Friday, December 3, 2010

Thanksgiving, 9 weeks of Penny and Hunter

This week marks Penny's 9 week birthday and also her 2 month birthday.  The past two weeks have been busy with a mix of the sweet and the very, very sour. 

As noted in a earlier post, Hunter passed away this week, on Monday, November 28th, 2010 at approxinately 12:30pm.  He was just over eight and a half years old.  Hunter demonstrated symptoms of an illness about a week before Thanksgiving.  He stopped eating all of his food.  Since Hunter was always game for eating anything and everything in sight (that was edible), we knew there was something wrong and made him a vet appointment.  At the vet, his bloodwork was inconclusive, indicating only high bilirubin levels (by-products of red blood cell destruction) and a high white blood cell count.  So, we took Hunter home and started him on anti-biotics, hoping that he had a weird infection or a tick-borne infection.  Three days later, Hunter stopped eating again and was driven to the vet where he stayed over-night, was rehydrated and had more blood work and an ultrasound.  Again, nothing conclusive was determined.  So, Hunter came back home after one night.  Two nights later, Hunter was admitted to an emergency veterinary hospital for a blood transfusion because he was now severely anemic.  He also underwent another ultrasound and biopsies of his liver, spleen and bone marrow.  Hunter returned home the next day.  The following day Hunter was feeling pretty well and let us give him plenty of cuddles, spoil him with human food and he even played a little.  The following day, Hunter had trouble standing up.  As Tim took him back to the emergency vet, I received a phone call informing me that Hunter had acute lymphoblastic anemia - cancer.  I drove to meet Tim at the emergency veterinary hospital and we had Hunter put to sleep together as Hunter was clearly in pain and we were informed that chemotherapy was unlikely to be successful.  His passing was witnessed by both Tim and I.  It was incredibly peaceful and also incredibly sad.

From 2010-11-27
Hunter on November 27th, having a great day

Hunter was a wonderful dog.  He had the best smile I had ever seen on a dog, he was unable to act cruelly to anyone, he loved cats, dogs, adults, and chidlren of all sizes.  His only flaw was his desire to steal food from counter-tops and the fact that he tugged to hard on his leash.  He was, in fact, the best dog I have ever owned and loved.  We will remember him always as our smiley boy who was addicted to chasing tennis balls.

In happier news, during the interim of Hunter's illness Sophie and Penny have established a daily tradition of playing on the playmat in Penny's room followed by Sophie pretending to read to Penny while laying on Sophie's bed. 

From 2010-11-27



We girls also drove down to NY to spend Thanksgiving with my family.  Sophie had a fantastic time playing with her cousin Naomi and her Uncle Mike.  She also had a wonderful time bonding with Grams and Gramps.  Penny was shown off to the entire family as the newest edition where she met many of Mommy's aunts, uncles and cousins.  Daddy stayed up in MA, caring for Hunter.  But, he did have a pleasant evening out with Grandpa.

From 2010-11-27
Enjoying our Blackberries

From 2010-11-27
Penny pooping on Gramps

From 2010-11-27
Sophie with cousin Naomi

Finally, Penny had her first playdate this week. We went over to visit Mommy''s friend Kim and her son, Theo. He also had another friend over named Dominic. Penny enjoyed staring at both of them.
From 2010-11-27

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

7 weeks of Penny!

From 2010-11-14

At between 6 and 7 weeks old, Penny has now been to Stone zoo once, the Museum of Science twice, the mall playground a few times, the Boston common (it was Sophie's firswt time too!), the supermarket, COSTCO, been read to by her big sister almost every day and had her first bath with big sister Sophie! It has been a great two weeks!

From 2010-11-14
penny at the market for the first time

From 2010-11-14
penny at the museum of science

From 2010-11-14
sophie pretending to be a cave girl

From 2010-11-14
at the Boston common

From 2010-11-14

From 2010-11-14
at the zoo

From 2010-11-14
cuddles after reading time

From 2010-11-14
bath time together!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

The wrath of conjunctivitis

This week, Sophie came down with pink eye and managed to also give it to Mommy. Although unfortunate, the worst part is trying to get eye drops into a 3 year old four times a day. Luckily, now on day 2, Sophie no longer cries while getting the drops, just screams. Mommy is doing just fine and got herself incidentally diagnosed prior to the onset of extreme symptoms...hence Penny seems in the free and clear currently.

The benefits to this is that Sophie had to stay home from school for two days. Mommy managed to capture a photo of Penny smiling at Sophie as a result. Mommy learned today that Penny is not a Daddy's girl or a Mommy's girl, but a Sophie's girl as Sophie is the one she stares at the most and the one she certainly smiles at the most. I guess all that talking into Mommy's tummy made a difference for little miss Penny.

From 2010-10-31

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Halloween 2010!

This halloween was super fantastic for Sophie! Last week, Sophie went to a holiday party as Belle and had a great time making cookies, getting candy and hanging out with lots of kids (see blog below). This weekend, Sophie went to another party at the Edwards' house. She met lots of new kids as well as got to play with two little ones she knew. To this party, she dressed as Snow White. She had fun eating lots of yummy food, playing with a pinata (ok, she decided not to hit it, but she did watch it getting hit and had fun fetching some candy amongst the other little kids), and she got to show off her new baby sister, who was dressed as a lady bug.

From 2010-10-31

From 2010-10-31

From 2010-10-31

Tonight was Halloween. All day, Sophie asked when she could go trick-or-treating. Initially, Mommy distracted her by a trip to the park, then Daddy distracted her with a trip to see Grandma and Grandpa. Once the sun was mostly down (around 6:15pm), Daddy and Sophie went trick-or-treating and Mommy maintained the homestead and the sleeping baby. Sophie decided to go out tonight as Belle. She had a great time walking the neighborhood and even helped Mommy later hand out candy while sitting under blankets on our front stoop. By 8pm, Sophie was ready for bed, which is a bit early for her.

Penny missed the trick-or-treating, but she was awake for some of yesterday's party. So, in effect, she did get to experience Halloween this year too.

On a completely different matter,Penny smiled at Mommy twice today while awake. It was a beautiful thing and Mommy hopes to catch it with the camera soon. Even smiling, she still looks like Sophie did as a baby. :)

Friday, October 29, 2010

Halloween Celebrations and Penny's First Month

This past weekend, Sophie was very busy!  She went to her music class on Saturday and then went shopping with Mommy for the first time since Penny was born.  The following day, she went to a Halloween party AND to a music/magic show, featuring crazy Davy and Norman McBride.  Sophie went as Belle, but plans to go as Snow White for actual Halloween.

From 2010-10-21




From 2010-10-21




From 2010-10-21



Mommy has begun to get busier too.  She is now out and about taking Penny to doctor's appointments all by herself and picking up Sophie at school.  Initially, Sophie was a little disappointed by Grandpa not picking her up anymore, but Mommy took her out for cookies one day at Panera and to the playground the next, which remedied the situation.

Yesterday, Penny and Mommy had their first non-medical outting.  They went to the mall where Mommy tried in vain to get her an infant pumpkin costume.  However, we were quite successful in finding Sophie some more clothes and in starting (however minutely) our Chanukah shopping. 

From 2010-10-21



Today was Penny's 1 month doctor's visit (her one month birthday was yesterday).  Below are her stats:



Weight: 9 pounds, 3 ounces
Head: 37.75 cm
Length: 21.75 in

This makes Penny 50th percentile for length and between 25th and 50th percentile for her weight and head circumference.

From 2010-10-21

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Week 3 in the life of S and P

Sophie has had a pretty eventful week. Over the weekend, she got her flu shot and then got to see the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Apparently, the circus was far too loud this year, so both Daddy and Sophie decided it was time to come home at intermission. However, Sophie said she really enjoyed the popcorn, the silly dogs and the painting elephant.

This past week, Mommy and Penny have been home, alone in the house. It is mostly going well. Because Mommy still cannot do very much, Grandpa has been picking Sophie up from pre-school each day. Sophie has been enjoying it and despite spending only a few minutes a day with him, always states she had fun with Grandpa when she comes home. Sophie has also made some changes at school. She now has some regular friends in her class that she plays with every day. She also has started taking spanish class on tuesdays and a music class on thursdays. However, she has yet to be inclined to tell Mommy or Daddy what she has learned in either class.

This coming weekend, Sophie will attend a super fun halloween party at her friends', Evan and Lauren, home. Mommy looks forward to taking many pictures. Penny will also be in attendance, but likely not in costume since apparently newborn costumes are hard to come by.

Penny has done great this week. Her features have been filling out and now when she makes the right face, she has a double chin. She has taken well to feeding and now has a feeding pattern. Unfortunately, she also has a standard fussy period, and it generally starts between 8-10pm and ends somewhere between 12:30-2:30am. This wouldn't be so bad if babies slept more than 3 hours at a time. As a result, since during the day, Penny takes two naps, Mommy generally uses one of them to catch up on the lost night time sleep. Daddy has started to occasionally take the train to work to catch up on some of the sleep he loses. As far as we can tell, Sophie is sleeping through all the noise, thanks to some insulating Daddy did of the door-ways two weeks ago.

From 2010-10-22

From 2010-10-22

From 2010-10-22

Monday, October 11, 2010

Naomi comes to play

This past weekend, Sophie got to see her cousin Naomi.  Both girls were very happy most of the time and it was very cute to see them play together.  First, they both sat down at Sophie's coloring table and quietly colored together, then they played musical instruments.  There was also lots of dress-up play and dancing. Naomi even got to play at Sophie's "little playground" (the playground associated with her future elementary school). Unfortunately, Naomi did not see a lot of new cousin Penny since she was actually sleeping most of the time!  Luckily, Aunt Allison did get one opportunity for holding her newest niece, but it was so short-lived, we did not get photographic evidence.  See cute photos of Naomi and Sophie below!

From 2010-10-11

From 2010-10-11

The girls playing dress-up

From 2010-10-11

The girls at Sophie's "little playground"
Penny had her 2 week appointment today, and is doing great. She now weighs 8 pounds and likes to pee on daddy after getting weighed!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Penny's first week home

Penny is currently 1 week and 2 days old.  She has been in her home for 5 days.  Upon arriving at home, her kitties sniffed her and then ignored her, her Hunter sniffed her and then ignored her, her Roxie growled and barked at her.  By that afternoon, we had a dog trainer in the house and Roxie has since been disabused of the notion that Penny is growl-worthy.  Currently, Roxie is the only animal that actually shows concern if Penny is crying.  Go figure!  The animals definitely missed Mommy - but the dogs did give her the royal sniff down to check if I cheated on them.

From 2010-10-04

Sophie has had a few opportunities to hold her baby sister and seems to really delight in it.  She also has "read" Penny a few stories.  I think she can't wait until Penny is old enough to actually play with.

From 2010-10-04

From 2010-10-04

Sophie is adjusting well to the new baby in the house except she is very tired.  Penny is a bit fussy and especially so at night, so Sophie suffered through it the first few days.  She seemed less tired yesterday, so we hope that our various devices for keeping Penny quieter plus Sophie's room more sound-proofed are working.

From 2010-10-04

Penny had her first post-hospital pediatrician appointment on Monday.  Her stats were:
weight: 7 pounds 5.5 ounces (she lost some weight since birth...we've been slowly getting it back on her)
length: 20.5 inches
head circumferences: 35.5 centimeters

So, she's almost the same as the day she was born.

Fun facts about Penny:
-she smells like flowers (Sophie smelled like cookies);
-her feet are fairly ticklish (Sophie had ticklish cheeks and a neck);
-she likes to suck her fingers and fist (this is just like Sophie);
-she sleeps through most noises (Sophie was a fairly light sleeper);
-she has a super intense stare (she shares this also with Sophie).

From 2010-10-04
The side links are down right now, but please check out more pics at:

2010-10-04

2010-9-27

Monday, October 4, 2010

The Penelope Olivia Miranda Photo Entry :)

My last day pregnant with Penny, Sunday, September 26, 2010
From 2010-9-27
Penelope is born and is cuddly!  September 27, 2010, Sophie becomes a big sister, officially!  Welcome to the world Penny!
From 2010-9-27

From 2010-9-27
First picture with Daddy.
From 2010-9-27

All the girls!
From 2010-9-27

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Welcome Penelope Olivia!

On Monday, September 27, 2010, Mommy and Daddy went to Lowell General Hospital for a scheduled cesarean section.  The section was delayed and started at 11:30am instead of 10:30am, resulting in the birth of Penelope Olivia Miranda at 12:29pm.  She weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces, was 20.5 inches long and has a head circumference of 26 centimeters.  After surgery, Mommy felt pretty good and Penny cried for about 4 hours straight.  Since then, she has woken up to have a siaper change and to eat.  Penny, as it turns out, is a fairly good eater and has been producing an excellent number of dirty diapers.

Unfortunately, the hospital is not permitting me to upload my photos onto the internet (probably due to a slow connection), so I will post a photo-only blog at a later point.  Feel free to check out our new photos uploaded from our cell phones onto facebook, however.

Here's a physical description of Penny: she has a thick head of black hair.  Her eyes are that lovely gray-blue color newborns tend to have.  I think it means she will have brown eyes like her big sis, but we'll see what happens over the next few months.  She has cupie doll lips and a cute upturned nose.  By the end of day 1, she looks exactly like her big sis did at the same age.  She has incredibly long fingers and toes, but her hands and feet are, of course, itsy bitsy.  Unlike Sophie, who smelled like cookies to me at birth, Penny smells a bit like flowers to me.  Suffice to say, I love smelling her as much as I loved to smell new born Sophie.

Upon meeting Penny (which happened on Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at approximately 4:45pm), Sophie said "Oh...she's so cute!".  Sophie has had a good week so far, spending lots of time with her various grand-parents, having a great school week and getting special Daddy attention.  She also has enjoyed eating lots of McDonald's fries and chicky nuggets and got a special "congrats on being a big sis" cake.  Apparently the cake did not taste good and Sophie was disappointed and surprised.  Mommy will have to get her a new one when she gets home on Friday.

So, all is well and we are all happy (minus the cake incident).  Yay!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Summer 2010

To sum up the end of Sophie's summer, she had a great time hanging out with Mommy and going to parks and museums every day.  She also had fun over the weekends.  Twice, she went down to NY to see Grams, Gramps, cousin Naomi and Aunt Allison and Uncle Alan.  She has lots of fun going swimming and playing in the sandbox with her cousin.  Sophie also got to meet all of her Pittsburgh relatives and developed a wonderful friendship with her cousin Mara. 

Finally, Sophie also got to go to the MIT Robot Museum and the Worcester Ecotarium for the first time.  She also went to many new parks and farms and just had a wonderful time.

Now, Sophie is prepping to become a big sister.  Tomorrow, the big day comes and we will welcome new baby Penny into our home.  Sophie is super excited and has been asking us for weeks when will she come home. 

Please check out Sophie's pictures as blogger isn't letting me post pics in the blog right now.  :)

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

The 3rd-5th of July, 2010!

From 2010-07-06


From 2010-07-06



This year's "fourth of July" celebration was marked by several outtings to the local community. First, we went to a 3rd of July bluegrass concert in Westford center where one of Tim's friends was playing with a great group called the Boston Road. Tim and I thought it was great and Sophie kind of liked it. She went to a face painting booth and proceeded to have her entire left arm painted with hearts, doves and butterflies...in purple, but of course! We then all fled for the coolness of our house because it was near 95 degrees outside and extremely humid.






The next day, we spent almost entirely indoors due to the same weather conditions, but we did head outside for the Chelmsford Center 4th of July carnival! Sophie got to spend some time in a fire engine, watch the Chelmsford Community Band play some marches as well as some doctored Handel (I am really not sure if the music for the royal fireworks should ever be played by a concert band....maybe a symphonic band?), she got to enjoy watching people attend the carnival booths, and had a nice mini strawberry shortcake! When all was said and done, we were too hot and too tired to go to the local fireworks, so we retired home in time for the televised Boston Pops concert at the hatchshell and watched some of their fireworks too!


The next day was July 5th and this was the day of the Chelmsford 4th of July parade. We went for the first hour and a half of it, or so. We saw lots of fire trucks, police vehicles, some great floats and of course, the Chelmsford minutemen. We also saw many local and state-ide politicians marching for votes. Suffice to say, it was interesting to see who voted with supporters and who did not. Since Chelmsford's parade is the biggest one in the area, we had some big name politicians. To my shame, Sophie clapped at all of them. I guess it is good to have a polite kid, right?

We ended the 5th of July hot, tired and fairly happy. Sophie is a big fan of holidays that involve cheering and the possibility of free balloons and candy.
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