Christmas Day

We held Christmas Eve dinner at our house, just like last year. This is the one holiday where folks flock out of town and whoever is left comes over. Good for us since it means a small crowd to cater too. It was more than a success even though I was a bit stressed. Once I get the hostessing thing down, I'm sure it will be easier. Since we have traveled so much of our lives we have always been the guests, it's going to get some getting used to having guests. 

Dinner and our funny Santa photo. 

Christmas day, enjoying her organic candy cane and super excited Santa brought an orange, both eats are our Christmas morning treats. 

She also got bubble bath, Epsom salts, toothpaste, soup, scotch tape, chapstick, watercolor postcards, water colors, shoes, and play scarves. Utilitarian, yes, but she was the most excited about the candy cane I think. 

A successful Christmas! Let's do it again next year! We love the magic of the season and the joy that it brings. 

Show Girl

One thing that Pyper loves is performances. She really wants to be in them, so the passion is there. So we are going to as many kid friendly performances so she can see what it is all about. If she's still interested, there's a performing arts class she can start going to next year. It's so great that she is so passionate about being in front of a crowd. 

Us at Storybook Theatre watching  "Elves and the Toymaker" She's still quoting the show...

Then there are the random performances that happen because a band is playing. She assesses the scene then starts dancing.

 

This group is performing Hanukkah songs, she decided she would "perform". This is the first time she faced the audience and not the band. 

She danced until there was a fight between her and another boy. But it ended well with holding hands. For now that seems like a good innocent solution. 

Neah's Hair

Lately everyone in the family wants to cut hair, mostly Pyper's, but now Neah is in the boat. Pyper of course can speak for herself and says she won't cut it till she is 18 so it will be as long as Rapunzel's. She has yet to cut her hair. 

Neah's is just so darn cute just the way it is in all its glory. I have finally figured out who she takes after, Auntie Sharon! 

One of these days I'll take a photo after a wash, it all sticks up like a hedgehog then. 

Snowflake Lane

Bellevue has become quite the place as a shopping destination. As if they needed another lure, Snowflake Lane puts a little Disney-like Magic into our lives for a half hour with winter princesses, elves, drummers, dancing belles, and real snow every night from Thanksgiving to New Year's. We first enjoyed the show last year, and now are going strong in year two. The only concern Pyper had was whether or not she would receive a candy cane sucker again. Funny the things a kid remembers. 

With all the rain past, and rain future, I think everyone had the same idea tonight because the streets were packed like it was the weekend before Christmas. Last year we had lots of elbow room, this year we had to man our spot with our pointy elbows and pointy words. It was a successful evening of easy parking and exiting, and good cheer from Pyper. We can't ask for anything else!

Holidaying Around

Two shows in one day! The first was her gymnastics' show, Winterfest, where Pyper performed to "Let it Snow". It was her first official performance which was as cute as one might think. She remembered most of the moves, it was so cute too because her friend Hope is in the class. 

She's been dying to perform and didn't seem shy or anything. It was so much fun seeing her do her thing. 

Next we went to the Nutcracker. This whole season we've been hearing, "I want to be in the Nutcracker, not watch it!" Maybe when we don't have a newborn and she understands time commitment to rehearsals and shows for herself as well as her parents. But the studio she does ballet at performs a kid version that is one hour and we were able to commit to that this year. 

With Grandma Cora, the Nutcracker, Clara, and another dancer. 

We also did the Garden D'Lites at the botanical garden a couple of nights ago. 

We have one more holiday production and a visit to Snowflake Lane, and then we can call it a year! This girl loves her shows!!!

Andy's 37 Years Old!

We all woke up early, and at the suggestion of a three year old we made chocolate pudding, which was followed by making chocolate cupcakes. Both events had birthday singing and candles, and it's only 9:30am. I guess we have succeeded in making it a day to remember regardless if we do anything else. 

For lunch Pyper drove us to grab some pizza! Watch out world!

Decembering

We got the tree up right after Thanksgiving when Pyper was recovering, it definitely lifted her spirits. Andy and I placed the lights and Pyper did the rest. We will post an after decorated photo when Pyper finishes her masterpiece. 

 

Post Disney

The expected unexpected of going in the "it's a germ world." We made it back, but a couple days later Pyper had crazy dreams that were brought on by fever. 

We heard all sorts of Disney rantings. "But Olaf is melting!"

Sickie taking over Neah bed. 

The fever lead to lots of library movies and then a barky cough. Then it was more fever and congestion which I got too. Today, over a full week and some days later, we sound completely icky, but we are getting by much better.  

We feel lucky that Neah has a good supply of mama antibodies and has been her usual smiley self. 

We went into Neah's two month appointment two days ago. Four ounces short of 11 pounds. Girl is getting big!!!

Looking forward towards "normalcy" in health, mood, and life. 

It's a Small World

Wishing Mickey Mouse Happy Birthday!

Last night we booked our hotel across the street from Disneyland, checked in for standby for the plane, and packed out bags. We would be leaving the house in less then six hours. 

On the plane now, Neah is sleep in my shirt pouch, Pyper has a headset on (not plugged into anything) and sunglasses, and Andy is cracking up at the rules that Pyper has made about plane flying. We are on our way to Disneyland!!!!!

Neah's first flight, I've lost track of Pyper's count. 

We got to the hotel and walked right into the park since we were right across the street from the entrance, which was perfect for getting there without too much time or hassle. Then we were overwhelmed! We did just a little the first day, and enjoyed the parade before calling it a night. It had already been a long day of travelling for us. 

Day two we hit up the California Adventure Park. We felt like our timing was off all day. But we successfully Frozened ourselves out and she got to meet both Elsa and Anna. 

Princesses everywhere!

Day three we finally got into the groove on the Disnayland side, completing the classics rides without any lines in the morning, before finding some shade from the 84 degree heat and watching the parade again and finally enduring the long Peter Pan's Flight line to close out our Disneyland adventure. 

Neah had her fun too!

Next, a long bus ride to LAX, a wait at the airport for standby, then our flight home to an empty SEATAC at 12:30am. So good to be home!

Sister Love

As the love blossoms and grows...Neah isn't going anywhere, except for on Keller family adventures. Pyper is becoming less hostile, in general, and life is moving along. 

Dim Sum Plus One

Neah has been attending dim sum since two weeks old. She's going to be a pro just like big sister at the eating part soon. 

This was my first hands free dim sum with Neah! Yea for eating. 

November...

Flying through the forest in a leotard and batman boots, got another batch of pickled garlic going, 6lbs of garlic to be exact. Body painting is always a fun sensation, and celebrating Uncle Jeff's birthday with our yearly dose of peanut butter chocolate pie. 

Another month is flying along and of course I'm more busy with the kids then blogging. That's to be expected, but here I am trying to catch up and give everyone a sneak at our lives. 

Of course there will also be a ton of dress up and Princess time. 

Octopus Fairy

The Merril Lynch Halloween festivities have been an annual tradition. We had fun again visiting offices, and the Star Wars corner was so real, Pyper wouldn't even go near it. Notice the matching red Ruby slippers in the picture. Then there's the Chan Clan that met us at the elevator before heading off to do some "real" work. Cousin Alex is looking good as the team's new associate. 

And for Halloween night the octopus costume gained wings and a tutu and was a huge hit for our wet and windy neighborhood walk around. 

Another Coin for the Collection

Well, we did it once again, finished another geotrail. It's always fun dragging Andy along, yes dragging is a very appropriate word. We all have the things we like to do and not do, geocaching isn't a high priority for him, but dirt bike shuttling isn't our cup of tea either. We support each other and that's all that counts. 

We finished up the four parks on an absolutely beautiful day between nasty rainy ones. We did come back the following day for the geocoin and lunch with a good friend of his. Lunch with this particular friend always ends up with a new car...not kidding. 

Neah fitting right into the Keller lady cachers

On the geotrail of fallen leaves. 

Prepping for Halloween

BAM-o-ween at the Bellevue Arts Museum. Lots and lots of crafts and fun things to do for free, a great afternoon. 

Dancing it up as Princess Anna at the Farmer's Market.

Pumpkin carving at the Country Club  with the whole family. Nice not making a mess at home!

Looking forward to Halloween, though rain is in the forecast. 

More Days in Auburn

Second day on the trail, we ticked off eight more, that seems to be the magic number before we tucker out. There are four more to nab, so we hope to finish it off tomorrow. I'm taking full advantage of this awesome whether we are having! I'm not counting on the weatherman to hold the rain off. 

Managing Crazy with Geocaching

So last night I was checking out the geocaching site for the first time since Neah's birth. You'll never guess...they launched a geotour last Saturday in Aurburn. Well, we were planning on going to story time in Maple Valley today, so we decided to hit the trail afterwards. 

Pyper made comments like this all day:

"I love going on road trips!"

"Let's go to another park with a Geocache!"

"Can I have another snack?!"

Along the White River, before we got mud in our mouths!

Cache and play on!!!!

The caches for this geotour are all in Auburn Parks, so lots of playtime for the energizer bunny. There are 20 in all, and we accomplished 8 today. Pre-Neah we would have gone for them all, but I don't think any of us could have hung in there that long. Pyper requested to finish the mission tomorrow! Who am I to dispute  that?

I guess you can manage crazy with Geocaching, we had a great day listening to books on CD, eating snacks, playing in the beautiful weather, and of course caching, though I think that is becoming lower and lower on the priority list. It's the journey that we enjoy most, and spending time together. Neah did great too!

Gramma's Here!

Yup, Gramma in Panther colors, and she got to go to the game too!

Gramma made it out to the West Coast for Neah's welcome into the world. So grateful to all who decide to help in 3 year old management and all the other housely stuff. 

Garden Angels taming the strawberries. 

Pumpkining around at the pumpkin patch  

This is the first post writing since the crazy really set in, I'll try for brief, but more frequent posts in the future. Wish I had the mindset to share in depth the gratitude I feel for grandmas right now! Thank you Gramma Jody for making the trek out here and making my first month a little easier!

Winding Down from the Excitement

I guess it's a little crazy after birth. There's a lot of excitement and everyone wants to see the baby, even only after a couple of hours of birth. Yesterday and today we had no visitors, it's been super mellow, other than some kind of screaming fit by our eldest. 

Postpartum is surprising, even if you've done it before. During birth, all you want is the baby to come out. My labor was 7 hours and 25 minutes from start to baby. We are now coming up on a week exactly since birth and it's been rough physically, mentally, and emotionally. The first two days you are hormonally wired to stay awake. Yes there is lots of bleeding as your placenta wound heals, but that's expected. The tenderness and swollen genitailia make for some discomfort, but you know it will pass. Your first stool after birth makes for interesting noises that mimic labor contractions, and then there's the extra being to love, hold, feed, pee, poop, burp, and comfort 24/7. 

We are adjusting one day at a time. I guess that's why they come out so cute, so it makes it all worth it. 

Baby Neah's Arrival

Today I had an amazing HOME birth! It started precisely at 8 AM when I felt a little wetness when I turned in bed, so I got up to go pee. I didn't have to go, the discharge was a little tinged pink. Then I felt a cramp in my lower belly. The cramps didn't stop at all the first hour, so I woke up Andy for back-up as I still intended to take Pyper to gymnastics. I had 5 minute contractions, 45 seconds long, consistently all morning. We even stopped for her Chinese red bean bun snack and I got some bakery treats next door. I had a contraction at at the shop waiting for the worker to take care of the other folks. 

This is what two hours of contractions look like. My friend Anna took this picture before our girls ended class. 

The contractions didn't feel great as you can imagine, I was definitely having trouble managing the pain around 11 AM when we got home. We called Sunita, our midwife, we called for the birth tub, we were getting all the forces mobile. 

There was a stent went the tub people came, and then Pyper needed to eat, which took Andy away from me, but man, he did a gazillion things, it was amazing. 

Around 2 PM our Midwife did arrive, I was in the back bathroom, I remember a presence sitting down at the bathroom door as I got through a contraction. I had already had a "bloody show", and it was just increasing. The contractions at that point were weaker, I was falling sleep between them, and I was thinking maybe an IV would be needed to kick start things, but it never came to that.  

Pre-tub solution, and Mid-wife's little helper. Our Midwife, Sunita, is the one helping Pyper. Tara is a mid-wife in training and did a great job helping me progress. 

A couple more contractions later, Andy had the water warm enough and over the heating element to make the tub operational. Not sure how I managed the maneuver mid contraction, but I got in the tub and things ramped right back up. In fact, the need to push was there on the first contraction in the heavenly bliss that was the birth tub. 

Pyper did well. She got bored with the contractions earlier on, but was there to rub my back when Andy did something else. "I'm doing better than Mommy is!" At the edge of the tub she said "having babies is hard work!" She paid attention when things began to happen, happily waiting for the baby's arrival. 

So there I was in the mega huge supportive birth tub with a nice cushy floor and foam railing. I just got in a kneeling squat and then apparently Neah's head was right there. I broke my water on the first contraction in the tub, how convenient. 

It wasn't a quick pushing session, but it was productive the whole time. We did a couple position changes that definitely made for progress. When I finally pushed her head through, the cord was caught on her shoulder, so she stayed put till I had another round of pushing to finish the job. Neah's heart rate stayed good and we birthed a baby girl. Yup, still hard, but two thirds the time of Pyper, and smooth the whole way. Felt fantastic feeling so good after compared with the last. So at 3:25 PM we had a girl that was roughly 7 pounds, 5 ounces. The first thing she did was pee on me. She also had a strong latch right away which helped to detach the placenta as I stood up to use gravity to free it completely. 

Family of four, first latch while still connected to the placenta inside me. 

This time it was less shocking to have a baby present, and we enjoyed being with her as a family. We all got to feel the pulse in the umbilical cord which was pretty incredible. It took awhile for the placenta to detach, that's actually when the tub got really bloody. Shortly after the team put me to bed. 

Baby girl in the house!!!

Baby inspectors, she's perfect!!! Great teamwork. 

After she peed on me I missed the second pee because I didn't have all my supplies ready, but I've caught 3-8 in a row, plus the biggest meconium ever. Not bad for the first 12 hours. She a natural at this baby communication thing, we haven't even opened the "just-in" case disposables. We may be returning those. I love EC and its freedom from dirty diapers, landfill additions, and unhappy babies. She took to the cue instantly. 

UFO's

UnFinished Objects...

Amazingly enough we finished Pyper's Anna dress earlier this month after completing the cape over a month ago. That was a surprising check off the list, but I guess that started our roll and we were able to motivate and finish some more projects. 

Princess Anna dress

Somewhere in the mess of things we also got another batch of Italian plums from the neighbors. We dehyrated the extras from the first batch, but we went after preserves for this one. Ten cups of fruit, two lemons, and a cup of sugar later, we had some tastiness. 

Yummy plum preserves over shortbread 

Finished Neah's quilt today and we tackled tie dying as well. Neah's quilt is the first quilt I've done from start to finish. It's a simple one, but with everything going on it seemed like the biggest project ever.  

Yarn tied quilt I will probably never attempt again. 

I definitely didn't think I'd get to this tie dying project. We had a whole pile of white, slightly milk stained hand-me-down white newborn shirts and socks, that we're going into the Goodwill bag unless we made them into something cool. We just had to buy the tie dye material which we got on super sale with a coupon. 

It was a committing project, considering Pyper made one shirt for herself and about a dozen projects for her sister. She did make one for her dad too. This in itself took a couple hours and she said she was tired by the end of it, but stuck with it till there was no die left. We unravelled our hard work and saw some amazing results! 

Successful Tie Dye, they fit stuffed animals as well. 

So we finished up everything we had on the prebirth list! Yahoo!!! Now it's time to chill and get on with the birth. 

Birthdayness

Family hot pot for September Birthdays

Another year...has come and gone. We started the day off early at a Geocaching event named "Everyone's Birthday Bash," which was fitting for the day. They had Top Pot doughnuts, which is how Pyper celebrated her first birthday, and there was even a Group First to Find Cache. We had fun then played a bit before having Birthday Sushi, always a good way to go. I vegged in front of my mom's TV for a bit in the afternoon, and also got in a mostly quiet bath. 

Everyone's Birthday Bash Geocaching Event 

Melon head

Well, we successfully grew from seed a watermelon and harvested it for the eating! Melon is a funny thing because you can't see inside to see if it's red, got bugs, or anything else. So we just crossed our fingers. It was big, juicy, very pink, and sweet. And yup, full of good old fashion seeds. Pyper claims it is the best watermelon ever. 

Yup, seeds!