2010 Review

  • December 25, 2010 8:32 PM

I can’t believe how quickly this past year has rushed by, but it has been a fantastic year. In addition to growing our family, we were able to travel to 7 new countries, including a new continent. In the style of last year’s review post, here’s our 2010, complete with blog links…

January
One of our New Year’s resolutions was to explore more of the Brussels area. We started the New Year with fireworks in Brussels, and then did a bit of exploring Brussels in the snow. I also finally got my Belgian driver’s licence, though I still haven’t used it. We finished up the month with a rainy weekend trip to London.

February
A couple weeks this month were spent in Ireland. Thomas worked in Dublin (photos still to be posted), and I flew in for a Valentine’s Day weekend in Western Ireland. We also found out we were pregnant this month, though we didn’t announce our Baguette in the Oven until later on.

March
One of my favorite short trips of the year was a day trip with my girlfriends to walk in Julia Child’s footsteps in Paris. Thomas and I had a quick trip to Stockholm (photos still to be posted), and then I  had a visit from my aunt, while Thomas went to Portugal for work . Thomas and I also added a new continent to our checklist as we spent a couple weeks in Taiwan.

April
Our Asian adventure rolled over into this month with a trip to Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan (photos still to be posted). It was great timing to be there during cherry blossom season. We also celebrated our 3-year wedding anniversary with our first prenatal class with the BCT.

May
We spent almost an entire month stateside visiting friends and family and celebrating weddings, birthdays, and graduations in the Dominican Republic, Indiana, Texas, North Carolina, and Boston.

June
Desperately in need of some sunshine, Thomas and I headed to Sardinia this month. We also cheered on the Tour de France as it passed through Brussels.

July
In our final month of my being able to fly, we loaded in the travel with some amazing trips. We spent a weekend in Barcelona, and then made a driving tour of the Slovenian Alps, ending with a weekend in Venice.

August
This month, Thomas headed to the US to work in California for a couple weeks, and my parents came over to tour Europe (photos still to be posted). We did a whirlwind tour of Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Normandy, and the Rhine River Valley in Germany.

September
Heading into the 7th month of pregnancy, we slowed on travel and started preparing for Pumpkin’s arrival. We took more BCT prenatal classes, I went to the physiotherapist to learn birth exercises, and our apartment quickly started to fill with baby supplies. My brother also visited for a few days and we went to the Brussels Beer Festival (photos still to be posted).

October
At the beginning of the month, I celebrated my 32nd birthday with a baby shower thrown by my friends and a Dinner in the Dark. Both of Thomas’ parents visited and we enjoyed touring them around Brussels (photos still to be posted). We also attended a quilt show in Enghien (photos still to be posted) with his mom. Pumpkin arrived on Halloween!

November
The first week of parenthood was spent in the hospital. We shuffled through the second week, and then my mom arrived for support. While she was in town, we were able to hit a few of the Christmas Markets in Brussels, Uccle, and Koln, Germany.

December
We made it through our first month, but our days have really slowed down. Luckily, we were able to quickly get Pumpkin’s passports, and have headed off to Sweden for the holidays.

As you can see, it’s been a full year and I could not have asked for anything more. After the holidays, we’ll be tying up the loose ends in Brussels and preparing for our move at the end of January to San Francisco. Happy 2011 to you!

Visiting Tomte

  • December 23, 2010 11:46 AM

Pumpkin visited Tomte (the Swedish Santa Clause) at the mall yesterday in Stockholm. Tomte, who spoke Swedish and English, knew that she was 7 weeks without even asking. Pumpkin asked for more hair for Christmas and Tomte said she would get some in time. Merry Christmas to you all!

Jack-O-Lantern

  • December 17, 2010 9:30 PM

What do you call Pumpkin when she learns to smile?  A Jack-o-lantern… Bahahaha! Okay, maybe it’s not that funny, but I’m easily entertained these days. :)

Originally, Pumpkin only smiled in her sleep:

But now, she smiles when she’s awake too.

(Note: Click on the images to see the videos.)

One Month: The Good and The Hard

  • December 8, 2010 4:51 PM

Yay! We’ve hit the one-month mark! Time has flown by, but things are going well. Pumpkin is growing – almost 3 lbs since birth! And she can focus on faces and hold her head up for short moments. Look how much she’s changed just from Day 2 to Day 22.

I was going to post some observations in a The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly style, but after reading Joyful Abode’s one month post, I realized that The Bad and The Ugly aren’t really that bad or ugly – just Hard. So here are some observations on the first month’s The Good and The Hard.

  • Good: Baby Dreams – I could watch Pumpkin sleep all day. She makes wonderful expressions in her sleep, and often will let out the most pitiful little cries that make me want to scoop her up into a hug. She smiles in her sleep too, and I always wonder just what she’s dreaming about.
  • Hard: Breastfeeding – Honestly, I didn’t realize how hard breastfeeding would be. From being the sole-feeder, to feeding on the go, to leaking, to crappy nursing bras and nursing-unfriendly shirts, I’m still waiting for it to be the blissful experience I had imagined. I’m determined to stick to it, and it’s getting easier (and less painful), but it is hard.
  • Good: Cloth Diapers – We started with the cloth diapers in Week 2 and they have been great! They don’t leak, they’re easy to wash, and they dry quickly. Pumpkin wears them about 95% of the time, the other 5% being when I’m behind in the wash or we’re on the road. I’m really glad we gave them a chance.
  • Hard: Back to Sleep – Pumpkin does not like sleeping on her back, and this is the hardest part of our nights. If she’s being held, or laying on her tummy, she falls asleep easily, but when she’s on her back, she fusses and flails her arms and legs. Swaddling and pacifiers don’t seem to help.
  • Good: Visual Genetics – Most people say Pumpkin looks like Thomas, but I get to claim her ears and her tongue. We both have pointy ears with detached lobes. She’s also able to curl her tongue, like me, and Thomas cannot. I assume her hair is from Thomas’ side, because she doesn’t have cowlicks like my family.
  • Hard: Stroller Size – We’ve unfortunately discovered that our stroller does not fit through the doors on the old-style Brussels trams with divided doors or the Lijn buses without collapsing it. This makes it a lot harder to get around town, but thankfully she travels really well in our wrap.
  • Good: My Weight Loss – I had no idea that having a baby would be more effective than the 2+ years I attended Weight Watchers. I am currently down 22 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight and haven’t weighed this little since I was 25. Most of this has to do with my not gaining weight for the pregnancy (only 6lbs), but wow! It’s time to buy some new clothes.
  • Hard: My Activities – Getting out is no longer just grab my purse and go. It now involves getting myself ready while she’s asleep, change/feed/burp her so she’s not fussy, and then get back before she wakes or is hungry again. I am behind in the housework and am in need of a long nap. And needless to say, my crafting is on hold until the Spring, at least.

I’m sure the hard parts are amplified by our lack of sleep. And despite these hard parts, things are still pretty good. We held a mini-photo shoot during Week 4 to get some holiday cards/birth announcements photos. These were some of the fun shots we did not end up using.

More photos from Week 4 are available on my PicasaWeb:

Of Superstars and Pumpkins

  • December 3, 2010 5:26 PM

You may have noticed that I’ve avoided using my baby’s name online – yes, that was on purpose. To give her a little online privacy, I had planned to use a pseudonym on my blog, but was having trouble coming up with just the right one. It was hard enough to come up with her real name. :) Then, Thomas started using an online nickname for her that I didn’t like, so I buckled down and made a decision.

Introducing Pumpkin, nicknamed after her Halloween arrival.

Pumpkin’s online privacy was on my mind even before she arrived. It’s not that I wanted to hide her name from my readers, but I’m not quite ready for her to show up in Google searches. On the other hand, I’ve tried to keep my last name off my blog without success. Even without using it on my site, my blog is the first item to show up when you Google me. It may not work in the long run, but for now, I will try to keep Pumpkin’s real name out of my blog text. Photos, though, are unsearchable. :)

So, on to her real name (see unGooglable photo above)… I’ve been asked how we came up with it. I’ve loved having a unique name and wanted one for her too. Our guidelines were:

  • Inspired by nature or the world around us – birds or trees were a plus
  • Names that were also other words – different, but still familiar
  • Easy for foreign language speakers to pronounce
  • Feminine since her middle name (a family name she shares with my mom, aunts, and grandmother) isn’t
  • No cities – my brother and I already took over those

There were a lot of ideas ruled out – Starling, Juniper, Meadow, Sequoia. Then, remembering a cute little girl I saw at a VW Bus campout, I suggested November, with her name as the nickname. Thomas liked the nickname as just the name. It’s Latin for new, and he thought that was very fitting. So that was that… It’s naturey, familiar, feminine, and after picking it, we discovered that it is actually the 27th most popular Swedish girl name of 2009.

We had a lot of fun auditioning Pumpkin’s real name. Thomas and I went to the park and practiced calling it out. When I saw cool-looking girls around town, I tried to picture them with that name. I imagined it on a resume, being called out at a graduation, listed as CEO of a company, announced as a reporter on TV, and on a name tag of a barista. I think it works for whoever she turns out to be.

Do you have any interesting stories on how you were named?