Play Dates and Date Night

We have been busy since the last post!  Natalie passed the one month mark, we went on our first road trip, have had several play dates with my sister and niece, and Rick and I had a date night leaving Natalie with her first baby sitter.  It's been a busy few weeks!

 First things first, Natalie is now 5 weeks old!  Where did the time go?  Last week I took a "1 month old" picture on the blanket her great grandmother made for her; I figured as she got bigger we would see less and less of the design on the blanket so it would be a great growth marker.  After a month at home I finally got her room cleaned and organized and I found her play mat in the closet and decided to put it together.  In all honesty I thought that it would be too much for her to appreciate at her age and that she wouldn't interact with it, but she loved it from day one.  There's an activity bar that hangs over her head with a mirror, but the big sell is the piano she can kick.  She kicks it and it lights up and plays music.  From the first day it captured her attention for at least 10 minutes and now (just a week later) she can play happily for half an hour on the mat.  Her little legs kick frantically so I would like to think that she understands the cause and effect relationship there, but I'm probably giving her too much credit.  Regardless, she loves it and I feel like she's learning and developing which may not be true, but it has to be better than lying on a blanket or sitting in her bouncer.

 Since Rick has gone back to work, things have been a little lonely around the house.  Don't get me wrong, Natalie is great, but it's nice to have adult conversations.  For the past few weeks we have had "play dates" with my sister and her baby who is two weeks older than Natalie.  At first the play dates were purely for the moms to get out of the house and interact, but this week and last I think that the girls actually know that each other is there and they stare at one another.  Or start crying when the other one does.  Inevitably it's when we have sat down for lunch and my sister and I look at each other and say, "That's yours," or "Ugh, that one's mine," since their cries are very different.  As nice as it was to go through our first pregnancies together, I think experiencing these first few weeks together has been so good for both of us and our babies as we can celebrate and commiserate together.  This week we're having two play dates so twice the fun!

Natalie on the left and her cousin Kendall on the right

 This past weekend we took our first road trip to my parents' house.  We headed up on Friday night and the ride went well; I sat in the front (which my mom gave me a hard time for) and she only fussed a little and slept most of the way.  My parents have quite the set up at their house: pack and play, bassinet, bouncer seat, play mat, diaper genie...  Mom said she wanted to be baby-friendly so we would come home a lot.  Natalie was good all weekend and my parents were happy to see and hold her which left me with two free arms and not much to do.  It was odd but nice.  I had asked my parents if we could have over my mom's side of the family that we usually spend Christmas Eve with so we could see them all and have a nice get-together since we missed the holidays this year.  It also saved us from running around with a newborn by having everyone come to us.  The evening was very nice: great food and great company and everyone got to meet Natalie.  Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and Sunday morning brought freezing rain so we ended up leaving my parents' late Saturday night, but it was a good trip regardless of it being cut short.

Natalie with my cousin's boys

Last night Rick and I had our first outing since Natalie was born and we went to dinner and a show downtown.  The Book of Mormon is in town and one of the girls with season tickets was out of town so Rick took her ticket.  We left Natalie in the very capable hands of my grandmother and it sounded like Natalie behaved herself pretty well.  I wasn't sure how I would do away from her, but it was fine and good to get out and spend some time with Rick.  It was probably easier for me, too, because my sister went to the show as well and we talked about our babies before the show and at intermission.  Baby steps, but considering I have seen my baby at least every 3 or 4 hours (even at night) since she was born it was a nice little break.

Our little nugget will be 6 weeks old on Monday!  My how the time flies!