On the Road Again

We spent the weekend in Cleveland on a very brief trip to celebrate Ashley at her bridal shower.  Leaving here Friday night, spending the night in Pittsburgh, and then into Willoughby just in time to toast Crusher and Cullen.  Margaret was so glad to be included in her aunt's big party, and got lots of oohs and ahhs from the ladies.

Margaret and Mimi

It was great to have a chunk of our family together, we got to visit with almost all the women on our Harris side.  I am so mad I left my camera at home.  The only shots I got are on my phone.  Which is good, but certainly not great.

Sunday morning we hit the road again, this time without Nate.  We have a lot going on this coming week.  I'm preparing to head to Orlando for our large annual meeting.  And at the same time, we're in an interesting place with daycare.  Our wonderful providers just welcomed a new daughter.  So they are, understandably, closed while they get her settled in.  My parents generously offered to help out to make things a little easier on everyone.  So Nate's getting a full week of grandparent time while Margo gets to experience what life is like as an only child.  It is amazing how easy it is to get out the door in the morning with just one baby when you're used to having an almost-three-year-old underfoot!

Day Out with Thomas

Another successful mystery trip, this time to the B&O Railroad Museum.  Not sure who had more fun, Nate or his dad.

after our train ride on Thomas the Tank Engine

Hectic May Begins

We're laying low this weekend, relishing the only weekend in the month of May when we'll all be in Maryland.  Last weekend was a preview of our crazy travel schedule as we split up and headed to opposite coasts.

Margaret and Mom went to Philadelphia to celebrate our cousin Makenna's first holy communion.  Margaret was a perfect doll baby, she got passed around all day being held by different people, some not even related to us in any way.  And because we weren't rushing home, we were able to spend the night with my cousin Kelly and her girls during which time Margaret managed to score some adorable pink patent leather loafer hand-me-downs amongst other wonderful things outgrown by Makenna and Greyson.  Now we just have to wait another 5 years or so before she's big enough to wear them!

Greyson, Shailey, Avery, Marg, Makenna, Emery, and Ryan

Meanwhile, Aaron and Nate were enjoying a long weekend in LA to celebrate Millie's first birthday.  It is almost impossible to believe it has been a year since she was born.  What an amazing little girl!  Nate's been talking about Millie, Jackson Dog, and Uncle Brendan all week.  No doubt he had a great trip and would like to head back to California soon.  (Hoping Aaron has some pictures from the weekend, will post if I can find them.)

Tomorrow we're taking Nate on a mystery trip.  We're taking Margaret too but, really, everything is a mystery trip for her.  More to come after the mystery is revealed!

Four Month Well Check

Margaret went in to see Dr. Burns this morning for her four month check up.  She is perfectly in the middle on all her stats.  Weight is 13 pounds, 12 ounces making her right at 50th percentile.  She grew a lot in length (2.5 inches since her two month), making her 24.25 inches long - 40th percentile for height.

Four shots later, she wasn't quite this content.

Back by Popular Demand

And by "popular" I mean the one person who noticed I stopped writing while I was on maternity leave and asked that I start updating again.

So here we are.  Margaret is about to turn 4 months old and I started back at work last Monday.  I'm happy to report everyone seems to be transitioning smoothly.  Marg seems to be very happy at daycare.  She's tolerating tummy time, something she would absolutely never do for me.  And she's napping on a schedule.  Again, something I was never able to really accomplish.  So thank you very much, Tania!

Nate is every bit the 2-and-a-half-year-old boy he is.  He loves his sister but many times his love takes the shape of an arm pull, an attempt to pick her up, or his favorite, a knock on the head.  And then there are very sweet times, like when she cries and he takes her the pacifier.  He watched how we hold it, never touching the part that goes in her mouth, and he mimics us.  This morning she was upset and kept spitting it back out.  So he sat next to her and held it in.  My two little loves:



We're staying close to home these next two weeks as we gear up for a whole lot of family travel.

What's in a Name

A question we've been asked is "What are you going to call her?"  So here's the story behind her name.

Although she was born in the early morning, her name didn't come until much later that day.  Aaron wanted to name her Caroline and I wanted Emily.  For a few hours we were calling her Elizabeth.  But after months of debating, we ended up giving our daughter one of the final three names we'd had in case Nate was a girl.  Margaret in memory of my great Aunt Margaret, known to us kids at Moe.  And Elizabeth to honor my grandmother (Betty) and my mom (Beth).

Aunt Moe lived next door to my grandparents, her brother and his wife.  She wasn't able to have children of her own so she did the next best thing and treated my Mom and her siblings like her own children and then the 16 of us like grandchildren.  It's no surprise we have memories and special names for treats she would always have for us.  Like Moe Moe cookies (Nilla Wafers) and Moe Moe jewelry (Avon costume jewelry she always had in buckets for us to play with).

And my Grammy.  Well, anyone who knows me knows how special she was to me.  It's always sad for me that Aaron only got to know her as she entered into Alzheimer's but I'm glad he was able to know her at all.

I look at Margaret and I'm so moved as I think about these two women she'll never meet but who I know watch over her every day.

So what to call her?  The plan if our first child had been a girl was to call her Maggie.  But we have friends who recently had a Maggie and I worried it's too close to our niece's name.  We searched for other options and the debate came down to Maisie (Aaron) and Margo (Maura).  But Nate's insisting on calling her Margaret and laughs when we suggest any nickname.  And indeed, it seems most people are sticking with Margaret.

Margaret will also be named in honor of another grandparent when we give her her Hebrew name.  But I'll hold off on that for now as Aaron works out the details.

New Year, New Photos

It's been a while because we've been busy around here.  We welcomed our daughter Margaret Elizabeth on December 18th.  Although scheduled to be induced at 8am on the morning of the 18th, my contractions started coming pretty quickly as the nurse was walking me down the hall to my room in Labor and Delivery at 4am.  Just two hours later we were holding our beautiful baby Margaret in our arms.  What's amusing is how far off the doctors and u/s tech were in estimating her size.  Part of the reason for planning to induce at 40w+1day was the estimated large size of the baby.  But she was born at 7lbs 15ozs, a peanut compared to her older brother.

We came home on 12/20 and everyone is settling in.  Nate loves his sister and wants to hold and kiss her always. The other day he put on my cover and announced he was nursing.  Sorry to break it to you buddy, but your help can only go so far.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with mass and dinner at the Schochs.  Santa came to visit that night and our immediate family celebrated at home on the 25th with the Harris and Davis grandparents all here to join in the fun.  My siblings flew in later that week and we hosted Harris family Christmas in our little house!  It was great having everyone here and Nate was in heaven with so many aunts and uncles to play with.  He even got a sleepover with Aunt Meghan at her hotel.

As people left and Aaron headed back to work, we've finally begun settling into a routine.  We've also been immensely blessed to have my mom here lending a hand until January 15th.  I'm not sure what any of us are going to do when she leaves!

And as it's her first full calendar year, we've begun capturing Margo in at least one picture every day.  The idea was given to me by my friend Dawn with her son Anderson.  What's really cool is in 2013, we're both documenting our daughters.  Waverly is a few months older than Marg but they're experiencing their first full calendar year together.

Here she is, Margaret Elizabeth - Day by Day.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajdavis/sets/72157632423695455/