Turkey-less Thanksgiving

This weekend we made the trek up to Rison, AR for the big family Thanksgiving. We didn't know if we were going until a few days before since we weren't sure where we'd be with Zara by this point. But she has been doing great and we decided to try it. Turns out she did awesome. Zara slept most of both the 8hr trip there and back, lulled to sleep by the Audi exhaust, waking only for feedings.

But while we were in Arkansas, she was a hit with the whole family. Zara got to meet her Great-Grandmother Louise which was really important to me to be able to do. Mamaw was happy to see her ninth great-grandchild for sure and we definitely needed to get there for her to see her at our earliest opportunity.

At the traditional Thanksgiving without a turkey at my great aunt Nell's, Zara was also the hit of the afternoon and evening. As far as the meal goes, no one really likes turkey and given that there are probably more than 40 people there, one bird wouldn't do anyway. Besides, who can turn down Gloria's southern fried chicken instead? For Zara, we had a waiting list of people to hold her and the only time she got put down was for diaper changes. I only had her long enough all day to do those diaper changes too. But we also got a picture of all nine of the great-grandkids together for the first time. Great-grandkids 10 and 11 are already baking so this picture will be out of date by June. It was a great weekend and one that makes you thankful those folks are family.

More pictures from the weekdend posted here:

Arkansas Thanksgiving 2009

Baby Games

Who says you don't have a life after baby? Since Call of Duty 2 just came out for PS3, John and I (mostly John) have been playing. Zara is totally cool with this since its compatible with her still getting to sleep on your chest. Video games only require thumbs, just don't get too excited and start moving the controller like its going to help your player move!

Zara also got her first bottle this week for her 1 month birthday. Since we are driving to Arkansas tomorrow for Thanksgiving, we needed to make sure she would take a bottle. Given that the bottle contained food and all she seems to care about is eating, we had no problem. We will still only be giving her bottles when we really have to until daycare starts but at least she will take it without a hint of fuss.

Future Babysitter

Our friends the Wilke's came by the house for a couple hours yesterday. Nine year old Sydney even got to hold Zara for a bit. Then Zara pooped and needed her diaper changed. Unfortunately, I couldn't convince Syd that diaper changing was fun and I still had to go do it.

Pretty in Porcelain

This week we had the old tile removed from our old house and new "neutral" tile put down. It was an expense we could have done without but ultimately we managed to get it done for roughly what we would have expected to shell out in a flooring allowance on the sale. So it is probably a wash in the overall cost to us, but will be a big plus if it makes the house sell faster. Someone went to look at the house mid-construction when no tile was down and they liked the house enough to want to come back when it was done. Maybe we are on the right track, we'll find out.

Here are before and after pics. If we were staying in the house we would have updated the flooring for ourselves and we wish it looked like this before. What do you think?

Before:


After:

Newborn Pictures

We had a professional photographer friend of ours take newborn pictures of Zara. Here is the slideshow from the session. We'll be ordering some keepsake photos from these, but enjoy.

http://photojenicinc.com/Slideshows/oct2009_merancy/

Higher Education

Our pediatrician recommended elevating one end of Zara's bed, this is supposed to minimize reflux and stuff. Even though Zara hasn't had a problem, we went ahead and did it just to reduce the chance she starts having issues. For now Zara is sleeping in our room in the pack and play and here is a shot of the jack stands. We are finally putting our education to good use.


And here is the most recent picture of our long, skinny monchhichi...

Apparently It Is "That Bad"

We are currently the owners of two houses and wish we owned only one, but, unfortunately, our old house is still on the market. It has now been on the market for two months and that sucks because most of the houses in the neighborhood are moving pretty quick. When John and I bought the house, we thought the green tile in the house "wasn't that bad" and we bought it anyway and lived with it.

Apparently, only the first owners liked it enough to put it in, we didn't mind it, and no one else agrees with either of us. The only real comments we get on the house for feedback are "out of our price range" or "hate the green tile". So we are now going to have to spend money to remove and replace the loathsome tile just to get our house to sell. Argh. We were willing to give a flooring allowance on the sale, but no one can see past the green tile it seems to get that far.

While I'd love to put in something cheap (e.g. carpet) our realtor thinks we should put in another (non-green) tile to keep the home value. I think our home value is there with carpet given all the other upgrades, but we haven't totally decided what to do. Whatever it is we are going to do it fast so we can try and move this house. Just sucks. Essentially we are going to guess at a neutral flooring and spend money on it and it may or may not get a buyer.

Lesson learned from all this: Never buy a house with something that makes it hard to accept/resell unless you immediately fix whatever the problem is and can enjoy it yourself.

Weekend Update

Not much to report for the weekend. We are getting into the swing of things and starting to work out a routine with Zara. She is doing well and we made it through the airshow with the Blue Angels dive bombing our house okay. Just a few times it startled her, but she was mostly able to sleep through them.

I did screw up and forget the diaper bag when we made a run to the store, but Zara slept until we got back. Then she UNLOADED in her diaper, like full capacity unloaded (but not a blowout). Really I think this girl likes us. She waits to go until we have backup diapers available again, she delivered according to a plan, and she likes to eat and isn't fussy. I am now waiting to find out what the catch is, but right now I'm smitten and Daddy is too.