The Liperi Family

Seeing Past What it Seems

2010-12-21T14:59:00.003-08:00

I just read this amazing post on bravegirlsclub.com called "Seeing Past What it Seems".

This really spoke to me today. I know there have been many times when I wish I could have worn a sign asking others to be kind to me, especially when I was going through a hard time.

These days people are scurrying around trying to finish their Christmas shopping but not everyone is paying attention to other people around them. Yesterday I drove to the mall and after circling the parking lot for 10 minutes or so I found a spot. It was at an odd angle so I pulled forward so I could back in. Then the car in front of me started backing up very quickly and backed into the spot I was about to park in. He hit my car since he was driving so fast to snag this spot from me. Luckily, there was no damage. I drove around to the other side of the parking lot and watched him and his passenger open up the back door to take a baby out of the back seat. Wow!

I did not to say anything to him. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. But I just can't believe anyone would be so aggressive, especially with a baby in the back seat. Luckily my kids were safe at home with my hub. :)

Anyways - I guess my point is to be kind to others this Christmas. Give others the benefit of the doubt. Hold doors open for strangers behind you. Smile at the cashiers. Let pedestrians cross the street. Give other people your parking spot. Who knows what kind of day, week, month or year they had.

Christmas Run and more random pics

2010-12-20T22:26:00.007-08:00

Jon, Jenny and I ran the 12Ks of Christmas in Kirkland this weekend. We did the 5K portion of it. It was freezing outside - 36 degrees! Brrrrr!

After the run Jenny and I got free 5 minute massages at a Massage Envy booth. Made me really want to get a longer one - preferably inside. :)

Jon saw a double rainbow outside his office window. It reminded him of the double rainbow video on youtube. :)

Jon uncovered some pics of Nana and Aunt Veronica on his iphone!

Aunt Veronica playing with Katelyn

Nathan hanging out with Nana

And a few other random pics...

The morning we let Katelyn pick out Nathan's outfit

Mommy/daughter twin day - this was actually an accident!

My birthday - another year older!

Cute pic of Katelyn and dada

Our little pumpkin

Omi and Katelyn

9 months old and Nana and Aunt Veronica visit Seattle!

2010-12-17T07:09:00.002-08:00

So I took a bunch of pictures of the kids on Nathan's 9 month birthday. This was the best one. Sad! Maybe someday they will hold still and smile for the camera at the same time.

Nathan's 9-month well-baby visit went well, he's a healthy little guy. He is very tall - 30.5 inches! Katelyn was only 27" at 9 months. He's actually taller than Katelyn was at 1 year! This puts Nathan in the 97% for height and the doctor said that if he continues to grow at this rate he'll be at least 6'2". That's so hard for me to imagine, especially when I'll holding him and he fits so perfectly in my arms. He weighs 20 pounds 13 ounces which puts him in the 50th% for weight. He's 2 pounds heavier than Katelyn was at his age.

He just started to do the army crawl this week. We entice him with a toy and he pulls his little arms out and pulls himself towards the toy. He can go pretty fast if he wants to. He's still rocking on his knees and hands but hasn't quite figured out how to do the conventional crawl.

When we got back from Raleigh Nana and Aunt Veronica flew to Seattle for a visit! I couldn't find any pictures from their visit but if they send us any I'll post a few. We exchanged Christmas presents a little early. Veronica and I spent an afternoon in downtown Seattle and met the kids, Jon, Nana, my parents and Jenny downtown for dinner.

Raleigh Trip

2010-12-17T06:20:00.015-08:00

First a few pics of our tree. The kids helped us get our tree and decorate it too!

And a random cute pic of Katie with Auntie Jenny.

We flew to Raleigh for a visit a couple weeks ago. We stayed with Jen and Will and it was awesome! They have a baby (Kate) and a toddler (Evan) almost the exact same ages as our two (K's sippy cup makes another appearance).

Katelyn and Evan were pretty darn cute together. They liked to play together and hold hands around the house.

We saw the Shaffners, Tony and Mai and their babies Dakota and tiny brand new Riloh!

We went to see Santa with the Kirchems, Emily, Nick, Ben and baby Abby!

We also went to the Durham Museum of Life and Science with the Kirchems and the Shaffners.

Mai with baby Riloh

Our toddlers together - Katelyn (26 months), Ben (35 months) and Dakota (21 months).

Nick and baby Abby

Nathan taking in all the sights at the museum

We also went to the Kirchems holiday party, saw Donnie, Cara and their baby Evan and I went to "Mom's Night Out" with my Baby Steps group. The actual time we spent in Raleigh was really, really good. We miss all our friends out there a whole lot. We can't wait to visit again next year. :)

The flights were miserable. I'm not sure whose idea it was to fly at 6am (okay, it was mine) but that was a bad idea! I think I assumed that the kids would be sleepy at that time and would sleep the entire plane ride. They were very sleepy but they did not actually sleep for most of the time we were on the plane. Instead they were just antsy and overtired. We probably won't be flying at that hour again with a baby and a toddler. I'm sure all the passengers around us loved us. :)

We also forgot to bring a stroller. We must have been really tired when we left we just forgot to put it in the car. So Jon was carrying Katelyn, a backpack, a pillow and his jacket and I was carrying Nathan, a backpack, blankets and my jacket through the airport. The security people must have taken pity on us and they did not pat any of us down.

During our layover in Detroit we rode a tram from one end of the terminal to the other. Katelyn was SO excited that we got to ride on "Thomas"! We boarded our plane and after an hour were told it had a maintenance issue and we had to go back to the other end of the terminal to board a different plane. Katelyn was the only one on the plane who was excited about this because she got to ride on Thomas again. :)

I also want to say thank you SO much to everyone who helped us while we were in Raleigh. Thanks to Emily and Nick for meeting us at the airport with carseats. Thanks to Tony and Mai for letting us borrow their double stroller and a carseat and to Tony for picking them up this week. Thank you to Cara for meeting us at the airport at 5am to pick up the carseats! Thank you to Sherry for buying me dinner at Mom's Night Out. And a huge thank you to Jen and Will for letting us stay with them for a week. I know it's not easy to have a family with a baby and a toddler invade your space for an entire week. We had such a great visit - thank you everyone!

Photobook Updates

2010-11-28T08:39:00.002-08:00

I just finished our 2010 photobook and wrote little blurbs about where each of the kids are right now. :)

Katelyn's:

Our adorable daughter Katelyn has really grown-up this year. She went from being our little baby just one year ago to a little toddler and a big sister. Her vocabulary is growing every day. She knows hundreds of words and is in the beginning stages of putting them together. She is very quickly picking up the words for every object she comes into contact with and is always trying to repeat new words she hears and uses them later on, sometimes with a slight variation to the word. It’s so cute listening to her try to repeat longer words or more difficult-to-pronounce words. Her sentences are two or three words long. She likes to say “baby sit” when she wants Nathan to sit in a specific spot and “I wake-up” when she doesn’t want to go to bed.

Katelyn loves to try to do everything by herself and also loves to try and do everything we are doing! When she sees us feeding Nathan a bottle sometimes she also feeds her baby doll a bottle. She likes to try and help us in the kitchen although at this point it just slows us down and creates a bigger mess to clean-up. We still try to find ways to allow her to “help” most of the time.

We haven’t yet started potty-training yet since we are going to Raleigh soon. I’ve been warming her up to the idea of potty-training for a few months now by letting her sit on her little potty or on the real toilet (we have a toddler toilet seat and a stool for her too). We have three potty books that we read to her too and just bought her first pack of pull-ups. I’m in no real rush to get her potty-trained right now so if she’s not ready next month we’ll just try again later.

She is really getting into make-believe play. She makes meals with her fake food in her little kitchen and likes to serve them to Nathan. She also like to play with her baby dolls and changes their diapers and outfits and puts them to sleep in their crib. She also plays a lot with her doll house and pretends each little doll is a different person in her life. She has a different doll for Dada, Mama, Omi, Papa Gess, baby Nathan and baby Kaia.

Outside Katelyn loves to collect pine cones, look at bugs, pick at plants and run around and get all her energy out. It’s so much fun to just let her take the lead and see where she goes and what she wants to explore. We just got a new playhouse/playset for her in early November and she seems to like it so far.

Katelyn is beginning to ask questions like “what’s dat?” but doesn’t differentiate between “who’s that” and “what’s that” so when she meets a new person she often asks me “what’s dat?” when she wants to know their name, it’s so cute. She learned her colors really quickly thanks to her crayons and play-doh. She knows all the main colors – blue, green, red, yellow, pink, purple, brown, black and while. She can count to 10 and sing the ABCs although she gets confused when I try to show her the letters or numbers on paper. She will often say “ABCD” when she sees words in a book or on a shirt. She doesn’t yet know a letter A from a B but I’m in no rush to teach her this.

She really loves to listen to and sing songs. When a “Wee Sing” CD is playing in the car she is immediately quiet and whines if I turn the volume down. When I ask her to pick out a book to read it’s almost always the “Wee Sing” books and we end up singing songs.

A typical week for Katelyn: Mondays is usually a playdate and then Auntie Jenny comes over in the afternoon; Tuesdays is Gymboree with Omi; Wednesdays is either a playdate or just stay at home; Thursdays is sometimes a playdate in the morning then Omi comes over in the afternoon; and Fridays she has preschool with mama.

At night before I turn the lights out we cuddle in her new “big girl” bed and read some books. We always finish with her song book and sing some songs, then some lullabies to get her sleepy. On the last song in the book I point to each thing on the page – the stars, moon, birds, deer, grass, etc. and say “goodnight”. Then when I whisper “goodnight sky” she knows it’s time to go to sleep and she rolls over and I turn out the light and turn on her rain noise.

Nathan's:

Our sweet baby Nathan is currently 8.5 months old. He is such a happy little guy! He smiles so easily and often. He loves being tickled and loves to laugh. This little dude just loves life. He also loves to bounce – in your arms, in his exersaucer and his jumper. He has always loved to stand since he was just a couple months old and if you try to sit him down he’ll often prop himself back up on his legs. If you lean him against a piece of furniture he can hold on by himself but is still a little wobbly so we stay right behind him. He seems really strong and loves doing push-ups too. He’s been great at sitting for about 3 months now. He’s been rocking back and forth on his hands and knees since early October but hasn’t yet figured out how to crawl. He does move backwards while he’s rocking and ends up backing into furniture.

Nathan also loves to eat. He’s been eating puffs for about 2 weeks now and we are just starting to give him other “real” food. So far he’s had peas, corn, eggs and some mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving. He usually gets some oatmeal mixed with a jar of fruit for breakfast, sometimes a jar or two for lunch and two jars of baby food for dinner. The rest of his meals are formula. He’s gotten pretty good at being able to grab the puff with a couple fingers and put it in his mouth – he just learned this in the past week or 10 days.

Nathan’s sleeping has gone through some good and some very rough patches. Starting at the end of August Nathan began waking up 7 or 8 times a night. We think he was going through many transitions all at once – we moved him into his crib from his bassinet, we stopped swaddling him (he outgrew his swaddle), we stopped bouncing him on the exercise ball to sleep (he was getting too heavy), I stopped nursing him (not by choice), he started eating purred baby foods and he began teething. The poor little guy was so overwhelmed and needed lots of extra love at night. By early October he was sleeping much better and usually only woke up once or twice a night for a bottle and some rocking. In mid-November he got a little cold and his stuffy nose has made it hard for him to breathe so now he’s been waking up more frequently again.

Nathan can say sounds like “ka, ga and ba” and loves to make squealing noises when he’s excited, especially when he sees us preparing to feed him. The pediatrician was worried about his hearing at his 6-month visit. I began paying close attention to his hearing and would call his name from another room or try to make loud, sudden sounds behind him to see how he reacted. I was worried when he would underreact or not react at all to a loud noise. I took him to an audiologist and it turns out his hearing is great. Maybe he’s just so used to loud noises with his big sister around it just doesn’t phase him at all to hear a loud drum beat behind his head!

Nathan’s a pretty mellow, easy-going guy so far and has never shown any signs of being nervous around strangers or any separation anxiety. Maybe that will start when he’s a little older. He is very curious about every move that Katelyn makes and if she’s in the room he keeps his eyes on her. When we are playing with him he loves to make eye contact with us and loves smiles, funny faces, clowning around, kisses, tickles and being lifted up in the air. He can wave although he doesn’t do it when we want him to. He can clap his hands together and when we hold our hands below him he will clap our hands.

He likes to play with his toys. His favorites are his abacus, keys, and mirror and pretty much anything he can put in his mouth and chew on. His attention span is still so short so we are always trying to show him a new toy or move him into a different room or go outside for a change of scenery. He really lights up when we put a book in front of him but isn’t as interested in having it read to him as he is in trying to eat it. So far my attempts to put one kid on each side of my lap and read a book have been unsuccessful. Hopefully this will work soon!

At night after dinner we bring both kids upstairs at around 6:30pm and give them a bath together. Nathan graduated from his baby bath tub about 2 weeks ago now that he can sit up well enough for the regular bath tub. After his bath he gets his PJs on, gets his bottle and we rock him to sleep. He’s too tired to join Katelyn for books and songs but he’ll probably want to join her soon.

More pictures from November!

2010-11-27T09:26:00.004-08:00

Kaia Brown's ducky cake! My first attempt at making a cute smash cake was for Kaia's 1st birthday party!

Nathan at 8 months old

We got the kids a new playset for Christmas....a little early :)

And some pics from the snow days

Happy Turkey Day!

2010-11-27T09:20:00.003-08:00

Turkey Day was great! My mom hosted and we ate way too much. Here are a few pics:

Resolve to Run: Week #1

2010-10-23T22:25:00.003-07:00

My family is beginning to rub off on me these days. :) My sister runs 35 miles a week and my dad is at the gym 6 days a week running on the treadmill. When I compare myself to them I am seriously out of shape! I like to think I have a good excuse though since I had 2 babies in the last 2 years. But Nathan is more than 7 months old and I'm ready to challenge myself again.

When Katelyn was 6 months old I decided to start running again and my body was ready. I had lost all the baby weight and felt like I had recovered from the pregnancy. Jon started running too and we did a little 5K race together with our triathlete neighbor. We ran at the pace of slugs, but we did finish it! We decided we were going to train for a 1/2 marathon in November. But shortly thereafter we found out that I was pregnant again and I was sick as a dog all summer. I barely had enough energy to take care of Katelyn so running was completely out of the question and so, of course, was training for any kind of race.

A few weeks after Nathan was born I went back to the gym but took it really easy on myself. I began experimenting with a few different classes and have fallen in love with zumba and circuit training so much so that I forgot all about plain, boring, old running. Jon has recently begun joining me in my circuit training classes and really enjoys them too. So much so that we decided we want to give a 1/2 marathon a try. Hopefully another baby will not derail our plans again! :-)

We got started this week. On Day 1 we went to our circuit training class. We started running on the treadmill doing intervals. Then we do a variety of strength and agility exercises from free weights and lunges to pushups and plank. Then comes more treadmill intervals, then a second round of strength training and we usually finish with abs and stretching. We are completely wiped out by the end of class and go pick-up our kids in the gym's daycare dripping with sweat.

Day 2 we both ran 2 miles on our own. Jon ran on the treadmill at the gym in the morning before work and I ran outside when he came home. Our neighborhood is very hilly so I try to start off going in the uphill direction to get it out of the way. I got completely lost (it's still a new neighborhood for us and it's huge and confusing!) and it was dark so I ended up going 2.5 miles, but walked the last quarter mile. I felt great and my workout music was keeping me pumped.

Day 3 it was back to circuit training for more running and strength training.

Day 4 was a rest day and day 5 was my zumba class - it's definitely one of the highlights of my week. :) It's so much fun I completely forget that I'm exercising!

Day 6 - today! My parents had the babies and we went on a run together around our hilly neighborhood. We used our iphones to track our mileage. Our goal was to run 2.5 miles but I was exhausted from zumba the night before and probably should have taken another rest day. I just wasn't feeling it. We pushed through the run together but we were going very, very slowly. Those hills in our neighborhood are so much steeper when you're trying to run up them then when you're driving up them or even walking up them. :)

Day 7 - we'll see. Maybe we'll go on another run since today's run sucked. Maybe we'll take a rest day. :)

7 months old!

2010-10-18T20:16:00.005-07:00

Mr. Nathan turned 7 months old last week! I forgot to post about his 6-month appointment - he was 28.5 inches (90%) and 17 lbs. 12 oz.(50%). He has really filled out since then and I'm sure he weighs more now. He cut his first tooth this morning too, poor guy.

He's been sleeping much better this past week or two and has only been waking up 1-2 times at night. He was waking up 6-8 times a night for 5-6 weeks and we were so, so tired.

Here are some pics from the photo session from this morning:

What? You’re taking our picture again? We’ve got better things to do with our time, mom.

Fine. We’ll sit here. But we’re not smiling.

I thought you might want to see my back!

I’m outta here!

Sweet! Now I’m in the spotlight!

Katelyn turned 2!

2010-10-06T23:54:00.008-07:00

I can't believe I have a 2-year-old already! She is becoming such a little person! She had her 2-year well child appointment and is now 34 inches tall and 28 pounds. I heard somewhere that a child is around 1/2 their adult height on their 2nd birthday so maybe Katelyn will grow up to be 5'8"? Hard to imagine that she'll be taller than me someday. :)

She had 2 little birthday parties. One was at Gymboree and we celebrated her birthday and her friend Gabriel's 2nd birthday together since they both have September birthdays and have some mutual friends. Pics from this party:

This is fun!

Jumping on the "candle"

Birthday boy Gabriel

K and Weston

cutie pie twins Ashley and Chloe

parachute!

the bubbles were a hit

N hanging out with Omi and Grandpa

Where's my cake?

This is not fair!

Auntie Jenny knows how to make N giggle

babies with auntie jenny and omi!

babies not so into taking a family pic

I love my Omi!

And on her actual birthday we had a smaller celebration at home with mama, dada, nathan, omi, grandpa, auntie jenny and the brown family. K "heped" me bake her cake in the morning and she reminded me all day long that she was ready to eat it. When it was finally time for her to eat her cake she took 2 bites and announced she was all done.

She got to open all her presents too. Elmo was a very big hit - thank you Nana! Nana also bought Katelyn a tricycle and a helmet. Omi and grandpa got her a train table with lots of little train pieces. We got her some fake food to go with her little kitchen and some baby doll accessories since she loves pretending to be a mommy these days. :)

"Heping" mama bake her cake

Finally get to eat my cake!

Kaia, Katelyn and Nathan

Happy Birthday to my baby bird! Your mama LOVES you!

Fall wagon rides and new preschool

2010-10-06T23:14:00.006-07:00

The summer is over and it is officially fall outside! I love seeing all the colorful leaves outside and the halloween decorations in the neighborhood. I just bought the babies a little red wagon and have been taking them on walks on sunny mornings. Katelyn loves checking out every flower, leaf, dog, rock and spider we see on our walks and Nathan just hangs out and takes it all in.

Katelyn has been going to a new preschool this past month and Nathan goes there too! It's a co-op preschool so I'm there too and for Nathan's class it's more of a mom's group than anything else right now. The babies sit around in a circle and we play with them, sing songs and write in journals about what they are doing, etc. There is a parent educator who leads the group, we have textbooks and get college credit!

Katelyn's preschool day is much more involved. Each week half the parents are with the parent educator while the other half of the parents play with the toddler and the next week the groups switch. They set-up such fun stations for the toddlers to explore each week and Katelyn loves it! After the teaching/toddler play we all do circle time, snacks, then play outside before it's time to go home. Here are a few preschool pics:

Aaaaaaand some more pics. Why? Because they are cute!

Donnie, Cara and Evan came to Seattle!

2010-08-30T13:52:00.003-07:00

Some great friends of ours from Raleigh visited us last week. We are so grateful that even though they have a 1 year old they still flew all the way across the country to see us and meet Nathan. They are awesome friends. We had a couple outings sans babies which is always nice. :)

Quiz night at Ballard Loft

Life in the new house

We're really enjoying our new house and loving the neighborhood as well. There are so many streets in this suburb it's hard not to get lost! We are turning the living room into a playroom to try and contain all the toys in one space. Katelyn loves the backyard so much and we're trying hard to remember to water everything! Apparently we don't have green thumbs since the plants are dying. Jon is blaming it on gophers.

Nathan has recently started eating solid foods which he seems to love. He gets very excited about each bite and waves his arms in anticipation for the next one. He's also cutting his first tooth so he hasn't been sleeping well at night. He has two sleepy parents.

big boy eating solids!

Katelyn likes to "hep" feed Nathan

Jon's 30!!!

2010-08-20T13:38:00.002-07:00

Jon turned 30 on Wednesday! He worked a half day and then I took him out for a late lunch/early dinner, then cake and presents with the babies and my parents. Then we went up in a hot air balloon! The view was spectacular. We were about 3500 feet in the air. I was surprised to learn that they really have no idea where they are going to land. They just hope to find an empty field and cross their fingers that they won't get into any trouble. We almost landed in a corn maze but managed to sail over it and land in a patch of grass that belonged to a nursery. I am scared of heights so I am happy that I was able to calm down enough to enjoy the scenery. Next challenge: sky diving? Here are some pics:

5 months old, 5 year anniversary and new house!

2010-08-12T22:06:00.005-07:00

My baby boy is 5 months old already! He's such a little ham and it is so easy to get him to smile and laugh. He can reach and grab toys and roll over both ways now. Tummy time is getting easier now and he doesn't protest it as much. He has strong little legs and likes to stand while we hold his hands. I'm working on helping him sit-up without support but he's not quite there yet.

He's starting to sleep for longer stretches at night and usually wakes up once to eat. He has recently gone from taking 4 or 5 short naps every day to taking 1 or 2 longer ones and 1 short one. I'm starting to think about starting him on solids soon - sometime before he turns 6 months!

Happy 5 months baby boy!

With big sister

Kate playing in her new backyard

We visited dada at his softball game!

My hub surprised me on our 5-year anniversary with Teatro Zinzanni! It is in my top 5most favoritest dates EVER! All I can say is WOW and I can't wait to go again. We were packing and moving and unpacking all week (oh and taking care of our babies too) so it was an awesome distraction. Now I get to not surprise him for his 30th birthday next week. He got it out of me while we were at Teatro cause I can't keep a secret. :-)

We moved out of our rental house into our new house over the weekend. Most of the unpacking is done now and we just need to hang the pictures and organize the garage. We love living here - it feels so homey.

I think Katelyn has adjusted to the move quite well - she barely seemed to notice after the first night in her new room. She loves the backyard and asks to go outside a lot. She discovered the strawberries growing by the side of the deck earlier this week and picked one by herself and started eating it before I got a chance to wash it. She loves to "hep mama" water the plants and grass. She can push the nozzle and aim it on a plant all by herself! She'll be an amazing helper sooner than I expected. If she notices I'm doing laundry, sweeping the floor or doing dishes she comes over and asks to "hep". So cute. :)

4 months old!

2010-07-13T11:24:00.005-07:00

Mr Nathan turned 4 months old yesterday! Crazy how time flies, especially when you have kids. Nathan had his 4 month well baby visit yesterday. He now weighs 14 pounds 3 ounces which puts him between 25-50% for weight and he is 26 inches long which puts him in the 90% for height. He's a tall little guy!

A few pics:

Hands taste yummy.

Oh, now there's a bear next to me.

Why doesn't she like me?

I think she likes being in the spotlight by herself.

Mom, this is boring!

Can I take a nap now?

Zzzzzzz.....

Look at me standing!

I have started to exclusively pump breastmilk for him since he is such a lazy nurser. So far it really helps him get more in each feeding and I like knowing exactly how much he's eaten. I have to pump 7 times a day right now so it's pretty time consuming, but worth it. :)

Nathan is falling into a little daily routine now. He likes to have a pretty predictable eat, play, sleep schedule. He goes down for 4-5 naps every day. They are short, but at somewhat predictable times. I can't wait until he consolidates his naps into 2! Then I'll be able to get more done when I have a longer stretch of time when he's down.

He eats once in the middle of the night and sometimes wakes up a couple other times wanting his paci. We put him back in a bassinet next to our bed so we can hear him faster when he does wake up and catch him before he really wakes up and requires lots of effort to go back down.

When he's awake he likes to eat right away and then has about 1-2 hours of playtime. He loves sitting up and standing up and stretching his little legs (while being held). He is not a fan of tummy time. :( He is very interested in his big sister and watches her prance around the room. He smiles very easily and we like to try to make him giggle but that is more rare. He is a very chatty little guy and loves "talking" with people.

Uncle Mike and Aunt Jen came to visit!

2010-07-08T06:44:00.003-07:00

Uncle Mike and Aunt Jen came to visit us in Seattle! We had a really awesome time hanging out with them. They arrived on Thursday morning and we went to the aquarium that afternoon with the babies. A few pics from the aquarium:

Aunt Jen, Uncle Mike and Katelyn at the Aquarium

Aunt Jen and Katelyn checking out the Octopus

Katelyn and Mommy looking at fishies

Katelyn and Uncle Mike checking out the birds

Katelyn

And a few pics of Nathan who didn't seem to make it in any aquarium pics. :(

Uncle Mike with Nathan

On Friday we dropped Katelyn off at preschool and met our agent to check out a house. Then we went into downtown Seattle with Nathan, Mike and Jen and walked around Pike Place and had lunch. Then Nathan, Jon and I headed back home to pick-up Katelyn and Mike and Jen continued exploring downtown Seattle.

Saturday we had a BBQ at our place and Mark, Kendra, JT and Pio came over. This was the first time we actually used our backyard since we moved in so it was nice to spend some time outside with great company. :) After the BBQ my parents came over and picked up the babies and we went into Woodinville for ice cream and then saw Eclipse.

Sunday our realtor emailed us with a brand new listing that had just been listed that morning. We liked how it looked online so we told him we wanted to check it out. Mike and Jen decided to go on a drive to check out Snoqualmie, Fall City and Issaquah and go on a hike. We went to see the house with my parents in the afternoon and we loved it! It is the perfect house for us.

Monday morning we took Mike and Jen to see the house and then met our agent to put together an offer. Later on that day we met back up with Mike, Jen, Mark, Kendra, JT and Pio and went out on a boat on Lake Union. It was such a relaxing time and the sun was out! After the boat ride we heard back from our agent and found out our offer had been accepted so we were really excited. That night was Mike and Jen's last night and we just relaxed and watched a movie at home after the babies were in bed. We are so happy that they came to visit us and feel so blessed to have such amazing friends. :)

More Family Pics from Jan Domek

2010-06-29T14:39:00.008-07:00

Two under two...little crazy!

2010-06-07T13:57:00.004-07:00

Man is it tough to find time to post up here! There is always something more important and pressing to do. Right now both babies are taking a nap AT THE SAME TIME! This is quite rare. My hands are both free and I'm too tired to fold laundry or clean the kitchen so I decided to post some pictures. Here are a few from the month of May.

Daddy is bouncing Nathan on the ball and Katie is bouncing along on her ball!

Nathan with daddy

Tummy time

Lissy and Herta visited from Germany to celebrate my mom's 50th birthday! Here we are at Cathie and Leah's house.

Hiking down to Lake Washington with the Browns - Jessie, Kevin and Kaia

Katie and Mommy

Little Katie

I love signing us all up for different activities to get us all out of the house every day. Katie is still in preschool 2 days a week and takes a swim class with daddy once a week. She also just started going to Kindermusik once a week again and seems to really enjoy it especially since she gets her mommy's undivided attention. Nathan and I go to a parent-baby group once a week while Katie's in preschool. Daddy, mommy and Nathan are also in a group called PEPS (Program for Early Parent Support) that meets once a week. I'm not quite sure if Nathan is enjoying this group or not, but his parents really like it! Jon just joined a softball league that plays once a week and I'm in 2 classes at the gym that each meet twice a week - Zumba and "Extreme Body Makeover". My classes and my babies are seriously kicking my butt! At least I'm burning tons of calories each day (I wear a little bodybugg to keep track of them). Jon and I are seriously exhausted by the end of every day but we're having a lot of fun with these kids. :)

First day of preschool and first swim lesson!

2010-05-13T10:39:00.003-07:00

Katelyn has had a few firsts recently - first day of preschool and first swim lesson! She goes to preschool 2 days a week and she loves it! The teachers are really nice and say she has adjusted really well for her age. She's in a class with other toddlers and seems to like a couple of the boys quite a bit. Oh boy, here we go! Jon takes Katelyn to her swim lesson on Sundays and they get some daddy/daughter time while I get some mommy/son time. The first day Nathan and I came along to watch and take some pictures.:-)

arriving at preschool!

playing with the dolls

and a puzzle

first day of swim lesson with daddy

having fun in the water!

Family pics

2010-05-13T10:33:00.002-07:00

Our wedding photographer, Jan Domek, came over and took some pictures of our family a couple weeks ago! Here are a few she sent us early. I'll post some more when we get them.

2 months old!

2010-05-13T10:19:00.002-07:00

My baby boy just turned 2 months old yesterday! Time is going by WAY too fast. :( I just don't want this little guy to grow up. I want him to stay my little newborn forever. He is such an easy baby and we can calm him pretty easily. He sleeps for a 6ish hour stretch most nights these days. His mommy and daddy are still sleepy though! Nursing is going much better now that his tongue tie issue was fixed. He is a fast little eater and is done in around 10 minutes. Then he usually wants his paci and drifts off to sleep. He spends more time awake during the day now and likes to see what's going on. He started smiling right at around 6 weeks.

He had his 2 month well baby visit yesterday and got some shots. :( He weighs 11 pounds 3 ounces and is 24.25 inches "tall" which puts him in the 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight. We are crazy in love with our little man. :)

Nathan's one month birthday!

2010-04-12T17:36:00.004-07:00

Nathan is one month old! Wow - time is flying by! Jon's paternity leave ended last Thursday and he went back to work on Friday. :( Sad! Here are a few new pics:

Nathan at 4 weeks

Nathan at 4 weeks

k and n – 4 weeks old

k, kaia and n

I was wondering during my pregnancy with Nathan how crazy life would be with two under two. Now that we've been doing this for 5 weeks I can honestly say it's pretty darn hectic. My mom has been helping us out a ton and without her I really don't know what we would do.

When I am alone with both kids while they are both awake I am not able to do anything else except take care of them. All housework is put on hold. While Nathan's awake he wants to be held constantly and he of course needs to be nursed and changed every 1.5-2 hours during the day. Katelyn gets upset when we are paying attention to Nathan and tries to bring the focus back to herself. I wear Nathan in the Bjorn a lot and then have my hands free to play with Katelyn. Poor Katelyn was sick this week with a fever and cold so she needed extra love and attention. It was tough for both of us when I couldn't hold her when I had Nathan in my arms. :(

I went back to the gym last week and it's been great. I stopped going in early February when I just felt too pregnant and lazy. The gym is a really nice break that my body and soul both need. I workout and shower and come home feeling completely rejuvanated. Either my mom or Jon watches Nathan and sometimes Katelyn when I don't bring her to the gym's little daycare. I'm hoping to go at least 4 times a week but maybe 5 if I feel like I can sneak away one more time. I also started tracking my calories and exercise on SparkPeople.com. It's been really helpful in helping me stay on track.

Nathan just started sleeping for a 5 hour stretch from around 9pm-2am the last 2 nights (before this he had a pretty predictable midnight feeding)! I know this is technically considered "sleeping through the night" but it's hard to see 2am as the end of the night. :) He usually has about 1.5-2 hours of awake time after that and he requires that we hold him during this time. Then he eats again and sleeps for another hour or two before wanting to eat again around 5 or 6am. Katelyn then wakes up between 6:30-7 and the night is officially over for us. I think our bodies are getting used to getting by on less solid sleep. We are really looking forward to the day when Nathan sleeps through the whole night. :)

During the day he really is an easy baby so far. I hope I am not jinxing myself by saying this! He is relatively easy to calm down (we are comparing him to how K was at this age). Unfortunately isn't the best nurser. :( We realized a couple weeks ago that he was tongue tied and took him to get his tongue clipped. This has helped him nurse more efficiently but he still only nurses for short 5-10 minute spurts. He then locks his little lips shut until he's ready to eat again another 1 or 2 hours later. It's a lot of nursing for me but I don't mind since each nursing is so quick I can get right back to Katelyn pretty quickly. :)

Nana visits for Easter!

2010-04-12T17:02:00.005-07:00

Nana flew out from New Jersey to come meet baby Nathan and to visit us for Easter! We had Easter brunch at my parents' house and Katelyn and Nathan got their Easter baskets. We didn't do anything too exciting during Nana's visit since we're still pretty darn exhausted but we did manage to go on a few little outings like lunch at the Tot Spot Cafe, Kids Quest Children's Museum and dinner at Red Robin.

Here are a few pics we took during Nana's visit:

Nathan and his grandmas

K and her easter egg

Nathan sleeping in his easter basket

k enjoying one of her easter basket presents

nana, dada, k and n

k at tot spot café

nathan’s cake he got on easter

grandpa and k with bubbles on the deck

stealing grandpa's beer! oh no!

cheers!

Nathan at 2 weeks and Katelyn at 18 months

2010-03-28T12:17:00.003-07:00

I just found out we have a few more blog readers - thanks Mai, Lissy and Herta! It's nice to know I'm not just talking to myself. Hehe. :) I hope it's not too boring...

Nathan is already 2 weeks and 2 days old and Miss Katelyn turns 18 months this Tuesday. I'm already getting a little sad thinking about how fast they will grow-up. I love these days with Jon at home and spending lots of time at home with our two babies. Only two more weeks of paternity leave left. :(

Here are a few pics from week 2:

That last one was taken right after his sponge bath which he did not enjoy much.

This week Nathan had his first pediatrician appointment. He weighed 8 pounds, 5 ounces (almost back to his birth weight) and was 21.5 inches long which put him in the 97th percentile for height. He might be a tall guy! We also took him to a parent-baby group at the hospital. I did something very similar to this with Katelyn in Raleigh and this group became a weekly playdate for us. It was so nice to know other babies that were Katelyn's age and know other mommies who were going through similar things as I was.

Nathan is still a pretty sleepy guy during the day. At night he's a little more awake and likes to be held and either nursed or have his paci in the mouth. He spits his paci out a lot so we are constantly having to put it back in his mouth. It's annoying, but still better than listening to him cry which often wakes up his sister. Two crying babies at night is no fun. :(

Katelyn is getting more used to having Nathan around. She cries less when he cries and is becoming more curious of him. She is even attempting to help me by finding his paci when he cries and putting it in his mouth!

Now that she is (almost) 18 months she is old enough for gymnastics! We took her to her first class yesterday. She was a little shy and mostly enjoyed watching the older kids around her. :) Since Jon is home we've also been doing lots of research on preschools and have also visited a couple. We're not ready to enroll Katelyn quite yet but want to have her preschool picked out and get her on a waiting list at the one we like the most.

I've been feeling much better this week. Cold is going away slowly but I passed it on to Jon. Boo. :( Luckily the babies haven't caught it. Post-partum healing is much, much faster second time around which is awesome. Jon and I are both exhausted most of the time though which is tough. We really suck at returning phone calls and emails these days. Hopefully we'll get a little more caught up on sleep soon so we can get caught-up with everyone. :)

Nathan's first week at home

2010-03-20T10:22:00.007-07:00

I have just remembered how to nurse and type at the same time! I know, I am quite talented. :) And since all two of my blog readers (mom? jenny?) want to see some pictures from the first week here they are!

We came home from the hospital on Sunday around noon or one. My mom and dad had been watching Katelyn so they came over to bring her home when she woke up from her nap. Here are a couple pics of them holding their new grandson.

Here are a couple pics of Katelyn and Nathan when Nathan was 5 days old.

My sleepy boys!

On Monday we went on our first family walk with our new BOB duallie double stroller. It went really well. Nathan slept the whole time and Katelyn was happy as long as she got plenty of opportunities to walk outside the stroller.

On Friday we attempted to take a walk in downtown Kirkland with Jessie and Kaia. That didn't go quite as smoothly. I had Nathan in the Bjorn and he was upset whenever the sun would get in his eyes or when he felt the wind. We did get a couple pictures by the Marina.

Sorry, just a few more pictures. :) Here are some pics from Nathan's 1 week birthday!

And a couple of Miss Katelyn.

This first week had it's ups and it's downs. We are trying to figure out how to balance taking care of a newborn and a toddler, keep the household running, get a little bit of sleep, take an occasional shower and get ourselves and the babies out of the house once a day to keep our sanity and enjoy the sunshine. These things seem to take up all of our time. Hopefully we'll figure out how to have some time for each other and time for ourselves someday soon.

A few awesome friends and my mom brought us some meals and visited us this week which was very much appreciated. It was sooooo nice to not have to worry about cooking at all for a whole week. I honestly don't know if I would have had the time or energy by the end of the day to make something resembling dinner.

Nathan is such a sweet little guy and we are both crazy about him. He sleeps most of the time but wakes up frequently to nurse. He sleeps better during the day than he does at night. Hopefully we can get that switched really soon! He takes his paci which Katelyn did not so we are pretty happy about that. If he's fussy right after a feeding and he's already been burped and changed, etc. we just give him his paci, hold his arms down for a couple minutes and he calms down and sucks away. He goes through tons of diapers a day - at least 10. He poops almost non-stop. At night we've been setting the alarm every 3 hours to make sure he gets enough to eat. A feeding (both sides) and changing (sometimes 2 changings) takes about 45-50 minutes so in between feedings I get about 2ish hours of sleep. He is a super fast nurser - much faster than Katelyn was. Sometimes I feel good enough to do it all by myself and sometimes Jon helps by changing Nathan and handing him off to me to nurse. The huge recliner in Nathan's room is super comfy so I occasionally fall asleep while he's nursing. If he has trouble going back to his bassinet after a feeding Jon takes him and rocks him in the recliner until he's asleep. I'm so glad we bought such a comfy chair for his room. Last night I hit a wall at 2 am and asked Jon if he could give Nathan some milk I had pumped. It was so nice to be able to sleep from 2-7 straight. My body really needed it.

Katelyn is adjusting well to having a baby brother. She met him in the hospital when he was getting his first bath and he was crying. She looked really scared and started crying herself. Now I think she is getting a little more used to his crying and doesn't always seem to care. She likes to point him out and say "bay!" (baby). She also likes to steal his paci! No good! I am realizing that one of my main challenges having them so close together will be keeping Nathan safe from Katelyn. She isn't old enough to be gentle or careful with him all the time so we have to watch her like a hawk - especially when she is around him.

A struggle I've had this week is dealing with different kinds of pain. Luckily the doctor sent me home with some pain meds but if I forget to take them on time I am hurting! I also came home from the hospital with a head cold. I've lost my voice this week and some of my hearing. I'm probably not getting enough sleep to really kick this cold in a hurry. I am really looking forward for all of these pains to go away so I can have more energy to take care of my babies. Thank goodness Jon has 4 weeks paternity leave! I have no idea what I would do without him these days.

That's all for now. I think I'm going to take a nap. :)

Our baby boy's arrival

2010-03-14T14:41:00.013-07:00

We feel extremely blessed to have our little Nathan Michael Liperi in our family. He was born on Friday, March 12th at 7:47am. Nathan comes from his daddy's name Jonathan and Michael comes from his daddy's best childhood friend Michael Kutch. Michael was also Jon's favorite name as a kid. :) At birth he weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces and was 21.25 inches long. We think he's a cutie (not biased of course)! On the left side of his head above his ear he has a little blond spot in his hair in the exact same spot Jon has a blond spot in his hair! Who knew that was genetic?! The rest of his hair is a mixture of brown (on the top) and lighter brown/dark blonde on the sides. He has his sister's dark blue eyes (which I had as a kid too). I'm not sure whose nose, lips and face he has yet. He definitely has his daddy's gender. :)

Here are a few Nathan pics followed by my pre-labor/labor story.

Pre-labor days

Tuesday, March 2nd was the day it hit me that I was really in the home stretch of this pregnancy. I was 37 weeks 3 days along and went to my weekly OB appointment for a routine check-up. My OB checked my cervix and told me I was 2-3 cm. dialated which made me SUPER excited. I had been feeling rather down about still being pregnant, still being the size of a beached whale and still not having nearly as much energy as I wanted to have for Katelyn. The days were feeling like weeks and there were so many things I wanted to do but just didn't have the energy or motivation to do anymore. I called Jon after the appointment and told him how dialated I was and we both got excited. Then I went to my parents' house to pick-up Katelyn and told them as well.

Thursday night that week was a rough night. I barely slept at all. I had both braxton-hicks contractions and period-like cramps and felt like I had to pee every 5 minutes. The next morning I was in a really bad mood because I knew this was definitely not labor but it was painful and annoying enough to keep me from sleeping. I also felt like Nathan had dropped overnight so now I felt like I was carrying a bowling ball between my legs. It is not easy taking care of an energetic toddler while exhausted and cramping. I decided to hit the mom emergency button. Thank goodness we live so close to them now! My mom came over and I went back to bed. I slept on and off that morning and felt better. My mom suggested I take a shower so I mustered up enough energy to take one. I felt SOOOO much better after my shower and decided I wanted to go on a walk to a nearby park. My mom took some pics of me, my belly and Katelyn and we let Katelyn explore and get her energy out.

Jon met us after work and walked with Katelyn home

When we got back from the park we decided to go out to dinner with my parents. I of course had to pee once we got there and realized that I had lost my mucus plug and had the "bloody show". I was crazy excited and went back and announced this at the dinner table (lovely, I know). After we got home I had lost even more. We called the maternity center to find out what this meant and they told us to come in so they could check me out. We called my mom and she came over to pick Katelyn up. She took her back to her house and put her to bed.

At the hospital we had a super friendly triage nurse who checked me out. Still 2-3 cm. dialated and between 60-75% effaced with some very mild contractions. But unless either my water broke or my cervix changed I would not be admitted. The on-call doctor came and said we could either walk the halls for 2 hours or go home and rest. After he offered me some sleep medicine I grinned and gladly accepted it and we went home. I got the best night's sleep in a long time and woke up feeling really refreshed and happy. But the light contractions were completely gone and my hope of meeting Nathan that weekend died. My mom offered to keep Katelyn that morning and put her down for her afternoon nap. We got a few things knocked off our pre-baby to-do list like packing the hospital bags - important!

Knowing that labor was so close made me a little crazy the next week. I knew my body was ready and I knew Nathan was ready, so what was the hold-up?! I wanted to meet him so badly and I desperately wanted to not be pregnant anymore. Every thirty minutes I would ask whomever was in my presence when Nathan was coming. Not in a casual way but in an annoying, whiny, repetitive five-year-old way. Poor Jon had to answer this question about a trillion times but he was smart and usually picked a date that was really soon like "today" or "tomorrow".

My next appointment was on Tuesday and my OB checked me again. 3 cm. dialated, between 50-75% effaced, -2 station. I was really surprised that Nathan was at a -2 station since I really felt like he had dropped much more on Thursday night/Friday morning. My belly button had moved several inches down and I could no longer see it!

I tried to kick my bad mood that week by staying busy but it was tough. I was so tired and uncomfortable and ginormously pregnant and had a toddler to take care of and thus felt a bit entitled to my bad mood. I spent as much one-on-one time with Katelyn as possible. I knew these would be her last few days as an only child which made me really sad to think about. I felt so sorry for her knowing that soon her whole world was going to change. She would no longer have 100% of mommy and 100% of daddy. For the rest of her life she would be sharing us with her brother. My mom had to remind me that I was giving Katelyn a huge gift - the gift of a sibling so close to her in age that they would grow-up being close friends and playmates.

On Thursday morning I woke-up feeling awful. Achy and exhausted with more braxton-hicks contractions and period-like cramps. Jon stayed home from work and let me try to sleep. He took Katelyn to story-time at the library. By early afternoon they were gone and I felt ok so he went into work. I was so bummed that this wasn't labor.

Labor is finally here

On Friday morning at 3am I woke-up because I had to pee for the gazillionth time and was feeling more period-like cramps. I felt like I was peeing more than I was peeing if that makes any sense but I told myself this was just more wishful thinking. I stood-up and then realized that I was still going but I had no control over it! My water had most definitely broken! Yay! Finally! I waddled over to a peacefully sleeping Jon and told him my water just broke. He got up fast. He called the maternity center and they told us to take our time but to come in. Jon called my mom next and she was at our house within 15 minutes (she lives a mile from our house). Jon also called my sister Jenny who wanted to be there for Nathan's birth. I ate some breakfast and we finished packing our bags. I went downstairs to say hi to my mom and that's when I started feeling worse. The period cramps were more painful now so I lied down on the couch while Jon loaded the car with our bags and pillows. My mom was super excited! I was really excited too but now had to focus on calming my body since the pain had picked up. I tried to breathe slowly and told my mom not to touch me or talk too loud.

The hospital is only a mile from our house as well so theoretically we could have walked but we drove instead. :) There was one light we had to wait at and it was red. I remember telling Jon to pull the car up a little in case the light didn't know we were there. I was eager to get inside the hospital for some reason! Jon pulled the car up to the front door and I waddled as fast as I could to the maternity center while Jon parked the car. I realized that these were definitely contractions that I was now experiencing.

I was a completely different pregnant woman this visit than I was a week earlier when we were there after I lost my mucus plug. I was calm and rather cheerful the week before and was casually chit-chatting with the receptionists. This time I just walked up and said "my water broke". Then I got a painful contraction and leaned my head on the counter and tried to breathe. They didn't bother sending me to triage this time. It took the receptionist some time to figure out which room to put us in and which nurse was going to take us there. Finally the receptionist just brought us into a labor room herself. She lost us a couple times on the walk since I had to stop for a contraction and she just kept on walking. The room was a really nice one which had it's own private hallway. It was much larger than the other labor rooms since it was usually reserved for moms with triplets. It was now 4:40am.

We waited for 15 minutes before a nurse arrived. I was in lala land just trying to focus on breathing. Jon told me later that he was a little irked that they weren't more prepared for us to come since he had called them and they knew we were coming. A nurse did stop by and hooked me up to the monitors to check baby's heartbeat and my contractions. But she said she would only be our nurse for 15 minutes. Later on another nurse named Kirsten came and she was my nurse for the rest of the labor. She was super friendly and I could not have asked for a nicer nurse. She checked my cervix and I was 5-6 cm. dialated and it was now around 5:15am.

Jon asked me if I wanted to hold his hand during the contractions and I said no. I needed to hold his hand during all of my contractions with Katelyn but for some reason my body did not want to be touched at all this time. He also remembered that I did not want to hear any loud voices or noises during my contractions either so he stopped talking as soon as one was coming. My sister Jenny arrived and I think Jon pulled her aside and told her not to talk during my contractions and not to touch me either. I think she was confused about what her role as my labor assistant was! I went back and forth between the bed and the bathroom and tried to breathe through my contractions.

Jon pulled the nurse aside and let her know that I went from 2 cm. to 10 cm. in 1.5 hours with Katelyn. Jon and the nurse both mentioned that I should get my epidural now. I was still feeling ok and rated my pain level at a 3/4. I could still talk in between contractions and they were 4ish minutes apart and lasted about a minute each. I knew that labor got a lot worse and didn't want to get the epidural too soon and stall my labor. The nurse checked to see if an anesthesiologist was even available at that time and there wasn't. The only anesthesiologist was with a c-section patient and the next anesthesiologist was scheduled to arrive to work at 6:30am. I thought that sounded like a good plan - I'd get my epidual when the next anesthesiologist arrived.

The anesthesiologist arrived to our room at 6:40am and by this time I was definitely ready for an epidural. I felt this constant need to pee and could feel his head pushing down. It was the weirdest feeling. I also had really painful contractions by this point and rated my pain at a 5/6. By 7am the epidural was in but the pain was still there and was getting worse by the minute. I could feel everything - not numb at all. The nurse wanted to check my cervix but the contractions were coming one on top of another so I told her not right now. She waited 5 minutes or so to see if the epidural would kick in a little so she could check me. It didn't but she talked me into checking me anyways. I was 10 cm. dialated now and fully effaced. Baby's head was at a +1 station and was moving down. She said it was time to start pushing.

I was in a LOT of pain at this point and would rate it at an 8/9. I threw-up at some point during this time. I was wondering where my epidural was. I told the nurse "more epidural, more epidural." She said my epidural was trying to catch-up to my cervix but there probably wasn't enough time. That made no sense to me whatsoever at the time so I just kept on repeating "more, more, more!" I saw tears in Jon's eyes and Jenny looked really worried. I think they both felt helpless. I used the side of the bed as my focal point and just tried my best to concentrate and breathe. At 7:13am I had to start pushing.

Jon took my right leg and Jenny took my left and I started pushing during my contractions. After a couple pushes Jon asked the nurse if she could take my leg since he felt like passing out. She said no worries, it was very common for husbands to feel light-headed. Jon sat down and I was now worrying about how he was doing and didn't want him to miss watching his son being born. Dr. Russell, on-call doctor, arrived and so did another nurse. Dr. Russell is not my OB-GYN so I had never met her before but I could have cared less. Jon felt a little better and picked up the video camera and began filming during each contraction. I had mentioned to him before that I wanted him or Jenny to video the birth but to stand up by my head. But I guess there were too many people in the way so he moved and began filming the birth down by my legs. Again, by this time, I could have cared less about everything. Labor is definitely not a time when you feel in the least bit modest. The epidural was slowly starting to take effect while I was pushing so by the time his head came out I wasn't in too much pain anymore, thank goodness. I did not have any particular desire to feel the "ring of fire". :)

After 34 minutes of pushing little Nathan was born at 7:47am! He began crying right away and the doctor put him right up onto my chest. It was a magical moment that I will never ever ever in my life forget. My little boy was perfect and I fell in love with him so fast. It made all the pregnancy and labor pain more than worth it. I'd do it all a million times over in a heartbeat. Jon and I are crazy in love with our little peanut. :)

Nathan is here!

2010-03-13T08:00:00.004-08:00

Major Pregnancy Brain!

2010-01-24T12:49:00.003-08:00

It's getting pretty bad, my pregnancy brain. I blame it on Nathan mostly and also on Katelyn for wearing me out. I have of course forgotten simple English words, to call or email people back, and left the mailbox key in the mailbox for several days but I also forgot my husband's name for s few seconds.

Jon (I remember his name right now and it's Jon) dropped Katelyn and me off at my parents' house one evening and left to run a quick errand. We were all sitting around in the living room playing with Katelyn when my dad saw a car driving up.

My dad, whose name is John: "That might be Jon coming home."
Me: (my brain begins to scan all the people I know named "Jon or John" and only comes up with my parents' next door neighbor's ex-husband John whom I have never met) "Jon who?"
My dad: "Uh, your husband."
Me: "Oh yea."

Christmas (a little late)

2010-01-15T13:33:00.007-08:00

I'm posting this a little late, but oh well. :) Christmas was a lot of fun this year! We spent Christmas Eve at parents' house and Cathie, Leah and Cathie's mom came over too. Christmas morning was at our house and my sister, her girlfriend Lindsey and my parents came over for breakfast and to open presents. We had Christmas dinner at Aunt Shawn's house with all the relatives.

The day after Christmas we drove to Leavenworth and spent 2 nights there with my dad's sisters and their families. This has been a little tradition since I was 7 and it was nice to be able to go back after living in Raleigh for 3 years. It was soooo relaxing even though I had sciatica. :) Everyone took turns entertaining Katelyn. It was so much fun to see how she interacted with all her family members.

A few pics:

I got a ball!

No Aunt Jenny, it’s my ball!

Are these all for me?

Aunt Lindsey, Grandpa, Me and Katelyn, Aunt Jenny and Omi on Christmas morning

New dollhouse

Checking out all her new toys. Katelyn was a little spoiled this year.

Meeting a new friend in Leavenworth a couple days after Christmas

The other little girl was squealing with excitement!

I’m not so sure I like sledding dad

Down the hill with mommy too!

Waiting in a loooong line for dinner

Back home snuggling with mommy

Nathan's Ultrasound

2010-01-15T12:59:00.004-08:00

We did a 3D/4D ultrasound of Nathan this week. We did this with Katelyn around the same time in my pregnancy and it was so amazing to see what she looked like a little early! We went to Baby Pictures in Bellevue. During our first trip the whole family came - Jon, Katelyn, my parents and my sister. But Mr. Nathan was not cooperating. :( He decided to bury his face towards my back and always made sure that either his arm, hand or umbilical cord was covering his face. He was also very preoccupied playing with his.... yup that. The ultrasound technician said he was an unusually stubborn baby (that can't be a good thing). Maybe he's a little camera shy?

We went back a couple days later just Jon, Katelyn and me and I made sure to eat lots of chocolate before the appointment (awesome excuse to eat chocolate!). Nathan moved around a little more and we were able to get a couple pictures of his face but not anywhere near as many as we got of Katelyn. Oh well, not a big deal. It was so neat to be able to see our little guy! Here are some of the pics:

And this is what he looks like from the outside - he is making his momma HUGE!

Visiting Santa

2009-12-24T12:29:00.013-08:00

Today we took Katelyn to visit Santa. Here she is all dressed up, excited, and ready to go!

Waiting in line in boring...

Playing in Santa's workshop.

With Mommy and Daddy.

Wait a minute! Who is this old man holding me! :(

Once Mom and Dad joined her she calmed down. :)

After meeting Santa, we took her to the play place to climb around.

In the tunnel waving hi to Daddy.

So sleepy from all that excitement.

Katelyn's Walking!

2009-12-23T21:15:00.005-08:00

Katelyn took her first steps in October, but she didn't really start walking until late November, early December. Now she loves exploring our new house by walking everywhere.

Rental house pics

2009-12-23T20:44:00.004-08:00

A few pics of our new rental house! We haven't hung and pictures or curtains yet, but it's coming together!

And a pic of Katelyn!

Happy Turkey Day!

2009-11-27T14:19:00.007-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! We are in Seattle now and spent Thanksgiving with my parents, sister, dad's side of the family and my cousin Flori who is visiting from San Francisco. We took some pics of Katelyn before her Thanksgiving dress got all messy.

Here she is yesterday at almost 14 months

Here is a look back at Katelyn last Thanksgiving when she was only 2 months. It's so amazing how fast she changes. It makes me sad and excited at the same time!

Family Pic with Omi and Grandpa

Just the three (well, almost 4) of us

Sitting in grandpa's chair

Bored with pictures, time to climb the stairs!

Ok, I'll pose for one more mommy!

This pic was taken a few days ago - Omi and her Katelyn!

Katelyn's last morning in Raleigh! She had a cold and was getting her molars so she woke up feeling pretty miserable. Poor girl had to get on a plane a few hours later. For some reason she was attempting to take off her PJs...

New Jersey

2009-11-09T10:53:00.002-08:00

We went to New Jersey for Craig and Moira's wedding! It was so nice to see family and friends while we were up there.

Germany

2009-11-08T11:00:00.010-08:00

Katelyn and I went to Germany with my mom in October. She got to meet her German relatives and friends!

Hanging out with the Obamas at the airport in DC

All bundled up during an outing in rainy downtown Munich

At the Hofbrauhaus in Munich

In front of the Hofbrauhaus with Tante Lissy

With Omi on the S-bahn heading into Munich

With Ur-Opa in Kemnath

With Mommy in Ur-Opa's backyard - it was snowing!

Play me a song Thomas!

With Tante Lissy, Tante Herta and Mommy

Me and Tante Herta

Where's kitty cat going?

Opa in front of his house smoking his pipe

Omi showed me around Ur-Opa's big house and yard

Ur-Opa has an old stove in his kitchen to keep the house warm. I tried to touch it a bunch of times, but Mommy and Omi wouldn't let me.

Omi with Ur-Opa

The day I met my Ur-Opa

On the plane heading back home to Raleigh. I couldn't fall asleep so I cried a lot until the old man behind me made me laugh with his silly faces.

Katelyn turned 1!

2009-11-03T06:43:00.008-08:00

These pictures were taken on Katelyn's actual 1st birthday on September 30th by Annie Harrison in the NC State Arboretum. Katelyn did great during a 1 hour 30 minute photo shoot! We took her out to Red Robin for dinner afterwards and then came home to open some presents!

Prepping for 1st Birthday!

2009-09-23T06:39:00.003-07:00

We have quite a busy fall ahead of us and right now I feel like there is so much to do I don't even know where to start! The house is such a mess from an entire summer of me being sick and beyond exhausted. It's hard for me to see this pregnancy as separate from my first. Since they are so close together in age it feels like one big long pregnancy. Sometimes I have to remind myself that this will be another, different baby!

Jon reminds me that the second trimester officially started around week 15 when I was pregnant with Katelyn and I'm 14 weeks 4 days today. The timing couldn't be better because Katelyn's 1st birthday is in one week! I'm so excited for her little birthday party. I ordered the cake and food yesterday and over the weekend we bought her a little toy car the she can ride in while we push her. We were wandering around aimlessly at Toys R Us looking for the perfect 1st birthday present for her and we let her test drive this little car around the store. Anytime we stopped pushing her she cried until we continued so we decided that would be her present. We went home and Jon put it together for her and we went for a little ride around the block. She loudly protested anytime we stopped and when we got home and the ride was over she cried so hard! Glad she likes her present so much!

Katelyn recently started taking Kindermusik and My Gym classes which she seems to enjoy. I enjoy them too, they are a lot of fun for both of us. Here are a few pics from Kindermusik!

Katelyn's 11 months old and I'm 12 weeks pregnant!

2009-09-05T07:17:00.008-07:00

We are less than one month away from our little baby turning the big ONE! We're so excited for this milestone. Katelyn is really starting to become a little person.

She's learned a lot in the past month. She crawls so fast and pulls up on everything. She is often standing up in her crib when we come to get her. She cruises around everything too - furniture, toys, people, walls, etc. She's getting better at walking with support. Now I just give her my index fingers and sometimes let go of one of them and she continues wobbling forward. I originally thought she'd be a late walker for sure but now I think it may happen sooner than my predicted 15 months. I guess only time will tell!

She still likes to babble a lot and now says dada again (she took a month break from saying this) and is still very fond of making the letter t sound. The other sounds she makes seem similar to words - sometimes we think she must have said a specific word - but we don't really know what she is saying.

And oh my goodness she gets into EVERYTHING now. Just a few minutes ago she wanted to get to a garbage bag full of dirty diapers that Jon had just emptied. And she cried when he wouldn't let her get to it. Seriously, why would anyone want to play with a stinky garbage bag anyways? Speaking of garbage, we do have to hide all garbage cans from her cause it's the first thing she goes for if she sees it. Maybe this means she'll be a garbage collector when she grows up? She was also playing with my cell phone recently and broke it into two pieces. That was my mistake. I got a new cell phone and while we were at Verizon the salesperson gave Katelyn a free fake phone to play with so she won't go after mine. I'm keeping mine away from her for the next year or two or three and she can enjoy breaking her fake cell phone.

Her current schedule:

6 or 7am - wakes-up, drinks 6 or 7 oz. of formula, plays
7:30 or 8am - breakfast: waffle, toast or oatmeal and some fruit
8:30 or 9am - down for her morning nap, drinks 4-6 oz. of formula
10 or 11am - wakes up from nap, time to get out of the house - playdate, park or mall play area
11:30 or 12pm - lunch: cheese, bread, turkey or chicken and a veggie and usually some puffs too and water or juice in a sippy cup
1:30 or 2:30pm - back home for afternoon nap, drinks 6 or 7 oz. of formula
3 or 4pm - wakes up from nap, eats a little snack, cheese and crackers or whatever we have in the house, usually hang around the house and play or sometimes go to the store or park for a walk
5:30 or 6:00pm - daddy comes home, eat dinner
6:30-7:30pm - playtime
7:30pm - get ready for bed, bath, PJs, 6 or 7 oz. of formula,
8pm - bed

And here are her 11 month pictures!

My belly shots:

At 4 weeks:

At 12 weeks (I know, I look tired. I am.):

Baby #2 is on the way!

2009-08-28T06:46:00.002-07:00

I'm about 11 weeks pregnant now and I think I'm starting to come out of the tough part of the first trimester! Boy have the past 6 weeks been rough for me! Jon thinks it's been worse than my first trimester with Katelyn was. More nausea and puking, more extreme exhaustion, more headaches, and a lot less energy.

I have such low energy and feel so sick most days that leaving the house feels like a big chore. I consider throwing laundry into the washer my big accomplishment for the day. Then it often sits in the washer half wet for 5 days because I'm too tired to move it over into the dryer. Forget about folding it and putting it away.

Katelyn is learning to play by herself more and more which I guess is a good thing for her to learn before this baby arrives! I try to play with her as much as I can but I'm definitely lying down around her when I feel tired. I of course keep an eye on her at all times while she crawls around me and explores her little world. Baby Einstein DVDs have been a life saver on many days! But I'm definitely not planning on playing them nearly as often as I start to feel better. :)

My intention was to keep a pregnancy journal but so far I only wrote this just a few days after we found out. Hopefully I'll begin feeling better again soon so I can write down more details about this pregnancy.

July 11th

What an interesting week it has been for us! We were on our Virginia vacation just a week ago, hanging out with our friends, acting like we were 15, going on roller coaster rides, relaxing in the lazy river and eating lots of junk. We left Katelyn at home with my mom and we were reminded what life was like before we had her. We were so free and we could do whatever we wanted for 5 days. No worrying about naptime, no worrying about bottles and meals, or dealing with a fussy, tired baby. Of course, we missed her so much, but we also enjoyed our temporary freedom.

I knew I was 2 days late on Monday (it’s usually on time) but I still wanted to confirm that I could continue enjoying the trip (drinking or going on the Griffon at Busch Gardens) so we bought a pregnancy test at Rite Aid and then walked over to Starbucks so we could get a drink and I could take my test. It was negative, which I knew it would be in my gut, so we continued having fun on our last day of vacation. We drove home the next day and my mom got me a glass of wine after dinner, although I only had 3 sips of it.

The next day I remembered that I was still late and being the worrier that I am I needed to confirm that I was indeed not pregnant so I took another test. I took it and laid it on the bathroom counter and continued folding laundry. Then a few minutes later I looked at it and saw that it was negative. That’s what I thought – darn period was just being stubborn. Then something caught my eye….a very tiny faint line. I knew I was probably hallucinating and I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I took it over to the lamp to get a closer look and it was indeed there. I thought that maybe I was seeing the imprint of where a line would be if one was pregnant, you know that evaporation line. I decided I needed Jon to look at it and tell me that I am indeed going crazy and there was no line there. I called him and told him what I saw. He said he’d take a look at it after work. What? After work? But that is at least 8 hours away! I can’t wait that long! Katelyn woke up from her morning nap so I was forced to focus on something other than the almost invisible faint line. After I got her ready and fed we drove to meet Jon at work so he could confirm that there was no line and that I was indeed going crazy. He looked at it and said he saw something very, very faint and that I should take another test in 2-3 days. Ok, so I confirmed that I wasn’t crazy, but waiting was the last thing I wanted to do! It was time for playgroup so Katelyn and I went over to Keren’s house. I couldn’t take this faint line off my mind so I impulsively showed it to her. She had recently become pregnant too so I thought she would be an “expert” at reading pregnancy test sticks. She also told me it was very, very faint and that I should take another test in 2-3 days. Wait 2-3 days? But I want to know NOW! Waaaaaa!

Somehow I made it through the day and the next morning I took another test. I just couldn’t wait 2-3 more days – waiting 1 was bad enough. Oh goody. Another very, very faint line. That did not help me confirm anything. I then decided that I would be patient and wait until Monday to test again. Then if it was positive I could call the doctor and if it was negative I could continue wondering where the heck my period was. That plan lasted about an hour or two before I decided to call the doctor that day. I guess when it comes to wondering whether or not I am creating another life I am not patient at all. I called and made an appointment for 12:45 which was 3 hours away! More waiting. I was not in a patient mood. I had to distract myself. Luckily Katelyn woke up from her morning nap so I got her ready and fed and then we went shopping. We got home in time for her afternoon nap. Jon came home to watch her and I went to our family doctor who is just a 1 minute drive from our house. They gave me a urine test and then the doctor came in and said “it’s positive!” WHAT? This was not what I was expecting to hear. I thought she would come in and say “now why exactly do you think you might be pregnant?” and I was fully prepared to pull out my sticks and hold them up to the light to show her the very, very faint lines in an effort to prove to her that I was not a crazy person. She said she would give me a blood test to confirm and that she would call me the next day, her day off, and let me know the results because she knows I’m a worrier. I was officially in shock. We were not trying. I just finished nursing Katelyn right before our Virginia trip and I didn’t know it would be so easy to get pregnant since Katelyn wasn’t exactly easy to conceive. I went home and told Jon and he lit up, he was so excited! I just couldn’t believe it yet. I decided to wait for the blood test results to come back. Yay. More waiting.

On Friday I managed to stay busy and tried to not think about how I was really just waiting for a phone call from the doctor. At 4pm I had had enough waiting and I called the doctor’s office hoping that they would know something. They didn’t. Then finally at around 6 the doctor called me and said the blood test came back positive. I realized then that I already knew it would. I am beginning to feel a few little pregnancy symptoms already. I’m much more exhausted and I feel little fluttering in my belly already. It seems early to feel anything in my belly but it’s there.

I’m feeling soooo excited and at the same time so very nervous. Now that I have this baby, I don’t want it to be taken away from me. I am already beginning to love this child that I’ve only known about for 2 days. It’s amazing how quickly you become attached to your baby. I hope and pray for a very healthy baby in 8 months and an easy breezy pregnancy.

10 months old!

2009-08-07T09:06:00.004-07:00

Katelyn is 10 months old now! I can’t believe we’re less than 2 months away from her 1st birthday. I’m learning more about her every day.

We began feeding her more table foods about a month ago and now we're getting the hang of it and she eats almost everything. She still prefers it when I spoon feed her - more food makes it into her mouth and it goes much faster. Sometimes she thinks the food on her highchair is a toy and she'll mash it all around or she'll drop it on the floor and watch Lucy gobble it up.

She is becoming more mobile too. She really likes it when we let her practice walking by holding her hands and she also likes standing up while we hold her or while she holds onto something. A month ago she was army crawling and now she goes between real crawling and army crawling. She tries so hard to pull up on things but doesn't quite have the strength yet. She gets up on her knees but can't pull up onto her feet. This really seems to frustrate her a lot. I have to keep an eye on her now and we are overdue for baby gates. One second she's in one room and I turn around and she's crawled into another room and I have to follow her to make sure she doesn't get into too much trouble. This is all so new to us - we are very used to her staying right where we put her! She is much less adventurous when we leave the house. She tends to stay close to me or Jon and justs sits near us.

Katelyn loves to clap now and it is so cute! She just starts clapping quite randomly and then when she sees our excited reaction she smiles and eagerly claps some more. She waves sometimes, but she doesn't seem as interested in waving. This girl also LOVES puppets - still! I just bought her her first puppet this week and it cracks her up!

About a month ago she was saying "dadada" a lot but now she's over it and won't say it anymore. :( She likes to make the letter t sound over and over again these days so I guess that's her new thing. She also babbles other random sounds that we don't understand. :)

And she has her first two teeth now! I was really starting to wonder whether she actually had any teeth in there at all. The first one popped through on July 22nd and Katelyn was not a happy baby that week. She had a runny nose, was constantly drooling and fussy all day long. We made it through that week somehow and if you look closely you might be able to see them in this pic...it's the bottom two teeth.

And here she is right before bathtime showing interest in daddy's guitar. Maybe she'll want to be in a band like daddy was someday?

Getting ready to put up the 10 month sign...

She sees it right away...

Wait, can we leave it there for just one second so I can take a picture?

No. I want to play with the paper while head diving off this chair.

Yay! This is so much fun!

Uncle Mike came to Raleigh!

2009-08-07T08:51:00.002-07:00

Mike visited us in Raleigh a couple weekends ago! Somehow he got sucked into folding baby clothes. :)

my favorite four years

2009-08-07T08:30:00.003-07:00

Today is our four year anniversary! I'm still as giddy about being married to Jon as I was the day I married him. Happy anniversary bub!

More Katelyn Pics!

2009-07-23T19:10:00.007-07:00

Our good friend Mohamed took some pics of Katelyn with his fancy camera last weekend! Here are a few of them! Thank you so much Mohamed!

I Love Virginia!

2009-07-11T06:55:00.006-07:00

9 months old (this is a little late)!

2009-07-10T11:22:00.004-07:00

Here is all you could ever want to know about Miss Katelyn Avery!

Age: 9 months, 10 days
Height: 27" (30%)
Weight: 18 pounds 14 ounces (50%)
Head: 44.5 cm (70%)
Favorite Foods: puffs, most fruits, rice and oatmeal - used to be breastmilk but I just finished weaning her a couple weeks ago :( Sad.
Least Favorite Foods: green beans, peas
Current mode of transportation: mainly mommy still, she scoots/army crawls when she has the right incentive, but she doesn't seem to enjoy it much! She often fusses when she does it like it's a big chore. Maybe she's lazy? We continue to work on crawling every day though and I also try holding her hands and letting her "walk". She seems to like trying to "walk" a lot more than trying to crawl!
Favorite things to do: drinking a bottle while being rocked, standing up while leaning on something, bouncing up and down while standing - this is her version of "dancing", watching the puppets on her Baby Einstein DVDs (they crack her up), swinging in her new swing, her music table toy, and bath time!
Least favorite things to do: being changed before naptime/bedtime, being taken out of the car when she's fallen asleep, basically anything she does when she's tired!
Schedule: Katelyn's on a really good schedule lately. She sleeps 10-11 hours straight through the night. She wakes up between 6-7, gets a bottle, plays, eats breakfast, then goes down for her morning nap between 8-9. She naps for around 1.5-2 hours, then she's up, gets another bottle, plays or we go out somewhere, eats lunch around noon and is ready for her afternoon nap between 1-2 and sleeps for another 1.5-2 hours. Then she's up, drinks another bottle, more playtime or an outing, then daddy comes home around 6 and she plays with him for an hour or so, we all eat dinner, then it's bath time and then bed time at 8.
Temperment: Although the pics below may indicate otherwise, she's actually a really good baby lately! She has a fussy period in the evenings, but she is overall very happy and easy to get along with. We are loving this phase of babyhood!
Teeth: Absolutely none! No sign of them yet either. At this point I don't think she will ever have any teeth. We might have to look into dentures pretty soon. Haha. :-)
Other: We just lowered her crib to the lowest level about a week ago even though she can't pull herself up yet. I'd rather not take any risks! Omi also visited and bought Katelyn a convertible carseat. The pediatrician told us at her 9 month visit that she has grown out of her infant carseat. I thought we would keep her in it until she was 1 so that just goes to show how little I know! Thank goodness the pediatrician told me that! It's much bigger than her infant carseat and she looks more comfy in it. Omi also bought her a really nice umbrella stroller for our upcoming trip to Germany, an "anywhere" chair from Pottery Barn (that's technically her 1st birthday present) and a baby walker which she hangs out in when we're in the kitchen. Yes, she is very spoiled by Omi. Not by mommy and daddy! We have slowly begun buying a few baby proofing things like the electrical outlet plugs and some cabinet hooks but we are still very much in denial that she will be a mobile baby someday. We do need to get with the program and buy baby gates for the stairs and other baby proofing things - I just don't know what yet. I bet one of these days she'll start crawling and we'll have to run out and baby proof immediately and we'll regret not having done it earlier. But for now I'm going to remain in denial and believe that she will always stay right where I put her.

I took her 9 month pics yesterday (9 days late, opps!).

Not very happy! She wanted mommy to hold her but mommy was mean and took her picture instead. :(

Instantly distracted when she notices the piece of paper.

I wish paper made me this happy.

She started eating the paper so I took it away from her. She immediately reverts back to meltdown mode.

Katelyn June Pics

2009-06-22T09:10:00.004-07:00

Donnie and Cara's Baby Shower!

2009-06-22T07:49:00.007-07:00

We hosted a baby shower for Donnie and Cara at our house on Saturday. I had a lot of fun planning it. I miss my old SA job where I got to plan lots of events so this satisfied that craving for the time being. :-) There were 21 adults, 9 kids and 2 babies so we had a full house! I ordered the food from Ragazzi's.

I hired 3 babysitters so that the kids could play in the basement playroom and the adults could enjoy themselves. The babysitters turned out great! Our original babysitters cancelled on me 6 days before the party so it was a scramble to find some new ones. I don't know that many teenage/college students in this area. I only knew one until last week! I interviewed these girls a couple days before and felt comfortable with them, especially knowing that all the adults would be nearby.

Here are some pics!

Our little infant scientist!

2009-06-18T07:51:00.004-07:00

Katelyn participated in an infant research study on Monday at Duke University. Their psychology department is investigating the development of numbers and time concepts in babies.

They brought Katelyn and me into a dark little room and put her in a high chair. I sat next to her. There was a wall with openings for 3 little TVs in front of her and the researcher went behind the wall. They videotaped her reactions. The TVs on the right and left would flash 6 red circles on and off and a few seconds later a voice would say "six". This went on for 5 minutes or so and Katelyn got bored so she started banging her hand on the high chair table and babbling or looking over at me. I was instructed to look away or close my eyes whenever she looked at me so she would focus on the TVs. Then the right or left TV started showing eight red circles and the other one would still show six. The voice no longer said anything for another minute or so. I'm not sure if Katelyn really noticed that there were eight circles instead of only six. She was pretty bored by that time. :-)

She got a little "Infant Scientist Award" and a bib for all her hard work! And I got $5! Yeeeehawwww I'm making some serious money!!! Any ideas on what I should spend it on?

Why I love Raleigh

2009-06-01T12:41:00.003-07:00

Yesterday I was driving home from book club and I was thinking "wow, I am sooooo happy living here in Raleigh." I often get questions from Seattle family and friends asking when we're moving home. I really have no answer to give them since for now, we're pretty happy where we are. That's not to say that answer won't ever change of course. :-) I do miss my Seattle family and friends a lot and that's been really hard.

Sometimes I can't really put my finger on exactly why we like living here since it's really a whole bunch of little reasons but here are just a few of them:

1. The SUNSHINE! The first time Jon and I came to Raleigh was mid-December of 2006 and the weather in Seattle was awful. There was some sort of storm and a power outage and it was cold. We flew out to Raleigh for Jon's interview with a different team at Microsoft and landed early in the morning of his interview (yes, he barely slept before the interview, poor guy). It was dark when we arrived and the next morning I began working remotely from the hotel room when I looked out the hotel window and saw the SUN! I was confused - why did it look like summer outside? It's December? Later in the day I actually went outside and it was chilly but the sky was blue and there weren't any clouds. The sun was shining and I realized that I had been a bit sun deprived over the past several months. I felt like I was on a vacation! I still feel that way sometimes living out here - like I'm on a never-ending vacation. The sun and warm weather has done wonders for my happiness and mood! I really like how the spring/summer lasts so long out here. Spring/summer is by far my favorite time of year and it's warm/hot from April-October here.

2. The pace of life seems slower to me. Now I haven't conducted any scientifically official "pace of life" surveys but this is just the feeling I get living here. People don't seem to be in as much of a hurry.

3. Strangers and neighbors are so friendly! They stop to help, talk and smile at my baby all the time. This morning I was at Sam's Club with Katelyn and I was putting my stuff on the belt thing when an older gentleman in line behind me (wearing cute overalls, maybe he was a farmer?) offered to help me unload my cart. Another stranger offered to help me load my stuff into the car! So sweet! And they weren't employees of Sam's Club either! Maybe this is a "southern" thing? I have no idea!

4. There is WAY less traffic. I don't personally enjoy traffic so this is a nice bonus.

5. Many communities have swimming pools where neighbors and friends hang out in the evenings and weekends. I love that! We took full advantage of our community pool last summer and we've taken Katelyn's 3 times since the pool opened a little over a week ago. She seems to like floating in her little floaty toy and kicking her little feet in the water.

6. We have met some truly amazing friends out here. We love them like family and feel really lucky to have them in our lives.

7. Katelyn was born here so I feel an extra special connection with this city. This place will always be her birthplace and the place where my dream of becoming a mother came true.

8. We are only a 2 hour drive from the ocean! Did I mention I like warm weather? This ocean is actually warm and you can run into the waves during the summer - maybe even the spring - but definitely the summer.

9. The cost of living is less than in Seattle! Gas is cheaper and so is housing (by a lot). Yay for paying less money.

Eight Months Old

2009-05-30T11:10:00.017-07:00

Katelyn is eight months old! She is progressing more and more every week. She isn't crawling yet, but she loves rolling over and sitting up and playing for long periods of time. She also likes to play on her belly more now, and she pushes herself up with her arms. If we put our hands on her feet she can push off them and scoot herself to reach a toy, but she tires of that pretty quickly.

She's learned to feed herself puffs. When we first introduced them to her she would grasp them in her palm and bring her fist to her mouth and suck on it. Now she has figured out how to get them from her palm to her mouth.

Spending time with her is so much fun. She's becoming a lot less fussy and has been napping really well. When we take her out, she loves observing everything. When we take her swimming, she is so content just floating around and watching everyone. Katelyn is also getting more bright blond hair. Though it's not very long yet, it still makes a pretty cool mohawk when we're in the pool. :)

Back Home from Seattle!

2009-05-25T19:38:00.005-07:00

We are back home from a week in Seattle! I have no pics from the trip since we forgot our camera charger. Opps. My mom and friends took some pics of Katelyn so I'll post some if I get any. :) We had a really nice time seeing everyone again and introducing Katelyn. We hadn't been back since my baby shower last July. I caught up with a lot of people - many of whom have also had babies since I last saw them. I met Rebekah's baby Gabe, Carol's baby Rhys, Neoma's baby Benji, Jamie's twins Owen and Weston and Angie's twins Ashley and Chloe! I also got to see Jessie's tiny baby belly - her baby is still super small so it's staying in her belly for now.

Our flight home from Raleigh was definitely not the highlight of our trip. :( We boarded our first flight which was headed to Philly only to be told that that plane had an oil leak so we had to deboard. That flight was then cancelled so Jon called and got us on a later flight to Dallas. Katelyn was waaaaaaay overdue for a nap by this point and had trouble falling asleep on that flight so she cried more than the other passengers on the plane would have liked I'm sure. But she slept the entire flight from Dallas to Raleigh thank goodness. She was a tired little girl! We landed at 1am Monday morning and Katelyn woke up in the best of moods! Jon and I were exhausted but she was smiling, kicking and waving her arms around. That nap was amazing. We waited for our luggage but it didn't make it when we had to change flights. We finally got home and went to bed at 2:30am.

Today Jon went back to the airport for our suitcases and we unpacked and just lounged around at home. Katelyn seemed eager to practice inching towards toys we placed just barely out of her reach - I guess this is how babies learn to crawl? It was a super hot day and the pool just opened this weekend. We waited until the evening for the heat to die down to take Katelyn to the pool for the first time. We took a few pics. :-)

Letting go of anger

2009-05-23T12:28:00.002-07:00

We are visiting my family in Seattle right now and my mom showed me an inspirational article in the Seattle Times today. This was written by Rev. Patrick Howell who just so happens to be our neighbor's cousin! Anyways, I love the message here so I pasted just the end of the article here so I can reread it when I realize that this is something that I need to let go of.

"How do I handle anger in the midst of all the little irritants of my work, of clunky systems or of strained relationships?

I'm not talking here about righteous anger at injustice or of anger at being falsely accused of something. I'm not talking about the legitimate anger that helps me set a boundary and allows me to claim my own appropriate, gifted self.

Rather I'm exploring the slow, everyday simmer of resentment. Perhaps if I learn to handle the small things, I may have a chance of accepting bigger challenges.

I've found three things helpful:

Tend the relationship. Respect the people you're working with, as in the case of the credit-card persons. Remember they are diligently doing their work. In this case, they're your friends. They're protecting you from frauds attacking your bank account.

Lower your expectations. Stuff happens. The world's imperfect. And so are you. Accept it. Get over it. Don't give harbor to your anger by getting all tied up in knots. Set it free. Let it flow out to sea and dissipate. Take a good walk or a run if you need to. Have a bowl of ice cream, smothered in chocolate syrup with a few cashews. (Recommended rarely and only in dire necessity.)

Finally, and most of all, pray often. Meditate on Scripture. The Book of Proverbs from Hebrew Scripture is replete with wise sayings about anger. "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." (Proverbs 15:1) "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fatted ox and hatred with it." (15:17) Each one of these pithy sayings is worth our meditation.

So I have a choice. I can choose to feed my narcissistic self and all its perceived hurts and grievances. Or I can break loose, depend on God's gracious acceptance of me as I am, and reach out and touch someone else who really is hurting or beleaguered or needs my compassion."

SO CUTE!

2009-05-08T10:13:00.002-07:00

I've always assumed that when Katelyn woke up from her nap she just started crying which has been my signal to go get her. We recently bought one of those video monitors and I'm learning that she likes to play and hang out by herself for a while before crying to let me know she's ready for me to get her. Right now I'm watching the video monitor and she is looking at herself in her little crib mirror and babbling. Before that she was rolling back and forth from one end of the crib to the other. Who knew she could keep herself so occupied without her mommy?

New blog and freezer!

2009-05-07T05:42:00.006-07:00

Jon updated our blog yesterday! How did he do it? I have no idea. He wrote some code and I don't speak code.

Anyways, I have recently finished a book called "America's Cheapest Family" and have become quite inspired. It was a total impulse buy at Barnes & Noble but hopefully it will help me stick to our current budget! This family goes to the extreme in order to save money and it has really paid off for them. They were able to pay off their mortgage in 9 years! I want to pay our mortgage off in 9 years!

One of the ways this family saves money is by shopping for food and household goods only ONCE each month! They make a monthly meal plan and stick to it! This weekend I decided that I would give it a try this month. I made a dinner meal plan for May and then went to Sam's Club and Target and bought food for the entire month. Actually, it could very well last us for two months. Then I came home and realized we needed an extra freezer to store all of this food! Now we have a cheap freezer in the garage with about 500 loaves of bread inside. The only things I'll really need to buy at the store now are milk and fruit. America's Cheapest Family actually freezes their milk too but I would rather drink semi-fresh milk personally. :-)

Tornados and other news

2009-05-06T11:40:00.007-07:00

Growing up in Seattle I never heard of any tornado warnings but since we've moved to Raleigh we've had a few. None were as serious as the ones we got yesterday though. I was actually pretty scared watching the news. There was a huge ominous cloud right over our area. We took Katelyn, our two cats and dog into the basement and moved away from the windows. We brought blankets and pillows and covered ourselves since that's what the news told us to do! We kept the TV in our basement on and watched from the far back corner. One guy called in who was just several miles south of our house and said the large black cloud came very close to touching the ground. I heard this morning that 8 tornados actually hit the ground in our area and caused some damage. Scary! As I'm writing this I'm listening to thunder and lighting outside and I'm hoping Katelyn doesn't wake up from her nap. Strange weather here! It's pretty loud...

In other news, Miss Katelyn is growing up so fast! She turned 7 months old last week! I took another monthly picture of her in a sundress from her Omi.

We've been getting into a nice routine these past couple of months. Katelyn takes 2 naps a day now and eats solids 3 times a day. She LOVES to eat! If she thinks I'm taking too long to make her oatmeal she starts waving her arms around and kicking her legs and says "ehhhhhhhh". She's gotten really good at sitting up, rolling in all sorts of directions and she also likes to stand against her new leap frog toy, although I do have to hold her. I let go of her for a second to take a quick pic.

Wednesday has been Baby Steps group day since the end of October when we started going to WakeMed Hospital for "Baby Steps 1". When we graduated from Baby Steps 1 we did Baby Steps 2 and when that was over the moms formed a Wednesday playgroup. I've meet an amazing group of moms and babies. Being a part of this group gives me a little more confidence as a new mom. It helps to see what other babies who are Katelyn's age or a little older are doing to get an idea of what's coming up developmentally for Katelyn. It also helps to have other moms to talk to who are also brand new moms. Last week we finally got a chance to meet all the dads at a BBQ at Jen's house. Lot's of babies and their parents in this pic!

Now the thunderstorm has woken her up! I'll write some more later. :-)

The Sun Came Out!

2009-04-07T09:43:00.006-07:00

We had really gorgeous weekend in Raleigh. It was in the 70's and low 80's and was really nice and sunny! Jon planned a surprise date for us on Saturday morning. Emily and Nick came over with Ben at 9:30 am to watch Katelyn (I know - they are some REALLY good friends). Then we went rock climbing at the Triangle Rock Club. We got a rock climbing lesson - it was more for me since Jon already had this lesson in January. It was a blast! I left immediately wanting to go back for more. The lesson included a month pass so we are definitely going back again soon. Then we went out for lunch before going back home. In the afternoon we all headed over to Donnie and Cara's house for a BBQ.

Tony with his 2-week-old baby girl Dakota

Jon playing with the boys - Hunter, Ben and Grayson

Tired new mommy Mai with baby Dakota and Tony

Me and baby Dakota

My favorite 1-year-old boy, Ben

Donnie being Donnie

Mai and Emily

Sunday we were pretty exhausted but the weather was so nice we went to the park.

Monday brought a lot of rain, but that was ok with me. I got my sunshine in this weekend. :-)

6 months old!

2009-04-02T08:10:00.003-07:00

I'm 6 months old!

Oh, what's this?

I don't know, but it tastes pretty good.

It's amazing how time flies. I can remember so vividly being at the pediatrician's office holding my 3-day-old baby for her first post-hospital check-up. Next to us was a mom of a huge 6-month-old baby. She told us that time flies by and that she couldn't believe her daughter was 6 months old already. I couldn't imagine Katelyn being that old - or big! But now she is.

At her well baby visit yesterday she weighed 16 lbs. 6 oz. (60%) and was 25.75 inches tall (50%). I brought up all of my worries but the pediatrician didn't seem to be too concerned about any of them. I guess I'm just a cluelessly worried new mom! He did mention that at 6 months you can actually begin to spoil a baby so it's ok to not hold her/play with her all the time. He actually encouraged I put her down sometimes.

Katelyn's beginning to sit-up on her own for a few seconds at a time now, especially if there are some toys in front of her. She still hates tummy time and rolls right out of it. She can roll from her tummy to her back but refuses to roll from her back to her tummy - even when we try to entice her with a toy. Lately I've been able to take her on a couple walks outside in the bjorn and she hasn't cried! She still cries if I put her in her stroller and try walking. I always keep the bjorn underneath since I know I'll need it! She just loves being in the bjorn. That's why my back hurts so much. :) But my arms are becoming much stronger!

Spring is here!

2009-03-29T16:19:00.009-07:00

Today felt like the first real day of spring. It poured rain most of Saturday but Sunday morning the skies cleared and there was beautiful sunshine all day. We got to sit outside on our deck and enjoy the sunshine.

We also visited our friends Tony and Mai, who have a beautiful new baby girl named Dakota. Here's a picture of Katelyn and Dakota. It really reminds me how much Katelyn has grown.

Katelyn is still eating solids like a pro. It's so much fun to feed her. Yesterday I fed her peas and oatmeal, and I couldn't believe how much she ate! I was so proud of her. I tasted the peas and trust me, she deserves the praise. :)

She also sits in her jumper and highchair and holds her head up really well. We're still waiting for her to roll over from her back to her belly but she's getting about 1/2 way there.

All this progress is exciting. I know Melanie and I are going to have a fun spring and summer watching our little girl grow, but I hope she doesn't grow up too fast. Her Daddy loves holding his baby girl.

Daddy making Kate giggle

2009-03-26T06:35:00.003-07:00

I think Jon's saying "yes yes yes yes yes yes yes" and Kate thinks that's pretty silly. :-)

Omi comes to Raleigh!

2009-03-14T18:27:00.002-07:00

This week my mom visited us all the way from Seattle! She just can't be away from her Katelyn for too long. :) She picked the wrong week to come though. Just ONE week ago it was in the low 80's. Oh and just two weeks ago it was snowing. The weather in Raleigh is so strange. One day Katelyn's in her snowsuit and the next day we're buying her baby sunscreen and trying to find a sun hat for her.

The last few days it's been rainy and we've really been scratching our heads trying to think of fun indoor things to do with a baby. We were thinking of going to Planet Child today but they closed at noon due to renovations. So today's "fun" activity was a trip to Sam's Club (it's like Costco)...we needed 500 square feet of aluminum foil very badly.

My mom really spoiled all of us while she was here. She bought Katelyn a few cute little outfits and a brand new exersaucer/jumper. We had bought Katelyn an exersaucer we found on Craigslist a couple months ago (cause I'm cheap!) but it really wasn't too exciting for her. She really LOVES this new one since it has music and the toys light up and she can jump and turn. I think I'm more excited about it than she is.

We really have a completely different baby from the one my mom last saw in mid-January. The crying has decreased a ton and Katelyn is usually easy to console now. I decided to start her on solids around 2 weeks ago. I gave her some rice cereal at first and she didn't seem to like it much. It took her two days to get used to eating from a spoon. I then tried some oatmeal and fruit a few days later and last week added some veggies. She's eating solids like a champ now. Three nights ago we also began giving her some mashed-up banana before bedtime and she's slept for 11 hours straight each night. I do nurse her to sleep and then do a "dream feed" before I go to bed too which probably helps her last all night. Yay for sleep! Sleeeeeeeeep!

My Little Lap Baby

2009-02-26T06:04:00.004-08:00

I feel like Katelyn has reached a bit of a turning point this week and I am SOOO excited! I've been working on "roll over" and "tummy time" with her for quite some time and she had rolled over about 7 times until this week but they all seemed to be flukes. She appeared to roll over by accident each time and then seemed confused when she realized she was in a new position all of a sudden. Then on Tuesday morning she woke up from her morning nap and I put her on the floor to give her some more roll over practice and I realized that it finally clicked for her. She did it like 30 times in a row! Each time I would clap and smile and say "good job - yay!" and roll her back onto her tummy for another try. Since she now knows how to roll over very well the tummy time no longer works! She just rolls right on out of it! Maybe I need to hold her to keep her in her tummy time position?

Naptime has also finally clicked this week. Since mid January I've been trying to wean her from spending all of her naps sleeping on me so I could consider showering and doing house chores (I know, I'm slow). I tried lots of different things but then I eventually went back to what I was trying originally - nursing and rocking her to sleep (yes, I know this is a big no no is many books but it's working and I'm tired so I'm sticking to it for now!). I am doing a few things differently now. No more reading for me to make the time pass quicker so that means the lights are out and it's nice and dark in the room. I also am rocking her a little quicker which seems to lull her to sleep more quickly. I began with 30 minutes of rock/nurse and now it seems to work in 15 minutes. Such a huge difference from the 2 hours it would take me sometimes to get her to nap! I'm also going against another no no in the books - I'm keeping her up a little longer than her first sign of being tired. I had read in books that as soon as the baby shows a sign of being tired (or better yet before they are really tired) get them right down for a nap before they become overtired. Well Katelyn's first sign of being tired is seriously like 30-60 minutes after she wakes up. She begins with her usual "eh-eh-eh" and sometimes yawns and rubs her eyes. I took this as an obvious sign that she was tired and went right upstairs for her first nap. Then she'd be difficult to get down - she'd keep her eyes open and stare around. I've been waiting a little longer lately which means keeping her occupied. I think maybe her "eh-eh-ehs" were just her way of telling me "mom, I'm bored - let's play with something else now". Then I'll put her in the bjorn and walk around a little or show her a new toy. Waiting a little longer until naptime means she's definitely tired when she goes down and she closes her eyes almost right away and falls asleep.

Another thing I'm noticing lately is that her crying has decreased substantially! I took her to the pediatrician about 6 times in her first 6 weeks of life! I always told the pediatrician that she must be sick - she cries a LOT! She must be in pain! I actually took her to the pediatrician as recently as 10 days ago to find out if something was wrong. This is usually how these discussions go:

Pediatrician: "So what brings you in (again) today?"
Me: "I think Katelyn's sick. She might have an ear infection - or maybe she's teething?"
Pediatrician: "Oh really? Does she have a fever or any cold symptoms?"
Me: "Well no, but she does tug on her ear when she cries which she does a lot."
Pediatrician: "Have you noticed any excessive drooling or are her gums swelling?"
Me: "No, not really. But you see she's been crying an awful lot.
Pediatrian then examines Katelyn (again) while Katelyn smiles and coos at him. Pediatrician considers examining me instead.
Pediatrician: "Everything looks great! She's perfectly healthy! She's just what I call a lap baby - she likes to be held!"
Me: "Ok, thank you!"
Pediatrician leaves and as I begin to put Katelyn back in her car seat she begins to scream.

I'm Staying at Home

2009-02-24T06:02:00.002-08:00

Today is my first official day as a stay-at-home mom. It's a very glamorous position. This morning I've cleaned-up spit-up, changed a poopy diaper, cleaned the kitty litter, taken out the garbage, started a load of laundry, organized my coupons, and seriously considered doing the dishes (I guess that's my next chore). Oh and of course taken care of Katelyn.

I haven't actually worked at Microsoft since September 26th (my last day before maternity leave began). I went into the office yesterday and did my exit interview with an HR person and then chatted with my manager in the afternoon. Today I feel sad and strange. I will really miss that job and my co-workers. But my little Katelyn needs me now and I want to watch her grow during these precious first years. I know I'll never get them back once they're gone.

She has grown a ton since she was born. She is already 15 pounds (no wonder my arms hurt!). Here are a few pics a photographer took of her at 11 days and then at 4.5 months:

Four Months Old!

2009-02-02T08:17:00.005-08:00

Katelyn had her 4 month well visit on Monday and everything is looking good. She is now 24 inches which puts her in the 40% for height and weighs 14 pounds 1 oz. which puts her in the 60% for weight. She received two shots and of course cried right afterwards but after some cuddling she calmed down pretty fast.

I've always wondered what moms with babies do all day long and I still wonder that sometimes. Since Katie's a fussy baby leaving the house to run errands or go anywhere is stressful for me since I usually end up trying to calm her down at some point. It is getting a whole lot better though so I don't think this will be a problem for much longer. I try to keep the outings very short with her and I run most of my errands when Jon is home and can watch her. I've been working at keeping her on a regular schedule during the day with feedings, naps and bed time always around the same time each day. It's not yet perfect, but I think each day we make some progress. :)

The last week or two she has begun to nap in her crib! This is pretty huge for me since I now have about 4 hours during the day to workout, shower and do some chores around the house. Before this her naps were on me because she would cry as soon as I laid her down in her crib.

During her awake time I play with her for as long as she is happy. Lately we've been working on lots of tummy time (which she really hates) and rolling over (which seems to confuse her). She has rolled over by herself 5 times now and the other times she needed a little help from me. She is always in a great mood after waking up in the morning or from a nap and gives me the biggest gummy grin which just melts me. She lets me know when playtime is over and then I strap her in the baby bjorn and walk around the house talking or singing to her and showing her things. Once or twice a day we go outside and let Lucy the dog run around a bit.

Since the last time I posted my parents came to visit us from Seattle. It was so nice to have them around for a week. They even watched Katelyn one evening so we could go to the Microsoft Holiday Party. I posted a few pics from their visit. :)

Smiling!

Katie and Grandpa

Hanging out with Grandpa

Sleepy baby

Story time with Grandpa

Back to work

2009-01-11T10:32:00.006-08:00

Since it's January already Jon is back at work again and I am making honest attempts to try and get Miss Katelyn into a daily routine. It's not as easy as I thought it would be. I decided that she is now old enough to nap off of my chest and she begs to differ. I've been reading books, online forums and asking every experienced mommy that I know how they made this transition. Some things work one day but not the next but I am going to continue trying!

We feel enormously lucky that she sleeps through the night most of the time. I've read that this is not too common for 3-month-olds but Katelyn's been sleeping through the night since she was around 2 months old. Sometimes when she's fussy during the day I just count my lucky stars that at least she lets us get a good nights sleep these days. :)

I have been on the no dairy diet for an entire week now to see if that helps. So far I think it has a little bit so I'm going to continue at least until the end of this month to see how much of a difference it makes. I thought it would be much harder than it actually is. Giving up milk, cheese and chocolate is completely worth it if this is what I have to do to make Katelyn a happier baby (although I do love me some chocolate!).

Last weekend was SO much fun! We threw bachelor and bachelorette parties for our good friends Donnie and Cara who got married in October. A group of girls (well, technically women, but we acted like girls) surprised Cara at her house with a cake and presents and then took her into Raleigh for dinner, a comedy club and ice cream. We were planning on going to a bar or club after ice cream but since the majority of the girls were either pregnant or breastfeeding we called it a night before midnight. My younger self would have laughed at me but now I am exhaused by 10. The next day the guys surprised Donnie by taking him rock climbing and then to a bar. It sounds like they had a blast and now I really want to go rock climbing soon.

Here are some pics I stole from Meredith (can't find any from the guys adventures in rock climbing - do guys even take pictures?):

Ready to party

Cara being picked on at Comedy Worx

Friday night we got to babysit Ben while Emily and Nick went out. What a difference 8 or 9 months makes! Ben is walking and is such a smart baby! He figured out how to open the baby gate although it might have been pure luck. Putting him to sleep was a breeze. We took some cute pics of him with Kate:

Yesterday we had the Mansour family over for an early dinner but we didn't take any pics. It was so nice to see them again though. Here are a couple recent pics of Kate from yesterday:

Glow worm!

My hand beats these toys any day

My parents are coming to visit and they arrive on Wednesday night and we are so excited to see them! That's all for now. :)

Holiday Pictures

2009-01-01T12:17:00.005-08:00

We're back home from our Christmas trip to New Jersey. Although Katelyn did not enjoy the car ride, we had a great time and are so glad we got to see everyone.

Katelyn waking up on Christmas morning. She clearly expects presents. :)

Katelyn with Mommy

Katelyn with Aunt Veronica

Nana and Daddy

Nana and Mommy

Katelyn with Grandpa Ken & Grandma Margaret

With Grandma Margaret

Jon and Melie by the hotel Christmas tree

The day after Christmas, we visted the Wolfroms where Katelyn also got to meet the members of the band.

With Pat

The band with Katelyn

Pete

Greg

Luke

Learning to play drums

Taking a nap with Mommy while Daddy plays with the band

After we got back from New Jersey, some of our friends in Raleigh came by for a New Years Eve party at our house. We had a great time playing with the Wii Fit board. :)

Donnie and Cara

Emily

Cara playing Wii

Melie playing Wii

Our little girl is now 3 months old! Here are a few more photos we've taken of her over the past few weeks.

Walking around Lake Pine

Playtime

Playing with some friends and looking sassy in her beret

3 months old

Playing with Mommy

All bundled up

New plans for Christmas

2008-12-20T12:43:00.006-08:00

My mom called yesterday to warn us about the Seattle storm. We decided to cancel our flight to Seattle today and rebook in early 2009. :( We're sad we won't see everyone as soon as we were hoping to. Jon and I probably would have gotten on the plane but now that we have Katelyn we decided to play it safe and stay at home. Now we're planning on driving up to New Jersey for Christmas to visit Jon's family and friends and we're really excited to see them much sooner than we were expecting!

Since we're not traveling today, Katelyn's having a good day. She's currently taking a little nap on daddy.

First Christmas

2008-12-15T11:32:00.003-08:00

Katelyn has been enjoying her first Christmas season and having daddy at home all the time. She loves looking at the Christmas tree and got to meet Santa Claus and thank him for her early Christmas present - the exersaucer. Although when we put her in the exersaucer she was not all that excited. She just kinda sat there and looked down instead of at all the colorful toys surrounding her. We presumed that she either A) is too young for the exersaucer B) doesn't like the exersaucer or C) is holding out for that new car we keep promising her when she stops crying.

This is kinda boring...

This tree is more interesting though

I like bathtime now!

I have no idea who this guy is...

Yay for paternity leave!

2008-12-10T15:15:00.002-08:00

That's right, Jon is home with me and Katelyn these days! It's AMAZING! I'm afraid I'll get used to it and be in for it come January 2nd. We are really looking forward to spending Christmas in Seattle and Leavenworth this year. Let me know if you want to get together and meet Katelyn.

Jon recently nicknamed her "KB" short for "Katie-bug" but I thought he was calling her "Katie" - I'm a little sleep-deprived these days. We have given her so many nicknames since she was born - ridiculous ones I never fathomed ever calling my child like piglet, baby bird, pumpkin and *gulp* cupcake. Now I'm worried that she'll enter preschool and her teacher will ask her what her name is and she say "sometimes it's piglet and sometimes it's cupcake!" Maybe we should start calling her by one name - perhaps her real name?

Anyways, here are some recent pics of our little piglet. :)

Helping daddy pick out a Christmas tree!

Tummy time!

Visiting the pediatrician for her 2 month well visit and shots (poor thing!)

What is that thing you placed next to me?

Snuggle time with mommy

The Kutches and the Browns came to Raleigh!

2008-11-27T08:01:00.002-08:00

Katelyn got to meet a few of our best friends this past week! Uncle Mike and Aunt Jen drove down from Pennsylvania and Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jessie flew in from Oxford, England where Aunt Jessie goes to grad school. On Sunday we decided to drive to Wilmington and walk around the town and see the beach.

Uncle Mike and Aunt Jen left on Monday and Katelyn was sad to see them go. She is looking forward to visiting them someday and going into New York City with them so she decided to wear her NYC onesie.

Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jessie stayed until Wednesday so we went to Lake Pine and walked around. They discovered the brown zone and felt right at home.

Here are a few more pics of Katelyn we've taken the past couple weeks:

Pick me up!

Hi Omi and Nana!

Smiling!

Happy Turkey Day!

2008-11-27T07:49:00.002-08:00

Um, excuse me, but I don't eat turkey yet. Could I possibly have some milk?

No, today is Turkey Day. You need to eat turkey.

But I want milk!

Katelyn Weeks 4-6

2008-11-14T10:38:00.007-08:00

I have been so bad at keeping up this blog since Katelyn was born. I thought I would have more time to write now that I'm at home all day but Katelyn keeps me very busy! She went to the pediatrician on Monday and Dr. Wilson deemed her a "lap baby". As you can see there are lots of pictures with either Jon or I holding Katelyn - she doesn't like to be put down for too long.

Luckily he told me she isn't colickly, just a little needier than most babies. It is agony trying to leave the house with her but I do it once a day to stay sane. It usually takes a while to get her to be drowsy or asleep enough to put her in her carseat, get her into the car and not cry before I drive away. It is a fine art that I am slowly beginning to learn. Then she usually begins to cry again at some point during the car ride.

I figured out this week that she likes to be talked to so now I hold a little one-sided conversation with her if she's fussy in the car. It can often turn off a cry and make the car ride more bearable. It goes something like this "so now we're taking a right - how exciting! We're on 4th street now and soon mommy's going to get onto the freeway. No - don't cry! Everything's ok - you're ok sweetie. We're almost there (this is usually a lie). Now we're turing left..."

I am totally stealing my friend Carol's idea to take a picture of your baby periodically next to a stuffed animal to watch them grow (hope that's ok CEC)! Here is Katelyn each week next to Bruno the dog.

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Katelyn Week 3

2008-10-23T09:22:00.002-07:00

First week at home with Katelyn

2008-10-08T12:58:00.008-07:00

We have been enjoying our first week at home with baby Katelyn! My parents arrived from Seattle the day she was born and Aunt Jenny arrived on Friday morning.

Katelyn with daddy

Katelyn with mommy

With Omi

With Opi

With Auntie Jenny

First family pic

Last pregnancy pic taken on September 28th - she was ready!

Labor Day

2008-10-08T11:51:00.003-07:00

Our first week as parents has gone by so fast! We are in complete awe of our little baby girl and are spending most of our time holding her and staring at her. We still can't believe she is here already! So far she has been a really good baby. She cries only when she is hungry, needs to be changed, wants to be held, or is uncomfortable and we've been able to console her pretty easily. Let's hope it stays that way. :) At night it's been up and down. A few nights she let us sleep for 3 hours at a time and a few nights she just wanted to be held all night.

Katelyn was born last Tuesday, September 30th. I really thought she'd come on October 11th because I heard that first born babies are usually late! Her due date was October 7th. My last day of work was September 26th and I had the next week all planned out. I was going to clean the house, buy some last minute baby things, run random errands and cook for Jon. Jon was planning on taking Thursday and Friday off from work so we could spend some time together before we became parents. Then my parents were planning on flying in on October 6th.

Within hours of my parents booking their plane tickets my water decided to break at 1 am on September 30th. It wasn't very obvious that it had broken though. We decided to search online to find out what was going on and eventually decided to call the doctor. My regular doctor was on vacation (another good sign that the baby will arrive) so we got a call back from a stranger doctor. He told us to head to the hospital so they could assess.

At the hospital the first nurse who saw me was not giving us any information as to what was going on. By the tone in her voice I assumed we had overreacted and would be going back home. Then she led us to a delivery room, hooked me up to some monitors and gave me an IV. She showed us on the monitor that I was having contractions (couldn't feel them at all yet) and said I was 1 cm. dialated and 70% effaced. Cool! So at 4:30 am we started calling our parents. My parents got on a 6 am PST flight to Raleigh.

We hung out in the delivery room and watched TV. A little later on we called our good friends Emily and Nick to see if they would take Lucy to doggy daycare. At 7:45 am a new nurse, Lauren (really, really loved this nurse), started me on pitocin to get the contractions going since I still wasn't feeling anything. Emily stopped by an hour or two later and I still wasn't feeling much pain. At around 10 am I started feeling light cramping which slowly intensified pretty much all day. I started needing to hold Jon's hand and could no longer talk though them. Our good friend Cara stopped by in the early afternoon and helped me through some contractions - some were only 30 seconds apart. Then Cara left and Emily came back and the contractions became more painful. The nurse said I was only 2 cm. dialated by this point and I thought it was going to be forever until the baby came. I wanted to hang in there without an epidural until I was at least 4 or 5 cm. so I asked for some Staydol instead at around 3 pm. Staydol was the strangest drug - as soon as Lauren put it into my IV the entire room started spinning and I had to close my eyes so I wouldn't get too dizzy. I felt like I was on that tea-cup ride. I wasn't a big fan of Staydol at all.

An hour later I asked for an epidural. It took around an hour from the time I asked for one until I actually got it which was the most painful hour of the entire labor. The nurse realized that I was already in "transition" and asked the doctor/anesthesiologist to come faster. I told the nurse that one of my aunts had told me that women in our family go from 2 to 10 cm. very quickly which was definitely happening to me! She told me that would have been nice to know earlier in the day. :)

Finally the doctor came in and approved the epidural so the anesthesiologist could give me one. Things got much better after that point and after a little break the nurse said it was time to push at 5:45. Then Katelyn was born at 7:21! It sounds like it was a very long day, but for me the day was a blur and felt like it was flying by. I think I was in denial most of the day because I was still mentally adjusting to Katelyn arriving a week early! In the hospital I even had a dream that the doctors put her back inside me so we could wait for her actual due date. :)

3D Ultrasound Pictures

2008-08-10T05:51:00.010-07:00

Yesterday, Melanie and I went to a 3D/4D ultrasound center. It was a really fun way to celebrate our 3 year wedding anniversary. The last time we had an ultrasound (at 18 weeks) the technician switched into 3D for us, but only for a brief moment. This time we got to spend 30 minutes with the technician in 3D. Our little girl has grown so much! Here are pictures of her at 18 weeks and then from yesterday's scan at 31 1/2 weeks.

18 weeks

31 1/2 weeks

She really looks like a little baby now that her face has filled out. We both think she looks a lot like her Mom. Here's a picture of Melanie as a little girl.

We learned that our little girl is head down right now and that she loves to put her right hand on her head (you can see her doing it in both pictures). She also loves to suck on her thumb and toes. We'll have to wait eight more weeks or so to learn more.

Camping, Baby Room and my Enormous Belly!

2008-07-28T05:58:00.004-07:00

We went camping this weekend with some friends. It was pretty hot and Lucy seemed to enjoy spending some time outside barking at everything that moved.

The baby room is really coming together! Now we just need to get some blinds and curtains and wait for the glider to arrive. Baby girl will be very well dressed for quite some time. :)

With 10 weeks left to go I can't imagine this belly getting any larger. She is getting pretty big and kicking me really hard! It's countdown time...

I remember when I thought this belly was large back in March - ha!

What should we name our baby?

2008-07-13T08:24:00.003-07:00

We're having some trouble deciding on a baby name. I came up with ten new names while flying out to Seattle to meet Melanie. I read all the baby girl names in this giant baby name book twice! I came up with ten new names I liked: Aili, Ashley, Samantha, Mya, Alana, Katelyn, Chelsea, Alisa, Chloe and Sydney. Melanie and I pondered these new names over lunch at Taco Time after she picked me up from the airport and we added a couple to our existing list. Please help us narrow it down with the baby name poll I just added!

House, Miami and Baby Room

2008-05-26T17:00:00.005-07:00

It seems like it's been a busy few weeks for us! We moved into our new house on May 3rd and were so thankful that my parents and some great friends were there to help us that day. We really couldn't have done it without them. I did as much as I could, but was careful not to lift too many heavy things. :)

I'm also really glad we backed out of the house that was being built in Laurel Park. It was a last minute switch we pulled, but there are so many things we like better about the house we bought. It's less expensive, a lot closer to work, 3 stories instead of two, five bedrooms instead of four, a basement room, lots more storage space, backs trees, larger lot, deck, in a cul-de-sac, I could go on. Oh, and we wouldn't be closing during the last month of my pregnancy and the busiest time at work for me.

I had a few days to unpack the essentials before I flew to Seattle for a work trip. Either those plane seats have gotten smaller or I have gotten larger. Either way, it was a tough flight. I felt really sorry for everyone who sat next to me as I was squirming around like a 3-year-old and put those throw-up bags to good use. :) I apologized to everyone who sat by me and warned them ahead of time of what might happen. Luckily they were all really friendly and understanding. It was nice to be back in Seattle for a week and the week went by really fast. It was really good to see my friends and family.

The day after I flew home to Raleigh Jon and I flew to Miami for a relaxing weekend. We didn't realize how badly we just needed to relax. It's tough for either of us to sit still and not work, clean, organize or make some sort of progress towards something. In Miami we were too far away from our new house to unpack any boxes so we decided to check-out Miami, the beach and just lie by the pool.

On Friday night we went to restaurant a co-worker of mine recommended - The Chart House. Saturday we went to the beach and layed by the pool and then saw Kevin and Caruso's magic show that night. Jon and I were both selected by the magician to go up on stage to help him with a trick during the show! I helped the magician with a card trick and Jon helped with one of those hiding tricks. Sunday we went on a 6 hour long city and boat tour - had we known it would last 6 hours we wouldn't have done it. :) It was really neat to see all the fancy celebrity homes in Biscayne Bay though. We relaxed by the pool the rest of the evening and Monday morning, then flew back home Monday evening.

Since we've gotten home from Miami we've been settling into the house and working on the baby room. It's not quite done yet, but we posted some picks of the progress we made this weekend. I hope our baby girl likes it. :)

It's a girl!

2008-05-07T05:42:00.006-07:00

We had our 18 week ultrasound yesterday morning and the technician told us that we're having a little girl! I don't have much time to write this as I'm on my way out the door but I just wanted to share the exciting news. She is about six inches long, showed a strong heartbeat of 155bpm and is healthy. I uploaded some pictures of the ultrasound to our photo gallery. The pictures from this ultrasound were really incredible. The technician even did a 3D ultrasound for us so you can see her little face. She told us that our baby is still very thin and her features will become more visible as she starts developing fat in the third trimester.

We also moved into our new house on Saturday. You can find pictures of the home there too.

We're having a baby!

2008-04-06T12:52:00.007-07:00

At the end of January, we found out that Melanie is pregnant. She's 13 1/2 weeks along now and other than a pretty rough first trimester (nausea, exhaustion, etc.) everything is going great. The baby is healthy, has a strong heartbeat, and we've even seen him/her kicking in ultrasounds. We don't know if it's a boy or girl yet, but we should find out at our 18 week ultrasound. We are both really excited to find out. I uploaded a few ultrasound pictures to our gallery. In one of them you can see the baby holding its hand up to its mouth. The little one is due October 7th. I added a little baby ticker to the top of the blog to track the progress. :)

Six Months Gone By

2007-11-25T15:45:00.000-08:00

Like so many before me I will say that it's difficult keeping a blog up to date. Life just seems so busy sometimes and it's no surprise that blogging is one of the first things you stop doing when that happens. In any case, sorry for the six month sabbatical and I promise to do better this time.

Since I last posted, Melanie and I moved into a new home. We moved out of our temporary apartment, and we are now renting a three bedroom townhouse in north Raleigh. It's brand new and really nice inside. It has a two car garage and plenty of space for all of our things. It's only three miles down the road from where we were living so it's still a great commute to work. The only downside is that the community is pretty tightly packed with homes so there isn't much greenspace for Lucy to run around. However, that should be resolved soon enough...

We originally rented the townhouse with the idea that it was spacious and nice enough for us to be quite satisfied staying a good while (at least one year). We were still anxious about buying another home since our last home took several stressful months to sell. However, after living here only a few months I found myself wanting to buy another home. I really can't say why the feeling struck me. Melanie wasn't originally convinced but that more I thought about it, the more excited I got. I started thinking that the housing prices are slowing right now and it would be a very good time to buy. I didn't want us to get priced out of a home we could buy now by waiting a few years for things to pick up again. Thankfully, we had been casually looking at homes since we moved to Raleigh in March so we really had a good idea of what we wanted and where we wanted to live. We met a real estate agent and just a few weeks into looking we found our new home.

We found a new construction community just inside Cary on the border of Apex. The homes were in our price range and had great floor plans, which included Melanie's dream kitchen bar and great upgrades like 10 foot ceilings (how's that sound, Kutch?) and two-piece crown molding. They're also a good commute to work. However, what really sold us both was that the community backs to a public park. In fact, our home site backs to a wooded buffer and the park is directly on the other side. We'll be able to walk from our back yard to the park! Since finding the home, we've already taken Lucy there several times and she loves it. The park is really incredible. It has several baseball and soccer fields, playgrounds, various other sport courts (tennis, volleyball, basketball), wooded walking trails and even a 2 mile trail around a lake. The home isn't expected to be finished being built until May, but that should be the perfect time to enjoy rollerblading or biking around the lake. Since our lot is currently just a plot of dirt, I took lots of pictures of the model home and put them in our photo gallery. There are two galleries, this one taken shortly after we signed the contract and this one I took when Mom came down to visit us in November. The second one has pictures of the floor plan we chose.

In between house hunts, we have been very busy. In July, Melanie had to fly to Seattle for work and I went with her. On our flight back, Melanie stopped off in Altanta for one night and met up with her cousin Flori. They had a great time catching up together and visited the Atlanta Aquarium. Melanie is actually flying on another business trip tomorrow. When we first moved here, I didn't expect her to be flying so often. I never like it when she leaves, but she's good at distracting me. This time she's leaving me a freezer full of lasagna. :)

On August 7th, Melanie and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary! We spent a few nights at the Outer Banks. The Outer Banks is really mellow and family-oriented. There aren't many hotels (mostly shore house rentals) but we stayed at the new Hilton in Kitty Hawk which is right on the beach. The view from our room was great and we got to fall asleep listening to the ocean. We also spent some time relaxing on the beach. The sand and sun were incredibly hot! I couldn't believe some people didn't have a beach umbrella. To celebrate our anniversary, we went out to dinner at an incredible steak restaurant called Prime Only. Most of the restaurants on the shore serve seafood so we were glad for the change. The restaurant was very romantic. It was inside an old converted house and was dimly lit with candles. The dinner was excellent! They served us warm, freshly baked bread and delicious martinis. We finished off our steak with strawberry flambe served over vanilla ice cream.

We've also had some visitors recently. Lissy, Herta, and Hillie came to visit us in early October. We hadn't seen Lissy or Herta since our wedding and it felt so good to see them again. We spent a lot of time talking. I did my best to follow along with any German but they also speak great English. We're looking forward to when we can visit them in Germany again. After Lissy and Herta left, Melanie and I went to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg with Hillie and John. We were surprised that the crowds were actually larger than in the summertime. Much of the park was converted to a Halloween theme, including a section of the park inhabited by wolfman!

Recently, Melanie and I started focusing more on our hobbies. For my birthday this year, Melanie surprised me with my first guitar lesson in years. Since then, I've continued taking lessons at a small guitar shop in downtown Raleigh. Playing again makes me really happy and helps me unwind from work. I learned how to play "Blackbird" which is a song I've always loved. To return the favor, I got Melanie a sewing machine for her birthday and she's started quilting.

That's all I'll write for now. I'll try to keep posting more often!

Memphis in May

2007-05-13T14:35:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Melanie and I visited Memphis, Tennessee. I was going there for a software testing conference at the University of Memphis and we thought it would be fun to check it out. After all, we weren't sure when we would visit it otherwise. We arrived on Saturday. The conference wasn't until Monday so we had a few days to explore the city first. I made the mistake of not getting a rental car and quickly found out that the university was not near the downtown area. We ended up taking cabs everywhere we went, but it wasn't that bad. Every cab driver was very nice and rather conversational. In fact, most people we met were very nice and hospitable! On Saturday night, we stumbled upon an incredible restaurant called J. Alexanders. There was a little wait for a table so we headed over to the bar for a drink. We enjoyed the service at the bar so much that we ended up ordering our entrees there. I'm rarely impressed by service at restaurants (actually, many of our customer service experiences are pretty bad) but we really had a great dinner and then took a cab back to the hotel. I really wish there was a J. Alexander's in North Carolina!

On Sunday, we had tickets for the Memphis in May festival. We took a cab down to Beale St. around 10 in the morning and spent the morning checking out souvenir shops and getting lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Beale Street is a touristy strip that has one bar/restaurant after another with souvenir shops sprinkled throughout. In the humid sunshine, the whole street smells like beer. The street was blocked off for the festival but it didn't really get crowded until the afternoon. By then, we headed down to the waterfront to the concert stages. We spent a few hours at the concerts, but when the rain started pouring down we decided to head over to the mall and see Spiderman 3. After it was over, we did some people watching on Beale St. There were a few groups of musicians just hanging out on street corners playing blues [video], which I thought was really cool. We had a really good time visiting Memphis. The city itself is somewhat run down and it can get pretty hot, but it was definitely worth a visit.

We're saving babies

2007-04-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Walk America day. The walk started at the Nortel networks campus in Research Triangle Park. We got there around 9am and registered. Thanks to our parents' donations, we were able to raise $200 and received an "I'm saving babies" t-shirt. There were about 1,700 walkers that day and many of them brought their dogs along so Lucy was really happy. Nick and Emily met us there, and we had a good time at the walk together. The weather was amazing so the four of us spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool at our apartment. That night, we went to Frankie's Fun Park for some fun driving go-karts and playing mini-golf.

Last weekend, Mike took the Amtrak train and came down to visit us again. He attended a teacher job fair for Wake County public schools (coincidentally, about 1,700 people attended this also). He got really positive responses from several schools and now knows what credentials he would need to teach in this area.

Melanie and I also spent some time looking at several new housing developments in the area. We found a few we liked, including one called Brightleaf. It is right up the road from our apartment and is only 6 miles from work! We also found one in Apex, but the community is filling up quickly and is more than twice the distance from work as Brightleaf.

Melanie and I are going to Memphis, Tennessee the first week of May. I was asked to speak on a panel at the STEP software testing workshop at the University of Memphis on May 6th. It will be a really good opportunity for me to learn some new things and share what I've learned with other people in the testing community. I also found out that every May in Memphis there is a big street festival (quite creatively) called Memphis in May. It looks like a lot of fun and includes a barbecue cooking contest and three days worth of concerts on Beale St. Some of the bands playing include Counting Crows, Chris Daughtry, Edwin McCain, The Allman Brothers, Kenny Wayne Shephard, and Steely Dan. We will definitely be attending one day of the festival while in Memphis!

March of Dimes WalkAmerica 2007

2007-04-12T06:12:00.000-07:00

This week at work, I learned that my team at Microsoft will be participating in the March of Dimes WalkAmerica 2007. Melanie and I thought it was a great idea and we really wanted to participate. We will be walking (well, maybe jogging) 3K on Saturday, April 21st with members of several other tech companies in the Research Triangle area. Please support our fundraising efforts by sponsoring us in WalkAmerica today. Any amount you can contribute will help us a lot.

The money we raise helps save premature and sick babies. Premature birth is the #1 cause of newborn death and the biggest threat to babies’ health today, and through WalkAmerica, the March of Dimes is funding important research to find out why premature birth happens and what can be done to prevent it.

Contributing to the walk online is fast, easy and secure. You can donate directly from our personal webpages with a credit/debit card or PayPal. If you prefer, we can also accept cash or check. Just click the appropriate box on the webpage.

You can donate on either of our websites:
Melanie's WalkAmerica Page
Jon's WalkAmerica Page

There is a video on youtube that provides more information about what WalkAmerica is. Click the link below to see the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVghSy-Cens

Thanks,
Jon

Kevin and Kelly's Wedding

2007-04-08T18:05:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend in Wheeling, West Virginia for Kevin and Kelly's wedding. We left Raleigh after work on Thursday and drove for around 4 hours to Beckley, West Virginia. This drive was so beautiful - so many sunny rolling green hills! On Friday morning we left Beckley and drove to Wheeling in another 4 hours and made it to the Oglebay Resort in the mid afternoon. The rehearsal was at 5 followed by the rehearsal dinner at 7 which Kevin's mom organized.

Saturday was their wedding day and it snowed! I went with Kelly and all the women to the salon to get my nails done and to spend time with Kelly. I was planning on wearing my hair straight, didn't really feel like fussing over it. Kelly, Anna (bridesmaid) and Ariana (Kevin's cousin or "groomsman") all got their hair done so beautifully that I decided at the last minute that wearing my hair straight wasn't such a great idea! The nice lady who did my chewed-up nails was giving me pointers on how I should style my hair so I asked her to just give me a few curls so she did. :) Sara Castro (co-worker) met us at the salon too and I chatted with her a bit. It was so nice to see another familiar face there. I hadn't realized how much I actually miss everybody from home.

We all went back to Oglebay to do our make-up and get dressed for the wedding and the ceremony was on at 4:30! It was very sweet and Kelly and Kevin seemed very much in love. :) We could see the snow flurries in the window behind their trellis. I had a few maid-of-honor duties (ie hold Kevin's ring and don't lose so I just put it on my finger, hold their vow notecards and don't lose, hold Kelly's flowers and mine at the same time and don't drop them and they were not light I think I got an arm workout, ruffle Kelly's train, etc) and hope I didn't mess anything up too much! ;)

We took a few pictures afterwards and then the reception started. Jon and I were sitting at our table when out of the blue a girl sat right next to me and asked me if it was weird that she recognized me and knew who I was. I instantly said "you're Kristin from Arrowhead Elementary, right?" What a SMALL world. Never in a million years did I expect to run into anyone unexpected in Wheeling, West Virginia! Kristin was my former neighbor Danielle's friend and they did gymnastics together. Why I still remember this I have no idea. Her face hadn't changed at all, so I recognized it completely. It was so good to talk to her and get caught up.

The reception was also really nice. Jon and I danced a lot, the food was really yummy and we really didn't want the night to end. Today we spent 8 hours in the car to drive back home and pick-up Lucy from doggie daycare. I think she missed us. :)