Lucky.

We got some terrible news from some friends of ours.  I dont want to elaborate much, but they lost their baby in the 6th month of a high-risk pregnancy.

I can't imagine how devastating this is for them.

I'm suddenly extremely grateful I was up half the night with a fussy but healthy baby girl.

A real-life conversation with my sister

Rikki:  We had a shootout in Picayune!

Me:  What?

Rikki:  We had a shootout!

Me:  Like, one person got shot?

Rikki:  No, three people.  Two of them died.

Me (still trying to figure out if it was a shooting or a shoot-out):  Did one person shoot them or were they all shooting at each other?

Rikki: Two of them were shooting at each other and one was an innocent bystander.

Me:  Did the innocent bystander die?

Rikki:  Yeah.

Me:  That's sad. Where was it?  The church parking lot?

Rikki:  No.  At the bent-can store.  They have really good chicken fingers at there at Alberts, but I haven't been back since the murders.

So, naturally I'm trying to figure out why two people were shooting at each other at the bent-can store, and simultaneously missing Mississippi because there is no place quite like it.

Mans Family Christmas

I can't believe the Em's first Christmas is already over!  I *might* have cried a little.  Told you my heart of stone was melted.

I also go back to work in less than two weeks, on Jan 9.  I'm supposed to be working at home some already, but I find it a lot more fun to play with my baby, who is growing way too fast for my taste.  

We had a wonderful holiday at home, stayed in bed until about 11 a.m. playing with our little one and then made a delightfully unhealthy brunch of orange sweet rolls, bacon, and scrambled eggs.  Yep, we used the bacon fat to season the eggs.  We had to wash it all down with large quantities of coffee, and, when that didn't do the trick, orange juice with tons of pulp. It took pretty much all day to open gifts, because the little one kept tuckering out.  For some reason, we were determined that she would be a part of the Christmas experience, which you can't do if you're snoozing. For dinner we had grilled NY Strips, smashed potatoes, green beans, and homemade chocolate chip/oatmeal cookies (yes, Amy that's your recipe!).  I didn't get out of my pajamas until it was time to go to bed, at which point I put on clean pajamas.  I'm not sure if I washed my face.  You will note that I'm not in ANY Christmas Day pictures!

I'm never going anywhere on Christmas again, at least that's my plan.  We're trying to figure out if we can get the entire family together every year for "Express Christmas", at least while we are still in Birmingham since it is a central location for everyone to meet up...We'll see I guess. I wouldn't mind having the madness of the family in town for a few days, and then enjoying our "just the three of us" Christmas Day. 

Here are some pics of our first Christmas at home.  Hope everyone had as wonderful a day as we did.

We did this for half the day.

The photo of the day:  Em sits in her high chair enjoying a book while Mom and Dad cook.

We spent the second half of the day digesting this:

Some asshole cat tried to take my breakfast...

Even after he got TWO new toys under the tree.  

The animals had just as good a day as we did:

Mr Homie doesn't look it, but he was WAY excited about his catnip-soaked sparkle balls from Santa.

Bells got a pillow pet.

Em had a fun day of napping and getting presents.

Her doll might be bigger than she is.

We got lots of fun stuff, but I had to add a photo of the antique diamond and emerald ring Rob got me!

It's from the 1920's, art deco style.  

I love how unique it is, and it goes perfectly with my engagement ring which is the same style and also from the 20's.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and that you ring in 2012 in style! Party hard for us-we'll be chillin with an 8 week old.  I'm so boring, because I wouldn't rather be anywhere else :)

Thanks to Abby...

...I have an adorable reindeer on my hands!

She sent us a package including this cute baby outfit and some yummy treats that are sure to get me off my track to health and fitness, considering I ate most of them as soon as the package arrived.

Of course I've been singing the Jack Johnson version of "Rudolph" to her all morning, since it sends  a message about bullying.  Can't start too soon I guess.  Plus, that version is cooler.  I'm not positive that Emerald likes my singing. After all those years of vocal coaching!  But she does like "The Pie Song" (the one from the movie "Waitress") and "Rudolph".

Anyway.

Thanks Abby-we miss you!

A Cappin' on Express Christmas

So.  My parents, Rob's parents, and Rob's uncle Gary all came to visit us.  We had some combination of them for 4 nights.  We took the opportunity to celebrate Christmas on Dec 16, which is hilarious to me because "Express Christmas" on "Modern Family" was Dec 16.  

Rob also got hooded, so now he is a doctor for realsies, not just in the pretend world of people that give a talk and magically become a doctor. Also, my grandmother refers to hooding ceremonies as "the cappin'".  As far as I'm aware no one was shot at graduation.

Photos!

 Steph came for Express Christmas Dinner.  

Em agrees with everyone else:  Steph is beautiful.

Merry Christmas from the family.

Em:  "It looks like Minnie Mouse.

I wanted a diamond encrusted pony."

Our First Christmas as "The Mans Family"

Might be a silver spoon, but it's still not a pony. 

Memere made a blanket to match Em's room.

The ladies.

 Christmas.  Sometimes you just gotta survive any way you can.

Even if it involves White Zin from the bottle.

"Wow, did you note how pretty I am?"

Already captivating a room full of men.

A winning moment with the Mans Family.

Gigi and Deets made the trip for Rob's cappin.

And so did Memere and T-Pa.

And so did Great Uncle Gary-though I think he needs a better nickname...

 Rob with his mentors, Ling and Lori.

Em's first two trips to restaurants.  First to Greek then to Japanese.

How worldly!

A moment with the Mans Family

This is us on the air mattress in Em's room.  All of us (except Bells) slept in here for 4 nights while we had 5 people staying with us.

Strangely, it was kinda nice to hole up in there all together. That being said, it's very nice for the house to be quiet and for me to know where everything is.  And I'm sleeping in my own bed tonight.

See the series of pictures below:

In other news, we had Rob's hooding ceremony Dec 17 and Christmas with both sets of parents on Dec 16 (Express Christmas, for those of you addicted to Modern Family).
Photos of that to follow!

Smile.

Here it is.

Emerald meets the cousins. And Santa.

It's the season of baby's first Christmas!  But first things first.  Our aunt and uncle Beth and Gary and their three beautiful girls came to town and we got to visit with them while they held the baby.  Thank God for having five extra people to hold the baby!

Jaimie holds her newest cousin.

Also, the newest cousin decided to take a giant crap at this time.

Gotta love babies.  They're the only ones that look cute while they crap.

Kaitlin gets acquainted. Look at her, professional with a burp cloth!

I never have one when I need it, thus I do 10! (that's a factorial) loads of laundry a week.

Ally holds the baby cousin.  

Also, Ally has that same kind of Christmas sweater my mom used to make for me.

Love. It.

Em isn't sure about Gary at first-but really she just needed new pants and some lunch.

Jaimie and Ally read to Em, "Jamberry".

I love how interested Em looks!

The beginning of an attempt at a timer picture of all of us.

We even captured Relay, the Mans Clan's dog!

Also, somehow I look tall.  Don't I?

And then we went to a Christmas party with them and Em got to meet Santa for the first time! She was in the middle of a meltdown, but stopped crying for five seconds to take the picture.  A December 10th miracle, I think.

And our tree is up and decorated. Plus, present wrapping ninja obviously came to town.

Mans Family=WINNING.

Baby Gremlin is 5 weeks old!

Em is five weeks old today.  I can hardly believe it-I now know what people mean when they say time speeds up when you have kids, though, the days were passing too quickly before I was a mom.

Emerald has learned to smile "on purpose", like when I make a funny face or noise, or when I touch her on the nose and say "beep!"  Yeah, I'm a real cheesy person now because these things are the highlight of my day.

We still have our challenges, that's for sure, but I feel like I'm finding my way the more I get to know her.  

We are certainly looking forward to her first Christmas, though it was taken THREE DAYS to get the tree, get it in the stand, and put lights on.  Maybe we can ask for an extension on Christmas this year.  No such luck, I guess, since our families are coming in ONE WEEK for Rob's hooding and to celebrate Christmas early. At least we don't have to travel anywhere.  I'm thinking we are done traveling on Christmas forever-I want Emerald to celebrate Christmas at home, and I'm excited for us to start our own Christmas traditions. For example, I tried to put on "Charlie Brown Christmas" for Em yesterday.  She can't see or understand it, but she does follow lights on the screen, and likes music.  She decided she'd rather look at the ceiling.  Then she needed changing.  But Bella decided it was a perfect setup:

Other pics from today:

Unimpressed by most things.

Hey pretty lady!  I'm trying to capture her "on purpose" smiles on camera.  No luck there.

Believe me when I say it's insanely adorable.

So is her "gremlin" face, which I also haven't caught on camera.

Is she pretty or what?

Decidedly bored with "tummy time"

We are working on it.