"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish." John Quincy Adams

Today we went to B.ton to do some shopping...yes, Avelyn went along. We had to get things for the store to do the gift baskets and what not for Christmas. We actually managed to get to BRU, Christmas Tree Sho.ppe, and Kohls. We could have actually managed a few more stores, but mom and dad were too tired and wanted to go HOME.

Matt wore the mo.by (he LOVES that thing) and she went in it in every store. I was giving him a hard time because all these women (young and old) kept coming up to him and asking about A...I told him I might have to be a bit worried about sending him out with her and not with me ;-)

Things are going well with A. We're still having poop issues, but after a couple of days of prune juice (per the doctor's orders) we finally got her to poop! I was, of course, reading online what can cause issues...some people say it's because of formula, but everything I was finding said that formula doesn't cause the majority of poop issues. One website explained it as thus: A baby's sphincter muscles are so tight from months of preventing poop, that it may take several weeks and poops for the muscles to get to a relaxed enough state that it allows poop easily. Now, that makes sense to me.

A is growing that's for sure! On Saturday I went over to the store for a couple of hours, I had to check some orders in and start looking at things for Christmas gift baskets....she was great the entire time. My mom and I were curious to see what she was weighing, so we threw her up on the scale: 8.98lbs...that was fully clothed and a diaper...but we figure without the clothes and diaper she was probably over 8.5 lbs, which means she's gaining well.

We actually had to buy some new clothes for her when we went shopping. We received some newborn sized things (which she doesn't fit in...she's too long) and a lot of bigger sizes, but not a lot of 0-3 months...which is fine. We also have a better idea of what we like: Snaps, legs, and footed outfits. So we bought a bunch of sleep n' play outfits in polarfleece and a couple of sleep sacks with sleeves (they're awesome because they're one size and are too big, but keep her hands covered and warm).

We're no longer swaddling A: She hates it! This kid wants to be able to move and get her fists to her mouth. So that's what we're doing.

I had a realization last night, that I have only two weeks until the beginning of Advent (11/29) and that is my last weekend before the holiday-crazies begin (we're going away almost every weekend before Christmas). I then thought about the fact that A's Christmas stocking was not yet done....so my goal for this evening was to get it "finished". TADA! It's done. I just have to stitch down the mesh in the front and then put a loop of ribbon to hang it from. There may be some other touch up stitches I have to do too.

I like how it came out, but I'm not keen on how the name looks. My stocking and Matt's have the name needlepointed right into the rest of the stocking....this one wasn't designed like that and I didn't realize that was their game plan when I started it...so I just started and never left room at the top for me to do her name: oops! Also it's a lot harder to center a name with an even number of letters. I might tear it out someday and redo it, but for now it works.