Leland: Why would you assume we'd post pictures of anything else?

Linsey took some photos of Leland today. I liked this one a lot.

By the way, the doctor said Leland's head is 17 inches in diameter. "Big," the doctor said, "but not off-the-charts big."

One day, Linsey let me watch Leland. This is what happened.

Rarity: Leland Video

Thanksgiving Plus

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving.

A random night before thanksgiving. Stephen got home from work just before Leland's bedtime so he could kiss her good night.

Leland and I at my parents house on Thanksgiving.

Stephen learned how to carve the turkey and he was very impressed with the electric knife.

Leland watches football with grandpa and dad.

Leland with her G.G. and second cousins.

Four generation picture

December 4th Leland Stephen and I went to the light parade downtown Trenton, which went right by our apartment.

It was fun because everyone watching the parade had these candles.

We did go to the Tait's over Thanksgiving but I neglected to take a single photo. Sorry Taits. I'll make it up tomorrow when we travel there just for the heck of it.

Leland is Three Months

Leland turned three months old on Friday. Time is flying. She is sleeping through the night which is wonderful! I put her to bed at 7 (we have a pretty particular bed time ritual that works like a charm) and she wakes up between 5:30 and 6:30. She takes pretty good naps and is a really good eater. She giggles a lot and looooves her daddy! For the most part she is one happy baby!

We are all settled in to our new place and really looking forward to the holidays!

November

Here are some recent pics.

This is from earlier today, just playing around with Stephen and I.

We live near a great park. We took a nice long walk in the fog yesterday morning. Here are some pics from that.

Be careful when eating fish out of the Detroit river.

Veterans Day

Many of the people I love most in the world have served in the U.S. Military: my dad, my brothers, my grandpas, my uncles and others.

The picture above happened because of the military.

Thank you for serving.

An Update

Hello strangers. Things are finally starting to settle down a little bit... just in time for things to get crazy again before the holidays. Anyway, we are all getting settled into our new place. Stephen has been working a lot. Right after he started the plant began a refueling outage, so he has been very busy. Leland and I are adjusting to life in our new neighborhood. The weather has been beautiful and we've been taking lots of walks. I'll be sure to bring my camera with me on one soon. Here are some recent pictures of what has been happening.

Leland at 2 months.

Leland at 2 months

Stephen and Leland at my moms

Halloween with her cousins

Yesterday at home... I love those little toothless grins!

Packing up

We are in the process of moving. Leland is lending help when she can.

Leland and Stephen

Scholar

Leland doesn't even have to not try in high school: she's already been accepted as a student to Central Michigan University. She got a letter in the mail today saying she's been accepted for the freshman class of 2028. It included a sticker.

She is way ahead of me.

Stephen and Leland

Go Big or Go Home

That's the way we like to do things here in our household, because having a new baby just isn't enough change for us. Stephen got a brand new job and we are going to move, and all by the end of the month. Some of the details of all this change are still a little fuzzy. Like where we are going to live for instance. We are trying to decide where exactly we want to move. I think we have it narrowed down to my old stomping grounds. Cities around Wyandotte. And I think we have decided we are going to rent for no more than a year so we can take our time looking for a house. But I'm so excited that buying a house is on the near horizon for us.

Stephen got a fantastic new job as a communications planner for Detroit energy company, DTE. He will be working at the Fermi 2 nuclear power plant in Newport, MI. This is such a great opportunity for him! We are both very excited. One of my most favorite things about his new job is that he'll no longer have to work on holidays! For the last four years one or both of us has had to work on Christmas. I know lots of people work on Christmas, but with our Boston family, Shanghai family, and Virginia family coming home it makes things so much easier.

In baby news, Leland is doing great! I love being a mom. It's so amazing to see how she changes everyday. She started smiling! That's fun for me. She's also had lots of quality grandparent time recently. We've been spending a lot of time at my parents while we try to decide where to live. And Hank and Mary and Christina came to visit twice last week. On Saturday Hank, Mary, Stephen, Leland and I went to the local winery to bottle some delicious wine. We had a blast.

Anyway, that is the latest and why the blog posts have been lacking. Also, does anyone know how the heck to get a movie from a Flip video camera onto blogger? It's been driving me crazy.

Here are some recent pictures of Leland with her Grandma Mary.

Leland is One Month Old!

Time sure does fly! Leland turned one month old on Sunday. The occasion was marked by mine and Stephens first time away from her. My parents babysat while I stood up in the wedding of one of my best friends and Stephen had to work. It's amazing to see how she has changed over the first 31 one days. It looks to me like somebody's eyes are getting blue and hair is getting red!

Leland and Linsey and Marian and Mary

We went for a walk Sunday morning. It was nice out. Linsey ripped her jeans when she fell on a curb. But she saved Leland from injury by twisting and falling onto her side. We had to take a couple minute break on this bench for Linsey to calm her nerves.

(Editors note: Stephen has a very strange sense of humor. I did not actually fall. Those jeans have a giant hole in them because they are really old and one of only two pairs of pants that I own that fit me. So no need to worry! I'm actually quite steady on my feet.)

When I came home from work, this is how I found the ladies. Leland woke up with a stuffy nose. I used a nasal aspirator to suck snot and slime from her ample nostrils. With the weather changing, I fear the stuff nose may only be the start of something worse.

It was the first medical procedure I've performed for her since cutting her cord.

This is Grandma Tait holding her 10th grandchild during a recent trip to Farwell. They both really seemed to like each other.

This is Great Grandma Wuepper holding her 5th great grandchild. They also got along swimmingly.

Two weeks

It's been two weeks. Kind of a blur! Today is my first day alone with the little bean. Right now she is sleeping. We spent most of this past week at my parents. It was awesome. We sat outside, ate good food, relaxed. Stephen got to golf, twice. (I'm a wee bit jealous) Plus, my parents have air, which was awesome. Yesterday my mom came over and we made a ton of soup to freeze and also froze a ton of tomatoes and other various veggies to use this winter. It was so ridiculously hot in our apartment! I can't wait for tomorrow when things are supposed to cool off a little bit.

This weekend we are going to Hank and Mary's. I can't wait. We haven't been there in forever and the weather is supposed to be perfect! I'm really really looking forward to it.

Leland with great grandma Furby

Taking a nap at grandma's.

Another nap :-)

I love her little grins :-)

One Week Update

So this time last week I was in the hospital waiting for my doc to come break my water. A quick 5 1/2 hours later Leland was here! It's weird seeing pictures of myself pregnant now that she's here.

This past week has been a good one. Our first night home from the hospital was a little scary. We were wondering why we didn't stay at the hospital a second night, but we were just two scared parents not really knowing what to do with this new little person. Anyway, we had the help of family all weekend, which was wonderful. Since Sunday night, Stephen and I have been on our own with the little bean and things are going great. We are trying to not just sit around the house. We take a walk everyday, and yesterday we even went to Meijer and Leland did great. She slept the entire time.

Tonight I think we might take a walk to "Rockin' the River" A free concert down along the river by city hall. The weather has been beautiful so that has been a blessing. It would have been a difficult week if it was 90 degrees and humid.

Anyway, here are some more pictures.

Some more Leland-related pics (if you can believe it)

Some of The Girl's family gathers 'round.

Leland with Grandpa Tait.

Linsey and Leland on the way to the Y, where Linsey turned in her time card. Under doctor's orders, Leland got some quality time with sun on her face; tomorrow we will walk to the farmers' market, which is actually in those white tents on the horizon, and buy some vegetables or fruit. Perhaps both.

Leland with cousins Alden and Cassie and Aunt Kim.

Leland asleep.

Leland asleep with Aunt Christina.

Leland asleep with Aunt Shelby