Christmas in NH, part 1

Elsa celebrated her first Christmas in New Hampshire with just about everyone in her family. I think it might take a few posts to get all the good Christmas photos up here.

Our trip to NH was pretty chaotic. We changed our flight to Friday night instead of the following Monday so we could get a few extra days of hanging out. However, there was a big snowstorm Friday night, so JetBlue was letting customers change their flights without fee. We thought it would be best to change our flight to Saturday night when the weather was supposed to be much calmer and hopefully we wouldn't end up spending the night in an airport with our Little Pea. However, we did not have such luck. Saturday night Elsa got to know RDU quite well. We arrived at the airport at about 6:15 for our 8:00 flight. Unfortunately, it was already delayed until 9:30 when we got there. We then waited, and waited, and waited until 11:30 when our flight finally took off. Elsa was a good girl for all that time in the airport. She fell asleep for awhile and the poor thing had to sleep on the floor of the airport. I was glad she was so willing to rest & sleep unlike some of the other people there who had older (1 & 2 years) kids...they were far less cooperative. We finally got to Bow at about 3:00 in the morning. I think it was 4 by the time we all got to sleep. Elsa was a really good baby, though, and she was back on her regular schedule in a few days.

The first few days we were in NH, we were greeted with another snowstorm to add to the pile that was already there. It was also RIDICULOUSLY cold. We should have taken a picture of the thermometer, but it said "6.3 degrees F." We wanted Elsa to feel cold weather, so we bundled her up and took her outside. I think we were outside for maybe 1 minute...probably less!

I guess that's it for this post...more to come soon when I feel like uploading/blogging again!

Four Months Young

We perfomed the monthly celebration of Elsa's birthday by donning her birthday cap. She also went to the doctor for immunizations (happy birthday!)...she is now 13 lbs. 12 oz, and is 24 1/4" tall. She is right in the 50ith percentile for height and weight.

Shelley reads Elsa a nightly bedtime story. Elsa is starting to get interested in looking at the pictures.

In other news...we were supposed to get to NH by tonight, but the daily snowfall that they get up there has thwarted our plans. We will attempt to take a flight Saturday night. This flight falls directly between two storms, so we may succeed. Hope we see all the NH folk soon!

Elsa Sings and Swings

Elsa is getting over her first cold (hopefully) and I think she was excited about that, so she decided to sing us a song. She kind of sounds like one of The Chipmunks (Elsa, Simon, Theodore). Actually, her notes sound more like a dying chipmunk (or cat? or "Screaming Eagle"?). Still, this beautiful song had been going on for about 15 minutes before I captured the one minute of it posted here.

Cirque d'enfant

It was another daddy-daughter day yesterday, and Elsa spent the day showing off her newest trick--rolling over. She can roll back-to-front, but not the other way, so once she got onto her tummy she would start crying for me to roll her back over so she could do it again. We spent about 15 minutes at one point doing this repeatedly.

I've posted a video. Sorry about the shakiness at some parts, but I was on the floor on one arm and holding the camera with the other hand. I will also apologize that this will be 43 seconds of your life (never to get back) just watching someone roll over...but you don't HAVE to watch it. We're proud of her, and she's proud of her new ability.

Weekend Update

We had a very busy weekend and I seem to have taken a lot of pictures...

Elsa does the "velociraptor" as Andrew calls it...I had her on the rug trying to get her to roll over again because she did it after Jess & I gave her a bath. She rolled into the bathroom sink (well, I caught her...) and then Jess freaked out and was like "oh my god!!! She just rolled over!!" which I think then freaked out Elsa!

We had a photo shoot so we could get a good picture to put on a Christmas card so Elsa got a little dressed up. She was also dressed up to go to Aaron's lab Christmas party. (This is not the winner of the card, but I liked it...)

This is why I die inside everyday when I have to leave Elsa to go to work. Here is she waking up on Saturday morning all smiley and happy.

Not quite sure what's going on here...I think she is going to eat the blanket.

Jess & I worked very hard making & decorating a cake for Chrissy's surprise birthday party. The party was a lot of fun and I think Chrissy was at least a little surprised. It was really fun to catch up with some old friends and enjoy some delicious food and great company. We left Elsa at home, however, and got in trouble from Andrew's parents who claimed the both "had two arms perfect for holding babies."

This is Elsa's favorite party trick...she can fit her whole fist in her mouth. Aaron tried to get a picture of it while changing her diaper. I wonder at what point this becomes impossible?

After trying to roll over for awhile, Elsa gave up and started falling asleep...

Daddy-Daughter Day

Wednesdays and Fridays are Daddy-Daughter Days. Today we ate, we talked, and we went for a few walks. Below are some pictures from the past few days.

It was cold on Sunday so we burned an "environmentally friendly" fire log.

Elsa was really into watching the flames.

Since it was so cold, she decided to put on a warmer sweater.

Elsa-in-the-box

As most of you know, Elsa hangs out with Panda George while she gets her diaper changed. She used to just poke at him, but now she's giving him some hugs.

We purchased a humidifier that arrived in an unnecessarily large box. I think we could have fit four Elsas in it!

Elsa's First Thanksgiving

Yesterday was Elsa's first Thanksgiving. I think she was was pretty excited :) We had Orphan Thanksgiving over at Matt & Leigh's house with Angie & Derek who were also not traveling home for this holiday. We had a ridiculous amount of food for only 6 adults & Ali (Elsa didn't get to have too much turkey...) I think this was mostly my fault as it turns out I like to cook & made a lot of stuff! Oh well - I don't think anyone complains too much about Thanksgiving leftovers, right?

This Thanksgiving was a lot different than last year when I was pretty sure I might be pregnant since I was ridiculously carsick all the time - even when I was driving and I thought I may die on the plane ride to NH. However, I opted to pretend I didn't know I was pregnant so I could still drink on Thanksgiving & at Hil & Andrew's wedding. I'm a good mom :) I guess Elsa turned out all right...she was only about 2-weeks post-conception last year!

It was also strange sitting around the table with the 2 babies - last year on Thanksgiving Ali was only 5 days old and there was no Elsa yet. Who will be our new guest on Thanksgiving NEXT year?

It turns out, it is difficult to get a 1 year old and a 3 month old to take a good picture...here are a few...Elsa is wearing her party outfit and her hair looks ridiculous, as always, although she did hold still long enough for me to put a little barrette in there!

Elsa ran out of baby gas...maybe it was the turkey? The thumb went in and we knew it was time to head home...

Here we are about 20 minutes after getting home...this is Elsa's favorite thing to do: cover her face with her hand when she's falling asleep.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :) xoxo

Back to Work

A little collage I made for fun...

This has been a busy week for Elsa, Mommy, and Daddy. I had to go back to work on Monday which was very sad :( I missed my little baby Elsa a lot on Monday while I was at school. I pretty much wanted to quit work and stay home forever. Then I decided I should just get pregnant again - then I could stay home with both babies.

Tuesday was Elsa's first day at her new babysitter. I think the day went pretty well, although she did some crying (Elsa, not her babysitter...) She needs to get a little better at sleeping when she isn't at home.

Wednesday was supposed to be another day like Tuesday, but instead I woke up throwing up for some reason. I was fairy certain I was going to die. I was ridiculousy dizzy and puked for 3 hours. Then I was better. It was weird - I must've eaten something bad. :(

The rest of the week was good. School was much better the last 2 days and it wasn't quite so sad to leave Elsa, although I still missed her a lot. The weekend has been nice. I got some quality Elsa time yesterday while Aaron went to lab. We missed him, but got to hang out all day. I bought Elsa a new chair to leave at the babysitter so she has somewhere to hang out when she is there. This week will be a short week since I only have school on Monday & Tuesday...then 5 days of Elsa time! :)

Elsa & Mommy reading a bedtime story about fairies.

Elsa muching on her fingers as usual.

Daddy's Little Helper

I'm officially a stay-at-home dad (two days/wk). Today Elsa and I did many fun activities. First, we went for a walk around the apartment complex. Then Elsa learned how to recycle corrugated cardboard and how to get the mail. She was very well behaved and I think walking around outside made her sleepy because she took some great naps.

We now have "Elsavision". This day/night monitor lets us know she's safe in her crib. And it's great for spying on her as she plays. The infrared night vision makes me feel like I'm a member of TAPS (Ghost Hunters). Perhaps I'll catch some entities in our apartment.

I had Shelley take this picture of Elsa holding her own bottle. She barely needs us anymore!

Here's Elsa playing in her exersaucer. She's getting good at spinning the little wheels around.





And last but not least...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! You're 3 months old! : )

Elsa Noises

Pigtails

I gave Elsa some pigtails yesterday for fun because she had sort of a devilish/"Flock of Seagulls" hairstyle going on. However, her pigtails stayed in for about 1 minute...

Here's a big Elsa smile :)

Hair Update

I found a good number of Elsa's hairs on her hands and pjs this morning - I don't know if this is exclusively because she is pulling it when she sucks her thumb or if it is also falling out, but either way, it seems that her hair is coming out a little - I don't want her to have a huge bald spot!!

Thumb Muncher

In the past few days Elsa has been going to town on her fist and fingers - yesterday she started using her thumb as her primary sucking finger and this is her new style. Thumb in mouth and hair being pulled. She has been doing this non-stop for the past two days now...when she is playing, sleeping, even eating - she spits out the food source to shove her thumb in instead. We'll see if that keeps up.

We thought she would be a thumb sucker since she was sucking it the day she was born and the first day or so home...and we have the ultrasound picture that we realized she is sucking her thumb in (although we didn't know until we saw her in real life and noticed how she had her thumb in her mouth with the rest of her fingers covering her face...) At this point, I'd rather have her keep her pacifier, but I guess it isn't up to me to decide.

She mostly sucks her left one and also likes to hold her bottle with her left hand, so Aaron & I are thinking she may be left-handed. I know it would make her great-grandfather happy!

In other news - I finished my puzzle! I needed something to do, so I bought a puzzle - I had no idea what was a reasonable difficulty level...this is a 1,000 piecer...turns out that is a little bit hard, but fun! I don't know how people do the 5,000 piece puzzles...this one took me a few weeks! Now I guess I have to take it apart :(

Dragons & Cows & Bells

Elsa tried out her exersaucer the other night and seemed to enjoy playing in it! She did a great job looking at all the toys around her. She doesn't really know how to make them work yet, but she liked to touch them and stare at them. Her legs are too short for her feet to touch the bottom, so they just sort of hang there!

Big, Blue Eyes!

Look at my beautiful eyes, they look just like my elephant! :)

I am working on trying to get every last bit of enjoyment out of my last 2 weeks home with Miss Elsa. I can't believe that it's already November. Time really has flown by. Little Elsa is 11 weeks old now! She is doing well - making lots of cute baby talking noises and playing with her toys a lot more. We are trying to get her on somewhat of a schedule for when I go back to school. She has been a good sleeper so far, so hopefully that will last for awhile. I was really hoping that I would fit into my regular clothes by the time I went back to school, but I think I'm going to have to break down and buy a few pairs of pants cause it isn't quite happening with the whole "buttoning" thing yet on my old ones. :( Maybe I should start wearing a girdle...I hope that someday I can go back to wearing regular bras and buttoning pants again.

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween! Love, Elsa :)

PS: Look at how Mommy did my hair!! It looks ridiculous :) Thanks, Grammie Thorner for the Halloween outfit - it's so cute! xoxo

Elsa Gives Some Love

Elsa's First NH Visit (outside the uterus...)

Well, we got back yesterday from a fabulous week in NH with the families. We spent most of our time just hanging out at either Grammy & Grampa McKernan's house or Grammie & Pop Pop Thorner's. We saw tons of family & Elsa got to be cuddled & loved by everyone. I will let the photos tell the stories...

Here is Uncle Willie giving Elsa a bottle
Here is Grampa hanging out with his baby

Uncle Willie & Elsa

I had to force Lil' Sis to come meet little Elsa, but I won & she came!

Lil' Pea hanging out with Auntie Alexis and giving a big smile

My friend from high school, Bekah, came to visit with her new baby Owen who is 4 days older than Elsa

Elsa getting cuddled by Uncle Andrew & Uncle Stephen

Grandma & Grandpa Oppold came down for brunch at Paul & Monica's on Sunday morning. Here they are with Elsa, Lauren, and Alex.

Here is Auntie Hillary with little miss Elsa in the "sleeper hold"

Elsa getting a bottle from her Great-Grammy Jeanette

Elsa getting love from Great-Grammy Phyllis

Lauren & Elsa - Elsa doesn't look too comfy!

Here is my favorite picture of Aric!

Elsa & Uncle Paul

Elsa & Auntie Monica - sorry for showing all the same pics as you, Monica!!

Elsa getting a smooch from her cousin Alex
Elsa getting love from Sarah (my cousin)

Here is my favorite picture of Grammy, Mom, me & Elsa :)

It was a great week - we had so much fun visiting and having everyone meet Elsa! We also got to see a UNH hockey game, eat some DHOP, have plenty of Dunkin Donuts, and take Elsa to my dad's school and Grammie's library. We miss you already!! xoxo