Productive day

To Do:
do dishes, check
clean kitchen, check
wash, fold, and put away laundry, check check check
get Esther bathed and dressed, check
get myself bathed and dressed, check
clean bathroom, check
straighten up living room, check
clean Esther's room, check
hot date night including dinner at Chili's, chocolate molten pie, and cuddling while watching Enchanted, CHECK

It's been a while since I've been this productive in one day. :)

One Month!

Esther is officially one month old today. My how time flies! We love you princess! :)

Maternity Shoot

Eight days before Esther was born, Mike and I finally got around to getting some maternity pictures done. One of our friends, Marissa, did the pictures for us and I am thrilled with the results! :) They are awesome! Thanks again, Marissa! :) So I was planning on just posting my favorites, but they're all my favorites! So I'm sure this post will take forever to load because of all the pictures, but they are so worth it. Well at least I think so. But then again, I guess others might not care to look at that many pictures of me like I do. :) Anyways, I hope you enjoy them! Marissa also did newborn pictures of Esther on Monday, so those will be forthcoming. We took hundreds of pictures of Esther, so it will probably take a while to sort through and edit them. But trust me, they are going to be fabulous! :)
Oh and just a note about this first picture. Ever since we found out we were pregnant, Mike would talk to our little baby through my tummy. Mike would tell stories, sing songs and give kisses to our little Esther through my tummy. So we had to capture on film, something to represent that. Thanks again Marissa!

Burp!!!

So, Robyn went in to give her beautiful daughter a kiss the other day, and right as Robyn's lips were within an inch of Esther, she (Esther) gave out an award-winning "BUUURP!!!"
I'm so proud of my daughter:)
We have stories about noises from the other end, but we can save those for another day...

Robyn is on the left and Esther is on the right. See any family resemblance?

Robyn's turn

This is Mike blogging, and I am glad you all enjoyed my little half-asleep actions and comments as much as I did. I kept Robyn awake laughing after I burped my knee (and if you haven't read that story, scroll down and read it), so I'm glad I could share the smiles.
Anyways, Robyn has had a few things we've laughed over, and I wanted to again share the smiles.
Yesterday morning Robyn was lying in bed holding her socks, watching me feed and/or change Esther, thinking that we needed to put Esther's socks on. Robyn didn't realize the socks she was holding were her own and that they would engulf Esther's toes and legs up to her thighs if we tried to put them on. There was something really funny that Robyn said after I wrapped Esther up and she was like "aren't we going to pu... oh wait these are my socks!" but it was more funny than that. Sorry, but you'll have to use your imagination.
Also, 2 months ago, we bought a dishwasher thinking that we aren't going to want to wash all the bottles by hand. So we bought a dishwasher, and it has been great, but keep in mind, it was for the bottles. The past few weeks, Robyn's Mom and Papa have been here helping out immensely, including washing bottles by hand (since it was faster). The first day after they were gone, we thought "Ok, let's put the next batch of dirty bottles in the bottle holder thing and then in the dishwasher. That's why we bought it, right?" Anyways, Robyn was a little sleep deprived and ended up spending 15 min or so washing all the bottles by hand while I was making cookies for FHE. Afterward, we both laughed that neither of us stopped to realize we still haven't used the dishwasher to wash bottles!

While I'm posting, I might as well put up some new pictures. Enjoy!

Here's Esther, squirming in her sleep on Valentine's Day, and here's Papa Sampson trying to wake her up (and waking her up is like trying to wake up a teenager! ;)

Back by popular demand

At the request of many of Esther's adoring fans, I am posting more pictures. We have taken a bajillion pictures of our little princess, but I've noticed none of them have captured how extremely cute she really is. :) I guess that's the problem with two dimensional pictures in a three dimensional world. So I hope you all enjoy! :)
She managed to get her fingers clasped together and it was so cute, but by the time I managed to grab the camera, she had started to let go. Oh well, it's still cute. :)
Here we are at bath time. She hates getting undressed and dressed, and especially hates water. But she loves it when we scrub her head. Such a girl.
We were trying to get a picture of her propped up, but none of them really turned out. This is the best picture we got.
Mike loves giving Esther tummy time and she's mostly pretty mellow about it.
This picture is just too funny not to post. She goes cross eyed all the time and it cracks me up. :)
Esther and Mommy.
She's so alert sometimes, it amazes me. Other times she's completely dead to the world and impossible to wake up.
Check out her beautiful eyes. Actually, they're even more beautiful in person. :)
Esther and Daddy.
Esther and the incredibly cute little lamb that her soon to be aunt Faith gave her. (My brother, Donald, is engaged to be married on May 23rd. Congrats Donald and Faith!)

Here's those beautiful eyes again.Sweet little hands.
little feet
She was cutely balanced on her hands, but of course just as I clicked the picture, she slipped off into this shot. :) Oh well.
Here's a full length shot. :) She's so tiny!

Here's our little purple princess. When we put Esther to bed, we turn her into a baby burrito.
These last few are just cute baby shots. :)

Sometimes Esther looks so much like a monkey, so we had to get a true monkey shot.
So since our life is centered around this little darling, I'm sure they'll be more pictures to come. I think we took about 200 pictures this week... ;)

Poor Hubby

sleep deprived new father + test week = overly stressed hubby

Last night at about 3 in the morning I was up feeding Esther. She squawked a little bit and all of the sudden Mike sat up in bed. He gathered up the covers around his knee, cupped his knee in one hand and started patting the other side of his knee. He said "shh...it's ok Esther. Daddy's got you... shhh..."
Realizing that he thought his knee was his daughter I said to him "Mike, I've got Esther with me."
He looked at me and said "Oh" then went back to burping his knee.
"Mike," I said, "You're dreaming. I have Esther in my lap right now."
He kept burping his knee.
"Mike," I said more loudly, "You need to wake up." At this point he kinda shook his head, looked at me with Esther in my lap and then looked down at his knee. He threw the covers away with disgust and then threw himself down to go to sleep. I was dying with laughter!
Throughout the night he kept saying things like "Oh good burp princess!" or "hello Esther!" or "Open up, daddy's got your bottle." All the while he was sound asleep.
So after I put Esther back down to sleep I crawled back in bed for some sleep myself. I was sound asleep when all of the sudden I felt a hand behind my neck and under my back. I opened my eyes and Mike was trying to lift me up. He said "Come here sweetie."
I was pretty sure he was sleeping so I asked him what he was doing. He cooed "Hi princess!" as he continued to try to lift me up.
"Mike, Esther is in her bassinet." He kinda shook his head like he was waking himself up and he said "Oh" and then threw himself back down on his pillow and was asleep in seconds. When I talked to him about it this morning he said "I woke up and thought I saw Esther next to me. I remember thinking 'Oh, Esther's big!'" Once again, I couldn't stop laughing!
At Esther's 5 o'clock feeding I heard Mike say "Oh, thanks for scratching my back!" He seemed to be having a good dream, so I let him enjoy that dream without waking him up. :) When I got done feeding Esther I changed her diaper. Just as I was finishing Mike lifts up his head and asks if he can help. I told him I had just finished and he said "Are you sure? I can help." I explained again that I was done and so I didn't need any help. He offered his help three or four more times before I finally had to get him to wake up.
So needless to say, Mike is very sleep deprived. It's obvious that his thoughts are totally focused on his new daughter. He's a great daddy, I just hope he got enough sleep to do well on his test today. :)

Growing Princess

So when Esther was born she was 5 lbs 11 oz. When we were discharged from the hospital on Tuesday of last week, she was 5 lbs 7 oz. By that Thursday when we went to the pediatrician she was 5 lbs 10 oz. On Tuesday she got a little checkup at the WIC office and she was 6 lbs 8 oz. :) My baby knows how to eat! She is a true Larson! ;) So for all of you who were wondering, she's doing great!
And I'm doing ok too. I'm feeling more and more like myself every day. I caught myself singing in the shower this morning, something I haven't done in months. And I've even started dancing around the house a little bit too. I'm still healing up, so I'm not totally myself, but I'm on my way and it feels great. It's funny because although I've made a bunch of friends here in Milwaukee, they only know the crazy pregnant Robyn. It'll be fun for them to see the real me now. Of course I'm currently the sleep deprived Robyn, but at least I don't have the crazy prego brain anymore... :)
All in all our little family is doing fabulous. Oh, and the other day I was holding Esther and I looked down and saw this. It was too perfect, I had to have Mike take a picture, and no, there was no doctoring the shot or anything. :)

Esther's Photoshoot

The other day while I was taking a nap, my parents had a little photoshoot with our little princess. She's much cuter in person and pictures really don't do her justice, but here's a few of my favorites. :) Oh and about her outfit: when my father heard that I was avoiding pink for little Esther, the first thing he said to my mom was "Let's go get a pink outfit!" So she's wearing the pink outfit that her grandpa gave her.
Most of the clothes we had for Esther were far too big. The outfit that Papa got for her was a 0-3 month one and as you can see, she's got plenty of room to grow.
Papa loves that she has hair. I was a baldy, and was completely expecting Esther to be bald too. I was pleasantly surprised.
I love her little chicken legs. :)
She looks so much like a little elf to me. Especially in the little hat that the hospital sent her home in. It's actually the only had that doesn't engulf her entire head.
She's such a sweetie. :)

Here's some of our little family.
Sorry these last two are so dark, it was night time and we don't have the best lighting in our home.