Super Update

I know, I know, I'm way behind and we've been so busy! So this is going to be a long post full of lots of pictures to catch you up on the last couple of weeks.


When we found out about Bella I was so excited, but also kind of worried about having my maternity leave in the middle of winter. However, It has been a surprisingly beautiful few weeks. We've been able to get outside and enjoy the weather which has really made it the perfect maternity leave. Even with all this incredible weather there have been some super cold days. But don't you fear, we are totally prepared with our new Pink Bear outfit, thanks to Pat. This little coat set is so cute that every time she wears it I giggle for hours. Here's the best picture we have of it so far, she's making a funny face which makes it all the more cute!





















At the beginning of February, Eric had to leave for 6 days to attend the annual GCSAA trade show in New Orleans. He even got a hotel room ON Bourbon Street. Before Isabella got here I was so jealous that he was going to go to New Orleans. It's been ages since I've been there and I wasn't 21 yet so I've never experienced the full effect. But, since Bella arrived, The jealousy shifted, now I was so jealous that he was going to get 6 nights of uninterrupted sleep. Ah, how one's priorities change.

Anyway, I digress, I was worried about long nights and days without him so I called in reinforcements, Eric's mom, Connie, came to visit for a week and help out with Bella. She arrived the Thursday before he left and insisted that Eric and I plan a much needed date night. We hit the town that Saturday for 3 hours. We had a lovely dinner at Genovese and then drinks at the Red Lyon. It really was wonderful! Here we are all cute and ready for a night on the town. Connie was really proud of us because we managed to stay out without calling home several times.
















Eric then headed off to New Orleans and as they say...When Daddy's away the girls will play. We had a fun filled week with lots of adventures. Bella and I had some standing dates with our new playgroup buddies. Here we are enjoying (well, more like hating) some tummy time.
















The beautiful weather took Mimi, Bella and I downtown a couple of days during the week and we were able to walk around and visit some of our favorite stores. Here is Bella's first trip with Mimi to The Bayleaf, Mimi's favorite store!
















And then lunch at The Mad Greek. Grandpa Ric was able to join us for a bit here and I've gotten so comfortable with nursing that Bella was able to have lunch at Mad Greek too!
















On Friday J.P. drove down to join us for a couple of days and check out the new Condo they just bought. Connie spent several days furnishing and decorating so it would look like home when he got here. Her work really paid off, it's beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take pictures of it. She mostly worked on it when Bella and I were out with our playgroup friends. Here's Bella really studying her Grandpa Boom. She's not so sure she wants to learn about the Boomer Sooner song.

















That evening we had a fantastic dinner at Bambino's where Mimi tried to give Bella a Canoli. Too bad I wouldn't let her, they were AWESOME Canoli's.

















The next morning we went to one of the best breakfast joints in town, Mirth. Eric and I love this place so we always take family when they come to town. It's so good it's starting to get popular which has its advantages and disadvantages. Anyway, any time you want to go to Mirth just let us know, we'll join you!

















Grandma and Grandpa Boom then went shopping for some more Condo stuff so Bella and I headed to the Averill's to watch the KU game. ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK! sorry, just had to throw that in. Here's Bella talking to Nanna and Poppie.





















The other fun thing about going to Che Averill, is we get to see my dog Joey. He's living with Nanna and Poppie for a bit so the cats, Eric and I can adjust to Bella. We'll add him back into the mix sometime in March. I'm not quite sure how it will go but I think it will all be fine in the end. I'm really starting to miss that dog!

Here it seems Bella is not too happy with the attention Poppie is giving Joey.
















Now Joey's not so thrilled to see the attention go back to the baby.
















It's okay Bella, We can't possibly lose to Mizzou! (That's why we don't believe Nanna when she talks sports. Better luck next time)
















Well, That about covers our adventures the first week in Feb. We REALLY missed Daddy but Bella and I got through it. We also starting getting really good at nursing discreetly in public and it's really helped get us out more. Now I only have one week left before I go back to work and as much as I love my job (which is a ton, I'm really lucky) I'm dreading leaving my beautiful baby. My only comfort is that she's home with her Daddy and Eric couldn't be more excited about his leave. He may even start posting!!

~Trish

Uncle Jonesy's House of Bangs, Nails and Cigars

Late Breaking News: Isabella had a quick Dr's apointment last Wednesay and is up to 8lbs 9oz!

Now Post Time:
I've been excited about that title all week! We had a fantastic time last Thursday evening with friends and family. First up we had a visit from my Aunt Pat and my Granny Sook (Mom's sister and mom). Isabella was overjoyed to meet one of her Great Grandmothers and her Great Aunt Pat. We were also excited to show off the house which Granny had not been to yet and previously referred to as the Sin Den when we were "Living in Sin".

















In addition to all the excitement of seeing family we finally got to sit down and take a picture with the three of us. This is the second picture we've taken in six weeks. We really need to break out that tripod.


















After their visit and a bath we headed over to the Jones household for the evening. It was great for Bella to meet Grandma Judy (yes she will probably be confused for a while about how many grandma's, aunts, and uncles she actually has) And to spend some time with Evey and Adro while the boys enjoyed a cigar on the porch.
















We did have a run in with Giant Elmo (for more details on Giant Elmo see the Especially Evey blog) But all ended well when he decided to cuddle instead of eat my baby.

















Then the best part of the evening, I got out of my first baby nail trim. Somehow I convinced Seth, who by the way has taken on the daddy grooming responsiblities quite well, to trim Bella's nails for her. He did an excellent job and I would highly reccomend his services. I do hold out faith that Eric will pick up a few tricks from him and learn over time.


















So it was a delightful evening with friends and family and we've been hermits since. This weekend we spent our time cleaning the house and getting Eric ready to head for his annual trade show in a week. Bella and I are bummed that he'll be gone but we have Grandma Connie coming to help us out. Not only will she be closing on her new fab Lawrence Condo but she'll aslo be doing some serious middle of the night baby rocking. Be prepared Connie, I'm currently typing this at 4:21 in the morning because she's not too keen on the sleeping right now!

~Trish

Champion Weight Gainer

Our girl is doing great! She is gaining weight like a champ and getting even more beautiful by the day. We had our 1 month baby well visit last Friday and she was already up to 7lbs 11oz. I bet she's 8lbs already at the rate she's going. Hopefully that belly will get big enough soon that she doesn't have to eat every two hours in the middle of the night!

Here she is at the Dr's office with her Daddy, the Dr. confirmed our solid belief that she is indeed perfect!

















In fact, here's the belly shots to prove she knows good eats, She can even recognize Daddy's beer belly.

















The ultimate challenge: Beer belly vs. Milk belly!






















Just kidding Eric! You have a very handsome and well tuned Daddy Belly! Mommy's is getting back into shape too, although I still have that funny pregnancy line which is not even straight, I found that ironic since I can't draw a straight line even with a ruler, apparently neither can my body.

So as you'll be able to tell by these next pictures, We may have found our first babysitter. Here's Maurice making sure everything is alright, or being really mad that his attention and sun spot have been usurped. But he doesn't seem to angry. Don't worry mom, we won't really leave the baby with the cat!

















I've been trying out the pacifier and so far she doesn't really care one way or the other. I bet it will come in handy in the next couple of months, I'll keep you updated. So no big questions at the moment. Now we're just waiting for that first intentional smile, She's been smiling in her sleep for a while and has even had a few reflexive smiles while awake but we're still waiting for the smile that's on purpose. I have a feeling once she starts smiling, she's not going to stop!

~Trish

Our First Month!

Yesterday Bella hit the one month mark. I can't believe how time is flying, especially with still getting up 4-5 times a night! So here's a bunch of pictures to show you what we've been up to this month. Above is a nice artsy photo of Isabella, Daddy likes taking these....a lot... Daddy also likes playing Guitar Hero, here's a great shot of my father and Eric playing a round while Nana holds Isabella. Where am I you may ask? Taking full advantage of not having a baby in my arms and doing chores. Oh the sweet life!


















We went to visit Eric at work but those pictures are on another camera so this is the one I have of the cute outfit I planned to take her to GCSAA in. It's says Daddy's girl, however, during one of our diaper changes the pants were an innocent bystander to a drive by pooping. We then switched to the cute green sweater she's been going out in a lot. It was made by Beth Deringer and we've had more compliments on it then I can count. Thanks Beth.

















Last Friday we took full advantage of the beautiful weather and took a short trip downtown. We first stopped into Salon Di Marco so I could get my bangs trimmed (No Eric YOU MAY NOT TRIM MY BANGS) Perhaps I'll let him have a try at Bella's when she gets older, I hear Jonsey has become quite the Daddy hair cut artist, I suppose he can teach Eric a few tricks. Here is Isabella with my Stylist and friend Tara, Then us at Lunch at Vermont street BBQ. It was fun but I spent most of the time worrying about whether or not she was hungry, odd since she slept right through it. While discussing Vermont Street BBQ I need to give a shout out to the Mac and Cheese Bites. Wow, I loves me some mac n cheese bites, if you've never had them, fix that problem pronto.


















Later that night we heard Jack was in town so we headed down to Johnny's for a bite and some socializing. Jack and Brenda didn't know we had a baby so it was a pleasant surprise. Isabella slept the whole time which was amazing since it was so noisy. But we got some great time with Jack as well as with the Jones family.
Here are the boys having a beer and holding a baby.

















Evelyn got to meet Isabella, She was pretty curious but a little more interested in the task of putting as much marinara on her cheese stick as possible before it got to her mouth. It's okay, They have plenty of time to become best friends and then fight over Grey!
















A Jones Family portrait.... with our baby as well!

















The Girls

















In addition to these outings, I've started going to a couple of support/play groups with Bella. It's been great to meet more mom's and babies. The groups have been really fun and a great way to let my social butterfly out of the house. Yesterday we took a picture of all the babies to look back on in a couple of months. I'll try to get a copy and post it on the blog. Isabella was the smallest, she's so petite!

Here's another Eric Arsty photo, Isn't she perfect!






















We started a bottle a few nights back, we're adding one every other night to start getting her used to it. She's done a fantastic job and did a full feeding the other night. Here is Daddy's first time feeding the baby. He loved it (I on the other hand had to stand in the background and hide my tears, It was weird letting someone else feed her, although it will be very nice in the future)

















So that's what we've been up to this first month. She still hasn't quite worked out her days and nights so I'm up every two hours or so, last night she did a 4 1/2 hour stretch which was great. Hooray for 3 hours of sleep in a row.
I'm currently researching and talking to people about the use of a pacifier, I haven't decided if we're going to give her one so if you've got any tips let me know.

~Trish

Christmas!

Christmas a.k.a December 25th was Isabella's actual due date but Eric and I were thrilled that she decided to make her Debut eleven days early. Not only were we assured the tax break (Hooray for the gov-ment shellin out money for little ones) but we also got to have Bella here to celebrate the holidays with us. It was truly a wonderful day, since Isabella was still a mere 11 days old we kept everything really low key. We went to my parents for Christmas morning, home for a nap, and then back to the folks for Christmas dinner and movie night. It was the perfect way to spend Bella's 1st Christmas.

Here she is with her first stocking, It's good to begin her Jayhawk education early.






















The Averill tradition inckudes stockings first and the stockings themselves are truly something. We stuff them full of as much useful crap as possible until they overflow. This is vastly different then the Neuteboom tradition of well thought out gifts in the stocking. Here is Eric's first true immersion in the Averill stocking.






















Eric also spoiled me rotten this Christmas. Here I am with my beautiful pink sapphire past, present, future necklace he gave me in honor of Bella and our amazing life together.

















Now the necklace was something but it doesn't hold a candle to this next present.. A BABY LEASH!!! Now Eric knows how strongly I feel about the utter nonsense of this particular product ( sorry to anyone that "walks" their baby, You may hate me now) So this was almost the best gag gift of the morning. It was beat only by a little British gift from my bro that is so bad I can't even talk about it on the blog.

















Ahh family, It was a wonderful day ending with National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, a roast for dinner and Bella snuggling with her Averill Grandparents. We couldn't ask for a better Christmas.
















~Trish

We're wide awake

So it's 2:30am and we are wide awake. And by we I'm using it in the royal sense for princess Bella here. I told you I'd be writing in the middle of the night. Anyway, sorry about the lack of updates for a bit, We've been adjusting to Bella's schedule which is pretty much whatever she feels like doing we do. But things are going really well. She's already up to 7 some odd pounds and growing like champ. She's so beautiful as you can see below. So what have we been up to you may ask? Pretty much just hanging around our house and the folks house. We have yet to venture into public since it's cold and flu season and she's still so little! However, we think these next couple of weeks we may leave the house for short store trips and such.

First installment: Cute pics of Bella and Friends.

This first picture is one of Eric's artsy photos.






















Over the Holidays our friends Cari and Phil came up from North Carolina via Wichita for dinner and to meet Bella. It was so great to see them. Bella was even awake for company.


















One very special part of this year's Christmas was having my brother and sister-in-law home for the holidays from England. Bella was very excited to meet her Uncle Willie and Aunt Lucy.






















It was so fun to see all these folks. Up next.... Christmas pics.

~Trish