Ada's first holiday season

I can't believe Ada is almost 5 months old!  She has been growing fast, and has almost doubled her weight.  She rolls over, sometimes all the way across the room, and has recently started to push up on hands and knees and launch herself onto her nose. She's a pretty happy kid overall, and we are thankful for her smiles and babbles. We all look forward to family time on the weekends.

I went back to work in the middle of October, and am enjoying things.  Day care was hard at first, but is going well.  We like the teachers, and she seems to do fine there.  Matt started a new job last week, and is happy to be in a new environment and have more face-to-face time with co-workers. We also get fancy gym memberships as part of his job, so have been exploring fun fitness classes.

We hosted 25 people at Thanksgiving, which was super fun. I was a bit weirded out cooking a turkey that was the same weight as my child. Everyone was very helpful, which made it easy. I feel like I have more to be thankful for than ever before.

We've been getting out on dates, thanks to family members babysitting efforts. It's my birthday next week - the big 30. People keep asking me if I feel old, but being a mom  makes me feel older than being 30 makes me feel.

Playing with cousin Theo on the floor

In her office at day care

All smiles most of the time.

Summer's over?

We have all been getting a reasonable amount of sleep these days and ate very thankful for it. Ada is smiling more and interacting more every day. She likes to make faces with you and makes happy gurgling noises.

I started teaching at the university today and will be teaching twice a week for the rest of the year. I think it will be a nice change of pace from baby time.

Matt and I have had a couple of date nights, courtesy of my mom. It's been great to be able to get out just the two of us. I usually feel so much more rushed with the kiddo. We are trying to get out and bring her along to fun things too and are learning how much we can all do. It's definitely a readjustment.

Getting to know baby Ada

Ada is spending more time awake and alert. It's pretty fun and she makes some funny faces.

I don't have much news as we have mostly been at home getting to know our little one.  It's a bit is odd spending so much time in the house, but glad that we have such a nice house to spend time in.  We've taken her out to various friends and family homes, to cycling track racing, to the beach, and to Costco. We took our first two-cart Target run (one for Ada and one for four boxes of diapers and two boxes of wipes). And we are excited to move on to more exciting adventures someday.

Two weeks in

Ada was born at 2:30 in the morning on her due date, July 16th.  I started having contractions around 11:30 and we barely made it to the hospital in time to start pushing. Luckily there isn't much traffic at midnight. We are thankful that it went quickly and she made it out healthy and happy. 

She came with a full head of dark hair and dark eyes at 8lbs 2oz and has been gaining weight like a champ.

I lost a lot of blood in the process so we spent some extra hours in the hospital.  They were super nice and helpful.  Order the pot roast and sherbet. 

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of learning and snuggling with occasional sleeping.  She is so cute and fun it's usually hard to be unhappy about lack of sleep and poopy diapers.

Matt goes back to work on Monday, so we'll have another change to adapt to but I'm sure we'll figure it out.

Thanks for the love and well wishes! 

Babytime is anytime

We have been having a lovely spring and summer with lots of time spent just the two of us and lots of time spent with family and friends.  A couple of weekends ago, we got together with a group of old friends from out of town and went up north to spend some time on the lake.  It was great to catch up and relax for a long weekend.

A friend of ours took some nice maternity photos for us

We've been wrapping up our window refinishing project, and are getting new blinds as well.  So much excitement in home ownership.  Matt's been getting out on frequent weekday runs, and I am still doing some pregger lady yoga and fitting in long walks in the woods.  

Two weeks to baby's due date!  Our hospital bag is packed, and I think we have about everything we could possibly need for the kiddo and for us.  That's what you get with a planner.  I'm still enjoying this pregnancy thing; it's a fascinating process.  

Baby's room, all ready to go

Mama and baby red pandas

Leafy springtime

It's just about full-on summer here in the Twin Cities.  Our backyard is all leafed out, and the neighborhood turkey seems to spend a lot of fluffing/noisemaking time in our yard or in the cul-de-sac.  We love our hous, and it feels so cozy!  Matt and I have been working on a few house things with the help of a few friends and family, including refinishing our window sills and replacing electrical plates.  We re-seeded the shady parts of our lawn with great success.  Hopefully it stays lawnlike through the summer now that the leaves are out.  The deer enjoy our hostas (though only one kind) and other perennials.  We saw one right in our front walk when we came home the other night, presumably taking a break from our greenery buffet.

Baby is due 7 weeks from yesterday.  Last weekend, my cousin threw a lovely shower for me.  It was great to see so many family folks, some of whom live outside the cities.  Festivities included a matching game to match the animal to the baby animal name and sculpting babies out of play-dough.  Who know a baby platypus was called a puggle?

Matt's been traveling a bit for work, so we are looking forward to a few weeks together at home.  We have been spending some good time with friends and family (some with babies of their own), and are super thankful to have such a big support network here.  We are taking a birthing class at the hospital next Saturday (all day!), so will get to see the Mother Baby Center and learn a bit more about this mysterious event.  

I'm making a lemon tart today and am so excited about it.

Growth Spurt

Baby and I have been growing fast these days.

Matt and I spent Easter weekend on a mini-babymoon in NYC visiting my sister and his brother, both of whom live in the area.  We had originally planned a longer babymoon to NYC and the Dominican Republic, but then an outbreak of viral disease happened, so we shortened it.  New York was a lovely time, though, with lots of walking and catching up.  Apparently baby was going through a growth spurt, so those round ligaments were a little sore, but totally worth it for the fun walks and delicious foods.  We went the the Easter Parade on 5th Ave, which is more like a huge block party, complete with excellent hats.  And bubbles!  And we had ice cream, of course.

We've started accumulating more baby things, including some loans from wonderful friends, hand-me-downs from kind relations, and buys from craigslist.  It turns out the folks you meet buying baby stuff on craigslist are usually super nice and excited for you.  Much better than the people you buy electronics from on craigslist.

My ultimate team was so kind to throw us a baby shower last weekend, with block decorating as one of the primary activities.  These folks took to the task with a gusto, so we have some awesome and nerdy blocks spanning the alphabet, numbers, and other themes.

We are getting pretty excited about this baby thing.

Girl baby!

We had our 20-week ultrasound last week (at 22-weeks) and the running hypothesis is that we have ourselves a little girl baby.  It was fun to see her wiggling around in there, and good to know that all her parts are appropriately sized at the moment.  The best still showed baby's legs in a lunging stance.  I hope she has strong legs like mama!

I've recently graduated from the beer belly phase to the point of being pretty obviously pregnant, which has been odd.  Luckily, I have some awesome pregnancy pants that I got on the cheap on craigslist.

We've started looking at things to buy for baby, and it alternates between exhilarating and overwhelming.  Who knew they made such fancy strollers and baby carriers.  Another shock was perusing baby clothes at the store, where there was a distinct girls' section (85% pink, 10% purple, 4% yellow, and 1% green) and boys' section (75% blue, 20% green, and who cares whatever else).  What if baby's favorite color is not pink?  I know, blasphemy.  It was fun to see all the tiny little things and intimidating to think we'll have a tiny person to wiggle into them.  

Adding another to our awesome team

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes. .  you know.  Babies.  We are happy to announce that we are expecting another addition to Team Haggling in July!  The big ultrasound is next week, so we should have some more news soon.

We have been trying to knock our some minor house things and get our head around just what it is we are getting into.  It's been a fun winter with several trips, including a week skiing in December, a beach tournament in January, a trip to the cabin up north, and a fun weekend with friends in February.  We are planning weekend trips to New York later this month and Arizona in April.

It's great to be all settled into our house.  We still love it and feel lucky everyday to have such a cozy place to call home.  It should be interesting to have another person-though quite small-around.