London Claire is Famous

I'm sure you're saying "duh" but for real this time. My daughter, at the ripe old age of six months, was on the local news this weekend.

And just in case embedding the video doesn't work, or if you want to pass around the video to show all your friends and family how cute my kid and husband are ... here's the link.

http://www.wralsportsfan.com/ncsu/video/11972860/#/vid11972860

Newborn Photos

Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure I never posted London's newborn photos. That's cool, I'm only six months late, it's fine. 

As per usual, the photos were taken by Emily Forsberg and despite London NOT being one of those sleepy, pliable newborns, Emily made the best of it and we ended up with a few very sweet shots. Such precious memories of our tiny tiny girl!

Here's a little secret for moms-to-be and photographers - London wouldn't lay down on a table or chair or anything on top of the blanket. So I laid on the table, draped the blanket across me, and she laid on my chest. Amazingly (because Emily is that talented), you'd never know the difference. Desperate times call for desperate measures, am I right?

OK, so here are a few of my favorites. Hard to believe she was just one week old here *tears*.

Our First Family Photos

I've mentioned several times how generous and talented our friend Emily is, especially when it comes to photography. She did our maternity shots, newborn shots of L, and in November did our first family photo shoot. Despite a very distracted and eventually fussy 4 month old, and an equally distracted and rambunctious dog, Emily was extremely patient (as always) and we ended up with some beautiful shots. They're all up on Facebook, but in case you didn't see them, I wanted to share a few of my favorites.

I'll be damned if this girl doesn't LOVE her daddy

standing up in her little tutu

just love her expression here

our christmas card photo

recreation of last year's photo ( http://eckersons.blogspot.com/2011/12/coming-soon.html )

these two are too adorable

sweet baby

if only we could get all three of us smiling at the same time

her expressions kill me

one of my absolute favs

 

gimme that face!

London Claire is Six Months Old

The updates are getting more and more delayed, but at least I'm still posting them, and still taking her monthly photos. That's gotta count for something.

Age: six months two weeks (eek!)
Height: twenty-seven inches (as of her 6mo checkup)
Weight: eighteen pounds one ounce (as of last week)
Hair: lighter brown, finally regrowing in (at all different lengths. hello mullet)
Eyes: beautiful blue and still has those killer lashes

From our family photo shoot in November

Favorite outfit: too many to count, what with all the holiday gear. but yesterday's was a hoot - these boots are too much.

apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur

Sleep: despite being a complete wreck with traveling for two weeks, and despite a few minutes extra of fussing when we put her down last night, she sleeps awesome at night. pretty much every night is 8-5:30. naps are another story, but i talked to her pediatrician and she said "keep offering them, but don't push it"
Eating: we've tried a number of foods recently, and her favorite appears to be greek yogurt. she also likes bananas in the mesh feeder, and crackers. she finally seems to be taking to 'baby food' but we do a mix of the purees and table food - mostly fruits & veggies with a few grains, no meat yet.
Illness: after two ear infections in a month's time, she seems to just be fighting a pretty persistent cold & teething. runny nose but not much else so we're grateful.
Development: I could go on for days here. She has started talking and singing, and says "dada" all the time (no mama yet). I swear yesterday she said "hi dada" and she does inflections in her sounds like she's saying "i love you". she sings to herself, especially if she's overtired or her teeth hurt. she's starting to get some attachment / separation anxiety - she will reach for me if someone else is holding her or if she's on the ground and wants to be held, and cries if i don't immediately pick her up when i get to daycare. she is definitely starting to develop relationships, so it was neat to see her with my mom over the holidays. she also has a "boyfriend" at school - they hold hands during music class. i'm not ready for this!!
Movement: rolling all over (especially when i put her on the changing table, it's like trying to catch a greased pig), scooting / crawling backwards, starting to learn how to pull up, and walks a little while holding my fingers.she sits really well but can't get herself from laying down to sitting yet.

standing up in her six month photos

Favorite toy: she loves the doorway jumper my mom got at a consignment sale. it came with us to my mom's house for christmas and ben even used it as a swing for her a few times.

Funniest habit: ben is still pretty much the only person that can make her laugh - there is no better feeling in this world than watching your husband act like a complete fool and hearing those precious baby belly laughs. watching her open presents was adorable, though it was mostly just eating the paper / tissue. oh, and she loves dogs. i thought it was just lucy but she liked my mom's dog too - it's pretty cute to see her watch them and grab for them.
Best moment of last week: seeing how happy and excited she was to see us after we were in vegas for four days. ben brought her into the bed while i was still sleeping and she was ALL smiles, it was awesome. this is not in the past week, but it was really fun to celebrate her first christmas and also get to see her first snow while we were in virginia!

checking out the snow with dad on christmas eve at gigi's house

What I'm looking forward to: it'd be nice if she ever cut this tooth she's been working on for weeks!

Merry Christmas

In sticking with the theme this year "Better Late Than Never" - our Christmas cards just went out. Three days after Christmas. But they were sent and we love them, and we hope you do, too.

Merry Christmas, from our family to yours. What a blessed year it's been!

PS: Huge thanks to Emily Forsberg for the amazing photo shoot. And thanks, also, to our friends who used Minted for their Christmas cards (and sent them on time!). We received a few, and loved them, so we used Minted for our cards and were thrilled.

Recipe: Coconut Shrimp Curry

I LOVE a good curry. Love. It's all I wanted for probably 4 months of my pregnancy. And I will never turn it down even now. So ever since my friend Abby posted this recipe, I've been dying to make it. And great news (for my belly) - I've actually been cooking over the past couple weeks. Gasp! Yes, it's been glorious.

Ingredients

• Canola oil (or coconut oil if you have it; I didn't)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 cup potatoes, cut into bite-size cubes (about 1/2 of a large potato)
• 7 oz coconut milk
• 7 oz milk
• 1/2 lb shrimp, peeled & deveined
• 1 medium tomato, diced
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp honey (or sugar if you don't have honey)
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 3/4 cup frozen peas

Directions

1. In a large skillet, heat oil on medium high heat
2. Add curry powder; cook for about two minutes (at this point, your kitchen will smell AMAZING)
3. Stir in garlic; cook for about one minute
4. Mix in potatoes, then coconut milk, then milk; then shrimp, tomatoes, tomato past, honey and chili powder
5. Cover and simmer on medium low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally
6. Add frozen peas; cook for 2-3 more minutes
7. Serve over rice (I used basmati rice because it's my favorite)

I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and it's pretty easy, honestly. No photos, sorry. I ate it too fast. Don't judge me.

Mixed Emotions

There's a certain level of comfort in knowing that we will not have any more children for the next five years unless we want to. I won't get into the ins and outs (pun intended) of our sex life, but it does make things much more pleasant to know that there is a pretty much fool proof plan in place preventing any accidents.

Don't get me wrong, we want more kids. Just not right now. When I heard Jessica Simpson ispregnant again (already?!) I think my uterus tried to jump out of my body and into oncoming traffic. I am not ready to be pregnant again. Will I ever be ready to willingly take on those wretched nine months again? Probably. Sleep deprivation erases your memory, Men in Black style.

London is perfect. She is such a wonderful baby, sleeping well and happy to be on the go constantly. Each day she learns new "tricks". Each morning it seems like she's grown up overnight. I don't want to miss a moment of her childhood, I want to BE PRESENT for her every day. So no, we're not ready for two kids. Not for awhile, and I'm happy that medical science has advances that allow us to make the decision not to have more children right now.

But there's also a certain level of sadness that comes with it, for me at least. I had forgotten that part of it, that for all the good things about it, it does feel a bit ... final. And formal. There are no surprises. There is no "lets just see what happens". As much as I know I made the right decision, there is a level of sadness (read: hormones) that I think I underestimated.

But in another nine months, when I'm still sleeping regularly and not vomiting daily, I imagine I'll have forgotten all about that tiny bit of sadness. That "Irish twins" bullshit is for the birds.

Besides, London Claire seems pret-ty happy to be an only child for awhile longer.

Gosh I love that kid.