merry christmas eve :)

the new face of Christmas...

things have changed a lot over 31 years of holidays and as i think back to those freezing yet warm winters in western iowa i sure miss a lot. driving from kc to marcus in a truck (sometimes with a pet but often without) listening to holiday music and occasionally running into nasty weather was always full of the anticipation of christmas eve, family, midnight mass and coming down grandma and grandpa's stairs to all of the stockings on the bannister with as many of the relatives as we could round up to celebrate the season with. i miss grandpa and i miss seeing grandma. i miss the unbridled anticipation and joy of being a child at such a magical time and then being the oldest grandchild who got to see everyone else learn about keeping the spirit of christmas alive for those tiny tots who still believe in santa. then, as christmas eve celebrations turned from great grandma pallesen's to grandma and grandpa's i initially missed seeing all of the 2nd and 3rd cousins and the massive amounts of food staged, often, in 3, 4 or even 5 sections of the house; but now i miss playing pinochle with all of the adults after staging all of the presents and filling all of the stockings - you know all of the general elf tasks of the evening. i miss the brady's, i miss marcus and - even though it was tough to leave the christmas fantasy of marcus iowa and on several occasions mom and i were driving past grand meadow before our eyes were drying out - i miss that feeling of leaving such a world of wonder and warmth and returning to life after christmas. on those holidays that kept me in kansas or missouri there were other memories that stand out, particularly the colored lights on my mom and my tree that i could always see from my bedroom as sleep would slowly subdue my imagination to the garland and tinsel that were staples of the decorations with dad, nancy, steven and other walsh family forums. some of those fourums were quite grand - especially when it included Grandpa Jack, other walsh family members and Brewers all converging at one of Jacks holiday dinner - gift-swap - santa-suited events. i miss those too...

but of everything i miss and have forgotten and left out of this post, it is all some reflection of what christmas and the holidays have been for me... and now it about her.

this is the new face of christmas and i hope that every holiday she celebrates can be as rich, warm, welcoming, comforting and loving as all of my fondest memories of the season are for me.

happy holidays to all of you who have been a part of our chrstmas past, present and future. zane

let it snow, let is snow, let it snow...

a few pictures from the storm...

appropriate title...3 "let it snow's" for 3 days of...constant snow. i swear, each time zane or i looked out the window this weekend we'd say "it's STILL snowing??" it started sometime friday afternoon and as of 7pm tonight, was starting to wind down. i'd be interested to see actual amounts measured, but i'd say we got a good 10-12 on friday and another 10 or so between yesterday and today. we were both really excited at the thought that we'd take avery out in the snow and let her play but a) it was SO cold yesterday when it wasn't snowing too hard (we took a walk to my parents with avery and the dogs and the little bits of my face uncovered were absolutely freezing) b) we realized she has no shoes appropriate for being out in the snow and c) zane shoveled and snow-blew and cleaned cars off so much i'm not sure he had any interest in being out in the snow more than he had to :)

we got a ton of house stuff done this weekend, rearranged the sunroom downstairs a bit and brought the changer and play yard to the upstairs sunroom (in anticipation of pickles' arrival...a bit early, but at least it's done! we've got a long way to go with figuring out where things (and people) are going to be settled this summer, so any bit that we can figure out is helpful.) this morning we ventured out to finish our shopping before the weather got worse. now zane just has a day and a half of work left before his long break and we get lots of family time!!

and last, but certainly not least...zane :) these pain me to look at, but the good news is that it's looking better each day! and no, none of the walsh girls took their hunger aggression out on poor dad...this is the result from playing football a week ago and an unfortunate run in with phil's elbow ;)

our bath monster :)

took this picture tonight. i think she's excited cause daddy has a snow day tomorrow and will be home! yay for 3 day weekends!

calm before the storm

today's a pretty calm day. lots of dripping outside from yesterday's snow. making room for tomorrow's storm :) we could get up to a foot around here and i'm actually looking forward to it! it'll be fun to take avery and the dogs out to play in it and see how well the cats manuever in the piles :) i'm sure after the first couple of storms i'll have had enough, but this is the first big one.

it's been calm and a little cranky around here too. last night avery woke up just an hour after she went to bed screaming. not just a "come reassure me" or "find my pacifier" cry, but her pain cry. after shushing her and rocking her and stripping her of her pjs to check her over, we couldn't see anything obviously wrong. after a few minutes we noticed she was pretty gassy and remembered she hadn't really gone to the bathroom all day. needless to say, her tummy must have hurt pretty bad :( while zane ran to the store to get some prune juice, i stayed with avery and we read some books and tried to take her mind off her discomfort. she calmed down, we gave her a few sips of juice and aside from a few short cries throughout the night, she was fine and her stomach seems to be back to normal today! however, she's exhausted...can't blame her. before her nap i found her in the playroom brushing her teeth ;) this brush is quite a bit bigger than her elmo toothbrush upstairs, but at least she's got the concept down...poor thing looks like she's about to fall asleep sitting up!

we're so ready and excited about the holidays!! zane just has 2 1/2 more days of work before he gets a nice long break and we've already started a rough list of the things we'd like to get done while he's got the time off. i doubt we'll even get through half of the things, but it's good to have a plan. i'm still absolutely exhausted for most of the day...not in a need to sleep way, but just overall body fatigue. i've got a drs appointment towards the end of the month, so i'm eager to hear what the dr has to say and what i can do. hopefully my energy picks up soon :)

great news! (and some thanks)

i got a call from avery's drs office this morning and her lead levels have gone from a 7 to a 3!! YAY! the state likes to see the number under 10, the drs office likes it under 5 (which is why we had her blood re-tested through a vein instead of a finger prick). SO happy that there's nothing to worry about and it makes me feel a lot better about putting her (and me) through the horror of taking her blood.

some thanks:
*to the brady's! thank you for avery's birthday presents! we love the books (and avery loves to walk around with them) and the overalls are perfect!! they fit her now and they've also got some room to grow. thank you so much for thinking of her!!

*to grandpa dan :) zane says thank you for the dewalt cordless drill! "it's a hell of a lot better than the black and decker one i've had for years" -direct quote :) THANKS!

and just to give you a taste of new england...there were near record highs yesterday-around 60 (maybe higher?) and now we're gearing up for some light snow overnight tonight and the possibilty of more snow on friday. crazy.

it finally feels like christmas!

nope, not because of snow. (or ice either...if we were still in nh we might still be without power from friday's ice storm. luckily, the boston area just got rain-thanks for those that called to check on us ;)) we got a christmas tree, did a little bit of shopping and have put up lights and some decorations. :) (click HERE for a small album)

after a COLD walk yesterday (where avery fell asleep snug in her covered stroller :)), we decided to go out and get a tree. we were debating real/fake for this year and finally decided on a real one...for maybe the last time in a long time. then, once we got to the very close and convenient tree place, we discovered how great the prices were and went for a 9 footer :) to be fair, the top was cut off some and so was the bottom, so it's more realistically a 7 1/2-er, but still...we decided to go all out. and now, after a few runs with the vacuum after the needles and struggling with the lights, we're both very excited to get a fake one next year :)

the weekend did get off to a rather rocky start. on friday i had to take avery to get blood drawn for lead test #2. at her 1 year appointment, they did a finger prick test for lead levels and the results came back higher than the dr's office likes, but still within the state's regulation. they wanted to do a follow up test, this time through a vein. it took 3 grown women (plus my mom and i, her at avery's feet, me at her head) to hold avery down and find a vein. this was after trying to get a vein while she was sitting up (about 3 tries in each arm). it was horrific. she cried. i cried. the people out in the waiting room could hear her and gave sympathetic looks when we left. after it was all over, she was completely fine, and aside from us trying to gently remove the tape from her arms afterward and not being very successful, i don't think she's given it a second thought. i, on the other hand, can't get it out of my mind. anyone have any tips?

better stuff:

*we turned avery's car seat around so she now faces out like the rest of us. it took a few short outings, but i think she really likes her view now and loves being able to see us in the front seat!

*babyproofing. and more babyproofing. we finally got some cabinet locks for our kitchen the other day and i'm sure they're going to work great. i've already gotten stuck multiple times trying to open a cabinet, forgetting the stupid little lever to push :)

*either i've been feeling tiny- and very sporadic-movements from pickles, or i've lost my mind :) they're different than the first pops i felt with avery, but maybe i dismissed these feelings with her and i'm just more aware this time around? we'll see what the upcoming weeks bring, but so far i'm pretty convinced.

*we got the CUTEST ornaments the other day from my friend bridget in bow!!! i dont have pictures yet, but they'll be the first ornaments to go on the tree. the first is a dancing ballerina pig, complete with tutu. the second...a pickle :) a german tradition of "find the pickle" on the christmas tree and the winner gets an extra present. we LOVE them! thank you thank you thank you. you always seem to know the perfect gifts!!

*avery is in complete copy cat mode :) if we say something, she'll usually try her hardest to repeat the word. tonight she was in the bath and we were having a screaming contest. it was my turn and i changed it up a bit and did a low growl. sure enough, instead of her high pitched scream, she gave a gutteral groan :) (she'll also say "ho ho ho" if prompted. she seems to get more and more fun every day!)

*we bought a toothbrush the other day (with elmo on it, surprise surprise) because avery now officially has 4 teeth (well, more like 3 1/2 :)) we started brushing her teeth last night in the bath tub and she couldnt get enough of it!

that's it for now, hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Tag! you're it :)

i've been tagged by holly (ourperrydise.blogspot.com)! if i'm doing it right, i'm taking the fifth post (or folder) from the start of the blog and picking the fifth picture posted and writing a little something (if i'm not doing it right, let me know!)

so...my fifth post didnt have a picture. i'll do the fifth month :)

and...the fifth picture is of our crib, so i'll add that and the next one :)

both these pictures were from our trip to kansas city the summer of '07. grandma kathy bought us our crib when we were there (we still love it!) and it was shipped to us soon after we got home.

the second picture is me, kristen and kathy, on the porch of kathy's house, showing off the bellies, before we had a delicious cookout! :) they both had to lean back to stick their bellies out ;)

jen (babyhardin.blogspot.com), you're it! :)

stir crazy!

it's been a miserable week around here weather-wise. avery and i have been cooped up for most of it and today wasn't much better. i ended up throwing most of the cushions off the couch for her to play on and she had a blast!! after zane gets home from work tonight we're going to try and get over to the kids space before it closes...give her another chance to run around and burn off some energy :)

teetering on the edge...

taking a water break...

and rolling once again!

now a hair question...i dont know if we should let her bangs grow out and keep sweeping them to the side or to really have her get a hair cut?? i dont want her to have a bowl cut, but what else would they do?? if there's anyone out there that can offer advice, i'm all ears :) just to show you what we're working with...

two belly shots from the past few weeks. the white is from week 11 i think and the pink is from week 13. i feel huge already...which is ridiculous, cause i clearly remember being 42 weeks and THAT was huge. we'll see how i do this time around :)

and now, after 4 days of minimal sickness, i think i can safely say the morning sickness has passed! now if i could get a little bit of energy back, things would be even better. but i'll take what i can get at this point!

lucky number 13

i'm about 13 weeks and woke up today feeling the best i've felt in weeks/months! not only did i not gag while changing avery's morning diaper (i don't remember the last time that happened!), i ate a waffle, english muffin, brownie, half a banana, half a donut and some of a small coffee for breakfast and some chicken nuggets with buffalo sauce and cucumbers for lunch. this is the most i've eaten in a 4 hour time span since october! very excited. i'm even thinking of all the meals we used to make and eat for dinners and none of them are making me feel sick.
(i'm still taking 1/2 a unisom and a b6 vitamin at night to help with the nausea and i think i'll keep taking it until i'm convinced i don't need it anymore. i've only missed it once and i felt terrible that day.)

in other pickle news...i've officially popped. nope, not my belly (that seems to have been a steady growing since week 7/8). my belly button. well, the top part of my belly button. hmph. we went out shopping on friday night (we threw avery's schedule half out the window, fed her dinner in the car and got fast food for ourselves...it was fun and she wasn't completely thrown off because of it!) and as i was trying on a sweater, i looked in the mirror and notice the "nose" on my belly. it was definitely not there thursday. and definitely there on friday.

in non-pickle news...we went to zanes work holiday party yesterday evening. there were a couple young kids there, so avery had a blast marching around the rooms trying out new toys and eating all sorts of snacks. she is definitely out of her shy phase (for now at least) and loves meeting new people and showing off her dancing skills. it was nice to meet a bunch of the people zane works with and even nicer just to get out and be in boston and feel like we were part of the social scene again :)

i'll post some more pictures later today...avery is down for her nap, the dogs are passed out on the floor and the cats are snuggled on the couch. it's about 20 degrees here, a perfect day for a warm nap ;)

it's my party and...

there were no tears shed!! not by mom, dad or avery :) big accomplishment!

we had a really nice, small get together to celebrate avery's birthday. she had a wonderful time and seemed at ease right away with everyone. i'm so proud of our little girl!!

here's a gallery with a bunch more pictures from her day. happy (1 year and 1 week) birthday, avery! :)

coming mid-june!

:) had my 12 weeks appt today and heard the baby's heartbeat--160bpm! :) there are a few blog posts that i have to go and publish back from october, but for now i'll leave you with avery and her sibling (ultrasound picture from about 7 weeks) :) enjoy!

**ok, so i've gone back and added some of the posts i've written along the way. most of them are about food and my extreme frustration surrounding it. :) any post that's brown and has **'s are new.

to answer some questions that i've already started to get:

-gender: no we will not find out what we're having this time. it's just too good of a surprise for us. we don't mind the wait :)

-for names: just like with avery, we have a few names for each gender, but won't know ourselves which name is best until after the baby is born. we'll be keeping them a secret til the birth

-due date: june 12th. or 19th. i had 2 ultrasounds early on, 2 days apart. they showed 2 dates, 1 week apart. so...i guess we'll know better at the big ultrasound how the baby is measuring. mid-june works for me!

-how i've been feeling: terrible. feeling so sick, hungry and tired. i swear i've never been this tired in my life. not even during the months of sleep deprivation after avery was born. whole body exhaustion that i can't nap off...it should be getting better soon though. yay!

today i got the news that my dr. is also pregnant. and due the week before i am. wonderful :) as happy as i am for her, i was so looking forward to seeing the same person throughout the pregnancy and delivery. ah well. other than that disappointing news, the whole appointment was short and not as sweet as i'd have liked. i half thought she'd do a quick ultrasound and i definitely thought she'd at least measure my belly. nope. just a quick find of the heartbeat (SUCH a beautiful sound!!), weight (lost a pound or two, but i'm sure i'll make up for it like i did with avery ;) and blood pressure. my next appointment is during zane's holiday break, so it'll be nice for him to come along.

zane and i have been watching the harry potter movies at night, but now we've run out and i'm looking for other things we can watch. i want to take advantage of these times we have to ourselves after one baby is asleep! i'm sure for a while we're going to be between one or the other and we'll long for these nights!

love zane, ally, avery and baby pickles :)

december, doctors and tooth #3!

i wanted to post this picture yesterday for the start of december, but the crappy laptop strikes again :) the computer room upstairs is on the cold side and i usually try to avoid being upstairs when avery is sleeping, but tonight i'm fighting through...

we had avery's 1 year appt today and she did great! zane finally got to meet the pediatrician and we had a good amount of time to hang around and ask questions.

she hasn't been a fan of milk anytime we've tried it, but he reassured us that as long as she likes yogurt and cheese (two of her favorites) she'll be fine if she doesn't drink milk and has water or juice occasionally. we haven't really given her any juice because she'll drink water any hour of the day. why ruin a good thing? we did, however, give her a couple of ounces of milk in a bottle while she was having dinner tonight and wouldn't you know...she gulped it down without hesitation. maybe she just wasn't a fan of her cups?

anyway, she checked out just fine and we go back in another 3 months for another visit.

current weight: 27 lbs 1 oz

height: 31 3/4 in.

she did get one shot and get some blood taken from her finger. she was not pleased at all with any of that, but had a good time checking out the bandaids on her finger (which she managed to pull off soon after we got home). after we ate dinner, zane tried to set a nice and relaxing atmosphere with some candles. she was very interested and i got a nice little shot of them together :)

it's official. one of avery's top teeth is FINALLY poking through the gums! i'm sure the other one will join in a few days just like her bottom teeth did. they've been so swollen and whitish looking for a while now, but this morning i could feel the tooth's jagged edge. YAY for more teeth!

*****mmm, pickles?*****

I’m so ready for this nausea to go away! Yesterday morning I told zane I was feeling pretty good and said ‘hey, I’m almost to the 2nd trimester and I’m feeling great!” we went for a walk to get bagels and hot chocolate and I started feeling terrible again. I’m going to guess it was because I didn’t eat much when I woke up (and didn’t eat anything overnight). i’m trying my hardest to eat (almost) continuously, but I’m getting so sick of the same foods.

We were in the grocery store over the weekend and as zane was looking for olives for avery, I found myself in the pickle aisle, practically drooling over the pickles. but I HATE pickles! We ended up getting a jar of the bread and butter spears and I surprised myself by trying them. They ended up being overly sweet for me, but I’m looking forward to trying a different kind. So strange. Pickles were never a food I even wanted to like (like yogurt and bananas). I was fine with not ever liking them. I guess I’m not at the point yet where I enjoy them, but I might be getting there.

and so year 2 begins :)

the morning after parting all night for her birthday...

not really...this is more like how she looks today, running around the house while we try and get christmas things out of boxes and the rest of the downstairs clean.

she's wearing the hat that they gave her in the hospital. we found it yesterday as we were going through her old stuff and thought she still looks pretty cute in it :)

some other random stuff...

*we got a roomba vacuum yesterday. we figure we can't afford a maid yet, but this is the next best thing. so far we love it! we got to play with avery and enjoy some downtime while our robot was doing the dirty work :) zane said avery's going to grow up in a ouse with a robot...creepy. and kind of cool.

*i just saw a couple snowflakes falling outside. it was mostly rain, but a few fat drops were there. makes it feel a bit more festive.

*avery decided to give me a birthday present yesterday!!!! we were on our way to dinner and she was happy and babbling. she started babbling "mamamamamama" which isn't too unusual. (i always ask her to say "mama" though and she looks right at me and says "DA-DA" with a smile on her face.) last night she finally said "MAMA" and was looking right at me! yesterday was just a perfect day on its own, but that definitely added to it for me :)

*other words she'll say if we ask her: "all done", "kitty", "uh-oh", "dada", what a dog says, what a kitty says ("owww", just started that today), "elmo" and "uh-uh-uh" which i started saying when she was trying to sit up on her changing table in the middle of getting changed--i guess i have to come up with something else, cause now it's a game :)

*finally, an ALBUM from the last couple days...thanksgiving, birthday and randoms.

*

happy birthday, lovebug!!!!

we had SUCH a wonderful day with our little star! :) we did a little shopping this morning and let her wander the aisles of kohls. she completely wore herself out and had a blast, playing with the little kids jewelry and trying to pull down the pants off the shelves. we got home in time to play and see laura, an old friend of mine, who came over with well wishes and some goodies! thanks laura, we love the dvds and books!!

we spent most of the afternoon cleaning and organizing while avery took her nap, then took our time in her room when she woke up putting away all her clothes that are too small :( definitely a hard job emotionally, but one that was long overdue!

then it was out to dinner with grammy and gramps. we went to bugaboo, partly because they're so kid friendly, but mostly because avery ADORES the talking moose/bison/buffalo (?) and we got to sit right under him. :) she ate a little off of everyone's plates--some pasta, some pork ribs, some chicken, bread and finally a little bit of the dessert my dad ordered. our waitress asked if i wanted them to come and sing to the birthday girl, worried that it might scare her. i told her to go ahead, and it was a hit! they came around with a stuffed moose head and avery grinned at the (male) singers and ended the song by giving the moose a kiss :)
now the little girl is asleep and we're trying to settle down ourselves. thank you everyone for the "happy birthdays"! :)

**for some reason our laptop refuses to post pictures anymore...i'll post some tomorrow!**