Big Day

I am not entirely sure how this day arrived so quickly. The double whammy of turning 5 and starting kindergarten. I will miss hanging out with Josie every day and have already turned to share something with her only to remember it will be another 5 or so hours before I can tell her. More than anything though, I am so incredibly proud of Josie and excited for her. She has been so brave and joyous in the face of a very massive change. Josie has welcomed new friendships with her usual warmth and kindness. I know all of these qualities will help her through what will undoubtedly be a tough but rewarding school experience.

I wish I could just tell her all I have learned and save her pain, frustration, acts of unkindness and everything unpleasant. But that would also keep her from the satisfaction of personal growth and successful problem solving.

Good luck Phine!

Josie's First Loose Tooth

It's been way too long since I've posted here. What better way to get started again then with Josie's own words? Enjoy this story of when her first tooth came out.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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First LA visit of 2011

So blogging has definitely fallen by the wayside. When I actually have a free second (which are few and far between, especially now that Josie has decided to give up naps) I end up either scrambling to get household chores done or just collapsing on the couch with a book. I want to catch everyone up, and plan to post more often, but am not making any promises.

In June we all headed to LA. Nick had a convention and then was off to Greece to celebrate the wedding of two dear friends. I decided to stay in LA for two full weeks until Nick was back from his trip. It was great to have so much time to spend with family and friends.

We even got all the cousins together for fun family photos:

Luca and Josie had some quality bonding time:

Luca enjoyed his first visit to the beach:

And Josie & Trevor played nearly every day:

There are more photos from this trip on another camera that I need to post. They involved a beautiful day, kids running around and an industrial size roll of plastic wrap. Good times.

Luca: The First Few Months

where to start? Just over seven weeks (now it's been nine weeks five months) have passed since Luca was born. It definitely does not seem that long. Seeing as how the first three weeks were a complete blur, it is not surprising that it seems like we brought him home last week. Thankfully, that is not the case.

In the hospital: 
We had a very short stay in the hospital this time, but we did make sure to have our photo shoot with the Baby Bella photographer and got some great shots:

And then we were headed home. The scene was oddly familiar:

Josie heading home

Luca heading home

Weeks 1 through 3
A total blur. I know that I started off feeling incredible. So much different than after the c-section with Josie. I could walk, wasn't doped up and was just overall really happy with and proud of myself. As the high from the birth began to fade, I would bounce between happy and tired or sobbing and tired. I spent the bulk of the three weeks in The Chair (see below) with Luca on me. Unfortunately he couldn't be put down. At all. so for 20 plus hours a day, he either slept on or ate from me. Fortunately, even though Nick had to go back to work fairly quickly, my mom was there to wait on me hand and foot. Water, food, books and whatever my heart desired magically appeared when needed and was whisked away and cleaned when done. As with Josie, it was invaluable to have this support (and I have already vowed to offer my daughter the same guilt-free, full-service when she has a baby).

The Chair

Luca asleep

Nick also spent a lot of time in The Chair:

Daddy with the baby burrito

Daddy in The Chair

While I originally had hoped Luca would come late to allow me as much time as possible to get everything ready, with the HUGE snowstorm we had shortly after he was born, Nick and I were thrilled he had come early. Josie was possibly more excited about the snow arriving then Luca getting here. It came about up to her neck.

Between the new baby, the snow and being cooped up inside parked in front of the TV, Josie was a little out of sorts (to say the least). Her glorious 7am wake up time became 6am, then 5:30am then earlier and earlier. Everything was a huge battle; taking on her coat, taking off her coat, leaving the house, not leaving the house, every meal, drink, tv show and more. She was pretty mad at mommy and daddy but through it all she had nothing but love for her baby brother.

Luca did his part and slept and slept and slept (unless we put him down of course). 

Weeks 4 through 6

Weeks 4 and 5 were a little better than the the weeks before. My mom left, but we were starting to get into a routine--at least as much of a routine as is possible with a new baby. I started thinking that maybe we could do this again (in the long distant future). Overall everything started seeming possible. The real turning point came at about 5 1/2 weeks when we could finally put Luca down to sleep. It was a real relief to spend a few minutes without him in my arms. I was then able to spend some time with Josie and, almost as good, some time to myself when they both happened to sleep at the same time. Being able to put him down also afforded us some great photo ops:

Also around week 6, Luca really started to smile--and what a smile it is!

More like week 8, but a perfect examples of his grins

With more time to think about it, Josie found new ways to play with Luca. Oddly, they almost all have something to do with his head:

Dr. Josie

Brains!!!

Weeks 7 through 9

I can no longer remember what happened during this time, but do have a few pictures. 

Josie getting into babywearing too!

Luca loves to stand

Josie loves to feed him

Stay tuned for more updates!

A New Year and New Adventures

wow. 2011 has already been quite a year for us. I can't believe it's March but am thrilled that spring is truly around the corner.

Early January was not too exciting for us as we were really just waiting for the big event--which happened five days before my due date on January 21st at 3:43 am. My water broke right as Josie woke up from her nap but my contractions didn't start until a few hours later. After dropping Josie off (thank you Harman family and Auntie Jay!!!) I met Nick at home and we settled in to wait for our fabulous doula Rita and true labor to begin. My contractions were pretty intermittent and I thoroughly enjoyed my exercise ball and the tub. Rita enjoyed checking to make sure Luca was happy during a contraction.

After a relatively short time (about six hours) we made our way to the hospital. When we arrived they were asking me questions that seemed very unimportant at the time. I am sure they are used to having conversations with the top of a woman's head and I was no exception. Thankfully Nick handed the keys to the valet and very quickly and took over. 

We had a few moments of panic when the nurse thought Luca might be breech (I believe my exact words were "I would so NOT be amused") but after a quick ultrasound, head down was confirmed and up to the delivery room we went--stopping every few minutes for me to hang onto the railings through a contraction. Our incredibly wonderful team pretty much left us alone and made sure no one else (other nurses, doctors, anesthesiologists, etc) bothered us either. Another few hours later and we had the amazing, unmedicated birth I so wanted. Luca was plopped on my chest and we just looked at him in awe.

With Luca born early Friday morning, we only needed to stay in the hospital one night. Josie came to meet him right away and completely fell in love. She climbed right into bed and insisted on taking her shirt off since everyone else (Luca and myself) had ours off.

 

The next day brought another visit from Josie, looking very protective of her new baby brother:

 And a visit from the Bella Baby photographer who contracts with Prentice and takes incredible pictures:

Saturday morning we headed home and were thrilled to be there. I felt amazing and Josie was very happy to have us back. The next few weeks were quite an adventure, but I'll save that for another post. For now I'll leave you with our official birth announcement and a heartfelt welcome to Luca.

I Like Snow, Snow Tastes Good

It was a fun holiday week here in the Colella household. Josie was very excited about Santa coming to her house and reminded us to leave him milk and cookies and carrots for the reindeer. She did have a moment of panic when she thought that since Santa was bringing her new toys, she may have to get rid of old ones. We assured her that wasn't the case (at least not this year) and she was happy once again.

Right after Thanksgiving we visited the real Santa. Oddly enough he lives in LA.

For the actual Christmas holiday we stayed right here in Chicago. Not only was it Chicago's turn, but with baby brother due in late January, traveling was not really a possibility. Sadly, none of my brothers and their families could join us, but my parents made it and enjoyed a quiet week. We started the festivities as usual with a seafood feast at the Colellas:

and continued with Christmas morning at our house. Josie gave some great gifts, but didn't always understand the subtleties of giving--as you can see here when she wanted to wear the PJs she had given Auntie for their upcoming slumber party:
Josie got lots of fun gifts too. One of her favorites was a sled from Grandma and Grandpa. With all the snow, we were able to enjoy it almost right away. Daddy pulled Josie through the alleys and down the street while Noni, Baba and I followed. Penny lasted for about a 1/2 block before wanting to turn around.

and of course, a winter blog post wouldn't be complete without pictures of Josie eating snow.

We had a couple new ones this year. 1) snow angels:

2) pretending that snow is sand and begging to be buried in it over and over again. This kid does not feel the cold:
It was a lovely week. Here's hoping you all had as nice a time.