Holiday time

We learned that Lucia is a good traveler!  We are very fortunate so far.  

The past couple of days she's been mesmerized by the hubbub of activity surrounding her 3 little boy cousins.

Yesterday, we enjoyed an extended family gathering very much.  There were enough children to take a photo just of them.  We'll try to post pics later.

Hope everyone's cherishing their time with friends and family this weekend.  We sure are!

She's making lots of lists and checking them twice

Call me OCD, planner, control freak, whatever.... I've always been a list person and at this point have made 3 different lists for this day.  Since my tendency is to forget whatever important thing I have to remember to pack, do, have, etc... I jot things down.  I started a list on the computer of things we need to pack last week.  A few days ago, I started a list of things to purchase prior to our trip.  Today, I started another list of things to make sure are done prior to actual departure.  I'm sure I've forgotten something anyway.

A few minutes

Recently in a conversation with Troy's sister who has three children, she said in passing "it's amazing what you could get done if you just had a few minutes."  Right-on!  I've thought of that several times since.  This morning, for example, with Troy holding the baby, I made four business phone calls, even sounding reasonably intelligent, in a matter of a few minutes. Emailing is wayyyy easier for a mom of a newborn.

Most annoying is this spasmodic cough that persists.  It's still dry, although yesterday it seemed like it was starting to change.   Once I start, though, it's hard to quit the series of coughs.   Water seems to help but overall, it's just annoying.

Whoops!  Baby just woke up.  Later, everyone!

Just heard:

"My apologies, my sincere apologies.  Would you like that in writing?"

Daddy carrying baby, trying to put her to sleep.  When he walked into this room, he stopped for a few seconds, and of course baby starts wailing because she wants movement. 

Happy birthday

to my wonderful husband and Lucia's awesome daddy.  We love you!

Mother Nature's gift was timely -- a two hour delay of your exam.

Commercials worth watching

Dual Citizenship

This very interesting podcast interview of a breast oncologist diagnosed with the disease is well worth a listen.  She details her experience, reasons why the breast is so sensitive to hormonal and environmental insults, and why genetics really is a very small portion of the cause of breast cancer today.

Certainly, I've been highly motivated to eat clean, drink water, breathe, watch my weight, sleep well (yeah, I know I have a newborn!), exercise, keep free of stress, and  this podcast has renewed that desire again.   Of special concern is our daughter who has breast cancer history on both sides, and my goal is reduce her risk and much as possible.  Ironically, aside from a few years of undue stress and one year of poor sleep, I really shouldn't have much cancer risks, either.  Sigh.

Holiday cheer

Sometimes, it's nice to be reminded of the kindness and generosity that should fill our lives EVERYday!

Milestones

Our baby hit several milestones last week.  She's neither really early nor really late on anything.  She's regularly picking up stacking cups with her hands, often with just her fingers and sometimes using her body.  She's used her hands to pull the plastic donuts off the cone, and then once picked up the plastic cone, too.  We've given her daily tummy time, most of which simply elicits screeching, but hopefully soon will motivate her to roll over.  Her personality is starting to blossom and she's definitely hitting the fun stage!  she is not afraid to tell you what she wants or doesn't want.  One of the best things is walking into the room, making eye contact with her and watching the huge smile of recognition light up her face.

After watching some youtube videos of a 3-year-old boy conducting Beethoven's symphony, a 5-year-old Korean violinist playing Vivaldi, a 6-year-old pianist featured on various television programs, I felt somewhat sad for them.  On one hand, it's amazing to watch such talent from a little tyke, but on the other hand, it seems like a big burden to place on a little child.  I will be highly satisfied if our daughter is average in all skills and intelligence, but above average in happiness and work ethic.

Weekend plans upset

Friday night, I developed a tickle cough and felt a sharp tightness at the end of deep inspirations.  Typically my motto has been "if you ignore it, it will go away."  Nowadays, I'm finding myself being more cautious.  Saturday, I decided to hop down to the office and check my oxygenation level and see if someone would listen to my lungs.  I felt totally fine otherwise.  My exam was normal, but in the interest of completeness, an EKG, labs and chest xray were done.  All is fine, but I was sad to miss the cookie exchange.  Since two huge containers of ginger snaps remained, we shared them with our meeting family this morning and also Lucia's aunt and uncle.   Given Troy's workload for finals and my coughing fits, we had opted to stay home from the office holiday party Saturday night.  Oh well, all's well that end's well.  The fire is roaring in the fireplace, supper is cleaned up, the baby is napping, and I even have time to blog.

Baby weight -- gone!

This morning I officially got down to my goal weight, which is my wedding weight.  I've heard some vague statistic about Americans gaining about one pound per post-marital year so I've had a vague goal to keep the weight off.  But I had gained about 3-4 pounds since being married, then thirty pounds with baby.   Obviously chemo is not a recommended weight loss plan, but it does work to diminish the appetite.   One of my biggest problems was the habit of eating big portions and eating often while pregnant, and then trying to break that habit.  Not easy!

The mind that won't quit

Those of you who are engineers, married to engineers, wish you were an engineer, and/or think like an engineer will appreciate this morning's quickly made-up contraption (excuse me, it's a PROTOTYPE) to entertain the little girl.  While I was saying out loud "white and nerdy," I was secretly impressed with the brain that can imagine such a portable entertainment center that's fully adjustable, too (note the second photo)!

NICU

Our thoughts and hearts go out to those who have babies in intensive care.  Congratulations to our friends Cara and Rob on their baby son, born 2 days ago.  We know he will thrive and be home very soon.  We look forward to meeting him!

We also have been thinking about little Logan.  We wish for all the answers and all the best care!

Having endured even one night in the hospital with our baby, we can only imagine what our friends are facing these days. 

The sockless wonder

She's quite active, constantly moving her legs and arms.  Needless to say, keeping socks on this girl is a major feat.  We've tried booties, tight ribbed socks, looser socks tucked into pants, longer socks, even onesies with socks (a definite "not like").  Shoes over the socks work but we're Korean and Swiss so shoes in house is a rarity.  The only thing that stay on are the booties her daddy had as a baby.

Bye bye

Halmoni and Halabuhjee left today.  We were all tearful, thankful, happy and sad that they could go home.  Halmoni hung out with us for 3 months straight!

Today's solo adventure with Lucia was relatively uneventful since she took several good naps.  I pulled out the stacking cups we had been given and started playing with them, hoping to get her to understand object permanence.   We changed clothes 3 times today, though, with a fourth one coming up right now!

Lucia also experienced her first snow over the weekend, which she really liked as the flakes clumped on her eyelashes.

Mini in the red

Since we planned to visit Daddy's school today, we dressed Lucia in the reddest outfit we could find, which is a Minnie Mouse outfit straight from Disney World.  Thanks, Delaney!!

Four month check

Lucia smiled broadly and shrieked at the doctor today.  She's growing well in weight 13#1oz (30th%tile) and height 25.25 (80th%tile), which is more than before (25th and 50th, respectively).  Of course the shots caused her to cry but just for a little bit.

At Target for baby's rice cereal today.... PACKED!  It seemed like excessively more people than a Thursday afternoon would normally draw.  Always makes me wonder if there's something I'm missing out on.