Lucy's Easter Card

September 2014

A few more pictures and a video from the past few weeks:

 The blue swing is Lucy's favorite.

Hey there, chalk butt.

 Helping me make pancakes, wearing her birthday crown from daycare.

And she loved jumping in the bouncy house at the church's Octoberfest!

Lucy Turns Two, Part II

On Sunday, we had a picnic in the park (but, if Lucy asks, we were "camping.")

Birthday cupcakes: Blue velvet!  There's a reason they don't usually make red velvet blue.

And then we all went for a hike.  Big thanks to everybody for coming out!

Lucy Turns Two, Part I

Last month, a bunch of our wonderful family members came out to Lawrence to celebrate Lucy's 2nd birthday!

 Trying on Aunt Cali's shoes (they are blue, after all).

On Saturday, we went to the Kansas City Zoo ("Go new zoo!"):

 Elephants!

 Lucy really liked seeing the penguins swim by.

Lucy wasn't too sure about this present-opening thing...

...until she opened her gift and found a blue backpack with a giraffe on it!!

"Lucy got a pack-pack!"

Just Hanging Out

I'm going to try uploading a video to youtube and then linking here, rather than uploading it straight onto the blog.  Here we are in the living room last week.

And Now...Pictures!

 animals!

I think her favorite part was digging in the muuuuddddd!

and some more.

Is this the Lucy Pumpkin?

No, no it's not.  It's too heavy.  We'll keep looking.

Somewhere in there, we did find the Lucy Pumpkin (with much prodding and cajoling).  And then, we found a Blue Thing to play in!

And a stack of hay bales to climb on!

There was also a Red Tire.

But never mind that, back to the blue one.

We did a little bit of the Corn Maze.

It was pretty big.

Then we found our way out and went home.  Not pictured: standing in a long line for some really good cider, the apple cider donuts that didn't last very long, all the arts and crafts booths, and the port-a-potties, which were mercifully un-scary.

More Pumpkin Patch

Here's a super-short one of Lucy with what turned out to be not the pumpkin she wanted (it was too heavy):

...And here's Lucy playing around the Blue Tire:

Pumpkin Patch

Hello, there, again!  I thought I'd use this old space to post some videos and pics from our trip to the Louisburg CiderFest, pumpkin patch, and corn maze!  First up, above and below: Lucy seeing the farm animals!

Here we go.

Alright, I think I figured out what the issue was.  Here's another play mat video for your enjoyment!

Another Weird-Colored Video of Cuteness

hmmm....

This is a Test

I'm giving a try to uploading some Lucy videos.  Unfortunately, the color's gone a bit funny on this one.  We'll keep trying.

One Week Old!

It's been a busy day to be a baby today.  Lucy's had a bath (her third, I suppose, but the first one I was there for), lost her umbillical cord stump, been too fussy to have her picture taken, been to campus to be cooed over by her father's colleagues, and then been perfectly content to be cute and have her picture taken.  I'll post some of those soon; right now my camera battery is as in need of recharging as is my daughter.

Lucy Johanna Moore Hall

. . . was born at 6:31 Friday morning, September 14, 2012.  She's 20 inches long and weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces.  My water broke at 12:30 or so, just before bed, and six hours (and one false alarm, one epidural, and 28 minutes of pushing (!)) later, I heard this crying sound!  We're both doing pretty well: came home yesterday (Sunday), she's a champion nurser (so far), and my mom and dad are here from Cincinnati to help out.  Since I'm not great at typing left handed, here are a bunch of pictures instead of any more words, for the present:

. . .

Still pregnant, just fyi.  Going shopping for a washer and dryer today, maybe?  The due date is Tuesday, so if she doesn't make her appearance this week, we're looking at inducing next weekend.

September!

Well, here we are in September, and still no baby yet.  It's heartening to think that, one way or another, this is the month in which she'll be born.  And who knows, I could still go into labor later today and my dad could have a birthday buddy (Happy Birthday, Dad!).  In the meantime, we've met with and really liked a pediatrician and gotten the room pretty much set up, although we're still waiting for the plumber to finish up before we go get a washer and dryer and get most of the clothes and linens laundered.

These photos are a little dark, but can you spot the cat's new favorite napping spot?  Here's a close-up:

Oh, Speedy, I don't think you'll like it there so much once this room and that changing pad are put to their intended uses!  Or maybe he will, I don't know.  I'm just glad he decided this was his spot, rather than the crib, which would of course be a big "No!" that he wouldn't really understand.

Oh, and can you make out the new purple-ness of the rocker in the corner?  I was hunting around for fabric we already had to slipcover it, and thought the purple of my old sheets would work well, so I just draped the fitted sheet over those pink faux-velvet cushions to see how it would look.  Then I started thinking, and 5 minutes of tucking and pulling later, and I had the laziest, no-sew slipcover ever.  And hey, it'll be easy to remove for washing!

...Still Pregnant...

Which, despite my growing discomfort, is probably a good thing, as we're still waiting on the crib and the dresser, among other things.  But, the following have arrived in the past few days:

• car seat
• stroller
• crib mattress
• mattress pad
• bathtub
• nursing tops for me

I'm starting to get to know the UPS guy pretty well.  He's very nice, and his wife is 38 weeks pregnant!

Notes from Waco

Hello, all!  Well, that was a busy month.  We are landed and somewhat settled in our new digs in Waco, Texas.  We've rented a cute little 2 bedroom/2bath house:

We're generally very happy with it, except for one or two things.  Mostly, there's the fact that there's a problem with the plumbing and sewer connections.  At 9 months pregnant, you really need to be able to rely on having toilets that actually work in your new home.  The problem is being fixed, but I don't love that it was an issue at all, and that it's involved multiple calls to the landlords and the plumber.  We have enough to worry about without that.

Like, for instance, the current state of the Nestling's room:

We purposefully held off on buying any bulky items, like nursery furniture, until now, so we didn't have to move them a thousand miles, but now we're feeling distinctly underprepared if she should decide to arrive a bit early (more on that in a moment!).  So, several large orders to Amazon and Bed, Bath, and Beyond/Buy, Buy Baby later, and we're awaiting delivery of a crib and mattress, car seat, stroller, diaper pail, and all that kind of good stuff.  

Speaking of which, I had my first appointment with my new OB on Thursday, and I really like both her and the office, so that's a huge relief.  But!  We found out I'm already 3-4 cm dilated, and so might not/probably won't make it to my actual due date, September 11.  That's not so bad medically speaking, as I'll be 37 weeks, which is considered full term, tomorrow (Tuesday August 21).  But we're now busily preparing ourselves, mentally and physically, for the possibility that she could be here rather sooner than we'd thought!  We've bought a pack 'n' play from Target with a bassinet feature, in case the crib isn't here in time, and I'm anxiously copy-and-paste-ing the tracking number for the car seat into UPS's website.  If she can just hang in there until Thursday at least, we should be good!

That's about all the news that's fit to print, baby-wise.  We'll go back Wednesday for another appointment, and hope to schedule a tour of the childbirth center sometime this week.  My project for this afternoon: find a pediatrician!  I'll leave you with a few baby bump pictures (I've been getting that "you look like you're ready to pop!" a lot these days).

Here's my perspective:

And here, since we had the mirror sitting on the ground for a while before we hung it, is what I imagine  I look like from the cat's perspective: