Baptism… a while ago!

Sorry, yet again, for our tardiness in posting! The Sunday BEFORE Christmas, Alyssa was Baptized at Hope Lutheran Church in Wake Forest, NC. Most of the family was able to attend (we very much missed Aunt Allison, though, who was at work in Winterpark, Colorado)... great grandmother, grandparents and aunts and uncles on both sides! It was a very nice ceremony and she didn't make a peep (at least, until AFTER we sat back down!) She wore the dress that Tula made for Aunt Ashleigh's Baptism when she was a baby, and a sweater made by MY Great Grandmother! The Seam Team made her a beautiful quilt to remember her day, and Aunt Ashleigh and Uncle Jeff (the Godparents) were given cards to send her on her first 12 Baptism Birthdays. We had a really nice day!

Tula and Seanachai gave Alyssa her very first cross to commemorate the day, as well as a cute hat and purse set. Grammie and Grandpa Harke gave her an engraved picture frame. Aunt Ashleigh made her a beaded bracelet. The Schandert family gave her her first Bible and a sweet picture frame. As always, what a lucky little girl!

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Christmas with the Baby

We had a very busy Christmas... Mike's family came to Raleigh to see Alyssa's first Christmas for themselves. Mike's Dad Ron got to meet Alyssa for the first time! My parents hosted Christmas Eve dinner for both families (ham and shrimp cocktails and the BEST prime rib I have EVER had... way to go Dad!). We stayed at my parents Christmas Eve night so that we could do Christmas morning together. Add in other family dinners, a bit of work and a Baptism (more on that in another post), and you have a crazy, fun Christmas! Check out the photos!

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A little catchin’ up

No photos yet (I'll let Jennie handle those), but I figured I could bring the blog up-to-date a bit with some status reports on Alyssa's recent activities.

Most importantly, Alyssa is finally sleeping through the night!

For the past few months, we've been using a swaddler to get her to sleep. The upside to the swaddler is that Alyssa calms down quickly enough to get her to fall asleep in her crib. Unfortunately, she rarely slept more than a couple hours at a time while using the swaddler. Starting sometime around the weekend before Christmas, Jennie and I decided to try bedtime without the swaddler. The result? 8-10 hours of nonstop sleep for baby and her parents ever since.

A few weeks ago, Jennie mentioned Alyssa's discovery of rolling across the room. Well, in the past few days, she has also displayed signs of wishing to crawl. She will push herself up with her arms and start rocking forward and back. Just the other day, she even crawled backwards a few inches. Looks like it is time to baby-proof the house.

I'll wrap up this post with Alyssa's latest measurements: weight is 16 lbs., 15 ounces and her height is 26 inches.

More to come soon!