Door County Christmas Day 1

We are back from Door County. We had a lovely Christmas with Jim and Joanne and Kim and Eric.
We got off to a bit of a rocky start--we planned to head out Friday night but the bad weather postponed our trip and we didn't get to leave until Saturday morning. We were nervous that Matilda would be a beast in the car but we left at nap time and she was wonderful (for a baby). She slept all the way to Milwaukee and we stopped at a Culver's in Mequon to eat and feed and change her and play for a little while. After that she was awake until Sheboygan, but mostly just played quietly and then slept from Sheboygan all the way to Fish Creek! We stopped to feed her one more time and when we got up to the house she was happy and excited!
Kim and Eric were also supposed to arrive Saturday afternoon but the bad weather on Friday had delayed a lot of flights and it affected Saturday travel as well. After a series of delays they eventually arrived in Appleton instead of Green Bay and didn't make it to the house until 2am! Their luggage didn't make it until Christmas Eve though!
When we arrived the house smelled wonderful, Joanne had made a tasty turkey dinner for us with all the trimmings. It was nice, especially since she and Jim missed Thanksgiving with us, and we appreciated all that effort to make us feel welcomed. We were sad that Kim and Eric couldn't join us, but the five us enjoyed dinner before Jim had to drive to Appleton.
So, with the slow start, our first full day in Door County was Sunday the 21st. Everyone (except Ed, Matilda and I) slept in. They were all up by the time Matilda was done with her morning nap though, and everyone was ready to play!
Here's Matilda with Aunt Kim and Uncle Eric and Daddy, she had so much fun!

All Wrapped Up

After-Christmas Glow

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and that you're having fun trying out all your new stuff--Matilda sure is!

Merry Christmas!

We are enjoying our first family Christmas with our little girl, and we hope you are all having a happy holiday.
In case you were wondering what Matilda got for Christmas--she got many lovely things, but we're most excited that she cut her first tooth on Christmas Eve!
You can only see a tiny sliver, but you can feel it in there. It's her bottom front right tooth. She's growing so quickly!

Destruction

We've had a leak. Yesterday we got a call that a pipe had burst and was spraying water all over my office. We haven't seen the pictures yet, but it ruined the carpet in two rooms, all the drywall on that side of the house, my desk, computer, modem, book shelves, all of our law books, all of my tax and other financial paperwork, our wedding albums, artwork we were waiting to frame and hang, and saddest of all--all of our pre-digital age pictures, including all of the pictures of me from babyhood on all of the pictures from our first three years together (and most of law school) and all of Ed's Europe pictures. It got into the basement too.
We were lucky to have Adella there to find out that there was a problem, and our neighbor has been handling the situation for us for now so we don't have to go back in the snow and try to live in a wet house with a baby.
The dryers arrived by Tuesday night and got straight to work, but they said it would take at least 3 days to dry it out and we're going to have to rip out all the drywall and carpet and ceilings and such. The plumber came today and said that the pipe froze in the cold weather (even though we left the heat on) because our builder didn't put any insulation above the garage (although we did pay them to insulate the whole garage, but that will be a separate and undoubtedly long issue to deal with) The lack of insulation also explains why Matilda's room is so cold all the time.
Needless to say this has been an unpleasant Christmas surprise. I am so sad about losing all the pictures and I am not looking forward to sifting through the debris, but I know we are very lucky to have the help that we do in getting this done. Keep me in your thoughts over the next few weeks while I sift through the destruction and try to manage Matilda during the reconstruction.

Reindeer Games

Gifts from A-far

We opened presents the other night at home. Matilda recieved many thoughtful gifts from the family (Ed and I did too!).

Mona didn't just send the box we let her play in (see yesterday's post), she also sent an adorable outfit and Matilda's First Christmas ornament--Matilda was impressed.


Sally sent an outfit for Matilda too, and as lovely as the outfit was, Matilda really loved the paper it came in!


My grandparents sent Matilda a "CD player" toy and she loves pressing the buttons and seeing what will happen. They also got her a book about colors and the very first page is her favorite--Yellow!



Matilda recieved such an embarassment of riches that she ran out of paitience before we were done and we didn't get a chance to take pictures of her opening all of her gifts, but my mom sent books and a cute onesie and Natalie, Chase and Boston sent pants, cups, bowls and spoons. We won't be starting on foods until March, but she does love to practice with the spoons. The sippy cups confound her though.

Thank you to everyone for sending such thoughtful things to our little girl!

Send her to Abu Dhabi!

What is going on here?


Oh, I'm going somewhere? Fun!


Wheeee!

First Snow

It's amazing she can even bend enough to sit in her little snow suit!



Does it count as a "first snow" experience if you don't actually touch the snow?



Snow Angel

MWAH!

Matilda has learned how to smack her lips and make a kissy noise--it's pretty cute and you can tell she's impressed with herself!

Est. 12.16.06

We celebrated our second wedding anniversary last night. It was our cotton anniversary. Ed got me some beautiful pyjamas and I got him a plush robe--we're still hopeful that some day we'll be able to lounge or sleep! Ed's parents even sent us some very cozy flannel sheets. We celebrated by going out to a nice dinner at the Herrington Inn. The food was delicious and it was so beautiful looking out at the trees and the river and the Christmas lights while the snow was falling.
It's amazing to think how much has changed in such a short time. Two years ago we were dancing the night away at our wedding reception in Indiana. We would shortly go back to our jobs as attorneys and our house in Elkhart. Now, I'm loving being a stay-at-home mom, Ed has a new career, we have a home in Geneva and, of course, we have Matilda.
I can't imagine what the next few years could bring, but I know whatever it is we'll be doing it together.

All Clean

Matila likes to scooch over sideways now and hang her feet out of the tub at bath time--too funny. She can be such a ham!

Santa, Baby

We took Matilda to visit Santa this morning at a Brunch with Santa in our neighborhood.


She was so good for Santa...
First she checked him out:


Then she decided everything was ok. No smiles, but no tears--we count it as a win (especially considering how badly our previous photo attempts have gone)


She did get a little antsy while we were eating, but daddy took care of it!

She can sit!

This is probably the single most helpful development (to me) that she's had so far, but Matilda has mastered unsupported sitting! She sits by herself and plays, she sits and looks at her reflection in the mirror and talks to it, she can sit in the hall while I do laundry, and my little tough girl doesn't even cry when she falls over!

Jingle Bells

Bye bye, Blago!

I seriously thought about not posting this. But this blog isn't just about Matilda, and this story is huge.
In fact, I'm sure you have all already heard the story, but Governor Rod Blagojevich has been arrested on federal charges of conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, and soliciting bribes. He has been under federal investigation for 6 years and FBI wire-taps caught him allegedly trying to sell President-Elect Obama's senate seat. He also is accused of threatening the Chicago Tribune with withholding state aid and stopping the sale of the Cubs unless they would fire members of their editorial staff that were unfriendly to the Blagojevich administration.
The transcripts of his conversations are ridiculous. He talks like a mafia Don and his delusions of grandeur are outrageous. They said it best on the news when they proclaimed that Blagojevich is "not only incredibly corrupt, but incredibly stupid."
Scary thing is, even after all this, he still is Governor (for now) and he still has the power to appoint anyone he wants (including himself) to the open Senate seat. Blago has been encouraged to resign, but it is unlikely that he would. So of course calls for impeachment (and in a hurry!) have risen.
I am pleased that this man has been stopped in what has been called his "political crime spree," he was terrible for this city and state. But I do feel bad for his young daughters, especially at this time of year. Perhaps he will be big enough to step down in an effort to make things easier on his girls. Perhaps.
It is sad how corrupt the Chicago (and Illinois) political machine is and has been. Let's hope that this will be wide-sweeping enough to clean things up. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Chi-town corruption was just ancient history to our kids? We can hope anyway.
Well, if you haven't had a chance to read about it, Blagojevich's arrest is all over the Trib and the Sun Times (who even go so far as to suggest that an insanity defense might not be so crazy) and MSM in general.

O Christmas Tree...

We decorated our tree together. The only part Matilda was interested in was the Santa that goes on the top:




It was a lot of work though, we had to take a nap.



and yes, I know those are not the best pictures I've ever taken... but it's our first Christmas, I'm going to keep 'em!

Silent Night

Tonight I made one of those small warm and fuzzy Christmas memories that will stick with me forever.
The snow has been falling, our lights and garlands outside look oh-so-Christmasy. We've spent the evening playing with Matilda and making Christmas candies. And I took Matilda to the piano and she sat in my lap all curled up in her footie pyjamas and fell asleep quietly while I played Christmas carols by the light of the Christmas tree.
For me, that was a magical moment--my beautiful daughter peacefully sleeping in my lap while I'm playing my favorite songs at my favorite time of year on a night that encapsulates all of the lovely feelings that come with the season.

Are you enjoying the Christmas Season?

We are!

Look what I can do!

It's been a big week for Matilda!
She's 13 pounds 9 ounces now. And we've worked through our feeding issues.

This week she has started holding her own bottles:


She is trying to sit, unsupported:


And she's getting stronger and stronger with standing:

Hanging out with Romper

He's much more exciting than sick mommy and sick daddy!

Hiatus

Things have been a little rough at Casa Gustafson for the last few days. Matilda has been having nursing issues and Ed and I both got the stomach flu so bad we had to go to the emergency room.
So, when I'm feeling better I'll put up more posts and pictures from Thanksgiving. Until then, please bear with me.
I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and are as excited as I am to start decorating for Christmas--just 24 more days!