Lucy

Funny Videos of Lucy

2010-03-06T14:35:00.000-08:00

Lucy's doing really well these days...in the last couple of months it seems like she's grown up quite a bit! We're working on potty training and she's 90% there. Most mornings she wakes up with a dry diaper and she's pretty good about telling us when she has to go. Still has an accident here and there but is making great progress. She also gave up her binky (FINALLY!!-I know!) which I thought was going to be a lot harder than it actually was. Lucy also started preschool last month and is loving it. She has two really sweet teachers and lots of friends in her class. She goes Tuesdays and Fridays for four hours in the mornings.

Some not so fun things also happened in the last month, probably related to her starting preschool. She got sick last month first with a viral illness that turned into a respiratory illness that was pretty bad with her wheezing and breathing rapidly and very lethargic. She had to have a chest x-ray and needed to use a nebulizer for about a week. Then a few days after she seemed to be recovered from that, she came down with bacterial pneumonia and an ear infection. Yikes. Poor baby was so sick and even had a fever of 103 during that. But just like she always does, she has seemed to bounce right back from that and is now doing just fine.

I'm working an extra day per week until June because my boss just had a baby boy this week! I actually went to visit them today and they are doing great-he's adorable. Makes me want a little baby again!!!

Here are a couple cute videos...Lucy reading Daisy a book, and then one of her eating some strawberries and whipped cream. She's pretty funny!!!

The Newest Addition to our Family

2009-12-20T15:19:00.000-08:00

Meet Zorro, the lovable, adorable pug-terrier mix (according to the humane society). He's about one year old, very sweet and playful. We love his big ears. He's getting along great with Daisy, and Lucy absolutely loves him. We adopted him yesterday from the Oregon Humane Society.

Santa pics

2009-12-09T22:43:00.000-08:00

I was so worried that Lucy wasn't going to want to sit on Santa's lap, but she loved it! Here are some cute pics with Santa.

Happy Birthday Videos

2009-12-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

Here are some cute videos...singing Happy Birthday to Lucy on Monday night and Lucy playing with one of her birthday gifts, a set of Legos! She loves it! Thanks Uncle Mark, Auntie Lisa and cousin Tessa!

The Best 2 Years

2009-12-06T16:22:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday baby. I love you.

Holidays 2009

2009-12-06T15:59:00.001-08:00

We love the holidays. We went and got our Christmas tree Wednesday and put out our Christmas decorations. We also put together a gingerbread house and let Lucy decorate her very own gingerbread man. So much fun!

November 2009

2009-12-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

We had a great November, starting with a fun trip to Atlanta for my dear friend Tina's wedding. Tina was one of my best friends in dental school and we both did our residencies in Connecticut. Chris, Lucy and I had lots of fun in Atlanta seeing a few old friends. We had never been to an Indian wedding before and it was a blast! Lots of great music, food and dancing. We loved it! There are a couple pictures below from Tina's wedding. We also had a great end of the month with my sister and her girls coming up for Thanksgiving, my mom and stepdad came up, and Chris' stepdad Jim visited us as well. We went to Zoo Lights at the Oregon Zoo the night before Thanksgiving which was amazing! Over a million lights...Lucy loved it.

Day after Thanksgiving at the Park

Zoo Lights

Tina's Wedding

Halloween Festivities

2009-12-06T15:18:00.000-08:00

We had a great fall, and Lucy had many opportunities to wear her lady bug costume. We went to a fun playgroup party at Munchkin Playland and we took another trip to the Roloff Farm this year with Dianna and Julia. (In case you're not sure who the Roloffs are...they are on the TLC show "Little People, Big World" and they live outside of Portland and have a big pumpkin farm.) We're big fans of the show and think their pumpkin patch is lots of fun. This year we saw the twins, Zack and Jeremy, who were giving tours of the farm and we also saw Matt Roloff cruising around. It was a fun time!

Matt Roloff

Zack Roloff

On the Tractor Tour of the Roloff Farm

Munchkin Playland

Southern California

2009-10-14T16:22:00.000-07:00

Chris, Lucy and I just got back from a long weekend in southern California visiting Chris' brother Kevin, his wife April and their new baby Elizabeth who is 8 weeks old. We did lots of fun things with them...we went to Disney's California Adventure Friday night to go trick-or-treating, and Lucy got to meet Minnie and Mickey Mouse! She thought that was very cool. We also went to San Diego's Wild Animal Park and visited a pumpkin patch. Lucy got some good use out of her ladybug Hall-o-ween costume! We loved spending time with them and meeting their pretty little girl. We also loved getting to have a short visit with an old friend of mine from high school. Our fun came to an end though Sunday night when we found out that our flight was so delayed that we would miss our connection, and every flight that night was overbooked because of the holiday weekend. We tried to go standby on two different flights, but didn't get on those flights. So we ended up having to take the first flight out the next morning. We were all so tired! But the trip was worth it. We had a great time! Here are some photos from the weekend.

Boating

2009-10-14T16:06:00.000-07:00

Some friends from work invited us out with them on their boat about a month ago when it was still kind of warm in Portland! We all had fun, I even got to water ski a little bit! Lucy especially had fun with the wind whipping through her hair and wearing her cute little life jacket. Here are some photos and a video from that night.

Fun Times & Gymboree

2009-10-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

Here are some cute pics of our little ham Lucy hammin' it up and playing with some friends at Gymboree.

Fishing Trip

2009-10-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

We had a great time a couple of weeks ago in Maupin, OR, a little town on the Deschutes River. We stayed in a great lodge with our friends Dianna, Aaron and their baby Julia who just turned one this week! Chris got to try fishing a little bit and although they didn't catch anything, we all had a lot of fun!! Here are some photos from that trip.

Lucy loves to sing to Daisy

2009-10-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

Here is Lucy singing her renditions of Ring around the Rosies and Happy Birthday to Daisy Dog. Daisy seems thrilled :)

Lucy loves to count

2009-09-16T13:57:00.001-07:00

Lucy has really become really good at counting from 1-10 and she will be playing and we'll hear her just start counting to herself. It's hard sometimes to get her to do it on cue, but here are some cute videos of her demonstrating her math skills!!!

Eagle Crest

2009-09-16T13:49:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Lucy, Chris, Daisy & I headed down to Central Oregon, near Bend to the Eagle Crest resort. This resort is awesome! There is something for everyone. Two beautiful 18-hole golf courses, 3 large swimming areas, indoor and outdoor with kiddie pools, lots of playgrounds, tons of great paved bike trails, nearby hiking trails, the Deschutes river, and some great restaurants in Bend. We had fun swimming with Lucy, and we rented bikes and biked all around the resort. Lucy thought being on the bike was great, she was behind me saying "Woo Hoo!" We also had some great food...we visited the Deschutes Brewery in Bend, OR and had baby back ribs, so tender that just fell right off the bone and some really really tasty "sweet & spicy mac and cheese." So yummy. We also found a great breakfast spot called McKay Cottage in Bend, and we enjoyed Eggs Benedict with fresh lobster, shrimp and crab and Chris ordered the croissant stuffed French toast with marscapone cheese and strawberries. Unbelievable! All in all, it was a wonderfully fun and relaxing weekend! If any of you get the chance to visit Bend, I would highly recommend staying at Eagle Crest, there are lots of condos you can rent too for families.

Oregon State Fair

2009-09-16T13:45:00.001-07:00

Lucy, Chris & I had a wonderful time at the Oregon State Fair. The petting zoo was probably the highlight. They had deer, a little pig, goats and lots of other cute animals. Lucy loves animals!!

California trip

2009-08-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

The first week in August, we went down to California to visit family and friends. We had an awesome time just hanging out and doing day trips to the SF zoo, the California Academy of Sciences and playing with Lucy's cousins!

Checking out some butterflies at the California Academy of Sciences

SF zoo

Here's a cute video of Lucy's cousin Emma reading her a story...Lucy is really into it!

Lucy's first dental visit

2009-08-22T17:53:00.001-07:00

Lucy always has fun coming into the office. A few weeks ago, I actually got her into the chair and cleaned her teeth a little bit! She got a little fed up with me toward the end, but I think she had fun. Here are some pics.

Finally Updated the Blog!

2009-07-12T16:46:00.001-07:00

I know it's been months since I've written on the blog! Sorry to those of you who have been checking in with it and not finding any new Lucy pictures!!! It's been a busy few months with a fun trip to Hawaii in May, a trip to the Oregon coast in June, a quick trip for me to Atlanta for my good friend Tina's engagement party over the 4th of July, and lots of other fun stuff in between. The rest of the summer is shaping up to be pretty busy too. We just had a fun 4 day visit with my dad here in Portland and we're going to Reno for Chris' dad's wedding in a couple of weeks. That trip will be fun because we'll also get to see Chris' brother Kevin and his wife April. Their baby girl is due next month!

This week, Chris is getting his wisdom teeth out so we'll just be laying low at home while Chris recovers.

When we get back from Reno, Chris will be going on a fun men's retreat which will be a 2 day camping trip with white water rafting, hiking and fishing. Then we leave for California to visit friends and family the first week in August.

I hope you enjoy getting caught up with what we've been up to the last few months. There are 6 or 7 new posts below to check out with lots of great pictures of lucy.

Random Summer Fun

2009-07-12T16:38:00.001-07:00

Feeding Her Baby

Pool party!

Gymboree

Hawaii

2009-07-12T16:21:00.000-07:00

We had an amazing time in Hawaii. We went at the end of May for 10 days. We spent 5 days in Oahu and 5 days on the big island. The first part of the trip I was able to see some friends from residency during the dental conference on Oahu. My mom and Bob and my sister and her family also joined us for the 10 days. On Oahu, we stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian village where the conference was being held. It was very beautiful but also very crowded. On the big island, we stayed in a beautiful house right on the coast with our own swimming pool and lots of space. We had a great time there. Highlights of the trip were seeing old friends, spending time with family, snorkeling, visiting the Volcano National Park, lots of sun and swimming and visiting pearl Harbor. We of course also ate lots of great food including a luau at the hotel. It was so much fun and I can't wait to go back!!!

Relaxing out by the pool at our house on the big island

Our house on the big island-view from the back

The View from our Hotel on Oahu at sunrise

Beach Bikes in Manzanita

2009-07-12T16:14:00.001-07:00

Here are some photos of us riding our beach bikes in Manzanita. We even saw a bald eagle! The girls looked so cute in the little bike trailer. Julia fell fast asleep.

Trip to the Oregon Coast

2009-07-12T15:58:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we took a two day trip to the Oregon Coast with our friends Dianna, Aaron and Julia. We stayed in a little town called Manzanita. We had a great time just hanging out, flying Aaron's kite on the beach, riding beach bikes with the babies in tow, and visiting the Tillamook cheese & ice cream factory.

18 month photos

2009-07-12T15:21:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Peninsula Park in North Portland to have Lucy's 18 month photos taken. It was so much fun! The park is beautiful this time of year, and April (the photographer and a friend from our church) did such a nice job! If any of you are looking for a photographer here in Portland, check her out at www.aprilhascall.com
The file sizes on the photos were huge, so I could only upload a couple of pictures, but here are a couple cute ones.

Shoes and Socks

2009-07-12T15:15:00.001-07:00

Lucy LOVES putting on shoes and socks. Especially if the shoes and socks are mine or Chris'. Here are some funny pictures of Lucy putting on our shoes and socks.

More Fun at the Zoo

2009-07-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

We love the Portland zoo and we go as often as we can when the weather is nice. We have a family pass and we try to take advantage of it! Lucy loves the petting zoo, the polar bears, the otters and the elephants. Here are some pictures from a couple of different zoo days.

Easter Egg Hunt and Picnic

2009-04-05T14:25:00.000-07:00

Today was beautiful and we enjoyed an "Eater Egg Hunt" out at the park and a picnic lunch. Lucy had a great time!!

Random Stuff

2009-04-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

This is the only cabinet in the kitchen that doesn't have a childproof latch on it, it's our tupperware cabinet. Lucy thinks she's hit the jackpot when she is able to open this cabinet and pull everything out of it! We just put it all back when she's done, and we've learned to just wash the tupperware before we use it now rather than washing 100 pieces of it every time she does this!!

Here is a cute photo of Lucy at her friend Gracie's first birthday party back in February.

A couple of months ago, Lucy and I enjoyed an afternoon at the zoo with our friends Kim, Ben & Sam. Here's a pic of Lucy and I with a big kitty cat!!
And the other highlight was seeing the baby elephant Samudra with his mom. He is adorable!

Lucy is the world's youngest harmonica player!!!

2009-01-21T16:51:00.000-08:00

Cute Videos

2009-01-10T19:47:00.000-08:00

Here are some fun videos of Lucy opening a package on Christmas morning and a random video of her playing around at mealtime. Check out the several new posts below this one too! I finally got caught up on my blog posts!

Christmas in Utah!

2009-01-10T19:15:00.000-08:00

We had a great time visiting my mom and Bob for 6 days over Christmas. Lucy enjoyed being spoiled like only grandmothers can spoil, had fun opening packages Christmas morning and Chris & I were able to enjoy a day on the slopes while Grandma was babysitting! It went by really fast and was such a fun trip!

Bath Time!

2009-01-10T19:07:00.000-08:00

Lucy has always loved her baths, but she loves them even more now that she has so many fun bath toys. Thanks Jenni & Shawn! They gave her some really fun bath toys for her first birthday. Now it's hard to get her out of her bath. Some nights she cries when bath is over, pointing at her toys left floating in the water.

The Best Spot in the House!

2009-01-10T18:52:00.000-08:00

according to Lucy and Daisy is the big window in our living room that looks out onto our street. Daisy and Lucy both spend a ton of time just looking out the window (you would think they never get to go out and play!!!). We put the CD case down for Lucy so she's just tall enough to look out the window.

This is one of Lucy's other favorite spots in the house...cuddling her bear in her crib!

And I couldn't resist just posting one more photo of the incredible amount of snow that hit Portland a couple of weeks ago!

Where the heck do we live again?

2008-12-20T16:38:00.000-08:00

Connecticut? Boston? Utah? Lake Tahoe? Maine??? Um no. We really like all of those places, but we actually live in Portland, OR. You wouldn't know it by looking outside though...we've been getting lots of snow this week and it's going to continue. It's a winter wonderland here! Check out the next few posts for some cute videos of Lucy...

I'm good at sharing...

2008-12-20T16:29:00.000-08:00

No Mommy, I can feed myself!

2008-12-20T16:12:00.000-08:00

Lucy is officially a walker!!!

2008-12-18T12:12:00.000-08:00

So Lucy took her first steps the night of her birthday after the party was all over. Since then she's been walking more and more and can now walk like 20 steps or more in a row! Check out this short video clip of her cruising around in the kitchen right before her bath!

Lucy's First Birthday!

2008-12-13T12:10:00.000-08:00

Lucy had a great first birthday! My dear friend Tina from dental school surprised me and flew in for her birthday! It was so good to see her. And my dad also came up for Lucy's birthday. We had a great time. Lucy enjoyed trying cake for the first time and received so many nice gifts! Enjoy the photos and also check out the post after this one to see her eating yummy cake!

Birthday cake, yum yum!

2008-12-13T11:26:00.001-08:00

Fun Play Date

2008-11-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, we got together with a few moms & babies from our mom's group. We went to a very baby/kid-friendly restaurant that actually has a big play room. So after we ate, we played in their play room for awhile. We all had a blast! Here are some fun photos.

Gymboree

2008-11-05T12:12:00.000-08:00

Lucy loves to go to Gymboree. It's a fun activity to do on a rainy day, gets her out and about, and she loves all the fun stuff they have to climb on and play with. She also loves the songs, the parachute and just checking out the other babies. Here's a cute video.

A year in the life...

2008-11-01T16:32:00.001-07:00

Last year at this time, I wouldn't have been able to fathom how much was life was going to change in such a short time. This year, we have had tremendous joy in celebrating Lucy's birth and watching her grow, and we have also been able to celebrate many other births in our family and group of friends. My niece Tessa was born in May, our friend Kim's baby Sam was born in June, our friend (and Lucy's old nanny) Bethany had her baby this month, and my dear friend Dianna's daughter Julia was born just a few weeks ago. We are also eagerly awaiting the birth of my dear friend Gina's daughter Elena in the next month and another friend Andi whose baby (also a girl!) is due in February. This is the year of babies!!! We also celebrated marriages of two other dear college friends, Lauren in September and Alma just a week ago! Along with all of these tremendous blessings, we have also suffered tremendous loss with the death of Chris' mother in May of this year. We love you and miss you every day. We had a difficult month not too long ago when I had to have that lump removed on my thyroid but were able to celebrate the good results when it was finally all over. So I'd have to say this year has truly been a roller coaster ride for our family, but Lucy has continued to bring us more and more happiness than we ever thought possible. We love being her parents, we completely adore her. The first picture was taken a year ago on hall-o-ween when Lucy was still in my belly. Look at how she's grown. Lucy, I love you.

5 New Posts!

2008-10-04T20:41:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone...I haven't updated the blog in awhile, we've had a busy September with my surgery and traveling to see family and for Lauren's wedding. Check out what we've been up to...I posted 5 new posts today with lots of fun pictures and a few videos.

Little Pumpkin, Big World

2008-10-04T20:14:00.000-07:00

If you've ever seen the show on TLC called "Little People, Big World" you'll think this post is pretty cool (maybe)!! I watch the show a lot...I tend to like that kind of reality family TV. Anyway, the show is about a family who live here in Oregon, about 20 minutes outside of Portland. The parents, Amy and Matt Roloff are dwarfs and they have 4 kids, one of whom is also a dwarf. The live on a big farm, and they grow pumpkins. Every year, during pumpkin season, they open their farm to the public. I've always wanted to go, so today we went! I thought it might be super crowded, but it wasn't that bad, and the weather held out too! It was a great day. We put Lucy in her Hall-o-ween costume (fittingly, she was a pumpkin), and it was so fun to put her in the little wagon with the pumpkins we chose in her little pumpkin costume!

We took a picture with the mom on the show, Amy Roloff; we also got a shot of their son Jacob with his grandpa (Matt Roloff's dad) hugging him. Their dog Rocky, a boxer who is always on the show, was roaming around the farm today too, so we got to pet him and got a picture with him. We saw Matt Roloff from afar with the camera crew of the show. Check out the link to the show: http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/lpbw/lpbw.html

Fishies in the ocean, fishies in the sea...

2008-10-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

we all go in on 1-2-3!!! This is a song we sing a lot at Lucy's swim class. Here are some fun little videos from her last swim class.

Lauren's wedding

2008-10-04T18:47:00.001-07:00

We had a great time at Lauren's wedding. Lauren is a dear friend of mine for over ten years now. We met in college. Her wedding was in Pismo Beach, CA, which is on the central coast of California. I was honored to be her matron of honor. It was great to see so many of my girlfriends from college! I had a blast. I miss all of you so much!

Lucy and her cousins!

2008-10-04T17:17:00.000-07:00

Lucy is lucky enough to have 3 beautiful cousins so far...all girls! Phoebe and Emma are her older cousins, age 7 and 5, and are my sister Kristi's girls. Tessa is Lucy's younger cousin who is 4 months old and she is my brother's daughter. Aren't they adorable???

Tessa and Lucy enjoyed story time together before bed with their binkies and wearing their halo sleepsacks. Too cute!

Watch out...Lucy's on the go!!

2008-10-04T17:04:00.000-07:00

This past month, Lucy has been on the go, and that means that Chris & I have been on the go chasing after her. She crawls around at lightning speed, and is now pulling herself up on everything! This includes pulling herself up in her crib and standing there wailing when she doesn't want to go to bed!!! I think Chris and I have entered a whole new world with Lucy...and pretty soon she'll be walking! Scary...

Surgery went well

2008-09-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers! The surgery went very well. I was feeling back to myself by Friday, and Chris, Lucy and I left for California as planned on Saturday to visit friends and family and to attend Lauren's wedding this coming weekend. We're having a great time. The best news of all is that the pathology report came back and the bump was a benign thyroid nodule. Yay!! I'm so relieved. I have a small bandage on my neck still...should be able to remove the bandage this week. So I just wanted to leave this quick post for all of you who have been thinking of us during this time. We love you!

Lucy loves to wave hello and bye bye!

2008-09-04T15:04:00.000-07:00

Let's try this again

2008-09-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

A fun morning with Lucy

2008-09-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

These videos aren't the greatest...they kind of stop and start for some reason...but they're still pretty cute. The first video is just Lucy after getting her diaper changed...she's happy and excited and flapping all around. In the second video, Lucy shows how she can wave, and in the last video, we're playing Peek-a-boo!!

This has been a stressful week for me. I have a lump on my thyroid and I have to have surgery to have it removed in 2 weeks on Sep 17th. The doctor says most likely it's a benign cyst, but there is that chance that it could be thyroid cancer, in which case they would have to remove my whole thyroid. Pretty scary! Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers during this stressful time...I will keep you updated with any news. I'm having an ultrasound of my thyroid next week which may give us more information. Thank God for sweet little Lucy during this hard time...she always helps us to relax and smile.

my mum mums are yum yum!!

2008-08-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

Lucy loves eating her mum-mums! They're little crackers that dissolve really fast in her mouth. She also is starting to eat Gerber puffs...fun!!

Is summer really almost over???

2008-08-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

Lucy and Daisy love to hang out under the table!

Swim!!
I can't believe that summer is almost over! We've had a really nice summer...it's been really busy! We've taken some fun weekend trips...we went to Mt. Hood for a few days in July, I went down to Napa for a few days for my friend Lauren's bachelorette which was a blast! We spent a day at the spa there and had some really good meals! It was really fun to catch up with good friends. August has been just as busy and just as fun! My friend Dorothy from the church we went to in Boston came to visit for a weekend. We haven't seen her in over a year...it was great to catch up with her and Lucy enjoyed meeting her! The following week we celebrated my 30th birthday. We took a trip to the Oregon coast for a couple of days and just relaxed. We stayed in a really nice hotel and just strolled around town, ate some good food and enjoyed just being away. When we got back that weekend, we had a BBQ at our place to celebrate my birthday.

In the mean time, we have been enjoying our weekly swim classes which we will continue in the fall. Lucy has been growing and doing all kinds of fun stuff. Her newest tricks are playing peek-a-boo with her initiating it by putting something over her face to hide, and then we say "Where's Lucy????" when she hears us say that, she pulls down whatever is covering her face and we say "There she is!!!" And she smiles and laughs. She'll do this over and over again! It's pretty cute. She also now waves intentionally when you say hi Lucy and wave hello or goodbye at her. It's so cute!

Next month will also be busy and fun. We are going to the Oregon coast again in a couple of weeks for a dental meeting. At the end of September, we are going to California for a week to visit family and attend Lauren's wedding! We can't wait for that trip. I'm also working on putting together a little baby shower in September for my good friend Dianna who lives here in Portland. Lots of fun stuff to look forward to!

And I think most of you know, but maybe not everyone, that Chris is going to stay home with Lucy starting in October after we get back from our trip to California. That will be a big change for our family and we're all very happy and excited about it!

So I think those are the major updates...sorry I haven't updated the blog sooner, but with the summer being so busy and Lucy on-the-go, it's hard to find time to sit down and do it! I've finally figured out how to take some video on my camera, so I hope to be able to post some videos soon too.

4th of July in Salt Lake City

2008-07-16T15:02:00.000-07:00

Snowbird
Patriotic Baby :)
Baby Moose at Snowbird
Lucy's first sporting event!
Lucy likes kitty cats

Lucy, Chris & I had a great time spending 5 days in Salt Lake City with my mom & Bob over 4th of July weekend. We did tons of fun stuff, including going to an open air concert up at Snowbird ski resort, going to a BBQ, visiting Park City, going to a minor league baseball game, visiting with some old friends from dental school, and just enjoyed relaxing & hanging out. Here are some fun photos from the trip.

Lucy's first trip to the zoo

2008-06-25T14:27:00.001-07:00

Multnomah Falls

2008-06-25T13:55:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, we had three of our old friends from the church we went to when we lived in Boston come and visit! It was a lot of fun. We had great weather, so we got to do some fun stuff outdoors! One thing we did was hike Multnomah Falls, a big beautiful waterfall about 30 miles east of Portland. We just put Lucy in the Ergo carrier backpack (I love that thing!) and hiked to the top. It's only about one mile up. It was so much fun! We took Daisy too. We all had a great time. Here are some pictures from that day.

Growing up!

2008-06-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

Lucy graduating from Mom/baby group

So now that Lucy is half a year old, it was time for her to graduate from our Thursday afternoon mommy/baby group. Such a sad day. We looked forward to going every week...it was so much fun to talk to other moms and for Lucy to play with other babies. We definitely made a lot of friends and will continue to see them in our playgroup. Above are some pictures of Lucy on her graduation day!

Lucy also had her 6-month check-up about a week ago and had a bit of a rough go with the vaccinations. She gagged on the oral rotavirus vaccine...I'm sure it must taste yucky. Then, that night she was fussy and had a low-grade fever. Poor baby. 4 shots! But she was feeling much better the next day. The pediatrician said that now that Lucy is starting solids, it's OK for her to not be eating during the night (I've been wanting to wean her from those night-time feedings for awhile). So, she's gone 4 or 5 nights now without eating in the middle of the night. She goes down between 8:30-9 and wakes up between 6-7:30 to eat. She usually wakes up one other time, maybe around 3am, but goes back to sleep easily without being fed. So that's great! She actually seems to be sleeping much better and mom definitely is sleeping much better! For her 6 month stats at the pediatrician:

Height: 27 3/4 "--95th percentile

Weight: 15 lb. 12.5 oz --40th percentile

Head: 45.3 cm--95th percentile

Thank you to those of you who voted for Lucy to win the free photo session. Sadly, she did not win, but it was fun!

Other fun things recently...

I threw a baby shower for our nanny Bethany...it was a surprise, and boy was she surprised!!

Lucy started swim class today at Children of the Sea, and she loves it! She absolutely loves the water...she's a little fish! She had so much fun splashing around and kicking her legs in the warm pool and looking and laughing with the other babies in the class. They did all kinds of exercises, songs & activities to get the babies comfortable in the water. The class is 10 weeks long through the summer. It'll be a lot of fun.

Next week, we leave for Salt Lake City to spend 5 days there over the 4th of July! We're excited to see my mom & Bob and a friend and his family from dental school who live there too. Should be a fun trip.

And, very exciting news, Lucy has her first two teeth coming in! The poked through the gums this past Sunday.

Yum, yum...rice cereal, peas, avocados, bananas, carrots, mmmm :)

2008-06-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

I'm about to eat solids for the first time!!!

Yummy in Lucy's tummy :)
Dive-bombing the spoon

So now that Lucy is 6 months old, she has moved on to eating some solid foods. But I have to admit, she's kind of a picky eater!! She definitely does not take after her mom. We started her on rice cereal, which she absolutely LOVES!! Next we tried peas, which she hated. She would give us a sour yucky face and sometimes gag. I heard that other moms had good success with avocado, so I decided to get some avocados and puree them for Lucy. That was a no-go too. She puked them up on the second bite. I was kind of trying to hold out on giving her the sweet yummy fruits right away, but with her just refusing avocados & peas, I thought, let's try some bananas. So Saturday morning, I puree some nice sweet ripe bananas for her. Hates them. Turns her head away & refuses to eat them! Bananas???? I was thinking she was bananas! All along, she continued to eat her rice cereal and love it...just not so interested in the other stuff. Next I tried giving her carrots. She loves carrots...she's been eating a jar a day for about 4 days now. This morning, she had sweet potatoes for the first time which went over pretty well too. So maybe her taste buds were just adjusting to these new flavors. Now that I've had some success with carrots & sweet potatoes, I think I may try some of the other foods again and see if she'll take them. Here are some funny pictures of her eating her rice cereal for the first time!

6 months old!

2008-06-04T15:28:00.000-07:00

Chris, Mark, Lucy and new baby Tessa

Sorry I've been so long in updating the blog! Lots of you have been asking me to put up some recent pictures of Lucy, so here they are. Lucy will be 6 months old on Saturday, and we are excited to start giving her some "solid" foods...really more like mushy, runny foods! We'll give her some rice cereal Saturday and see how that goes. We're excited! Sadly, at 6 months, she graduates from our Thursday afternoon mom's group, so we'll miss going to that. But we've made good friends there, and will continue seeing our mom/baby friends at our new playgroup. This past Monday night, we had a girl's night out without the babies! We met after work for a happy hour downtown and then went to see Sex and the City. It was a lot of fun. But I have a lot of ideas for fun activities now that the weekly mom's group is over. I want to do swim lessons with Lucy, go to the library for story time and go back to gymboree. So we'll be doing lots of fun stuff.

Other exciting news is that Lucy's cousin Tessa was born at 8:08 a.m. on Friday, May 23rd. She is a beautiful, healthy little girl and Mark, Lisa and her are all doing great! It was fun to get to meet her when she wasn't even a day old!

Most of you know that sadly, Chris' mom passed away Tuesday, May 20th. We were down there with family until Monday May 26th. There was a beautiful get-together of family & friends to celebrate her life on that Saturday, and Sunday, we went to Bodega Bay to one of her favorite beaches and scattered her ashes there. She will be missed tremendously. She was an amazing mother, wife, sister and was loved by many friends as well.

Summer is here!

2008-05-17T08:01:00.001-07:00

Lucy and her friend Grant at the Mom's group
Tummy Time!
Our Playgroup
Grandma Marian & Lucy

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted a blog! There has been quite a bit going on here and I guess time just flew by.

Chris' mom is not doing well. About a week ago, they did a bone marrow biopsy and found that even after the chemo, she still had about 30% cancerous cells in her bone marrow. The doctors felt that they have exhausted all treatment options, so Marian decided to go home last Friday and is now on hospice care. Chris has been down in the bay area the better part of the last 2 weeks. Lucy & I were able to fly down last weekend to see the family, and it definitely lifted everyone's spirits to see Lucy which was great. She is not in any pain, but is very weak and sleeps most of the day. She is unable to get out of bed on her own or sit up on her own or even really eat on her own. This has all come about so quickly, I think we're all kind of in disbelief. I'm so sad that Lucy won't get to know her wonderful loving Grandma Marian...she is really going to miss out. We're all heartbroken. Chris is coming back up to Portland tonight for a couple of days and then will be going back to Petaluma early next week. I had originally planned to go to a pediatric dentistry conference in Washington D.C. over Memorial Day, so I was only scheduled to work Monday & Tuesday and then not back to work until the following Tuesday, so I have 6 days off in a row next week. I cancelled my trip to D.C. and Lucy & I will be going back down to Petaluma on Wednesday most likely. Lucy's cousin Tessa will be welcomed to the world this Friday May 23rd, because Lisa is having a scheduled c-section. That means we may get to meet her next weekend since we will be down in the Bay Area most likely, so that is some happy news.

It definitely feels like summer is here...it was in the 90's yesterday here in Portland!! Enjoy the updated pictures of Lucy...

Lucy meets friends & family in California

2008-04-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

Lucy on the plane! First time
Four Generations
Lucy and Grandma Marian
Lucy with cousins Phoebe & Emma
So cool with Dad's sunglasses!
We had a great time last week visiting friends & family in California! We packed a lot into 4 and a half days! We stayed with my brother Mark and his wife Lisa at their new house in Pacifica which is gorgeous! We managed very well checking in all of our luggage curbside and getting through security without much trouble at all. Lucy did great on the airplane, she didn't fuss a bit. The flights were nice, short and on-time which made everything go really smoothly. There were extra seats on both flights so we were able to have an entire row to ourselves and Lucy could sit in her car seat in her own seat on the plane! That was really nice.

We loved spending time with my family, Chris' family and our friends. We were really sad to have to leave and it always makes us wish that we lived there, but we do love our Portland home and our friends here too. We had great weather every single day...it was clear blue skies and warm...it was great to wear flip flops!

Some highlights of the trip were Lucy meeting her older cousins Phoebe and Emma, seeing how great Lisa is looking at 8 months pregnant and getting to see baby Tessa's room and their new house, visiting with Grandpa Andy and my great Aunt Louise (who will turn 95 next month!), spending time with Chris' family in Petaluma--we went out to lunch with Chris' dad, Peggy and Chris' Grandma Mary, and so we got pictures of 4 generations together which was very neat. Chris's Grandma lit up when she saw Lucy which was really neat to see. Other highlights were visiting Chris' mom and Jim at the hospital...they were both thrilled to see Lucy and Marian seems to be doing really well considering everything that's going on! The nurses and staff at the hospital couldn't get enough of Lucy too. People kept coming in the room to check her out. It was sweet. More highlights were of course the baby shower Saturday and getting to spend time with Grandma Emily, and Chris, Mark and my dad enjoyed going to a Giants game while we were at the shower. We had a great time Saturday night at Auntie Gina's house, where they hosted a great BBQ with several friends from college. Then we got to spend Sunday morning with my sister Kristi and her beautiful girls Phoebe and Emma and also my mom and Bob before we flew home that night. All in all, it was a fabulous trip and I really hope we get to do it again soon!!

This week has been really busy for me...today is my only day off. One of the dentists at our practice left, so it's now only myself and the owner of the practice...so I may be picking up an extra day here and there until we find another dentist, so it looks like it might be a little busy for awhile. I'm looking forward to going to mom/baby group this afternoon with Lucy and just hanging out!

Yesterday was Lucy's four month check-up. Dr. Ericksen thinks she's doing really well...she's tracking right along on the growth curves...she's still at 95% for length and head circumference and a little above 50% for weight. Her four month stats were:

height: 26.25"; weight: 13 lb. 15 oz.; head: 43.3 cm

She got 4 shots, only screamed for a few seconds and then settled right down.

As of Monday, we've officially moved her into her own room into her crib. She seems to be doing well with that and I'm now only feeding her one time in the middle of the night. She will wake up and cry a little bit at other times but she seems to settle down quickly which is great. Hopefully the good nights will continue. I think her shots made her tired because this morning after I fed her around 6:30, she fell back to sleep until 10:20! So unusual for her, but it was nice for me. I got to sleep in a little bit too and then got up and got some things done around the house.

One last bit of great news...I passed my board exam! The certificate was in my mailbox when we got home Sunday night. I was so excited!!

Leaving for SF tomorrow!

2008-04-08T07:16:00.000-07:00

We are all very excited to be leaving for the Bay Area tomorrow to visit friends & family and to go to Lisa's baby shower! We are a little nervous about packing everything up and remembering everything we need to bring for little Lucy, but I'm sure it will go fine.

We had a scary thing happen this weekend with Lucy...we gave her a little formula right before bed after her normal feeding just to see if having a little extra in her tummy would help her sleep...she didn't take much of it at all, so we put her to bed. She fell asleep, but about 15 minutes later I heard her making little noises in her bassinet. When I went in to check on her, she had thrown up a lot all over herself and her bassinet. We immediately went to start the bath and get her changed, and when I took off her sleeper, there were bright red hives everywhere the vomit had touched her skin! I was so scared...we called the pediatrician, and by the time he called us back we had already finished the bath, and gotten her dressed and she was doing much better...the hives were down and her skin was much less red. So it looks like she has an allergy to probably the cow milk protein in the regular formula. We're going to hold off on any formula now and just talk more to her pediatrician next week at her four month check-up. But it looks like she'll need to be on a hypoallergenic formula when we get to that point...

But she's such a little trooper...when all this was happening, she never even really cried! I don't know if the hives just weren't itchy or what, but it didn't seem to bother her at all. She's such a good baby :)

Here are a couple cute pictures of her admiring herself in the mirror above the swing.

We're looking forward to seeing some of you in a few days!

Please Pray...

2008-04-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

We just found out last night that Chris' mom wasn't feeling well last week, she went in to her doctor, and they found that the leukemia has returned. She's starting chemotherapy today and will be having another transplant in 30 days. She had been doing really well and all signs at her 1 year check-up had shown that she was 100% donor cells and that the leukemia was gone, so needless to say, we're all very shocked and upset by this. Please pray that she would have very little side effects from the chemotherapy and that the transplant would go really smoothly and that she would recover completely. We believe that she will! She's very strong and has already overcome so much battling this leukemia in the past. Please also keep our family in your prayers...stepdad Jim, Aunt Helen, Chris & Kevin as this is especially tough on them too. We are glad we will be in California this week so we can visit and see how she is doing.

Almost 4 months old!

2008-04-03T08:13:00.000-07:00

Lucy on Easter

Lucy & Daisy...so tired

In a few days, Lucy will be 4 months old! Can't believe how fast the time is going...

We enjoyed spending several days with Chris' Dad Bob and Peggy...they loved getting to know her, and she loved them! Saturday, we went to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, OR, about an hour from our house. It has an IMAX theater and a huge museum that is home to the Spruce Goose. It was really cool. Lucy did great, we just put her in the Bjorn and cruised around. Lucy's first trip to a museum, and also her first movie! (an IMAX movie called Fighter Pilot)

Chris' 32nd birthday was yesterday. We celebrated with his dad and Peggy Monday night before they left...I made little chocolate lava cakes and we opened gifts. Chris got some nice gifts...tools, a webcam, and I got him a 29 gallon aquarium so he can do a salt water fish tank like he had before we moved to the East Coast. He also got some cash so we can go buy the fish and things to set up the aquarium, and Mark and Lisa are treating him to a baseball game when we are down in California next week! All in all, he made out really well and had a fun birthday.

We had a nice, relaxing Easter. Saturday night before Easter, we went over to Chris' Aunt Helen's house and did Easter eggs and had some pizza. On Easter, we went to church and out to eat and had a relaxing day. Lucy looked adorable in her little yellow Easter dress.

Those are the highlights from the last couple of weeks...life seems so busy. Even on my days off, there are a million errands to do and things to get done besides just enjoying that time with Lucy. Today, we're looking forward to getting our grocery shopping done and going to the Mom's group and Gymboree tonight! I did join a gym a couple of weeks ago, so I've been trying to get there a couple times a week too. I worked out last night and I am sore! That tells you how out of shape I am!

We're really looking forward to seeing many of you next week in California...should be a lot of fun! We're a little nervous and flying with Lucy for the first time and trying to figure out how to bring all that we need, but I'm sure it will be fine.

We hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Easter!

2008-03-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

Lucy admiring herself in the mirror
Asleep in the swing
Lucy's First Easter!

Wow, can't believe I've already been back to work for 2 weeks! It is definitely very hard being back to work. I hate being away from Lucy for the whole day! I feel like I'm missing so much. This week was especially tough because one of the dentists in the practice was out this week and they asked me to cover Wednesday and Thursday, my usual days off. So I worked a 5 day week this week and feel like I didn't get to see Lucy much at all.

Lucy is doing some fun new things...we signed her up for Gymboree so we go there now on Thursday evenings and she really likes it! We do all kinds of things there, sing songs, tummy time, use fun props like parachutes. And yesterday, Lucy rolled over completely from her back to her tummy. She's been rolling over halfway for a couple of weeks now...she'll swing her legs over and go from her back to her side, but yesterday, she was lying on her back in her Baby Einstein gym playing and looking up at the musical star and then all of a sudden, Chris heard her grunting a little bit. He went over and she was on her tummy! So she had completely rolled over. Unfortunately nobody saw the actual "roll", but I'm hoping she'll do it again this weekend!

Sleep has still been a struggle...we were working on transitioning her to her crib, but that didn't go so well...she was waking much more frequently, so after a few days of really trying, we decided to keep doing the bassinet in our room for one more month and trying again at 4 months old. We've started doing a really good bedtime routine at the same time every night, so we usually start around 7:30 giving her a bath, then doing PJ's and a little massage, the we read a couple of stories and then I feed her. Usually after all of that, she's pretty sleepy and we put her down in her bassinet. Usually she'll cry a little bit at first or wake up in that first hour we put her down, but we are trying to let her cry it out a little bit when we first put her down, but we go in every few minutes to reassure her. This has been working reasonably well, and she seems to be going down much easier now and doesn't cry for long at all. We're hoping that pretty soon we'll be able to just put her down and she'll just go to sleep without any crying! The hard part about her sleeping is that she does wake still 1-3 times every night but will usually go back to sleep easily after I feed her. But I am also trying to get her to go longer at night between feedings, definitely not feeding her more than every 3 hours, and she'll often go 4-5 hours, so some things are definitely getting a little better! We're also going to buy a sound machine this weekend and try that out...a few moms I've talked to swear by that. Sleep and babies is just one of those issues that is tough...I've been reading different books and talking to lots of moms about what they're doing, but every baby is so different, I think we just need to tough it out! Some babies are sleeping great at Lucy's age, but there are many who are still waking quite a bit just like Lucy.

I am back on Weight Watchers to try to lose those last few pesky pounds left over from the pregnancy (and maybe a few more that were there before the pregnancy)...this was my first week back on Weight watchers...it was rough, but it'll get easier. I'm also thinking about joining a gym so I can do aerobics a few times every week, but not sure yet...I want to make sure I'll actually have time to use my gym membership! One thing I plan on doing with Lucy is Baby Boot Camp, which is working out with your baby in their stroller...it's on Wednesday nights, so I think we might check it out next week.

We're looking forward to Easter...I have an adorable dress for Lucy's first Easter! I'll have to post a picture of her in it next time I write the blog. Tonight we're going over to Chris' Aunt Helen's house to dye Easter eggs and eat pizza!

The picture above is happy Lucy in her swing...she has a bunny next to her that her Grandma Marian sent that says Baby's First Easter!

Chris' dad, Grandpa Bob and Peggy are coming to visit next week and we're very excited for them to meet Lucy!

3 Months Old!

2008-03-11T06:38:00.000-07:00

Nap Time with Dad & Daisy Dog

Lucy turned 3 months old Friday. And she's definitely into her 3-6 month clothing now. It's really fun to pull out some new outfits! Lucy has the funniest personality. She loves to squeal and laugh. We had heard little giggles quite some time ago, but she gave her first true laugh last Sunday before I left for Dallas. I was giving her zerbers on the bottoms of her feet and she was laughing so hard. It was the cutest thing ever! And I've noticed she can see me from quite a distance now, so her eye sight must really be developing. She's also becoming increasingly more content and can amuse herself for long periods of time just staring at her hands or lying on our bed staring up at the ceiling fan (she loves that thing!). Bedtime is also going a bit better. Many nights, we're able to put her down in her bassinet awake, but sleepy, and she'll fall to sleep. And she's going longer periods at night now without waking...usually at least one 5 hour block before she wakes up hungry, which is a big improvement!

This week was a busy week. I flew to Dallas Monday to take my board exam Tuesday. It was difficult. The exam is an oral exam, 8 cases, 15 min. per case. I was pretty nervous when I first started the exam and I feel like I kind of bumbled through the first couple of cases. I feel like the second half went much better, but I'm nervous about the outcome because the first half I could've done much better. We don't find out our results for 4-6 weeks, so I'll try to put it out of my mind until I get the results in the mail some time in April. The other really difficult part of the whole thing was being away from Lucy for so long! We are still breastfeeding, which meant that I had to take my pump with me and try to pump every few hours. Since my travel time was about 8 hours, that was a challenge. I managed, but it wasn't very much fun! The highlight of the trip was seeing a friend from residency who I haven't seen since I left Connecticut. We had dinner Tuesday night after the exam which was a lot of fun. And the hotel was amazing. It was the Hyatt suites, and we got a really good group rate. The room was huge with a full kitchen, walk in closet etc. I was excited to get back Wednesday and smother Lucy, Chris & Daisy with a million hugs & kisses!

Then we left for Sunriver, OR Thursday for a conference. We had a great time. We stayed in a beautiful house with a couple other people from my work. The house was decked out with a hot tub, pool & ping pong tables, a huge kitchen and lots of other stuff. It was great. Lucy did amazingly well in the car (she usually hasn't tolerated being in the car for very long)...it was a 3 hour trip...we did have to stop one time to feed her, but other than that, she was perfect! This was Lucy's first overnight trip away from home. I couldn't believe how difficult it is to pack everything you need to travel with a baby. It's insane...her stroller, her pack & play, her swing, her papasan, all the bottles, the breastfeeding pillow, plenty of clothing because you never know when she's going to spit up or have a little blow-out, tons of diapers & wipes, a few toys...the car was loaded down! A friend from work has a 4-week old baby girl and it was amazing to see the difference between her & Lucy. It really made me realize how Lucy has grown!We made it back this afternoon and now I'm just getting ready for work tomorrow. Back to my regular work schedule of Monday, Tuesday, Friday. Chris unfortunately came down with a sinus cold last night and really isn't feeling well. Hopefully he'll feel better soon.Time to go organize Lucy's closet a little bit and pack up some of her newborn clothes and dig out some of her big girl things!

Off to Dallas tomorrow

2008-03-02T13:34:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's March 2nd and I leave tomorrow by myself :( for Dallas to take my board exam. I really feel stressed, not so much about the exam (although I am nervous), but guilty about leaving Lucy. She's been so happy & playful this week...I don't want to be away for 2 days! It seems like it'll be forever although I know it will go by fast. My exam is Tuesday from 3-5 central time, so please keep me in your thoughts during that time if you think about it.

Bethany will be with Lucy during the day while Chris is at work and Chris will take care of Lucy at night. She goes back and forth really easily now between the bottle and breastfeeding, so that's a relief. I know she won't starve while I'm gone!

Last night Chris & I got to go to a dinner & auction that was a fundraiser for a local elementary school that our dental office sponsors. It was really fun! We bid on a 2-night stay at a cabin up on Mt. Hood this summer as well as a day trip fishing that Chris is excited about and we won! It was really exciting.

I'm so excited to have this exam over with and be back home Wednesday. Then we have a fun weekend planned down in Sun River, Oregon where we'll get to play in the snow a little bit. We're sharing a big house with a few other families from work. The dental conference is just for a few hours Friday and Saturday morning so we'll have most of the weekend to play and relax. We're really looking forward to it! And then it's back to work on Monday...

An exciting thing about Lucy...she's definitely outgrowing her 0-3 month clothes and we've put her in a few 3-6 months things and they actually fit pretty well!

Maternity Leave Almost Over!

2008-02-25T08:35:00.000-08:00

Professional Photos taken of Lucy--6 days Old

Lucy grasping an object--1st time!

Although I do feel like I'm ready to go back to work in some ways, most of me wishes I could just stay home with Lucy indefinitely! This is really my last full week of maternity leave, because I leave for Dallas in exactly one week for my exam, and I'll be there for 2 days. When I get home, we'll leave the next day for Sun River, Oregon (all of us are going) for a pediatric dentistry conference. That should be a lot of fun. And then I start back to work 3 days per week on Monday March 10. Lucy will just have turned 3 months old. I know I keep saying this, but time is just flying by, and already, I can see how much she is changing! i don't want to miss anything she does! She is so so interactive with us...cooing, smiling, laughing all the time...she's checking everything out and is starting to enjoy some of her little toys. And yesterday was the first time that she grasped an object (that wasn't our finger)...there's a picture of her grasping her little rattle. We're finally more comfortable with uncovering her hands...she seems to be less interested in scratching her face these days, although she still has her moments!

The other pictures many of you have seen already over e-mail, but above are some of our favorite shots of Lucy from the professional pictures we had taken when she was only 6 days old.

Sleep has still been on and off. Last night was great...she only woke up once in the middle of the night to eat and went right back to sleep in her bassinet after. But she still has nights where it seems like she's waking up all night long. We really wanted her in her own room around 3 months old by the time I'm back to work, but we'll have to see in a couple of weeks how she's sleeping. This week is more of the same...playing, studying, and even working a little...I'll go in Saturday morning to the office to work and am volunteering up at OHSU on Friday morning for "Give Kids a Smile" day, working with the dental students.

Hope everyone has a great week...can you believe March is almost here?

Chillin in the Bumbo

2008-02-19T10:47:00.000-08:00

Grandpa holding Lucy
Nap Time--we nap like this a lot
It's Bumbo Time!!!

Lucy is gaining a lot more head control which makes sitting in her Bumbo chair a lot easier for her. She's really been enjoying it. We usually turn on the musical, light-up star on her Baby Einstein gym, plunk her in her Bumbo chair and she's usually content for quite awhile, smiling, laughing and cooing. Above are some cute pics of her doing that very thing.

We're loving our cooing conversations with Lucy too. She is mimicking facial expressions and our coos, and sometimes we have conversations that can last 10 minutes or so just cooing back and forth. She likes to throw in a squeal with her coos every now and then too. This morning, she was in her bassinet after I changed her and I heard her cooing...so without her seeing me I coo'd back...and then she amazed me by mimicking me from her bassinet! We weren't even looking at each other and we were having a conversation. I thought that was pretty cool.

This past week, she enjoyed meeting her Grandpa Andy who was here for a few days at the end of last week. He also enjoyed playing with the Daisy dog.

She's been a little fussier than usual this past week which had us concerned that maybe her reflux medicine wasn't working as well for her, but I talked to a friend from the new Mom's group who said her baby acts similarly when going through a growth spurt. Lucy has been pretty sleepy this week too, and she did gain almost an ounce a day, so maybe it's just that. Yesterday she slept so much during the day that she was restless all night and didn't sleep well. Hopefully she'll get back on a good sleep pattern.

We're starting to think about transitioning her to her room and her crib around 3-4 months old which would be coming up soon, but she's still eating sometimes several times during the night, so we'll probably wait until she's sleeping a little bit better through the night.

Bethany is here today so I can study (my big exam is 2 weeks from today...I'm very nervous!)...and I'm working this Thursday. I can hardly believe my maternity leave is almost over and that my exam is almost here! Time flies...Lucy will be 3 months old in a few short weeks!

Happy Valentine's Day (early)

2008-02-13T09:36:00.000-08:00

Not much to report from Portland, but I thought I'd post a couple of pictures from this past weekend. It actually stopped raining long enough for us to put Lucy in the Bjorn and take a nice walk! She really likes the Bjorn and enjoys looking at the scenery outside.

Everything went well with her 2 month check-up last week. She weighed 11 lb. 1.5 oz, height was 24 1/8 in. and head circumference was 16 1/4 inches. She's in the 90 percentile for height and head circumference and 50% for weight. She did fine for her vaccinations, screamed briefly and slept most of the day after, but didn't seem to be bothered beyond that.

My dad is up visiting for a few days, and he enjoyed meeting her this morning! She gave him lots of smiles and coos. Daisy is always happy to have visitors too.

I've been working a half day here & there to fill in at the office when needed. Tomorrow I have my first OR case at the hospital here...I'm a little nervous about that just knowing where to find things and paperwork etc., but I'm glad to be back to work a little bit and keeping busy.

Chris & I are going on our first date alone since Lucy was born, this Sunday evening and our friends Dianna and Aaron are going to babysit Lucy. We're excited we'll get to celebrate Valentine's day together, just a few days late. Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!

2 months old today!

2008-02-07T11:01:00.001-08:00

Lucy is 2 months old today, and she's doing great. She loves to smile and coo...she's so interactive these days. She also loves to look at lights and really likes to lie in her Baby Einstein gym and stare up at the musical star that lights up. Tomorrow we go to the pediatrician for her 2 month check-up. I think she'll need 3 shots :(

I think we've all pretty much recovered from our horrible day Friday. This week has been pretty good. Lucy enjoyed watching her first Superbowl with dad on Sunday while I did some studying. Then Monday at the breastfeeding group we go to, I weighed her and she had gained 7.4 ounces in one week! That's over an ounce a day, which is super for her...like I've said, she averages only about half an ounce a day, so maybe she's having a growth spurt! She's an ounce shy of 11 pounds now.

Bethany came Tuesday and Wednesday this week, giving me a chance to grocery shop, study and I got that massage I was supposed to have last Friday. Because of little Freddie, we've gotten a headstart on baby-proofing the house. We have baby gates to block off the kitchen and the stairs and we've rearranged things in the living/dining area to be out of baby's reach. It's a good thing...we won't have to worry about all of that when Lucy starts moving around.

Chris & I decided to give up eating out (or really take-out) and sweets for Lent which will be quite a challenge for us. It's only been one day, and already I'm craving sweet stuff.

This afternoon, we go to the new Mom's group which is always fun. Look for Lucy's 2 month stats from the pediatrician in our next blog!

Really bad day

2008-02-02T13:47:00.000-08:00

Lucy at the Mom/baby group this past Thursday

Bumbo Chair

This is a long blog, so make sure you have a few minutes to read through. Yesterday was a really really really bad day. I felt like there was a black cloud just following me around causing bad things to happen. The worst part about it was that it was supposed to be a really great day that I was so looking forward to. Bethany was going to come and watch Lucy for a few hours, and I was going to go get a massage and then study for a few hours (for my board exam in a month).

The first bad thing that happened (really minor in the grand scheme of things) is that I logged onto the computer and checked our bank accounts as I do every few days or so, and saw that a bank account that we rarely use and don't keep much money in was overdrawn because of an automatic deposit from OHSU that apparently was a mistake and was reversed causing the account to be overdrawn (we thought it was a small end of the year tax credit, but apparently it was just a mistake).

The worst thing that happened yesterday came next. I was sitting on the couch breastfeeding Lucy. Bethany and her son Freddie arrived and let themselves in as they usually do if I have my hands full with Lucy. For some really strange reason, Daisy started growling at them (she's been around them many times, so this was really weird), but I think she maybe did this because she couldn't see clearly that it was someone she knew and they just came in the house on their own without me opening the door for them. I scolded Daisy for growling, but she just continued to growl. This made me a little nervous because Freddie is a toddler and although she's never hurt a fly, I didn't like her growling. So I scooted down the couch to touch Freddie and let Daisy know he's our friend. There was a drink that I had stupidly placed next to where I had been sitting on the couch. When I scooted back down to where I was sitting, the drink tipped over. Without even thinking, reflexively, I quickly grabbed for the spilling drink. In that horrible moment, I think my quick jerking caused Lucy to roll off the breastfeeding pillow, face first, onto the carpet below. I was MORTIFIED. I've always worried and thought about how terrible it would be if I were ever to accidentally drop her or stumble while holding her, and this was my worst nightmare coming true. I don't know how I could have even let go of her for a second...all I can come up with was that I just did it as a reflex without even time to think. Of course she was crying, and I picked her up so fast, and she stopped crying really quickly. I was crying, but she seemed fine. She was smiling and acting like her normal self. There wasn't a mark on her, and she was moving all around just as she always does. I called Chris in hysterics, and he calmed me down, reassuring me that if she was hurt, she would be crying and upset, and she only had cried for about 5 seconds. She's cried much longer than that for something as small as her accidentally scratching her face. I knew she was OK, but I felt such terrible guilt for letting that happen. Even today, I keep replaying it in my head...I'm just so thankful she's OK...I know we were so blessed because she could have been seriously injured. She went through the rest of the day just happy as could be, eating well, sitting & playing in her new bumbo chair, and she even slept for 5 and 1/2 hours last night in her bassinet...this is a new record! And she was exactly 8 weeks old yesterday.

Anyway, after calming down and realizing she was just fine, I went to go pump some milk for her before I left for my appointment. Of course since everything I was touching that morning was somehow getting screwed up, my breast pump wasn't working (turns out I just didn't have everything connected properly).

I finally get out the door to leave for my appointment, pretty frazzled but looking forward to some relaxation, and as I'm leaving the neighborhood about a quarter mile from our house, somebody runs a stop sign at a 4-way stop and smashes right into the Subaru on the rear driver's side. My car spins around from the force of the impact and the back of the car hits a telephone pole. The tears just wouldn't stop flowing. I couldn't believe this bad string of events that happened. Thankfully, I was fine, just very shaken up. I felt very sorry for the other driver...she was a woman about my age. She was hysterical and so apologetic, admitting she didn't see the stop sign. As upset as I was, I couldn't be angry with her...after all, because of my mistake earlier that morning, I could have caused serious injury to Lucy, so I was definitely in the mindset of accidents happen and just thankful that her & I were unharmed. So poor Chris got his second hysterical phone call that I was in a car accident and needed him to come home. Of course he got there right away and took care of everything. My car needs about $5000 in repairs and it will take about 3 weeks to fix. The other driver's insurance company of course is accepting complete liability and is taking care of everything including the rental car.

As horrible a day as this was, I have to admit that it could have been so much worse. Lucy and I are both just fine, the car will be repaired at no cost to us, and even the small things with the bank account and breast pump are resolved. The hardest thing is just letting go of the guilt and the image in my mind of sweet little Lucy falling. Anyway, today has been relaxing. It is a very snowy day in Portland. Chris, Lucy & I had breakfast this morning with friends Dianna and Aaron and Chris is taking care of Lucy this afternoon to give me a chance to study. Above is a picture of Lucy happy as can be last night in her Bumbo chair. I hope my next blog will be a lot shorter and uneventful...thanks for listening (reading).

Baby Dedication

2008-01-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful time yesterday at Lucy's baby dedication at our church. Several people have asked me if this is the same as baptism, so I thought I'd explain it a little. Our church believes that baptism is something that the person decides to do once they are old enough to make that decision. The baby dedication is an expression by the parents and the church to try to teach and model for Lucy what it means to be a follower of Jesus as best we can. Then the pastor prays for Lucy and prays for us as Lucy's parents. It's pretty simple, but was very meaningful to us. Above is a picture of Chris & I with Lucy at church yesterday. Our friends Dianna & Aaron came to church with us and my mom and Bob were up for the weekend. We had a really nice time. After church, we went to lunch at BJ's (a really yummy pizzeria/brew pub). It was only our second time out to eat with Lucy and it went pretty well. Bethany and her son joined us too which was fun.

Today, we woke up to snow actually stuck to the ground, and kids were home from school and there were snowmen in people's yards. People make a big deal about any little amount of snow here in Portland. I guess I would probably be one of those people had I not lived on the East Coast for 6 years...now it's just kind of funny to me. I worked at the office in the afternoon to cover for one of the doctors. It was actually pretty fun to be back at work for a few hours!

Chris & I booked our tickets to SF yesterday. We'll be there from Wed April 9th to Sun April 13th. Hope we get to see many of you then.

Lucy loves her baths!

2008-01-23T10:02:00.000-08:00

The pictures above are of course of Lucy enjoying her evening bath. She can be super fussy and we just stick her in the warm water and start washing her and she quiets right down. She loves it! The bath we received at a baby shower is perfect. She just lies on her little chair and the bath even has a little water sprayer that rinses her off. It's actually really fun to give her a bath because we know how much she enjoys it!

Things have been going pretty well around here. Lucys reflux medication seems to be working really well to be able to get her to eat better and not be fussy after feedings. We're really happy that we were able to figure that part out so she can feel better! She is gaining weight steadily and we finally feel that we don't have to worry as much about that now. She's almost exclusively breastfeeding now and only getting a bottle when Bethany is here or in the middle of the night if Chris is giving me a break to rest. We have had a couple very sleepless nights this week which was very rough on us, but Lucy bounced back and slept really well last night in between feedings, so we hope that continues!

Bethany is here today, so I get to go get my hair done (first time since September!). I'm excited about that. And tonight is our first infant massage class.

We are excited that my mom and Bob are coming this weekend for her baby dedication...she has definitely changed so much since she was first born!

Also, we are planning a trip to the Bay Area in April so that I can go to Lisa's baby shower, so hopefully we'll get to see many of you then.

Smiles :)

2008-01-18T08:59:00.000-08:00

Above is a picture of Lucy smiling (and looking a little cross-eyed!). She's been smiling a lot for the past couple of weeks, but we haven't been able to capture it on camera yet! This shows her smiling, although not as big as a lot of her smiles have been.

Lucy is 6 weeks old today and doing great, although the never-ending saga of trying to get Lucy to gain weight continues. She woke up Tuesday morning with her right eye swollen shut & goopy. I took her to the pediatrician and he said she has a blocked tear duct in that eye which got infected. So he prescribed an antibiotic ointment to put in her eye. We did that twice and it looks so much better already! While we were there, we checked her weight and she had only gained a few ounces since her last weight check about a week prior to that, so she's only averaging about half an ounce of weight gain per day which is the very lower end of what is considered OK. So that continues to be very nerve wracking for us. She now weighs just over 10 lb. Dr. Ericksen thinks she may have reflux because of the fussiness during feedings, so he put her on medication for reflux. So far it does seem to be helping with the fussiness a little bit, but it doesn't really seem like she's eating a lot more than she was. She is sleeping really well at night in between feedings so we're feeling a little more rested. We have another visit to the lactation clinic for a weight check Sunday, so we'll see how that goes! Next week we start an infant massage class through the hospital which is supposed to be great to help babies with gas and is also supposed to help with sleep.

This week, I brought Lucy into work at lunch time so everybody could meet her. That was a lot of fun! And the Mom/baby group we go to on Thursdays continues to be great. I never thought I'd talk so much about breastfeeding & poop & lack of sleep, but it's great to have that time with other moms. Bethany came again this Wednesday...I was able to go grocery shopping, get some stuff done around the house and go get my brows waxed. Having that time makes me feel a little more normal being able to get out of the house for a few hours on my own. That's about all for this week...hope everyone's doing well.

Gaining weight :)

2008-01-13T16:15:00.000-08:00

This second picture is a picture of Lucy at our Mom/baby group this past Thursday. We like it a lot!

Thursday, Lucy & I went to the lactation clinic for a quick weight check and were so happy that she had gained over 4 ounces in 3 days. Hopefully she'll continue like that. We're seeing the pediatrician for a weight check Thursday...She now weighs 9 lb 15 ou., she's almost 10 lb!!

Things are getting much easier with the feeding routine now that we're breastfeeding almost exclusively and rarely supplementing with the bottle.

Chris & I are getting more & more comfortable taking Lucy out, and today we went and ate Vietnamese food after church (it was our first time taking Lucy to a restaurant!!). We were nervous, but she did really well and we enjoyed our lunch.

Another exciting event in Lucy's life is her upcoming baby dedication at our church on Sunday January 27th.

Other than that, Lucy just keeps getting cuter & cuter. I know I'm biased, but she is so adorable. Every day seems to be getting a little easier and we're enjoying parenthood so much.

One month old

2008-01-08T08:09:00.000-08:00

We were excited to celebrate Lucy's one month birthday yesterday. We started the day by going to an appointment with our lactation consultant Doris who has been a tremendous help with the breastfeeding. Unfortunately, when we weighed Lucy, her weight was exactly the same as it was last Thursday at the pediatrician, so she hadn't gained any weight in 4 days. This of course left me feeling a little discouraged because we have been doing much more breastfeeding and much less bottle feeding and I felt like she was doing well with it. But Doris gave us some good ideas, and I'm going to bring Lucy back there this Thursday after the Mom's group for another weight check. I never thought it would be so hard to just feed a baby!!

Some exciting news is that we found a great nanny for Lucy. We met her at our church. Her name is Bethany, and she is 28 years old, married and has a son Freddie who turned one year old the day before Lucy was born. She has a lot of childcare experience and Chris & I find her to be very genuine and trustworthy. We hope this will work out! Her first day is actually tomorrow (yes, tomorrow :). She will work some shorter 6 hour days about one or two days per week from now until I go back to work just to get acquainted with Lucy and to give Mom a little break to rest, study or do some errands. I'm really looking forward to having her.

That's all for now!

Good check-up!

2008-01-04T09:26:00.000-08:00

Lucy & I had a very good day yesterday, busy but good. First we saw her pediatrician for a weight check and she now weighs 9 lb. 10.5 ou, which is up 11 ounces in 14 days. Generally at her age, they like to see approximately an ounce per day, so she's not quite there, but not too far off, and her doctor was happy with how she was doing. His main concern was that she doesn't seem to have much of a drive to eat (much different than her mom!!)...we almost always wake her up to eat rather than her crying to let us know she's hungry. We are still feeding her every 3 hours. If we go 4 hours at night, she will almost always wake up before 4 hours hungry, but during the day, we generally are waking her to eat. But on the flip side, she is eating well when we wake her up, so that's a really good thing. The breastfeeding is going much better to the point that her doctor said we could start trying to use the bottle less and less to supplement her. Hopefully we'll get to the point where she doesn't need a bottle at all after breastfeeding. It seems like we're almost there, because lately she shows very little interest in the bottle after I'm done nursing her.

The other fun thing we did yesterday was go to a Mom/baby group. It was really fun. There were about 30 moms & babies there, and the format was really laid back. Once a month, they have a speaker come and talk to the group about various topics. Otherwise, it's just a chance for moms & babies to get to know each other, and when the babies graduate at 6 months old, they usually join a play group that has come out of the relationships formed in this group which is great. The moms take turns asking questions and other moms in the group can give advice and feedback. I really enjoyed talking to two women next to me and it's very comforting to share our experience and feel reassured from other moms about similar experiences they've had.

As I write this, Lucy is snoozing in her warm cozy pink sling that I'm wearing. That thing is a god sent! Hope everyone is doing well. Love, Andrea, Chris, Lucy & Daisy

Happy New Year!

2007-12-31T07:16:00.000-08:00

Can't believe tomorrow is 2008! Not too much news to report here...Lucy is doing fairly well, although we're still having difficulty at times with her being either really fussy or really sleepy when we're trying to feed her. Neither one is very good when we're trying to get her to eat! The fussiness may be related to gas issues, we're not really sure. We'll see her pediatrician this Thursday and Lucy & I are also going to a Mommy/baby group this Thursday afternoon. I have heard from several people that the Mom's groups are great...especially for first time moms like me not knowing what's normal newborn behavior vs. what I should really be concerned about. This mom stuff is hard work!

We're excited that Lucy's Grandpa Andy is coming to visit this Friday. She's looking forward to meeting him.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year.

Lucy's First Christmas

2007-12-27T08:41:00.001-08:00

Lucy's first Christmas was very special. It was our first Christmas in Portland and in our new home and although we missed the rest of our family, it felt good to be here in Portland in our home with our new baby girl! We were even more excited and surprised that Lucy's first Christmas was a white one! We had quite a bit of snow (for Portland, OR) on Christmas day...it reminded us a little bit of Christmas in Connecticut. We enjoyed spending Christmas day at Chris' aunt & uncle's house here in Portland...one of the pictures above is of a hungry squirrel on their back deck eating out of the feeder in the snow! We spent several hours over at Ken & Helen's house and Lucy did wonderfully...slept most of the day, ate pretty well and wasn't at all fussy. It made for a great day. And, she looked super cute in her Christmas dress!

Mom & Dad did realize though how tired they were later that day after not getting much rest the past two days because of everything going on with the holidays...we definitely need naptime!

Chris is back to work today, hopefully he's not too tired. He's been helping so so much with Lucy, staying up late with her so Mom can catch some z's.

Lucy also wanted to thank friends & family for the sweet & thoughtful Christmas gifts...she received many new clothes, some nice keepsake gifts and some money to invest in her college fund. Thanks so much! Daisy also was spoiled this Christmas with peanut butter treats and rawhide bones...not to mention all the treats (ham, cheese, etc.) that she received on Christmas day over at Ken & Helen's house!

Today is supposed to be another snowy day here in Portland. Mom & Lucy are just going to snuggle up and rest today. We miss everyone, hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Oh...and be on the look-out for Lucy's birth announcements...they're going out in the mail later today.

Lucy sleeps through church :)

2007-12-23T21:04:00.000-08:00

Chris & I were really happy today that we got to go to church. It takes a lot of work to go somewhere and coordinate her feedings and bring all of her things that we may need while we're out, but we were successful today, and it was great to see friends at church this morning. It was a great service with lots of great Christmas music. We fed Lucy right before we left and she managed to nap through the entire service. We enjoyed introducing her to friends at church. She looked adorable in the Christmas outfit given to her by her Grandma Emily and her little black Mary Jane shoes.

She is doing really well, but her feedings continue to be hard and bring us some frustration. She's nursing really well now (or at least much improved), but now she really fusses when we try to give her the bottle after (we're still supplementing with pumped breast milk as our pediatrician has told us to do). So I feel like she's getting good feeds from the nursing but she pretty much refuses to take much of the bottle afterwards. Hopefully this does mean that she's breastfeeding better and maybe we'll be able to get rid of the bottle altogether for awhile if her weight continues to be good at her next check-up which is on Thurs. Jan. 3rd.

She is our little doll and has brought us so much joy. We're really excited for her first Christmas with us and our first Christmas at our new home in Portland. It's been a very blessed year for us, and we have so much to be thankful for. Wishing all of our family & friends who are far away from us a wonderful Christmas. We love you!

Back to her birth weight :)

2007-12-20T18:21:00.001-08:00

Today was a good day, busy but goood. Lucy & I both had doctor's appointments this morning. Dr. Hoffman (my OBGYN) said the incision from my C-section looks great and that I'm a really quick healer, which is good to hear. He said I'm all cleared now to drive and can carry Lucy in her car carrier which is good news since Chris is back to work now. I'd like to look into going with Lucy to a mommy's group through St. Vincent Hospital. We've heard they're really fun and helpful!

At Lucy's appointment, she was back to her birth weight, weighing today 8 lb. 15.5 ou. which was a relief to me. As most of you know, we've had some struggles with her eating, and the last couple days, she's been pretty fussy at feeding times, but it looks like she's gaining weight appropriately which is great. We'll just try to keep doing what we're doing, and we'll see Dr. Ericksen in 2 more weeks to check her weight and see how things are going.

We enjoyed getting her dressed up in a pretty pink hand-knit sweater, cap & booties outfit that Grandpa Andy sent her last week. We got lots of compliments from people at the doctors' offices which of course her proud parents love to hear :)

Other than that, everyone here is doing well. Dad is napping right now, and I caught a nap before her last feeding. We realized that last night was our first night alone in our house since November 18th! We've had lots of family visiting up until yesterday and we loved the help but we're doing OK on our own too. Friends from our church brought us some yummy meals the last couple of nights that also will make great left-overs for the next few days.

We're excited that our friends who live here in Portland, Dianna & Aaron, are returning home tonight from a week long trip away; we will probably spend part of Christmas Eve with them, and may go to Chris' Aunt Helen's house for a little bit on Christmas day. Unfortunately, my mom came down with a bad cold the day she headed back to Salt Lake City, so she won't be here as planned for the holidays. But we're excited that both of Lucy's grandpas will be visiting in January...we can't wait for them to meet her!

10 days old

2007-12-17T14:21:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine from dental school, Rob Taylor, who recently had his second baby (also a little girl born only a couple of weeks before Lucy) told me about doing a blogspot to update friends & relatives with baby news & baby pics. I thought that was a great idea, considering there's not enough time to talk to everyone or e-mail everyone individually...friends & family can just check this site at their leisure and get updates from us!

Wow! I can hardly believe that precious little Lucy has been in our lives for 10 whole days now. I can't imagine life without her. True, she's a lot of work with never-ending feedings & diaper changes, but she's so much more joy than work with all of her adorable expressions from curious face to mad face to so content. I must kiss her cheeks hundreds of times each day. It's so weird to think that 10 days ago, she was in my tummy, and now she's here! Chris & I are truly blessed with this beautiful baby girl.

After a 5 day stay in the hospital after her delivery via C-section, we got to go home last Tuesday and try to figure things out on our own which was tough at first, but getting easier each day.

Our routine is to feed her about every 3 hours. Because we got off to a rocky start and weren't able to breastfeed right away, we're still playing catch up and trying to figure out the whole breastfeeding thing. We're doing much better now, but her pediatrician is having us supplement her feedings with bottle feeding her pumped breastmilk and formula if needed to make sure she gets enough to eat. The whole feeding routine takes quite a bit of time because first we breastfeed for about 20 minutes, then bottle feed for 10-15 min, then pump for 15 min., then clean up and diaper change so generally it takes over an hour to do all of this and then we only have about 2 hours before it's time to do it all over again! So that has been fairly tiring to say the least, but Dad has been helping a lot with the bottle feeding, diapering, cleaning up which makes it a lot easier on me! He'll be going back to work this week though which means that he won't be able to help as much with our nighttime feedings.

Her next pediatrician appt. is this thursday, her 2-week check-up. We're hoping she's back to her birth weight of 8 lb. 15 ou. She was 8 lb. 11 ou. at her last check-up this past Friday.

She's mostly a happy baby and when she's not sleeping, she can sit content just looking around. She does have her fussy moments...she usually screams when we change her diaper or when we're dressing or undressing her, but I think that's pretty typical. Last night she just wanted to be held and so Chris was up with her from about 1am until 5am when she finally went to sleep in her co-sleeper bassinet. This is unusual though...the couple of nights before that, she slept well in between her feedings. We usually try to catch a nap or two during the day as well.

Daisy so far has been a very good big sister to Lucy, sniffing her when she's crying and overall very curious about baby Lucy, but very sweet & gentle with her too. I think they're going to be great friends.

Thanks to everyone for all of your support these past couple of weeks...we definitely feel very loved by our family & friends. We hope all of you will get a chance to meet Lucy very soon!