Colette's Blessing

 When my parents were here we blessed Colette. We chose to do it at home because she was a little young to take her to church. I liked doing it at home. It felt more intimate and relaxed.

 Jason gave her a beautiful blessing. We invited my cousin's family to come. So it was our family, my parents, Arn's family and the bishop.

 Colette wore the same dress I wore when I was blessed. It was made by my Grandma Castellaw. I love that she has that connection to me and her great grandma. She also wore a bracelet from my dear friend Sharon Hulton. It came with a sweet poem about wearing the bracelet as a ring when she gets married.

Colette at 2 Months

 Colette is so incredibly happy. She laughs and smiles all the time. Unless I get out the camera of course. She seems to be so intrigued by it. She will just focus on it and wait for it to do something.

 At her two month appointment she weighted 10 lbs 3 oz and was 21.5 inches long. She is still in the 25th percentile for everything but she is growing, so that's good.

 She is a fabulous eater and prefers to eat every 2 1/2 hours during the day.

 At night she is an expert sleeper. She goes 6-9 hours at night. And she came that way. I keep thinking I might somehow break this amazing habit. Hopefully not. During the day she prefers to doze. She will take 30 to 45 minute naps in her bed a few times a day but if we're out she will doze in the sling.

Her hair is getting a little lighter and her eyes are a lighter blue. We'll see what color they end up. Jason's are green and Calder and I have grayish colored eyes.

Sibling Love

 We knew Calder would be the best big brother. He really has been fabulous in accepting and loving Colette.

 There hasn't ever been a hint of jealousy or dislike towards her.

 He is protective, gentle, helpful and very happy.

 He prefers not to leave the house without her and is always concerned with her well being.

  If she's crying he runs down the checklist of potential problems.

  It is the sweetest thing to watch him interact with her.

 And she is totally enthralled with him.

(Calder is laughing because Colette is pinching his nipple)

The Worst Week

We have had the worst week ever. We just could not catch a break. Last Friday our power went out due to a very beautiful storm. It was quite impressive to watch the storm out our 13th floor windows. It was like a strobe light. 

Saturday morning Jason and Calder were supposed to fly to Colorado for a family reunion. Calder, Jason, Colette and I all woke up around 4:00 to get the boys to the airport. Colette hates her carseat but she did pretty well on this trip. The boys got to the airport and through security before the flight was cancelled. They were told it was due to aircraft servicing. The next flight wasn't until the next day and since they were scheduled to fly home on Sunday it didn't make any sense to do that. So, they were refunded the money for their tickets and called me to come back and get them. Did I mention Colette hates her car seat? Yep, she totally does and screams most of the time she is in it. This was not a good trip for her.

Since the power was still not on we went to spend the morning with some friends. They also were without power but they did have a basement! It was so nice to hang out and chat for a bit in the cool basement. After that we headed to a hotel at National Harbor. I had only been there once and was surprised how beautiful it was. We enjoyed some family time. My mom was staying with us at this point and got to come along for our adventures. 

The next night we moved to a hotel in Arlington so Jason could commute to work on the Metro. Checking in was a total fiasco. They didn't have our room cleaned yet and it was 5:30! So we went to the restaurant at the hotel for dinner and then finally went to our room. The only room they had available was a king suite. So my poor mom had to sleep on a roll away bed. Thankfully it was only for one night. 

The next morning my mom flew back home. As I was backing out of the parking spot in hotel garage to take her to the airport (again around 4:00 AM) I turned too soon and crashed into a cement pylon. I dented the door and totally took off the driver's side rear view mirror. I was so upset and honestly, so tired. My poor mom kept trying to chat on the way to the airport but I just stewed. Ugh. Thankfully she's pretty forgiving. Thankfully Jason is pretty forgiving too. 

The next few days we got into the routine of living in a hotel. Jason would go to work. Calder, Colette and I would hang out at the hotel and then take the shuttle to the mall. We would try to kill as much time there as possible before returning to the hotel in the afternoon. The hotel did have a pool but Calder only got in once for about 10 minutes. He decided it was too cold. 

So that brings us to today (Thursday). We got word this morning that the power was back on in our apartment. Unfortunately when it did the air conditioner blew a fuse and so we had power and running water but no air conditioning. At 10:00 this morning they were very optimistic that it would be fixed in just a few hours. I made arrangements to check out of the hotel at 2:00 and drive home, expecting to have air conditioning. We didn't. In fact, we didn't have air conditioning until around 8:45 tonight. The thermostat read 90 degrees when the air conditioner finally came on. To stay cool we had a very leisurely trip to the grocery store and spent time in the car with the air on. Colette was not in her car seat. Thank goodness.

So yeah, that's our crappy week. But, there have been some really great things this week too. 

National Harbor is a beautiful place to be. Even in the worst circumstances. 

 Colette smiles all the time now.

 Calder is a fabulous kid and is happy to make a game out of anything.

 He is also very patient while I feed Colette. Again, making up his own games to play by himself.

Although Jason and Calder didn't make it to the reunion I was so thankful to have Jason around when it was time to decide what to do about our lack of power.

We get Starwood points from our credit card and therefore only had to pay for one night at the hotel.

Although Colette hates her car seat she loves the sling. She spent much of her time in it over the last week.

It was nice to have my mom here to help out.

Since the building we live in has a generator for the elevators and emergency lights some of our outlets worked. We were able to move our fridge a bit and plug it in. Thankfully all our food wasn't lost. 

When I took the car in on Wednesday to get the mirror replaced they came in under what they estimated and were faster than estimated. I think I may start driving to the dealer in Arlington instead of Rockville because of it.

And the last great thing is I found a cute shirt at the mall. Yay me.

The Last Few Weeks

 Here's a photo dump from the last few weeks. We've been having fun for sure. Calder and Colette love each other dearly. It is so fun to see her respond to him and him protect her.

 Colette's first outing.

 Calder doing a science experiment.We've been spending a lot more time at home these days, so Pinterest has been supplying lots of fun activities for us to do.

 I love these two pictures. Colette was crying and Calder wanted to sooth her with her bunny. It worked! He is such a great brother.

 He made the Washington Monument out of playdough.

Colette prefers to be held (what baby doesn't). Thankfully she will also occasionally tolerate the bouncy seat.

More Pictures

Welcome Summer

 Since Colette was born Calder has wanted to stay home. He doesn't want to be apart from Colette and it takes a lot of convincing to get him to take her out of the house. Thankfully we've had a few outings. We went to Target (by myself with 2 kids!!!!), the park and Trader Joes. I think it's been a successful few weeks.

 The building next door had their sprinklers on and I suggested Calder run through them. It is rare that he wants to get wet spontaneously but he was all over these sprinklers. He ran for a good 10 minutes and got completely wet. We continued our walk after this and went to the park. He was one happy, wet kid.

 After taking Jason's mom to visit his office we walked over a block to the White House.

 One of my dear friends brought over cupcakes and frosting for Calder to decorate. He LOVED it. It was such a sweet gesture. The tulips in the picture are from another dear friend. I have been so incredibly spoiled. I have the best friends. They are a fabulous support system for me.

 This is one of the rare pictures of Colette with her eyes open. She sleeps a lot. And I'm not complaining.

 Calder introduced Colette to the play gym.

 And the swing.

 Grandma Kate gets to have a sleep over with Calder every night! Calder loves it. When my parents come they will get to have a sleepover with him too. He is so happy about this.

 After a bath.

Colette's Birth

 Okay, here's the birth story. If you're not interested, don't worry I have lots of other pictures of my adorable kids to share, so just skip this one. 

On Friday May 18 I went and got my haircut in the afternoon. It was wonderful and much needed. On the way back home I thought maybe I was feeling contractions but I wasn't really sure. I had never really had Braxton Hicks contractions so I didn't really know what they were like. After we got home I started timing them and realized they were 5 minutes apart and lasting 30 seconds but I couldn't feel anything, my muscles were just getting tighter. This continued for a few hours and I just wrote them off. They continued through the evening and stopped around 9:30. Then I didn't feel anything until...

At 11:00 PM the real contractions started. They were every 4 minutes and lasting at least a minute and definitely felt like real contractions. After an hour of these we called the doctor and left for the hospital. Our sweet friends Matt & Laura (who live in the building next door) came over to stay with Calder so he didn't have to go to someone's house and he could just sleep.

We got to Shady Grove Hospital around 12:30. It took them a while to get all the paperwork done and ask about a million questions in the triage area. They finally checked me and I was 7cm. I have to admit I was a little bummed I wasn't fully dilated like I was with Calder, but all well. Things were moving fast. The doctor came in around 2:45. I had two contractions after he got there and felt like he should check me. And, luckily it was go time! He broke my water around 3:08 and Colette was born at 3:14. She was born on the second push.

So, if you count just the real contractions her labor was 4 hours long. It was just the right amount of time to get to the hospital I wanted to deliver at without spending too much time there. 

Colette's name is just a name we liked. Similar to Calder's. We didn't seek out names that start with C and we aren't starting a theme here. We just really love the name. Colette's middle name (Abigail) is after Abigail Adams. I love the strong influence she had over John's political opinions and I love that she was not afraid to speak her mind. She is a fabulous role model.

Calder loved playing with the moveable bed at the hospital. He had a special night with Jason the night Colette and I stayed in the hospital. They ordered pizza, got a Redbox movie and just had a great time hanging out. Calder loved it. I missed them terribly! It was rather boring in the hospital by myself and I hated being interrupted all night. Thankfully I only spent one night.