awake

asleep

julia at two weeks

Stats from Julia's two week appointment...

length/height = 21.25 in (90th percentile)
weight = 8lbs 1oz (50-75th percentile)

snow fun

Snowman created by Josh & Madeline

Taking a break

thank you!

The snow has been cleared off the roads, so Grandma & Grandpa Bartel headed back to Kansas today. Thank you so much for helping us navigate these first couple of weeks as we grew into a family of four. We love you!

christmas wishes do come true!

M has been wishing for snow for Christmas and her wish came true! It started snowing in the evening on Christmas and we awoke to a wonderful white landscape this morning.



Thanks, Grandpa B, for clearing off our sidewalk and driveway, especially since we have less than ideal snow removal tools!

merry christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration today! Grandma and Grandpa Bartel helped us open presents this morning and then we feasted on waffles. The feast and presents continued in the afternoon with Grandma & Grandpa Lingenfelser and Natalie's family bringing over Christmas lunch with all the fixings. We really appreciate everyone rearranging their holiday traditions to accommodate us!

preschool christmas

Madeline's preschool had their Christmas program and brunch this morning for the kids in the 3 year old and 5 year old classes. Josh and I attended while Julia stayed at home with Grandma and Grandpa Bartel. The kids were so cute with their songs and poems!

The 3 year olds at APPLE Seeds
(M is second from the right in the first row, pink shirt)

bathtime 2.0

Julia's first bath at home

I can't wait for that umbilical cord to fall off so that we can use the baby bathtub. I'm worried I'll drop her into the sink -- soapy, wriggly babies are so slippery!

long and lean

Julia had an appointment with the pediatrician this afternoon to check her weight gain and make sure her little bit of jaundice was on its way out. She's now at 6.8 lbs (about 7% under her birth weight) but everything looks good. Look at those long, skinny legs and those long feet!

dress up

Madeline decided that Grandpa Bartel's workboots were the best accessory for her overalls. While she can clomp around the house wearing Mom's shoes, Grandpa's boots were so heavy they kept her fixed in one spot!

enough with the pictures already!

going home

Julia and I got the "all clear" after this morning's rounds, so Josh and Madeline picked us up this afternoon for our first family trip home.

The carseat and its safety harness seem way too big for little Julia.

That's one full back seat!

proud big sis

nice to meet you

first look

Madeline was fascinated with all of Julia's little features:
little fingers, itty-bitty fingernails, and teeny-tiny eyelashes.

she's here!

Julia Katherine arrived at 10:56am today, weighing 7lbs 5oz and measuring 20.5" long.

first snow of december 2010

We were surprised by the giant flakes that started falling this afternoon... guess we haven't been watching the forecast very closely lately! There wasn't much accumulation, but it was sufficient to provide M with some thrills (she's been wishing for snow for Christmas). Once we saw the flakes start, we all quickly donned our hats and coats -- well, I put on a few layers instead since my coats don't zip around the baby belly -- and played in the snowfall for a while.

front yard fun

One of the things we love about the new house: plenty of room in the yard to play soccer!

Dribble practice

Taking a shot

Celebrating a goal

reversible?

M picks out her own outfits everyday, but usually still wants help putting everything on. This was a recent exception... she proudly called me into her room to show off that she put everything on all by herself:

Looks pretty good...

... just a little backwards

When I asked her where the Powercat on her shirt was, she looked down for it (since it's usually on the front) and then shrugged her shoulders. She insisted that it was OK that the Powercat wasn't on the front anymore. I admire that spunk!

our little gardener

Madeline, Madeline, what does your garden grow? A little moss, a few black beans, apple seeds, and a surveying flag, of course!

preschool, preschool...

We've been singing this Sesame Street ditty around our house lately as M started preschool this week. Between her requests to go to school (Mom-school just doesn't cut it, apparently), my need to have some toddler-free time to work on the house (or nap, as this preggo has tendency to do) and the desire to have some one-on-one time with the baby when she comes, we finally decided to check out our options in our new neighborhood. And as our Josh's luck would have it, the place that was top on our my list still had openings for 3 year olds and hadn't started their school year yet. Woo to the hoo! M's only disappointment was that she wouldn't get to ride the bus to school.

So here are pics from Day 1.... She tolerated me taking pictures of her at our house before we got in the car, but refused to pause for any shots once we got to school.

Note the (barely visible in this pic) new green lunch box that matches her backpack. She picked it out herself and was very careful to find something that would match.

Can't stop for a picture now! I'm on my way to school!

she's on the way

the new place

We're under contract!
Highlights of the property: 4 bedroom + bonus room, 2.5 baths, 0.73 acres. It's definitely been an adventure getting to this point! Our real estate agent (Christine Danko, for those of you in the Triangle) had the patience of a saint as we traipsed through 85+ properties on the way to getting this one. We'll have a lot of updating to do to get this house to feel like our home, but we're up for the challenge.

control

M is starting to enjoy picking out her own outfits. Some days she just needs editorial power over which shoes she'll wear. Today, her whole outfit was of her own design.How can you argue with enthusiasm like this?

sold

Last night we put the finishing touches on the negotiations and our house is officially under contract now. Hooray! We think our little house is pretty great, but we were still surprised at how quickly all this happened (six days on the market, four showings).

We both have had a few pangs of sadness now that it's a reality that we'll be leaving this place. Now we're off on an adventure to find a new place to call home!

membership has its privileges

We love the Museum of Life and Science here in Durham. We especially love it when members get in an hour before the general public. I think that M, L and I were the first non-staffers in the door this morning and that meant that we had the entire place to ourselves. We try to save the indoor activities for inclement weather, so with sunny skies and warm-ish temps already this morning, I herded them outside. They made a beeline for the sandbox.


After M used the tools in the sandbox, she divided them into categories and proceeded to line them all up. Guess all my work to keep things at home organized and show-ready have unintentionally rubbed off on her.


My favorite kiddos appeased me by pausing for a photo op outside the butterfly house.

Before too long, school groups arrived and the museum grounds were full of kids and parents and chaotic fun. It was so nice to start off the day quietly, though!

good news

Josh brought home some unexpected, but (in my opinion) well-deserved good news. He got a promotion in spite of layoffs happening at the office. I'm proud of him and I'm glad that the folks at Hill-Rom are realizing that he's pretty awesome. Way to go, JP!

work, work

We've been contemplating a move closer to Josh's office for about 6 months, but never made any moves towards getting back in the real estate game. That would require effort and research and right then we were tired/lazy. And the housing market (at least for sellers) was supposed to be yucky and we probably wouldn't sell for much more than we paid for this place. Blah. Really, our current house is just fine, we decided.

BUT! After spending a couple of afternoons house hunting with Chelsea and Jonathan (including looking at a few comparable places near our neighborhood), we realized that the market is better than we presumed. Combine that with the first-time buyers that are out shopping for houses to beat the April 30 tax credit deadline (the probable type of buyer for our little abode) and we decided to put our house on the market. Well, it's almost on the market. All those unfinished house projects we have? They are quickly nearing completion... even without Stan the man around to help. We're hoping to get listed within the next 10 days or so. Wish us luck.

We're hopeful the place will sell quickly, but if it doesn't go under contract by the end of April then we'll take it off the market and be content staying here for a little longer.

And with all the activity that must occur to get this place ready for potential buyers, the blog will once again take a backseat... but only temporarily.

cooking with kids

To keep things interesting in our kitchen, my goal is to try an average of one new recipe a week. This week's experiment was to create butternut squash gnocci and I figured it was low key enough that M and L could help me in the kitchen.

I did most of the prep work the night before (roasting the butternut squash and making the dough) so that all I would have to supervise was the shaping of the gnoccis. About 5 minutes into helping my two favorite two-year-olds roll out the dough into snakes and trying to teach them how to cut the snakes into pieces (with dull table knives, mind you), I realized that they had more interest in squishing and squashing the dough than actually following my lead. So I changed course, gave them each a section of dough and presented them with the playdough tools and some forks for making patterns. I also brought out a bowl of sprinkles from my cookie decorating supplies to give them additional decoration options.

(note: anyone dealing with the dough should consider using a clip to keep their hair out of their eyes/face or be prepared to get sticky dough all over your face/hair when you go to brush it away... that's why both the kids have hair clips)

The kids were occupied for a good thirty minutes... enough time for me to roll out the gnoccis, cook them and assemble the rest of our lunch.

And even though they ate almost all of their dough by the time I had our actual lunch ready, they both cleaned their plates and asked for seconds. I think that is pretty high praise for this recipe, indeed.

disney weekend part 2

A 4am bedtime meant that our wake-up at 7:30am this morning was pretty painful, but we persevered. We spent the morning at Animal Kingdom. We walked the gorilla trail (and actually saw them because they were hanging out close to the glass).
We went on safari and caused a traffic jam because an ostrich decided that it wanted to check out our Jeep instead of crossing the road. We took the train. And we brushed goats and sheep.

And then we went back to the resort and took naps. After we were all well rested and had eaten dinner, we went to Magic Kingdom for our evening thrills. We saw the fireworks and rode lots of rides.

Josh and Jeremy take Peyton and Madeline in the teacups.

Jeremy, Sara and Peyton on Pooh's ride.

And then Grandma took us to meet the princesses. M and P were the only two in line at this point (yeah, it was pretty late and the "responsible" parents had already taken their kids to bed) so the Disney handlers let the girls hang out with all three princesses for a while. We even got to take some rare pics with all three of them at the same time. M was thrilled that she got to meet Cinder-lella, Belle, and Sleeping Doody. (Still, none of them compare to Fish Girl.)

disney weekend part 1

Gma and Gpa L graciously offered for us to meet up with them and Peyton at Disney World this weekend after their cruise docked. Jeremy and Sara were also on the cruise and scheduled to spend time at the parks. Who could turn down the opportunity to see them and Mickey, too? This trip ended up being rather last minute because we didn't know until Tuesday if Josh would be able to be out of town for the weekend (upcoming FDA audit, blah, blah, blah). But it worked out that he could play hooky, so we hit the road on Thursday after work for the 10 hr trip to FL. On the way down there, we discovered two unexpected benefits of our new Android phones: GPS navigation and streaming video.

M holding her Mickey and Minnie dolls while watching an episode of the Mickey Mouse clubhouse on Josh's phone.

We got in around 2am. M had already been sleeping in the car for a few hours so she was ready to get to the parks as soon as we pulled into the resort parking lot. Josh and I, on the other hand, were exhausted. Toddler lesson #5648: Make sure to explain AHEAD OF TIME that saying that we're going to Disney World today, doesn't actually mean that we're going to go to the amusement park as soon as we arrive in Florida. It was a rough go to get her back to sleep, but by 4am we all crashed out.

dance party

After her bath tonight, M decided she needed to have a little dance party to her current favorite song, Final Countdown (she calls it Tinal Fountdown). In her world, dancing cannot happen unless you are dressed properly, so she put on all her finery over her jammies so that she could get her groove on.



She "danced" to the entire 5 min 11 sec song.

peaceful

We've gotten a little bit of snow this year, usually not more than an inch or two at a time. The backyard is so peaceful when it's covered in white.

yee haw

Our little gal loves to pretend.



Most of M's dress-up supplies are from the dollar bins at Target or repurposed items from around the house. Her sparkly green bowler hat -- that's what all the cool cowboys are wearing these days -- is from Target's St. Pat's Day supplies (she added additional decoration via some strategically placed lumps of transparent tape). Her lasso/whip is one of Pickle's toys. She has used various stuffed animals in the role of horse, but her kitty is the most popular participant.