My Web Celebrity

Last fall people from the graduate office here at UMass came around and were taking pictures and having several of us MBA students pose for some pictures. They were taking a bunch of photos to be placed on the new updated website. Recently the new site was launched and, surprise, my picture was on two of the newly redesigned pages! Click here and here to see them. On the first one I am on the right in my Boston sweatshirt. The second one is harder to tell, and you may just have to trust me. But it is at the bottom, on the left of the group of 3 pics. I am the one in blue in  the back. The picture is from our intramural soccer team, MBA United. Last year we finished a disappointing 2-3, but this year we are looking to make some significant improvements and make it into the post-season tournament. The games start this Thursday!

Also, this past summer while I was interning at the museum in Sarasota, I helped some with the new website that they were working on. While I was working there I took several pictures some of which made it onto the website, including one that I am in, click here to see. I wanted to close this little post with something witty, but after trying to think of something for some time, I came up with nothing...

Claire's First Walk

The weather is FINALLY starting to warm up a bit. I've been waiting for spring since October. We took Claire on her first walk last week. I've taken her for two walks this week, and it was almost 60 today! We have a great little trail not to far from our home. I like it because it goes through this interesting swampy/woodsy/lakey area where there are lots of trees and wildlife. Its also nice that there are just enough people on the trail that its still relatively quiet, but you know there would be someone else around it some creepy guy were to meet up with you on the trail (am I the only one who worries about stuff like that, Casey thinks I'm weird).

This is evidence of the wildlife in the area. You can see lots of trees that the beavers are working on. You can also see their dams. Casey and I actually saw one last fall, but we haven't see any yet this spring. Just lots of ducks.

Casey sporting shorts, although it really wasn't all that warm that day.

Haircut!

So I decided it was time for a change. I have been growing my hair for about two years, and it has started to bug me. Sunday I decided that this was the week that I would get it cut. I wanted to donate my hair to Locks of Love, so I knew that a lot was going to be cut off. But I like big change anyway.

The frugal person inside of me went digging through our collection of coupons and I found a $10 off coupon to a local salon. So I got an appointment for this afternoon. I had Casey take a few pictures before I left.

Here is my new do. It will take a little getting used to, but it feels very light and free. It is perfect for the warmer weather coming up.

This is the hair that they cut off, it is about 14 inches!

Saint Patrick's Day

In celebration of St. Patrick's Day, we all dressed up in green and took a family picture.

Claire also celebrated with a nice little Mohawk.

Finally a picture of Claire taking a break before getting ready for bed.

Baby Bills

I think we have all the bills from Claire's birth. Here is the breakdown:

Doctor's Fees: $3,600.00
Hospital Stay: $6,866.40
Anesthesiologist: $2,090.00
Total: $12,556.40

What we have to pay: $0.00

We are so blessed to have such good insurance through UMass. We haven't paid one penny for the doctors for me or Claire. Now if only they covered diapers....

Just out of curiosity, if you want to share, how much did you have to pay for your babies? I'm sure the next one won't be free, so I'm wondering how much we can expect to pay out of pocket.

Happy Pi Day!

For those of you who did not know, today was Pi Day. Pi, in math is 3.14 and then a series of never-ending digits. Ever since my days in high school my math and science teachers have made a point to celebrate March 14 (3/14) as Pi Day. Alas, I was not able to procure any pies in celebration, I just ate a few muffins instead.

But I thought I would post some new photos of Claire to celebrate! She is growing so fast, and has outgrown a few of her outfits. At the doctors appointment that Suzy mentioned in the previous post Claire measured at 21.5 inches, 8 pounds 9 ounces. Those measurements put her in the 50th percentile height wise and between 25th and 50th percentile weight-wise, so she is taking after her parents, tall and skinny.

Her is Claire with a funny smirk that she has been perfecting lately.

Suzy and Claire relaxing on the couch.

After a few hours at the library today doing research I came home to this, Claire and Suzy asleep on the couch together.

This is the outfit that Claire will be wearing to Church tomorrow, her first time with the bow/headband.

Self-soothing

We went to he pediatrician yesterday and we mentioned that Claire will only fall asleep if we rock her to sleep. She told us it wasn't too early to let her try to teach herself to fall asleep without us, and by our next appointment (in a month) she could hopefully be sleeping through the night. I decided to try it yesterday when we got home for a nap. Claire usually will cry and fight sleep until you finally rock her and get her really asleep. I put her in her swing when I knew she was tired and she cried for about 10 minutes and fell asleep. It was only a short nap, but I think it helped her to get the idea. Last night I put her in the swing right after nursing when I knew she was tired, but she was still awake. She slept from 10:30 to 6:00 this morning! I was so surprised. I had no idea she could do that. I think it was probably just a fluke and I don't count on it happening again right away, but I'll take what I can get. She is sleeping right now and self-soothed herself with only a few minutes of light crying. I could get used to this. I know it doesn't work with every kid and I'm sure I haven't gotten the worst of it yet (I wouldn't dare do it in her crib, without the swing yet), but I just thought I would share this small victory with you all. I'm excited to get more sleep!

One Month Old

Claire turned one month old on Wednesday. Its crazy that it was a month ago that she was born, although its hard to imagine life without her already. She is such a cute little girl and we really love having her around.

Here is Claire smiling. Its a still picture taken from a video. She doesn't really smile at us yet, but she is getting close...

Just chillin...

Some friends of ours in the ward gave us their old swing as their kids are older now and they don't use it. We are SO grateful. Thanks Wendy! About half the time she has a hard time staying asleep when we put her into her bed. When we put her in the swing once she is already asleep, she stays asleep much better. Also, we keep the swing just outside our bedroom door and it helps us to sleep a lot better because Claire is quite a grunter. She makes a lot of noise in her sleep and we are always worried that she is on the verge of waking up. On Friday night I fed her and went to bed at 11. Casey stayed up with her for awhile while he watched the Jazz game and helped her to fall asleep. She stayed asleep in her rocker until 5! Six hours of straight sleep (although I did wake up a few times wondering if Casey was still awake with her since he decided to sleep on the couch). It was great. If only it could happen every night...

We are adjusting fairly well to our new life. My mom went home a week ago. That was a very big help and allowed me to get naps and other things done. Thanks Mom! I'm very lucky that Casey has a fairly relaxed last semester and he is home a lot and able to help. Casey is an expert rocker and soother. He is so good at it that he does it in his sleep, literally. Whenever Claire starts making noise in her bed, Casey will start rocking in our bed. Once I even caught him sitting up in bed, in his sleep, rocking. When I asked what he was doing, he asked where Claire was and when I said, in her bed, he just laid back down and went to sleep. :)