Monthly Archives: February 2009

Grandma Judy visit

Juliet napping with GrandmaGrandma Judy left yesterday after two-and-a-half weeks of visiting with Juliet and Claire. She was an incredible help, changing endless diapers, singing, strollering, chauffeuring Claire to daycare, delivering highly nutritious lattes to the nursing mother, helping introduce Juliet to our local shopping mall, stickering with Claire, and doing dishes every few minutes. Claire, her Dora stickers, and Grandma JudyClick on the photo below for a slideshow which includes Claire in her Valentine’s Day sweater at her Saturday morning KinderGym class, lots of pictures from around the house (including a rare artistic/linguistic shot of alphabet pasta), and finally Juliet’s first bath which was an impressive team effort involving three generations of bathing beauties: Judy, Katherine and Claire.

Juliet getting her first bath, with help from Grandma Judy, Katherine, and Claire

Happy Valentine's Day

Claire and Juliet want to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day. To celebrate, we’ve got some pictures of the past few days including Juliet’s arrival home, Claire opening the kid-sized guitar Juliet gave her as a thank you for being such a great big sister, Grandma Judy entertaining Claire, Juliet the lap baby with Grandma and me, and the girls’ first photoshoot together. Also this week Juliet had her first pediatrician appointment. She’s 20 3/4 inches (83rd percentile), 8 lbs, 1 oz (58th percentile), with a 36.5cm head (78th percentile). Click on the picture of the two of them in their heart-covered pajamas for a slideshow.

Juliet and Claire

Home from hospital

Katherine and Juliet came home yesterday afternoon. Everything went smoothly in the hospital, as Juliet ate and slept well while Katherine speedily recovered from the c-section. Like her big sister, Juliet had some jaundice and as a result spent time getting blue light phototherapy in an incubator in the corner of our room. With her velcro sunglasses on, stretched out on her back napping in the light, she looked like a comic book superhero having a day at the beach.

Claire came to visit Sunday.  She met her little sister and then took Katherine on a walk, including visiting a model train set down the hall in the Children’s Hospital. Other highlights included Stu bringing Peet’s lattes and pastries each morning (and once getting a small piece of the very outer layer of a cinnamon roll for his effort), and sharing a bottle of champagne on the last night to celebrate Juliet and an early Valentine’s Day. Grandma Judy helped out in many ways, entertaining Claire throughout the day, serving as chauffeur in both the car and stroller, and helping Stu with dinner each night. Click on the picture of Katherine and Juliet for a slideshow of pictures from  the hospital.

Juliet and Katherine at the hospital

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated Katherine’s birthday Sunday with lots of anticipation around our new arrival. There’s no sign yet of spontaneous rotation, so we remain on track for a c-section Thursday morning. In the meantime, we’re getting the new baby’s room set up, clearing to-do lists ahead of her arrival, thinking about names, charging camera batteries, and enjoying a final few minutes alone with Claire. Aunt Mona just left after an incredibly helpful five-day visit when she, among other things, taught us some tricks for homemade pizza, put together the new baby’s Ikea dresser which came in approximately 42,000 pieces, and baked Katherine a chocolate-with-cream-cheese-frosting birthday cake complete with 38 candles. Grandma Judy arrives tomorrow. We’ll post updates as we have them, so check back Thursday.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures to whet your appetite, starting off with a visit last weekend to see our friends Kaya/Kelley and their son Thaylo and ending with the only naked belly shot from today’s backyard photo shoot that Katherine would let me publish. Click on the fire hazard photo below for a slideshow.

Katherine blowing out the candles in her birthday cake