five months old

this marks the month where thea did not sit still for one single minute and her hands were in her mouth for at least 22 hours a day. she also had a number of firsts: plane ride [seven times on a plane so far for the little jetsetter!], drinking out of a glass, eating rice cereal, swimming, sucking on her toes and creeping. i fear that crawling isn't too far off....

water baby

i'm going through all the photos from our trip and will display them soon, but thought that thea's first swim was "blog-worthy" [hi phoebe!] and warranted its own post.

zack took her in the pool on our first day in miami and as carol said, it looked as if she'd been swimming her whole life. in fact, if you count her time in utero, she's been in water for two thirds of her short existence, so it only makes sense that she'd take to it so effortlessly.

here she is doing a pencil [though i'm deducting points because her arms aren't at her sides]:



swimming with dada:







toweling off:



lounging poolside:



and getting pampered after a tough day at the pool:

papa bear

i took this video the night before thea and i left for our east coast trip.  zack was entertaining the nug while i packed and they had been playing for a good 20 minutes before i thought to capture this on tape so, unfortunately, i missed the best part. thea was laughing uncontrollably as she often does when they wrestle in the evenings.  not only does she totally light up when he comes home from a day at work but she finds everything he does extremely funny.

we've been away for nine days now so i can only imagine how she'll react when she sees her beloved dada again tomorrow.  i can't wait for the reunion.  

we miss you boo!!

meeting william

thea and i are back in massachusetts staying with my parents. we arrived on tuesday night after a looong trip in which thea decided not to sleep for more than 40 minutes of the almost six hour flight. 

[sidenote: after this trip, i'll never fly on american airlines again. too bad because i used to love that airline but the plane was really old and rickety and we were treated very poorly by one WRETCHED flight attendant - lesley wallace, i'm coming for you.]  

i'm so excited to be here, catch up with family and friends and relax. i'll post again soon but, in the meantime, i've been intending to share a few photos from our stealth trip home three weeks ago to meet little william. he was just a week old and the tiniest of packages:

bubblicious

thea began blowing bubbles in earnest about three weeks ago but she's really picked up steam of late. whenever she's got some time to kill [and what four month old doesn't have a few minutes to spare?] she entertains herself in this manner. 

tonight when i put her down to sleep, she rejected her pacifier in favor of blowing bubbles. i had to keep from laughing out loud as she repeatedly blew bubbles in the dark.  so, i left her to fall asleep on her own and listened just outside the door as she continued on contentedly for quite some time.

i'm trying to get one of her marathon sessions on tape as it's mainly the sound coupled with her expression that is so funny but so far i haven't had any luck. these photos don't do it justice but i thought they were cute nonetheless:





thanks to tess for the adorable [and very timely] t-shirt! it's amazingly soft and i love it but be aware if you order one that they run small - this is a 12 month size - and it fits nuggie now.

so much better than anything i made in art class

i've been reflecting a lot today as it was last easter that i realized i was pregnant. the date was march 23rd, so a little more than a year ago, and i say 'realized' because i woke up that morning after a vivid dream feeling certain that i was knocked up [does 'with child' sound better?]. it seems hokey, i know, but up until that moment the possibility had not entered my mind. it would be two more days before i'd venture out to buy a test and confirm what i already knew to be true.

easter has always been a special holiday for zack and me - not because of any religious significance - but rather it's an excuse to dress up and go out for a big fancy brunch buffet, a tradition we started the year we began dating. so today marks 13 years since our first easter together at the james river wine bistro in richmond, virginia [which, after a quick internet search, appears to have closed]. i'm amazed at how quickly the years since we met have passed.

last year zack made a reservation at a really nice place as it was our first easter together in quite a long time. little did he know, i was drinking champagne and sucking down raw oysters, aware that once i had proof of my pregnancy, these things would be off limits. [i shared my news with him once we got home that afternoon.]

and now this morning. there we sat at a lovely brunch in point loma, no longer just the two of us, now a family of three. crazy. we raised our glasses and i said, "we made it through another year." zack quickly corrected me, "made it through? not only did we make it through, look what we made!"









what a year. we couldn't be more proud of our sweet little angel.

happy easter everyone!

special delivery!

max aiden manuel made his fashionably late and eagerly anticipated arrival yesterday evening. he weighs 7 pounds, 12 ounces and is a tall little guy measuring 20 inches. good work becky and charlie!!



we can't wait to meet him!!

she's definitely my child

i woke up the other morning to the magical sounds of thea playing by herself in her crib. i gave her a little while and then went in. i found her mostly unswaddled, with her onesie around her waist, happy as a clam:



and for all of you who knew me in the shore and/or pingree days, you might recognize this face:



or this one:



or possibly this one:



which i've probably made at least A MILLION TIMES since then.

that's my girl!

she loves that dirty water!

disclaimer: this post may upset and/or anger one member of my immediate family but i will proceed anyway....

the decision whether to raise nuggie as a red sox fan or a yankees fan has created some hostility in our household. the debate began, oh i don't know, about A YEAR AGO, just a week after we found out that i was pregnant, and it continues to wage on today. we have tried to settle this in many ways: negotiations, bets, rock/paper/scissors, to no avail.

so, although no decision has been formally agreed upon, thea and i donned our red sox gear this morning in anticipation of their home opener tomorrow. when zack saw thea in her hat he acted as if a knife had been inserted in his back and mumbled something about the israeli-palestinian conflict.

looks like it's red sox 1, yankees 0.













thanks to my friend gretchen for thea's hat!

UV protection

miss moose is not allowed to get any sun on her scar which is nearly impossible given that we live in san diego where it's sunny every day. so we've been applying sun block every morning and she's extremely patient with us as we not only do that, but also massage her scar twice a day. zack came up with an ingenious technique whereby thea not only tolerates us rubbing her wound but actually seems to enjoy it.

in anticipation of our upcoming stay in the hot florida sun, i bought thea this hat and the colors are just perfect for her south beach debut:





i'm really excited for our trip to miami and can't wait for thea to meet more of zack's family. it's going to be a full house with [not including us] three great-grandparents, two grandparents, two aunts, two uncles, one new little cousin and a partridge in a pear tree!

we're thinking of you becky and charlie!!

climbing the charts

we just got back from thea's four month check-up with the pediatrician and she is now in the 75th percentile for weight and 65th for height [i'm hoping her growth slows down a bit or she's going to bypass me before her first birthday].

miss nugs has entered the welterweight category weighing in at 14 pounds, 3 ounces and measuring 24 3/4 inches. i took a few photos as zack was warming her up for her next bout...









are they not two peas in a pod?