Our Blog

Little Dutch Girl

Thu, 3 Nov 2011 10:01:04 -0700

Happy halloween!

First Haircut

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:48:10 -0700

Two posts in two days?!?! Someone send out the search parties...it appears someone has kidnapped the real Lindsay. It just seemed important to me to document this “first” of Holland’s.

She had her first haircut on Saturday. Patrick and I decided it was time to get rid of her old-man mullet. The contrast between the patch of long, dark hair at the bottom and the bald spot right above it was just too much to handle. Pretty bad, right?

So, we took the clippers to it.

Improvement? The jury’s still out. She looks pretty ridiculous still. Good thing her hair is growing pretty fast and she’s getting closer to sitting up so her bald spot should be gone soon. Here’s to hoping, at least!

Even though the haircut wasn’t much of a success, at least Holland enjoyed the experience!

Ripened

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:29:05 -0700

I pulled up this blog yesterday because I wanted to see when my tomatoes had ripened in years passed and it made me realize it’s been some time since I last posted. I also looked at Holland’s two month post and was appalled that I had posted so many pictures of her before she had really ripened. Did I seriously put up that cross-eyed acne shot for the whole wide world to see? I curse myself!

She’s ripened nicely, don’t ya think?

Adara Coconut Oils

Sat, 4 Jun 2011 10:53:20 -0700

My cousin that worked at Sephora corporate just moved to Canada to work at this little startup called Hip Apotheca that sells natural and organic beauty products. Being the lovely cousin that she is, she sent me a package with some Adara Organic Coconut Virgin Oils to try. I have always had dry skin (I get it from my mom), but I didn't know dry skin until I started working with ceramics. I started doing imprints again after a little time off for maternity leave, and my goodness...it only takes a day of working with clay for my hands to turn into the spawn of the Sahara Desert and sandpaper. It is ridiculous. My mom has always said that you can tell a person's age by looking at their hands. If that is true then it appears I should be joining the AARP here soon.

When I got that coconut oil in the mail I was super excited to try it, but a little skeptical...when I think about putting oil on my skin it makes me think of those shiny, leathery, over-tanned people you see taking a nap on the beach in Hawaii, but the bottle promised "antioxidant protection with a matte finish". Just like the coconut oil I have in my pantry, the stuff comes hard as a rock at room temperature. You have to warm it up in some hot water, or hold it in your hands for a few minutes. The first time I tried it I just threw it in the microwave for a few seconds and then squirted some out on my hands. At first, it did look all oily, but it only took a few seconds to absorb into my skin to a matte finish. The other thing I was worried about was the scent. I have a pretty hyper-sensitive nose (did you know Asian women have the most acute sense of smell?!?!) and I generally don't like scented anything, but these oils are actually perfectly scented...not offensive to my freakish super-sniffer. In fact, I am in love with the peach scent.

I have a routine now when I go to bed. I take the bottle of Adara coconut oil and put it under my arm to warm it up while I write my one line a day and skim the day's status updates on Facebook. By the time I'm done it's nice and melted and I rub a generous squirt into my hands. I know it's kind of dorky, but I totally sleep the way princesses do in fairy tale books, with my hands all nestled up next to my face. It is great because now I fall asleep to the lovely peachy scent of my coconut oil and I dream of running through peach orchards and gorging myself on peach pie a la mode and then wake up to perfectly smooth and youthful hands. It's true. Well, maybe not the part about the peach orchards and pie, but the smooth and youthful...that's true.

My cousin said they are getting ready to launch their website soon where you can order the Adara coconut oil and other great products, but you can also sign up now right here to be on their email list and they'll send you free stuff. Who doesn't love free stuff?

Holland: Two Months

Thu, 12 May 2011 15:47:54 -0700

Two months! Can you believe it? I can’t. Little Holland is getting so big and so fun! She smiles and coos and scratches the bejeebees out of her face. She had her two month check-up this week and she seems to be healthy and well. I know you’re dying to hear her stats.

• Height - 23.5 inches (88th percentile)
• Weight - 13 lbs. 5 oz. (89th percentile)
• Head Circumference - 40 cm (90th percentile)

At 88th, 89th, and 90th percentiles she is looking pretty proportionate, albeit quite large. Cooper at his two month check-up was 13 lbs. even and 23.75 inches. I was always shorter and fatter than my brother too!

She only cried for a moment from the shots, but fell asleep on her changing table this evening after her bath. Cooper always zonked after his shots too. She has been a delight to be around lately. She is generally a very happy girl and is starting to take one long nap (2-3 hours) a day with a little help from mom (meaning, I let her cry and fuss in her crib until she falls asleep. If I rock her to sleep and set her down she will only sleep for 10-15 minutes). The rest of the day is filled with “snaps” as we like to call them in our family. A short nap, or snap, lasts only 10-15 minutes. If we really want her to sleep all we have to do is hold her. Turns out to be a sweet deal for church, but the rest of the week it makes it really hard to get anything done. Patrick had some stuff to read for work last weekend so she slept in his arms for over three hours! She is such a cuddle bug!
I’m kind of torn about what to do about this whole napping situation. On the days when she has been better at napping during the day, she doesn’t sleep as well at night. I kind of like her not sleeping as well during the day because, oh how I love my own sleep at night!

She has been very "talkative" the last few days and likes to have conversations with Patrick and me. They go something like this, “ooh, ooh, ahhhhhhh, ooh, oh, ooh, aye, oh, oooh.” Pretty much the sweetest sounds in the world. I can’t wait for her to start laughing.

I noticed also that she has several very blonde eyebrow hairs growing in and some of the new growth around her temples is looking quite light. I'm not so sure we have a brunette after all!

She also appears to have a lazy eye. I know they say it’s normal for babies to go cross eyed on occasion, but she pretty much is always cross eyed. See exhibits A, B, and C (I will spare you from D-Z). We’ll be watching it over the next few months (though it won’t be watching us...harharhar) to see if it goes away. If not, we may have to patch it for a bit.

Exhibit A (also a good shot of her baby acne at its worst):
Exhibit B:
Exhibit C:

As a result of staring into her lazy eye all day I’ve had snippets of that Brendan Benson song stuck in my head...twitchy lady, so lovely with your short hair...where did you come from, where are you going...I love my cross eyed baby, yeah...

When Did My Baby Turn Into a Giant?

Wed, 4 May 2011 15:27:26 -0700

It’s like I blinked my eyes and, poof...she’s ginormous! She has her two month check up next week. I’m interested to see what she weighs and how tall she is.

We went to go visit her best bud Pepper (born exactly 7 weeks after Holland) and I was blown away at what a difference 7 weeks makes in the life of a newborn. Check out the two of them with Joel and Kadin:

Here’s another fun comparison...look at Holland’s legs compared to Cooper’s at the same age.

Cooper:

Holland:

And, yes...that shot is from Holland’s newborn photos. A post on that is coming soon. Maybe. If I can get that girl to take a nap longer than 10 minutes, then soon. But it’s not looking hopeful. The little stinker!

Google Is Your Friend

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 15:48:20 -0700

I suppose after nearly 24 hours of labor I wasn't in my right mind while deciding on a name for Holland. I forgot to Google "Holland Young" before we made it official. Had I thought to do so this guys wouldn't be her namesake:

Holland: One Month

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 21:45:52 -0700

I take it all back. Well, not all of it, but some of what I said in my previous post is no longer true. Like, the part about Holland being a very happy baby and not crying. It turns out she's already grown out of that stage. She likes to cry...or wail, rather. I don't know what her deal is. I guess she is just a baby and babies often cry. Or maybe she has reflux, or colic, or a headache or something. Who knows? I was somehow hoping that I lucked out and got a super happy baby that was going to be content most of the time, but that doesn't appear to be the case. At least I got to enjoy it while it lasted, and it happened to last while I was feeling really crappy recovering from her birth (so...thank you, Little Friend!). (Sidenote: I wrote this yesterday, but today she was a lot happier than she’s been the last few days. Maybe her fussiness will be short lived? I’ll keep you posted.)

Other observations/thoughts/memories from her first month:

• I hesitate saying this for fear that it too will soon disappear, but she is still a pretty good sleeper. She sleeps for 3 or 4, even 5 or 6, hours at a time at night. I think back to when Cooper was a baby and he slept only 45 minutes to 2 hours at a time for months. I'm exhausted now with Holland's stellar sleeping, how did I ever manage then? I mean, seriously, how did I do it???

• She is a grade "A" pooper. She has had more blowouts in the last week than Cooper had his entire life. She also wets through her clothes often. I think this is due to a couple of things. First, she eats a lot more than he did. Seriously, this girl eats a ton. And second, as mentioned above, she sleeps in much longer stretches than Cooper, which means she doesn't get changed as often. I think it's a pretty sweet trade. I don't mind having to change her clothes often and clean up poop if she keeps up the good sleeping.
(One of her many blowouts. Thanks for taking one for the team, Maris!)

• She hasn't lost much of her hair yet, though I believe her balding is eminent. During her bath tonight I noticed some fugitives on the washcloth. It makes me sad. I want her to keep all that fuzzy black hair. It's just so cute. I want her to have dark hair just like me, but if it falls out it will probably grow back blonde like Cooper's did. Although, her eyebrows are coming in quite dark...maybe there's hope?

• Her eyes are a dark blueish-gray. They look just like Cooper's did at this age. His eyes were nearly every color in the book during his short life. I wonder if Holland's will do the same and what color they will end up? Any guesses?
(This is her signature look, by the way.
I’m sure a separate post on that is forthcoming.)

• She has found out that the side of the bassinet will not feed her, so she doesn't wiggle her way over anymore. She knows now that all she has to do is let out a few yelps and mom comes and feeds her. She is still a very efficient eater. She can drink several ounces in just a few minutes. She is also still a loud eater and likes to "mmm" at her food.

• She's not totally sold on a pacifier. Sometimes she vehemently abhors it, other times she vehemently adores it. A friend remarked the other day, "Wow, she is going to town on that pacifier!" Tonight I put her to bed with her pacifier. I had to go in four times to replace it, but eventually she fell asleep without being rocked. Yeah, I'm a big fan of pacifiers. I hope she decides she loves it, but not so much that she doesn't want to give it up at a decent age.

• I finally did Holland's imprints. Can you believe it took me a month? I rolled out a bunch of clay the day we got home from the hospital and I did one set of prints, then I got tired and didn't do the rest. The next day the clay was all hard and I never rolled out more until today. I'm sad I don't have more imprints of her when she was teeny tiny. I'm interested to compare how much bigger her hands and feet are now. One month makes a big difference in the life of an infant.

• I have had two different friends come take photos of Holland (one did a couple newborn practice shots, the other a full newborn shoot). Holland wasn't very cooperative either time. Opposite of Cooper. He slept through his entire shoot and we could position him in anyway we wanted. I'm hoping for at least a few cute ones. To be posted here, of course.

• I have been surprised how long it has taken me to recover from her birth. I decided to do a VBAC because I wanted a quicker recovery, but I'm not so sure it turned out to be a better deal. I swear I was feeling a lot better by now with my c-section, but maybe my memory is bad. I feel okay, right now, but not great. I thought I would be feeling great by now.

• Sometimes in the morning after Patrick leaves I bring Holland into bed with me and we nap together. I set her on Patrick’s side of the bed, but she wiggles her way over to me until she has her head nestled under my armpit. She always sleeps better when she’s really warm.

I love this girl so much! I can’t believe how quickly she is growing. Is there any way I can slow it down???

Holland: Week Two

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:50:08 -0700

Holland had her two week check-up yesterday. She is actually closer to three weeks now, but here are her stats:

Head Circumference: 38 centimeters (100th percentile!)
Height: 21 1/4 inches (85th percentile)
Weight: 9 pounds 13 ounces (89th percentile) - Gained 26 ounces in two weeks!

Some thought and observations:

• She is a very happy baby. She is content most of the day and hardly complains. Just when she is hungry or tired and can't fall asleep. And even then she doesn't really cry...she just lets out a few yelps to let me know she is unhappy.

• She is super strong. She has excellent head control and likes to look all around her.

• She is a shaker and a mover. When she wakes up she immediately wiggles her way over to the side of the bassinet so she can try and nurse it. It's pretty funny. Even after almost three weeks, she still seems to think she might get milk from it one day.

• She likes to suck her fingers. The first night in the hospital she woke me up as she was sucking away on those fingers. Since then she has continued this and even tries to get both hands in her mouth at the same time.

• She is a great sleeper. The other night she slept in two 5-hour stretches back to back! It was awesome. I only had to get up once. She hasn't done that since, but she still usually sleeps 3-4 hours at a time.

• She isn't a great nurser. She eats a lot and really fast. I'm not sure how to get her to slow down, but her gulping has got to be the loudest I've ever heard!

• She may not be good at nursing, but she is surprisingly gifted at burping her self. After she is done eating she makes these throaty, grunting noises until she let's out a very large, very unladylike belch. It's actually quite impressive.

• She looks just like Cooper. We sometimes call her Cooper on accident. She also looks just like my baby pictures and many people have said she looks just like me. The funny thing is that when Cooper was this age everyone said he looked just like Patrick, so I'm not sure how that all adds up.

• Speaking of things adding up...I weighed myself just before we left for the hospital to have Holland. And then I weighed myself after we got home and I had only lost 8 pounds! How does that work? My baby weighed more than 8 pounds! Plus all that other stuff that came out of me. I'm still not sure how that all adds up.

• It's amazing how quickly the nesting instinct disappears once you have the baby. My house is a mess and full of unfinished projects, but I could care less. I would so much rather snuggle with Holland (or take a nap) than finish the bumper for her crib or wipe down the kitchen counter top.

• She loves to smile while she sleeps and I swear that she has smiled a few times while she is awake.

• She wakes up slowly. She likes to stretch and moan and grunt and look at you with one eye open for a good 15 minutes before she really wakes up.

Here are a few subpar pictures of her.

Aye, matey!

True Love

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 12:30:10 -0700

Announcing the arrival of our perfect little girl.

Holland Young
March 10th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
8 lbs. 3 oz.
21 inches

Isn’t it amazing how much you can love something so small and so new? She fills my heart with joy. I could look at, snuggle with, inhale this little girl all day long.