Arlo arrives

I was several days past my due date and so uncomfortable I wasn't sleeping, so I figured, let's just get this baby out. I scheduled an induction and here's our final few minutes of life as a family of 3.

 

Arlo Kent Pfalzer was born at Vanderbilt University Medical Center at 3:43am on September 2nd 2018. He was 8 lbs 5ozs and 20in long. Pretty darn big in my opinion and I'm super glad I didn't want another few days to go into labor on my own.  

 We left the hospital a wee 36 hours after he was born. Hospitals suck. They are loud, bright and cold. No thanks.  Here's little Arlo's first ride home. I'm pretty sure we stopped at a liquor store on the way home. Such classy parents.

First picture as a family of 4

In RKM co-sleeper

2 week weigh-in

Arlos 1 week birthday

Summer 2018: Hazels Bday and 39 weeks

This is Hazel at her 4yo check up. The nurse came in and asked her (me) a bunch of questions and as soon as she left -- hazel hopped into her chair and grabbed a children's book and took on the role of doctor.

We had a relatively low key bday party for little Hazel. She has a lot of her classmates over and we played in the backyard with sprinklers, our hillbilly water slide and other toys. I think she had a blast and always asks to have another birthday party.

We also had a pretty successful garden this year. Hazel really enjoyed picking carrots whenever she saw a little green stem. So, she ate a lot of mini-carrots, but she really got a kick out of picking vegetables for dinner.




In other news, here's how I spent my last few weeks as a mom of one: I assembled (actually Annie did most of the work) the infamous Kent Moseman co-sleeper. It just tucks right into the mattress and is a welcome addition to our bed.

I've grown accustomed to having a giant belly and now just use it to my advantage as a coffee table.

 I also 'nest' a little differently than most mothers, but I'd wanted some drawer dividers for awhile and this just seemed like the right time to make them.  I will note that it took me about 3 hours to make 4 pieces of wood to put into our drawer. Ultimately, we went out and bought the other 2 dividers I was planning to make. It was a good experience and now I have a better appreciation for woodworking.

Summer 2018: San Francisco and Tim's Ford Lake

In early June, we went to visit Seth, Makiko, Maya and Mika in San Fran and it was an awesome visit! The weather was perfect, the food was delicious and the girls got some serious QT. 

We must have hit up every playground in SF and danced our faces off with Just Dance. 

We also got to spend some time with Sean's old high school friend Nick Coulter, his wife Emily Coulter and their two 7-month old twin girls. Hazel was definitely quite interested in them and kept requesting snuggles from them.

We also got to spend some time with Uncle Charlie and Aunt Karen -- who spoiled us with treats and a delicious lunch. Hazel mainly chased their cats around the house the entire time. 

We have also been frequenting the Pfalzer's new lake house in Winchester, TN on Tim's Ford Lake. As expected, the Pfalzer's have purchased every water toy imaginable and hazel is just big enough to start using them. This picture makes her look so old.

The Millers visit Nashville

 Our great, great friends Aaron and Anne (and Abel and Eliza) from Boston came to visit us on their spring break this year. It was FANTASTIC! It was so great to see them, the kids got along (for the most part) and the weather was really great. We spent lots of time exploring the outdoors, Hazel discovered binoculars and we played on every playground in Nashville.

Nashville zoo

Jeni's ice cream

Radnor lake

Hazel goes to the nail salon

I took a chance and brought Hazel to get her nails done with me after a particularly tough Friday. I got a pedicure and Hazel was upset that she didn't also get a massage chair. I let her give it a try and she looks WAYYYY to comfortable getting pampered.

New family addition

 Things have been busy in the Pfalzer world here in Nashville. I can't believe it's been since 2017 since I last posted, so in a paragraph, here's what we've been up to:

Although we spent Christmas 2017 in Bloomington, IN at YiaYia's house with all the family around, I got our FIRST ever Christmas tree! It was so fun to put ornaments on the tree with Hazel and we found many special ornaments given to us by Mimi and other relatives. Hazel was assigned the non-breakable ornaments.

 We also had a neighbor who had THOUSANDS of christmas lights all over their house. If we had a "good day" at daycare we would go by their house and walk around and point at the lights. I think I just told Hazel we had to leave when I took this picture. She is a sad little elf....

Closer to Christmas, we all headed up to Indiana to meet up with the rest of the family and it was definitely a white Christmas. Thanks again to Annie --all the cousins had matching pajamas.

 Hazel got a cool plasma car from 'Santa' this Christmas and took little cousin Mara along for a ride!

 Back in Nashville after a week in Indiana, Santa apparently, also stopped by our house and left a sweet easel with chalkboard and whiteboard and Hazel spent quite some time on the Picasso you see below. We use this to draw out the letters in our name and to make our grocery lists sometimes.

 This year, Nashville had several days were we got *maybe* an inch or two of snow. That's it. Seriously. And as a result, we had almost a week of no daycare. We survived through a mixture of babysitters and bringing Hazel into the lab with me. Here she is sitting at my desk and looking at centrifuge tubes -- clean ones of course. She colored and entertained herself pretty well actually.

 Hazel has also started taking swim lessons at our local Sportsplex. Overall, she seems pretty pumped to go to swim lessons each Monday evening and the coaches motivate the kids with lollipops after every class. They clearly have done this for many years. Hazel is getting much more comfortable in the water and even floats on her back and stomach with her face in the water. I am hopeful soon that she will be more independent in the water -- which will make me feel a little less nervous about Hazel when she's around water.

 Uncle Warren (and Ellie) stopped by for a quick visit in January?? February?? gosh. I don't remember. Warren's frat had their formal in Nashville this year so before getting all dressed up, they came by our place for a free meal and some Hazel snuggles.

 Probably the biggest life changer for us has been the discovery that we are expanding to a family of four! I'm asked pretty consistently whether I'm excited or not and I think 'excited' is not quite the word for it. I'm anxious?? Terrified?? excited?? all those things. Anyways, this picture demonstrates Hazel and I's matching baby bumps... pretty pathetic in this picture at only 10 weeks but things would soon progress.

 Here's a picture at almost exactly 25 weeks.... Bump is definitely noticeable. All peps at work know or just think I've overdone it with the hot chicken. I feel pretty good now that I'm well into the 2nd trimester. The first was quite different from my pregnancy with Hazel -- this time I was tired, nauseous, and oddly the only thing that helped with the nausea was eating... constantly.
Now, I have more energy and am attempting to get our vegetable garden in good shape before I can't bend over as easily.