Cute Little Schmidt: 7 weeks

It never ceases to amaze me how much Cora changes in a matter of days! She is growing, growing, growing. She is learning so much and does new things constantly. She is smiling A LOT these days. It truly melts my heart and brings me such joy each and every time I see her precious smile. She still smiles in her sleep, which I love, but the best is when she smiles at you when she's awake. I know she is just on the verge of laughing and giggling. She has started making noises while she's smiling, so it's coming! :)

Her head is getting so strong! She can hold it up herself for quite a long time. When she's resting on a shoulder or lying on a chest, she will hold her head up and look around. It amazes me every time I see her do it. It is becoming less and less wobbly. Her tummy time is now devoted to rolling over, which she did once tonight! It was amazing! I am so sad I didn't catch it on video. I didn't expect it at all. I will now be recording all tummy time sessions until I capture it!

Cora made a visit to school this past week to meet my class. I went in to say hello to them and let them see her, which they all loved. I will be returning to work on Tuesday. I am already dreading it and had a good cry over it while I was rocking her to sleep tonight. Please pray for us this week, as it will be a big adjustment for both of us.

I am really enjoying watching her take in the world around her. She is studying everything! She loves looking at her little toys on her carseat, bassinette, and swing. She has also started lying on the floor with her jungle mat (see pic below). She LOVES staring at all the animals, and she talks quite a bit to them! She loves to lie on a blanket on the floor, too. This allows her to see the whole room, and she can spend a good amount of time just staring at the things around her. She has also started noticing her feet. She sees them when she's sitting in her carseat. It's so adorable to watch her move them and look at them so intently. I wonder if she realizes that she's the one moving them!

She continues to do well eating from a bottle, but she will also nurse very easily, as well. This is a huge blessing. I love our time together while she nurses, so I'm glad we will still be able to share that.

She is doing really well at getting her schedule set. She has been eating right around 8 p.m. the past few nights and going down around 9 p.m. Last night she didn't wake up to eat at all; she slept until 6 a.m.! It was awesome. This is really great for me as I'm getting ready to head back to work. The routine will be helpful to me to make sure I get enough rest to get through the work day.

Finally, this past week, my brother Casey and sister-in-law Melody drove down from Nashville to meet Cora. We had a wonderful week visiting with them! Cora loved hanging out with her uncle and aunt (and so did Eric and I). Casey had the opportunity to change is very first diaper ever. About 10 seconds after he got the clean one on her, she messed in it! Oh, well! We were so sad to have to say good-bye to them. We are so looking forward to Christmas time when we can see my whole family again (and Cora will meet Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Pia for the first time)!

Well, here are the newest pictures of our sweet girl:

Smiling while sleeping on Daddy's shoulder