Madeline’s First Week Home

After 2.5 days in the hospital, James and I were ready to bring little Miss Madeline home to her new world. And I happy to say that I think she rather likes her new home. She has wasted no time in spreading her things all over the house – diapers, burp cloths, blankets, etc. Overall it has been a great first week!

We came home on a Saturday, and my parents were here until Tuesday morning. Then our sis Jessica arrived Tuesday evening, so we’ve had such great help as we transition to life with a newborn. Both my parents & Jessica have been willing to stay up with Madeline for the “first watch” at night, so I’ve been getting a few hours sleep before the feed/burp/change diaper cycle interrupts the night hours. That has been great! And we've had friends bringing us food and meals. Jessica has been off to the city for the weekend, so the last few nights have been our first taking care of baby just the two of us…it’s been going well, but I think we’re both excited for that day when you get a straight 6 or 7 hours of sleep again.

Here we are all ready to come home from the hospital:

We spent a lot of time cuddling with her this week.

She’s had her first baths, and hasn’t minded them too much.

Madeline is learning to make her demands known.

We are working on quality burp sessions in effort to minimize spitting up.

And since we aren’t hiring a professional photographer for infant photos, I’ve been trying to get a few photo sessions in with a new camera we got for Christmas from my parents. I haven’t hit any professional quality photos yet, but I have captured some of the many faces of Madeline.

We have absolutely loved becoming parents to this little girl, and I think it's still settling in to both James and me that she is ours to raise for the next 18+ years. God has blessed us so much with Madeline, and we are prayerful and excited for all that it means to be a mother and father to her. Here's to many more good weeks, kiddo!

Nursery Chronicles 3: The Grand Finale

Here is my final Nursery Chronicles Post:

http://typezofa.tumblr.com/post/15276803248/nursery-chronicles-3-the-grand-finale

Waiting for Baby

I realize that still waiting two days after your due date is not a big deal…a due date is an approximation and the baby could come several days (or even weeks) on either side of your due date. But after waiting 9 months, one becomes quite attached to that day – you want to meet your little child as soon as possible!

My parents flew in on Dec. 27 to stay with us and be here when the baby is born – they wanted to help out with all the new challenges that come in that first week after bringing baby home….laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc. But so far we’ve had 5 days of them helping us sans baby. I think we are all getting pretty anxious for the big arrival, so we’ve all been happy to keep ourselves occupied in other ways.

What have we been up to?

1. Cleaning

Curtis and my mom have done all sorts of deep cleaning around our house that I don’t quite get to all the time (or ever!). Like Curtis dusting all of our kitchen cabinets & cleaning out the vacuum, or my mom wiping down all the slats in our shades and cleaning out the window grooves. Thanks, parents, for help with all this deep cleaning!

1. 2. Finishing up nursery projects

As much as I was hustling the last several months to prepare for this baby, our nursery just didn’t progress as quickly as I would have liked. As in, James and I were finally painting the crib with less than a week before our due date. So once my parents got here, they sprung into action and helped us finish up the nursery. James and Curtis set up the crib, my mom and I went shopping for some fun nursery accessories, and all 4 of us tackled making and haning a pelmet box over the window. The making of the box wasn’t too hard, but the hanging part turned out to be quite the difficult process. But I am very happy to say that our nursery is finally cleaned, clutter free, and fully ready for baby!

Curtis and me making the pelmet box:

Curtis & James on round 3 of figuring out how to hang it:

Mom & me doing some nursery organization:

1. 3. Prepping for teaching

At the end of December, James was offered a job as an adjunct professor in the philosophy department at Wheaton College. This turned out to be a HUGE answer to prayer for us…it will pay pretty well, keep us on Wheaton’s health insurance through July, and will provide James a job that he will love. And in the meanwhile he is still going to stay on in his master’s program part-time. But this did mean that James had about 2.5 weeks to prepare two courses from scratch – he’ll be teaching two sessions of Philosophy 101, and 1 session of Kierkegaard. So, in between all of our preparations for baby, James has been hustling to draft up course syllabi and assignments, read enough about Kierkegaard to be able to teach a 300 level college course on him, get books ordered at the bookstore for students, etc. No matter when our lady decides to show up, James will be teaching his first college courses starting January 9!

Eating & Shopping!

We’ve also managed to eat lots of yummy food, hit up a few fun restaurants (including a cool Greek restaurant for New Year’s Eve), and stake out the Wheaton College game room with Chicago Deep Dish for the Husky game. It was great – we had the whole room to ourselves, with pool tables, air hockey, foosball, shuffleboard, and a monster big screen TV. Would have been a perfect night if the Huskies had actually won! We’ve also explored several shopping centers, and sweet Curtis has tagged along with no complaints. We’ve purchased a Pack-N-Play at Costco, some organizational goods at Ikea, and some fun nursery accessories.

Out for New Year's Eve:

So I guess we certainly haven’t been bored, and it’s been really nice to have family here to help us finish prepping for the baby. But every night I go to bed hoping I wake up with labor pains…we’ll see what today brings!

(Less than) 48 hours in Seattle

At the end of October I had the opportunity to travel to Seattle for a work trip. The way my schedule worked out, I was only able to go from Tuesday to Thursday and I debated if it was worth making the long trek to Seattle for such a short time. But I’m so glad I did! Given that I was only in Seattle for less than 48 hours, I covered a lot of ground. My first night in Seattle, my sweet family drove all the way down to Seattle just for a dinner with me…even my brother and his girlfriend came. We ate at Tutta Bellas, my favorite pizza place in Seattle. It has amazing Italian style brick oven pizza.

On my one full day in Seattle, I was able to reconnect with my dear college friend Laura inbetween work meetings. We met up for lunch in Pike’s Place Market with my little sister and a student that I brought on the trip with me. It was a lovely sunny day, and we strolled the market sampling fruit, cheeses, candied nuts, and smoked salmon. Then we finally settled on a lunch from my favorite cheese shop, Beechers, followed by dessert from a fabulous little French bakery, Le Panier.

Me & Laura.

Me & Krissy Kris.

Beechers Cheese Shop. Oh so good.

Where all the cheesy goodness is made.

Lunch!

Sally & Krista.


Yummy French pastries from Le Panier.

That afternoon I took some time myself to stroll through the shops in Freemont, and to take a quick walk through Gasworks Park. Then Sally and I met up with some Wheaton professors and went out for dinner at Anthony’s Home port on Shilshole Bay…this has been one of my favorite seafood restaurants since I was a kid!

View from Gasworks park.

After a meeting with SPU’s president on Thursday morning, I grabbed my little sister and Sally for a stroll through Queen Anne and some coffee at Ladros before heading back to the airport. It was so refreshing to be back in “my” city, take in views of Mt. Ranier, and smell the sea air. It was also great to see my family and reconnect with some of my old professors. And that was my last flight before our little girl makes her grand debut. So glad for my less than 48 hour trip to Seattle!

Birthday Weekend!

My dear husband and my dear friend Emily have a birthday within a few days of each other, and Emily flew out this year to celebrate her birthday weekend with us here in Chicagoland. So I got to spend a weekend full of great birthday celebrating with the two of them!

I took a day off from work on Friday, and Emily and I spent a great day in Chicago in Wicker Park, strolling the quirky streets, shopping, and dining. We had a great fall day with sunshine to keep us warm amidst the fall chill, and then we spent the evening in Wriggleyville at Improv Olympics. James and I had been there before this summer with some other friends, and had a great time. But we’ve heard rave things about the Shakespeare Improv troupe, and had always wanted to go to one of their shows. Emily happens to love Shakespeare, and Chicago is the capitol of Improv, so it was the perfect opportunity to enjoy Shakespeare Improv. And. It. Was. Hilarious. Seriously, they were so good! Someone in the audience tosses out a theme for the evening, and our night someone called out “The Invention of Soap.” This troupe managed to weave a whole story line, in two acts, that threaded the invention of soap into their Shakespearean dialogue. I cannot wait to go back.

Saturday James, Emily, and I spent some time at Cantigny, which is an amazing park we discovered not far from our house. I can’t believe we lived here a year before I discovered it. I used to think it was just a private golf course, because it was all gated from the outside. And it does have a golf course. But it also has a huge property full of different gardens, statues, little trails, and a beautiful estate you can tour. It has what we’ve been told is an excellent military museum on the property, as well as a main building that people can rent for parties and such. This property was owned by the founder of the Chicago Tribune, and when he died he willed it to the public, in hopes that it would always be enjoyed free of charge. Again, we had fantastic weather to enjoy while strolling amidst pumpkins, mums, cabbage plants, and the last blooms of a late summer.

And Sunday, I threw a triple Birthday Bash for Emily, James, and one of my co-workers (Kristy) whose birthday was also right in the mix. We had an eclectic group of friends over for an evening of chili, fall treats, pumpkin carving, and birthday cake. This was such a perfect weekend, and I’m so glad I got to spend some time with Emily before I enter the world of motherhood—where impromptu gallivanting around the city is harder to come by. :0) Thanks so much for coming, Emily!

Annie, Joy, & Deanna

Kristy & Emily

Working hard carving pumpkins.

Scott gave James moral support throughout the process.

James' Seattle skyline pumpkin.

Marissa

Tamara & Adam

Love this Birthday girl!

And Love this birthday boy!

Ode to Autumn

New Types of A post here: http://typezofa.tumblr.com/

Labor Day Weekend

When James and I found out that our baby was due December 30, we realized that would mean no trip home for Christmas. And we didn’t want to wait until after Christmas, because that would mean no trip home for well over a year. That’s too long!

So we decided to plan a little trip home over Labor Day weekend. And it was short, but very, very sweet. We had perfect weather – high 70’s, low 80’s; sunny clear skies, and perfect views of the mountains.

And our lovely mothers threw us an incredible baby shower! They went above and beyond in making decorations, preparing food, and hosting a huge crowd of friends and family for this special day. It was so fun to have grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, family friends, friends from high school, and even friends from college join us to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our sweet little girl. James and I were truly overwhelmed with all the love and support everyone showed us and our baby. Here are some pics of this fun occasion.

Our moms did a storybook theme for the party. I LOVE the little storybook garland they made.

Here's a closer up pic...each little book had pages from a Mother Goose book...so fun!

And here is the menu: Little Boy Blue Blueberry Scones, Peter Piper Prawns, Baker's Man Brownies, Little Lamb cookies, Mary Quite Contrary Salad, Goldilox tea sandwiches, Humpty Dumpty Egg Quiche, and Hush-a-Bye Bellinis.

Here's part of the spread...so much good food! Lois made these scones with fresh whipped cream, berry preserves, and this delicious lemon curd.

Lois also made these sweet little lamb cookies, each little one with a pearl and bow. They didn't last long...

And can we just say that our little lady was beyond spoiled! She is going to be quite well dressed...I can't wait to play dress-up with her! And she even got some clothing that James appreciates - Bob got her a little Carhart jumper with pink camo, and my Mom got her a little Notre Dame outfit. So it wasn't all ruffles and tu-tus. :0)

And I suppose this gift was more for me than my little girl...I always wanted a Molly Doll growing up, but never got one. So my mom finally broke down and got one for my baby...hopefully she likes Molly! I'm sure she will...I'll make sure to start reading her Molly books when she's three.

The rest of our weekend was lovely as well. My brother took James fishing with Jason and Bob, and they all caught some salmon. My brother also brought home fresh-caught crab, so we fully feasted on PacNW summer foods. While the boys were fishing, my mom, Lois and I all went out for lunch and strolled along the Bellingham Bay waterfront. It was perfect!

And the next time we return home, we'll finally have our sweet little girl to introduce to everyone. We can't wait!