Little Block & Her Blocks

I finally got a video of Hadley testing out her sea legs. She looks like a little drunken sailor tearing across the living room. She's still wobbly but she's getting sturdier each day and this video only barely captures how much she's done so far! (Finally got the camera out after about ten rounds of her going over to knock down Robin & Chris' block towers). I think in this one she winds up head butting it over. And check out her "clapping" at the end - priceless!

She walks!

I mentioned that Hadley took her first big series of steps on Christmas day. Well she took most of the 26th to warm up to the concept again but yesterday and today we kept seeing little spurts of walking (we've now seen up to 7 consecutive steps). Occasionally we'll look up and notice she's half way across the living room and still standing there so we think she's done more than we've really seen. She's still sticking to a lot of crawling and holding on but it's so amazing to watch her crack at "real walking". I don't know what this means - like how long it will be until she's a bonafide walker - but it is so cute! We will try to get a video...though the problem with our flip video recorder is the second we pull it out she comes tearing across the room to try and eat it, so we're not promising anything!

Monkey

 

Hadley's First Christmas

We had such a busy and festive first Christmas for Hadley and she made out like a bandit in the gift department. We started on the 23rd - Hadley slept in her Baby's First Christmas PJ's and woke up to a big surprise from Daddy. Andy had found an old Sticks mirror (Sticks is a fancy furniture company that makes beautiful hand carved pieces and though we could not afford a new one, Andy found an awesome deal on Craigslist and surprised us both).



In the afternoon we drove out to Woodinville to my Dad & Allison's and had a delicious prime rib dinner and more christmas cookies than we could shake a stick at. We woke up Christmas Eve morning and had a nice relaxing day, opened a couple of presents that evening and Andy & I were able to continue our tradition of fondue on Christmas Eve which was so fun for us to be able to do! We played one of our new board games and laughed and laughed while Santa delivered the presents. Christmas day was more presents and more presents, some fabulous pumpkin pancakes and off we went to Anacortes for part two.



We were greeted in Anacortes by my mom & Loren & aunt Joan and dug into even more presents (Hadley's first car) and my favorite honey baked ham & scalloped potatoes. At the moment we're gearing up for lunch and a walk around sunny Anacortes.



It was the perfect 1st Christmas for our little pumpkin - who surprised us all by taking five consecutive (unassisted) steps on three different occassions! How exciting to see your kid take their first steps on Christmas! We haven't been able to get her to do it today - she's taking the cautious road and crawling like a little monster but I think we'll see it again some time soon.

In the mean time, here is a picture of my 19 week profile...definitely sticking out a little more than last time at this point. It is so fun to imagine that next Christmas Hadley will be almost 2 and we'll have a little 7 month old bundle as well. That is going to be chaos I am sure - the best kind of chaos!

Merry Christmas to everyone and we hope your new year brings good things!

Andy, Shannon, Hadley & Baby Dos

It's a BOY!!

It's no secret that we said over and over that we weren't going to find out what we're having...we went from having every intention of being surprised at delivery, to toying with finding out and keeping it to the two of us...to heck with it all - we're finding out and shouting it from the rooftops! We decided it is much better to share our complete JOY in announcing that come May, Hadley will be a big sister to her new little BROTHER! We are absolutely thrilled - I can say now, that I've had a deep down gut feeling all along that this baby was a boy...and I wanted it to be SO BADLY that I kept telling anyone who asked that I was certain it was a girl. A part of me didn't want to jinx it, be wrong, and then have everyone think I was disappointed if we'd had a second girl - that wouldn't have been true at all! I really hoped for Andy to have a boy, and I thought a girl / boy combination of 15 months apart would be better all around for both siblings rather than two girls battling it out in the teenage years. Really, either way becoming a parent again would've been such an awesome gift - but knowing today that we are having a boy, was just a huge and wonderful surprise. To heck with everyone that says waiting until delivery day is the only way to go! We will never forget the day we sat down on our couch and opened our little envelope that told us about our son.

December photo catch-up

Some fun things I hadn't had time to post (our free internet has been down :)

Ange & Deven, Me & Hadley tailgating for the last UW game of the season:
Bennett & Hadley having a little date:Hadley ridin' shotgun on Mel's baby belly:Hadley blending in with all her cousins:Ridin' her new rocking horse from Grandma & Grandpa Maughan:Rummaging through her very own kitchen drawer:Hadley having a ball with identical twins Tristan & Jameson Bradford (kids of my dear friend Morgan - whom I've been friends with since 7th grade!). The boys were sooo sweet with her (they are 20 months old) and the 3 of them were buddies all day truckin' around the house and playing so well together!

The Family Christmas party

The stockings & lights are hung, the wreath is decorated (no tree for us...small crawling babies and cats and all :), our 84 Christmas cards are off and mailed...and this weekend we attended our first Christmas party of the season! Yep, the holidays are in full swing. Hadley had so much fun at her first ever family Christmas party in Walla Walla. In perfect Christmasey fashion, we got a few inches of snow prior to the party which was just the icing on the cake to Bruce & Vicki's beautifully decorated house, all the sugar cookies and sweets we could ask for, a secret santa gift exchange, the traditional family card game "31", Hadley opening her very first Christmas gifts and getting to play with all her big cousins!

10 months, the time flies

December 12, 2009
Height & Weight: Somewhere around 17 lbs and 28 or 29 inches (no appointment until her 1 year check up)

Latest words: I know this is early, but I'm starting to wonder if she's actually putting "dada" with Andy now...I've noticed she saves the dada babble for when he gets home. This could be me thinking my child is advanced though :)

Favorite Things: Puzzles (mostly chews on them), books (same as puzzles :), wine corks - this is hilarious. We have a huge tub of wine corks from our time in Europe and Hadley loves to dig through these and put them in her mouth and at most times of the day, our living room is covered in wine corks. She also recently got her own tupperware drawer in the kitchen and she loves digging through this and dumping it out all over the kitchen floor! In my tiny kitchen I didn't really have a drawer to spare but it's so cute to watch, it was definitely worth it.

Favorite Foods: Newest food is cheerios, she's a big fan!

Dislikes: Being in a stroller or carseat or basically sitting anywhere for too long - she's a mover, that's for sure.

Accomplishments: Stands on her own (can also get into standing position without holding on), dances when music comes on (seriously, so cute!), walks pushing almost anything…the bucket we keep our corks in is her favorite, she’ll walk this all over the house now, waves bye bye and hello, clicks her tongue at Grandpa Bruce (we used to be able to get her to do it for us but she seems to save it for him as he’s always clicking at her), drinks from a sippy cup (the kind with the straw), and still sleeps like a little angel (except when she’s teething), speaking of teething, she now has 4 teeth on the bottom and her 2 front teeth!

Highlight of the month: The family Christmas party in Walla Walla and opening her very first Christmas present!

In the name of Men's Health - we present....Bill's MO

Happy Movember 30th! Great job in the stash Bill.

A Walla Walla Thanksgiving

While Hadley was being entertained to the hilt in Grandma & Grandpa Maughan's fabulous playroom - the rest of us were enjoying a very delicious and very American Thanksgiving feast (with 21 guests to boot)! Vicki cooks a mean turkey (and stuffing...and potatoes...and gravy...and pie - don't even get me started on the heavenly pie!) It was also Great Grandpa Maughan's 87th birthday so we had double the celebrating to do.

It was so wonderful to be back in Walla Walla for the holiday, and it is only one of the things we are thankful for this season. Here are just a few others:

*Each other - from moving across continents, traveling more than the average bears, and raising an amazing little girl :), we are very lucky to have one another and to be such a great team.

*Hadley - there are just not words to express how much we love our little person. She makes our life!

*Baby Dos - we can't wait for the newest addition to join our family. We are very thankful to be so blessed in this department!

*Our family - it goes without saying that we are surrounded by a lot of love and some really amazing people.

*Health - it's no secret that a few of our family members have been hit with quite a slew of illnesses in the past couple of years and we're really thankful Hadley still has all eight of her grandparents and six great grandparents to play with. (It just occurred to us that she has 14 grandparents in total....wow)

*The little things - friends near and far, my mom's help during my 1st trimester, Oscar's new windoor, peppermint mochas and eggnog lattes, Greenlake, the pass when it's clear, American grocery stores, ice cubes in abundance, amazon.com, our new hybrid, Andy's carpentry skills (and our new pantry), and last but not least Mr. Bobo (Hadley's bff).

Play Time with Daddy & Grandpa Bruce

Grandma Vicki & Grandpa Bruce have one serious play room (Hadley is grandchild #9 so they have a lot of experience :) Bruce is especially amazing playing with his newest granddaughter - at one point I believe he pushed her around the play room in the back of a dump truck for nearly an hour. Both Hadley and Grandpa were covered in sweat by the time the dump truck bonanza was over, but boy did they have fun! Here are some great shots from the weekend.



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4 Cute Ones

Just 4 recent photos that I thought were so cute.

*Hadley got stuck on this bag in the corner and sat for about as long as she's ever held still in her life...like "who me? I'm not stuck" (check out her first "black eye" - kamikaze is her middle name!)

 

*Look how long she is!

 

*Hadley wearing her "I'm with the MILF" t-shirt that Uncle Josh gave her. If you don't know what MILF means, our blog is probably not the place to learn it...

 

*It's my kid in a box!

 

Thanks...giving

What am I thankful for?

Kind of off topic, but it gets me to my point, bear with me...someone asked me today "how are you liking being home?". Well, this isn't' an unusual question by any means, but for some reason it really got me thinking. I have my response on what feels like autopilot - "it's great to be home but we do miss Zurich". But that response doesn't really tell the whole story...what I wish I could say is this: it has been a little harder than most people imagine it would be to "come home". Being near our families and having our old friends back has been wonderful. We love Seattle and we love speaking English all the time. And we are very excited to spend the holidays "home" this year. But the hard part about moving home to Washington is that we left a very real home behind us in Switzerland. It is tough to feel such a strong connection to two places at once and to have one of those places be somewhere we may not see for a very long time...It's like someone has died. And it's not only that - we left behind a family there too - friends that we shared Thanksgiving and Christmas and births of babies with. Not only is it Thanksgiving this week (call me sentimental), but yesterday our dear friends Sean and Petra called us just hours after giving birth to their brand new son Nicholas to share the news with us. We miss them, we wish we were there to welcome him to the world!

So anyway, I don't mean to sound sad or negative or any of those things...I just want to remember out loud that what we left behind is very real - three years worth of our own quirky holiday traditions, some of the best friends we'll ever know, a gorgeous city, and the home where we brought our little girl from the hospital. And I think it is ok to say that we will miss those things for a very long time.

So back to the point, what am I thankful for? Well first I am thankful for Andy & Hadley :) But I'm also thankful that we had the chance to spend 3 years becoming a family in a foreign country and I'm so thankful for all of you who touched our lives while we were there. I am thankful that we have two places that we can always call home and I'm thankful that the biggest problem in my life right now is a little case of wanting to be in two places at once!

SO -- Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here and in Zurich! And congratulations Sean & Petra on the birth of Nicholas! We are so excited to meet him (one day very soon, we promise).

MO update

Bill is doing a great job rocking his 3 week MO. Here is a picture of his latest and if you haven't had a chance to donate - there is still time! Click HERE!

Big Girl!

Just a little update from Hadley's 9 month appointment today...she definitely went through a growth spurt over the last few months. She is only 16 lbs 5 oz and in the 10th percentile for weight...but she shot up to over 28 inches and is now in the 40th percentile for height! Andy is pretty excited. He says she's not "tall" she's just not as short as Mommy :)

The Dr. seemed pretty impressed with some of her new motor skills and especially how much she gets around crawling / cruising on things. No wonder she's skinny, she's burning calories all day!

Anyhow, that's just our little proud parent update :)

Nummer zwei, número dos, numéro deux, numero due...number two!

In any language - Baby Block Number 2 is on the way and coming to a hospital near you (or rather, us) on/around May 22nd (my birthday)!!

We are so excited and now that my 1st trimester sickness/constant nausea/exhaustion is beginning to wear off I am back to feeling up to the challenge - for a while there I didn't think I was going to make it.

And get ready for a good old fashioned surprise - we have decided not to find out the sex prior to the baby's arrival.

In the mean time I'm really excited to deliver at Swedish hospital in Seattle (one Swiss baby, one Swedish one) and love my doctor (Tracy Johannsen). Above is a photo from my 12 week ultrasound...unlike Hadley who was constantly bouncing off the walls every time she came up on an ultrasound - this baby had to be woken up multiple times throughout the appointment and was kicked back and relaxing with his/her feet up. Maybe this one will be chilled out like daddy!

Thanks for everyone's well wishes and encouragement, it is helpful to be surrounded by positive vibes when facing a 15 month age difference - we appreciate it!
Andy, Shannon & Big Sis Hadley

9 months and counting

 

November 12, 2009
Height & Weight: 16 lbs 1 oz...height TBD at appointment on the 17th

Latest words: Still babbling and big on saying "dadadada" - every time she does that I tell Andy she's saying she'd like him to change her diaper.

Favorite Things: When daddy comes home/stays home from work, her stacking cups (she prefers to bang these on anything as hard as she can for maximum noise output), she's taken to toting around an extra toothbrush I had laying around (everyone thinks I am a nut trying to get my kid to brush her teeth or something but really she just likes to chew on it), my wooden spoon from the kitchen (might have to get myself a new one), and walking around Greenlake/people/dog watching.

Favorite Foods: Yo-baby yogurt (thank you Janie for the suggestion), bread, sweet potatoes, yams, butternut squash...this kid is going to turn orange!

Dislikes: Definitely has 4 bottom teeth (no top ones yet) and since they all came in all at once it seemed like Hadley was just a little grumpier than normal for a couple of weeks...looking forward to those top teeth now...

Accomplishments: Crusin' - on October 25th she got into a standing position for the first time and took off from there. She is now getting up on any piece of furniture (or person) she can find and taking steps while holding on to get from one thing to another (usually to pull Oscar's tail or grab my cell phone). She is constantly moving and we're shocked at how fast it goes from here - we thought it would be months before she was in this stage. And let me tell you, she is a little kamikaze, she bonks her head and dives face first into things and has no fear...scary sometimes! She also blows raspberries, waves bye-bye and kisses - it is really sweet.

Highlight of the month: First Halloween!

Tuesday in Bellingham

This Tuesday Hadley, Robin and I roadtripped up to Bellingham just for fun (and mostly because we had been talking for ages about visiting our favorite tea place from college). Sarah, Robin's mom, met us and we had a delicious lunch at the Abbey Garden Tea Room. We also stopped by Sarah's and got some photos of Hadley being musical...Sarah had tons of great toys for her to play with and she had a ball!

 

 

 

 

Hadley & Emma

Over the weekend Hadley finally got to meet her friend Emma - daughter of Janie...who is the sister of our good friend Evan (still following?). Janie and I met back in July 2008 at Evan and Petra's wedding when we discovered that we were both pregant and due within a couple of weeks of each other. The girls were born 2 weeks apart - so it was really fun to get together and talk all things baby and see them manhandle each other and try to share a sippy cup :)

Thank you Janie for coming over - it was so great to meet your little girl!! We just loved her.