Right Now

Playing in the mountains of snow while waiting for the bus.

Similarities

Simon looks quite a bit like Isabella did--not just because of the funny hair.  Any guesses who's who?

Merry Christmas

We hope you had a wonderfully warm Christmas!

Right Now

These are photos of our apartment door that leads directly to the street.

Brian's calling it the Boxing Day Blizzard.  

The wind (40 mph gust) is blowing snow into our apartment around our doorframe--when the door is closed.  It's crazy!

Welcome Simon!

  Welcome Simon Albert Carini!!

Here are some more photos of our sweet little Simon.

Heading to drop the kids off at a friend's house and then the hospital.  Contractions were very light, but 2 minutes apart. I needed an antibiotic shot at least 5 hours before giving birth, so the doctor wanted me there as soon as possible.

Delivering Simon was a breeze as far as labor go.  He had a bit of breathing problems at first.  

He has Isabella's newborn hair.  

Right Now

Adoring my sweet new boy. He arrived quickly (8 hours of labor) with
very little drama at 3:46pm. He weighs 8lbs, 11oz.

P.S. I love epidurals!

Baby Boy or Basketball?

My official due date is Dec 11 (this Saturday!!), but as expected, it appears he probably won't arrive until next weekend.  From the beginning I tried to convince myself I have a longer gestation than the average woman (and actually told many people I was due Dec 18th), but now that I'm this big I can't help myself but hope he'll come sooner rather than later.

I just had an appointment with my wonderful doctor (who I love and trust) yesterday.  So for all you who might be wondering why not just get induced now, here are some reasons:

• My body isn't showing any signs of labor and so artificially inducing labor might not even work (and could lead to an emergency c-section).
• It is best for the body to do all it can on it's own and at this point only patience is required.
• I'm measuring smaller than I was with Oliver, so we are hoping he's not as big.
• My doctor (who came on call right as I needed to push Oliver out and I feel possibly saved his life) will be out of town this weekend but in the hospital next weekend.  For me, that alone is worth a whole week of waiting!

Isabella took this photo two days ago:  

Decking the halls

Tuesday night we went in search of the perfect little tree for our new perfect little apartment.  It was quite chilly and luckily we scored a beautiful, bushy evergreen without looking too hard; just three blocks away.  Right outside the American Museum of Natural History, of course!

We have done this two years now and I'm loving this new tradition.  I like to call it "tree hunting in the urban jungle".

A favorite photo...

What we are up to...

Since moving two weeks ago all of us have been sick or dealing with some other ailment on a daily basis.  It seems like the stress of moving combined with the season's germs have really hit us hard.  To sum it up: it's been really rough!  In addition to it being bitter cold outside the last couple of days we've all been house bums a majority of the last two weeks.  On the bright side, when Brian and I had a bit of energy we finished unpacking boxes, hanging frames on the walls, organized stuff, and made ourselves a cozy new home which we love.

Isabella requested that we make some cookies to take to our new neighbors.  We are so fortunate to have had great, amazing neighbors in our last place and now this place.  And since we now live in a ground floor apartment I stop myself from telling Isabella to not jump so hard, because the "neighbors downstairs".  What luxury!  :0)

So, here are a few photos from the last week of us being cooped up.  Oh!  And the highly recommended recipe I found for these delicious cutout cookies: Spicy Gingerbread Cookies.

"show me your eyes" is the only way to get a "smile" for the camera

 We made gingerbread cookies twice.  The first round (see photos above) went much better than the second (below).  Oliver did amazingly well the first time and then the second time he threw fits, ate dough (with raw eggs) and tossed flour everywhere.  But the second batch did taste better...

FYI: the mark on his chin was from a marker...not an open sore.