Sorry for the Hiatus

Okay, so obviously these are pictures from Jason's sister's recent visit to Germany. Heather and her girlfriend, Allison, stayed with us for an all-too-brief five day vacation. We toured the Rhine wine region, Frankenstein and Heidelberg castles, ate schnitzels the size of small baseball fields, and ripped it up on Rock Band into the wee hours. Easterz Grizzle!!

Who is it?

Here we have a couple of pictures of Madeleine... but wait! That top picture looks a little old to be her. That's because that's her doppelganger, otherwise known as her mother (not too recently, of course).

Some Firsts...

Yesterday we put little Mad into the baby carrier facing frontwards for the very first time! Her neck strength has improved by leaps and bounds over the last several weeks; I know she's psyched because she was getting really bored always facing in to our torsos. We had jokingly been referring to it as the "loch neck" because no one had ever really seen it...

And here she is doing her very first impression: we call this one "dead bug," for obvious reasons...

Three Months Old!

Madeleine turned three months old yesterday, and in honor of the occasion we posed her for some fun "portraits." In true Madeleine fashion she was loving every minute of it. Jason was nevertheless hamming it up for her to encourage some extra smiles.

Working Hard and Playing Hard

Little Mad has been coming to work with her mommy (at the suggestion of her very compassionate boss...) So far it has gone really well, with only one bad day in about the last four weeks. This is a picture of her set up in my office (she's relaxing and enjoying her mobile after getting a fresh diaper). She really enjoys staring at it for minutes on end (nothing holds her attention for a very long time).

Jason discovered the other day that she is ticklish on her feet! He was playing around with her in the kitchen and started nibbling on her toes and she squealed in delight. She has begun to vocalize quite frequently now, making long cooing noises that are increasingly louder. Sometimes they even sound like "mama" or "dada"!!

At Long Last

For those of you that don't know, our computer has been in the shop for the last, oh, I don't know, about three years or so (well, in truth it's been kaput since about the last time we posted to this blog). So, I'll just bring you up to speed really quick with a few words and a few pictures.

My folks came over for Christmas for about 2 weeks in December, and we all took a trip to Amsterdam together. Here are some various pictures of us strolling leisurely among the canals. Amsterdam is easily the most breathtaking city I have ever been to, with gorgeous canals and quiet cobblestone streets.

Here's little Mad partaking of some of the local baked goods...

Here we are goofing around in the hotel room...

And here we've returned home for a proper Christmas celebration!!

Festivus

Here's the best of my many attempts to capture little Mad with our decorated Christmas tree (I'm holding her in my arms, which is what makes it so difficult...) We are excited to host my parents (Opa and Nana/Babka) for the holidays this year--I'm sure her first Christmas will be plenty memorable for all of us, even though it probably won't be for her!