Sariah's Arrival

We are proud to announce that our daughter, Sariah Summer Carroll was born on January 5, 2012 at 8:02 am. She was 8lbs, 14 ounces. We are not really sure how long she really was. The hospital told us that she was 21.75 inches long, but the pediatrician only measured her at about 20.5 inches.

I had a scheduled c-section and it went very well. I am recovering a lot faster than the first time and not very sore. Sariah is doing great. The only concern the doctors had is that she was Coombs positive. From what I've learned it just basically means that I have a different blood type than she does and our blood crossed at some point so my body produced anti-bodies against her blood. Those anti-bodies got into her system and caused her to have a higher risk of becoming jaundice and it becoming more dangerous than the typical jaundice baby. Anyway, it was very closely monitored and she is perfectly fine. We are thankful that we are healthy and that we finally got to meet her. Here are the pictures from the day she was born:

 Minutes before surgery

 Baby's footprints on Daddy's cap

 As Ramon says, "Her first trip to the salon!"

 Big Sister, Ashlyn. She thinks it's all very interesting.

 Nana and Grandbaby #2

 Grandma and Grandbaby #2

Baby Burrito!

Sariah's Room/My Belly

Here are the pictures of Sariah's finished room and a picture of my belly at 39 weeks! 

One of my co-workers made this cute name sign for Sariah

Thanksgiving/Christmas 2011

We spent Thanksgiving with my mom's family in Stamford, Texas. We normally go up there for Christmas, but since I was due at the beginning of January we thought it was safer to go sooner. We had a great time, as we always do, but the stay wasn't long enough. Ashlyn had fun with her cousins, especially in the inflatable jumper. Here are a few pictures of her and her cousins:

Not the best picture of him, but this is Ashlyn's cousin, Braden.

Cousins!

We spent Christmas morning at our house. My mom and I made a big breakfast, then we all went to church, back to our house to open presents, then to my in-laws for the rest of the afternoon. It was a great day overall and it was fun to see Ashlyn enjoy it. Here are some pictures from Christmas:

 

Our cat, Maestro, in the Christmas tree

Ashlyn- 14 Months

Ashlyn is now 14 months old.

She is as active as ever!  She runs a lot and jumps and climbs anything she can now. She hasn't managed to climb out of her crib yet, thankfully. Her favorite thing to do is dance. We watch a lot of the show "Yo Gabba Gabba" because she loves to dance to the music and we got tired of watching hundreds of Barney episodes. She really likes playing outside but it's a lot of work keeping up with her now.

She also LOVES bubbles. Her grandma got her a bubble machine for the bathtub so she points at the bathroom door and says "Bubble"!  Ashlyn has learned to say several words in the last few months. She says (or tries hard to say) "shoe, socks, ear, nose, eye, hair, baby, bubble, momma, daddy, no, cat, dog, hi, bye, banana". She uses them all in the correct context except for "no"!  When she wants something, a lot of the time she will point to the item she wants and says "no?" like she's asking a question. We try to get her to say "please" instead but she hasn't caught on yet.

Ashlyn can point to her eyes, ear, hair, nose, mouth, head, hands, belly button, and toes when asked. She's also understands most things we ask her like, "Do you need a diapie (diaper)?", "Do you want to take a nap?", "Are you hungry?", "Are you ready for your bath?", and "Where's your cup?"  The past few days she's been learning how to scribble with a crayon. She likes it but scribbles so lightly you can hardly see anything on the page. Another new favorite is blocks. One of her Christmas gifts was baby blocks (the kind that fit together). She's enjoyed learning how to stick them together and pull them apart, although she becomes impatient very quickly and throws a fit if they don't fit together right away. She throws a mean temper tantrum and she's very testing but we love her and we are learning to be patient with her.

We've given her a fork a few times. She is not too bad at using it but she would rather just pick up the food with her fingers or have us feed her.
 Sometimes she will eat just about as much as we do and other times she'll only eat a few bites.

We love spending time with her and watching her grow. We're excited to see how she'll change and grow in the next few months. Here are a few pictures of her (some recent and some from up to a couple of months ago):

 Eating a lemon! 

A couple of fun pictures from my phone 

Happy 1st Birthday, Ashlyn!

Ashlyn turned 1 year old on November 9^th!  She’s no longer a little baby anymore!

A year ago she couldn’t hold her head up…

Now she bobs her head to the music.

A year ago she spent most of the day sleeping…

Now she only sleeps 1-3 hours during the day.

A year ago she only drank breast milk and formula…

Now she drinks whole milk and eats anything we eat.

A year ago she only made little baby sounds…

Now she is repeating many words we say and mocks animal sounds.

A year ago she would only lie on her back and not be able to move much…

Now she loves to dance, point at things, run, and climb on everything.

A year ago her favorite things to do were eat and sleep…

Now her favorite things to do are push buttons, play with toys, and listen to music.

It’s been such a privilege watching her grow and develop over the last year. We feel very blessed as parents and look forward to all the years to come. We had her birthday party this year at Gymoboree Play and Music. Unfortunately, not as many people got to come as we would have liked but Ashlyn had a great time so that’s all that matters. She got spoiled with a lot of toys on her birthday and she loves all of them except one of the toys we got her! She HATES her new rocking horse and is absolutely terrified of it. She doesn’t even want to be in the same room as it! Poor Ashlyn…and poor horse! Hopefully she’ll warm up to it eventually.

Here are a few pictures of her party: