Celeste's 3rd and 4th week

Marcus likes to measure the kids every once
in a while…we keep the board in the closet
under the stairs.

Grammae and papa came for a visit and brought dinner for
all of us, after the initial rush of dinners-from-friends died
down.  It was greatly appreciated! 

At Mass we often play "Pass The Baby."  Eamon
and his family especially enjoy holding our
babies year after year!! 

(This green outfit is our "going home" outfit for each of the 5
other kids…for Celeste, it is an "already at home!" outfit….)

Command Central for November--lists of all the things that
mama does (and probably goes unnoticed!) that mama didn't
have time or energy to do.  Everyone pitched in to help!!
(The poster is down now since I'm "back to work" as they say.)

photo shoot outtakes

I'm so glad I took the birth announcement pics late last month, because poor gal has a raging case of baby acne right now!!!  :o(

I'm not a great/artistic photographer, and my camera is just generic.  But I love taking snapshots that show what's really going on, so that's what you have here.  Many thanks to Gemma for being my patient photo assistant:

Fall Music Recital

Earlier in November, the 3 oldest kids had their Fall Music Recital.

Bunny, James, and Mariposa take music lessons from Joan E., who has graciously agreed to drive to our house on Tuesday mornings.  This is the ONLY way I can manage weekly music lessons at this stage of my life!  Joan is a professional musician (voice/guitar/piano) and a parishioner at St. Juan Diego where she does music ministry.  She is a fantastic mix of "hard and soft"--meaning, she gives the kids hard assignments and holds them accountable, but she is also fun and has a great relationship with the kids.  She has even started giving Gemma 5-minute piano lessons (as you can imagine, Gemma loves the attention as well as the challenge).

On that Saturday night of the recital, Marcus left Sedric and Celeste with me (Celeste was only 1.5 weeks old and I wasn't up to such a long evening) and he took Gemma to a friend's house (THANK YOU Tess!!).  Marcus then took the 3 musicians out to dinner and they even got to spend some time at Barnes & Noble as well before heading out to the recital.

The kids did great.  I am so proud of them!  I am glad they had a fun time with their dad, too.  :o)

continuing with Celeste's 2nd week

The days are flying by!  Celeste is 4 weeks old today, growing like a weed.  As you can imagine, it's getting harder and harder to carve out time online--Celeste isn't sleeping "all the time" like a little newborn does, Marcus is back to work full time, and I'm back to running the household.  The blog posts will have to trickle in whenever I get time, which is OK because yes I am busy, but it is a good kind of busy!!!  Full, noisy house, baby in my arms, what's better???  :o)

Here are some more pictures that (I think) are from mid November:

Our new fireplace was installed the day Celeste was born…
kinda like how we had the sport court installed when Sedric
was born!!!  

We took Celeste in to the birth center for her
1.5 week checkup.  Gaining weight like a champ!

heel prick, ouch

stopped by Cabela's on the way home and got a prime
parking spot!!  (define "young"…)

my biggest helper, at least in the holding-baby category

Delicious meals kept coming in!!  We were so blessed!

how I get things done (using a sling right now,
as a matter of fact!!)

Illness hit our family, a little vomiting but
mostly just loss of appetite and lethargy.
Didn't hit me or Celeste, luckily.

birth announcement outtake

around the house, week 2

For Celeste's 2nd week I still stayed near the bedroom, but I was definitely up and about more.  At the 1-week mark, Marcus went back to work about 4-6 hours a day.  Most of this was in the morning, but he made sure the kids were fed before Mrs. N came to take over--so I still got to sleep in, which was important to me.  I started venturing downstairs in mid-morning and stayed thru lunch, then I took naps in the afternoon when Gemma and Sedric were also napping (so Marcus could work if he needed to).  We also had dance, RE, etc.  Big thanks to my in-laws for taking the kids to these places!!!  It took all our effort just to get the kids ready to go.  By the end of the 2nd week, I was feeling a lot better and spent most of my time downstairs.  But I still take my afternoon nap!!

Celeste's first trip: Marcus took her to Mariposa's
Little Flowers meeting so the leaders  (my friends
Fanny and Florence) could meet her. :o)

Thanks for the meal, Auntie Meghan!

chore time

random pre-baby Nov pics

I thought I would get these posted before moving on to more IMPORTANT topics…like more pictures of Celeste.  :o)

Ultrasound the day before Celeste was born (since I was officially
1.5 weeks overdue).  The monitor shows a head-down baby.
What happened???  ;o)

Grandma did a puzzle with the kids.

Grandpa was very impressed with this squash
from our neighbor Gene.

Being monitored the day of the birth…still no idea that little
gal was now head-up.

View from my window on birth day.  Apparently, it "takes
a village" to give birth to a baby.

more of Celeste's first week (Nov 4-10)

I finally uploaded the photos from my camera (as opposed to the photos from Bunny's camera, which Marcus uploaded and I shared).  Here are some cute ones of Celeste's first week:

First check-up with midwife Tracy (Penelope
is helping as well ;o) )

She looks like a little old man!  (All my babies do…)

Sedric's first attempt at FaceTime, with cousin Greyson
(it didn't go too well: Sedric was fixated on his OWN image
on the screen, hence the silly face).

watching TV in bed with my baby

my view

the new normal: daddy doing work :o(

All the kids are great, but Mariposa is my
biggest helper!

A typical room-service breakfast for the new mama.
(Have I said how awesome my husband is?)

Mariposa and I spent quite a lot of time in bed that first week,
sometimes watching shows (Amazing Race is on now).

Fr. Juan came to visit in between his travels.

Mariposa thinks she found a "sweet spot" behind Celeste's
ear, to make her fall asleep.  I will admit that it did work.