Laughing in the New Year

Mabel had her best bout of laughing yet and we ran for the camera in time. She could not get enough of the dogs fetching toys down the hallway.



Some laughs and a movie earlier have us in great spirits for the New Year. Hope everyone else is as well.

Home

We're back home with a one day delay that in retrospect was for the best.

While I was waiting in line to be told our connection home would be missed on our original travel day, Mabel decided it was time to develop full blown red-eye in both eyes. That coupled with her being born with nasolacrimal duct obstruction (blocked tear ducts) lead to yellow yuck streaming out of her swollen eyes. So new tickets in hand we went to the ER that Grandpa Sigafoos works at and got some eye drops. Fortunately I'd spent 6 months as an eye-drop dispenser at an ophthalmologist's in a previous life, where the elderly of Cleveland helped me perfect my technique. Mabel is now several days into drops and doing better, but still has some really gnarly yellow pus that can glue things shut post-nap. Fun, but improving.

Flights were good and Amazon Fresh had food waiting for us.

Anyhoo - happy holidays. If you want to see us on another holiday, we'll be in Seattle on on a beach.

Minneapolis - screw your weather!

After a nice 2 week tour in OH, shopping M around, we were set to get back home to the pups. As there was some airline security fiasco yesterday, we got to the airport today nice'n'early. And then our flight started the slow decline into 'delayed' territiory until 4 hours later our connection in Minneapolis was broken. Luckily the dogsitter can cover us an extra night and we'll try again tomorrow, this time through Cincinnati, where they're expecting snow showers.



Ho ho ho.

Tooth!

Driving to the airport, suspicions are now confirmed - Mabel's first tooth has arrived! Not quite sure what this'll mean for mom and nursing, but mark up another milestone.

Holiay travels

Neglected but not forgotten, we'll be back and posting regularly again in a week. We did upload some pics for December, but will have more of those too.

Happy holidays.

Birth Class Reunion

Yesterday M and I went to a reunion of our birth class. It was really nice to see all the babies outside of bellies. Several of the babies we knew already because they go to another mom group with us, but it was fun to meet the rest.

We did a big group picture of all the babies. Brett wasn't there and I had to hold M, so I didn't get to take any pictures myself but one girl sent out this pic. I'll post others as they come in.

4 month checkup

We just got home from our 4 month doctor visit. M weighs 15 lb 9 oz and is 25 inches long. She is in the 90th percentile for head size (not a surprise with our big melons) and weight and 75th for height. She is growing and healthy! She got one shot and one oral vaccine.

The best part of the appointment was that we got to talk about when we can start M on solid foods. She LOVES to watch us eat and has for a while, so we know she'll be into real food. 3 weeks before she turns 6 months we get to start her on rice cereal to see how she does. We can even experiment with some veggies too! I am so so so excited to have a start date with food.

Other than that all is well with M. She still has her pesky cold which is sad, but there isn't much we can do but let it run its course.

3 months old (a couple weeks ago)

So, a little late on a post about Mabel being 3 months old. I'd like to think that our missing things won't become a trend, but I am not making any promises.



And this morning when I woke up and said 'good-morning' to Mabel, she immediately pooped and gave me a big smile. A good morning for us all.

Louisville for turkey

Last week we packed up for our first set of flights with Mabel while the dogs stayed at home with a sitter and likely caught up on some much needed attention.

The ear plugs were a failure - will try something different next time.

The Mellmans were also home and dropped by with their son Blake:




Mabel's great-grandmother arrived on Tuesday and Kate's parents and brother arrived a little after the Mellmans left:

A visitor

"Aunt" Jessica came to visit and meet Mabel the weekend before we headed out for Turkey Day.


We only left for some take-out sushi.



Someday we will give Jessica a proper tour of town.

Who flipped over those turtles?

You have seen the video of the Peps babies all flailing about like turtles on their backs. It's really pretty funny to be in a room with them all doing that. Mabel is the oldest baby in that group in the video. There is one older boy in our group, but he and his mom weren't at our meeting that day.

Here is a still shot in case my shaky camera work makes you motion sick. From top right they are: Mabel, Sidney, Zeke, Mya, Benjamin and Taylor.

I got M a new winter hat in preparation for her upcoming trips to the midwest. Gotta keep her melon warm. I think she likes it.

PEPS group

Kate and Mabel are part of a PEPS group and Kate shot this video of the babies in flailing about. Mabel is top-right, chewing on her newest favorite, Sofie the Giraffe.

Some sun

Seattle has had a rainy fall, but Mabel and I found some morning sun over the weekend.

3 month shots

Today M went in for her 3 month shots. It was sad as usual, but we all survived. There was no doctor visit - just shots from the nurse. She did get weighed and she is just under 14 lbs. Our growing girl!!!
We are going to go to postnatal yoga today to try to ohm some of her shot stress away.

General Update

Miss M is quickly approaching the 3 month mark! How did that happen?

We are doing really well. We have a nice little weekly schedule down. Tuesdays we go to a mom group run by a nurse. We have been going to that group since week 2 or 3. It is really comforting to hear 1) that what your baby is doing is normal and 2) that every other mom there has dealt/is dealing with the same issues.
On Wednesdays we go to a different mom group. We just started this one 3 weeks ago. It is a smaller group composed of women/babies who all live in the same area. This group is nice because it's more personal and you get to know more about each other outside of what is going on with the babies.
Thursday is movie day. We were forced into adding this to our routine because every Thursday we have been having open houses for realtors and we have to be out of the house for 3 hours. Not many places to go with an infant for that long, especially when it's rainy out. So we go to the movies.

M seems to be doing just fine. She is rolling over, smiling a ton, sorta laughing and just trying to figure out this weird world. It's nice to see some pseudo-personality traits coming out. For example, she HATES to wake up. She instantly screams and is super pissed - even while her eyes are still closed. It's really pretty funny. Once she is fully awake she is her normal smiley self, but get out of her way for those first few minutes. Hmmmm....wonder who she got that trait from?
Her current "likes" are whistling (you saw the video), tongue clucking, saying "boo!" at her and puffing out cheeks. She is not so fond of waking up as discussed above or daytime napping. But we still love her and have decided, officially, to keep her.

We have rollover!!

This is Mabel's 4th official rollover. The 1st was an accidental one weeks ago. This morning however, she figured it out.



Did get the 3rd rollover as well, but only just, as she now rolls over almost immediately. On to the next basic life skill.

If you can make a girl laugh - you can make her do anything

Mabel likes to pick things that are funny - some days it is an empty bag of chips, others a water bottle. Lately, whistling has been hilarious:



All the whistling has the dogs really confused.

Bumbo Time

The Bumbo is a magical device that helps babies sit up before they can do it on their own. Because Miss M's neck strength has been so good lately we decided to try her out in it. She seemed to like it. She spends most of her awake time just looking around so we think this will give her more freedom to look where she pleases.

Happy Halloweenie!!

Today was not just M's first Halloween - it was her first real holiday. Sorry, but Labor Day doesn't count for much. We had a baby shower today and luckily it was a dress up shower so we had somewhere to wear our costumes. Miss M was duck and I was a hunter.

Party Animal

This weekend M went to her first birthday party. Our friends' son Ethan turned 3 so we went to celebrate at the Seattle Children Museum. It is a really great place - full of indoor activities for kids. Here are some pics to show what an awesome time M had.

She was very excited to go through the swamp tunnel.

She tuckered herself out talking to the raccoon.

She was learning Spanish phrases from her new Hispanic friend.

She was meditating before eating cake and opening her gift bag.

Here is a family portrait.

First Babysitter

While I went to the doctor on Friday our fabulous neighbor Shay babysat Mabel. It was only for an hour, but it was a monumental time nonetheless. So of course we had to get a pic of M sleeping soundly on her first babysitter.

Papa Time

This week I turned 31. How the freak did that happen?



On my birthday Brett stayed home from work so I could get my hair done and a pedicure. My hair salon called me early in the morning and told me my hair guy was sick so they would have to cancel. Even though it had been over a year since I'd had a cut, I was actually happy about the cancellation because I was sad to leave M for that long. So on my actual bday I just got the pedi.

Papa and M did fine together. They went to the dog park and out to lunch with a friend.

Today I got my hair cut and I have to say I feel like a real human again. Polished toes and clean hair is all it takes I guess. While I was gone today Brett and M hung out at home because it was dumping rain. Here are some pics he took...

Not her biggest smile, but a nice one

And of course the first child

2 month update

Mabel had her two month checkup this morning. She weighs 11 lbs 9 oz (75th percentile) and is 22.5 inches long (50th percentile). The doctor said everything looks good and Miss M is a healthy little lady.

Part of this appointment was the first shots. We have chosen to do a delayed vaccination schedule so M gets fewer shots than normal, but goes back to the doctor for shots more often. Normally at the 2 month appointment a baby gets 3 shots and 1 oral vaccine and then baby doesn't go back to doctor until 4 months. With the delayed schedule baby gets the oral and 1 shot at 2 months, then goes back at 3 months for the other 2 shots. We have chosen to do this so we can track M's reactions to the various shots. If she has an allergic reaction after a set of shots we will know it is one of two shots, not one of four.



Anyway, we made it through the shot. I breastfed her while she got the shot which is supposed to help decrease the pain she experiences. She screamed when she got the shot but after a few seconds settled down and continued feeding. I was definitely more upset about the shot than she was! She did get a snazzy bandaid out of the deal though.

Morning view

Mabel and mom were hanging out last week and shot this not so exciting video.

Big News

Well, our world and plan for the future got flip turned around this week.

My boss called me on Wednesday and told me that our office had been hit with a "budget tsunami" as he put it. Basically, we have to cut over $480,000 from our next year budget which is a ton for an office of our size. He told me that they were considering offering job shares or part time positions as a method of cutting costs. Before he could even ask if I would be interested I said "ooo ooo pick me pick me!" I calmed down and told him that Brett and I would have to discuss it and run the numbers, but if it worked I would be willing to do that.

Brett and I ran the numbers and discussed the pros and cons and decided that I should do it. When I go back to work in February I'll be going back 2 days a week and have the other 3 work week days to spend with Miss M. I also have the option of telecommuting occasionally so some weeks I might only have to go in once. After a year or two, when Mabel is older and will want to socialize more in a daycare setting, I'll be able to go back to a full time position.

I am beyond excited. Obviously, I will be making less money and will have to follow a stricter budget (bye bye pedicures) but it will be worth it to spend time with Mabel. I am still in shock that this is going to happen. If you had asked me on Monday what my dream scenario was for working it would have been this. I just can't really wrap my brain around the fact my dream scenario is happening.

So many firsts

This has been a couple weeks of firsts. There was the first (and last) rollover. First real smiles and laughs. And here are some photos where we captured other firsts...

Mabel and I went to her first movie. We saw the Informant. There is a theater here that has mommy movies on Thursday mornings where you can bring infants. They also have concession waiters that take orders from the theater seats so moms can relax and not juggle food and kids. I think we will be frequenting this place especially as the weather gets bad.

Mabel with our ticket. She is very excited.

Getting ready to go in. Theater 12 is the best!

We have also ventured into the world of hair bows. I don't know if we are really bow people, but I figured it would be a waste of all that hair not to try it.

The last first...M wore her first pair of jeans. I have to say she looked ridiculously cute. Also, could she look any more like Brett in this picture?

Pro Pics

Mabel's professional newborn pics are done! Here is a link to them: 1month pics

Here are some of our favorites:

In her Conway Twitty outfit

With daddy

Life is Hard

After a few too many bottles of milk

Photo Update

We have been so busy trying to get the house ready for sale we have been slacking on the photos. Here are a few...

Hanging out on Dad's lap

Getting excited!

So cute

Chillin'

Tummy time fun

Exhausted after aerobics

In her party dress getting ready for a baby shower

Milestone: Rolled Over

While she likely didn't know what she was doing, Mabel has now rolled over for the first time - all by herself. Once. :-) We're sure this is the start of a trend, but the second roll over will help to validate that she might know what she is doing.


In other news, our house should be listed for sale today. Most cleaning and touch up painting is done. We had the windows cleaned on Saturday. The carpets are finally dry and no longer have that charming wet dog smell. Our fancy street sign should go in later today, although the ambitious sign people wanted to put it in on Saturday. And now we hope for a mad feeding frenzy, a furious bidding war, and then to be able to purchase a new home before closing. As long as I can slow down cleaning and Home Depot trips I'll be happy.

I'm sure Mabel will too.

New Pro Pics Coming Soon!

Barbie Hull took our awesome pre-Mabel pics and we had to have her back post-Mabel. We've gotten a sneak peek at them and will have them posted when we get the full res versions.

Chicken Legs

And back in disposable diapers until Mabel's legs chub up a bit more. Not so fun to have them leak. So much.

Ah, distractions

Life has been full as of late. A five and a half-week old, visiting grandparents and preparing a house for sale...that is a lot.
Mabel is doing great. Sleeping and eating, looking at faces a bit more. Smiles. Bouts of gas that lead to frantic back patting and bouncing around the room, wishing for progress. Never thought a diaper full of poo would be such a great thing to find. Just today we moved over to her new washable cotton diapers - although at night we'll probably resort to the ever-dependable disposables. Mabel is great.
Kate's parents are in town and have been enjoying their time with Mabel. I'm sure they're regretting their timing as they've been looped into a fair amount of moving prep, including numerous trips to a storage unit. Sorry! And thank you for the help!

Grandpa Sig got a lot of Mabel crying and almost got his beard tugged on. Better luck next time to both of you.

Mabel and Grandma Sigafoos got along nicely, even helping to confirm that the new diapers were able to hold a substantial load.


Our house is almost ready to be listed. The carpets are being cleaned tomorrow. Hopefully they're sending a magician or two, because the dogs have done a number on these carpets.
While our house is almost ready to be listed, we've also gotten our first rejection. On Friday we'd made an offer on a house. We'd offered a low but fair price, however a contingent stipulation was the deal breaker. The Seattle housing market has been hot for so many years that people here have never done contingent offers, instead going with bridge loans and other risky lending practices. As if there were wonder about how our lenders helped us into this mess. Anyways, the house we liked turned us down. So we're going to list our house and see how that goes. If it sells quickly and that house is still available and is the best available, we might still pursue it, although with a lower offer. Or we might shop around, or even rent month-to-month. Who knows. It'll be an adventure for all of us, which is a good thing.

One hour later

Based on the concerned phone calls, it would appear that the e-mail Kate and I were so excited about was likely a hoax.

Which we knew.
The dogs knew it.

Which is why I'm heading into work. Sterlings be damned.

New Found Wealth

We are blessed. I was fortunate enough to receive the best e-mail ever and it is going to change everything for us. We are now incredibly lucky and soon to be massively wealthy - half of Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand Pounds Sterling rich in fact!! I assume a Sterling is worth a lot.

Why this luckiest of letters went to my junk mail, I will never understand. Thankfully I found it in there!

Letter follows:
James Hoods
Operating Officer,
Coutts & Co, Private Banking.
London, United Kingdom.

Greetings,

I am contacting you regarding the estate of a deceased client with similar last name and an investment of (Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand Pounds Sterling) placed under our banks management 2years ago.

I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail confidential and respect the integrity of the information you come by as a result of this mail. I am contacting you independently and no one is informed of this communication.

One Month Old

Mabel is one month old (actually was on Wednesday if we go by weeks.) As of now she is able to focus on faces, she coos, and she is working really hard on rolling from her belly to back. She can get her legs over, but hasn't figured out how to get her upper body to follow suit.

One month check with the doc on Friday finds her at 10 pounds of healthy happy baby. She is in the 75th percentile for weight and 50th for length and head size. While we've gotten some smiles already, the doctor assured us they would increase along with actually being recognized.

On Thursday Kate took Mabel on her first ferry ride to Kitsap County. They had lunch with a co-worker and her son who is one week younger than Mabel. At Kate's office Mabel got to meet two judges and the elected prosecutor and went inside her first courtroom. Big day. Here she is snoozing on the boat after her long day.

The Bizzy Muzzey (edit for Doe purposes)

Miss Mabel is one busy lady. She spent all weekend charming her grandparents. It worked because they were as sad to leave her as we were to see them go. Next reunion will be Thanksgiving.

Today she and I went house hunting with our realtor. We looked at 8 houses in 2 hours! Mabel was a lovely lady, only requiring one food break and saving her freak out until the ride home. Tomorrow we go to baby class, Thursday is lunch in Kitsap with my coworkers, and Friday is her 1 month doctor appointment. What a week!!!!

Go Bucks!

Halfway through the fourth and the Bucks are going to beat Navy in the season opener. This was Mabel's first game and she scored a prime seat for it.
Kate is arranging for some more appropriate OSU clothing for the next game.

Go Bucks!

Grandparents descend

My parents, after giving us a nice time to adjust to our new life, are in town for a visit. They've each taken a number of shifts holding, looking, talking, and bouncing Mabel until she cries for mom. These are their first encounters:Grandpa tried to stare her down, which I believe she won.
Grandma tried to overload her with shapes and colors, taking this round.

They both seem taken with her, and are certain she is a beautiful baby. Which is nice.