Stern no more!

Jeremy was showing a few pictures of Clara to one of his classmates, and her first reaction was, "Hmm, she looks pretty stern." We think this picture proves otherwise! (Maybe it's the too-small hat.)

5-Y

Last Friday marked the end of our fifth year of marriage, a momentous event we marked by actually leaving the house--together! Without Clara! (All of our "together" outings in the last three and a half months have either been trips to the pediatrician or excursions to the grocery store, in which I go inside the store and Jeremy and Clara cruise the parking lot.) Our neighbor, Ericka, who's in our ward, came up to watch Clara, and Jeremy and I braved the elements to go out to dinner for the first time in months. We had a great time; we ate at La Cena, which is billed as "creative Latin American cuisine," and I braved the Paella, which was really...something. I don't know why I insist on being quite so adventurous on the rare occasions we get to eat out, but I think I knew I'd crossed some kind of invisible boundary when this huge dish was set in front of me, full of shellfish and sausage and shrimp (which I'd expected) and also featuring four alarmingly large whole calamari. Wowzers. To prove what a good sport I am, I speared the smallest of the four and ate it, chewing thoroughly. Not to be out-done, Jeremy chose the second-smallest and went to town. The remaining two I stuffed into an empty mussel shell and buried in some uneaten rice. My adventurousness only goes so far.

While our anniversary outing was both pleasant and memorable, I'm more grateful for the countless other moments that comprise our five years together. We've certainly experienced a lot of life together in a relatively short time, as my mom says, yet I can't imagine anyone else I would rather have shared those experiences with. Here's to many more years of contentment and joy, made deeper and more poignant by the occasional sorrow.

Let It Snow!

Syracuse has been on the news quite a bit lately, mostly taking credit for the snow everyone around us has been getting. But finally we've gotten our just desserts! Over the past 24 hours we've received more than a foot and a half of snow, making even the most basic things--like getting into our car--quite difficult. Jeremy snapped the following pictures before trudging out to dig our poor car out of the snow. What a wintery world!

The view of our parking lot from our front porch.

Our own little snow canyon.





The real challenge: getting rid of the voluminous snow piled up behind our car--thanks, neighbor!

How Comforting...

Clara is an extremely good-natured baby, which means that so far my anxiety and neuroses have yet to impact her negatively. Good for us! For the last several nights, we've put Clara down for the night groggy yet awake, and with nary a peep she puts herself to sleep. All she needs is a pacifier, and if she spits that out she manages to comfort herself with her fists. As you can see in this picture, a sleepy Clara likes to comfort herself by sucking on one hand and playing with her hair with the other (it also helps if she's within range of her favorite crib toy, Tu-tu Chew). What a tender baby!

Aside from Clara's sleep habits, life is plugging along much as it ever does in our house. Last week I discovered a great used bookstore not too far from home called Books End. I only had a few dollars and a few minutes, but I can see myself going back again and again. Books are a definite weakness.

Syracuse has gotten a decent amount of snow in the last week, but we're about 15-20 miles outside the weather you've been hearing about on the news. Some places north of us have had nearly 11 feet of snow in one week! It makes our 12-18 inches seem downright paltry by comparison!

Clara's Room

We finally put some finishing touches on Clara's bedroom. I still have a few other things I'd like to do over time, but at least it now feels like her bedroom! Clara especially enjoys having her name spelled on the wall--just ask her!

Playtime!

We had an unused gift certificate to Target and decided to get Clara this swell play gym, primarily because we are always on the lookout for something to distract her for even a few minutes from the fact she is not being held! We have met with only minor success, meaning that she still prefers playing face to face than entertaining herself. She doesn't mind lying on the floor with nothing around her, and she actually seems to enjoy the bouncy seat I borrowed from a friend. The jury is still out on the play gym, but perhaps she'll grow to love it.

In other news, Clara is up to 11 pounds, 12 ounces as of January 30. You grow girl! :)

Daddy's Girl

This picture is from back just before Christmas, but it shows Jeremy at his happiest: when he's holding his little Clara! Jeremy is back in school now--this is the first full week of classes--and pretty much the first thing he wants to do after his long day is snuggle with Clara. I think she enjoys it, too!

We have finally gotten our winter weather in Syracuse: lots of snow and cold but very little sunshine. Clara and I think this is fine, as it helps us to maintain our milky complexions (some might call us pasty, but we resist that label).

This second picture shows one of Clara's favorite pastimes: staring at the ceiling. There's no accounting for taste...

Then and Now

Jeremy and I can barely remember Clara as a teeny tiny baby. When we brought her home from the hospital just under two months ago, she weighed 5 pounds, 2 ounces, which we thought was an impressive gain from her lowest weight of about 4 pounds, 2 ounces a few days after her birth. We did not understand what impressive weight gain was back then! Yesterday, after returning from a drive around town we decided to snap a picture of Clara in her carseat. What a difference two months (and more than six pounds) makes!

Mommy and Me

Jeremy decided that yesterday was the perfect opportunity for a mother-daughter photo shoot. We'd just returned from Clara's first brunch (an important milestone for all babies) at our friends Ryan and Emilee's house, where we were wonderfully and blissfully overfed. Clara spent the event sleeping in her carseat in their guest room, since she is still under relative-seclusion orders from her pediatrician. At any rate, we had a happy morning--evidenced by the near-smile on Clara's full face!

Clara's Shots

Our home health nurse visited the other day (a county service for babies who spent more than two weeks in the NICU), and Clara's new weight is 10 pounds, 3 ounces. For a little girl who started out so tiny, she has certainly worked hard to catch up to her full-term peers! I have a feeling that by the time she is three months old on February 4, she'll be too big for her 0-3 month clothes. Who would've thought?

Enjoy these pictures of Clara's post-immunization trauma. Poor baby.

Retrench!

As a modern nod to the classic Pioneers in Petticoats, Jeremy and I have declared our intention to retrench in 2007 (having an expensive hospital stay and a tiny income also contributed to our decision). Part of our retrenchment includes my goal of dividing sometimes cumbersome household duties over several days so as not to feel backed up and overwhelmed (some may remember similar strategies during our "Vigorous Living" stage).

So now, the days of my week are divided as follows:

• Monday: Makin' Bakin'--this is the day I bake bread and other tasties.
• Tuesday: TCB--this is the day I "Take Care of Business" by paying bills, filing, and managing other household elements.
• Wednesday: Wild Card Wednesday--this is my day off, which means that other than taking care of Clara and showering, I can do whatever my heart desires.
• Thursday: A Day for Laver--taken from the French verb meaning "to wash" (pronounced lah-vay), this is the day we do laundry and ironing.
• Friday: Freewheeling Friday--this is the day I go out on the town to get groceries, go to the library, etc. Jeremy has no morning obligations on Fridays, so he can parent Clara while I roam Syracuse.

On Saturday, we divide household chores and enjoy one another's company (and Jeremy usually reads for school). And of course Sunday is the Day of Rest, so we go to church, play games, and talk to family on the phone.

So far, our cry of Retrench! has been going pretty well. We're trying to make the most of our resources, which takes a lot of creativity. But if there's anything we enjoy, it's fashioning solutions to seemingly difficult tasks. Carry on!

Winter in the Northeast

When Jeremy and I moved to Syracuse on May 31, we encountered one of the warmest days of the year: hot, oppressively humid, and almost intolerably sunny. But of course, this is upstate New York, so despite the heat people almost immediately began to tell us that we'd never survive the winter. (Why anyone would assume that two people most recently of Montana wouldn't be able to survive the cold and snow is another question for another day.) At any rate, the summer and fall passed with many an ominous warning about "lake effect snow" and the other horrors of winter in the Northeast.

And of course I believed everyone--and why not? NOAA lists the average snowfall in Syracuse at over 100 inches, so lake effect obviously affects life up here. But, courtesy of El Nino, we have joined the rest of the east coast in enjoying unseasonably warm weather. In fact, when the mercury rose to 62 degrees this weekend, I couldn't help but remark to Jeremy that this winter is more reminiscent of winter in California than any other place I've lived. Sure, we have more than our fair share of gray, rainy days, but overall it's been a pleasant winter.

No doubt my enjoyment of this mild winter will be short-lived, as the snow can't stay away forever. In the meantime, I'll keep my parka in the closet and enjoy whatever I can of these waning mild days.