Coffee Talk

Most mornings - and all of the good ones - Orelia and I get to come downstairs after her first feeding and see John off to work.  When we time it just right, he's already eaten his oatmeal but hasn't finished his coffee yet.  They get a chance to sit and chat while I head upstairs to brush my teeth for my last "off duty" moment until John comes home at 6:00.  While he finishes off the last sip of his latte, he and I get a second to discuss what we have "on our pizza" for the day (a Johnism) before both of our work days begin.  I highly recommend a little coffee talk to start your day.

Lunch in Oakland

Orelia and I were invited over to Natalie's house for lunch out and an afternoon in Oakland.

That afternoon also included a photo shoot of me and my girl, and I'm so happy to show you these great images.

Our girl is definitely in the feet-obsessed phase right now, and it's adorable.

Droolie Andrews strikes again!

My girl and I always have a great time together.  I'll do anything for a laugh or smile.

And she'll do anything to reach that camera if you give her a chance!

Watch out, the Momster will bite back!

I managed to turn the tables on our photographer to snap one of her and Orelia.  Orelia loves her Aunt Natalie!

Her eyes always look their bluest when she is outside.

From "meh"

To laughter.  Such is life with a baby.

She's always watching everything around her.

Toy Harper doesn't stand a chance against this little nibbler.

The Winnie the Pooh gang escaped unscathed, though.

Thank you Natalie for these wonderful photos and for inviting us over!

We Accidentally Bought a House

Guess what?  We accidentally bought a house!

Not really, "accidentally," but that's the way John described it, and I thought it was fitting.  

We have been house hunting and put a bid in on this house, thinking it wouldn't be accepted since the market is so competitive.  

Turns out, it was accepted (it was slightly higher than the next highest bid - there were four in all), and we are thrilled!

It's in Palo Alto, which is the best location in terms of schools, work, and fun.  We never thought we'd be able to live in Palo Alto, but here we are!

We are supposed to close the first week of February, so our town home is awash with moving boxes, tape, and Sharpies.

I just can't wait to be in our new home, settled in with our family (and with all this sunlight).

I got to capture the first slide on Orelia's new swing set - there will be many more to come, I have no doubt.

Playtime at the Apollo

What baby doesn't love to play?

 Certainly not this girl.

Our house is basically just a fun factory full of different areas for Orelia to enjoy herself.

She has two play mats, and loves both of them.

The high chair wouldn't be fun...except it has a tray which is always stocked full of toys to nibble on.

Mommy and Daddy are even silly enough to buy giant contraptions to offer yet another place to play.

And, of course, while supervised she loves to play on the kitchen table and gnaw Sophie's ear off.  Sorry, Sophie.

Head Shots

Over the holidays, I asked my dad to try to reproduce some cute baby head shots I had seen on display at a local store.

Black and white and cropped close, these photos are even better than the ones I was trying to duplicate.

There were so many great shots, I had a really hard time deciding which ones I wanted to frame.

 Last but not least, I need to go buy the frame to put these in.

Thanks for the great photos, Dad!  I love the way they turned out!

Bookworm

Do bookworms eat books like they eat apples?

Because if so, we've got a real bookworm on our hands.

Viva La Ford

John and I are constantly talking about Orelia's future, and we love opining on where she will go to college.  My current pipe dream is that she will attend Wellesley (no boys, hooray!), though John is gunning for Stanford (since it's in our backyard).

He obviously wouldn't mind if she attended his alma mater, however, hence the black squirrel stuffed animal and Haverford sweatshirt.  Viva la Ford, indeed.

Orelia at Five Months

These past five months have flown by, and we are having such a great time with our little girl.

A week after she turned 4 months old she started sleeping through the night.  I decided not to go in and feed her the moment she awakened in the middle of the night, and turns out she was more than capable of going back to sleep.

Ever since that first night, she's been sleeping about 11 hours straight - from 8 pm until 7 am.  I'm really appreciating it!

Now that she wakes up at the same time every morning, we are on a very good routine every day.  She feeds 5 times a day, every 3 hours.

She's napping three times a day, for 45 minutes or more each time.  She naps in her crib or in her car seat if we are out and about.  If she's not in her car seat, she usually goes through a bought of crying (sans tears) before she can actually fall asleep.  Now that I know what's going on, it doesn't bother me.

Orelia is still a very happy baby who loves to smile at Mommy and Daddy.  She smiles at strangers or friends too, but she is happiest with Mom or Dad.

She has been developing her sense of humor recently, and will go through periods of 5 minutes where she finds something hilarious and will laugh hysterically if you keep repeating it.  Usually this involves me growling in her face and pulling away or perhaps bringing a puppet into her face and making it disappear.

She is becoming enamored with Harper and will now smile when she sees her.  It melts our hearts.

She has been rolling back to front for awhile now, and does it often during play.  She now consistently rolls from tummy to back, as well.  This makes enforced tummy time a little more difficult.

Singing to her, especially with hand movements, is a sure-fire way to make her content.  I am learning all kinds of new songs to entertain her.

She loves all her toys and stuffed animals.  She is learning how to play with toys in a way other than just sticking everything in her mouth.  She wags things around intentionally more for the fun of it before stuffing it in her face.

She can't sit up yet on her own, but she can sit up when leaning against someone or some thing.  She sits great in her high chair and loves to play up there as well as eat.

She probably still prefers to lay on her back to play and sometimes doesn't even need a toy to entertain herself.  I can plop her on a thick blanket on the floor in the kitchen and she will just roll from side to side and be happy.

She is becoming more and more vocal.  She has been making a noise recently which makes us refer to her as the Frog Princess. It's kind of a croak noise she does when she is very happy.  We love our loud little Frog Princess and are so happy to enjoy this precious time with her.