Well, life is so busy these days that I just don't get around to the blog as much as I did during pregnancy. Ironic really, since at that time we were working like crazy on the house. This will have to be the Cliffs Notes of Thanksgiving in MD.
The Friday before we left for MD, Olivia had her Four Month Checkup and Vaccinations. She's growing nicely - head in the 90th %tile, height in the 35th %ile (24 inches) and weight in the 9th %ile (11 lbs, 12 ozs). The doctor said her muscle tone could be a bit better - but can you blame her for having a tough time holding up such a large noggin?! We are working on tummy time though and she's gotten dramatically better! After Olivia's appointment, I was a good mom and got a flu shot. Bad idea. Within a couple hours I had all the flu symptoms. My body sure reacts quickly to things - always has. So, instead of being super productive, I spent the day in bed with Olivia. We slept, I'd feed her when she woke up, we'd be cranky together, then go back to sleep. :) Kevin was working.
Kevin's been working his butt off lately. Some program he works on decided to pull the schedule to the left by several weeks and the result is - ruining holidays for all the transportation folks. Bummer.
We took the red eye home Sat night to MD, and lucked out that it was a pretty empty flight. Olivia slept in her car seat in the seat next to the window most of the flight, waking once to feed and again to spit up all over mom. That came as a surprised since she is not much of a spit-upper. But, Olivia fell right asleep after her stomach was emptied.
We had forgotten the base to the car seat in the car so had to rent a car seat from Avis - that was way too big for Olivia. Ooops. She made just one ride in that seat and Dad was on a mission to buy another base for our car seat. (After a few false starts we finally found one at Buy Buy Baby!)
It was COLD in MD. Which I like because it feels like the holidays. I was sick as a dog the first few days - still recovering from that flu shot and the havoc plane flights always cause to my sinuses. Mom and Dad Bellenger were pretty sick most of the time we were there, and Annie and Walter had just gotten over something - we were quite the crowd. Olivia was just over some sniffles, but that jet lag really got to her. She was Miss Cranky Pants herself all day Sunday since we messed with her sleep so badly. But eventually she settled in and was showing off with smiles and Coos.
The first several days were spent playing with cousin Walter (he's soooo talll!!!!!) and Aunt Annie. We chatted with Annie's friend Becca who was pregnant with her second child (and delivered him a day or two after we were home from MD). I was able to catch up on some much needed sleep. Olivia slept in the big bed with Kevin and I most night - purportedly because the room was to cold for her to be in the Pack n Play, but honestly because I liked the excuse to snuggle with my little girl and hold her hand.
Walter is a little cyclone developing into the Terrible Two's Tornado! He's so full of energy, eating constantly (all healthy food, of course... I need to learn that from Annie), playing with every which way toy, following the dog around with a cooking spoon, and just into everything! Wake up call for Kevin and me. We have some *serious* childproofing to do around our house before Olivia can get around. He's so cute with that blond hair and striking blue eyes.
We also had a stream of visitors come over to meet little Olivia. Aunt Barbara & Elizabeth, Mr & Mrs. Morrisson, then Aunt Barbara again but with Bart the second time. I'm sure there were more but my brain is tired.
Annie and Walter departed Tuesday morning to beat the Winter Mix home to NY. They're normal 4.5 hour drive took somewhere around 9 hours! Yikes! Major kudos to Annie for handling that journey with a 14 month-old cyclone. I can't even imagine. We missed Joel, but he was stuck working and had been traveling a bit so he needed to stay home.
Kevin worked a lot. Like, a crazy lot. Sometimes until like 2 or 3 am. Crazy.
Wednesday we went and picked up the turkey out in rural MD by Olney. That was a fun adventure. Dad Bellenger had a stomach bug and the weather was crappy, and I was happy for the excuse to get out of the house and go on an adventure. While I went in to pick up the turkey, Kevin waited in the car with sleeping beauty (and was making work calls) As it turns out, the line wasn't long at all. Very nifty to see all the empty turkey coops / barns with nothing but white feathers remaining and 5 token turkeys for the kids to gawk at as they left with the dead brethren in their hands for dinner Thursday night. Ironic how the people coo'd at the living gobble-gobbles! Other preparations occurred, but not the panic that surrounded the holiday as I was growing up - I like the mellower holidays!
Thanksgiving Thursday we watched the Macy's parade here and there, I ironed a tablecloth and set the kids table - standard preps. Kevin was put on Frisky Sour duty for the actual event. For context, before we flew out and I warned him of the task, Kevin said, "You talk all about these whisky sours but I don't think anyone actually drinks them." Well, he learned. Kevin was a very busy guy mixing drinks, when he wasn't upstairs with me trying to calm Olivia down. Dinner was delicious... well, what we had of it before meltdown at the table. Everyone was excited to see the little girl and she was held by all sorts of people. I was really surprised by how into Olivia cousin Margaret and her boyfriend, Price, were. Margaret is just like her mom (Barbara) - SUPER good with kids.
The Dunkelbergers and Steins were all there - Kate & Eaton are expecting a little girl in February and little Pete is a cute handful. Kathryn and Eric are expecting a little one in June. Babies everywhere! Very exciting. We need to get up to Reno to visit Eaton and Kate - it's been far too long!
Friday was recovery day, and the little Janeiro family went off to the National Zoo for a fun little adventure. It was surprisingly not crowded and quiet at the zoo. We had fun wandering around while Olivia was back to being Sleeping Beauty. The highlight was watching a big ol' elephant come into the inside pen, pick up a coconut, carry it and a bag of hay retrieved from a hanging tire over to the corner, step on the coconut until it POPped, eat it, the rip the bag apart and eat the hay from inside. Very deliberate actions and amazing to watch. Hearing the male lion roar loudly was also pretty cool. I'd never seen/heard that before. We finished off with dinner at a pizza joint in Dupont Circle.
Friday night we mainly chilled with my parents in the family room - the TV was off when we returned from dinner, which I appreciated. We hung out and chatted about life and mom held Olivia who was smiling away. :)
Saturday morning we left the house at 7:15 to catch our 10am flight home. I dressed Olivia in one of the outfits Mom had brought out from when I was little and Mom was stoked to see the little girl all dressed up i white. Pretty cute! I finally got a picture of both grandparents and Olivia all together! The flight home was fine - mostly because almost everyone on it was part of a family with small kids. I did a stellar job of selecting flights, if I may say so myself. I must be a mom since the flights I picked both had other small small children! We lucked out again and had the row to ourselves. Olivia was a little more temperamental on this journey, but I nursed her a bunch and at one point we had her laying down on the center seat, free to kick-kick. That's when she held a rattler (from Aunt Sarah) the first time for real and shook it around. Way cool.
I can't remember if Kevin went into work that Saturday, but he definitely went in on Sunday all day. Crazy.
O.K. I wrote this much. I'm sure I missed something, but I'm pooped. More to come tomorrow while I try and catch up! Hopefully photos will be added shortly. I didn't bring my own fancy camera to MD so that cuts down on the number of pics to wade through.
Aunt Kathy came over around 2:45 to give me a much needed break (Kevin was working) and off I went to the toy store for some successful Christmas shopping, and then to Home Depot for poinsettias. I love a little holiday color in my cube! At about that time the boob timer was about to go off so I headed home in anticipation. Perfect timing! After I fed Olivia, Kathy helped me dig out my Christmas ornaments from the center of the garage. That was a two person job for sure, and we partitioned off some goodwill items in the process. Success! Then Kathy left and I started the bedtime routine.
