Recently in Family Category

We've been terrible bloggers lately. We even failed to blog about our trip to France that we took in August (it was fantastic). Hopefully we can be rehabilitated and this will be the beginning of a new era of blogging excellence.

Anyway, as you can see in the attached video, Sophie's on the move now. This just happened this week, a couple days after Charlotte installed those little power outlet covers in an effort to begin child-proofing. At this point, with our hyper dog running around, I don't see leaving Sophie on her own to crawl without supervision, but I'm sure they're a good idea.

Our little girl is growing up!

Two years ago today I stood on a beach at sunset and married my dream girl. It's hard to believe we've already been married that long! At the same time, it seems like we've done an awful lot in these two years. We got a puppy, got some major projects done around the house, traveled half way around the world, and even managed to have a little baby along the way.

Tonight Charlotte and I will go camping in the mountains, leaving baby Sophie behind for the first time. Last year, we came up with the idea to spend the night of our anniversary somewhere other than our bed at home. I'm looking forward to sharing an evening together and celebrating. Other holidays are a lot of fun: birthdays, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, etc. But I feel more like celebrating our anniversary more than any of the others. After all, I really didn't have much to do with myself being born, I wasn't at the first Thanksgiving, and I am not a signer of the Declaration of Independence. But I did have something to do with Charlotte and me getting married.

I love the life we have made together and feel like I do a pretty good job of being thankful every day. But tonight... we celebrate!

It has been two weeks since I sold my Mini. I was waiting to post an entry about it until I got a picture of the new car, a Honda Element. When I got the Mini I knew I would probably only be able to drive it for a year or two, since we were considering starting a family (actually I found out I was pregnant a week after I got it). It was my dream car, though, and I had to have it!

A few months ago we were doing our finances (taking a new look at things since I haven't been working) and I decided it was time to sell the Mini and get something that was more practical and would decrease our monthly payments significantly. Hence, the Honda Element!

Yes, I was sad to see the Mini go - but it went to a good owner, another designer who seemed excited about the car (when he contacted me later, he said his wife was trying to take it over, she too fell in love with it). But... oh how I love the new Element. It's big, spacious, a smooth ride and I just love how I can throw anything and everything back there, whether I need it or not - the stroller, the car seat, the Baby Bjorn, the diaper bag, camera backpack, blanket, tent, whatever! Not to mention the interior is made of rubber or something that can literally be hosed out when the kiddies make a mess. Not to mention, for an SUV it gets pretty decent gas mileage (25 miles per gallon).

Charlotte, Sophie, and I flew to Michigan using some frequent flier miles last weekend. We were in town over Mother's Day - probably the first Mother's Day I've spent with my mother (or my grandmother) since I was in college and still lived in the area. Charlotte is a new mom this year so she was included in the celebrations. My sister, a relatively new mother herself, also made the trip up from Columbus with her three children.

Like all my trips home to see family, this one felt too short. Even though we were there three full days, they flew by. We did get to meet up with some friends of mine that I hadn't seen in a while, which was nice. We saw Molly, whose job involves enough travel to earn her elite status on Northwest Airlines within the first three months of the year. Charlotte, Sophie, and I also drove over to the East side to see Greg, Tara, and their two girls. Sophie got a kick out of watching little Erin and Rowe run around. Charlotte, Valerie, Valerie's son Will, and I also attended a Tigers-Yankees game Friday night at Comerica Park. The struggling Tigers eked out a win after extinguishing a Yankees rally in the bottom of the ninth. I spent some time around the house helping set up my mom's and the Almeister's new iPod Touch (a retirement gift from Almeister's office), and working on our family tree on geni.com. I even managed to spend about twenty minutes cleaning out the closet of my old bedroom - a task my mother's been begging me to do for at least a decade. Probably only about 10 hours left on that task...

I guess it was a pretty busy weekend!

So a couple months ago I picked up this sweet little video camera, the Canon HG10. Those of you who know me won't be surprised when I say that this is a high tech camera, capable of shooting in HD and having all sorts of other bells and whistles. The camera is so high tech, in fact, that the brand new software I bought for my PC (Adobe Premiere Elements 6) can't work with its AVCHD file format. Without the ability to edit the video and share it, my fancy camera became something of a fancy paperweight. We still shot some footage here and there but always with a view toward eventually being able to show it off. Well, yesterday that all changed.

Yesterday I dropped off some of my family that had come to Colorado to meet Sophie. It was a great visit in that we all had a terrific time. It was also great because my 91 year-old grandma (Sophie's great-grandma) came along for the ride. It was very special for her to make the trip and we all had a blast.

It's amazing how much Sophie has changed in the short while that we've had her. Already she's holding her head up a bit and really looks at whomever is talking to her. She was particularly entranced by her grandmother, who has always had such a wonderful way with babies. She also seems to have settled into a pattern of sleep where she wakes up at 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM for feedings. As far as newborns are concerned, I believe that's pretty good.

Charlotte and I are really enjoying the transition to parenthood!

I loved this scene and thought it merited a quick video - Al and Scott (not shown) were watching the Michigan/Florida football game, while Barbara knit a hat with Sophie fast asleep on her lap and Beverly read the New Yorker. A quiet, peaceful scene.

We got home today from the hospital at around. The kitchen was clean (thanks, Brigitte) and we had a lovely lasagna to tuck into (thank, Emilie). We're settling in, introducing Peanut to Sophie, and working on our photos and videos when we get the chance. Here's a video I took when Sophie was less than 12 hours old. Check it out!

We promise we'll post a bunch of new photos soon - in the meantime, here's a close-up of our peaceful little baby girl when she was 1 day old. Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful emails that you have been sending us... we're so excited to share this momentous event with all of you.

A friend of ours just suggested via text message that I write down everything I remember about the birthing experience before I forget. I thought, "why not do that right here?"

First of all, last night was already supposed to be busy -- even without Charlotte going into labor. We had a Christmas party to go to and I had a hockey game at 11:45 PM. The weather in Golden got a bit dicey and we decided to bail on all plans at about 6:00. About an hour later, Charlotte was complaining about cramps and the journey had begun.