Tempest in a Teapot

Um, well, the last couple of years, I’ve done month by month recaps because we traveled so much. I didn’t do all that much traveling this year. In January, I took my last trip in Europe - I went to Paris with Gwen & Stephanie for a weekend. We had a wonderful time.

February, we left Germany and arrived in Seattle! Moving was hard, and I felt pretty rotten through most of it. We had hoped to rent, but weren’t able to find anything so we ended up buying. (If only we had waited 6 months when the housing markets crashed!) We weren’t able to close until the end of March, so we moved into base housing down at McChord. My parents were gracious enough to keep Sophie for two months, and even let me fly home for a week to visit her.

April 1st, we found out why I had felt so awful since we had arrived in the US: I was pregnant! (Eeeeek was my primary response.) It really threw us for a loop & changed ALL our plans. For the good, of course. The next few months were spent in a tizzy trying to get ready for Baby M’s arrival. I was really sick most every day and was pretty darn miserable. Being pregnant was NOT fun. A bright spot was heading home to Texas for Erica’s wedding to Chris in May. It was great to see them & be part of their special day. It was also so much fun to see Kristen & Braydon! And Erica & Mom were so sweet to throw me a baby shower while I was there.

I’d write more, but I am *so* tired and need to wind it up. Madeline will be awake sooner rather than later and I like to get a few hours in before she gets me up.

Older Recaps:
2007, part 1, 2007, part 2
2006, part 1, 2006, part 2

We had a great day here at the house - who knew a 3 month old could rate so many gifts?! Here she is with about 1/5 of her total haul:

She was a little overwhelmed and had to go down for her nap shortly after I took this picture. But she enjoyed playing with her new toys, I think. She’s getting so much more interested in things all around her. It’s so much fun to watch her have new experiences. She has just discovered her head, which cracks J & I up every time she reaches up & feels it with both hands. Don’t worry, kid, we know it feels big - you’ll grow into it!

In the spirit of trying to simplify all our lives, our families had decided to stop giving each other stuff we didn’t really need and only get gifts for the kids. [And lest Erica & Chris feel left out, Sophie decided that “kids” included her cousins Mac, Stewie & Bentley, so she sent them a box full of fun treats. I hear they loved it!] The simplifying bit was a great idea. I had fun shopping for the dogs & my nephew, and it wasn’t stressful. No one feels like they have tons of money right now, so it was good to be more frugal in that sense as well. J & I got a few smallish things for each other. My awesome husband even got me the Mamma Mia dvd, knowing he’s going to have to sit through it as I belt out the tunes. That’s TRUE LOVE, people. He’s the best.

I wrote a little bit on this blog about how I was struggling with motherhood awhile back. My birthing experience was less than ideal and really I was NOT thrilled to have this squalling infant after everything I had been through. And it’s not something people talk about - these weird feelings & emotional highs/lows/freakouts that a woman goes through after giving birth. Let alone having to recover from a major surgery while surviving on little to no sleep! But then the greatest thing happened: I got emails from half a dozen different women who said not to feel alone. They had a hard time, too.

It meant the world to me to hear from them. These are women who I KNEW were fantastic moms. I had seen them in action! They were who I wanted to be someday. And they opened up about their difficulties, emotional breakdowns and feelings of disconnect. They had felt the same way I was feeling right then. Every single one said it would get better. And you know what?!

THEY WERE RIGHT.

So, thank you, ladies. Your willingness to talk about your struggles helped me so much. I will not hesitate to share my story with another woman who may be having trouble coping either - because you all were willing to talk to me and expose your own weaknesses to help me cope with mine.

It has gotten better, incredibly so. Madeline is a constant delight to me now - even when she’s wearing her crankypants. I’m sure life as a parent will continue to be a challenge, but all I can say is BRING IT ON. I think I’m ready.

A big thank you to Nana & Papa Lucci for the portrait session at Kiddie Kandids. It was a very thoughtful Christmas gift. (My sister Kristen said the one thing she wished she’d done with B was have more pictures taken - very good advice!) J was out of town when we had these taken, unfortunately, so we’ll have to have some more taken sometime soon.

Madeline turns three months today - wow!

It’s Barney time!

We woke up to a beautiful morning - with lots and lots of snow! It really is gorgeous, but pretty darn cold. *brr* J took this photo out of our upstairs window. We even bundled up Madeline and took her out for a quick photo. Her eyes teared up from the cold in just the few minutes we were outside.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving with my parents here. Mom & Dad even babysat so J & I could go see the newest James Bond movie! (my friends know my deep & abiding love for all things Bond - yes, I’m a dork) Daniel Craig is certainly a fantastic Bond, but the writers really just need to lighten up a bit. Ok, we get it: he’s conflicted! he’s emotionally wounded! Now ease up already. Give him a couple of throw away lines, at least.

Hmn. What else? Madeline is already 13 pounds, 10 ounces. I went to a mom’s group at the hospital this week and got to weigh her. It was nice to visit with some other moms, too. Madeline’s been really interested in everything around her, which is great, but it means she’s not really interested in napping so much these days. SIGH. I just need to suck it up since she’s only going to be little once and I need to enjoy it while it lasts! She’ll be a crabby teenager in no time.

We got our tree up last weekend and a few lights outside too. I love decorating for the holidays, so much fun. I <3 Christmas! It was great fun to unpack all the ornaments we collected in Germany - glass blown Santas. And of course we have a “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament too (thanks, mom!). I’ll try to get a picture of the tree up, it looks really nice.