I won't go back too far - just to January 2016. Witness life according to our Amazon Cloud Drive.
We celebrated New Years by buying several fancy cheeses and consuming them. Also making family / pregnancy appropriate fondue. Yum.
Geneva and Aunt Jeanene and M and J visited Grammy so of course we went to see them! And of course no pictures. But Geneva adjusted my hips (amazing) and my 38 week fetus dropped into place. The next day they came down in spite of the giant snow storm (mad props to driving an hour in snowy road conditions to Geneva!) to attend my baby shower. I took them sledding after (they were kind enough to miss naps to play with us) and decided that sledding sounded like an adventure my fetus had to have in utero.. About 30 minutes later I had my first labor contraction and six and a half hours later....
Claire Eihblin Quillen was here! We tend to have babies at 9:59... Korrali was AM, Claire PM. They must be sisters or something.
Aww .
They didn't have a nursery so I got to watch all of the medical stuff and make friends with all the techs who did them. This particular test was a hearing test. It wasn't painful, I think Claire just was making a funny face. The tech had just come in from an early morning flight that had been delayed due to snow. She was happy to teach me that the ear microphones play waves of sound quietly and then the head sensors measure reaction. They each have a threshold that together tell us if a baby is hearing within normal boundaries. Its common for reaction time to differ between ears. If a newborn "fails" the first test, they are retested the next day before they leave.
After a few hours thinking Claire was destined for NICU and IV antibiotics and antivirals and a spinal tap, we got the go ahead to go home to our under-construction apartment. We were able to negotiate a stall to our construction and left the hospital. Then, we brought Claire home to sick family. We all took our turns wearing masks around her, and thanks to dinners from our ward and a few key days of 24hr help from our wonderful Grammy we made it through vomitous nights, diahhreal days without getting the newborn sick!
We were soo happy to finally have all our family able to be together and kiss each other at will.
I think Claire was happy too. Or gassy.
Korrali is a stellar big sister. She loves this new toy/ friend with all her heart.
I found her swinging the swing and singing rock-a-bye-baby. Once she was turning all the animals on this mobile sideways. I asked why, and she told me baby Claire couldn't see them so she was turning them to face her.
Other things have also been swung and played music to. They are always safely strapped in though.
First sibling bath. And last until Claire is bigger. Sometimes separate is better.
First outing together to the nearby playground. Claire was 2 weeks old.
We hiked around Garden of the Gods and K decided it was awesome because a friendly elderly employee at the visitors center gave her a free lollipop. The girl gets candy everywhere.
We got a zoo pass and pay regularly to feed giraffes.
I don't remember what we cooked but I do remember saying "ok, here is the flour you can play with!" Somehow not anticipating the 1/4 cup would turn into flour covering the counter, the girl, the chairs, the floor and still have almost as much again left in the bowl. Silly silly me.
One benefit of a newborn is that my busy girl has become even busier. She is flourishing. She has been growing and discovering at a rate I had not anticipated possible. She has made her own discovery bottles (with a flourish of soap, water and random household items), her own lunch (flourishing on interesting combinations of things from the fridge), learned to perform acrobatics on the couch (bowing with a flourish), found my make up and used it while going potty (it took her about 2 minutes to both go potty and find and use the lipstick). She also has done modern art all over the house. Somehow finding the full rolls of toilet paper that I've hidden, or received them on the assumption she needs to wipe herself after going potty (she finished potty training herself too...) and then unrolling them all and telling me it's art.
We got another deep snow - the deepest it had been in 10 years!
yes, yes I am that crazy woman who takes her 3 week old out in a snow storm. We. had. to. get. out.
And the bunny newborn snow suit was begging to be worn.
The snow was up past my knees, but had some tracks there where the snow was packed down a bit to allow for easier walking.
Gong Hay Fat Choy!
(it's the year of the Monkey)
I used to play barefoot in the rain, so I kind of chuckled when this happened.
We went to play during a spell of 60 degree and up weather and met a ferret.
