Sweet Girls

This past weekend, we got to travel to Springfield again to visit with our sweet nieces... and their parents. :) It was Ian's first chance to meet Hannah, who turned one-month-old while we were there this weekend. She's growing so quickly! Apparently, Emma is turning out to be an awesome big sister - naturally. She loves the baby and is always concerned about where she is. Isabelle loves her cousin Emma, too. Izzy always smiles when Emma's around. Unfortunately, Izzy generally did not have a good visit this time around. Who knows about the mysterious ways of babies, but there was something that upset her about being at Kev & Mandy's. She was super-fussy all the time we spent there. Blah. BUT, Emma was the sweetest, most precious big cousin ever. Izzy has a little ducky she loves and a lovey blanket. Emma similarly has a lovey and stuffed animal she loves so. One night when Izzy was crying and crying, Emma brought Izzy's lovey to her. That didn't work, so then Emma brought Izzy her ducky. Throughout the visit, she also tried giving Izzy bottles and Hannah's paci. :) Basically, everything Emma finds comforting. Sweet girl! I'm so happy for Izzy that she has two wonderful Costello cousins who are so close to her in age. I hope they're always so sweet to each other. :)

My Sweet Little Valentine

For Valentine's Day, I thought it would be nice to give Ian a good picture of "his girls" for his office. Then, I thought it wouldn't really be nice to leave him out of the photos, so it became our first family photo session. The baby girl was so good - especially considering we did this in the middle of her naptime. We didn't get any huge smiles, but there were some little ones. She was generally very serious and curious about all the things to see. Here are a few favorites...
Ready to be a ballerina!

Casual family shot.
In her beautiful Christmas dress from Uncle Dave & Aunt Cortney
Our formal family shot (complete with a small smirk from the baby girl).

You can see the rest of our pics here. Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's weekend!

Fuzzy Brain

Oh, I'm a mess today. So, Izzy has her first little cold. :( Poor baby girl. Even though we were 99% sure it was just a little cold, I took her to the doctor today. She's been grabbing her ears a lot and I wasn't sure if it was because she'd just found them or they were hurting. I just wanted to make sure, especially since she's still so little. So, when I was trying to take her to her appointment, I drove to my OB's office instead of the pediatrician's! Heavens. I didn't realize it until I was in the parking lot of the medical complex, trying to figure out where the best place to park would be... trying to remember which side the office was on... oh, right. Not even here. :) Oy. I did make it to the doctor and during the exam, I realized I'd put the poor baby's pants on backwards. I mentioned this & the office mishap to the PA and she asked if I've been getting enough sleep. Apparently not. :)

So, that made me think about my sleep last night. I normally have pretty involved, complicated dreams, but last night's was ridiculous. Some of the highlights included the following: frantically trying to catch a train (a Chicago Metra one, incidentally) to Rolla, MO, with a large group of random people in my life; carrying my screaming baby while running across the train tracks, hopping on the back of the train & climbing up onto the roof; being shot at by the blind guy from American Idol (thankfully, he's blind and not a very good shot); my neighbor being shot & killed by Kelly Ripa (Sorry, Sheila! If it helps, I was devastated) but then turning out not to be dead after all. Like I said, just some of the highlights. :) Maybe that's why I'm so tired today!

Taking Questions...

I've been all about the questionaires lately! I think I've just come across a lot of them, but it's also nice to take some time and be reflective. That's been a little more difficult to do post-baby, but is still important, I think. So, here's an interview game I got from my friend, Heather. I agreed for her to ask me any 5 questions and I would post the answers on my blog.

1. If you could have a date night with your husband, and could do anything or go anywhere without any worries about Izzy, what would you do? Where would you go?

If there were no limits on anything, I'd totally go to Paris for the night... eat at a fabulous bistro, watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle, and eat a crepe. We were able to go to Paris a couple years ago and it was amazing how wonderful it was for us. Beyond the fact that it was Paris and therefore fabulous, we both found that the way the French culture "encourages" (i.e. forces, in some cases) you to slow down and savor moments was so what we needed at the time. I think that was especially true for Ian. We went right at the end of his 5-year general surgery residency and when we left the US, he was pretty beaten down, tired and bitter. I used to tease him when we were on vacation that after a few days, "my old Ian" would suddenly reappear and he'd be the happy, laid-back, positive guy I fell for ages ago. I think when we were in Paris, he finally really understood what I meant and was able totally appreciate eating slowly, just sitting in a cafe and not doing anything but watching and chatting. The other thing I'd love for a date night is to stay in a hotel. That was our big thing when we lived in Chicago. For birthdays and such, we'd go out to eat somewhere nice in the city and then stay in a hotel that night. For one, it was beautiful not to have to drive back to the 'burbs when we were full & sleepy. Mostly, though, staying in a hotel always made it feel like we were really having a get-away. It's really hard for Ian to let go of work and what's going on with his patients unless he's physically removed from the area. If we stayed in a hotel, it was easier for him to disconnect from the hospital. And for me, I just love hotels. :)

2. If you could pick one song that most represents where you are in life, what would it be and why?
Gosh, this one is hard! Here's my answer for now, but I'm reserving the right to edit it if I think of a better one. :) I think "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" might be it for a few reasons. First, thanks to the Wizard of Oz, it makes me think of Kansas and that's the physical answer to where I am in life right now. :) Second, it makes me think of Isabelle. I read somewhere that if you play a song frequently to your baby while he or she is still in the womb, it will be very soothing to them after they're born. I wasn't sure that I believed that, but figured I may as well give it a try. It was hard to pick a song I wouldn't get tired of and finally settled on Iz's medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World." For the record, it has totally worked. So, that's the song I most associate with her and she is absolutely the focus of my life right now. Finally, I sometimes feel like I must be living in that place where happy little bluebirds fly. I feel very richly blessed. [In a way it's hard to say that because so many people struggle in so many ways and I always feel hesitant to say something like this and imply that God somehow loves one person more than another... see #4 - particularly about me making my head spin - but I am so very thankful for all of the wonderful things in my life.] To borrow a phrase from a friend, I feel disproportionately lucky in life. I have SO much to be grateful for that when I stop to consider it, I sometimes feel like it must be a fairy land that will disappear in a poof at some point. :)

3. If you had to shop at only 3 stores for the rest of your life, which three would you choose and why?

1. Super Target (which would take care of all basic needs, food & Starbucks) :)
2. Gap (specifically, the Super Gap on Michigan Ave that has all the Gaps - maternity & baby included - under one roof and would thus provide us with clothing forever)
3. Macy's (It has everything! Clothing, furniture, housewares, accessories, shoes, etc., etc. Oh, how I miss you!)
   

4. What is your biggest pet peeve? What habits do you have that may be irritating to others?
It really drives me crazy when people are very critical of others and I'll include bigotry and prejudice in with that. Ignorance is usually part of that, which is also frustrating to me. Ignorance itself is not a problem, since we're all ignorant of various things and no one can fully understand anything. I get totally frustrated when people are not open to learning or seeing another perspective and choose to remain ignorant. I think that so much conflict would disappear if we used more time and energy to really try to understand each others' context, values and so on. I have a really hard time forming strong opinions about a lot of things because I get wrapped up in varying perspectives to the point that my head spins. So, it really bugs me when I run into people who do the opposite and won't consider the world from someone else's perspective. Goodness, I'm sure I have plenty of irritating habits. I think the two biggest are procrastinating and letting myself get overwhelmed easily. The procrastination one is pretty straight-forward. For the other, it's not uncommon for me to give Ian a long list of all the things that are wrong and tell him the sky is falling. God love him, he's so patient and does his best to help me sort through it all, but I'm sure I try his patience!

5. If you had to uproot your entire family and move out of the country, where would you choose to live and why?

Although I've never been there, I think I would go to Nice, France, for purely selfish, impractical reasons. I've always loved France (see #1) and I've always wanted to live by a body of water big enough that I can't see land on the other side (any ocean, sea or Great Lake would do). Besides, look at this! How could life not be fabulous here?? :)

If you would like to play along here are the directions:
1. Leave me a comment & your e-mail address saying, "Interview me." If you dare.
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. (You get to choose the questions.)

The first five 'askers' get the interview!

3 Months!

It's hard to believe how quickly our baby girl is growing! She's 14 weeks old already. I meant to do this post last week, but a GI bug got the better of me. Now that we're over that, here are some highlights of life with Isabelle lately...
She's so fun right now! She's babbling like crazy and has lots of great stories to tell all of her "friends" every day. She's also smiling and squealing a lot and I've heard her laugh a few times. It's funny how many new things she's started doing over the past couple of weeks... rubbing her eyes when she's tired, pulling things into her mouth, grabbing toys dangling above her, trying really hard to roll over, etc., etc. She really loves her little activity mat. She's been spending quite a bit of time on it lately, kicking, babbling, & swinging at her toys like crazy. She's so alert to everything around her. I love to see her furrow her little brow when there's something new and see her wheels spinning. We've had some glorious weather for the past few days and we took advantage of this on Saturday for our first family trip to the zoo. This entailed a lot of brow-furrowing. :) We had an awesome, close-up look at the giraffes because one of them seemed to be closer to the rail than she was really supposed to be. :) (Thank goodness it was a giraffe and not a bear or a lion or something!) She was giving some food to the adolescent giraffe. So cute, right? One of the other recent highlights (and the most major one, of course) is that Isabelle and I got to travel to Springfield to be there for the birth of my new niece, Hannah Sue Costello. Hannah was born at 9:56 pm on Thursday, Jan. 22. She's such an adorable little peanut. She's almost the exact same size Isabelle was when she was born - just 1 ounce lighter. We're hoping to get back down there soon so Ian can meet our sweet niece and, of course, spend some time with Mandy, Kevin and Emma!