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?

in her swing

i was playing around with the color set function on my camera this afternoon and i got this great shot of thea with one of her many frogs:

four months old

poopy poopy everywhere

here's a quick video that i took last tuesday, march 17. this was just before thea's first night in her crib, sleeping in her own room. zack had calendared the big event for sunday night but there was a major poop incident that prevented such a move according to schedule.

our changing table is next to the crib and unfortunately during an early morning diaper change, thea was positioned butt-to-crib and [i think you know where i'm going with this...] let's just say she fired a warning shot across the bow then followed it up with a parting shot through the crib slats, completely soiling her white bumper [what was i thinking??] and sheets in one fell swoop. i'll spare you the details by saying it was truly a sight to wake up to. as previously mentioned, carol was an all-star cleaning up the bedding and taught me about the [truly miraculous] stain-removing powers of bleach.

the transition to the crib was definitely harder for me. i had all these thoughts of 'she's growing up so fast! she's already leaving us!' but thea didn't seem to mind the change nor care about leaving our room. in fact, she LOVES the mobile above her new digs, as you'll see, and it actually keeps her entertained if/when she wakes up before dawn. so that's been an added bonus.

she sleeps really well in her crib during the day, [almost too well...zack and i are at odds over whether her three-hour morning naps are healthy] but she's still waking up once, sometimes twice in the night. which leaves us feeling less than bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when we need to work in the morning. hopefully we'll get a handle on the nighttime sleeping soon.

other than that, i can't complain.



sorry for the dark, grainy nature of the video. i need to work on my lighting.