Grace is a month old!

Yesterday, March 17th, St. Patties Day, our little Grace celebrated her one month birthday! I know that everyone says how fast time flies, but until you're actually in the throws of the speeding clock do you truly see just how fast the days zoom by. I'm finding it hard to believe that my little girl has already spent a full month with us. So in a feeble attempt to slow down the hands of time, I've been trying to capturing every little moment that I could on film. And while I know that as a parent it's my right to take a zillion photos and brag about each one, I'll try to restrain myself here, and just share with you the cream of the crop, which believe me was extremely hard for me to edit down. So please enjoy these few photos of little Grace and bask in her cuteness!

Nap time with Daddy.

Grace LOVES bath time!

So cozy in the bassinet.

Check out those baby blues. Stunning!

Pacifier junkie.

Thanks Popoolie (Grandpa Cooley) for the hippie outfit! Psychedelic Man!

I could watch these two all day!

One of my favorite faces she makes.

Thank you everyone for sharing your love with Grace. She has an amazing family, and loves you all so much already!

Hic-ups

Hic-ups can be pretty funny, at first. The quirky way our body jolts, and the little bubble of air that pops up ever so frequently without warning can be quiet comical. I must admit that from time to time I get a giggle out of the hic-ups. However, I do know that one can reach a point where the hic-ups become tiresome, annoying, and sometime down right fatiguing. I often find myself in this predicament. If I laugh too hard I tend to get the hic-ups, and not just little bubbly hic-ups, I'm talking full blown, shake-you-the-core hic-ups. Now I know that hic-ups are not hereditary, however, it looks like I have passed down my awesome hic-uping diaphragm muscle to my little girl. Before she was even born Grace would get the hic-ups in the womb on a daily basis, multiple times a day, and her hic-uping sessions would last anywhere from twenty to forty minutes. Well, now that she's here, I can watch the cuteness that is my baby girl hic-uping rather than just feel it, and I sympathize with her every time she hic-ups, which yes is almost on a daily basis, but I still can't help myself, watching with delight, to hear the cutest little bubbles of air bouncing out of her. See what I mean....

My Birthing Story

On Thursday, February 17th at 3:45 in the morning I officially began the exciting process of labor. I knew that I had lots of time, my contractions were about twenty minutes apart, and fairly mild. I let Christian sleep, and allowed myself to really focus on what this day was going to hold for us.

As the morning moved along, my contractions did the same. The distance in time between each one started to diminish and the overwhelming joy that today was going to be the day grew with each minute.

Luckily, I was already scheduled for an baby check-up appointment with my midwife at 2:45. I patiently waited till it was time to go, but I will admit I was extremely curious as to how far along I was dilated. Turns out that I was 4 cm, almost 5, and by this time of day my contractions were averaging 5 minutes apart. I went home, and was met at my house by my in-laws, John and Kathy, and my Doula Laura. We sat in the family room chit-chatting for a few hours, and then at about 5, 5:30 I made the call letting everyone know, "It's time to head to the head to the hospital."

Once we reached the birthing wing at the hospital, we were met by one of my midwives, and she pulled some strings to insure that I was given the corner room with the large jacuzzi tub. At this point I was now 6 cm and having contractions every 4 minutes. The birthing room felt more like a resort room on some tropical island. We were so lucky to get this room. It was great!
I used the birthing ball to help relax and move things along.
When the contractions really started pigging-backing each other, (they call this part of labor transition, and it happens right before the big "pushing" part) I moved into the tub. The warm water really worked wonders at soothing and again relaxing my body in between contractions.
From 6 o'clock to 10 o'clock I dilated a centimeter an hour, and by 10:00 I was ready to have a baby. At exactly 11:30 p.m. Grace Irene was born, and looked absolutely perfect!! She weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces, was 19.5 inches long, and honestly was the most gorgeous baby I've ever seen. (Although I'm sure I'm extremely biased)
Her first hair shampoo. She loves being pampered!

Such a sweet sleepy baby! So cute!
From day one she adored her father! Its unbelievable, but when she gets a little fussy, Christian picks her up and within two seconds she's perfectly content. Daddy's little girl!
Look at the face! She was so excited to head home from the hospital!
Thanks Aunt Emily and Uncle Luke for her going-home outfit. The sweater was perfect as it was extremely cold and kept her nice and toasty warm.
Grandma Kaufman made Grace her baby blanket that she came home from the hospital in. So soft and warm!
We're so thrilled that she's finally here, and every day has become such a joy. She's our little miracle, and I love that we are now a true family!

Birds of a feather

This winter season we've had several neighborhood visitors that are very large, and a little bit on the creepy side. I'm talking about vultures! They've been hanging around the houses and trees and really seem to enjoy the heat that is piped up through the chimneys as they perch their giant feathered body across the roof tops.While sitting in my family room, I can always tell when a giant vulture is resting on the top of the chimney because well, they're not exactly graceful birds, and I hear them trying to balance themselves on the chimney cap. (Below you can see one vulture sitting next to the cap, and the feathers of another vulture who is actually sitting on the cap to the chimney.)Here's a vulture just hanging out in the back yard. I'm telling you, these birds are impressively big!

Like a scary gang, here are five vultures just hanging out on the ridge pole of the neighbor's house directly across the street. I wouldn't want to mess with this posse.See what I mean. Creepy!

This vulture is sitting on the chimney cap, and warming his feathers. I bet he was nice a toasty up there!Oh no! I've been spotted! (I still think they're creepy!) RUN AWAY!!! AHHHH!

For my Nana

Moment of Warmth

This is for all those out there who are burred in snow at the moment, or chilled to the bone from the blustery winter air... Please snuggle up close to our fireplace, which we lit for the first time, and completely enjoyed warming our hands and hearts by.

It also makes wonderful roasted marshmallows. hee hee

Happy winter everyone!

Before & Afters

It's been forever since I've blogged, and I apologize to those who have been waiting to read the latest posting. To make up for my absence, this will be one doosy of an entry.

Over a year ago I shared the wondrous news that Christian and I closed on our first house together, followed by explaining how much work we had ahead of us to make this house our home. We still have a few projects that we're working on, (mainly the kitchen) but I thought I would show the world how far we've come in such a relatively short period of time. So please enjoy these before, during, and after photos of several rooms in our home.

The foyer & stairway:
The living room:
Although it may not look like we changed much in the living room, we did repaint everything, fix cracked walls, replaced built in doors, and of course sanded and stained the floor.
The dining room:The down stairs bathroom:The soon-to-be nursery:The family room:The guest bedroom:And the biggest mess, the upstairs bathroom:
We discovered an original staircase hidden under the bathtub. It was amazing to look at the the steps, feel the warn-out-curve in the wood, and just imagine the Canfield family (Matthias Canfield built the house in 1825) walking up and down those steps.

I refrained from posting photos of the "library", as it still has many empty shelves and looks rather awkward, as well as my craft room isn't really much to look at, plus I'm working on something for the holiday season for my family here in Jersey, so I didn't want to give it away, oh and our master bedroom is lovely, but I've posted photos of it many times before. The only difference is we have our bedroom furniture in it now, which makes me feel all grown up.

I'm very proud of how the house has turned out. There are still things left to do, and I'm sure there will always be things left to do, but like I said, it now feels like our home.