Imprints On Life

 Alina is 21 weeks old this Friday. I am not exaggerating when I say that she changes daily. It's either in her appearance, moods, sleeping and eating habits or her motor skills and the way she reacts to her crazy parents. It is highly recommended to put her on her tummy to build strength in her neck, torso and arms. It will help in encouraging her to roll over and crawl in the long run. Today, she was on her tummy for ten whole minutes. Usually she'll go on her tummy for three minutes and then lose her shit. So already, she has outdone herself and it wasn't even 12:00 in the afternoon.
 Each day and every week she is hitting new milestones. So this weekend Auntie Erin was in town and brought some paint for us to paint Alina's feet and get her footprints on paper.

With her Auntie Buggy- right before the imprinting of her hands and feet..

Paint is all mixed, just waiting for Dad..

Side Note: They don't do hand or footprints at the hospital anymore. The technology is too awesome and advanced for old fashioned ink pads and footprints!? So they told me. Which is unfortunate because it is already five months down the road and we finally had them imprinted. (Only because Auntie Erin thought of it too!!)

 So putting paint on a 20 week old's hands and feet is definitely challenging to say the least! First of all, Alina's feet are ticklish and every.single.time. anyone touches her feet.. even with one finger she clamps her little monkey toes around the finger. It's actually pretty funny, but it makes for imprinting her feet nearly impossible. We did get some good imprints but we also got some pretty funny looking ones too.

Painting her tootsies..

First one going into the baby book.. making history people!

More paint for the toes!

Open those scrunched up toes!

Monkey toes pinching..Auntie Buggy's finger!

There's a good print!

 Then the hand print painting began.. Another difficult task for sure. Hard because she loves to eat her fingers and as soon as the wet and sticky paint was on her fingers and in her hands she was squishing the paint by balling up her fists. We had to pry her fingers open and then slam her hand on the paper. She started to get a bit upset with us. The hands were next to impossible to imprint. But, we did what we could! In her baby book it looks as though she has reptile hands - LOL! Again- we tried!! (Should have: 1. Painted her feet and hands when she was a teeny, tiny baby that barely moved. 2. Painted her hands and feet while she was asleep or at least when she first woke from a nap, or after eating. She gets milk drunk and is a bit more docile.)

Getting her reptile claw-- !!

Aaaaand she was done..!

 I think it was very fitting that we had her hands and feet imprinted on paper and in her baby book this weekend because it symbolizes all of the milestones she's reaching. I know that she'll have her baby book forever and she'll see the prints on the page every time she looks through it. We made history this weekend doing it, and the prints are there for us to look at for always. I love when I'm in a moment in time and I know that it's going to be a memorable one. Like when she was born... or when she laughed for the first time. I was thinking; This is a moment! This is a memory we'll always think back to and smile. It's awesome knowing that you're in a moment while it's happening...

The end result.. Great feet.. Hil-arious hand prints!

  After Auntie Buggy left, Rob and I took Alina for a walk on the beach. Rob wanted to get her footprints in the sand, which I thought was very fitting since we had her footprints painted in her baby book.

Look how sweet and how small..

Having a great time with Dad, soaking her toesies in the cold, ocean water..

 So Rob put her foot in the sand and then walked away and I noticed his footprint and her's... So I stuck mine right beside it to complete a very cool picture..

Puts things in perspective, when  you see how much she has to grow..

Even as I slipped my footprint in the sand yesterday- my foot looked huge in comparison to A's. It shows how much she has to grow to catch up to me. Yet, I still have so much to learn myself. We are constantly learning and growing and that is what is so remarkable about human life. Or, any life really.

I took this picture last month of our feet...

Then I saw this picture on the camera and realized her dad took the exact same one yesterday with his feet!

 Fingers and toes- everything grows and grows...