Mr.Punctual

Finn Elijah Stettler
May 14, 2011

So just hours after I took that picture on Friday's post little Finn started to shimmy his way out. I started having some contractions around 10 pm. About an hour and a half later we decided we should probably go in to the hospital. Meanwhile I was throwing up during all my contractions including in the car on the way (poor Eric had to clean it up at 4 in the morning). We got there close to midnight and I was already dilated to an 8. I was convinced I could still get an epidural and they said I could, but once the doctor came in she said "He's right there. I think we can get him out real quick." So I didn't get the epidural and I was really glad because three contraction pushes later he was born--an hour after we got to the hospital. He was born right on his due date weighing 7 lbs and 11 ounces and is totally perfect. We are SO happy and Lily is so adorable with him. She points out the funniest things like "Oh his cheeks are so cute!" and loves to hold him and kiss him.







Lily and I after dinner Friday night. Hours before I start labor.

An hour at H&M

Shopping with Lily always takes about twice as long. One of those reasons is because I have to go and put everything back that she collects throughout our browsing—But she sure know how to accessorize.

On a side note: Holy crap look at that belly! Yes I am actually out-growing my maternity clothes. Have you ever heard of that? Me neither. I'm due tomorrow so really like a week at the most, right?

Let's Keep the Green Light On--PLEASE!

Two weeks ago we took a big leap and started potty training Lily. She did awesome. The first day she had about half successful go's and half accidents. The next day just one. Then five more days accident free. We were golden. We went to celebrate by going to the toy store and of course, that is when she has an accident. Two days later we went to a friends house and she has another accident. It seems ever since her great record, she had at least one accident a day. I'm sure she's not going to be wetting her pants consistently once a day forever--but it is frustrating when you think they have it down an then you see her just stand there and let it all come out without even an attempt to make it to the bathroom. Is that just how it goes? Anyone else have similar potty stories/advice?

Waking up on the right side of the bed

So this is seriously how Lily wakes up in the morning. She LOVES her new bed. In fact today she asked to take a nap and didn't even want to cuddle me in my bed before as we've done for oh maybe the past year. Yeah, I think I like this bed just as much. Although I did miss my cuddle time today.

If we didn't have a miniature house...

and weren't poor grad students...
and didn't have ugly blue carpet...
and didn't have to pay $$ to paint our walls...

When I was pregnant with Lily the last three months probably 60% of my thoughts circulated around getting her room ready. This pregnancy it has been out of the question so I haven't even thought about it. But this morning I got up ridiculously early and instead of getting anything productive done I ended up dreaming up a room for the little boy keeping me up all morning.

I've always wanted to do a room in different shades of blues. This isn't a "if I had a million dollars" type of room, they are all things well within a normal nursery budget (Probably excluding the crib, but I've coveted that crib for years and hello, this isn't real). So this whole nursery could be done for well under $500. If only...



Realistically, he and Lily are going to cram into her room and hopefully he doesn't mind the three or four pink things that are in there. He'll be in Lily's crib and Lily gets a big girl bed!



But while I'm dreaming of having a million dollars...



Aren't these pretty? Can you believe people would spend $700 on a TODDLER bed??

An Artist on Our Hands?

Lately I've been noticing Lily's art has become much more sophisticated. She's passed her Scribble Period and moved on to her Portrait Series. She really just sticks to faces and balloons or suckers. I think she's found her forté.







Posting this I realize how melancholy all her faces are. Hopefully this is not a way she is expressing her own mood--but as you can see she's a pretty happy kid.

Good Morning Baltimore!

Eric finally had a break from school so we took the opportunity to take Lily up to the much talked about Baltimore Aquarium.

On the way up we stopped by the National Cathedral in D.C. to eat lunch and take a bunch of crappy pictures–our extended flash batteries were dead and Catholic cathedrals are anything but light and bright.


We walked around the harbor and fed some seagulls until we felt like we were in a Hitchcock movie.


We ate some dang good pizza at a place called Matthew's pizza. Yum, just thinking about it right now makes me want to drive the two plus hours back up there. As Eric told Lily: "This is the happiest you'll see your mom on the trip". That is true, good food does make me unusually happy.


Hit the aquarium. We saw a dolphin show, plenty of sharks and fish, and had to see the Dora and Diego 4D movie which of course ended up being Lily's favorite part of the whole trip.




So for a trip on the cheap it was pretty dang fun. Mostly because of the company, but I definitely thought Baltimore showed us a good time.