She flipped over!

She really did!!  A few weeks ago at the beach, she managed to flip herself over but it was shortly after I had laid her on her belly so I didn't count it.  I figure I may have put her in a position that she was able to leverage.  But today, she absolutely flipped herself over from her belly to her back.  She'd been hanging out on her stomach for about a minute when she flipped herself over.  I didn't even see how she did it; I just caught the beginning of the movement as she came down out of the corner of my eye.  So all I managed to catch was her ending pose with her eyes shadowed by the mat...   

Fiona's Room

We finally put some finishing touches on Fiona's room this past weekend.  We hadn't done much decorating since she arrived, but now that we are ready to move her out of the cradle in our room and into the crib in her room, we needed to get on that.  Fiona's crib has been serving as a catchall holding bin for her many gifts and other odds and ends, like the canvases we painted for her 3-week footprints.  We finally got those little feet on the wall mixed in with some photos of me and Tim.  Her nursery is water-themed so we hung our engagement photos from Ocean City, one from our honeymoon in Maui, and one from our wedding day by the Bay in Havre de Grace.  We need to add the most recent beach photos of the whole family still.

      

We've received some fantastic water-themed additions to her nursery from friends too.  My friend Becca from Penn State sent us an awesome handmade letter F illustration with a fish on it as well as Fiona's name and birthdate.  Plus, Tim's coworker Nichole made a plate inspired by our baby shower invitation with Fiona's birth stats.  And Mrs. Roberts' sent us some adorable wooden whales that we were going to hang on the wall but on a whim decided to hang on the hutch.  They look fantastic and give Fiona something to stare at while she is getting her diaper changed, which happens often enough that some entertainment is welcome I'm sure.  She has seemed fascinated with them.  We will see how long they stay there after she gets big enough to reach out and grab them.

Note that I am only showing you the left half of the room since the right half is still part office (metal shelves with office supplies and Tim's Penn State diplomas) and sporting goods store (hiking backpack and golf clubs).  Fi doesn't seem to mind though.  She has a jolly good time playing in her room, and hopefully, she will be just as happy sleeping in there too.

Grabby Girl

Over the last week or two, Fiona has mastered the art of putting her fingers and hands in her mouth.  This week she has learned how to reach out and grab things.  We've been putting her on her activity mat and bouncer for weeks now, but I had been moving her arms and legs to show her how to grab and kick the hanging birds and turtles.  It is amazing how just a few weeks ago, she barely wanted to spend 15 minutes on her activity mat and bouncer, but now she lays on her mat and sits in her bouncer contently playing for 30 to 45 minutes at a time multiple times a day.  It is a bit cliche but it is amazing how quickly she is growing.  It  was a bit startling when I witnessed the first sign of her independence.  I was in another room when I heard the music from the frog on her bouncer, which could only have been triggered by her pulling on the orange ring.

 

Three months old!

Fiona is three months old today.  She is the most pleasant baby imaginable.  She's a chatty little bugger in the morning, loves napping and playing during the day, and while she can be a little fussy in the afternoon it is often because she wants to sit and cuddle with me and Tim.  We couldn't get a big smile out of her for her picture, but here is our little girl looking stunning.  Too bad she had her outfit on backwards (oops!), which may be why she isn't smiling.  She's thinking about what schmucks she has for parents.  That look says "You're kidding me, right?"  We try our best though.  A special thank you to Prince William and Kate for celebrating Fi's three month birthday with a baby boy.  It was very generous of them. 

Baptism

Fi in her Baptism gown

Today Fiona was baptized here in Stroudsburg at the Church of St. Luke.  Fi looked like a doll in the christening gown, which is a heirloom from Tim's family.  The gown is nearly 100 years old and was worn by much of the Donohue side of his family, including Tim's grandfather, mother, Uncle John and his kids, and all of Fiona's cousins.  An official count is pending, but she is the 17th or 18th child to be baptized in the gown.  

Fi with her Godfather

The Baptism itself went really well (although poor Maddie incurred a big boo-boo on the walk there!).  At St. Luke's, they conduct Baptism during the 11:30 mass.  There are three points in the mass where Fiona, Tim and I, and the godparents Aunt Colleen and Uncle Chad were called to the altar.  She was a little startled during her first trip to the altar when Father Perry made the cross on her chest with oil, but she didn't fuss or cry when they poured water on her head at the baptismal font.  By her third trip up to the altar, she was snoozing pretty good with Mr. Giraffe of course.  Of the four babies being baptized that day, she seemed to be least phased by the whole ordeal.  She is such an angel.   

Birthday Celebrations a la Cheesy Photos

"This hat looks pretty cool!"

I have been having some fun with Fiona this week by staging her for photos to celebrate Grace and Bridget's birthdays.  For Grace's birthday on Monday, it was just a picture of Fi with a sign saying "Happy Birthday Grace."  I upped my game for Bridget's first birthday today.  I got out the hat Tim's mom got Fi for her first birthday, which is a cute pointed hat that says "birthday girl" on the front and has a bunch of bedazzling.  I put Fi in her party hat, flipped around backwards so as not to out-stage the actual birthday girl, and snapped some pictures.  Getting the hat on Fi was a bit challenging because it wasn't designed for a 3-month-old, but we made do.   I got some quick smiles out of her but mostly perplexed looks.  She did enjoy putting the ribbon in her mouth though, so I'd say fun was had by all.

"Oh my this is a big hat"

"At least the ribbon tastes good."

"Birthdays are ponderous."

Screen time

Fiona has become quite the little personality, ham, stinker. . . insert word of choice.  This past week, we noticed that she has fondness for screens: iPads, computers, TVs.  Here she is at Starbucks looking at Tim's iPad. Her eyes are huge, and her arms are flailing with excitement.  Then later in the week, there she is getting her evening bottle.  Apparently Fi is a fan of Smokey and the Bandit.  I find her screen fascination both absolutely amusing and terrifying.  To use one of Tim's phrases, we don't want an "indoor kid."  I don't want her to get too comfy in front of the boob tube.  

Taking Fiona to look at a college...

...is how Tim described our weekend plans to those who asked.  While we do think higher education is important, we aren't that deranged.  We just wanted to go to Arts Fest at Penn State.  It had been a while since we trekked out to the Happy Valley and years since we went to Arts Fest. 

We did all of the typical Arts Fest activities, checking out the Italian Street painting and browsing the vendor booths.  The highlight was simply walking around the campus and downtown.  We ate at The Deli and got Fi some Penn State gear from Family Clothesline.  

We flipped her facing out in the Baby Bjorn for the first time, so she could best appreciate the campus, which looked fantastically lush and green for mid-summer.  We swung by Old Main and the Palmer Museum of Art for Fi's first museum trip.  It was a quick museum trip but enjoyable.  Here she is below taking in the vibrant colors of Private Lives by Roy de Forest.  What an intent art connoisseur!

Unfortunately, they are working on the Nittany Lion shrine so we will have to wait until next year to get her picture there, but that's alright.  Fi had plenty of Penn State fun for one day.  She still has creamery ice cream and football games to look forward to and maybe a Cafe Tea from Cafe 210 West when she is older (hint to the non-Penn Staters, the teas have a heavy dose of alcohol in them but they are oh-so yummy). 

Hanging with her grandparents

I had to go to DC this week for work at the National Museum of American History, so Fiona hung out with my parents.  They had lots of quality time together since I took my old normal trains in and out of town (and got to hang out with my train friends!).  I don't have many pictures from the week as a result, but this is the gem of the week.  I came home on Wednesday to find Fi and my dad "watching" the Orioles game.  In this photo, you also get a peek at her ridiculous hair.  Tim and I call it the reverse monk because she has missing ring of hair around the middle of her head.  We are hoping it fills in soon. 

Photo Op at the Shore

Since all of the Grenko and Olivard crew were at the shore this weekend, we jumped on the opportunity for family photos.  The kids got dressed, and it was off to the beach early before beach goers started setting up camp for the day.  As I mentioned in a previous post, we traditionally take a photo of the kids on the beach with their backs to the camera.  Sounds simple, right?  Well try to get seven kids under seven to stay turned with their backs to the camera.  It was a particularly tough task for the younger ones like Bridget and Claire who wanted to crawl around, talk to their little cousins, face their parents, and generally do everything but face away from the camera.  You can see what I mean in the photo.  

Fortunately, we were armed with three cameras to snap as many photos as possible.  And what did we do with the two newest additions, Fiona and Janie, since they can't sit up by themselves?  Grace held Janie and Maddie held Fiona. Grace and Maddie let Janie and Fiona's little heads poke out to the side of their arms so that they were accounted for in the photo.  Fi snoozed through the photos with Mr. Duck. 

 

Tim and I also took the opportunity to get a few photos of the three of us.  These were the first pictures we have taken of us together as a family.  They turned out pretty good thanks to Aunt Colleen.  I love the one with our backs turned to the camera.  Fi holds her head up so well.

 

Fiona is loving shore life.  The day of the photo op, she spent 7 hours on the beach!  She was quite content in the shade of a portable hut that we set up on the beach.  We normally put her to sleep with the ocean ambient noise on her Sleep Sheep, so the real ocean seemed to have the same slumbersome effect.  What a sleepy sweetie.   

Fiona's First Fourth

It was Fiona's first Fourth of July (ah, I love alliteration), and she spent it on the beach.  We made our first trip to the beach in the morning before the noon sun.  The beach was pretty empty then so we had a quiet morning; Fiona slept through the trip in her stroller while Tim and I read.  We went back out to the beach for the second time with the cousins late in the afternoon.  Fi slept a little bit on my knees, but she had to check out all the beach happenings too.  The trouble is that her head swivels so much as she watched her cousins play that it was tough to keep her sunhat on.  We made a third and final trip to the beach for Fi's first fireworks.  To fireworks, Fi said "big whoop."  She slept through them snuggled up on Tim's chest under two blankets.

 

Loving the Bumbo chair

Fiona has been holding her head up well for quite a few weeks now so we decided to see if she was ready for her Bumbo chair.  It's just a foam chair with a high-ish back that helps her sit upright.  She loved it, probably  because it satisfied her curiosity.  Everyone has always called her "alert," and she loves to look around, so the Bumbo chair allows her to do so to her hearts content. And boy does she have a lot to look at this week with her cousins at the shore.  Her oldest cousin Grace talked and tended to her, while her cousin Bridget toddled over to check her out

Staring Contest with Cousin Bridget

With Cousin Grace