Nine months old!

Today, Ally turns 9 months old. It is hard to believe that only now has she been out in the world for the same amount of time that she was in my belly, as the latter definitely feels longer than the former! She had her 9 month well-baby checkup at the pediatrician's office this morning. Ally is 27.5 inches in height and 16 lbs 6 oz in weight, which puts her in the 50th percentile in height and 10-25th percentile in weight. This would explain why she always outgrows her clothes lengthwise. Her development is right on track, and right now her specialty seems to be her gross motor skills and saying lots of "Da Da."

Here are some recent pics, and yep, we got snow last weekend!

Emerging from the pile of boxes

A week ago, we moved into our new house! I am LOVING it! We have so much more room, it is amazing. Here are some of my favorite things about our new place:

1. The open floor plan (kitchen is open to the family room).
2. Built-in bookshelves in the family room.
3. Lots of counter space in the kitchen.
4. New front-loading washer and dryer that play a song when the laundry is finished.
5. Fenced back yard.
6. The bus passes in front of our house, so I can still take the bus to school.
7. Just around the corner from a bike/walking/running trail that leads into town.

We also bought a jogging stroller off Craigslist, so now all 3 of us can go for a run together (looks like I have no excuse not to go for a run now!). The past week has been spent unpacking boxes and moving the last of our things out of the condo. Once we give the condo a thorough cleaning, we will list it for sale.

They're everywhere!

I am taking a cancer pathobiology class this semester, and we've started the class talking about things that can cause cancer. I am now feeling like the carcinogens are everywhere! My first thought was, well I'll just go move up to a mountain top that's above all the pollutants in the atmosphere and I'll eat all natural and organic foods with no processing, pesticides, or preservatives, and I'll be all calm and stress-free and all. That would take care of it right? Wrong! I forgot about the sunlight! And with less atmosphere up on the mountain, those UV rays would be coming in pretty strong! Well, I guess the lesson to be learned is that you just avoid what you can and don't worry about the rest.

Pictures from Christmas

We spent Christmas in New Orleans this year with my family. We had a great time seeing everyone that we hadn't seen in 2 years. Additionally, it was Ally's first Christmas. Although she doesn't "get" Christmas yet, I think she still had fun seeing all the new sights and meeting all the new people. She was quite the ham, flashing her smile and giggling a lot. And one of her presents Christmas morning was the emergence of her first tooth!

Ally in front of the nativity scene at church.

Ben and Ally after Mass on Christmas morning.

The four great-grandchildren: Ally, Madeleine, Anthony, and Dominick.

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!