Holiday Plans

Poor boys, cooped up in the house to avoid the cold!

Uncle Dennis & Aunt Sue came for another visit and spent some quality time with Margaux.

Drew & Dennis kindly shoveling our entire sidewalk!

We had never seen her suck her thumb before...so cute!

It's been very cold and very snowy this past week! We were happy to have another visit from my sister and brother-in-law. I was able to accomplish some things around the house and finish my Christmas shopping thanks to their help! We are leaving tonite for northern Michigan to spend Christmas with my family and then we will head to Mason on Saturday to visit with Patrick's family. The bummer is that he and I are both sick and the weather looks like it will make for a tedious drive! We are going to head out at midnight and give it a try as long as we feel it is safe. We have been looking forward to having Margaux meet some more of her family. Merry Christmas to all!

Our Tree

The Stockings Were Hung By The Chimney With Care

Just a little over two weeks and it will be Christmas already...unreal. Time is getting away from me since the baby was born! We did get our tree this weekend, but not from a festive farm like last year where you cut your own. It's been frigidly cold here all weekend and so we ended up buying our cute but overpriced tree from a lot down the street. I went to decorate it tonite and realized that I didn't have any hooks for my new ornaments. So I will add tree decorating to my ever growing list of unfinished tasks including Christmas shopping and ordering holiday cards!

Still "Dog People"!

Jasper & his Sissy.
Buddy doing what he does best...getting into things! :-)

Margaux & Daddy watching Baby Einstein's Baby Beethoven.

Catching some z's.

I have always hated those stories where a couple are REALLY into their dogs, like madly in love, and then they have a baby and the poor dogs are pushed aside. I know people say they won't do it, but then it just seems to happen. Well, I am happy to report that Patrick and I still think that Buddy & Jasper hang the moon! (And hey, they were here first! Ha!) We are so proud of them for being so nice and gentle with Margaux, we especially see Jasper bonding with her. Buddy likes her too, but he's good with a few licks whereas Jasper is in it for the cuddling as well!

In Margaux news...she is such a sweet little girl! She has had some gas/poopy issues or possibly colic and so we switched her supplemental formula to soy this week and we are also trying some tips that were suggested to us by our pediatrician. It's probably too soon to know if the formula change has truly helped, but she seems to be having a good evening compared to the last few! I am not sure exactly how much she weighs now, but her eyes are starting to slightly change color from blue to a hazel color. She is very alert and today it seems we can coax real smiles from her! She's a gem.

Thanksgiving

Cousin Anna

Cousin Nick

Cousin Abby

Tuckered out from holiday festivities!

We were undecided how to spend our Thanksgiving this year. Originally, we thought we would spend it quietly at home just the three of us, well five, counting Buddy & Jasper! Then we had an incredibly kind offer from friends to spend it at their house. In the end, we made the drive up to Madison and spent the day and night with Patrick's sister Kim and her family. Margaux did great with her first roadtrip and we had such a nice time with family! The baby got spoiled with loads of attention and the holiday meal was DELICIOUS....thanks Kim & Mike! We are thankful for so many things this year...our beautiful & healthy daughter, one another, our families & many true friends and our stable jobs in a time of economic strife and uncertainty. Cannot believe Christmas is up next and we haven't ordered holiday cards or put up a tree yet! Oh yeah, still have to do the Christmas shopping as well! Yikes! :-)

Milestones & Vampires

"I'm one month old today!"
Twilight, the movie.

Yes, The Girl is one month old today! It's crazy how fast the time goes, especially when you don't want it to. She is such a nice baby and we fall more and more in love with her every day. It's imposible to imagine our life without her now. I have eight more weeks of maternity leave and we must begin the task of interviewing childcare providers...stressful! It's only two days a week but I would still rather just stay home with her. No one can take care of her like Mommy! We had a really nice weekend with our friends Chris & Sarah and their little daughter Sophie. They came to visit from MI to meet Baby Margaux as Sophie fondly calls her! :-) Yesterday afternoon I went to see Twilight with my friend Bex and LOVED IT!!! I have no shame in my game about how much I love the book series by Stephenie Meyer and the movie version did not disappoint.

Brrrr!

I talked to a a few family members in MI today who informed me that they had snow and I sat here feeling all smug that we did not. Wrong! We have a little sticking to the ground this evening. Not that I really care, I am actually one of the crazy ones who enjoy the winter season. I enjoy dressing up in my winter duds and shoveling the front walk at night...the street lights on and flakes silently falling and me doing some of my best thinking as I work. I also enjoy cozy days and nights by the fireplace, it will be all the better this year with baby Margaux. Friday afternoon one of my dearest friends, Jodi, along with her two children and her mother stopped by for a visit. We also enjoyed a nice weekend visit with Patrick's mother, Joanne, who of course adored her granddaughter! We had sushi for dinner one night, my first since being pregnant and it was DELISH!!! Next weekend our friends Chris, Sarah & Sophie are coming to visit and we are looking forward to that. A happy week ahead to you all...

First Appointment

She looks extremely suspect of that bunny rabbit!

So we took Margaux to her first pediatrician appointment today and she did great! She now weighs 9 lbs. 4 oz. and measures 21 inches long. She's quite the little eater! We love Dr. Armand Gonzalzles...we definitely recommend him if you live in the Chicagoland area! We took her by the hospital to visit my coworkers after the appointment and tonite Aunt Kim is spending the night. It was a very nice day.

Sunday Night

Bath time uproar!

She sleeps.

Grateful

One of the beautiful pictures taken by Dale Murray...I have added a link to the gallery, check it out! Margaux was Dale's first baby model and I think the two of them worked well together! This shot was almost used for the announcements but she had the newborn cross-eyed thing going on! :-)

We are on our own now after having the amazing support of my family since October 22nd. My sister Susan and my brother-in-law Dennis brought my parents down and stayed the first week. Susan was a huge help with the baby and she also cooked meals and was a superwoman at helping us get our cluttered basement sorted out! Dennis went and got donuts every morning and enjoyed holding Margaux. My mom also took care of the baby a lot and she did a TON of laundry while my dad kept the dishes clean and did some yard work. Thank you to my brother Charlie who drove down this weekend with my sister Ruth to see the baby and take my parents home. Ruth was also a worker bee when she was here...cleaning and making her delicious potato soup that I love! I wish they could have stayed a bit longer...not to have them doing work for me, but just to have them here visiting and getting to know Margaux. I am so fortunate to have such a wonderful, supportive family. These first few weeks of recovery would have been very tough without them! I am feeling thankful today, but also sad that they live so far away.

HALLELUJAH!!!

Going For A Stroll

Today was unseasonably warm for November in Chicago and so I decided to take The Girl for her first walk in her stroller. We just went around the block but she seemed to enjoy it.

Happy Halloween!

"She's Quite A Girl"

So she is finally here! Margaux Violet was born via c-section on Friday, October 24th at 4:57 a.m. She weighed 7 lbs. 6.7 oz. and measured 20" long. She is absolutely delicious and we are madly in love with her! We went to the hospital on the morning of the 23rd for induction of labor and after 16 hours realized that it just wasn't happening. It turns out her presenting position was a bit off and she also had a tight/short cord around her neck. The c-section recovery is painful and it was not what we had imagined for a birth experience, but to keep it in perspective we have ourselves a gorgeous and healthy little daughter. Patrick is a total natural at being a daddy and I love her so much that I find myself tearing up over it several times a day! Buddy & Jasper are adjusting like champs and we are very proud of them. My parents and my sister Susan and brother-in-law Dennis are staying with us and have been a huge help. Patrick is returning to work today after a week off and I am home until mid-January. My dad, who is a man of little words and a tad nervous about holding tiny newborns a whole lot, leaned over Margaux and I on his way out from visiting us in the hospital and said, "She's quite a girl!" I agree, quite a girl indeed. I plan to link up my Picasa albums to this blog very soon.

Tree Top

(The hutch with the finished doors attached...my sister Ruth did a beautiful job! And brother-in-law Doug fit the dowls to wedge them in place! Thanks!)

I got this idea for the tree branch while flipping through a Pottery Barn Kids catalog not realizing that Patrick would be so gung-ho to take on the project by himself. More power to him, it looks great! We got the branch from my parents' property in northern Michigan and Patrick painted it to look like birch and added the artificial leaves and moss along with a few birds and nests. I love it! We are on the lookout for a bluebird and possibly a small owl and butterfly. This weekend Patrick is going to sponge paint a bit of blue sky and white clouds on that little corner of the ceiling.

More pics...

Lara & Trish
Paula, Addison & Mandy

Also in attendance were some other cherished friends. I met Lara ten years ago when we worked together at a medical office and her mom Trish is as cool as they come! Lara was in my wedding and her dad, Rudy, officiated at our wedding. I have also been blessed with new friends in Melissa's family...her mom Paula and her sister Mandy. (Of course her dad, Dean, was not in attendance!) Patrick and I both miss our families and so it's a beautiful thing to have found a little bit of family here in Chicago!

Baby Shower III

Nurses rule.
Peggy & Silvia
Melissa & Addison
Peggy's little old girl, Toto.

Yesterday was my third and final baby shower hosted by my three friends/co-workers Peggy, Melissa and Silvia. It was a warm and gorgeous fall day and it was held at Peggy's home in Park Ridge. And just like I predicted, it was my loudest & rowdiest shower of the three...like the grand finale of the fireworks! (Complete with drinking games and all!) There was way too much delicious food and I received so many wonderful and generous gifts that I did not go to the apple orchard this morning as planned, but stayed home to try to organize so that we can have more than just a walkway path in our livingroom! I had such a fun time and I have been amazed by the support I have received from my friends at work...I have the BEST co-workers in the world!!!

Sleepy Boys

It was a lovely autumn day and great weather for an afternoon snooze!

More Nursery Decor

Baby, baby, baby! (Chant it like Jan Brady's "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!") I know, it's all I talk about lately...baby stuff. But really? It's kind of all I have right now! I promise I will try to get some portion of an interesting life back once I'm not pregnant anymore...but I won't even pretend that this blog won't also be plastered with the new little princess very soon! ;-)

Home Stretch

Here we are with only one more day left in September and only 24 more days left of this pregnancy if all goes as planned! I am on the schedule for induction of labor on Thursday, October 23rd. I will be 38 weeks at that time and judging from last week's ultrasound, the baby should be in the 8+ pound range by then. I am hoping to keep working through October 19th, but in all honesty it is getting VERY difficult to be on my feet for 12 hours despite the fact that I fancy myself a "tough girl". I plan to return to work in mid-January. Patrick is taking a little bit of time off as well and my parents and my sister Susan will be arriving here on October 22nd. While I was in Michigan this past weekend for my baby shower, Patrick made a lot of headway on the things that he needed to do to get the nursery and the guestroom in order. I have been teasing him that he just NOW realized we are having a baby! :-) All of the furniture is in place and now it is just a matter of doing some serious organization and finishing touches.

Baby Shower II: Lansing, MI

Tera, me & Sarah

Yesterday was my second baby shower hosted by my very dear friend, Sarah. It was a classy little ladies luncheon held at Christie's Bistro/Sheraton Hotel in Lansing, MI. As I did at my first shower a few weeks ago, I again had a wonderful time! Sarah knows me well and she put extra special effort in attention to details. The food was delicious, the setting pristene and the ladies in attendance were fabulous company! I received so many beautiful gifts...I loved everything! I feel incredibly thankful to have family and friends that are already so welcoming of our baby girl.