Growing...and some of the pains that come with it.

NOTE:  I know this looks like a lot of text, but there are pictures, I promise!  Just stick with it...or scroll down.  Whatever.

I know I say this every time I post, but our little Genevieve is growing so fast!

I learned the hard way yesterday that she can now roll from back to front.  No, I did not leave her on a raised surface from which she rolled off (thank goodness).  I put her in her crib to look at her mirror while I packed.  I went in the other room and heard her scream...that kind of scream that makes a mother's heart jump into her throat.  I ran into her room and she had flipped over and her leg was stuck between the spindles.  Time to get a bumper!  I really should have been more careful, I guess.  She's been working on the back to front roll-over for awhile now, but she had always gotten stopped at her side and hadn't figured out how to move her arm out of the way.  Anyway, this is the latest and biggest milestone that Genni has mastered, and I must admit, I wish she had waited another month or two.  

She has also become completely fascinated by her hands, which is so cute!  The other morning, I went in to check on her because she had been asleep for much longer than she normally sleeps in the morning.  She was not asleep.  Instead, she was lying in her bed with one arm in the air and was watching her hand as she opened and closed it.  She is starting to grab things (her favorite object is my hair) and as soon as she has managed to grab hold of whatever she was reaching for, she frantically stuffs it in her mouth.  This is a really cute new development and always makes me smile.  However, when it's my hair that's heading for her mouth, I'm a little less impressed.  And since I don't want my daughter to eat chemicals, I've had to stop using any hair products, which has made my rarely done hair to begin with...well, it just looks awesome now.

On a less happy note, Genni had her first shots a couple of weeks ago.  She screamed, I cried, it was awful.  I was very nervous about the shots to begin with and had done a lot of research.  So, as usual, when the pediatrician came in and asked if I had any questions about the immunizations, I pulled out my list.  He was either impressed or thought I was crazy, but his response was, "Wow.  You've really done your homework on this."  After listening to her heart more than normal, he told me that he had detected a heart murmur and wanted to send us to the hospital for further testing.  This was not the best week for baby and me.  I was a wreck and Brandon and I tried to keep each other calm until we knew more.  

The next day we spent several hours at Children's Hospital, where the nurses are surprisingly not very competent when it comes to babies.  The cardiologist finally came in and listened to her heart.  He said that he was almost 100% sure it was an innocent murmur and we had nothing to worry about.  (He repeated this several times, which makes me think that I looked as stressed out as I was feeling.)  He told us that we were still going to get an echo and an ultrasound to makes sure, but again, I had nothing to worry about.  So we go in for the ultrasound and the tech turns on Spongebob to entertain my TWO MONTH OLD BABY!  Two reactions:  A. I don't want my baby to start watching TV for as long as possible; and B. Spongebob?  Is there anything else that could slow her development more?  (I'm very sorry to anyone who likes Spongebob and thinks it is an educationally sound show.  It isn't.)  I asked her to turn it off, or at the very least mute it.  She refused, and we moved on.  When she started with the ultrasound, Genni--who obviously was not a fan of the goo--started to fuss.  So the tech asked me to please keep my baby from crying.  What?  We were not getting along.  I told her that Genni doesn't take pacifiers and she was getting hungry, so there wasn't a lot I could do at that point.  She called a nurse in to help, who thought it would be a good idea to blow bubbles at Genni.  But as it turns out, infants don't care about bubbles and actually really dislike things popping and landing on their face!  Can you tell I was less than impressed by the staff?  The tech threatened to stop the ultrasound if I couldn't get my baby to stop fussing, so I lay down next to her and nursed her through the rest of the ultrasound.  Unfortunately, they were training a bunch of people at the hospital that day, so a group of people came in to observe.  Awkward. 

Finally they got the pictures they needed.  After looking at them, the cardiologist came in looking much less positive.  He informed me that he was right about the innocent murmur, that it has a 90% chance of closing and even if it doesn't ever close, it will have no effect on her life.  But...he thought he saw a second hole and to better diagnose, he needed to do more testing.  So back to the crazy ultrasound tech we went for more pictures and inevitable frustration.  Eventually, we got through that and found out that she does have a hole at the bottom of her heart.  The good news is that it doesn't affect her life for now, and it has an 80% chance of closing on its own before she turns two.  The bad news is that if it hasn't closed by then, they will have to fix it  either with surgery or with medication.  So we'll go back next September to check on it, and if it hasn't started to close by then, we'll continue to have it monitored every three to six months until she's two.  It wasn't the best news, but pretty good and we feel confident that she will be fine and it will work itself out.  

So that was a rough week for us, but we're getting back to normal now, and Genni's sleep patterns are finally getting back on schedule.  Just in time for us to head to Idaho for Christmas!  We are very excited, but a little nervous about going from the 70 degree weather we've been experiencing here to 30 degree weather (down to 5 degrees at night).  And on that note, I need to go finish packing.  Here are a few pictures of the past few weeks (due to the awful week and screwed up schedule, there aren't as many as usual).  NOTE:  Captions are by Brandon.

Many of you may have gotten this one on our Christmas card.

Genevieve waxing philosophical during her photo shoot.  Her dad was very proud.

Beautiful Christmas dress, beautiful smile...and Brandon.

Genni helped Brandon with the house cleaning one Saturday morning.  She worked very hard, as you can see.

Our little Christmas tree.  We skipped the toilet paper tree this year in favor of three little Christmas trees that I think are supposed to go on the side of your driveway.  Our big family gift this year was a welcome mat.

This is from the lights at City Park in New Orleans.  No reindeer around here...we use gators.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, here are some videos of Genevieve.  It may seem like we're a little overly enthusiastic about our daughter on this blog...hopefully these videos will help you understand that we are actually pretty restrained considering the level of sheer awesomeness our baby displays on a regular basis.