Simply having a wonderful Christmas time!

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!

I sincerely had hoped to post well before Christmas about the Rammelsberg family merriment as it was occurring, but somehow, as always, time got away from me.  I took some time off work to be with my family and am currently on day 2 of my 10 day vacation.  After wrapping all the presents and getting some Christmas baking done yesterday, and since the babes is currently napping, I find I have some spare time to dedicate to blogging.  

Preparing for this Christmas has been like none other.  Obviously, our family dynamic is different, good different, this year with the wonderful addition of Ells.  Layered on top of that is the sadness of facing our first Christmas without Grandma.  So I guess it is fair to say that this is a year of building new memories and starting new traditions.  So far, I think we have been successful.  Elliot is in love with Christmas music and lights.  She has also mastered the art of present-opening.  Today, we were cuddling on the couch, watching "Miracle on 34th Street," and I was remembering back to last year when Erik and I were saying things like "next year at this time we'll have a baby!"  We were so curious what she would be like and what she would look like.  In fact, I don't think we even knew she was a she!  Nothing we imagined was even one-tenth as good as reality.  As we were lying there this afternoon I was overcome with gratitude for this amazing gift I have been given.  I get to be Elliot's mommy.  Nothing you could wrap and stick underneath the tree could compare with that.

I am not feeling particularly wordy today.  It's a good thing I have taken so many pictures of baby cakes to give you the idea of what we have been up to this holiday season.   

Picking out our tree.  Some people were more helpful than others in choosing the perfect fir.

Picking out this year's family ornament.

Dressing in our Christmas best.

Learning the subtle science and complete joy of opening a Christmas present.  Next lesson: how to properly show gratitude, even when you are not that excited about the gift.

Christmas cuddles with Mommy.

Homemade Christmas stockings for Elliot and Erik.  I haven't quite gotten around to making mine yet.  Maybe tomorrow? 

We are big fans of books and reading, so we bought a bunch of books for babes so that she would have one to open each of the 10 days leading up to Christmas.  She loves it and we are enjoying having a new book to read each night before bed.

Shameless family posing.

Watching Daddy put up the tree (and ignoring the choice phrases Daddy uttered while trying to make it stand up straight.)

Decorating the tree with Mommy.

Enjoying the ambiance.

Trying, desperately, to coordinate both arms and legs and get a crawl going.  Still nothing...but so close!

Chatting it up over drinks.

Reading treeside.

Defying physics with something that could only be described as a Santa hat for preemies.  One size fits all?!  Apparently, you have never been introduced to my giant noggened child.

Oh, and playing with Poppy for his 50th Birthday.

Now, I am planning to post all about the big show (Christmas Day), so stay tuned.  At the rate I am going, you might not see it until Valentine's Day though ;). 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Happy (Belated) Turkey Day

So, apparently, November happened.  I blinked and suddenly we were turning over the calendar, cranking up the Christmas tunes, and  pulling the decorations out of the attic.  But before we get too far into the merriment of December, I need to backtrack a little bit and offer a brief post (mostly pictures) of   Elliot's first Thanksgiving.  This year we returned to the land of Erik's birth: Pullman, WA, home of Washington State University, Cougar Gold Cheese, and, best of all, the Rammelsberg family (where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and the children are above average)!  Unfortunately, Elliot and I were both nursing a pretty intense cold.  But, we still had a wonderful time with family, great food, and Elliot was surrounded by admirers.

Like...Aunt Krista

She indulged in some girl time with Holly, Cousin Tyna, Aunt Krista, Mommy, and Gramsy (taking the picture)!

Grandma and Grandpa Ramm did not have any fun at all ;)

Hanging out with Great Uncle Steve, aka The Baby Whisperer, aka Gruncle

 And, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the Apple Cup!  The Cougars had an epic win over the Huskies, foreseen by no one!  We had a Baby Coug cheering from home with Grandma and Cousin Tyna while everyone else went to the game.

But, mostly, it was all about enjoying family:

Grandpa

Gruncle Steve

Matching pajamas!

Mommy Kisses!

Rocking with Gramsy

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!  Hope yours was as nice as ours :).

All Quiet on the Poo Front

Over the past week baby girl has been, shall we say, a little plugged up.  As in, she went three days without having a poopy.  (How embarrassing this would be if she could understand!)  This started Poop Watch 2012, with us looking for any signs of bowel movement, frequent texts from work (Has she done it yet?), and copious amounts of praise for even the slightest passing of gas (Good job Ells!  Have anything else in there?!).  On day two we took her to her pediatrician.  He sent us off with some reassurances and a prescription for some suppositories, with instructions to use them only if she went five days without some movement.  Five days!  Thank goodness day three brought some relief (for all of us :)).  I have never been so happy to see something so disgusting.  While the whole ordeal was cause for concern, I found it amusing to think that for three days our lives revolved around waiting for our baby to poop.  It made me think of how different (wonderfully so) our lives have become.

Bedtime is REALLY early.

If we are not at least getting ready for bed by 9:00, and by "we" I mean me and Erik, Elliot is long asleep by then, it is basically like the middle of the night for us.  We had the opportunity to catch a movie a few weekends ago and we both found it ghastly that a movie would start at 7:35!  We happily headed to the 4:00 show knowing we would be tucked safely into bed by 9:30 at the latest.

There is no such thing as a last minute, quick trip to Target.

Just the other night we were reminiscing about the days when, if we wanted to go somewhere, we would just get in the car and go.  No need to plan the whole day around a trip to the library.  No need to wait until someone wakes up from a nap.  No second guessing the amount of food or diapers necessary to make it to a second location when running errands.  (If I feed her right before we go, will I have enough time to make it to the grocery store AND the post office?  No, better not risk it.)

We voluntarily make fools of ourselves on a daily basis.

There is nothing we wouldn't do to get one of those huge, gummy smiles from our little silly.  On any given evening you could walk in our house and see me doing a dance while blowing raspberries, prompting Elliot to erupt into giggles or Erik walking around the house with Elliot on his head saying "have you seen Elliot anywhere?"  I have even found myself at work just randomly blowing raspberries at, say, the copy machine, because I am so used to doing it at home. 

My body is different now (and I don't care).

Here I sit, two pounds away from my pre-baby weight.  The only thing is, it doesn't look like my pre-baby body.  It is just different.  God bless those lucky women who bounce right back to their bikini-wearing bodies.  I kissed mine good-bye when the stretch marks settled in for the long haul.  I thought I would obsess over it.  To my surprise, I don't have time to obsess over it.  Working full-time, I have very little time to be with my daughter, and every second I have with her is precious.  How could I waste it worrying about how I look?  Plus, my body just did an amazing thing.  Who am I to judge how it looks after pulling off such a feat?

Waking up at 6:30 on a Saturday is less like a punishment and more like an opportunity.

It doesn't matter if Elliot wakes up or not, without an alarm I am now programmed to wake up at 6:30.  If she is awake, great!  That means we get some good mommy/daughter time in.  If not, then I get an early jump on the day.  It is so satisfying to have eaten breakfast, showered, cleaned up the house, fed the baby, and look at the clock and see it is not even 10:00 yet.

My husband is amazing.

Ok, so I knew this before the babes came along.  But post-Elliot, I have seen even more facets of his personality and I fall in love with him more every day.  It's not just that he has really stepped it up in the  helping out around the house department.  (Seriously, I am super lucky.  Since he gets home before me at night he usually has dinner going by the time I get home.  Then, later he lets me have some good, quality time with Elliot and he cleans everything up.  That's right, cooks AND cleans!)  It's the way being a dad brings out parts of him I did not know existed.  He is so careful and loving with her.  Today, he was sitting with her on the floor and she was sitting up by herself in her wobbly way.  She looked up at me with a huge smile on her face, so proud.  But when I glanced at Erik he was looking intently at her, with his hands close to her but not touching, waiting for the slightest sign that she might topple over.  Elliot, of course, was oblivious, plowing forward without the slightest regard for her safety.  There was something about that scene that just tugged at my heartstrings.  I don't know if it was the way he didn't look up because he was too worried about her falling or that he so obviously wanted her to feel the joy she was feeling about being so independent, but it melted me.

Anyway, these are just some thoughts on how our lives have changed over the past 5 months.  That's right, it has been five whole months already.  It is so much better than I thought it would be.  I am one lucky lady.  A lucky lady that has spent way too much time away from her family writing this blog post!  So on that note, I will bid you adieu.  Happy Veteran's Day weekend!

Fall Photo Shoot

 

 

It was another successful photo shoot with my cousin, Amy!  We just received our photo CD in the mail today and I couldn't wait to get them up on the bloggo.

 

Girlfriend was in such a good mood on the day of the shoot and I think it shows.  She can really work the camera.  I predict orange tutus are going to be big this season ;). Hey, I grew her, so I have earned the right to shamelessly plug her cuteness.

 

But, seriously, thank you to Amy for doing such a good job.  Without further ado, I present Ms. Elliot rocking fall:

 

 

She even let her parents get in on some of the action:

 

Happy Fall everyone!