Boo Boo Report

Poor baby........

We have officially reached the dangerous stage of a mobile baby's life. Christine had her first "Boo Boo Report" sent home with her from day care today. Little Miss Thing fell face first into the toy shelves and got her first black eye. Doesn't she look like a little boxer in her hooded towel? =) She seemed to be in a good mood as always when I picked her up, but let me tell you....Momma was pretty upset about it. My 8 month old has a dang black eye. And we have a baby shower to go to this weekend! UGH!!! I hope this isn't a regular thing. She's too cute for bruises.

I promise people, we don't beat this cutie pie!

"Mama!"

Christine said her first word...."Mama!"... last night at the dinner table. This picture was taken right after the big moment. Well, that's when I heard it for the first time at least. Matt had taken her to a follow up appointment at her pediatrician's office to see if her ear infections cleared up and he heard her say it a few times while they were waiting for the doctor to come into the exam room. He said he wasn't sure at first if she said it on purpose or was just babbling, but he started asking her if she wanted Mommy and she looked at him as if she was in deep thought and a few seconds later she would say it again. At dinner last night she said it once pretty clearly as I was "shoveling" some baby food into her mouth which kind of cut her off. But it was so exciting to hear and when she saw the excitement on my face she said it again. Before we knew it all we heard was, "Mama, Mama, Mama...." She was so proud of herself....and so was Mommy and Daddy. And we really think she knows what she was saying because when we got close to the end of her baby food she started to get full and her sweet "Mama" turned into "MaaaMaa!" as if she was saying "enough baby food!" LOL She's such a little diva already. Do you think that's a foreshadowing of what we have to look forward to in about 14 years? She's growing up so fast! And we love every second of it!

Oh....and the ear infections are all clear! YAY!!!

It's been busy...

...Sorry it's been way too long since my last post. Christine's started crawling, she's got 4 teeth now, and she's babbling like CRAZY. Watching her grow is so much fun! Here are some pictures of her first 4th of July.








My mom brought her a swimming pool to the lake house. I wasn't planning on letting her "swim" this summer so I wasn't prepared with a swim suit for her...so all she wore was her 4th of July hat and a smile.












Napping in the hammock.







We had a great 4th of July this year. Grandpa's famous ribs were on hand as always. And watching everyone's fireworks show around the lake was as entertaining as we have come to expect. Too bad for Miss Christine that they all happened after her bed time. Maybe next year...

Pink eye don't stop us!

This was taken yesterday after Grandpa left after his and Matt's Father's Day lunch. The pink eye was at it's worst at this point but even with that her jump-a-roo put a smile on her sweet little face. Today was much better. Her doctor said she wont be contagious any longer after tomorrow. I was so glad we caught it when we did....specifically I'm glad it didn't get to the point were she woke up and her eye was stuck shut from all the gunk. She's still a little cranky but I'm sure that's because her ears are probably still bothering her. I'm sure a few more days on her antibiotics will knock that out and she'll be back to her self 100%. We go for her 6 month check up and vaccinations tomorrow. Here are a few Father's Day shots from yesterday.

Grandpa loved getting Christine all to himself today! Grandma was in Austin with her sister visiting their dad.






























Watching NASCAR with Daddy.

"You caught me!"

Play Date with Aunt Lilly

Christine had a short play date with Aunt Lilly when Matt's mother, who Christine will call Yaya, brought her two youngins over to visit yesterday. Christine is so fortunate to have someone to grow up with like her Aunt Lilly and Uncle Luke. I'm sure they'll be the best of friends! We found out this morning that Christine has pink eye so Matt and I are praying that she....or I should say WE didn't pass it on to any of them. I guess time will tell. At least they had fun during the visit. =) She's also got two ear infections! I know....poor baby! I'm off work this week to use up some of my vacation time. This is not the way I wanted to spend my time home with her. But the good thing is that I wont have to rely on the teachers at day care to give her the medications she's taking to knock everything out. I'm kind of a control freak that way...

Rosenbalm Family Reunion

Last weekend was the annual Rosenbalm Family Reunion. Christine was the newest Rosenbalm so as I'm sure you can imagine that made her the most popular family member in attendance. Everyone went on and on about what a good and happy baby she is. I don't think Matt and I realize how good we have it with her until we hear people tell us things like that. I can honestly say we get that compliment almost everywhere we take her. I think it's because she doesn't take a passey.....people are shocked sometimes when a baby can stay completely content just to look around and observe her surroundings. As I said in my previous post, this child is one observant little lady.



It was pretty hot as one can expect in Texas. Christine stayed cool by sucking on some frozen grapes in her strainer that we packed for her. The best idea we had for the day! She gobbled them up as usual....she LOVES frozen grapes. And once those were gone (and by gone I mean the juice was sucked out of them and all we had left was grape skins) we put some ice cubes in there for her. She liked those very much as well. It's such a easy way to let her keep cool and entertain herself at the same time. Most of the older parents had never seen a strainer before and were pretty jealous they weren't around when their kids were little. We hear stuff like that a lot with all the new baby stuff that's out now. I guess that's another thing that we're lucky for....we didn't realize how fortunate we were to have such ingenious baby stuff. We also took her jump-a-roo which was a huge hit as well. LOL

Here are some shots of the everyone getting some Christine time.

Aunt Laurie

Uncle Jeff

Gagie (Great Grandma)

Papa (Great Grandpa) got lucky and got some kisses. Christine already reaches for him when he's around.


At the end of the reunion we had a drawing for door prizes. Christine was given the honor to draw the name for the first prize. We held the box of tickets with everyone's name up for her and she reached in like a pro and picked out one lonely ticket. And who do you think that ticket belonged to? None other than her Daddy. Here is a picture of the two of them with his prize.

Look who's sitting up like a big girl now.

It seems like every day she's doing something new. My baby is growing up WAY too fast. But it's so much fun to watch her grow and come into a personality that gets cuter and cuter every day. Christine's sitting up now! She can't get up on her own, but if you put her in the sitting position she can hold it for a long time.

She braces herself on her own if she looses her balance. It's incredible how focused she remains when she does anything. I swear this child has been so observant since the moment she was born. Matt and I just know that little trait of hers is going to keep us on our toes from now on. She's not trying to crawl yet....she's found that rolling is a perfectly acceptable way to get around and hasn't quite taken an interest in crawling. But I'm thinking we just have a few more weeks of her watching the other babies figure crawling out in her class and Matt and I will be chasing her around before we know it.

Isn't she the CUTEST?!? =)

Stuffy Baby

Can you see the little tear on her cheek? For the most part Christine is a very happy baby. She was VERY upset before the picture was taken, but she bounces back so quickly. We don't know how we got so lucky with such a good baby? But as I was saying, she was very upset before the picture because Mommy and Daddy has to use the bulb syringe on her stuffed up nose again. It's one of those few things that makes her upset, but man, she really hates it. And who wouldn't? I bet that feels so weird?!? She has been such a stuffy baby lately which is not letting her breathe very well at night so she and Mommy aren't getting much sleep. Christine's at day care right now and I'm actually home today trying to get some rest after a very long night. I guess there's at least one pleasant thing about having to put your baby in day care? =) I'm heading to the store to do some grocery shopping and hunt for any other remedy I can try to treat her little stuffy nose. Poor baby!

Photo Shoot with Grandma & Grandpa

My mom and dad came to watch Christine yesterday. They took a trip to Cozumel last weekend so they took a week off from coming to visit her just in case they caught the swine flu. LOL So when we needed them to watch her at the last minute they jumped at the opportunity to have her all to themselves all day. Mom got her a cute little Mexican dress while on their vacation so she took the opportunity to have a little photo shoot with her little grand baby senorita.


And what's a photo shoot without a few outfit changes?


I guess this would be considered a bucket change? =)

There's nothing like Grandparent love!

Christine's first smile caught on camera

God bless the person who invented all these great baby toys that keep baby happy and let mommy get some stuff done...for a change. Christine's bouncer is in our bathroom because I found that having it there is a fabulous way to get a LONG shower...for a change. And don't even get me started on the swing! As far as I'm concerned I could not make it without the swing. Sometimes on the weekend we can put her in it right after she has her first feeding of the day and she'll go right back to sleep for at least another hour and half...and mommy can get another hour or so of sleep and feel like she's sleeping in...for a change. =) But recently Christine got big enough to use her jump-a-roo and I love this thing for a whole new kind of reason. Last weekend she was having so much fun in it that I FINALLY caught a smile in a picture.

She had so much fun she almost put herself to sleep in it. Can I hear a collective "awwwwww"?





We realized her first tooth was coming in later this same day. Pictures of that soon...

I gave in...

...and got a blog spot account. Christine first tooth started coming in yesterday and it really made me realized she's growing up so fast. And since she is SO loved and has so many people who want to keep up with her, I figured this may be the easiest way for me to let everyone know what she's up to. More blog entries and pictures to be posted ASAP. Let's see how well I can keep this up....