Eleanor Claire Mauter, “Ellie”, was born on May 2, 2010 at 1:27PM. She is 5lbs 8oz and 19 inches long. Mommy and Ellie are doing great!
Tag: janie
We’re at Brookwood
Janie woke up about three hours ago and now we’re at Brookwood in Labor and Delivery 1. She’s at 0 station, 90% effaced and 2cm dilated. We’re only 35 weeks and 5 days along, but the doctor said they won’t stop labor.
Sam is staying with the babysitter for the moment. Stay tuned.
Christmas 2009
I feel like everyone has moved beyond Christmas. I am running a little behind, so I’m just getting around to posting our Christmas pictures.
Christmas started with brunch at the Betbezes on Christmas Eve. I really like this tradition. We enjoyed brunch then the kids began opening presents. Samantha got lots of great gifts, but the #1 score (in her eyes) was a new shopping cart from Great Aunt Mary. She barely had the patience for her daddy to put it together. Goodness.
After naptime, we headed to mass. It wasn’t as crowded as usual, so we actually had a whole pew to ourselves. Our friend Kris took this family shot after mass. It’s one of the few times that Samantha has actually smiled for the camera. Thanks, guys!
We came home, had Chicken Tortilla Soup (yum) then nestled all snug in our beds.
On Christmas morning, we got up and opened presents. Samantha got a few books and some hand glove puppets from Santa. The hit was the Abby Cadabby magic wand book she got. I like this shot because it shows Sam in her Christmas PJs and slippers, inspecting her new book.
As we were packing the car and getting ready to drive to Huntsville, I went to feed the cats. We didn’t arrange for anyone to stop by because we were only going to be gone for a few days. However, I discovered that we were almost out of cat food. As in, we didn’t have enough to last a few days. Uh oh. It was Christmas morning, and I was sure that no store was open that carried our cat food. Luckily, the Grissoms came to the rescue. Thanks for buying our cats’ food and taking it by the house to feed them!!
We drove to Huntsville in time for lunch. The kids were getting ready for their naps so we hurriedly opened presents. Wow, what craziness. If I had to guess a favorite from that bunch, it would be the keyboard from MamaLinda and Pop. Now Samantha can play the piano and push lots of buttons while her daddy is playing too. She loves dancing to the beat.
On Boxing Day, my mom and I went out shopping while the boys and kids went to the Train Exhibit at the Botanical Gardens. I think it was a hit. Of course, anything involving Jackson is sure to be lots of fun. See a previous post.
On Sunday, we traveled over to Florence to spend some time with Brian’s family. We enjoyed getting to see everyone. We opened presents that night then spent a few days relaxing and playing games. Samantha’s favorite gift was the rocking chair from Nana and Papa. She loves it! She also loved Chloe’s skirt and playing with wrapping paper, tissue paper and boxes!
We had a great Christmas! Whew. We were glad to spend a few days at home relaxing before beginning the new year! Here’s one final picture of us in front of our tree at home. (And you can see my new curtain in the background, and Samantha’s new white dot outfit from MamaLinda!)
I am a Mom
So, it happened yesterday. I briefly felt like a mom. Let me tell you what happened.
Samantha woke up quite a bit early from her nap. I peeked in on her as she was waking, in that talk-to-yourself stage. She continued to stay lying down, with her paci and her bear blanket. But, she got louder and louder. She never did turn her aquarium on, which has become a great self-soother. And she never did stand up in her crib and wait to be picked up. So, I waited and waited because I wanted her to go back to sleep.
When I did finally go in, she stood up to me and wanted to be picked up. I did, and she put her head on my shoulder. Those who know Samantha, know that she is not very cuddly. She is not one to sit in your lap, want to be held, or certainly not rest her head on your shoulder. Hmm, I thought, ok, I’ll hold you. She acted like she didn’t want me to put her down, so I sat down in the rocking chair. She sat in my lap, tummy to tummy with her head on my chest. We rocked. She never fell asleep, but she stayed still and quiet for 30 minutes in my lap.
I don’t know what was wrong with her, or why she wanted to be held. But, it doesn’t matter because that’s what moms do. They comfort.
Janie Walking
I finally figured out how to string together pictures to make a video without having to buy QuickTime Pro. ImageMagick to the rescue. The command I used was something like convert -resize 480x720 -rotate -90 -delay 25 *.JPG walking.mpg
. Anyway, here’s my first attempt at time lapse photography. I present to you Janie Walking in Philly.