Thursday, December 29, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
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Monday, December 19, 2011
Around Louisa's World in 88 Days
Louisa turned 88 days on Sunday. To celebrate, here's a retrospective of the almost-three-month-old!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
The Dog Days of Autumn
With KJ on a 24-hour stint at the hospital, it's "Daddy Day Care Day!"
Every time I have Louisa for a full day, I feel a little bit more confident. That's not still very confident, but figuring out how to do the "normal" things (e.g., brush teeth, walk dogs) while also taking care of a baby has the same attraction I find in solving puzzles. Today's puzzle: How to take the dogs outside--on the front lawn, which they're not used to (because of the roofers blocking the back door)--without the hassle of dressing up Louisa and putting her in the Baby Bjorn since she looked pretty calm and might fall asleep anyway.
Solution: Pop Louisa in the Cradle 'N Swing and let her watch the SportsCenter Top Ten Plays.
I'm not too proud of the solution, but it worked. (Good thing I remembered the keys so I could get back in!)
The whole process would have gone faster--and more smoothly--if the dogs hadn't barked like crazy to everyone who passed by (and we live on a high-traffic road). In lieu of coal in their stockings, dear Santa, please give each dog a voicebox-ectomy.
Every time I have Louisa for a full day, I feel a little bit more confident. That's not still very confident, but figuring out how to do the "normal" things (e.g., brush teeth, walk dogs) while also taking care of a baby has the same attraction I find in solving puzzles. Today's puzzle: How to take the dogs outside--on the front lawn, which they're not used to (because of the roofers blocking the back door)--without the hassle of dressing up Louisa and putting her in the Baby Bjorn since she looked pretty calm and might fall asleep anyway.
Solution: Pop Louisa in the Cradle 'N Swing and let her watch the SportsCenter Top Ten Plays.
I'm not too proud of the solution, but it worked. (Good thing I remembered the keys so I could get back in!)
The whole process would have gone faster--and more smoothly--if the dogs hadn't barked like crazy to everyone who passed by (and we live on a high-traffic road). In lieu of coal in their stockings, dear Santa, please give each dog a voicebox-ectomy.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Roofers
Roofers arrived around 9am this morning. The foreman says they'll be here for at least three days. They've blocked the back door with a tarp, so we have to go in and out through the front door, on the opposite side of the house from the driveway where we park our cars. It's a bit inconvenient, but hopefully everything will be fine with the roof and back to normal by Monday.
In the meantime, the banging on the roof is constant and loud. But that hasn't stopped Louisa and Aunt Lizzy from sleeping through it most of the morning (That's a good thing)!
Winston and Benni are not exactly on high alert, but they are generally curious about all the noise that seems to be taking place from all directions. And they did NOT feel comfortable about going down the steps to the front door this morning in order to go outside. They've never been allowed down that stairway, and they pulled against the leash when I tried to coax them down.
Speaking of not wanting to go through the front doo, Lizzy forwarded the following video to me. It's tres amusant (very amusing).
(above video from user "andrey7936" on YouTube.)
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Paging Doctor Fussypants!
This video is pretty much the same all the way through. She never completely loses it. (That happened a few minutes later.)
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Ooooh! Ooooh! (Heh Heh Hee!)
Louisa looks more and more like a "real" baby (as opposed to a newborn) every day--which is good because she is getting older, despite some of her mother's wishes. She is "filling in" as she gets bigger, as Papa C said when he and Grammie last visited and took Louisa on a 3-mile walk down to Blue Back Square, back up Quaker Lane and around the Vanderbilt estate.
Here's Louisa earlier this afternoon, cooing and responding to her Mommy!
Here's Louisa earlier this afternoon, cooing and responding to her Mommy!
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Aunt Lizzy's Here!
Saturday night was KJ's first overnight rotation at the hospital since coming back from maternity leave. Luckily, Lizzy arrived on Saturday evening, just after KJ left for work, to help me take care of Louisa.
It took Lizzy an entire week to drive herself and her belongings by car, with stops in Park City, Utah; Denver, Colorado; Des Moines, Iowa; Madison, Wisconsin; and Buffalo, New York. The dogs went nuts for a good ten minutes--they were so excited Lizzy was here! And of course KJ and I are extremely grateful that Lizzy is able to come live with us and take care of Louisa since both of us are working.
Lizzy has taken to caring for Louisa as if Louisa were Lizzy's own daughter, and we know she'll be the perfect person to play with Louisa, take care of her, and teach our almost eight-week old fluent Spanish!
Louisa wore a hooded sweater just for her Aunt Lizzy, who's fond of them herself!
It took Lizzy an entire week to drive herself and her belongings by car, with stops in Park City, Utah; Denver, Colorado; Des Moines, Iowa; Madison, Wisconsin; and Buffalo, New York. The dogs went nuts for a good ten minutes--they were so excited Lizzy was here! And of course KJ and I are extremely grateful that Lizzy is able to come live with us and take care of Louisa since both of us are working.
Lizzy has taken to caring for Louisa as if Louisa were Lizzy's own daughter, and we know she'll be the perfect person to play with Louisa, take care of her, and teach our almost eight-week old fluent Spanish!
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
The Week Without Power
Some of it you can chalk up to our being lazy. Or at least tired. (Who knew having a baby meant being so tired!--OK, all of you who are parents!) But the most recent reason we haven't posted lately has been the power outage we experienced here in Connecticut and the slow aftermath of the [ongoing] cleanup and what seem like inexcusable delays in the restoration of power. The Twitterverse christened the event "#snowtober" and "#arborgeddon," among others.
According to The Weather Channel, Bradley International Airport got 12.3" of snow on the Saturday of the storm. Is that a significant snowfall for the month of October in Connecticut? Put it this way: the previous record was only about an inch and a half.
We got a foot.
In my opinion, we got more like seven or eight inches. But trees all across the state, perhaps weakened by Tropical Storm Irene back in September, and certainly still full of their summer leaves, collapsed under the weight of the heavy, wet snow. Roads all across the state looked like a war zone. And the power went out everywhere.
Except our place.
All weekend, we never lost power. Cable went out Sunday, but no big deal. Seemed like a repeat of Irene. On Monday morning, I woke up, took a shower, put laundry in the washing machine, and went to work. I clearly had no idea we might lose power. But we did. Around 9:30am Monday, October 31. Halloween.
But no matter. Fairly seasonal temperatures had returned, we packed the baby and drove down to Eric and Melissa's for the Halloween party they had. It was a great family get-together, tempered only by the lingering thought our power might not be restored and the relative lack of trick-or-treaters.
We drove back and got home around 11:30 pm. The power was still out. KJ and I can handle a night without power, but we weren't sure about Louisa. So we threw together some clothes, packed the toothbrushes, and drove back down to Madison to stay in the apartment at my parents'.
The next day, I drove to work and drove home. It's worth my noting that meant I drove the distance between WeHa and Madison FIVE times in 24 hours!
I thought that might be the interesting fact to take away from the storm. But that was easily eclipsed by the fact that we didn't have power for over a week. Lots of West Hartford went 9 days or more. Governor Malloy has repeatedly reminded us that in terms of damage, this is the worst storm in the history of the state. It seems difficult to believe that a snowstorm in October would be worse than all the hurricanes and floods the state has experienced. It's also hard to believe we had such a huge dumping of snow given that the temperature today was in the high 60s. No jacket required.
Even more significant this week for us was the end of maternity leave. KJ's first day back at work was Thursday (11/3), and having to commute an extra 45-minutes on top of the stress of leaving Louisa for the first time (and for such a long time) made the week even more tense. Very fortunately for us, my parents were able to keep their calendars empty this entire past week so that they could help us. They even drove Louisa to the hospital on Thursday, Friday and Monday so KJ could feed her during her lunch break. I drove from work to meet them there, though KJ's timing and the necessity to feed Louisa in a private space kept my parents at the hospital's Au Bon Pain while KJ and I crammed into the residents' day room for most of every lunch hour.
Martha had planned to come down to help with KJ's transition back to work, but with no power, she couldn't stay in our apartment. And my parents were there to support us, so she didn't come down until yesterday, taking Louisa from my parents who dropped her off at the apartment during lunch. (That meant my parents drove Louisa up to this area four times. I know the distance isn't prohibitive, and they are happy to help, but still!)
KJ may want to add her own sentiments about leaving Louisa for the first time and the stress of not being at home for an entire week due to unforeseen circumstances. But she'll have to do it later in another post. Right now she's embodying the typical working new mother. She's passed out on the couch, her baby sleeping on her chest.
I'm usually the one who accidentally falls asleep on the couch (usually with EPSN on the TV). But with an 80-hour work week on top of feeding the baby every few hours, including overnight, I'm guessing the couch (which is a perfectly comfortable place to fall asleep) is where I'll probably find KJ about this time of evening most evenings.
It's Wednesday, so our new favorite show "Up All Night" is on. "But you can't watch TV if you're asleep!" as KJ has told me numerous times after I've fallen asleep to the soothing dialogues on Sports Center.
According to The Weather Channel, Bradley International Airport got 12.3" of snow on the Saturday of the storm. Is that a significant snowfall for the month of October in Connecticut? Put it this way: the previous record was only about an inch and a half.
We got a foot.
In my opinion, we got more like seven or eight inches. But trees all across the state, perhaps weakened by Tropical Storm Irene back in September, and certainly still full of their summer leaves, collapsed under the weight of the heavy, wet snow. Roads all across the state looked like a war zone. And the power went out everywhere.
Except our place.
All weekend, we never lost power. Cable went out Sunday, but no big deal. Seemed like a repeat of Irene. On Monday morning, I woke up, took a shower, put laundry in the washing machine, and went to work. I clearly had no idea we might lose power. But we did. Around 9:30am Monday, October 31. Halloween.
But no matter. Fairly seasonal temperatures had returned, we packed the baby and drove down to Eric and Melissa's for the Halloween party they had. It was a great family get-together, tempered only by the lingering thought our power might not be restored and the relative lack of trick-or-treaters.
We drove back and got home around 11:30 pm. The power was still out. KJ and I can handle a night without power, but we weren't sure about Louisa. So we threw together some clothes, packed the toothbrushes, and drove back down to Madison to stay in the apartment at my parents'.
The next day, I drove to work and drove home. It's worth my noting that meant I drove the distance between WeHa and Madison FIVE times in 24 hours!
I thought that might be the interesting fact to take away from the storm. But that was easily eclipsed by the fact that we didn't have power for over a week. Lots of West Hartford went 9 days or more. Governor Malloy has repeatedly reminded us that in terms of damage, this is the worst storm in the history of the state. It seems difficult to believe that a snowstorm in October would be worse than all the hurricanes and floods the state has experienced. It's also hard to believe we had such a huge dumping of snow given that the temperature today was in the high 60s. No jacket required.
Even more significant this week for us was the end of maternity leave. KJ's first day back at work was Thursday (11/3), and having to commute an extra 45-minutes on top of the stress of leaving Louisa for the first time (and for such a long time) made the week even more tense. Very fortunately for us, my parents were able to keep their calendars empty this entire past week so that they could help us. They even drove Louisa to the hospital on Thursday, Friday and Monday so KJ could feed her during her lunch break. I drove from work to meet them there, though KJ's timing and the necessity to feed Louisa in a private space kept my parents at the hospital's Au Bon Pain while KJ and I crammed into the residents' day room for most of every lunch hour.
Top: Louisa in her stroller. Above: Grammie pushes Louisa around Hubbard Park.
"AFLAC," anyone? Photos courtesy Papa C.
Martha had planned to come down to help with KJ's transition back to work, but with no power, she couldn't stay in our apartment. And my parents were there to support us, so she didn't come down until yesterday, taking Louisa from my parents who dropped her off at the apartment during lunch. (That meant my parents drove Louisa up to this area four times. I know the distance isn't prohibitive, and they are happy to help, but still!)
KJ may want to add her own sentiments about leaving Louisa for the first time and the stress of not being at home for an entire week due to unforeseen circumstances. But she'll have to do it later in another post. Right now she's embodying the typical working new mother. She's passed out on the couch, her baby sleeping on her chest.
I'm usually the one who accidentally falls asleep on the couch (usually with EPSN on the TV). But with an 80-hour work week on top of feeding the baby every few hours, including overnight, I'm guessing the couch (which is a perfectly comfortable place to fall asleep) is where I'll probably find KJ about this time of evening most evenings.
It's Wednesday, so our new favorite show "Up All Night" is on. "But you can't watch TV if you're asleep!" as KJ has told me numerous times after I've fallen asleep to the soothing dialogues on Sports Center.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Louisa's One Monthiversary
Louisa celebrated her first month anniversary by attending her first Dartmouth homecoming bonfire. Nancy and Susie Gurney, their dog Mona, Tucker, DD, and Yaya joined us for one lap around the fire, then walked home. The Gurneys are so excited to have finally met Louisa!
These videos were filmed this morning--the morning after the bonfire. I doubt we'll make it to the football game today. But of course the real reason for the trip is family and friends.
And, because she cooperated with the first video, I felt it necessary to film a second one. It's basically the same video. Louisa isn't doing much in either. But who cares. Look how cute she is!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Busy Day
Yesterday was a very busy day in the life of little Louisa.
Here she is in the morning, after a good night's sleep and some snuggle time with mom.
Then we played for a while in the nursery. She is just starting to focus on objects, and often looks mesmerized by them!
Winston and Benni wanted to play too.
Here is Winston doing "tummy time" with his little sister:
A quick stop in the bouncy chair, where she watched the rainforest:
And then on to bath time.
Things went well. She was actually enjoying the bath.
Until I took her out!
But she recovered quickly after getting dry and swaddled. What a pretty girl!
In the afternoon we took a walk in Elizabeth Park, and Louisa got all bundled up:
Then dinner, watching The Sing-Off and bedtime. Tired girl!
Here she is in the morning, after a good night's sleep and some snuggle time with mom.
Then we played for a while in the nursery. She is just starting to focus on objects, and often looks mesmerized by them!
Winston and Benni wanted to play too.
Here is Winston doing "tummy time" with his little sister:
A quick stop in the bouncy chair, where she watched the rainforest:
And then on to bath time.
Things went well. She was actually enjoying the bath.
Until I took her out!
But she recovered quickly after getting dry and swaddled. What a pretty girl!
And that was all before Daddy came home for lunch!
In the afternoon we took a walk in Elizabeth Park, and Louisa got all bundled up:
Then dinner, watching The Sing-Off and bedtime. Tired girl!
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