Sitting Up

Margaret Mary can sit up for a couple of seconds by herself! It is so much fun trying to capture her grin on camera.

Aunt Eryn

We have really enjoyed having Eryn live with us. She came down here to go the St. Gerard House, a highschool for pregnant teenagers, and will graduate in May (at the age of 16!). Her baby is due in early March and it is so much fun watching her belly grow day by day. It has also been very sweet to watch Margaret Mary bond with her. Here are a couple of pictures of them hanging out. I love the picture of Eryn and Margaret Mary in the rocking chair. It was taken at a friend's beach house that we stayed in when we went to Rush's wedding.

I'm Not Napping, so just get me up!

This is an old picture of MM when she was about three months and rolled over for the first time in her crib. Now we have to put pillows all around her when she sleeps to keep her from rolling over and waking up.

This carseat aint so bad after all

P.S.

Check out our girl's strawberry blonde hair!

We Miss You Papa!

Jason is in Nashville right now with Fraternus and asked me to post some more pictures to the blog so he could look at "his girls." I found these sweet pictures of Jason and Margaret Mary from our recent trip to Pensacola. I love how my girl loves her papa. :) We miss you Jason and can't wait for you to come home!

Sweet Pics from the Bech

Rolling Over

As I mentioned earlier, Margaret Mary is rolling over in her crib like every five minutes. It is getting harder and harder to put her down for her nap because she rolls over so much and then can't fall asleep in her new position. Here is a video of her rolling over during tummy time today. She started rolling over about a month ago, but did it by leaning her head back. Now she is pushing up on her legs (like a tent) and rolling over using her butt to throw her body over. Excuse the shaking and twisting of the camera, I got excited and forgot that I was making a movie instead of taking a picture. :)

It Begins...

So today, Margaret Mary and I were playing when Mac walked by. Up until now, Mac and Margaret Mary haven't really cared about each other. Occasionally, Mac would walk by and stare for a couple of minutes but that is it. But today the tide changed: when Mac walked by, Margaret mary, with a HUGE smile on her face, reached out and stroked Mac's fur. She did this twice! She was very gently and didn't pull his hair (which I expected because she is a pincher!), and Mac didn't seem to even notice. This picture was taken a couple minutes later when Mac stopped by to look at MM while she was doing belly time. I love how they are staring at eachother!

Rush's Wedding

Chris Rush (who works with Jason) got married this weekend and so we traveled to Pensacola for the wedding. This was no fun as Margaret Mary still sleeps terribly in her car seat. But once we got there, we stayed in a beautiful beach house and had a very relaxing weekend hanging out with friends. The top picture is of our friend Melissa Ace , whose husband is also involved in Fraternus. Margaret Mary LOVED her necklace, and in fact, I think you can see her trying to lick it in the picture.

Our Little Margaret Mary

Margaret Mary is four months old! At her check up the other day she weighed 13 pounds, 5 ounces and was 24.5 inches tall; this confirms what everyone around us has been saying, that Jason and I have a petite baby (who would have thought?). Her little personality is developing and Jason and I are so in love with her. When she is tired, she starts talking making lots of ahhhs and ewwwww sounds and whenever we put her in her bed to go to sleep, she tries to keep herself up by rolling over. We can tell she has rolled over when we hear her talking on the monitor. When we go in her bedroom to turn her back over, she gets this HUGE grin on her face as if she is so proud of herself and it is very hard not to laugh.

Margaret Mary loves sitting up, standing, getting her diaper changed (weird, I know, but she cracks up), smiling at herself in the mirror, hamming it up with strangers who talk to her on the street and cuddling after nursing with mommy. It is getting easier to make her laugh and she loves kisses on her belly. I can't believe how big she is getting!

Finally! Some more family shots!

Thanks Tammy!

Visit from Granny

Tammy came down last weekend to move Eryn into our house (she's living with us to go to the St. Gerard House, a highschool for pregnant teenagers). It was good seeing both of them, and Jason and I truley enjoy having Eryn live with us. The first thing she does when she comes home from school is to pick up Margaret Mary and play with her. Margaret Mary loves this time and I'm excited about her having a sweet relationship with her "aunt Eryn." Here are some pics of the weekend.

Visiting Jason in the Plaza

When Martin (Jason's dad) came to town, we went to go see Jason at work and spent some time outside in the plaza. Margaret Mary loves being outside and now that the weather is getting colder, I'm more than happy to take her out.

Rockin Out the Rattle

Behold Cuteness

I took this playing around with Margaret Mary in the car. Don't worry, we were parked! We have to work hard to get her to smile for the camera, so we thought we'd take a video to capture her personality. Here she is...

First Trip to the Beach

We took Margaret Mary to the beach for the first time the other day and she absolutely LOVED it!!! She was all smiles, which made it easy to catch them on camera. (Normally she just stares at the camera blankly no matter what we do.) Isn't her dimple adorable???

3 Month Pics

Baptized In Christ- May 23

Margaret Mary was baptized in Christ on May 23 at the La Leche Shrine in St. Augustine. Her godparents are Pete and AnnMarie Hynes, but they couldn't make the trip down so Matthew and Jana Weiler stood in for them. Jason and I are so thankful to God for our little blessing; We couldn't wait to give her back to him through baptism. When Father Ligouri baptized our daughter, he threw in an extra name: Fatima, because Margaret Mary was almost born on the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima (May 13). So her unofficial name is Margaret Mary Elizabeth Fatima Craig! Aye Aye Aye. Welcome to the body of Christ Margaret Mary!

Happy Birthday Margaret Mary!

Margaret Mary was born on May 12 at 9:40pm after three longs days of labor. I was trying to go naturally, but threw in the towel out of exhaustion on the third day. They hooked up the pitocin, broke my water and gave me the epidural. Babygirl came four hours later. I don't like talking about my labor because it didn't go so well, and I didn't get to hold my girl for nine hours after the birth because she had breathing problems. But I am so thankful now that she is healthy and happy. Here are some of my favorite newborn pics...

Waiting for Margaret Mary

Eight Months Preggo and waiting for the big day!

Laughable

Many of our blog readers probably know we're...uh... pretty pro life. In fact, I think in today's rhetoric we are "extremists" or "fanatics" or something - I forget. But I honestly must laugh at how little some for left's politicians actually know about issues like embryonic stem cells. Check out this comment by Bill Clinton on the Scary King Show:

“...if [embryos] are never going to be used to be fertilized, to bring a life into being, then I think making them available for medical research is the pro-life position and I honestly don't understand -- I would understand it if we were going and raiding stem cell banks, where these stem cells were going to be used to actually fertilize eggs and have babies.”

You can't fertilize an embryo - it wouldn't be an embryo if it wasn't fertilized. Sorry Clinton, that science thing can get complicated. Despite many words employed to jump around this fact - science is unanimously in agreement that once an egg is fertilized it is a unique being. Not mother or father but unique with its own DNA. The last sentence is my favorite though; using stem cells to fertilize eggs and have babies. Wow.

My unsolicited advice: stop making promises about embryonic stem cells and learn the facts. Science is amazing. This purely political move is empty and gravely immoral.

(Click pic for larger view)

I always tell people I grew up in a castle. They laugh. Well who's laughing now? Behind me in this picture is 922 Morriss St, in Cincinnati - where I grew up....er....where I started growing up.....uh....where I lived for a while.

Katie and I are now (as I write this at least) in Cincinnati (the Queen City) visiting old stomping grounds and just enjoying a weekend together. Some call it a "babymoon" since its our last trip before the baby. I don't call it that.

More pics to come...

26 Weeks

Fraternus

Just thought I'd post a picture of Jason in one of his new work shirts. He loves his job and the people he works with. Check out www.fraternus.net for more info about what he does! His info is under the Leadership section.

March for Life

While Jason was in Colorado, the baby and I marched with the youth group to stand up for the sanctity of life. We started the cross by nailing in 4000 crosses to represent the 4000 babies the die from abortion each day. It was a long day with a lot of speeches and walking; I was so glad that I had been working out or my body would have been exhausted! It was also a sad day as the realization hit that my 11 inch, 1.5 pound baby that loves to kick me all the time has no protection under the law.

Putting Together the Crib!

Jason and I are using the same crib I used when I was a little baby. It is a simple classic crib that unfortunetly, because it was stored in my parent's attic, came with no instructions on how to be put together! But, no job is too complicated for a Craig, and within minutes the crib was assembled. I'll post more pics of the crib once I make the bedding. Mac was so excited about putting together the crib. He kept on trying to eat the screws and sit on the pieces we were trying to put together.

Mother/Daughter Luncheon

Pure Fashion is an amazing outreach to teen girls that teaches them how to change the world "one outfit at a time." By dressing modestly and fashionably, they teach girls poise and dignity and how to show on the outside what God is doing on the inside of their hearts. Maria, one of the girls in our church's youth program, and I have become very good friend and recently she invited me to one of their functions as her stand in "mom." They served a fancy lunch and helped us with our etiquette. I loved the event and learned so much. They stressed that using manners is an act of charity, making the people you are with feel more comfortable and at home. Although you can't see the belly very well, I'm about 24 weeks pregnant in this picture.

Visit www.purefashion.com for more info!