I am currently at a loss for words. Time is flying by as fast as ever, and ever faster. Kate is back to work and killing it! I am excited to be blogging on here about our family a lot more often as things slow down for the winter. All though, these last few engagement/family session blog posts are going to be killer!
I am not sure if I am the only one, but holy jolly pants batman! These holidays are killing my relationship with the bathroom scale. We are pretty much ready for Christmas around here. Some last minute shopping as always, but I am sure you are right there with us. We already had a few HolidayParties/FamilyChristmases and they have all been awesome. I cannot even begin to relay to you the perfection that is my daughter. For instance, we were in the car for 8hrs (there and back) on a day trip up Maine for our annual family (on my dad’s side) Christmas party. She was perfectly content the entire day, sleeping for most of it and quietly cooing for the rest. She has been surrounded by more large groups of poking, prodding, pinching adults/children in these past few weeks than even the happiest of holiday cheermeisters could stand up to without becoming irritable. And she has taken it all in stride, with a seemingly effortless patience. Who she gets it from I will never know.
In other news, at the risk of jinxing it, I think she is over the projectile vomiting stage of the game. Kate and I have not been as hesitant to take her out from fear of covering half the world with her stomach contents. In fact there is really nothing to complain about currently, other than this spare tire I am slowly developing via the ghost of Christmas Overeating.
One thing I am really excited about is that the three of us have settled into a pretty consistent morning rhythm, and since I know you are curious, I shall divulge/indulge.
5pr46u3 Morning Routine Timeline:
12-3:44am – The 5pr46u3 family slumbers. Sometimes Darth Dader can be seen slaying nOObs MW3style way to early in the morning…
3:45am – Kate awakes to pump and get ready for work. 4:40am – Kate puts Addison in bed with Darth Dader. 4:45am – Kate goes to work. 4:46am – After occasional early morning diaper changes Darth Dader and Addison fall back to sleep. 4:55am – Kate arrives at work 5 minutes early. 6/7isham – Addison wakes Dad up to eat breakfast. 7ish-10am- After eating Addison drifts in and out of short naps. Darth Dader gets to work. 10isham – Addison eats again. 10:04am – Kate gets out of work. 10:21am – Kate walks through the front door. 10:21am – Kate/Addison smilefest 2011 starts.
The rest of the day is a mixture of working/cleaning/diapers/smiles/naps/MW3/movies/grey’s anatomy/family/friends/beer.
Remember when I said that I was at a loss for words? I lied.
Thanks for looking,
the 5PR46U3s
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Addison’s face in yo face!! Behold! The AnnihilFACEion! The ExBROWsion! The ApocaLIPse! The TribuLASHion! The Nor’EYEster (new england joke)! The NOSEtradamus!
That last face kills me!
So I have been thinking a lot lately about how one raises another human being. At this stage in the game, Kate and I have to make all of the decisions for her in all aspects of her life. It is an ominous job, this rearing of a child that is completely and utterly helpless, but someone has to do it.
Some daily questions that run through my mind:
Am I doing this right?
What are the most important things I want to teach her from a young age?
Did you just poop in your diaper?
Is the person that she grows up to be just a product of Nature? Or Nurture? Or half of each?
Did you just poop… again!?
When will she start dating?
What will she look like?
What will she look like?
What will she look like… I think this few times in a row as I imagine her at different ages.
When and what will I teach her about alcohol and drugs?
Will she love me and think I am the best dad ever?
Religion? Christianity? Buddhism? The Force?
Will she be America’s next top model?
Should she have siblings or should we just focus all of our efforts on raising one well adjusted person?
Will I always be there for her when she needs me?
Teddy Bruschi thinks I should get life insurance… should I listen to him?
More poop? Really!? wait, no that was just a fart.
Wow you are gorgeous addison. <– that wasn’t a question
How long can I keep this daily photo thing going?
Will she be a photographer? Do I even want her to be a photographer? I guess if she wants to be one… that is a new one…
Can I slow down time? Can I just pause it here for a little while?
I know I will make wrong choices… but when it really counts will I make the right ones?
I have no answers to any of these questions. Except one… yes, if you can smell it, she definitely dealt it. Poop or otherwise.
Anyways, Check this out. How insane is the difference in these two pictures!? I mean look at those amazing lashes!
Ok people, weddings to work on! Only three more left to edit and I am all caught up!!! Be excited! I am! Once I am done with these awesome weddings then I can get to work on the time-lapse-pregnancy-craziness-super-top-secret-project!
Thanks for looking,
the 5PR46U3s
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This here household may or may not be obsessed with Christmas. We are not those people that go crazy over decorating their yard… but then again we don’t have a yard. Anyways, pictures first, then story time!
tutu much awesome.
the day after Thanksgiving tradition begins.
this sunflare was creepily perfect.
first of many danmeo appearances
dan vs tree
dan wins every time.
Addison wonders why her crazy parents have just strapped a tree to the roof of the car.
Moby Wrap!
the queen oversees her servant at work.
the Queen’s crazy sister.
We love these ornaments from CB2!
Kate’s old Barbie tree is a staple of the 5pr46u3 Christmas.
The very first picture is Addison’s thanksgiving day outfit. I know, she looked adorable. That was the only picture we took on thanksgiving day since we were all busy stuffing our faces… see what I did there? The next day we got down to some picture taking goodness, and started our first family tradition: Killing Trees }:)
I want to give a shout out to McCromes Christmas Tree Farm on Rt. 155 in Dover. I highly recommend them if you want to cut down your own local tree in Dover. Tell them I sent you, it wont get you anything, I just felt like saying it.
Kate and I are so glad that Christmas time is back once again. We seriously get all giddy and childish during this time of year. It is a little scary.
Thanksgiving went amazing! We had a lot of great food and got to spend a lot of time with our family and friends. I hope all of you had a great thanksgiving as well! An interesting topic of conversation recently has been on starting our own family traditions and when we should start them. I definitely want to have our own Thanksgiving-Christmas-Holiday traditions, but I feel weird forcing them while our child still has no concept of… well… anything. Part of me wants to do our own little family thing but I also still cling to my childhood traditions which are hard to let go of. Cutting down our first Christmas tree as a family was a great place to start though. It was something that Kate and I had already started doing over the last 8 years of being together. I would love to be able to tell you that Addison loved it and smiled the whole time… but she was busy catching some Zs. Seriously though, who cares when she looks that adorable!
So we shall see when it will be time for us to start our own Christmas Eve/Day traditions. But for now we will stick with the standard operation procedure. Any slightly more experienced Moms and Dads out there that have any advice on this? When did you break off from going to your parents house for Christmas day and start your own family Christmas tradition?
Thanks for looking,
daniel. kate. addison.
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I have lost all track of time while staring into these eyes.
This is how you match outfits.
I recieved one of these to the face after waiting too long to change her diaper one morning.
*Disclaimer for Future Babysitters:* The force is indeed strong with this one! DO NOT judge her by her size and make the same mistake I did. You don’t want to feel the wrath of her flying force kick to the face. It is not as cute as it looks.
On Life:
So I won’t lie, these last couple weeks have been slightly challenging. Kate and I are still getting used to life with our permanent 3rd wheel. Although she is an adoribonkulously awesome third wheel if I do say so myself. We could not ask for a more perfect child… I mean I would go into details but I am afraid that it would only make other parents angry, so I will spare you.
But…
Do know how people always tell you, “just wait, EVERYTHING is going to change once that baby arrives.” I disagree. To be honest I don’t feel different at all, and neither does Kate. We are still just us. Profound right? There has been no big transformation. Life has definitely changed but it was a gradual change. Subtle. Change stealthily crept upon us and never told us when it had arrived.
It seamlessly changed us from who we once were to who we are now. And so, I forgot…
…we are never alone anymore. It’s not like the past when it was only us. We woke up by ourselves, we went to bed by ourselves. We traveled through life with only each other. And it was easy. Simple. Now, we need to actively find time to spend together by ourselves. Everyone was right. Everything has changed. It just happens so slowly that you don’t notice. Every second from the day we found out Kate was pregnant seemed the same as the last. But they aren’t. They are different, infinitesimally so, but different none the less. You have to look farther back. To that second before you found out. When I compare that second to this current one… the difference is as profound as a hit to the stomach that knocks all of the wind out.
The moral of the story? An obvious one. Find time to spend together… alone. Regardless of how perfectly cute your child is, do not fall victim to her Jedi mind tricks. Go on dates. If you can’t get a babysitter, when the kid goes to sleep watch a favorite movie or tv show. Or just make a nice dinner together. Like I said, it’s obvious, but somehow even the obvious is easy to miss when you are a new parent.
That is all.
Thanks for looking,
daniel. kate. addison.
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When I say that I could look at these pictures for endless hours, I mean it. The pride I feel is uncontainable. It explodes out of every single pour in my body like streams of photons. It twists my face into a permanent smile that resembles that smile that the Joker put on all those people in the first batman move, you remember that? I plan to take a picture of her face everyday for as long as she lets me. Thirteen right? Ha! It should be interesting to see how long I actually stick with this. I hope forever.
It has been so interesting to me so far. Everyone always says that they change so fast, but now I can actually see it. And everyone is right. I mean look at the difference in the GIF below. The first picture “week 00” was taken on her 6th day of life, and the second picture was taken today…
Her face is already so much older looking… in 1 month! Time just slips away from me effortlessly… regardless of how hard I try hold on. My knuckles turn white at the strength of my grip, but unfortunately for me RateofTime ≠ StrengthofGrip * Time … more like RateofTime = Fast * Infinity. Luckily I have my pictures to look at. When time shrinks my bones and greys my hair I will still have my pictures in my albeit weakened grip.
Speaking of grey hair, a little over a month ago I noticed my first colorless piece of hair. I told Addison that I would accept 1 per year. So I have met my quota for this year. If I was going to name each greyed out hair I would name this one Bob. I am not going to name them, just thought you should know.
She laughed for the first time the other day. I say laugh only because it was something she had never done before and it seemed to be a laugh like sound accompanied by a smile. I couldn’t be sure, but either way it was amazing. She did it a few times while I lifted her up into the sky and brought her back down, and it hasn’t happened since.
Anyways… wedding blog and a new family blog coming next.
EDIT: Oh, totally forgot! We went to a boobfeeding meeting thing at the hospital because we heard they weighed babies there. Addison is 9lbs 9ozs! Yup, she is a beast. 2028 Olympics here we come.
the 5pr46u3s.
daniel. kate. addison.
You can easily vote here with two clicks of the mouse to help our blog get to the top! You don’t need to sign up for anything and you can vote 1 time every 24 hours.
Addison has not been as happy as we would like, recently. But still just as adorable!
I present to you, Exhibit A:
She is definitely in the midst of a growing spurt of epic proportions! Eating non-stop is an understatement. But it’s ok, because she is going to be breaking all kinds of x-games records in the near future, so growing is good!
Meanwhile, Kate, rather than acting like someone who just had major surgery, is running around like a crazy person and making deliscious things like this!
Exhibit B:
Jealous? You should be. They are stacks of provolone cheese, dill pickle, fresh spinach, and turkey. Squirt a little mustard on top and stick a halved cherry tomato to it and you’ve got a bite sized heaven in your mouth. Gulden’s Brown is my weapon of choice, while she sticks to the old fashion French’s Classic Yellow. Not to mention the Cracked Pepper and Olive Oil flavored Triscuits, if you haven’t tried them… get on it. They are earth shatteringly good with Cabot’s Hunters Cheddar. Wash it all down with water and you can be proud of your lunchtime domination of flavors.
So what I am trying to say is, Kate is awesome!
Back to work now. Senior and Wedding blogs coming.
the 5pr46u3s.
daniel. kate. addison.
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While working away on all these wedding photos that backed up during the pregnancy, I decided to take a small break to go check on my two favorite girls. This is what I walked in on. My heart melts. We are getting started on Addison Marie’s (aka babyjedi) 4th week of life, and I could not be happier! Like everyone will or has told you, it is no easy task. But I must say, we cannot complain. I mean look at this beautiful girl, she is seriously gorgeous, and we all know it.
God help me when she gets older.
But we, just like anyone else have been having our glitches. The whole breastfeeding thing for one, has been a challenging experience to say the least. It is curious to me, for something that is so natural and well, just the way it is supposed to work, why is it so hard? I mean all the animals on the discovery channel make it look so easy. Do baby elephants have a hard time latching? Do Ape mothers need to try 50 different positions with their young before they find the perfect breast to mouth combo? It just doesn’t make sense to me that breastfeeding is hard at all. I mean, since man has existed it has been, for the most part, the sole means of nutrition for infants. Has it always been this hard? I wonder.
Anyways, it has gotten better. Kate is hanging in there like a champ, although she admits almost daily “I see why so many people don’t do this.” We have found the side laying position to be the best for Addison. I think the problem has been what the internet calls and Overactive Letdown, which basically means that milk comes out fast yo! We are starting to employ a few tips and tricks that we also gleaned from the interwebs, and they seem to be helping quite a bit. Addison is still gaining weight like a champ, so we are probably more worried that we should be… which is also normal I am guessing. But hey, whatever keeps you sane right?
Just to warn you, this next part may or may not make you jealous. She sleeps. She $@&*ing sleeps like its her job. Last night she slept for 5.5 hours straight. Everyone keeps telling us that this will change and I am sure it might. But she seems to be responding to the criticism by just sleeping more. She has definitely had her moments of unhappiness, but they have been few and far between. The last one was yesterday when we went shopping. We were out for a good 2 hours grocery shopping for the first time since she was born and we got almost all of it done before she started to wake up. She fussed a little in the store but we still were able to finish and get out of public earshot before she really blew up. Both times (yes she has only lost her cool twice) we have been in the car 4minutes from home, when she lets us know that her lungs work. And man do the work well.
The sound is terrifying. The girl can scream. Did you ever see the movie Scream? Yeah, those girls in that movie got nothing on Addison. And it’s like the sound vibrations know exactly which part of my brain to attack directly. Putting Kate and I into a slight panic. Thank God we were only minutes from home. As soon as she is out of her car seat and in my arms magic happens. Instantaneous change. And once kate’s breasts get involved forget about it. Milk Coma is an understatement.
Ok well I need to get back to work, but basically what I mean to say is that we are all good here on the 5pr46u3 homefront. Thank you so much to everyone that has been helping us! Kates Mom and sister, my parents and family, and all of our awesome friends that have been visiting and making food for us, we would be lost without you all. And we love you!!!
I will be updating this blog often so check back if you are curious to see how we are doing.
And there will be more pictures next time, I promise.
the 5pr46u3s.
daniel. kate. addison.
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Lesson 1 | if you rent, it never hurts to ask your landlords if you can paint.
this is my surprised look.
this is my trying to sleep and smile at the same time look.
Kate and I put quite a bit of work into this room and couldn’t be more proud! I had planned to take before pictures to show how much different the room looked. But completely forgot about it until the moment my friend and I finished repainting the room. Oh well, hope you enjoyed!
Hanging decorations | from our baby shower.
Tiny Framed Hearts | made by our best friend Elan who also threw our baby shower.
Owl Painting | from a friend who had her mom’s friend paint it.
thanks for looking,
daniel. kate. addison.
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