Welcome Baby Claire!

She's here!  Winnie welcomed her new baby, Claire, last week! 

Claire 1 Day Old

Here are the stats:

• 7lbs. 11oz.
• 20 inches
• September 1, 2011 @ 1:47am

Since we've come home from the hospital Winnie has been a champ!  She's been cool, collected, and very attentive.  Winnie has a very concerned look whenever Claire cries (which luckily is not over the top) as if to say "Hey!  Our baby needs something!"  And she sits up with me at all of our midnight feedings. 

Claire is a VERY good baby... the only trouble she's given us is that she's sort of a reluctant eater.  This cute little girl just gets too cozy whenever we settle in for a feeding and falls asleep!  Winnie, being the helpful corgi that she is, will sit next to us on the couch (when invited) and give Claire's feet a few good licks... this wakes Claire right up and we're good to go!  Thanks Win!

I'll try and get some pictures of the two of these guys over the next week or so.  I haven't quite figured out how to juggle a camera and a baby yet but we're learning as we go.  Thanks for all the well wishes!

New Trick! (spin)

Being that I'm less than two weeks away from my due date my energy level has been L-O-W to say the least.  Winnie has been a terrific sport. She's really given me a break by not demanding a walk everyday and just sort of keeping me company on the couch when I can't muster up the energy for anything more.  But like every dog... she needs more. 

This is the face of a dog who needs more...

My solution:  New Dog Tricks!

Brilliant, right?

I thought so, too. 

I downloaded an iPhone app called 101 Best Dog Tricks.  Now, it's actually only 10 dog tricks (a few that we would all already know such as "sit").  It's sort of a teaser app to get you to buy the book... 101 Best Dog Tricks, which I may because I like the app so far.  Here's what it looks like:



Each trick has step by step instructions, a short video demo and a "log" feature so you can record up to 20 training sessions for each trick... it's good for us people to remember that once isn't always enough to really "learn" something.  For .99 cents... I'd say great... money well spent.  

So, I waddled out to the back yard and Winnie and I started learning the new trick "spin"  Kind of a dorky trick BUT it IS something we can do together that keeps her thinking with a little outdoor play that doesn't completely poop me out.  I think this will be a good little discipline for us for a while.  What do you think? 



This is the face of a happy dog... that just had lots of treats... yum.  :-)

Nursery Update

Okay... so here's what's been going on the last few weeks. 

1. We've "finished" our basement.  (And I use that term loosely...)
2. Moved all of our office furniture and supplies TO the basement, a.k.a our new office
3. Moved all of our nursery goodies TO the old office, a.k.a. the new nursery

Whew!  Our so called "finished" basement got that way by tearing out some old gross flooring and putting in some bright new paint.  We've also unloaded a few boxes of IKEA furniture down there but don't have it assembled yet.  Winnie, rightly so, as been focusing our attention on the nursery.

This daughter of ours is already one VERY loved little girl.  Our family, friends, and community have gifted her more than she could possibly need.  So we started by taking things out of the lovely gift wrapping and putting it in like categories around the parameter of the room... Winnie had her eye on a very cute stuffed duck.  I wonder how long we'll be able to keep her from it after our little one starts playing with it. 


Herders also make great sorters... look at what I did!

Next was assembling the furniture so we actually had some place to PUT everything.


I'm not at all convinced these guys know what their doing.
  I'm going to supervise from the hall way so I don't get assembled up into the dresser... *sigh. 

When all was said and done we ended up with this...

I still need to find a themed lamp and window dressing but in all pratical ways we're ready!

... a close up of the crib.

 After painting the basement we decided that wall decals were a much easier way to go for the nursery and being that cute corgi decals are hard to find we settled for woodland creatures.  :-) 

Our official due date is September 3rd so we're only a few weeks out!  Everything has been going great - other than the usual, uncomfortable tiredness that seems to be my life now.  I'll keep you posted as our household grows by one!  :-)