Hangin' out

Just hangin' out on a Monday.Sorry, Lou, we can't watch a dvd because our dvd player is broken (not that you would pay attention anyway, you don't care much for t.v.)
Missin' daddy.But happy to have mama to play with.
(and to clean up her messes)

Thanksgiving 09

Thanksgiving this year was really nice. We spent it in the same place we did last year, at my aunt's. It was interesting reflecting on how last year I was pregnant and now this year Louisa is here! My little niece recognized how this was a great phenomenon :) She kept asking me, "so is there a baby in your tummy?" to which we'd reply, no not now, Louisa was in my tummy before, but now she's not! Gayla still looked a little confused, but she smiled and danced off anyway. Later she asked me, "Oh, so is there a second baby in your tummy!?"

So yes, as always we enjoyed visiting with family and eating the food that was so lovingly prepared. Lou was a big hit and enjoyed playing with all the kids. She truly would love to have kids to play with every day. She just feeds off their energy and youthfulness.

I have never really done much cooking for Thanksgiving. All growing up it was my aunt, the caterer, who did the bulk of the high maintenance cooking. We did some smaller dishes but I never learned how to cook a turkey, for example. One day, I would like to try. Especially after hearing all these stories of friends who cooked up deliciousness. I'd better start practicing at least a year in advance though, maybe two. :)
Now, to watch some football! (The Apple Cup is today) Friends from school are coming over....
GO COUGS!

This person

We are thankful for this person.

...how could we be otherwise?

It is quite obvious, if you read this blog, that we see Louisa as the most wonderful, supreme gift from God in our marriage.
We are thankful to be her parents.
We are thankful that she is healthy.
We are thankful that she has taught us selflessness and a deeper level of love.
We are thankful that we get to kiss her every night and wake up to her sweet face every morning.
We are so thankful for many other blessings; like our faith, our family, our friends, our freedom, and each other.

These are just a few of my thoughts of gratitude.

Hopefully tomorrow provides an opportunity for you all to reflect on what you're thankful for, too.

My little "helper"

She really had a system going. She was sure to make sure each utensil was "washed" enough before putting it "away" on the floor. Back when we found out we were pregnant with Louisa, I was so thrilled to hear we were having a girl for our first because I thought, "perfect, now I will have a mama's helper!" And here she is, at 9 1/2 months, already practicing. What a lucky mom I am :)

Joy

Christmas traditions

Still no photos to post. I'm sorry, I'm disappointed too. Posts just seem boring without a visual. But, I just wanted to say that since Tuesday I've felt better about things around here. I was able to get some laundry done, and more importantly put up some festive decorations! Yes yes, I may be a little early for Christmas deco. I probably could have waited until after Thanksgiving next week but I was feeling like a change in the apartment. Do you ever get like that, where you just need to re-arrange some furniture or decorate for a new season? I was getting that bug, so I didn't resist putting up some decorations. Also, it makes sense because the Byzantine version of Advent is actually upon us. If you guys don't mind, I'll just go ahead and link to two good posts about this. Anne and Renee wrote about the Byzantine Catholic customs around this time. (You ladies did a great job, so I hope it's okay that I'm linking to your blogs)

This will be Mike and my first Christmas together where we aren't moving, so we can really try to settle into some family traditions. So far, we have simply managed to get the prayer book and settle on some ideas for fasting, but I'm feeling like it's a decent start. I am hoping that doing serious spritual preparations this season will help us to welcome the birth of Christ at Christmas in an especially meaningful manner; really the way it is intended to be for Christians. It is important to nurish my faith around this time because I have a tendency to get caught up in some of the exterior, and sometimes shallow, traditions (like gift-giving, parties, etc.) Since this will be Louisa's first Christmas, I would also like to give her the gift of family tradition - even if she is too young to remember. It is going to be so neat watching Lou experience her first Christmas; very special stuff. I'm looking forward to this holiday season... can you tell? (I basically have skipped over Thanksgiving and gone right to Christmas :) Oh well!

Home

We are back now! Ah, doesn't it always feel so wonderful sleeping in your own bed again after being away? I also love coming home to a clean apartment/house. Even though that was the case, it is now quite messy as the unpacking has ensued. I'm actually feeling a little overwhelmed at this very moment because things really got thrown around for some reason. That, along with the fact that there is only about a week until Thanksgiving then Christmas just around the corner has got my mind in a jumbled state of mind. Another thing is that Mike is back to work! This is very exciting for us. So that also means I'm going to be adjusting to having Lou to myself again. And more Lou time = less cleaning time :) As I'm typing, Louisa is taking another morning nap. Unfortunately she fell asleep in my lap so it's not really conducive to me getting anything accomplished except for updating my blog. I went ahead and did a new header so I would feel better...do ya like it? Lou's bald head makes me chuckle... :)

Pictures of the trip to come. Maybe? Well, I didn't get to take any with my camera. We did get a few with Mike's, but they didn't turn out that nice. So I'll have to wait and see if my mom-in-law got some good shots.

Wish me luck with getting things back in order!

Before we go

Hi all. So, I've been sick. Which is my excuse for not blogging. Really, I probably could have because I spent most of the last two and a half days in bed and I actually got bored at times. Still, I didn't feel like blogging, much. This cold was frustrating for several reasons, most of all because I was so tired but I could barely get any sleep. Especially at night, I just kept waking up and was too uncomfortable to sleep. Louisa and Mike seem to be doing well, so we are hoping it stays that way and they don't catch my cold. I am feeling lots better, but still not 100 percent yet. I hope I can get in a good night's sleep tonight; I'm sure that would help.

I took these pictures (with my phone) today because I finally felt well enough to go outside so I was happy to be able to do that. It was raining a bit, but we didn't mind.

It can sure be hard to get sick when you have a baby (one or more) to care for. That's something I never really thought of before! Mike actually took Louisa to church on Sunday while I stayed home to rest. That was quite strange for both of us. But yeah, he was very good about taking care of both Lou and I while I fought off the cold.

We are off to a few different places for a little while, so you won't hear from me. Will post pictures when we get back, of course. Caio! ;)

Friday's scattered thoughts

Just some quick, blurb-type things to say on this Friday...

-I just filled out an order form on the kcls.org website to request that they buy a book. I have heard you can do it, but this is the first time I have. I'm kind of excited to see if they will purchase it or not. It's called Four Witnesses and its about the early Christian Church. If they do I will be really happy because then I don't have to buy it. I've always been bad about spending too much money on books so this is one way of working on that.

-Baby gates are expensive!! Mike had this idea of completely baby-proofing our living room/dining room area so that we wouldn't have to keep pulling her away from trouble (the phrase I say quite frequently these days is, "Louisa, that's not for babies") so I went on Babies R Us.com and the darn plastic baby gates are 40 bucks!! For one! Ridiculous. Don't worry, in my second effort to save money I have emailed a few people on Craigslist. It does makes me a little nervous though because what it they are flawed or something?

-I can't believe the news stories as of late. A baby left under a bed for 12 hours, mass murderers, unemployment up to 10.2 percent, shootings....ugh my heart feels like it is breaking every time I turn on the t.v. I might need to take a break from the news. But is it just me or does there seem to be a lot happening all at once??

-There was a storm last night. Goodness gracious there was some amazing lightning and booming thunder. It felt like our building was even shaking at times. Anyone else in the area impressed by that storm? It's still in progress, actually, and I'm rather enjoying the sound of the wind right now as I type.

-This evening we are having friends over for dinner. They are a couple and they are expecting! :) I'm so excited to talk pregnancy and babies.

-Finally, my grandma brought up an oriental rug earlier and I'm needing some help deciding if it looks good or not. I think I like it but I don't know for sure. For the most part it matches our furniture but I don't know if I'm crazy about the colors (It's pretty orange-ish.) Maybe you can tell that I have an old fashioned design sense, but be honest if you think it's just plain ugly.

Also, Happy Birthday to Anne! I hope you have a lovely, blessed day!

Dr. Appt's and ice cream

Lou's doctor appointment went well. I was totally vigilant when it came to hand sanitizer, because of course it would not be fun to take some unwanted germs home. They had a waiting room for the sick kids and one for those just there for a well-child check up. I heard one mom tell her little son, "we are in here because we don't want to be with the sick kids." Even though it was true, it sounded kind of odd to me. Maybe it was her tone of voice, I'm not sure. Like, those are the contaminated children. Haha. It occurred to me that her kid could be sick already, and just didn't know it yet. Isn't it true that you're contagious even before you show symptoms?

Anyway, Louisa is a healthy baby all around. She is up to 17lbs 6oz so finally, at 9months, she has doubled her birth weight. She is in the 25th percentile for weight. 50th for height and 70th for head circumference. Her ears looked good, which is a relief because I had suspicions about an ear infection. I guess all her pain and discomfort is related to teething, after all. The pediatrician (who is not our normal one) said that the only thing we should try and do is increase her solid food intake and vary her diet. She didn't explicitly say it, but she didn't seem completely pleased when I told her how much I still nurse her. I don't get it, everywhere I read it says that breastfeeding should continue to at least a year and even beyond, if possible. Also, that babies, whether breastfed or bottle fed, should be getting 90% of their nutrients from that and not solids. I don't know, maybe I just read into what she was saying a little too much. She could have just been concerned when we told her that Louisa is pretty sensitive to texture in her foods. She has a strong gag reflex so it's not always easy having her eat anything that isn't almost completely smooth. In order to get more Vitamin D in her, she recommended beginning yogurt made with whole milk. We did buy some Baby Yo today and she seemed to really like it; so maybe we'll try giving her that on a regular basis. Also, we need to be giving her foods rich in iron.

After the appointment we came home for nap time. Later we decided to go for a walk and ended up stopping for ice cream. Didn't really make too much sense, because it's been rainy and icky all day, but we were in the mood so we did. We were also in a very sympathetic mood (because poor Louisa has been so miserable) so we decided to let her taste a little orange sherbet ice cream. She was a big fan.

Cutting teeth

From the time she woke up this morning she has been a snotty, stuffy, runny, crabby, clingy, um...mess. We've suspected teething now for a long time (feels like forever), but no teeth have appeared. As of a few days ago, though, I can actually feel two sharp teeth coming in on the bottom, so we're thinking this could really be it. She wanted to nurse a ton this morning. Then she did a little better later on. Then she had a long afternoon nap, so I was able to leave her with daddy while I did some reading at Starbucks. Then she got cranky again and now it's looking like she's going to need an early bedtime. Oui!

9 month check up tomorrow...we'll get to see weight gain, yay!

Oh, and I found a cool new blog to read (this one is pretty political & religious, just to let you know! :)

Pro-life poster child

....literally!

I can't really type much because I have a cranky, teething, tired baby in my lap right now. (Poor thing, seems pretty darn uncomfortable today) I've been meaning to share this though. What it is is a poster made for the pro life group at Kennedy High School. We allowed them to "borrow" Louisa's face to help sell bracelets for their fundraiser. I hope we are able to help people change their hearts and mind about abortion...which is the single greatest human-rights issue of our time.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Out of all the pictures I took, I only liked a few. In most of them, she has this funny, confused look. Well, no wonder. I mean, she was wearing a big, fuzzy orange suit...the things we do to our kids ;P But it was a fun Halloween! After a yummy dinner, and a tiny bit of trick or treating, the adults played Scrabble (um, who thinks "batshire" a word?") and the baby slept.