I haven't been posting this week because we haven't been doing anything unique or exciting...just the daily routine! I took this picture yesterday afternoon at the Escalante home. We traveled to Vinton for the first time since Vivian was born. I am ashamed of myself...I love these children and the families that I used to work with, but I haven't taken the time to go see them! We're going to try and do better... Vivian had a great time. She especially loved playing with Michelle (youngest girl). Anything Michelle did made Vivian laugh. It was precious. It was a great thing to catch up with this family and ask the kids how they were doing in school. They have grown so much in the past 7 months! I love them dearly.
This was taken in June when they came to see us in the hospital.This was from Sept. 2007 when their youngest Braulio was born. He is such a big kid now! And so sweet...

Now, the sad news of the day is that Vivian is sick for the first time. She woke up this morning with 102.9 fever! She took some Tylenol and we went to the doctor around 11. It's not as bad as it could be...just a cold. But she's so pitiful and sad...this morning she just laid on my shoulder for an hour while I sang and read to her. She's really sleepy, too...she fell asleep in my arms in the waiting room, something that would never happen normally! It's breaking my heart, but she should be feverless in a few days, and all better in about a week. I knew this would happen eventually, and I'm glad it didn't happen sooner, but it's still hard to watch. Thank the Lord for his faithfulness!

Vivian plays the guitar about as well as Obama will preside over America. The only difference is, Vivian is cute...

The "strumming" motion with her hands has been a habit now for months...she does it whenever she touches anything. It is only now that her thumbs serve a musical purpose. This featured video will be the first track of her debut album "Infant Blues." There is song after song about how she can't find her paci in the middle of the night...how she cries the blues when it is time to get out of the warm soapy tub...and how awful the anticipation is waiting to find out if she will have a little brother or sister in August. Look for it in your local music shop.

On Saturday night Aaron took me out to a nice dinner at Blue 5 in downtown Roanoke. The food is great there, but the fun part is the live jazz bands that play. We got there early (8pm) so we had to purposefully take a long time with our meal so we could still be at our table for the music that started after 9. It was a great night out! Thanks to Dennis and Shannon for babysitting!

Lately when I put Vivian down somewhere, she is in a different place and position only minutes later. Yesterday I put her on her back on the mat, and a few moments later she was stuck like this: Same thing a couple of days ago...she was on her back under the toys initially, and then maneuvered herself to here:

We have a baby on the move! She enjoys being on her stomach more and more, and she usually shimmies herself backwards (away from her toys, unfortunately).

Aaron's sister Brooke came to stay with us for a week after Christmas. It was so nice to have an extra pair of hands to help out! She played with Vivian a lot and Vivian loved it.

Brooke also helped with things like bathtime. In this picture you can guess who filled up the tub (Aaron). But this was our first time using her new bath seat...works pretty well! She can't stop squealing when she knows it's time to get in the tub. Love the classic rubber ducky :)

Happy New Year! Last night we celebrated as we do every year, with an awesome dinner out at Kabuki, the Japanese Steakhouse in Roanoke. It's a fun tradition for the Flores family. This year everyone was able to make it (thanks for driving again from DC Stephen!), including Aaron's sister Brooke. She's been staying with us this week and it's been fun having her around. Another memorable New Year's evening!

Vivian wanted to say happy New Year to everyone, too! She loved chewing on the horns and listening to everyone make noise with them. She was cooperative...it helped to have Gramme sit with us. In case you're wondering, that thing around her neck is one of the restaurant's napkins. I forgot to bring a bib so we had to tie that around her.

Uncle Michael requested a photo op with his niece :)

We had other fun stuff going on last night, but I'll post on it later. Need to catch up on sleep!

We are at home, still recovering from the busy busy weekend...catching up on sleep! On Friday night we left for NC to spend all day Saturday with Aaron's family in Hope Mills at Aunt Julie's house. It was memorable, as always. The sad thing is that I didn't get my camera out the entire weekend, so I don't have any pictures to show what we did...so sorry! Peggy took a lot with her camera, though, so hopefully I can get some from her to post later. Saturday night we came back to Raleigh to spend the night and then Sunday morning Grandma cooked an all-you-can-eat breakfast for the Flores family. We met Aaron's parents at Triangle Town Center for lunch, and then headed back. The fun part about that was that Aaron's sister Brooke came back to VA with us! She is spending the week here to help me with Vivian and hang out with her big bro. I will try to be better about getting my camera out.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas! Can't wait to see Christmas pictures on everyone else's blogs :)

Yesterday was Christmas! We hope everyone had a great one...filled with joy and glory to the newborn King. We celebrated at home as a family of 3 for the first time yesterday morning, and then after Vivian's morning nap we headed over to the Flores home where we spent the rest of the day eating, opening gifts, and watching movies. The only bummer is that Vivian had a runny nose all day and it was bringing her down a little. Our stockings at home. Mom made them for us...she's so crafty! I love Vivian's. She didn't have anything in it on Christmas morning, though! hehe

We got Vivian one gift...a ball that rolls around and makes noise that she can chase when she starts crawling. Here is a video of her "opening" it. Thanks to Grandma Carolyn for the "My 1st Christmas" sleeper that she wore all day yesterday! She was the first to open gifts at Papa and Gramme's house. So many!! Uncle Stephen helped her with a couple. She got several toys, a cute dress and onesies from Gap, an ornament, and a new stroller.

She's my favorite present to play with! (she got a new Nuk pacifier in her stocking at Papa and Gramme's.)

On Christmas Eve the family came over to our house for dinner. After we ate we played Catch Phrase. We missed you, Stephen (he was on his way down from DC)! Here's the yummy pot roast recipe I used:

1 3 lb roast (shoulder or sirloin tip)
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can cream of celery
1 package of Lipton Beefy Onion
teaspoon minced garlic
pepper

8 hours on low in the crock pot!

On Friday night several of Aaron's guy friends came over to play poker. I made a huge pot of chili for them and after they ate they got down to business. They finished around 1 a.m.! Of course the women left them to their game and we went out to eat at Carrabba's....yum :) It was an awesome start to the weekend.

I think the game lasted so long because there were 9 players.

Today Vivian turns 6 months, and we've celebrated so far by going to the Y for her to play with friends and new toys. Here are some 6 month shots:

At 6 months Vivian:

-has rolled from her stomach to her back a couple of times

-is just now opening her mouth for me to try solids with her. We had kind of a rocky start after I progressed from rice cereal, but the last several days she's been more into it.

-is learning how to drink water from a cup! Dr. Beazley said to start with regular kids cups instead of sippy cups, but that's all they sell at the store! I'll have to look some more...

-can find and put her pacifier back in her mouth herself. It really helps at naptime, but I have a feeling this could lead to problems in the future...experienced moms, please email me!

-goes down for her naps without crying at all usually! It's taken us a while to get here, it seems.

-is still on a 3-3 1/2 hour schedule for nursing...it depends on how good her naps are. Her naps are getting more consistent, though...usually 1.5 or almost 2 hours.

-gets up between 7:10 and 7:30 and goes to bed around those same hours at night.

-is super, super sweet! I love her personality...I can't describe it well, so you just have to spend time with her :)

The drinking from the cup thing makes her look so grown up to me!

When Vivian is on this Baby Einstein mat, there are so many things for her to watch and play with, but she always goes for these photo circle things and she loves to "talk" to the animals! There is a puppy, kitty, frog, and duck. She just squeals and squeals for long periods of time.