It's so hard to believe...

but Mary is already three months old. She is getting so big and strong and more beautiful with each passing day. I'm so glad we have such a little lady. Everyone at work tells me how feminine she looks (ie you can tell she's a girl without all the pink and the earrings) which makes me happy.
I'm excited because I found a Medela breast pump on ebay for a total of $87 (that's including s&h). Considering it costs around $250-300 new at stores, I'd say we got a great deal. now it will be loads easier to pump for Mary when I'm at work. It's very important since she seems to despise formula.
Brent and I have a feeling that Mary will be left handed. She totally favors her left hand for everything. I don't know if it's too early to tell but that's what it seems like. She constantly pulls her pacifier out and tries to put it back in with her left hand, she rubs her eye with her left hand, etc. I don't know. That would be interesting if she were though.

sorry it's been awhile

Since I've been back at work it has been really hard getting on the computer to update; when I get home all I want to do is spend time with Mary (and Brent and Tiggy of course). So here's some updates:

On Wednesday we were lucky to get together with Val, Chris, Brendan and Uncle John and Alex. We went to Brick Oven and had yummy pizza, compliments of Uncle John (so thank you to him!). Brendan really liked sitting on my lap and eating my pizza. He also liked running around and being his usual crazy self. Mary just slept and relaxed throughout the dinner. Both little ones enjoyed meeting family.

We've had lots of fun this weekend. Saturday night was Costco's annual "Christmas" party. It was held in an old Gap store near the Riverwoods. Magleby's catered, and I guess they use the old store for company parties. The only downer is that there's no bathroom in the store, so you have to walk to another one in order to go! My supervisor at work is moving to Indiana soon and so on Sunday one of my coworkers played host to a dinner for the entire department. It was really nice. We had Hawaiian haystacks and an endless array of desserts. Mary met a new friend at the dinner too. One of my coworkers has a four month old named Parker and Mary and he were very interested in each other. They even held hands!

In other news: Mary is a major gabber. She loves to talk to us, especially after eating. Unfortunately, whenever Brent takes the camera out, she stops and stares at it. We got a few seconds of our little noise maker.

and one more video just to show how she kept stopping:

The world's strongest baby girl

or at least to me. Not being entirely sure the different physical abilities Mary should have at her age, I just assume she's so strong. I mean, to me she is amazing. She's so good at holding her head up and kicking and flailing her little limbs. It's so exciting yet at the same time kind of sad because I want her to stay little forever.

By the way, I'm pretty sure I forgot to mention that we got little Mary's ears pierced while we were in Illinois. She is so tough (just like her mom). She only cried for a tiny bit after they pierced her ears. She was more angry at me for holding her head and arms in place so she couldn't move around. She got a bit fussy later but still slept like a log that night. I'm glad we did the piercing so early because she doesn't even notice that there are earrings there and therefore doesn't touch or bother with them.

Grandma Lubniewski (my mom) got Mary the sweetest little stuffed dog/blanket. Mary is just now discovering it, and she loves it! She snuggles it up to her face and grabs onto it with her tiny little hands. So thank you grandma for the blanket toy. Mary really really appreciates it, and so do I.

Guess what?

Last night Mary laughed at me! Obviously they weren't full blown giggles, just the beginning sounds of laughter. I was making farting noises at her and she just loved it. I tried to get her to do it again for the camera, but as soon as I turned it on, she stopped and stared in wonder at it. Oh well, I'll keep trying!

Brent has yet to put his luggage away, slacker, and Tiggy is making sure we don't pack them up and go away again!

I had a killer migraine for most of yesterday and unfortunately Brent had to work. Luckily Tiggy came to the rescue to help take care of me and Mary.

And just because she's so cute:

fyi

Brent is currently looking for a new job, something full time and with a better pay which will supplement my part of our income. He's found a few promising positions, even a couple in accounting departments. Anyway, we thought we'd let you know so if you could include us in your prayers at this time that would be great. I would absolutely love to not have to work so I can stay home and take care of Mary. We'll keep you updated on the situation.
We got a new camera, the Canon sd850IS, which is miles better than the one we were using. So expect not only better pictures but more, as I'm super excited to start snapping away.
It seems Tiggy got quite used to not having Mary around. I find that during the day he thinks the crib is his personal bed. He absolutely will not go in if Mary is in there, which is good (at least he knows that much). But when I'm playing with Mary in the daytime, he burrows under her blankie and snoozes happily. I witnessed this first hand today and wished I had my camera to record it.
Also, Mary has taken to moving in her sleep. I like to keep her somewhat swaddled to keep her hands nice and warm (they are always so cold in the morning when she wakes up). One morning when I went to get her, I found she had wriggled out of the swaddling blanket, which was still wrapped and folded like it was when she was inside it, and was laying in the top left corner of her crib. Who knows what was going on with her that night. Some dream I guess.

a day late

So I meant to post yesterday in honor of Brendan's birthday but time got away from me. To Brendan, sorry it's belated but happy birthday! And just because it's a cute picture, here's Mary "celebrating."

On a sadder note, I am back at work. Yesterday was my first day back. Mary tries to convince me to stay by smiling and talking to me as I'm about to leave. It's crazy how much I miss her when I'm away from her.

trip home part 2

Since both sets of parents are in Illinois we decided to wait til we went out there for Christmas to do Mary's baby blessing. It was a nice small, private event held in my house. Mary looked gorgeous in her blessing gown which my mom smocked for her. She was able to wear another pair of booties that my bisabuela made for her. She was as sweet as can be until the actual blessing part. Then she decided to cry. It was cute though. I don't think she enjoyed getting all dressed up. Ian was expecting an explosive poop disaster while in her white dress. I'm glad that didn't happen!


And as usual, whenever the Kozlowskis get together there is much hearts playing, mostly instigated by Brent who has an obsession for the game. I actually won a game which is the first time ever since I've started playing with them. I was very proud of myself. Just make sure not to bring up to Brent how he did...haha