Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Note how Sophie is trying to eat the giant pumpkin.

You can't tell in these pictures, but Evelyn is wearing a very cute Halloween footy pajama. I'm not in the picture because I hadn't showered yet. :)

Ooh, and I think we got a pretty good picture of Evie smiling! So cute.

Baby names and knitting and babies, oh my!

More fun with baby names!

I've already had the baby and chosen the name, but that doesn't diminish the fun I can have with baby name websites. My favorite was the Baby Name Wizard, but now the Wiz has added some new components. Check them out.

The Name Mapper: http://www.babynamewizard.com/namemapper

You can see the popularity of your name, or any name that has been in the top 100 at some point, across the country by state. You can organize the states by region, by income, by political lean, by population density. It's fun!

Namipedia: http://www.babynamewizard.com/namipedia

You can give your opinion on various names. Does it sound smart? Sexy? Old? Young? Sophisticated? What are some sibling sets associated with this name? Then see other people's results. Not as fun as the mapper, but you know, if you're bored, it's ok.

And now on to news you might actually care about.

1. Baby. She is fabulous. She's cranky, she spits up ALL THE TIME, and she cries a lot, but she's also funny and beautiful and amazing. We took her to the pediatrician on Tuesday to have the whole spitting up thing looked into (totally normal, but possibly reflux, so they gave her some zantac to try for a couple weeks) and found out Evelyn weighs....10 pounds 5 ounces! She's huge! What a chunker. :) She's also totally healthy and perfect.

2. Knitting. I'm still working on the Exchequered scarf for Jon. As you may recall, I started working on it way back in August. Scarfs are usually a quick knit, but this particular scarf is the SLOWEST KNIT ON EARTH. It is double knit, which is incredibly slow. It also has a very easy, but slightly complicated, pattern. Ugh. It's taking forever. It looks great...as much as 1/3 of a scarf can look great. Jon likes it, though, and the yarn is delightful, so I'm trying to stick it out.

3. Car. Remember right before Evie was born we had a car explosion situation? Sure you do. Jon's car had a transmission issue and we were debating whether to fix it and hope it would live for quite a few more years, or replace it. We decided to replace it, and thankfully we did. We bought the car on Saturday, and Jon drove me to the hospital to give birth on Monday. Whew. It was a to-do! Anyway, we LOVE our new car. Well, we love our used car. The more I drive it the more I like it. Especially when I fill up the gas tank and realize we're getting close to 35 mpg in the city. Nice! And it is huge inside. A good baby car. :)

It's a 2005 Scion xB. I only test drove the xB to amuse Jon, but ended up really liking it. It is much bigger inside than it appears outside and although it is very boxy, it doesn't feel like it will tip over when you go around a corner. But best of all...the gas mileage! Awesome.

Baby's first trip to the zoo

Making more memories!

Saturday was gorgeous, 75 degrees and sunny, so we headed outside and went to the ZOO! Every family in Denver must have thought the same thing because it was packed. Packed packed packed. Evelyn slept the first hour, then I had to feed her (a whole different adventure--the first breastfeeding in a public place), and then she was awake. Awake and unhappy. All she wanted was to look around and suck on her pacifier. She is becoming a bit pacifier dependent during the day...not sure what to do about that. But I digress. The zoo was fun, and here are a few pictures.

Happy birthday to me...tomorrow

Last night Jon took me out for my birthday. His mom came down to watch the baby and we were able to have a nice "grown up" evening out. No baby. No spit-up. No crying. It was delightful. :)

First stop was a new restaurant on South Broadway called Beatrice and Woodsley. It is kind of a wine bar/lounge type place with really interesting food. I'm not much of a wine person so I can't say if their selection is any good, but there were lots of people in there enjoying the wine. The food...well, the menu is totally for foodies. Frog legs and rabbit and escargot. There are other things too, like the awesome cheese plate Jon and I had and the butternut squash ravioli that I was contemplating all evening. But the best part about the restaurant is the inside. You walk in off dirty, busy Broadway into this chic mountain lodge hipster lounge. There are aspen tree trunks coming out of the floor. The bar is held up by chain saws and big split boards. The booths are separated by these gauzy drapes. Even the front windows are tinted a slight yellow giving the place a very etheral feel. It is just cool inside. I think everyone in Denver should give it a go. Have a small plate, a cocktail or glass of wine, and just check out the decor. It was very interesting.

Next was dinner at The Black Pearl, an always delicious restaurant on Old South Pearl. Sadly, last night I ordered one of the only meals I've ever not loved at this restaurant. I ordered the truffle and parmesan frites (so so good) and the roasted chicken with dates, apples, squash, and goat cheese ravioli. It wasn't quite what I expected, with the chicken shredded apart and mixed in a big pile with the other ingredients. The goat cheese ravioli in the squash sauce was really good; I could have had a big plate of that alone and been perfectly happy. Jon ordered this salmon that was the lightest, flakiest salmon I have ever tasted. So even though my meal wasn't perfect, the Black Pearl is still a winner. A sub-par meal there is better than your best meal most other places.

After dinner we were so stuffed we decided against desert and headed home. Evie had been awake the entire time we were gone, playing with grandma. Thankfully she wasn't too fussy. It also meant that she slept really well last night, only getting up at 2am and 4am. Hooray!

And here is a cute picture Jon's mom took of Evie looking at the BEES. (The bees are her favorite thing. Before she was born Jon had painted a picture with purple swirls in the background and a bunch of bees in the foreground. We were going to take it off the wall of the nursery for something more "baby" but luckily we didn't. It's right above Evie's changing table and she probably stares at it two or three hours out of every day. She loooooves it.)

Making memories, taking pictures

Today's big adventure was a trip to the pumpkin patch! It is freezy cold today, so we bundled the baby into her cutest teddy bear hooded jumper, wrapped her in a fuzzy blanket, and headed out. We ended up with one very big pumpkin, one small pumpkin, and three pumpkins for baking. We also stopped by the farm's petting zoo.

Cuteness follows.

Parenting by book

My dear friend Alisa told me about a book called "The Baby Whisperer" today and I promptly went to the library and checked it out. (Look at me being frugal, not buying a book, but renting it.) Anyway, it's about listening to your baby, learning what their little sounds mean, getting them to sleep without too much fuss (the real reason I picked the book up), and addressing your baby with respect and with concern for their individual personality. This lady thinks there are five main personality types in babies. My little Evelyn falls mainly in the "Touchy Child" area. She is sensitive to the world around her and can get a little sensory overload. Turns her head from the lights. Wants to be held and rocked, shushed and patted to sleep every time. Cries for seemingly no reason. Doesn't care to entertain herself. Loves to suck on a pacifier. Sensitive to noisy places and not too keen on changing locations. Cries as soon as her diaper is wet. Not a fan of bouncy chairs or swings or other things that take her out of the arms of her loving parents.

This "touchiness" may be inherited. I get overwhelmed by noise and visual stimuli a lot easier than some people. I HATE MySpace because the website is yelling at my eyes. I hate Rachael Ray because I feel like she is always yelling at me through the TV. Tokyo was a bit much to take in. Clothes that cling to my body drive me CRAZY. So yeah. Sorry Evelyn...you are your mother's daughter.

So I'm gonna read this book and see what the author has to say and if any of it will work for our family. We'll see.

And some pics!

Evie meeting her great grandmother Lew.

Evelyn and the softest blanket.

And so it begins

And so it begins. The dealing with the health insurance company over the hospital bills and whatnot.

(Stupid American healthcare system...grumble grumble. But that is a rant for another time.)

Actually my insurance company hasn't done anything annoying. Yet. So far they have been billed by only two or three of the MYRIAD providers involved in my surgery and hospital stay. (The general hospital bill hasn't been sent yet. Can't wait to see the number on that one!) I had one claim rejected by the insurance company because they need updated information on Evelyn. I'm assuming they need her SSN or something, and I'll call on Monday to figure it out. The only annoying thing that has happened so far is that the anesthesiologist (or the anesthesiologist's office, I should say) billed my insurance company twice for the one surgery. So my insurance company is like, hey, we're not going to pay this second bill. So what happens? The anesthesiologist sends ME the bill. Yeah. Like I'm gonna pay that. Hells no. They'll be getting a call from me on Monday, too.

I'm really glad I can go on my insurance company's website and look at all the claims as they come in, instead of getting a bill from some yahoo's office and thinking I actually have to pay it. I guess I'm glad that, in general, I understand how health insurance works and what I do and do not have to pay for.

I have a lot of little things on my "to do" list for next week:

1. Call the aforementioned offices to knock some heads.
2. Figure out how to get a copy of Evelyn's birth certificate.
3. Get a safe deposit box set up.
4. Find an OB-Gyn since the midwife's office that did my prenatal care doesn't do a lot of the regular lady health stuff.
5. Take Evie to the pediatrician to see how much she weighs now.
6. Get some supportive tennis shoes to wear around the house when I'm walking Evie back and forth for hours and hours a day. My feet are killing me.