It was an unspeakable joy to celebrate my first Mother's Day as a mother this year! Vianne is such a treasured gift and, as trite as this sounds, I can't find words to articulate how blessed I am that God has entrusted her to our care. I love being her Mama and being with her all throughout the day soaking up all the cuteness, even when it means not sleeping as much as I'd prefer to or getting done all the things I used to be free to do or leaving the house less & with more equipment. One look at her sweet face & any frustration or irritation melts away!
We celebrated all weekend and Patrick spoiled me like a queen! On Saturday, we had a wonderful Italian lunch at Cafe Allegro in La Verne, CA, with the Odens, and then enjoyed some family time & gifts at Jon's place.
When we got home, Vianne indulged me in this photo shoot while she was still wearing this ridiculously cute dress. I bought it as her coming-home-from-the-hospital dress, but she was so itty-bitty that it was way too big for her...so, 5 weeks later, it served as her Mother's Day dress! I thought this red & white chair made the perfect background and she amusingly obliged by sitting up in it, like a mini-adult.
Patrick felt that such a grown-up posture merited a grown-up pastime...
On Sunday, we took Vianne to church for the first time and she did great through the service. She got so much attention in the hallways from fellow churchgoers; so many people stopped to declare how tiny & cute & precious she is. She also got to meet our pastors & some good friends, which was a great joy!
We thought about going out to eat after church, but since the rest of SoCal had the same idea, we opted for a relaxing day at home (the choice of introverts the world over). There were two things I love that I had to deny myself while pregnant - pear cider and medium-rare steak - so Patrick surprised me with two kinds of pear cider, a beautiful card and a necklace. Then he made the most incredible steak dinner for me - I was in heaven! The steak could not have been more delicious! Patrick really set the bar high for his first Father's Day :-).
Patrick took some mother/daughter photos to commemorate the day. These are some of my favorites, especially this first one, which shows off the necklace he gave me (it's a mother w/ child pendant with a diamond for Vianne's birth month, April).
What we all feel like on Monday morning..."just five more minutes, pleeease..."
On Tuesday, Vianne turned one month old! I have a
separate post about that...but one more special thing about Tuesday is that my friend Megan, who's in California for a couple months from Texas, came to visit us! I didn't manage to get any photos, but definitely will on our next rendez-vous - but Megan got this cute shot of us!
Megan brought us these beautiful sunflowers and Jelly Bellies, because she is a wonderful lady and remembers what I like :-). We sat & talked for hours and had such a lovely time catching up. It had been way too long since I'd seen her: She is one of the most beautiful souls I've ever known and our conversations are always rich and deep. I am thrilled that Vianne could be exposed to Megan's beauty in her early days. We are hoping to see her again soon!
A big day of being one month old wore her out! Daddy's introducing her to her future alma mater (heh heh) via subliminal message.
Taken with each other...(she's starting to make some serious eye contact!)
Our Little Rockstar (finally kind of fitting in this onesie I bought her - NB size!)
Girls Rock...and Wail!
Playing a mean air guitar...
Fight The Power
Vianne has started liking baths a lot more now, and another favorite thing is "Naked Time", post-bath, lying in her Pooh napper with her lavender blanket in just a diaper. She just lays there peacefully, looking around, sometimes for like 20 minutes!
After our successful restaurant excursion with Aunt Jenny, and since V had passed the one-month mark, we started taking her out more often this week. On Wednesday, we braved T Phillips & it went pretty well. Fortunately, it's a noisy place so any crying just sort of blended in. I happily indulged in my first pear cider in 9 months!
V's fifth week ended with a beautiful Mother's Day, which I also detailed
in a separate post.
I blinked and our daughter is one month old today!
The blog posts of her first weeks of life have gone half-written and unposted, but in honor of the occasion of today, Vianne indulged me in a one-month photo shoot to post in the meantime while I try to find free moments to get the rest of her life posted.
She is so beautiful, it's almost too much to bear at times.
"Dancing Baby" is one of Patrick's baby-calming inventions that he came up with soon after bringing Vianne home from the hospital. And it's an amazing invention that works every time: Vianne can be in full-baby-wail and if he pulls out "Dancing Baby", she immediately becomes silent and looks very serious for the duration of the dance. It is always hilarious to watch!
It usually accompanies an original song by Patrick while she's "dancing", but in this clip, he let the Irish music do the inspiring (you can hear it in the background if you listen).
Without further ado, I give you "Vianne of the Dance"...
(Vianne, 29 days old)
Posted by
Amy Evelyn Oden
,
12:09 PM
Her fourth week of life begins with a rousing discussion with Daddy. I can't remember exactly the topic, but I imagine it had something to do with how excited she was about what was happening on Wednesday...
...because on Wednesday, Aunt Jenny came to visit! We had so much fun with her here and wish she could have stayed forever. Vianne loved bonding with her and I loved having a veritable encyclopedia of Mommy knowledge right here for three days, as Jenny's raising four kids of her own, and four of the coolest kids on the planet at that. It was also so fun to see my sister so smitten with my little girl!
While Aunt Jenny was here, we enjoyed another wonderful dinner, brought over by my Aunt Pat & Uncle Lynn, and this time were joined by my cousin Sarah & her husband Bill and their boys Jake & Sam. Each of the boys took a turn at holding Vianne, which was so cute! Sam had a lot of questions for me about how Vianne was eating, a bit of practice for me at answering shall-we-say delicate questions :-).
Then, the next day,
my cousin Phil & his wife Lauren were out this way to visit their family, so we all took advantage of the opportunity to finally meet their handsome twins boys, who are a couple of weeks older than Vianne. Regretfully don't have pictures of them, but did get this great one of cousin Sarah with Vianne.
Beautiful roses from Sarah & family
On the last night of Jenny's stay, we busted out Ticket To Ride (Europe Version). Vianne helped Aunt Jenny make crucial decisions about where to place her trains.
Heading out to lunch at Walter's in Claremont (first time braving a restaurant with Vianne & it went well!) and then, sadly, to take Aunt Jenny to the airport.
On Sunday we were moping around, missing Aunt Jenny, so we didn't even get any pictures of Vianne on her 4 week birthday! Fortunately, we have plenty of almost every other day of her life ;-).
