Updates on Adelaide

Adelaide is nearly 3 months old now. She's showing an interest in her toys and follows our voices when we talk around her. She can grasp and shake her rattle, enjoys her bath, is sleeping and eating well and starting to sit in her bumbo seat.

At her 2 month check up on December 16 she was 23.5 inches long, 12.1 pounds and had a head circumference of 40cm. She's up there on the Gustafson Girl Growth curve and has nearly doubled her birth weight already, you'd never know she started out small by looking at her!

She's fully out-grown her newborn clothes and is now in 0-3 and 3-6 month outfits, depending on the cut. She's a very alert baby who seems to enjoy lively surroundings and is generous with her smiles and has a very expressive little face. Her rare big frowns crack me up and she still has a bit of an elvish look about her.

Her dark hair is falling out and she has a bald spot on the back just like Evelyn did. Her brows and lashes are still very blonde and her eyes are still grey-blue for the moment. I imagine her hair will come back blonde just like Evelyn's did, but I'm not ready to make a guess about her eye color.

The Christmas Post 2011

After trimming the tree, we started the Christmas season with my (I thought) clever plan of taking pictures of the children sleeping for the Christmas card so I wouldn't have a repeat of 2009.

Things began cherubically

but sleeping big kids are kind of disheveled.

and the flash made Evelyn grimace.

So, I moved on to posing some shots.

Again, Adelaide was pretty easy, although quite committed to my original "sleeping child" idea

I'm in a stocking.... zzzzzzzzzz.

Evelyn loves to take pictures, but is also easily distracted. Here she's trying to figure out how to put Santa on the sleigh.

This was adorable but we ultimately decided it was too bare for the US Postal Service.

There we go! Matilda did a splendid job posing for the card this year and I let her eat the candy cane when we were done.

The first Sunday of Advent our church hosted an Advent wreath making brunch after the service. The kids enjoyed donuts and fruit and Matilda really loved helping to make the wreath. It was a bit more challenging with Evelyn, the event lasted much longer than her attention span, but she did help put a few decorations on our family wreath and she loved lighting the candles at dinner time, singing happy birthday Jesus (every night for 28 nights) and blowing out the candles.

After collecting the supplies, Daddy showed the girls how to put the greens into the floral foam

Matilda did a great job sticking the boxwood and assorted greenery into the wreath and really seemed to enjoy herself.

Evelyn was much more interested in running around, hiding under the table and tickling Daddy with the wreath supplies.

Tada! Thats our wreath! We put the candles in at home.

Silly Evelyn!

In mid-December, Ms. Nina, the director of the Little Cherubs church choir, hosted a "Happy birthday, Jesus!" party following choir practice. There were little tables set up in the youth lounge, a buffet with cheeses, fruit, veggies, meatballs, deli meats and lots of sweets, fancy candy canes at each place, punch, and even a birthday cake. Ms. Nina invited the siblings to attend too and made (and wrapped!) a blanket for every child (even the siblings who are not in the choir!) The kids sang songs, read a story, unwrapped their blankets and enjoyed the goodies. After the party, we took the girls to visit Santa at our neighborhood store. He was a jolly santa with a real beard!

Evelyn was scared and pulled a Randy.

Matilda was determined to be VERY good.

Matilda and Santa chatted for just a minute.

She assured him she was a good girl and asked for a princess doll.

We did so many fun things getting ready for the big day! We purchased a large Advent calendar from noel eternelle in Montreal last July and put a candy in each door for the girls. They loved opening the doors to find their treat and count down to the big day! We read tons of Christmas books--we added a few to our collection this year, including How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The girls watched Charlie Brown Christmas and Frosty the Snowman a million times along with some Christmas specials of their favorite pre-school shows, but Matilda found the Grinch movie to be too scary. I watched Polar Express with them as well, but there were some parts Matilda found too frightening and we had to fast forward.

We baked cookies... LOTS of cookies. And we worked on Christmas crafts. The girls made Ruldoph, Frosty and Santa faces on paper plates with foam stickers, created plastic snow globes, decorated gift bags, and helped make hot chocolate gift sets for Kim and Eric and Grandma and Grandpa to put under the tree. With Kim's help, they also made penguin ornaments. Daddy and Adelaide made a little footprint ornament for her first christmas and I put together a photo ornament for her as well as a calendar and framed some of her birthday pictures for the family.

Matilda's cherub choir sang twice this December, once on the 18th and again at the Christmas Eve service. Kim and Eric arrived on Christmas Eve and the whole family attended the service followed by a nice dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house. After dinner, we went home to get cleaned up for bed and feed Adelaide. Then Daddy read Twas the Night Before Christmas to the girls and we opened the last day on the Advent calendar where the girls found an extra special candy--chocolate covered marshmallows! The big girls hung their stockings by the fireplace and went to bed. Kim, Eric, Ed and I stayed up until midnight wrapping presents, filling stockings and getting the house ready for guests the next day.

Christmas morning, the tree was absolutely stuffed with gifts from Santa, grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and friends. We kept the girls upstairs until grandma and grandpa arrived, but they were so excited when they woke up and realized Santa had left a gift in their bedrooms. I was washing dishes when I heard Matilda yell "Santa came! Mommy, did Jesus find you!?" It was so cute. He left each girl a "Zhu Zhu Pet" which is just a little robotic hamster that rolls around and makes funny noises. Adorably, they seemed satisfied (until we got downstairs) with the idea that that might be all Santa got for them!

When they saw all the gifts they were a bit overwhelmed, I think. Matilda was delighted that Santa remembered to bring her a princess doll. There were so many gifts that the girls ran out of steam and stopped opening 1/2 way through and had to come back and finish later with Grandma. Everyone seemed pleased with their gifts and the trinkets in their stockings. It was a fun morning. Once the unwrapping was over and cleaned up, I made gingerbread waffles. Even the girls were brave enough to try them this year and it's a Christmas tradition I have no intention of abandoning!

There was plenty of food this year. Ed ordered a Jamon Serano from Spain, along with a stand and special knife to make the delectable delicate slices. There were also 100 oysters overnighted to our door that he and Eric expertly shucked, displayed on a bed of rock salt and slurped down. There were cookies and candies galore, cheese, olives, and dolmas. For dinner we served prime rib roast with port wine sauce, turkey breast, gravy, creamed spinach, potatoes au gratin and home made dinner rolls, accompanied by a Jeroboam of champagne (4 bottles) Shanti and Laura joined us for Christmas dinner and the conversation and company were delightful.

I am sure that there are pictures and videos somewhere of the advent calendar and

maybe cookies and the cherub choir and the ham and the whole family at Christmas Eve dinner...

but I can't find them. Once I unearth them, I'll add them here for posterity.

My gift from Jim and Joanne (photography backdrop and lighting kit) came in a bag so large we couldn't resist putting the family into it!

Evelyn is the only kid I know who is excited to receive clothing as a gift, here's one of the many princess nightgowns she got and wants to wear constantly.

In the days following Christmas the girls had a blast playing with their new toys and with their relatives. On the 29th, Jim, Eric, Kim and Edward went to Milwaukee for a basketball game and the girls and I had a quiet afternoon and evening at home unwinding from all the festivities. On the 30th Ed left for California to watch the Rose Bowl. My dad came out on the 31st to visit and help out with the girls.

By the 3rd of January our decorations were put away, our guests had all returned home, Ed was back in town and life has gone back to normal. It's always sad to see Christmas go, especially such a fun one that the girls were so excited about, but I know next year will be even better now that Matilda and Evelyn are old enough to remember what we did this year. It's wonderful to be building our family traditions and lovely memories for years to come.

First Day of School

Evelyn had her first day of school on Tuesday, January 3. She and Matilda are in the same class this semester. There were no tears for the drop off and they both had a great day. They met new friends, talked about their favorite things, had snack, played and learned about the letter F, the days of the week and the months of the year. Thursday, they practiced the letter F and calendar skills again. When I arrived to pick them up, Evelyn didn't even notice I was there, she was so busy building letters with special "handwriting" blocks.

When we got home from their first day of school I set up my new photography backdrop stand from Jim and Joanne to take some pictures of the girls in the outfits Kim and Eric picked for them. Evelyn is a little ham and enjoys being in front of the camera.

Matilda is a more difficult subject, she doesn't like to keep still and she makes funny faces but, with practice she'll get used to having her portrait taken.

Of course, we had to get a picture with Adelaide!

Everyone wants to hold her though, so you don't get much time to snap a good shot before the big sisters lose patience and just want to play with baby Adelaide.

Trimming the Tree

We brought up the tree the day after Thanksgiving and the big girls were so excited to help decorate!



This is the "Safe Tree" that has mostly non-breakable things on it. I gave them a box full of christmas balls, bells and other trinkets (and candy canes!) to put on the tree themselves. At first, the tree was pretty bottom-heavy in decor, but then Evelyn got this bright idea:

She is really impressed with her efforts. She and Matilda still get excited every day when I turn on the lights.


The "Safe Tree" also has all our travelling ornaments on it. Whenever we visit a new place, Ed and I try to pick up an ornament or bauble to put on the tree to remember the trip. We're only missing 6 cities: Orlando, New Orleans, Charleston, Wellington, Madrid, and Montreal.

The ornament Evelyn is looking at is a light house from our trip to Cape Cod. while we were decorating the tree, I told the girls about the trips associated with each of the special ornaments. For this one, I explained to Matilda that we took her to Cape Cod before Evelyn was born. Something was lost in translation, however, and it is now "The lighthouse where Evelyn was born." :)

Big Girl Bed

It was bound to happen eventually. Evelyn has started climbing out of her crib. The tiny hotel crib stood no chance of containing her, and her successful escapes only emboldened her. So, on December 15, we converted her crib to a toddler bed.

She is such a wild sleeper, I was certain she'd fall out or just spend all night running around her room abusing her freedom, but she shocked me and went right to sleep and stayed in her big girl bed all night.



As you can see, she was pretty stoked. (I was too!)

Happy Baby

Baby Adelaide is awake more often now and much of that time is spent smiling! She's such a happy baby and I love watching her socialize. She seems truly delighted to see us most of the time!

She started giving us a few smiles around 5 weeks old but now she's a pro.

Here she is hanging out watching me do some chores.



Those tiny toes are positively scrumptious too!

Sharing

When Matilda is at school, Evelyn needs someone to play with!





Soon enough, Adelaide will know what to do with those dolls.

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for this year. First on my list is three healthy beautiful children. We are thankful for our abundance, our family, and the love we have for one another, as well as all the things--big and little--that are too numerous to name but which enrich our lives daily.

Adelaide was in this picture, you just can't see her because Matilda shifted and blocked her in the frame. It's hard to take family pictures on your own!



For Adelaide's first Thanksgiving, we had a huge turkey, mashed sweet potatoes, bleu cheese mashed potatoes, sausage sage and apple dressing, turkey wine gravy, jellied cranberry sauce, cranberry apricot relish and pumpkin pie tartlets.
Matilda took one look at her plate, declared she was scared to try it, and ran away, preferring to spend Thanksgiving enjoying her own company.



Evelyn tried one bite of everything, loved the jellied cranberry sauce and ate almost 1/2 a can of it! She also enjoyed the home made whipped cream and pumpkin pie tartlets. We have plenty of left overs for soup and the freezer.



We have already decorated for Christmas and are making our menu plans for the big day with the Gustafson clan visiting.

One Month

Adelaide is 1 month old now. Last week she had a check up and was up to 9 pounds 2 ounces; she has gained nearly a pound a week since we left the hospital. She's also grown 1/2 an inch in length and has nearly outgrown the newborn sized diapers. The 0-3 month clothing is still a little big on her, but her newborn pjs are getting too short.
She's a great eater, generally pretty happy and very tolerant of her sisters' incessant attentions.
And she loves to snuggle and be held.

Sweet dreams

I'm so lucky to have 3 of the snuggliest cupcakes around!

Matilda's First Haircut

Since Matilda refuses to wear clips now to keep her hair out of her mouth, I took her to the salon for her first hair cut.



She was really good and it came out awfully cute, but now she looks so much older!



They saved a lock of her hair for me to keep.

Splish Splash

On Saturday November 12, 2011 Adelaide had her first tub bath.



Initially, she was a bit startled and upset, but she quickly calmed down and seemed to enjoy having her hair washed and resting in the warm tub having attention lavished upon her by her sisters, parents, and Eric and Kim.

She smells fantastic.

Who Can Do Anything?

Matilda's choir, the Little Cherubs, performed at church again this week singing "Who Can Do Anything?"

Matilda seemed a little distracted this week, but was in a good mood and having a lot of fun. Also, cute as a button in her curls and silver tutu!

2 Weeks

2 weeks in and we're all doing great. My gallbladder is hardly bothering me at all and I'm healing quickly and getting my energy back. Matilda and Evelyn adore Adelaide and love to get a chance to hold her and light up when she looks at them. Adelaide still has her days and nights mixed up a little (if I let her, she'll go 4 or more hours between feeding in the day but never waits more than 2 hours at night) but we're working on that and she's learning to be a more efficient nurser so I can feed her overnight in about 20-30 minutes instead of an hour.



We are so happy with our little family and so blessed that Adelaide is here and healthy.