only my child

Go ahead, Rob. Let the comments begin...

i'm a big kid now...

After a very busy weekend schedule of riding quietly to San Antonio, having dinner at a steakhouse, shopping with her Auntie Kim, and meeting her mom's cousin Kelly, Mary Beth then proceeded to cry and scream for an entire hour and a half of the return drive home. Yes. Hour and a half. It was more, but we stopped 2 times, making the 4 1/2 hour drive really 6 hours. But the last 2 hours included her screaming for 90 minutes STRAIGHT. It was enough to drive her parently LOONEY. Once again I'll use the same four words: she's lucky she's cute.

Anyway, when we were staying at Kim's place, Mary Beth actually fell asleep on her own. I about fell over when I saw that. It never happens. In fact, she was on the bed, chillin on the towel after a diaper change. So I literally wrapped myself around her and slept with her on the bed. There was NO way I was going to move her.

That got me and Bob thinking... so last night we put her down for a late nap in her crib. She hardly ever naps in there. She was out for 1 1/2 hours. Fed her again and put her back in the crib. She actually went to sleep on her own, IN HER OWN ROOM! :-) It really is an awesome room, but she's just used to sleeping in ours, 3 feet from her mommy. Hooked up the monitor and went to bed ourselves in a quiet room. It was eerie, actually. She woke up hungry at 2:30, so I fed her again and put her back in the crib. She fidgeted for a while, but quite honestly I wasn't about to stay up with her again. Monitors are fantastic things -- worth every sweet penny we spent on it. I woke up at 5 and she was asleep. Ahhh. She liked it so much, we literally had to wake her up at 8:30!

So what do we do to celebrate this milestone in Mary Beth's life? Well, we take her to get shots, of course. :-( Poor little girl. Didn't even see it coming. Oh well. Won't be the last time. So here are her four month stats, for those of you keeping track:

• weight: 13 pounds, 50th percentile


• height: 25.3 inches, 92nd percentile -- I KNOW! HOW'D THAT HAPPEN???


• head: 15.8 inches, 35th percentile

Not too shabby for the girl who at one week old was in the 10th percentile for weight and 72nd for height. She was given the green light to try rice cereal at night, and later some stage one food. Food? Sniff! My baby's growing up!

happy 4 months!

Dear Mary Beth,

We're a day late in posting this, but yesterday we celebrated your 4 month birthday. Wow. Can't believe it has already been 4 months! Looking back, it feels like just yesterday... and it feels like a lifetime. We look at photos of you when we first brought you home and just can't believe how tiny you were! You're now 12.5 pounds, and growing every day! Next week you'll have your 4 months shots -- so I'm apologizing in advance for that.

You're having fun at daycare - though we were nervous about leaving you there. You tend to get, um, vocal when you are tired or hungry. But you're making friends there. Another baby, 7-month old Elizabeth and you seem to get along like best friends. They even put you two in the excer-saucers facing each other because you "talk" to each other. So cute.

You're talking more than ever. It's adorable because you look like you're concentrating SO much to tell us something. And we have no idea what you're saying, except that you're cute when you do it. It's probably what you're thinking when you hear us. Somehow like the teacher on the Peanuts comics. Oh, you don't know what/who that is. Don't worry, with Auntie Kim in your life, you'll know ALL about Peanuts.

Speaking of, hopefully we'll be heading down to San Antonio this weekend so you can visit Auntie Kim. She's going through Mary Beth withdrawals. Besides, we need to celebrate your Auntie and Mommy's birthday,

And once again I have to post that one day in your lifetime we'll get you baptized. We thought we had it all finalized (AGAIN) but didn't take vacation schedules into account. Don't worry -- there's a lake about a mile from the house. We may just take you out there and do it ourselves. But don't let Uncle Rob take you anywhere near a lake. Don't worry, I'm sure he'll tell you that story one day.

So, as the photo shows above, you're 4 months old today and you like to smile. Whenever the camera is on, it takes a little more coaxing to have you smile. And you certainly don't know how to hold a sign. But you'll get there.

We love you, Baby Love!

Love, Mom and Dad

marybeth the movie star

Well, not a real movie. But close enough.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the Annual Engelman Camping Trip/Family Reunion up in Minnesota. But seeing as how we were just there in May for Papa's funeral and that I just started a new job 2 weeks ago, well, we're not going. I'm highly disappointed, as I made it the last 2 years and it's quite fun! Next year, I promise!

Anyway, for all the peeps up there, especially my aunts and uncles, I put together a video/slideshow of the munchkin and sent it to them to watch at the campground. Yes, it's that kind of campground with running water, toilets and showers. Gross showers, but showers none the less. And an outlet for the hairdryer. Majorly important!!

But I can't just keep the show to those who are up in Minnesota for the reunion. So I've posted it here for all. It's about 6 minutes, but worth every second. She's is so damn cute, if I do say so myself.

all at her expense...

So, Mary Beth's Auntie Kim said she almost pees in her pants whenever she sees her in the jumper/saucer toy where she can't reach the ground. In Kim's defense, it is pretty damn funny.

So Bob and I decided to try it again and see if she has grown any. OK. Really it was to just make ourselves laugh again. She really does seem to like it, even if we have to manually move the toy around to make it seem like she's doing all the work.

Still hilarious. You be the judge. There's hoto of the little one not being able to touch the floor in her jumper/saucer toy. I have to admit, it is pretty damn funny. So Bob and I even video this time...

and sorry... can't rotate this one!!!