Stop for a Minute

After a really cold spell, Chicago has warmed up a bit. And by warmed up, I mean it's been in the 30s! But we've still been winterproofing our windows (for you lucky warm weather SOBs, that means actually putting celophane over the inside of your windows to keep out the drafts). I thought this was a cool shot because 1) you can see my office building (or the Death Star, as we like to call it) all the way to the left and 2) I have this same shot in all seasons.

My little bumbo girl!

Lily and Daddy outside of her daycare center. Today was her first day! We dropped her off at around 9 and she settled in right away.

She definitely had that new girl cool because immediately, all of the other babies crawled over to see her and say hi. One little girl kept bouncing her seat and grabbing for Lily's pacifier. Lily thought it was awesome!

Lily gets her own crib with a soother just like at home! After we dropped her off, we did some grocery shopping and then I cleaned the apartment while Matt did job search stuff. We thought we'd pick Lily up at around 3 (a normal day is 7:30 to 6:30) but then we got the call from Grant that we could come visit Caroline and Andrea in the hospital.

Andrea looked great, but especially considering she's had almost no sleep since she delivered. She had a good labor and delivery but the bustle of the hospital hasn't given her much time for rest.

As you can see, even with her eyes closed Caroline has Andrea's eyes. She's a beautiful baby and very sweet. She had just finished nursing when we got there so she quickly drifted off into a food slumber and let out a constant stream of soft coos and purrs in her sleep.

I told her all about her best friend Lily and how they would have so much fun playing together when they get bigger.

Caroline weighed 6 pounds 12 ounces and was 20" long so she's basically a supermodel baby: tall and skinny! The flip side of being a supermodel baby is that she also has big baby feet! To think that I just felt one of her feet kicking inside Andrea the other day... the absolute miracle of birth still amazes me even though I've been through it myself.

Extreme close up! Caroline needed a little bit of help breathing at first, so she has some tape on her face from the oxygen tubing. She is breathing well on her own now and is a healthy happy baby girl. We were so happy to meet her! It's been over a year now that either Andrea or I has been pregnant and it's so amazing to see it all come to fruition. We're both so blessed to have our baby girls with us after all that waiting and talking and shopping and nesting and... did I mention the waiting?! Anyway, now that Caroline is born, I'm on a mission to buy the girls matching outfits so I can tell people they're twins and see peoples' reactions.

After the hospital Matt and I went to pick Lily up. According to her teachers, she did great. They said she had a great disposition and went with the flow all day. She had trouble sleeping in her crib because of all of the distractions so they said she only took a few short naps in the swing. Hopefully she'll get used to it soon. She was happy to see us but we didn't get much playtime because she was so tired that we bathed her and put her to sleep as soon as we got home.

We'll get lots of family time tomorrow because we're headed to Winnetka. Cathy and Richard are in town and we'll be celebrating Christmas, Allison's birthday and Nicholas' birthday.