Surely this is laughable to anyone living further north than say, Dallas, but it did actually snow a tiny bit here last night. The kids LOVE when the weather does anything out of the ordinary. They couldn't sleep and so were outside checking it out and throwing a slush ball or two at about 9:30 and then up at 5:00 wondering if school might possibly be cancelled. :) Here are a couple of photos. I thought it was precious that Sydney wanted to catch a snowflake on her tongue...
Can you believe baby Kiley is 7 weeks old today? She's gone from a skinny, not focusing, sleeping all the time brand new baby to a chubby, double-chinned, smiling, staring at Mama & coo-ing little one. 
Above is a picture of her first bath when she was less than a week old; left is her today at 7 weeks - look at the difference in those arms and tummies!!!
One of my favorite little baby positions that I had forgotten about is when babies stretch really big. They arch their back and squinch their face all up with their hands in fists by their cheeks and their elbows sticking out. Their their legs come up (they naturally cross in the fetal position they were in) and their booty sticks out. I don't know why I find that so very cute and typically 'baby', but I love when she does that. Another thing I love that comes later is when they sleep with their rear ends in the air - can you imagine if we slept like that for even 20 minutes? I wouldn't walk right for a week! :) I LOVED going into a room at mothers-day-out during naptime and seeing a dozen little toddler booties up in the air.
Anyway, she's doing great and getting so very big. She sleeps pretty well. For my birthday a few days ago, she slept 5 hours - YES FIVE - in a row for the first time. Parents everywhere can appreciate how that feels after 6+ weeks of waking up every 2-3 hours to nurse. When she's awake, she still likes to stare at the ceiling fan, but now we get some of her attention as well. And it absolutely melts my heart when she focuses on my face and breaks into a big smile.
On Nov. 10th, we had our first anniversary. With a newborn, it's a little less than romantic, but we managed a nice dinner at Carino's and an exchange of gifts. We stuck with the traditional guidelines, which call for paper as the 1st anniversary gift. Martin had one of those newly popular and really cool photo books created with a lot of our favorite pictures leading up to and including baby Kiley. It is a great keepsake! I gave him a shadow box with a print-out of the reading about hands from our wedding as well as some pieces of ribbon and flowers from the wedding. On Monday (the 10th), Martin took the day off and Elizabeth came over and take photos. You can see some of those at: http://ewrightphotos.blogspot.com/2008/11/baby-kiley-is-welcomed-to-family.html.
Thanksgiving (left is us at Martin's parent's house) came next and we had a chance for Kiley to meet most of Martin's 10 siblings and their spouses and girlfriends. There were probably 30 people in San Antonio Wednesday night for dinner and it was wonderful! We spent the night and then came back through Wimberley on Thursday to have dinner with my aunts, uncles, cousins, brother and Mom. We were home by the afternoon and then arranged playdates for the kids on Friday so it was a great holiday with family, friends and food!
On the 13th and 23rd of Nov., my two best friends from high school turned 40, as did I on Dec. 6th. It's nice that all of our birthdays happen within a few weeks so we can all celebrate (or commiserate :) together. Below is a picture of us - Jill, me, Dawn & Kristi. Dawn is the youngest and doesn't turn the big 4-0 until this summer.
We did our AustinONE service project on the 6th, so I spent my birthday in East Austin working and playing with the kids at one of the housing projects, baby Kiley in tow. It wasn't a bad way to spend the day; it was the stress leading up to the event in order to be ready that put a little damper on the birthday, but all in all I had a great day. We stopped at Pappasito's on the way home that evening and had a delicious dinner. After that, we stopped at the same Starbuck's we stopped at after the first AustinONE. That was two years ago (just two!) and the beginning of Martin's and my relationship but before we had our first date. That night in 2006, we spent awhile in the chairs at Starbuck's talking and getting to know each other better, each sizing the other up in that 'could we make a go of this?' way that you do... On Sunday after my birthday, we got the kids back and went to lunch at Z-Tejas with my brother and Mom, then went to Mom's house and opened presents in celebration of my birthday, my Mom's (Dec. 11th) and my brother's (Oct. 17th, got missed this year with Kiley's birth happening so close). Sunday night we ate at Chuy's with my friend Kristi and her sons. She brought delicious cupcakes and a beautiful bracelet from Sundance. I ended the weekend feeling blessed by family and friends and very, very full!!!
On that note, Mom and I also started Weight Watchers a few weeks ago. Can you guess how I'm doing? HA! The first couple of weeks were pretty good; last week I gained 1/2 a pound and this week remains to be seen but I can tell you that a steady diet of Mexican food probably isn't going to get me very far. I have had to cut dairy out of my diet because it makes Kiley very gassy and colicky at night - so it's surely helping my weight that I can't eat cheese. The first 25 pounds came off very easily; I've lost another 5 the old-fashioned way and it's no fun. The next 25 surely aren't going to get any better, but I'm in it for the long haul.
Now that Thanksgiving, AustinONE and my birthday have passed, I'm hoping to get some combo birth announcement/Christmas/thank you cards out in the next week or so. I'm looking for a nanny to help out with Kiley on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday while the kids are in school. In the meantime I'm trying to get work in when I can but it's tougher than I thought it would be to get focused time between Kiley's naps and times when she needs to nurse. And, when she is awake I feel guilty if I don't interact with her and help her take in all she can to stimulate that growing brain of hers!
I'm looking forward to a number of Christmas parties coming up in the weekends ahead and enjoying time with friends and family. I am trying to really focus more on people and less on commercialism this year. If you haven't seen the advent conspiracy video, check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU - it's compelling!
