Welcome, 2013!

 
So the holidays are officially behind us and the holiday hangover has begun to lessen.  Our holiday seemed gone in the blink of an eye and now it's back to the daily grind.  I feel like a terrible mother, as I only took very few photos of Finn's first holidays.  I took some and the photographers that took others are properly credited.  I ended up coming down with a stomach bug on Christmas Eve.  That sucker hit out of nowhere!  I'm totally NOT kidding when I say that I felt amazing at 7:15pm and by 7:30pm, I wanted to die.  More (but not gory) details on that later...

 
The week before Christmas, E's parents joined us for almost a week.  It was so wonderful to have them here with us.  Lots of hanging out, playing and hugs were had while they were here.  They were even kind enough to stay long enough to be our babysitters as we headed out to dinner for our 8th anniversary.

Our holiday travel was uneventful this time around, which was wonderful.  We drove to Iowa, pushing back our original departure date due to snow.  There was 10 minutes of screaming (which occurred on both the trip out and back), but after she settled in and fell asleep, all was good in the world.  The dogs held up great -- being very patient with the 9 hours of travel.  And E & I were no worse for the wear when we stretched our legs out in my parents' driveway at 8:45pm.

Once again, being home was wonderful.  I can't stress enough how life feels different when I'm at home in Iowa.  But maybe that's because it IS different than Ohio -- I mean, hell, I'm always on vacation when I'm in Iowa.  There was lots of family, lots of laughs, and lots of gifts.  But there was also more sickness than I imagined.  In fact, being sick never really factored into my planning of this holiday trip.  But at 7:30pm on Christmas Eve (perfect timing), I came down with something (and it was a BIG something -- let's just say that I actually lost weight over the holidays).  The swiftness of this sickness was nothing like I can remember. 15 minutes from being perfectly normal feeling to feeling like death warmed over, no joke.  I spent the rest of the evening in my bedroom, not wanting to get my other family members sick.  The big moral of this story is "Never say -- I have a great immune system and never get sick." (which I did one severe cold and two weeks ago).

But the first thing that came to my mind when I was in the bathroom and E came into see what was going on with me was "We are still breastfeeding, what do I do?!?!?!"  After a consultation from Dr. Googles, it said to keep on keeping on.  So we did.  We breastfed like normal and let me tell you, I commend my mother for taking care of us when she was sick.  Finorah was kicking on my stomach, struggling to get comfortable and all I could think of was "For the love of all things holy, HURRY UP!  Momma doesn't feel good at all."  We only had one bloody murder screaming fit and that was because I had to get up right after we finished nursing to get sick and the poor girl didn't understand why Momma was running out of the door and leaving her alone with Daddy in the dark.  We survived, Finorah didn't get sick (although E did two days later & my father two days after that), and I hope that I never get sick again.

Kissing cousins

Our New Years was quiet as Finn isn't old enough to party yet and I feel too old to party.  I stayed awake to watch the ball drop but fell asleep 10 minutes before.  I hate New Year's Eve -- everything is over-priced, over-crowded, and it always feels WAY too cold to wear sequins and short skirts.  But I do enjoy looking back -- 2012 was the most life-changing year thus far.  With the arrival of my little baby who is now quickly becoming a little toddler, I'm struggling with balance.  And although I don't like resolutions, I do like goals.  One of the goals for 2013 is finding that balance.  Finding the balance between loving too much and letting go so she find her own independence.  Finding the balance between letting her run wild and putting my foot down.  Finding the balance between being her mother and being myself.

And so good-bye to 2012, a year that has grown my heart to sizes I couldn't before imagine and laugh-lines (I refuse to call them wrinkles) that weren't there before & also left its own scars.  And we welcome 2013, a year that holds every imaginable potential.  We are going to make 2013 fierce & fabulous.  Finorah the Fierce & Fabulous...

A Week in the Life (v.5.5)

So, the blog was a little quiet.  With holiday prep, travel, and getting a stomach bug on Christmas Eve, there aren't very many iPhone photos from the last two weeks.

Coloring for the first time

This girl will even dance to a greeting card!  :)

SaraBeth came over to play

Someone found Mommy's shoes...  Look at the anticipation of playing dress up in all those shoes...

She got a cookie from daycare and wanted to share it with the kitty cat.

Instead, she smeared it all over her face.

At Grammy & Grampy's house, she played in the rocking chair that used to be mine.

She got really good at rocking back and forth.  No video evidence, but she was seriously rockin'.

And this is her new volume level.  ALL THE TIME...

Snuggling at Christmas...

She got her own rocking chair at Christmas.  Even though it is a little bigger than my old one, she LOVES it.

Merry Christmas to my 44-week angel!

• Unscientifically, Finorah is weighing in at 21.6 pounds.  And she is 30 inches long.  I didn't think that her height and weight would change much in the two weeks.  
• She is currently in size three diapers -- no change coming there.
• We are in 12 month clothing.  We have quite the selection of separates there, so I don't think that we are going to run out of options.  I have found eBay to be quite affordable on name-brand separates.  And her dresser states as much.

• We are still breastfeeding.  Less than two months left.
• She is an amazing eater.  Daycare is now feeding her breakfast as well as lunch.  We are still bringing in our own fruit/veggie puree.  At home, she will have a snack and then eat whatever we eat for dinner as well as another 4oz of fruit/veggie puree.  I'm actively trying to increase her food intake to help the weaning process.
• Finorah the Fast One is still maintaining speed, but also now getting into trouble.  The baby gates have went up right after our last update post about two weeks ago.  She likes to test their strength, by crawling up to the one going to the basement and shaking the ever-loving crap out of it.  It has held fast, as I expected -- then she would move on to something else that she shouldn't be into.
• We still have only two teeth.  I quickly gabbed my finger in her mouth last weekend and really didn't feel anything.  But as mentioned, she doesn't like to have her gums massaged by my fingers at all, so my time in her mouth is very VERY brief.

• She also is pulling herself up.  She can come to a standing position when she uses someone else's legs that are sitting on the floor with her.  But she can also use the bathtub.  Two weekends ago, I was filling her bath and she usually sits behind me, playing with her bath toys.  Next thing I know, she is standing right below me looking into the tub!!!!  I didn't see her pull herself up, but I sure as hell didn't help her stand up.  Her big thing to do now is to put her hands on the ground and stand up.  Her butt goes super high in the air and she basically looks like she is trying to touch her toes if she was standing up.  Then she loses balance and crashing down to the side.  It starts as downward dog and not is straight up, standing-bent-over-touching-her-toes.  Oh, man, this is happening all too fast...
• She is still a big talker.  No words.  Just mimicking.  She seems to use "mama" with me a lot, but it's because that's the one that I make her say the majority of the time.  She also is now using "uh-oh" alot.  Sometimes the context is correct, but most times, it isn't.
• And with all the talking has also brought an increase in volume.  Especially in the car.  When there are more than just E & I in the car and everyone is partaking in a conversation, she thinks that she needs to join in and will say something at the top of her lungs -- most times, "BABAABABABABA!"
• She is also still a big dancer.  Music is her favorite.  She loves cards that open up and play music as well as the computer.  But the computer's videos are more visually stimulating to her than the music accompanied with them.  She will dance to the duck song, but most other songs from the computer (even if they are the same songs that we hear on the radio) will not get her dancing.

• Our sleep cycle hasn't really changed.  She is still getting up, but as per the last update, the doctor stated that she needs that night feeding as she doesn't drink a lot at daycare.  I have come to the conclusion that she doesn't like drinking out of the bottle and prefers mommy's method of feeding.  I have had E try to give her a couple of oz in the morning and he said that she won't even drink it.  She will just play with the bottle.  I got a couple of ideas from a friend that I'm going to be trying after the holidays and will update you on our next four-week update.
• She is now a big "bye-bye" waver.  It just spontaneous started a couple of days ago while we were leaving the daycare.  Now whenever I put her coat on her, she starts waving "bye-bye" because she knows that we are going somewhere.

Happy Holidays!!!

Our 2012 Holiday card (front) 

(back)

A Week in the Life (v.5.3)

 Our little snow princess (minus the snow)

I'm not sure where her tear came from, but I reminded me of the 70's environmental commercial with the Native American with the tear.

Lots of eating photos this week.  We were learning how to use our spoon with some strawberry mousse.  Obviously, we have some work to do...

We also ate 3/4 of a whole banana -- and created quite the mess.

I swear that's not a booger -- it's a piece of banana as evidenced by the amount also on her chest.

But you can vaguely see her two bottom teeth!  First photo evidence of those suckers!!!!!

I'm not sure how she gets food in places where it doesn't belong.  See that orange chunk on her left temple?  Yep -- saving a yogurt bite for later.

This is her new pose when she wants to be cute.  She flops her head to the side and smiles.  

I think that she succeeds.

Granny Murphy is here for a visit!

And so is Grumpy Murphy!

This girl has a serious obsession with the duck song.  I tried to take multiple videos of her dancing to the song.  She only dances during certain parts of the song and I couldn't figure out how to edit the video without  permanently cutting out the whole video.  This will have to be enough for now.

Makin' a List and Checkin' It Twice...

Last weekend was a mad dash of making our lists and checking them twice.  E & I both made lengthy chore lists and challenged each other to mark everything off of our lists.  There may even have been a few arguments over someone crossing something off of the other person's list when the other person completed the task.  There's just something exhilarating about striking that pen through an item on a to-do list.  I think that he won, but I think that he had more things on his list and didn't have a little 10-month old crawling after him all day.  One of the things that was on my list was to take photos of each room in our house.  Yeah, didn't get done.  I think that the house photos are going to wait until the new year when there isn't so much holiday'ing going on -- but you do get photos of our house doing it's holiday jig.

I'm not even sure if it's safe, but our Christmas trees and garland lights have been on constantly for the last week & a half.  And my radio has been tuned to our holiday station and the radio is turned on the moment I walk in the door from work.  I'm sure that E can't wait for Christmas to be over with -- but I had the thought last night that I wish that Christmas was actually in January.  I always get down after Christmas is over.  The festiveness fades out of the air and then you are just waiting for April to arrive and with it, spring.  It's the dreaded holiday hangover.

Another thing that I'm going to miss after Christmas a nice cup of cheer.  This weekend I realized the amazingness of that frosty Christmas ale in a new way -- sprinkled with cinnamon!  As I took that first sip, I could hear Burl Ives singing about "Silver & Gold" while I imagined myself sledding down a snow covered hill, whizzing by snow-covered fir trees lit with colored Christmas lights.  Mmmmm, delightful.

Our first big holiday memory as a family of three was made this past weekend.  Finn met Santa for the first time.  And I'm proud to say that Santa had a real beard!  It didn't go well, but it went better than expected.  We went out to eat early as a family and would hit the mall after.  We got to the mall at about 5:40pm and with Santa taking an hour long break at 5pm, we decided to get in the relatively short line (maybe 10-15 families long) and wait for Santa to appear.  (sidebar: Sister did really well for not having a nap that afternoon.  She had taken a LONG morning nap (an hour & half) and we went shopping.  I tried to get her to cat nap at around 2pm -- but she wasn't having it.)  I was waiting for the epic meltdown to ensue while waiting for Santa.  There would be no such meltdown.  I will unabashedly admit that when we were the second family in line, I became very nervous.  I had counted on her crying, so I'm not sure why I had the feeling that I was slowly climbing the tallest incline on the rollercoaster.  Within the past month, "stranger danger" has arrived.  If you pass her off to a stranger (or someone who she doesn't see often), the big crocodile tears are flowing.  If you hold her and a stranger starts talking to her and smiling, she will coyly put her head down on her chest and look at the stranger and smile.

Well, when our time finally came to meet the big guy, I handed her over and quickly stood behind the camera, trying desperate to get her to smile (or not cry, depending on how you want to take it).  Surprisingly, she didn't cry a single tear.  She would look at me with fear in her eyes, look up at Santa, and then back at me, as if to say "Who is this guy and why are you standing WAY over there?!?!?!?"  So we didn't get the tears that I had anticipated, but she definitely wasn't excited to see the fat man.  I made E sit on the one side of him and I on the other for a family photo with Santa.  As you can see in the photo, the minute that I sat next to her, she started trying to grab my arm to get off of his lap.  But although no smile, no tears either.

While we were exiting, Eain grabbed a peppermint lollipop from Santa's big red bag.  He thought it was only fitting to give her her first taste of peppermint after being so good for Santa.  Instead of a single taste, she had other ideas...  We had to pry that sucker out of her sticky hands and face as we were leaving the mall.  The screaming was minimal as we whisked her into the chilly darkness outside -- the cold air stealing her breath away.  She fell asleep before we were out of the mall parking lot.  I mean, afterall, meeting Santa Claus for the first time is seriously exhausting...

A Week in the Life (v.5.2)

On Monday, I picked her up and we both looked like we just got out of jail.
E dressed her without knowing what I had put on for work that day.
And Munk -- well, he was just howling excited that we had unknowingly dressed the same.

Trying to get Finorah excited about being dressed alike was pretty difficult.

Hmmm, yogurt melt or maple wheel... Decisions, decisions...

We went to Joann's and had a fashion show in the headband section.

 Saturday we went out to eat at a big-people's restaurant.  We got there a little before 4pm and were told that we had to be out before 6pm.  She was a perfect angel the waitress said.

Saturday night was also the big night.

We met Santa for the first time!  Here she is patiently waiting in line.

The nerves started to get to her as we got closer.  She began chomping at the bit!

The only thing that I can think of when I see this photo is

"Here's Johnny!!!!" Only it should be "Here's Santa!!!" without the axe.

The excitement of seeing the big guy in the red suit.

So even E & I sat on Santa's lap -- photos later this week.

But E got a lollypop for being so good.  We decided to let her have a taste of peppermint. 

Hmmmm, this taste is called peppermint??? 

I'll take that lolly!

 Yummy peppermint!

By the time that we left the mall, lady had most of the lollipop gone.

Most enough to start to make Mommy nervous and we took it away from her.

She has a strange fascination with the rocking chair -- always getting directly underneath it. 

The rotating tree was entertainment.  As she would wait for the ornaments to go by within her reach and try to pull them down -- thereby stopping the tree and causing it to click.