As promised...

Pictures taken by Dan...

http://picasaweb.google.com/linzwalsh/March162009?feat=directlink

Pictures taken by Noelle....

http://picasaweb.google.com/linzwalsh/BostonMarch2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCJjV57jT_azSXg&feat=directlink

Enjoy!

Released from the vault...

From Las Vegas, November, 2007:

Midwest Adventure 2008

Vi and I just had a whirl-wind weekend. Friday we flew to Indianapolis with 2 of my brothers, to attend the funeral of our grandfather on Saturday. She and I hitched a ride with my aunt and uncle to Cincinnati, so as to surprise my grandmother with a visit from her newest great-grandchild. We flew home on Sunday.

She was a Wonderful Baby the entire weekend. Not kidding...I would do it again in a heartbeat. I would take her on an airplane any day of the week. She slept well, ate well, and was cheery and smiley and silly. My only complaint is that she liked to poop while we were taxiing down the runway...the only time I had NO access to a changing table!

Here is a video of Vi being Vi, and a link to a web album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/linzwalsh/MidwestAdventureApril2008

Home again, home again! Jiggety-jig!

We made it home safely today. Having made the longer (against the headwinds) trip TO Nevada on Monday made the slightly shorter (with the headwinds, no delays, less of a layover) trip back HOME! to MAINE! even easier. Vi was, once again, Wonder Baby on the plane - hardly any fussing at all, lots of giggles, and plenty of compliments from the other passengers. Dan and I were remarking on how we feel so accomplished, successful-so CAPABLE, after making this trip. Like, we flew across the country with an infant without killing each other; therfore, we can do ANYTHING.

(Not that we will. We're pretty beat.)

We had the best Welcome Home ever. My mother picked us up at the airport, and my stepfather was at our house cooking us dinner. They helped us unload the car, change the baby, get settled; they fed us, did the dishes, then left. It was great. Coming home to a warm house, lit-up, with a fresh-cooked meal aroma floating through the house, and having two extra sets of hands to help us come home.

Plus, Riley was full of H&K (Hugs and Kisses) for both of us. When Vi saw him, she smiled so widely, and kicked her feet. THAT was cool. Apparently she knows Riley and enjoys his silliness and stinky kisses.

Right now, she is swaddled up (albeit in her smoky-smelling swaddle blanket), in her swing, sighing as she sleeps quite soundly.

We had a great time in Vegas. It was so nice to get away, especially to a warmer place, just as the weather here is turning frigid.

But it is always, always nice to come home to Maine. We live here by choice, and every time we go somewhere else, we reaffirm that choice. Maine is simply the BEST place to live, and we are so glad to be home.

Vegas, Baby!

That's right, we're in Vegas, baby! Dan won a trip at work, and we extended our stay a bit to visit with his sister and her family. It's a total trip meeting her - she and Dan are so similar; I feel like I've known her for a long time.
The mountains are beautiful.
The casinos are smoky.
The food is delicious.

Most importantly - to me - Vi was a Wonder Baby on the plane. Nursed on the way up and the way down - no fussing.

That's all for now.

One month old!

Vi will be 5 weeks old tomorrow. It's hard to believe an entire month has already passed; it seems like we just got home from the hospital. Somedays, though, it feels like she's always been here, and I can't remember life before her. Even pregnancy is a blur... Here are some new pictures from her 5th week on Earth:

Vi and Riley are getting along great! He loves to sniff her head and lick her toes.

Here she is on the last day of our "Blossoming Newborns" new mommies class.

The official Class Picture! Just look at all the babies... so sweet!

Vi swaddled up in her Jensen Blankies. This is the official "Sleep for 3 hours" setup. We love the Jensens. LOVE THEM.

Vi is so into her mobiles all of a sudden!


Vi is in love with Wally the Green Monster, the Red Sox mascot on her changing-table mobile.
Here she is, smiling up at the mobile! She gets so excited when she hears "Take me out to the ballgame" playing.
Here she is, with her goofy big brother giving her dog-ears. What a clown. :-)
Vi's first trip to Eustis! It took us 2 1/2 hours to get there, and 5 1/2 to get back. Lots of tears.
Here she is, cozy in her sling, with Daddy working on a lean-to sort of wood-pile covering.

18 week update!

I've realized that none of my links were working properly. Instead of trying to figure it out - for which I have NO patience right now - I'm just going to paste the text from the Babycenter email into each post. Like this:


18 weeks pregnant: Head to bottom, your baby is approximately 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a large sweet potato) and she weighs almost 7 ounces. She's busy flexing her arms and legs — movements that you'll likely start noticing more and more. Her blood vessels are visible through her thin skin, and her ears are now in position and stand out from her head. Myelin (a protective covering) is beginning to form around her nerves, a process that will continue for a year after she's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and Fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If your baby is a boy, his genitals are noticeable, though he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.

Changes with us: I'm ravenous - constantly. Pickles and ice cream are right up there on my list of favorite foods right now; it's not just a myth. I have had my belly patted twice, and I am told that I definitely look pregnant. The emotional roller coaster seems to have cooled down, only to be replaced by physical aches and pains. Why didn't anyone tell me how much it would hurt to be growing this much?!? I am, of course, worried that I am just a wimp and this doesn't actually hurt that badly, and that I will never survive the pain of labor. The ultrasound - the big one - is scheduled for March 12th. We STILL haven't decided if we want to find out the sex of the baby.

We'll be delivering at Mercy Hospital in Portland, and we had a tour of the Birthplace there yesterday. It is very much a hospital - duh, Lindsay - but this section has nicer curtains and some hot tubs. They have one tub for water births, an option we're considering. (If any of you have a good resource on the topic, please share it with me. ) It really looks like they have made an effort to make the delivering mom comfortable, so I will be perfectly happy to bring Critter into the world at this particular place. Dads beware, though: the chairs in the delivery rooms are plain, wooden chairs, and you have to wear a swimsuit if accompanying your wife in the tub. I know - who cares about the Dad's comfort?!? I certainly won't in the heat of the moment, but I got a sore rumpus just looking at those chairs.

We're both working a lot right now - Dan's district will be doing inventory for all of the stores next week, so he'll be on the road a lot helping out his fellow managers. I'm gearing up for my new consulting responsibilities at work with online training. We started a registry with Babies R Us, but gave out in a fit of exhaustion without really finishing it...I don't think what we accomplished is truly "starting" the registry. I think we managed to get a mattress and a thermometer on there...

My friend Bonnie will be here next week, so she and I will get to play/work on the nursery and registry some more.

We're still brainstorming a baby-moon to take this Spring. The one consistent piece of advice we receive from everyone is that we should take a trip together, just the two of us, before the baby comes. We hate the idea of spending any money, but we're going to make an effort to get away for a romantic weekend sometime in April.

Any cheap vacation ideas? Anyone win a vacation that they can't take? :-)

March is almost here, we're setting our clocks ahead soon, and the songbirds are out again. Hurray for Spring! I hope you are all well, and please stay in touch!

-Lindsay

Here is the meat from this week's email from BabyCenter.com:

Your baby weighs about 5 ounces now, and he's around 5 inches long — about the size of a large onion. The umbilical cord, his lifeline to the placenta, is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby can move his joints, and his skeleton — until now, rubbery cartilage — is starting to harden into bone. Some of it will remain cartilage for years after he's born. A newborn's skeleton has 300 parts (a combination of bone and cartilage). As your child grows, some of these parts harden and fuse together. By the time your baby reaches adulthood, he'll have just 206 bones.

This weekend Dan and I drove to New Jersey to visit my sister and her family - husband Drew, son Ben (5 1/2) and daughter Lolly (2 1/2). The drive took a bit longer than usual, what with the extra pit stops and all... Plus, we had to try out Dan's new Garmin Streetpilot 330, which will establish the best route for your trip, and recalculate a new route if you miss a turn. We discovered how handy it is, but the one thing it's missing is the reassurance of a familiar route! The unit needs to say, "Don't worry! Even if you have no idea where we are, I DO."

We crammed in as much play-time with the munchkins as possible...bowling, Twister, Crazy Eights, and Ice Age: The Meltdown. We had dinner Saturday night at a Hibachi grill Japanese steakhouse; Ben's eyes just got bigger and bigger as the chef tossed around pieces of chicken and build onion volcanoes. (Dan had to close his eyes and go to his happy place, as he realized the chef was re-sheathing his raw-chicken tainted knife over and over again...)

Sunday evening Dan ad I watched the kids so Noelle and Drew could have a date. Throughout the evening we experienced moments of pure fun, sweetness, and exhaustion. Bribery with ice cream was used. Tag-team diaper duty was a true contact sport. The most fun was when Uncle Dan and the kids had an improvised game of Twister involving hiding under a blanket, running around, shrieking, yelling, laughing and a variation of bear wrestling. Even Riley got in on the action!

Monday Drew and Noelle pulled out all of the potential hand-me-down baby gear. (Score!) We loaded up the car with as much as we could take without completely blocking the rear window view. Looking at the baby clothes was the best, though...I know it will be nothing like playing dress-up, but, man! are those little outfits sweet.

The weekend was really good and fun and restful overall. For me, I had a lot of "Am I ready for this?" anxiety. I realize baby-sitting and being the visiting Aunt is different than the 24-7 job of being a mom. On the one hand, you get to hand them back at the end of the day. But on the other, there hasn't been the day-to-day strength training to build up stamina! I just know that as much as I love, love, love being an aunt (it takes compulsive shopping to a new level), being a mom is going to be one of the most challenging and rewarding and tender blessings in my life.

Thanks, Noelle, for always giving me a taste of the sweetness to come. (And all the baby booty!)