December

Ah, New Years Resolutions... mine is to post in a more timely manner and return my wonderful friends emails within 24 hours. Perhaps I should stop there :).

December was an amazing month for us, Olivia's first Christmas season was extra special. Since I have been so bad at posting we have a monthly recap.


After Santa Pictures on the 2nd, which kicked off the month in fantastic fashion, Maw Maw and Paw Paw Delaune came all the way from Lockport, LA to visit Ms. Olivia, their 4th grandchild. We had a relaxing few days at the beach and a couple of fun ones in Seattle. Olivia soaked it all up and we all had a great time. Ms. O also had an important first, her first trip to the Pike Place Market, an all time favorite of her parents.




Then came the unexpected first, snow, snow and more snow. WOW, we thought it would never end, and it felt like it never did. What fun to see Seattle covered in a winter wonderland, and after a while you give up hope of getting anywhere, snuggle down and enjoy each other. Perfect timing with an infant. Yes, we took pictures of Olivia but the dog's view puts it all in perspective. The snow started sometime on the 18th and I cannot even remember when it stopped.




By the 20th we were getting a little cabin fever and made the rookie move of deciding to go to the Symphony. Ok, for the record it was mom's rookie move. Olivia loves music and is a great baby, what I forgot is that she likes to sing along with the music... oops. Also, so you know, children under 5 are not welcome at Beneroya Hall, probably for good reason. Anyway, we had fun and Olivia got some exposure to Handel and a great shot with Grandma.





Christmas was at Sister Sue's this year. We had a big sleepover with all of the Aunts, Uncles and Cousins on Cassandra's side. We all got some quality time with each other and Olivia was the Christmas Angel. Although many wonderful pictures were taken, this first one sums up the feel of the holiday and is a favorite.







For all of you keeping count, Olivia turned 3 months on the 28th. This past month she continued to become more expressive and discovered her hands, grabbing, laughing, cooing, and we are having fun with all of her changes, as we are sure all new parents do. We continue to be thankful for her in every way.

SANTA!

Santa Pictures were today and Olivia was a dream! Grandma Nancy came with us, held our spot in line and reveled in her Grandaughter. Everyone tells us this will be our easiest year, you'll have to check back to see if that is indeed true! But for this year we are happy that there was no meltdowns and Ms. O was awake and content to be the center of attention. I wonder what she asked Santa for?

Two Months Old Today!

This past month Olivia started to smile, first at Dad, then Mom, then everyone else. She met her cousin Claire, is starting to take in the world around her and to celebrate her 2 month birthday, she rolled over! Yes, we were enjoying some tummy time and Ms. O decided to push off and roll onto her back, we were quite surprised.

Then we embarked on the Delaune Family tradition of getting our Christmas Tree the day after Thanksgiving. We look back at the past pictures amazed, enjoy today and look forward to tomorrow.

First Thanksgiving

Olivia enjoyed everything about Thanksgiving. She was awake most of the day and held by everyone, three times! She loved the attention, and slept for 8 straight hours that night. A win-win all around. We had a wonderful dinner at Aunt Sue's house. Olivia looked extra special in her Thanksgiving dress from Cousin Jennifer, Chris and Claire. We have so much to be thankful for this year and it was perfect to spend the day with family and friends.

Sweet Pea!

Halloween was super scary this year, although you would not know it from our little Sweet Pea. Olivia melted for the entire day, so in order to get pictures of her in her costume Halloween lasted for a week at the Delaune household. We were going to get pictures of her inside a big pumpkin, but by the time we even considered that move, the pumpkin had molded. Oh well. Thankfully, as we now know, she was nearing the end of her super fussy time.

One Month Old Today!

What a month! The days fly by like hours. We are having a wonderful time getting to know our girl. She is changing as quickly as everyone said she would. She has a strong loud cry, long beautiful fingers and toes, black-brown hair like her dad, and has just started to smile with her eyes; hopefully the real deal is not far behind.
She is healthy, gaining weight and happy... sometimes. :)
Learning to be parents is all we heard it would be, difficult to explain, challenging, and, quite funny. We laugh alot at ourselves and occasionally at her. She is quite patient with us and we are grateful for that.
Much love!

The Big Day

Olivia Sophia Delaune was born on Sunday night, September 28, at 11:09 pm. After a Saturday night with intermittent "practice contractions", we woke up Sunday morning and went with our usual routines. We have breakfast, watch a little Sunday morning TV, and Cassandra brings me to work before she heads off downtown to go to work herself. Except on this Sunday morning, I asked if I should take the car to work.
"I'll be just fine, these are just Braxton-Hicks practice contractions", to paraphrase the response I got to that question.

Well, a few of hours later, she had called the doula, as well as me at work, to let us know that they were a bit more intense than she first thought, and that I might be needed later if they continued. It turns out later was about 15 minutes later, with the message loud and clear: come on home.
It just so happens that this was a bright and sunny Sunday, about 70 degrees, which those who have experienced the UW Waterfront Activities Center know is a very busy day. I called my boss, let him know he was about to be short a supervisor, and hopped in a cab home.

We labored for a few hours at home with the doula, which went quite well, and the contractions continued to intensify. It was time to get to the birth center, except there was one small snag. There was no way Cassandra was taking a car ride to the Eastside! "Do you want to have her at home? Can we have her at home? Let's have her at home!", and it was settled. The midwife was summoned to the house after she took a short trip to the Eastside for our files and her home birth kit, and we progressed beautifully from there. Seven hours of active labor and 30 minutes of pushing later, Olivia was ready to take on her new world.

Everyone tells you the birth of your child will be a life-changing experience, but we could not fully appreciate it until we actually experienced it. Neither of us could hold back the tears through the incredible rush of raw emotions , especially her daddy. Her pure innocence and beauty is stamped on our hearts forever.

You can see many more pictures of the big day at :
http://oliviasophiadelaune.shutterfly.com/events/4

Prepping for our sweet girl

With a due date quickly approaching, clearly the new Dad was going to need help setting up the "baby's room", which, by the way, is a term used loosely when you live downtown in 900 square feet.

Turns out he had nothing to worry about. With Mom there to help oversee things, our new little girl's nook turned out fabulous.

Next up was a savvy combination of brick-and-mortar and online shopping to assemble the myriad of accessories which would shortly be needed. Luckily, we tend to live by the "less is better" motto, which has truly been tested these past few weeks.