Autumn in North Carolina

I don't know if motherhood has just given me a sunnier view of the world, but autumn in North Carolina seems more beautiful this year than it ever has before. The leaves are more brilliant, the smells are richer, the sun feels warmer and the moon has such a beautiful glow. I love walking outside with Molly and letting her feel the crisp breeze on her cheeks and smell the leaves. I wonder what she thinks about this beautiful world. She is experiencing all these changes for the very first time and it almost makes me feel like I'm seeing them for the first time as well...through new eyes.
We had a great opportunity to experience the beauty of a North Carolina fall in the mountains of western NC. Our friends, Jeremy and Julie, have a family cabin in the mountains in the quaint town of Little Switzerland, right on the Blue Ridge Parkway. They invited us to spend the weekend there at the end of October. Their daughter, Katie, is only 2 days older than Molly. It was a great opportunity to hike through the mountains, take in some great views from the Parkway, and eat some fresh-picked apples. It was also wonderful to talk to another couple about the joys and challenges of parenting, as they're having a lot of the same struggles that we are. We could laugh together about the mistakes we've made and share tricks we've learned to be more successful at feeding, napping, and diapering. We did a surprising amount of hiking, sight-seeing, and relaxing for vacationing with two infants on two very different napping and eating schedules. It seemed that Katie was awake whenever Molly was sleeping and vice versa. They did get a chance to "play together" and get acquainted on the very last day just a few hours before we were going to leave. It was one of the first times that they were both awake at the same time and neither of them was eating, getting changed, or crying.

Molly's been quite the little social butterfly lately. On Halloween, she got to meet another new friend (a brand-spankin'-new friend). Baby Aubrey is the daughter of some friends of ours. She's only 2 weeks old and oh-so-tiny! She's almost exactly half the size of Molly. I hadn't realized how much Molly has grown since birth until I saw her next to newborn little Aubrey. As I was holding Aubrey, part of me missed that newborn stage. But I'm also excited to see all of the new things Molly has learned as she's growing up. I love seeing her smile and listening to her "talk" to us. I enjoy watching her gain control of her hands and legs and head as she grows into her little body. It's an amazing experience to watch a person grow up as you watch.

Here are a few more pictures of Molly's autumn adventures:

Hiking through the orchard with Julie and Baby Katie.

This view was our reward after hiking up to the top of Linville Falls.

A beautiful view of the NC mountains off the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Checking out some great books at the book store in Little Switzerland.

We found a store in Little Switzerland that sold all of our favorite things! Molly didn't appear as excited as we were.

"Uh, Daddy, I think my head needs to do a little growing before this is going to fit just right."

"That's better!"

Mommy and Molly enjoy a few quiet moments in the rocking chair. These are the moments I wish could last forever.

Road Trip!

A few weeks ago, Molly had the chance to take her first road trip to visit her Pittsburgh family in cold, rainy Pennsylvania. Eric's cousin was getting married and the wedding weekend was a fantastic opportunity for Molly to meet all of her Frueh and Pauli relatives. And, of course, her GG and Pop didn't mind the chance to snuggle their little granddaughter for a few days :-)

Molly was a fantastic road trip baby. Out of a total of 17 hours in the car for the entire trip, she was only awake for about an hour and a half of it. It helped that we traveled at night during her normal sleeping hours. However, she looked quite confused when she fell asleep at home in her bed and then woke up in her carseat in a new strange place.

Four generations all together for the first time as Molly meets her Great-Grammars.

Molly loved spending the week with her GG and Pop. She got lots of cuddles and kisses from her GG, and Pop taught her a new airplane game. We saw many wide bright smiles as he zoomed her around the house.

There were so many new faces to meet, but Molly loved all the new people to snuggle with:

Uncle Jonathan...

Uncle Stephen...

Great-Grandmother Catherine...

Great Aunt Lorrie...

...and Emily. I suppose her given title would be "first-cousin-once-removed", or something like that.

Everyone got to get all dressed up for the wedding. Here the two most beautiful ladies of the house pose for their glamour shots.

Molly got to meet her second cousin, Lillian, at the wedding. Molly and Lillian were born only 3 weeks apart. As it turned out, they wore the exact same dress. And they both had on their little white sweaters and stockings. It seems that the girls didn't mind at all though.

As Molly spent time with her Dad and his brothers, it reminded me of that movie, "Three Men and a Baby", especially when they were all in their suits and she was all decked out in her pink puffy dress :-)

All in all, it was a fantastic first road trip experience for Molly and her parents. She's a lucky little girl to have such a wonderful extended family. I wish we could all live closer together, but I know Molly will look forward to making the trip to Pittsburgh for many summers and holidays to come to visit all of her Frueh-family relatives.

2 Months Old!!! : "Look Who's Talkin' Now"

I can't believe our little Molly is now TWO MONTHS OLD!!! The time just seems to be flying by. She now weighs 11 lbs. and is 21.75 inches long. You can definitely see the weight gain in her chubby little cheeks and her breastfed-baby thunder thighs :-) She has also learned many new skills in the last few weeks, our favorite of which is her ultra-charming smile. She used to save up all her smiles for her time on the changing table (something about nakedness just makes her happy), but she's been sharing her smiles more liberally this week, even flashing a few smiles at strangers and melting their hearts on the spot!

Another new skill Molly's impressing us with is her ability to carry on a "conversation". We always talk to her about everything that's going on around her and then we pause to give her a chance to respond. Well, lately, she's taken full advantage of her turn in the conversation to delight us with a symphony of oohs, ahhs, and gurgles. The funny thing is that she always matches her "words" with a dramatic series of hand gestures and facial expressions. She reminds me of an Italian grandmother who uses her whole body to speak expressively. The following is a series of pictures I took over the course of 5-minute conversation with Molly. Next time, I'll have to catch it on video so you can hear all the adorable sounds that go along with the faces. I'd love to know what she's really trying to say!!!

Another new skill Molly is just beginning to master is finger-sucking. She used to try to suck her fist, but was never quite satisfied because she couldn't manage to fit the whole thing into her tiny little mouth. Well, she's recently discovered how to separate and suck individual fingers. It usually ends up being her pointer finger and thumb together, but occasionally she gets just her thumb in there. It looks like pure heaven for a few moments until it pops out and she can't manage to get it back in there. She visited her cousins, Corbin and Isaiah, last week. Isaiah tried to teach her his own favorite finger-sucking technique but she's not quite as talented as he is yet. Someday, she'll get the hang of it.

Molly is also learning how to become a master bottle-feeder. We try to give her a bottle of expressed breastmilk at least once a week to keep her acclimated to the experience. That way, when I go back to work in 3 WEEKS (!), it won't be a totally foreign experience. I can't believe that my maternity leave is almost over. It seems like Molly was born just a few weeks ago. Part of me is really looking forward to getting back into the job that I love. But the other part of me just can't imagine being away from my baby for 8 hours out of every day. I'm just trying to savor every moment of the next 3 weeks and not worrying about crossing that bridge until it's right in front of me. At least Molly will be spending her days with her Daddy and not with strangers.

The three of us had a unique opportunity this week to be invited back to our Bradley childbirth class as "alumni guest speakers". We got to share our birth story, as well as tips for breastfeeding and newborn care, with the new couples in the class. It's amazing to think that, just 2 months ago, we were in the same exact position they're in right now...very pregnant, scared, excited, and completely in the dark about what it's like to care for a newborn. At this point, we're certainly no experts, but it's amazing how much you learn about your baby in just 2 short months. Parenthood is the ultimate on-the-job training. We are the experts on Molly Joy Frueh. We know her better than any other human beings on the face of the earth and it's a pretty sweet place to be.

Here we are at our Bradley class speaking engagement :-) Eric and I got to share all the details of our birth story and the adventures of the last 8 weeks. Molly got to be the sample baby passed around for all the couples to practice holding.

Here are a few other pictures taken in the last 2 weeks:

Molly got to meet her big cousin, Corbin, for the first time. Corbin loved holding and kissing Baby Molly :-)

Bath time is one of our favorite times of the day.

6 Weeks Old!

Molly is 6-weeks old today! This is the point at which fussiness is supposed to decrease and the first social coos and smiles appear. Well, Molly must be an early-bloomer because we've already seen results on both counts! Finally, after 6 weeks I think we're really getting to know Molly and she's becoming accustomed to this big, wide world. We're doing a better job of reading her hungry, tired, or uncomfortable crying cues and responding accordingly. She has even started to nap on her own in her crib (Hallelujah!!!). For the last 3 days, we've been able to put her in her crib drowsy-but-awake for her morning naps. The first day it took 15 minutes of on-and-off crying before she was asleep, but today, there was only 6 minutes of crying before she was off to snooze-land. We used to have to go to great lengths to soothe her to sleep, usually bouncing her on the physio-ball until she stopped crying and became drowsy, then putting her in the Moby wrap. It's amazing how freeing it is to have her napping in her crib in a separate room and NOT attached to my body. I've been able to do laundry and other chores around the house, not to mention eating and showering ;-) She's still having trouble with putting herself to sleep for afternoon naps, but those tend to develop later anyway. Besides, I'm not quite ready to give her up completely for napping. I'm savoring the moments she spends sleeping on my chest because I know it won't be long before I won't have a "newborn" anymore that can sleep on me.

She is growing so fast. She's officially outgrown her newborn pajamas! She'd been getting close for a while. Her feet were filling up the little pajama "footsies" and the sleeves were getting short. But we started using our cloth diapers this week and that definitely pushed her over the edge for fitting in her old jammies. We LOVE the cloth diapers, but they are so bulky that her puffy little bum fills the pajamas up :-) The cloth-diapering experiment has been a great success so far. It's a relief to not feel like we're constantly "wasting" expensive disposable diapers. If she dirties a clean diaper on the changing table, it's no big deal. We just throw it in the laundry bucket, knowing we can wash it and use it again another day. Plus, that squishy cloth-diapered bum is just oh-so-adorable!

Daddy returned to work this week after his wonderful 5 weeks of paternity leave. It was scary at first to imagine being with Molly for 8 hours of every day by myself, but after a few days we've established our own routine of playing, eating, soothing, napping, and bedtime. I've learned to do lots of things one-handed and to prepare meals for myself in advance before Eric goes to work for the day. Now that all the grandparents, neighbors, and 24-hour-Dad have returned to their normal lives, I'm realizing that I really AM a mother, and it's a job I'm created for and capable of. It's true what they say that when a baby is born, a mother is born as well. God blesses new mothers with instincts that help them take the best possible care of their babies. I am beginning to trust those instincts more day by day as I fulfill this new role in my life.

Molly, Mommy, and Daddy had a new experience recently...a date night. Molly had her first evening with babysitters (my fellow OCS teachers who've had dibs on babysitting rights for months!) while Eric took me out on a date for my 26th birthday. He took me out to Tyler's Taproom in downtown Durham. It's located in the old Lucky Strike factory which has been converted into retail and office space. It was fun to be out again as a twosome, but it also felt a little strange, like a piece of us was missing. During my pregnancy, I got used to strangers touching my belly and asking when I was due, if it was a boy or girl, etc. Since Molly's been born, I've gotten used to strangers peeking in the carseat, stroller, or carrier and asking how old she is and, once again, if she's a boy or girl (even if she's decked in pink from head to toe). It was odd to be out as a couple without a baby belly or a stroller for strangers to peek at. It was just us. It was a great opportunity to get reacquainted with each other as husband and wife. I feel like we've been seeing each other as "Mommy" and "Daddy" for the last few weeks and I almost forgot what it was like to view Eric as just my husband. I think we both did a good job of not worrying about Molly for the evening, but we were both surprised when we decided to head back to pick her up and realized we'd only been out for less than 2 hours. It felt like we'd been away from our little girl for much longer. We enjoyed our time out, but it was a great feeling to cuddle Molly in our arms again once we returned!

Here are a few pictures of the last few weeks:

Molly loved her first Steeler's game! Her GG bought her a cheerleading outfit. It's still a bit big, but we just had to break it out for the opening game of the season. It must've been a good luck charm because the Steelers beat the Titans that night. However, Molly was napping in her jammies during today's Steeler's game and they lost to the Bears :-(

Now that Molly is becoming so grown up and sleeping so well on her own, I think both Eric and I will miss our naptime snuggles with her.

One of Molly's absolute favorite activites is sucking...on ANYTHING! For the first few weeks, I mistook this desire for hunger until I realized that I was becoming a 64-inch pacifier. This is when Molly discovered her fist. She has not yet figured out how to separate individual fingers for her sucking pleasure so she attempts to fit the entire fist in her mouth. I love this picture because it looks like she's staring at her fist like it's a giant candy bar. It reminds me of those cartoons where two guys are stuck on a deserted island. When they look at each other, the other person has turned into a pork chop or a drumstick. That's Molly and her hand!

So sad...Molly has now outgrown these adorable giraffe pajamas! 6 weeks and we've already lost our first set of PJs.