On the (Sixth &) Seventh Day, We Rested

It's been crazy around here lately, and we've been in desperate need of some rest, both physical and mental. This past weekend, we made full use of both days for playing, cooking, napping, and catching up. It was a gift.

Grace also made full use of both days. She did the usual (sleeping, eating, playing, cooing) and also threw in some huddling under a blanket after a shower,



and some wide-eyed stroller riding.


We look forward to a short week, a nice long weekend complete with a designated day for giving thanks, and entering the busyness of next week fully rested. We wish you all the same.

Melinda (& Vic)

A Recipe for Autumn

As I stand in the kitchen, drinking my umpteenth beverage today (I'm getting over a cold), and occasionally checking on the Peanut via video monitor, I peruse cookbooks and food blogs to find recipes for those foods that are quintessentially fall. Soup and stew are my favorites. In fact, Vic and I have even reserved www.bisquette.com should I ever want to make bisques, chowders, stews, and other soups for a living. (But don't look now... we haven't actually put up a website there.)

Beef stew was dinner the last two nights. It's cliche but true that it just gets better with each reheating. The night before that we tried a new recipe -- a chicken and corn soup from one of the food blogs I read regularly for gluten-free inspiration. I did a little tailoring of the recipe (I don't like cilantro, and agave isn't something I have around the house), but you can find the original here. In a word, delicious. Or, to quote Jack Black in Nacho Libre, "I make the soup... It's fantastic!" This is an autumn recipe I will definitely be making again. Probably next week.

What is your favorite fall food?

Melinda

The Many Faces of Grace

So this blog is supposed to be about the Lipsey family. Lately, it's been all about one particular (and very popular) member of the Lipsey family. Okay. We understand. She's pretty popular with us too. And we promise to post an update about something non-baby-related very soon, maybe about our new house (if the offer is accepted) or about Vic's new office. Maybe even a picture of some of the delicious meals that get cooked around here from time to time.

Until then, these photos will have to do... Oh, and if it seems like some of them are a little blurry, that's only because Grace is in constant motion. This is a little girl who will probably skip crawling, skip walking, and go straight to running.

Grace was a ladybug for Halloween

A Day in the Life

Grace is now three months old, and her days are busy ones:

being fed by papa

sleeping in her hammock

being held by her grandmother
(who came for a two week visit and was such a huge help!)

hanging out in her bumbo chair

dancing with mama

Our days are busy too, not only with caring for the Peanut, but also with two big moves. Vic's current office is bursting at the seams and, while we're so thankful for the growth in the business, we needed to find an office that would allow everyone to have more than a foot of personal space. So sometime around December 1, they'll all be packing up their computers and heading for the new office near Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood. The location is more centrally located, convenient to I-5 and 405, and 2 1/2 times the size of the current office. There are also lots of windows and two outdoor decks, so everyone will get to see the light of day, even in the winter.

Our other move is our home. We've been renting our current home since we were married in the summer of 2006. The home has been a wonderful gift -- more than we needed really -- and we've liked living here. But with an upcoming change of landlords and the move of Vic's office, not to mention the favorable market for home buyers, it just makes sense to find a new place. We've been out looking several times, and hope to hear back soon about the offer we put in on a home near the mall.

With all this, we are even more thankful that Grace is sleeping 8-9 hours per night...

Melinda

Diaper Distraction

A little video of Grace dancing and cooing to a lullaby, being distracted after the trauma of a diaper change. (There's sound involved, so adjust your speakers accordingly.)

Ten Weeks

The Peanut is now ten weeks old, and couldn't be doing better. We're so thankful! At her two-month checkup, she was pronounced healthy and happy, developing well. She's still on the low end of the percentile charts for weight, but continues to gain steadily, so apparently she's just decided to keep a petite figure. On the other hand, she's at the 97th percentile for height and, after seeing the Olympic athletes this summer, we're guessing she's aiming to be a high jumper (wow, those girls are tall).

Grace eats well (although messily), coos, smiles, burps, cries, and does a myriad of other things for which babies are praised and for which the rest of us have to say "Excuse me." She watches TV (The Price is Right is a favorite). She also sleeps -- consistently 6-7 hours per night and, for the first time, 10 hours last night. Wow. More of those, please. And she and her feet look beautiful in pictures...

Melinda

Living in the Country

Grace is not the only baby in our house.

I don't really consider Kenmore to be "the country" but we certainly have our share of wild animals coming through the backyard. You've seen pictures of the deer who visited a few months ago. There are mole holes dotting the landscape. A blue heron perches nearby occasionally. Once in a while a floppy dog drops by (okay, not exactly a wild animal).

We've known for a while that a raccoon was living somewhere near our house. Then, right around the time Grace was born, we discovered that it wasn't living near our house. It's living under our house. And it's not alone. There are two baby raccoons as well. And these guys don't seem to have learned yet that they're supposed to be nocturnal -- we see them during the day pretty frequently.



Thankfully, these babies don't need diaper changes or middle-of-the-night feedings.

Melinda