"walking"

thalia is ready for her snow day!

what a day we had today! almost all of the raleigh-durham area had a snow day today, and since my laptop doesn't recognize the internet at my apartment, thalia and i spent the day at martha mama and uncle ronnie's. and wouldn't you know it, jillian is in town all week, so thalia and jillian had quite the play date! and yes, i did get some work done! we actually started this super interesting research today. i won't bore you with the details but it is going well so far. tomorrow and thursday will be really cool to see what happens.

so this video and picture are from the weekend when yiayia was here. not the dancing video yet...i am still working on that one. but i think you will be amazed at what my lil' one is doing lately!

i need to get to bed...GSK is delayed until 10am tomorrow but i want to make sleeping in worth my while by going to bed early. speaking of bed, thalia slept from 945pm to 5am last night!! it was awesome! she didn't take many naps today since we were at jillian's so i am hoping for a similar night. here's hoping!

much love and more sleep,

c, c, and t

getting back

so chris left, yiayia left, and now thalia and i are trying to get back into the swing of living in north carolina by ourselves. so far so good though i must say. we went back to church for the first time in over a month. since everyone left, thalia has been pretty clingy and cuddly...i was concerned she wouldn't go to the nursery during service. actually, in the bigger picture, i was super worried she would throw a fit when i tried to take her to day care tomorrow. but she saw a toy she wanted to play with and off she went! i was really relieved and am hopeful that tomorrow should be okay. i am definitely going to leave a little early though, just in case. it will be interesting to see who will be her teacher in the morning. i'm not sure if i told you but her usual morning teacher put in her resignation just before christmas. another lady had taken over temporarily, but she isn't my favorite. that was a month ago though, so who knows. i'll keep you posted.
i had forgotten to give you thalia's stats from her 9 (10) month checkup. she weighed just over 17 lbs putting her in the 16th percentile!! poor little peanut! her length was 28 inches or something like that. that puts her in the 70th percentile. so she is a little bean pole! the doctor wasn't very concerned but said that if her weigth at her one year checkup doesn't move her up in the chart, we would have to work out a feeding plan. and of course with all the travelling and different beds and houses and babysitters the poor thing has had, she hasn't hardly been eating any solids lately. but she has been drinking plenty of formula, so that is good. i gave up nursing after christmas...with all the travelling, it was hard to keep up anyway. but i did it for 10 solid months so i am really proud of myself for that!
yiayia had a lot of fun playing with thalia all week. she taught thalia how to dance...thalia got this music box that plays nursery rhymes and whenever she hits the button, thalia will sit and twist her torso back and forth! it is the funniest thing! now thalia even knows the word "dance", so if you say "dance, thalia" she'll dance!! i am trying to get it on video but every time i get the camera out, she stops. yiayia also taught thalia "up". "out", and "off". such a smart daughter we have!!
our good friend martha had knee surgery early last week. my mom took thalia over to her house a few times to keep her company and help up around the house. not sure if yiayia did much of the second part ;o) thalia definitely enjoyed martha's walker. i have a video of her walking around with it. i still have to put it on my computer. i'll try to do that tomorrow. thalia will probably be walking before her first birthday.
please continue to keep us in your prayers as we adjust to life by ourselves down here. and throw up a prayer for something that is on my heart...i really appreciate it!
we love you all so much and really miss you. hope to see you sometime soon!
much love and a bit more sleep,
c, c, and t

picture overload

you guys are in luck...i spent the day in philadelphia doing research and thanks to the ice storm, my flight was canceled back to raliegh. you are in luck because i get free internet access at the airport marriott and since i have nothing else to do, i am going to update my blog! get ready for picture overload!!

as promised, pics from our parents renewing their vows

and from the engagement!!

a lovely picture of some of the most important people in our lives

i think this picture is terrible but you can see thalia's teeth have really come in

thalia's new favorite thing to do..."i don't know"
thalia in here official hawaii surfer suit

thalia's progression to swimming...

unsure... sure

staying warm with aunt nikki

hair-do courtesy of thalia's daddy

whew...what a good lookin' group of people! things are going pretty well now that we are back to our respective states. thalia is spending the week with her daddy and gamma and grandpa. i am not heading back to michigan until valentine's weekend so they are trying to get as much time with her as they can...it's really great.

the apartment is lonely by myself...but heading to this research has definitely broken my week up. chris and thalia get here friday and then yiayia comes on saturday because i have research in denver next week. i know...it's crazy. i am very blessed to have such a wonderful family that is so supportive and willing to help us out. i don't know what i would do without them!!

i guess that's about it. hope you enjoyed the pictures. i should be able to keep up with my updates now that things are "settling down" :o) hopefully i'll get some better sleep tonight. i have been sleeping terribly since i got back to nc.

have a wonderful week. we miss you all!

much much MUCH love and very little sleep,

c, c, and t

what a day!!

on our first full day in hawaii, we had quite the evening, and i have some big news to share!! if i didn't say this before, we are on vacation with our second family, the sorrentinos. the parents all went to pharmacy school together...and have both been married for 30 years. the dads surprised the moms with a wedding vow renewal ceremony at sunset on the beach. it was beautiful! we were told that we were going to take a family picture, so we went to the best flea market ever and got matching dresses! when we went to meet the "photographer", there was a minister there and the parents renewed their vows. it was really cute. what great marriage role models both couples have been.
THEN...after the minister was done with the renewal ceremony, papou asked if anyone had anything to add to the ceremony. and would you believe barrett stepped up and, in front of a beautiful sunset and all of us, ASKED STEPH TO MARRY HIM!!! it was so romantic and great! aunt steph's ring is beautiful! uncle toby took some pics and i will try to transfer them and post them later today. chris got everything on video too! we are so thrilled for barrett and steph and wish them the very best!
for a thalia update, she spent a bunch of time in the pool with her daddy yesterday. she had the cutest hawaiian surf shirt on. we got her a cute matching dress for the renewal ceremony too. she is just hamming it up out here. we are having a lot of fun. (but we do miss you (o: )

much love and a bit more sleep (thalia has adjusted to the time change amazingly well)
c, c, and t

merry christmas!!

as always, being home has left me strapped for time to update my blog! here is a quick and dirty update...i will write a longer version when i get to HAWAII! :oP

so thalia and i made it safe and sound to michigan last friday...i think we were one of only a handful of flights allowed to land that morning! what weather to come back to! saturday my cousin alexis got married to her sweetie stefan...what fun we had!! i have to get some pics from facebook to put on here. she was gorgeous! and aunt steph and i didn't look too bad either ;o) and since going to a wedding isn't enough to do, we went to my aunt and uncle's house for lunch beforehand and had a mini-christmas with them since yiayia and papou were in town.

sunday we had christmas with papou's family - what a feast! thalia got some wonderful presents from her great aunts and uncles. i'll put some pictures up at the end. the rest of the week has been running around getting ready for christmas! yesterday we went to church and had gamma and gampa and aunt jen and uncle walt over for dinner. thalia got her first tractor! then today we had brunch at great-grandpa denhart's and then dinner at great-grandma betty's. what a whirlwind!!
now, it is 915pm and i am just starting to pack for our trip to hawaii. i cannot wait - i really need the break. i'll make sure to take lots of pics of thalia in her swimsuits and in the sand for you.
being back in michigan has been really great and it has been wonderful getting to see everyone. i have been so busy i have forgotten how much fun it is at home. it will be hard to go back to north carolina in a couple weeks...but we'll be okay :o)

we hope you all have a wonderful christmas, that you got to spend some extra time with your loved ones, and that you have a wonderful start to a new year! thanks again for all your love, prayers, and support. thalia would not be as great of a kid as she is without the influence of all of you! we love you!

much, much love and a little sleep,
c, c, and t


OH..the pictures!! here you go!!
thalia's first christmas present
pretty thalia
thalia's christmas dress
thalia's first tractor
christmas morning

feeling better

what a day i had today! it isn't worth getting into...the important thing is that i am doing much better now that i got to snuggle with thalia for a little bit and that once she went to bed, i got a bunch of chores done.

sharing pictures of her makes me really happy too so lucky you get to benefit from my bad day :o) all of these are from our thanksgiving trip to see aunt dr. nikki and uncle toby in san diego.

yia yia tried to make thalia knee guards so thalia's knees wouldn't get rug burned...as you can see, they turned out to be more like leg warmers. good effort yiayia!

ask aunt steph what happened when she was messing with thalia's cheerios!!

daddy likes to give thalia things she shouldn't have...i think he gets it from grandpa (frosty anyone?)

obviously thalia doesn't mind!
thalia figured out how to pick up two cups in one hand! so proud!!

among my daughter's other talents...we taught her how to wave! although she waves with her arm straight out like she is in a parade! cracks me up every time
uncle toby had fake poop on the ground and of course chris' daughter found it and put it in her mouth. the boys thought it was hilarious

thalia did NOT like the feeling of the sand. i'll have to get the other picture from papou...the water was cold too. i love this picture though! she is so funny.

speaking of papou...they got to spend a lot of time together that weekend. there are some precious pics...

hope you enjoyed that!

much love and a bit more sleep (and almost the end of my week!)

c, c, t

oh my

my poor baby is having a rough couple days. when it rains, it pours, i guess. thalia caught a nasty cold somewhere over the weekend. she is so congested and stuffy. her nose is running and she is coughing terribly! i feel so bad for her. and on top of that, her second bottom tooth is coming in! i think more than just that one is coming in though because she has been chewing on her fingers and her toys for the past few days. you can just see the top of the second tooth. she is so pitiful! last night she didn't go to sleep until almost midnight! i had to lay with her on my chest on the couch for almost two hours. she laid there quietly, but she wasn't sleeping. then she woke up every hour and half!! not a good start to my first day back to work with her by myself! it actually went fine - until i got to work!
mondays are always really tough. in the morning i have overlapping staff meetings from 9-12. today the second one went over so i didn't get out until 1230. then i had to run and pump (sorry guys) before something else came up...lately i haven't been able to pump as often as i would like because my days are so busy. but i don't want "i'm too busy" to be the reason i stop nursing. i just think that is a weak excuse. anyway, once i got back from that i had to catch up on a ton of stuff before my back to back meetings at 3 & 4. then i had to finish a few things that needed to be done today...i didn't leave until 545!! whew! what a day. tomorrow is going to be pretty crazy too. hopefully wednesday and thursday should be better...then friday thalia and i leave at the crack of dawn for chilly willy michigan! yay holidays!
oh, i guess i didn't tell you the great news. i work for the Advair team, and under advair is an asthma person and a copd person. most of the work i have been doing has been for the copd person. well, that person is a contractor who came in to help out when another associate was out on leave. her contract ends at the end of december, but really she was done in the office last week. because i have done such a good job and have impressed everyone, they are putting me in charge of all the copd research!!! that is really an amazing responsibility, and the fact that i get that chance after only being down here for 3 months is pretty crazy. it is a wonderful opportunity for me to show my stuff and hopefully solidify a more long-term position here towards the summer. i really felt the pressure of all that today though. a number of reports and requests and research issues came up today all at once and i was feeling less than adequate. but my team is really supportive and they have been super helpful. it will be a lot of work, but i think it is going to be great!
chris went home yesterday :o( he said he enjoyed his week down here. it was really super nice having him here to help me straighten up the apartment and get caught up on some chores. not to mention thalia adores her daddy and she liked spending so much time with him. thalia did fine back at daycare today...her little friend was home sick so thalia got a lot of personal attention, which was good since she feels so lousy.
luckily for me, thalia fell asleep a little while ago. i know it is early but i am going to tidy up the kitchen and try to get some early rest myself. hopefully tonight will go better than last night. wish us luck!
we miss you all so much. hopefully we can connect with some of you over the holiday. if not, north carolina is about 30 degrees warmer than michigan and indiana right now :o) thalia and i would love some visitors!!

much, much love and very little sleep
c, c, and t