Ally has fun with a new toy

Ally is having a ton of fun with a new toy, and even throws in a couple da-da's.

Another semester finished

Winter break is here! I turned in my exams this week and Ben has submitted his final grades, so we are now enjoying a bit of rest from school for the next couple weeks. We often talk about how busy each semester is and how hard we work; trying to complete assignments, study for tests, prep for class lectures, write exams, grade papers, find time to do research and write papers, etc. But as busy as it can be and as stressed out as we may get, I have to say that it feels so good when the semester ends and you know that you automatically have a long break where you don't have to do any of that stuff. The academic calendar is pretty nice after all.

Ally in a dump truck

This is a dump truck that I had when I was little. My dad used to push it down the hall with me in it and I remember that it was a blast. We have passed the dump truck down to Ally, and she really enjoys being pushed in it too, as you can clearly see from the expression on her face. When we move into our new house next month, we'll have some hallway space for optimal dump truck riding. Vroom vroom!

Thanksgiving pics

We spent Thanksgiving with Ben's family in Kentucky. Here are some pics from our trip.

Ben and our nephew Isaac. He just turned 6!

Ally snoozing with her uncle Paul

Ally and me petting Penny the chocolate lab

And for some pics that I pulled off my brother- and sister-in-law's blog:

Ally, Simon, and Ethan crawling on Ben

Ally checking out her brand new cousin Rachel

Ethan, Ally, and Simon. Add in Rachel, and one can only guess what kind of mischief those 4 will be getting into a year or so from now!

Ally learns 3 new skills

Ally must be making a bunch of new neuronal connections because she premiered 3 new skills today.

1. Clapping her hands. I did not personally witness this, but the woman who takes care of her during the day told me that she clapped today.

2. Splashing in the bathtub.

3. Pulling up to a standing position.

And so it begins. . .

Holiday gifts

Okay, with the holidays coming at us sooner than we think, I guess it is time to start our holiday shopping. Over the last couple years, Ben and I have made some of the gifts we've given rather than buying them from a store (examples: slate tile coasters, home-made banana bread, and Ben's single balancing wine bottle holder). This year, we'll probably do the same.

Now, for those of you who are reading our blog are trying to figure out what to get us for Christmas, here are some ideas.

1. A new house (just kidding, but seriously if you have a few hundred thousand dollars sitting around that you're looking to invest, there is some nice stuff for sale here in Chapel Hill).

2. Gift cards. Favorite places include Whole Foods, Target, Babies R Us, clothing stores like Old Navy and Kohls, and various restaurants.

3. Nothing. Honestly, we are a blessed little family surrounded by a great college town, great friends, good jobs, financial security, and a perfect baby girl (I can say that right now because she is sound asleep upstairs). Those are the best gifts.

Update on Ben's eye

Ben's scratched cornea is healing. Most of the pain is gone, and he was able to drive into work today. Yesterday he stayed home and quickly found that it's hard to keep yourself entertained if you can't use your eyes much. So therefore, he is quite happy that this injury is healing quickly. When I told our friends Matt and Victoria about Ben's eye, they commented that their baby Elaina has also inflicted injury on both of them with her fingernails-in the form of bloody noses.

So just to warn anyone who may come into contact with Ally or any other 6-ish month old baby, you might want to wear some protective goggles and a noseguard. Actually, a helmet might also be a good idea because hair-pulling is fair game too. Actually, just wear an astronaut helmet to be safe!

Recent adventures

This week has been a busy one. Ally turned 6 months old on Wednesday and had her well-baby checkup on Thursday. She weighed in a 15 lbs 2 oz, which keeps her between the 25th and 50th percentile. She has now sampled rice cereal as well as bananas. She is not a big fan of the rice cereal, and we can't really blame her because the stuff is pretty bland. However, she seems to really enjoy bananas, although more ends up on her hands and face than in her mouth. The doctor said that we should introduce one new food per week in order to control for any potential food sensitivities or allergies. So this week she will continue to eat bananas. In the coming weeks, she will be sampling sweet potatoes, oatmeal, and applesauce (what I happened to buy at the grocery store tonight).

Today we had a Pittsboro Bach Society reading. I haven't written about PBS in a while because I haven't played with them since last November. We played the Bach E major violin concerto and the Bach Double (Bach concerto for two violins in D minor). These are two pieces that I have played multiple times, although probably not since I was in middle school! Our guest soloist was Brian Reagin, the concertmaster of the NC Symphony, and I think it was one of our best concerts yet.

This morning also brought another adventure, although one that we really could have done without. Ben suffered a scratched cornea, thanks to one of Ally's thumbnails. So at 10:30am, we took a little trip to the Chapel Hill Urgent Care clinic because Ben was in a very large amount of pain and really couldn't open his eye. He's doing a little better now, although he had to cancel his classes for tomorrow because he probably won't be able to see well enough to drive out to Elon. Luckily these things heal within a few days, so hopefully he'll be good as new by mid-week.

Pictures from Halloween

Ally has her first meal of rice cereal. I let her play with her own spoon, but she still insisted on trying to feed herself with the spoon I was holding.

Eating (and wearing) rice cereal.

Ally checks out the Halloween candy to be handed out to trick-or-treaters.

Ally makes a very good porch ornament next to the oversized butternut squash.

The newest Evans baby is here!

Last night, Ben's brother Paul and wife Alicia delivered their new baby. Her name is Rachel Grace Evans. She joins big brothers Isaac and Ethan, several cousins on Alicia's side of the family, and cousins Simon and Ally on the Evans side of the family. There are now 5 Evans grandchildren; 3 of whom were born within a span of 6 months! Thanksgiving is going to be a blast!

Fall Favorites

Here are my 10 favorite things about fall, in no particular order:

1. Fall Break. My fall break was Thursday and Friday, and it was really nice not to have to go to class. Plus, my advisor let me have those two days off from the lab so I could have some time with Ally.

2. Pumpkins. This includes pumpkins as they are, jack-o-lanterns, pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin lattes, etc.

3. Apple cider. Actually, I'm drinking some right now!

4. Chai.

5. Cool crisp days. It makes for excellent running weather.

6. Cozy fall fashions, such as scarves and sweaters.

7. Thanksgiving. Three reasons: excellent food, a chance to hang out with friends and family, and 3 days off from school.

8. My birthday.

9. The changing colors on the trees.

10. The smell of a wood fire burning.

What are some of your fall favorites?

Ally works on sitting

Ally turned 5 months old today. Over the last month, her personality has started to come out and she is beginning to master new feats of strength, including improved rolling over (both ways), sitting up, grasping at just about everything with her reach, and raising her chest supported by her arms while lying on her tummy. Here are a few pics I took today of her sitting by herself, and a short video of her playing with a toy.






Ally also had a bad cough this week. We called the doctor's office on Wednesday morning, and they seemed to think she had croup. We kept her at home on Wednesday and Thursday so that she could get a bit better before we sent her back to daycare. Her cough has improved a lot and she seems to be back to her old self.

Fun vocabulary

Here are two fun words that I have learned in my classes this semester:

From my multivariate statistics class: Kurtosis
Sounds like a disease, but it really has to do with the flatness or peakedness of a curve. Even more fun are the related terms platykurtic and leptokurtic.

From my clinical measurement/evaluation class: Schistosomiasis
The professor that teaches this class is an infectious diseases doctor, so he used this disease in one of our class examples. Actually what happened was that he asked for us to call out a disease, and someone suggested schistosomiasis, but I think they just said it because it sounded cool.

Four months old

Ally had her 4-month well-baby check-up yesterday. She is 13 lbs 8.9 oz and 25.25 inches long, which puts her below the 50th percentile in weight, but approaching the 90th percentile in height. She also got her second round of vaccinations, during which she howled very loudly. However, once I picked her up and fed her, she went back to being her happy self.

For the past two nights, Ally has gone to bed shortly after 8pm. This has been nice, because Ben and I have been able to work on schoolwork after she goes to sleep. I am wondering if this is a real shift in her bedtime, or if she is just doing this for a couple days and will revert back to a later bedtime. I have to say though, Ally has really become a very good nighttime sleeper. She sleeps through the night for the vast majority of the time, and she is even taking some substantial naps during the day at daycare. (Of course I realize that as I write this I may be jinxing myself!) She is becoming more fun every day with her smiles and giggles and interest in everything going on around her.

Ally's Baptism

Ally was baptized at St. Thomas More on Sunday. We were so glad to be able to share the experience with her godparents Jim, Victoria, and Matt, as well as my parents and several of our other friends from church. Afterwards, everyone headed back to our house for a fun spaghetti lunch. Here are some pics from the day.

Fr. Romen anoints Ally on the chest with holy oil

Ally getting dunked (yep, they baptize the babies naked at St. Thomas More!)

Fr. Romen anoints Ally on the head with sacred chrism

Receiving the Light of Christ

After Mass by the baptismal font

With Ally's godparents Matt, Victoria, and Jim

With most of our small group

With my parents

Ally enjoying wearing her baptismal gown my mom made

First week of school

It is that time again: the start of a new school year. After being a stay-at-home mom for the summer, I am now back at school full-time. I will admit, I am glad to be back, although I do miss seeing Ally during the day. I do have a picture of her as my desktop computer background, so at least I can look at her when I want.

Ally now goes to a home daycare about 1.5 miles from our house. She is with 4 other little girls and she is the only baby. Her daycare provider is a Colombian woman, whose family is also parishoners at our church. Ally cried for a little bit the first day, but now she seems to be doing just fine. One thing's for sure, she's definitely getting to see a lot of excitement with 4 other little girls around.

Ben had planning week this week, where he got to go to a lot of faculty meetings. Right now he is dressed up in his PhD regalia, attending Fall Convocation. His classes start on Wednesday.

Grand-Nana would be proud

That her great-granddaughter wore a hat to church today!

Here is Ally in an outfit that our friends Brent and Kristi (former small groupers) gave her. The dress and bloomers are really cute, but the hat is the icing on the cake, in my opinion.

Cabin trip #2

Last weekend, we went back to the mountains of NC to spend a weekend with our small group. It was lots of fun; the only regret is that we couldn't have stayed longer.

Standing at Looking Glass waterfall in the Pisgah National Forest

Ally sleeping during the hike

Ally REALLY asleep during the hike

The whole group

Ally, Elaina, and Rebecca

Visiting Nana and attending Heather's wedding

This past weekend, we traveled to Portsmouth, VA, to attend our friend Heather's wedding and to visit Ben's grandmother. Heather is a good friend of mine from college, and she was the maid of honor in our wedding, so we were excited to share in this special occasion with her and her family. Additionally, Heather asked me to play the violin during the ceremony, so I was excited to be an active part of the wedding.

Very conveniently, Ben's grandmother (his mom's mom; Nana to us, Grand-Nana to Ally) also lives in Portsmouth, so we stayed with her. It was her first time to meet Ally, and she was most excited to show off her new great-granddaughter to her friends. Also, we got to see Ben's uncle BJ and both aunt Lindas, as well as Nana's sister Betty. It was a good visit, and everyone was excited to meet Ally. And of course, the most common comment was "Look at that head of hair!"

Below are some pics from our trip.

Ally and me with the new couple Heather and Eric Poma

Ally napping during the reception

Me playing some prelude music

Ally and her Grand-Nana

Ally meets Willamina Wolf

Ally sleeping with her dog's nose in her mouth

Major sale at Old Navy-Go Now!

Last night, we went shopping at Old Navy to use up a couple gift cards we got for Christmas. I will say that I love Old Navy; it is where I buy virtually all of my clothes. Last night I really loved it because they had so much great stuff in stock; lots of shirts in beautifully vivid colors; and for great prices (lots of buy 1 get 1 half-off deals). I bought 4 shirts and a skirt and saved over $30, and with my gift cards, I only ended up charging about $7 on my Old Navy credit card, for which I also received a $5 coupon to use on my next purchase. So for anyone who is needing some new clothes for the fall, or is having a shopping itch, go to Old Navy now!

In other unrelated news, Ally is now a bi-roller, in that she has rolled from both tummy to back and back to tummy. She doesn't do it all the time, but she usually does it when she is chasing her thumb. Sometimes it is like watching a dog chase its tail.

Ally works on rolling over

Ally has been holding her head up quite well for some time now, but today was the first time she flipped from her tummy to her back. She did it 3 times in a row, one of which I caught on camera. You go girl!

Someone please explain this to me

That one can rock a baby to sleep, hold her in your arms and walk until she falls asleep, or nurse her until she falls asleep, and by sleep, I mean limp as a rag doll and mouth open catching flies, but the second one puts the baby in her crib, swing, or pack 'n' play, she stretches and completely wakes up, wide-eyed, sometimes with howling.

Why does she do this??? I don't understand it!

Ally's latest accomplishment

Ally has successfully isolated her right thumb for her sucking pleasure.

Mark your calendars

Ally's baptism is on September 6th at 11:15am Mass.

A sleeping baby; it's what I like to see!

First round of vaccines

Today, Ally had her 2 month well-baby checkup at the pediatrician's office. They measured her at 23.5 inches long, 11 lbs 3 oz in weight, and a head circumference of 15.5 inches, so she is growing right on schedule. She also got her first set of vaccines, one by mouth and two sets by injection. Ally enjoyed the oral vaccine, as it tasted sweet and salty, but she did not especially enjoy getting jabbed in both her thighs with syringes. Luckily there were two nurses in the room, so they gave the injections simultaneously. Of course, Ally howled, but it was not her loudest (she gets a lot more worked up in her car seat when riding in the car), and she quieted down very quickly when Ben picked her up. She is currently snoozing in her swing, so all seems to be well.

The pediatrician recommended that we should now start establishing a routine with eating and sleeping, particularly at nighttime. Ally generally goes to bed around 11pm, wakes up around 3-4am, and then again around 7-8am, although she has slept through the night on a few occasions. The pediatrician said that we could start getting her to drop the 3-4am feeding, as it will be a lot easier to get her to do it sooner than later. Also, we will be doing a lot more tummy time, as Ally is getting quite good at holding her head steady, so we'll keep reinforcing that with different positions other than just sitting up and lying down on her back.

Ally vs. the caterpillar

And the point goes to. . .the caterpillar?

A new way to play Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor

One of my fellow bell choir members sent around this video of two people playing a section of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. It is quite humorous and a lot of fun to watch!

Another new baby girl!

I am sending a shout-out to my high school/college friend Karyn (Spence) Bondi and her husband Paul, who welcomed a baby girl yesterday morning. Karyn and her baby have the same birthday, which is pretty cool, and she was even able to do a home birth like she had planned. She, like my friend Michelle, also had a quick labor and delivery, with the whole process lasting less than 8 hours. Congrats guys, and we hope Ally gets to meet a new friend soon!

A girl cousin on the way!

So a couple posts ago, I mentioned that Ally has 3 boy cousins and possibly another boy cousin on the way. Well, the possible boy cousin is actually going to be a girl cousin. Paul and Alicia are pregnant with a little girl due around the end of October/beginning of November (the OB made a guess from an ultrasound at 12 weeks, but when they had their big ultrasound at 20 weeks, it revealed the doc's first guess was wrong, haha!). So we Evans' are very excited, and Ally is looking forward to having a girl cousin so close in age.

Videos from the cabin

The first video is one that Ben took of Ally working on getting her right hand in her mouth (note: she has gotten better at this within the last few days). The second video is of Marty and Paul boxing each other on the Nintendo Wii.

Ally meets her Evans relatives

Last weekend, we got together with Ben's parents, Ben's sister Megan, Ben's oldest brother Paul and wife Alicia, and their two little boys Isaac and Ethan. We rented a cabin in the Smokies and had a great time. Everyone was excited to meet Ally, and I think she was happy to meet them. Ally is the only girl Evans grandchild; she has 3 boy cousins, and possibly another boy cousin on the way. It will be really fun to see how the cousins all interact in a few years; for example, will she want to wrestle with Isaac, Ethan, and Simon, or will she think that they are too barbaric and decide she would rather play with her dolls?

Below are a few pics from the weekend.

Megan and Isaac reading

Isaac and Ethan playing Mario Kart on the Wii

Ally catching some zz's in the mountain air

Ally and her Nana

Do cows have it easier?

Okay, we all know that breastfeeding is best for baby and mom. And it is a naturally occurring phenomenon, as all of our other mammal friends do it too. I have been at this for 7 weeks now, and I will be honest, it does not come naturally, and I don't think it is easy for me yet. I tend to get impatient with the process (and sometimes with Ally) on a fairly regular basis (Why won't she latch on? I need to get this milk out of me NOW! Why isn't she sucking faster? Why does she fall asleep after only 5 minutes?). I mean, cows do this all the time, and they never seem to have any problems! You never hear of the mama cow mooing at her calf impatiently during feedings, and I'll bet they never have latching-on problems because they're nursing standing up. I am pretty sure that people are smarter than cows, so why is it so much more frustrating for people to learn how to nurse?

First postpartum run

Now that I am 6 weeks post-partum, I am slowing getting back into exercise. Yesterday morning, I went for my first post-partum run, and my first run since sometime around the beginning of 3rd trimester, which was back in February. I only went for about 30 minutes, and it felt good to pound the pavement again.

I have decided that my next goal is to run the Carrboro 10K in October. I will say that I have a LONG way to go in order to regain my prepregnancy fitness level. I don't know how long it will take, but I think the best course of action is to go slowly at first and build back some base miles before I actually start to train. So therefore, I'll probably use the summer to just get back into running and get back some endurance and then start to work in speed and tempo workouts in the fall when I get back to school. I think it will be fun!

Hanging out with Ally

Talking to Grandma and Grandpa Serex on Skype

Sitting up like a big girl, but not yet interested in reading Daddy's book

Just hangin'

Passed out after a meal

50 weeks of birthday cake: a must-see blog

My friend and fellow St. Thomas More musician Aileen has a new blog called 50 weeks of Birthday Cake. Yes, it is a new birthday cake every week to celebrate her 50th birthday. My sweet tooth tells me that this is an awesome idea. Recipes are provided in her blog entries.

One month old!

Today, Ally is one month old. Half of me is like, "No way it's only been a month; it feels like she's been here forever!" and the other half is like, "Has it been one month already?" To celebrate, we had our one-month pediatrician appointment this morning. Ally is a healthy 9 lbs 3 oz and 21.75 inches long. She can focus on a face, hold her head up for brief periods of time, smile in response to our smile (sometimes) and she is getting better control over her arms and can sometimes get her right hand near or in her mouth.

Her next doctor's appointment is on July 9th, and this will be the appointment that kicks off the multitude of immunizations that she'll be receiving over the next few years. Fun times!

Here are a few more recent pics of Ally and us.

Sleeping on Mommy's chest

Pretty in pink!

Hanging with Daddy while he reads "What to Expect during the First Year."