having family close by!

Luckily for my mental and physical safety, this only lasted a week. She is now back to normal and sleeping during the night. She's waking up about once, but I'm so happy to be sleeping at night again. Sortof. I'm still adjusting to being diurnal again & am keeping some pretty late hours.

One new milestone is that Lindy is starting to take notice of things. She's paying attention to the mobiles we've got around the house. She doesn't look at them long, but she does watch. She's also just starting to make some cute baby noises. We're still waiting for the (intentional) smiles though.