OK Santa, we're ready for you!!

So, I ended my last post as I was pulling Christmas out of the closet. And now, 2 weeks later, the house is finally decorated! Santa's allowed to visit now! 

The penguins are decked too! This is probably my favorite decoration! I made these last year out of a cheap little kiddie Santa hat I bought on clearance. We've enjoyed these so much, I'm thinking of expanding the penguins' wardrobe for more holidays....

In addition to our full Christmas tree in the den, we have our Texas tree in the living room. I'll have to leave it up until Jan 7, of course!! Maybe "Pistolas McCoy" and the Horns will leave us a certain crystal football under the tree! Hook 'Em!!
|,,/







Zoe would like to be a present under the tree too... awwww.

Look at how strong she is!! Still not a big fan of "tummy time"- we really only last a few minutes until the frustration sets in, the fussing starts, Mama caves, and Sierra gets flipped back over. Of course, if there's something fun to look (like the TV or a puppy dog), she's more willing to lift her head up high.

Our whole clan is ready for Christmas break! Travis has been working for 19 days straight now- most of those late nights too- so he's ready for a good vacation! Aside from running our little circus at home and "Christmas-ing", Chrissy has been juggling all the car-wreck clean-up. The Honda is officially totaled, but we're still negotiating on the value. And of course, we're in the process of shopping for a new car. Stay tuned for more!

Our first 6 weeks

So it's time for her first progress report, right??
(Well, we don't go back to the pedi for a couple weeks still, but Mama can operate a scale right??)

She's a happy, smiling, 9lbs 6oz! I can't believe it! She passed Mama's birth weight a long time ago, but still hasn't hit Papa's starting weigh-in. Don't worry, there will be a picture and an apologetic phone call to Mamaw to commemorate that event in a couple weeks.

Here's a side-by-side of Day 1 vs Day 42:

As many of you heard, it SNOWED here yesterday too! In Houston! This only happens about every 10 years, so we get pretty excited about it. Here in the city it was really wet, slushy "snow", not real pretty. Since Mama was on her own and couldn't figure out how to wrangle an appropriately-bundled baby AND Papa's fancy camera, we stayed inside and took pictures from the window.
Here's one early on that shows it coming down, but before anything started sticking. It actually snowed for several hours, so we ended up with a couple inches before it let-up in the late afternoon.

But forget the snow, the most exciting thing in our house the last couple weeks has been Sierra really starting to smile. Ahhh, it's the best! :) Aside from adults making goofy faces, she also smiles at Zoe and her favorite Mortimer the Moose.
Aunt Charlotte caught an adorable, toothless grin a few nights ago with her phone.

Big sister Zoe really likes the Boppy pillow also.


Actually, this reminds me....
Aunt Charlotte was staying with Sierra (our first separation- yikes!) while Mama went to rescue Papa from the side of 610. Yep, if you haven't seen the pictures yet, Chrissy's ol' Accord went out with a bang Wed. night- literally. Travis was car #2 of 5 in a rush-hour pile-up. Aside from a little sore neck the next day, Travis was fine. Since cars #1-4 were already stopped, the last car in line (in the back, the white Cavalier below) got the citation and should be responsible for all the damage. At least that's the story from the cops- we're waiting on the official police report to make it to the insurance company before we can do anything. Until then, our little circus is operating on 1 vehicle. (Read: Mama stuck at home with no car.) :(

The driver of the Cavalier walked away fine, btw. She hit a older pick-up that had no rear bumper so the Cavalier absorbed all of the impact. Note to self: don't drive behind jerks with no rear bumper.

Also, I promised a better picture our absolute favorite piece of baby-gear, the Moby wrap. I don't know if this really any better, but it's a fun picture anyways. Sierra got to go putt-putting last week! We met GrandDoug, GiGi, Uncle Travis, and Aunt Ashley in Pearland to enjoy the beautiful weather we had the day after Thanksgiving. (Far more relaxing than shopping...)

So, that should get us all caught up! Wow! Now Mama's off to pull Christmas out of the closet- yay!!!

:)

So much to be thankful for

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Sierra brought the infamous pumpkin hat out to celebrate Thanksgiving with her new friend, the turban squash. (Their friendship was brief- the squash was part of Papa's yummy roasted vegetable dish later that day).

We started off with a crazy race to get to Aunt Janice's and Uncle Bobby's house for Turkey Dinner #1 by 11:00. Everything was delicious! Then we headed off to Turkey Dinner #2 at Aunt Charlotte & Uncle Dick's house by 2:30. We made it over in time to catch the annual wiffle-ball game- Aunt Ashley got the winning RBI! In a last minute decision, Papa decided to take an extra ticket to the Texas vs A&M game, so it was time for him to head out. :( So Mama & Sierra took on Turkey Dinner #2 and settled in to watch the game with the Stewarts. Sierra worked on digesting her dinner and put on a good show for Uncle Travis.

Sierra wasn't real impressed with our defense, but she looked super adorable in her new orange dress. And Texas came away with the W, so the day was a success! (Double-chin and all...)

 

On the road again

Yahoo, we finally made it out of Houston! :)
After 2 months trapped in Houston, we finally got to load up the car leave the city limits! We managed a quick trip down to Beeville to check the progress on Claude & Cherry's house (now GrandPaPa & Mamaw) and introduce Sierra to her Great-GrandDaddy. Everyone was excited to see her, but no one was as happy as her Great-GrandDaddy. What a wonderful moment for everyone. :)

We only spent one night, but it felt so good to travel a little. We're not very good at being stationary! Sierra was very patient with her newbie parents and enjoyed a long ride in the car (now dubbed the "Hypno-Camry"). Hopefully Sierra will continue to enjoy traveling with our little circus on wheels- we're already planning her first camping trip!  :)

Oh, if I hadn't mentioned it yet, we're LOVING our Moby wrap. Here's a quicky iPhone pic (she's showing off her Texas spirit, thanks to G-Aunt Patty), but I'll remember to take a few that show off the wrap better. Sierra snuggles in very happily, and Mama gets to keep her hands free! And since we don't have an 4WD stroller, the Moby makes in possible to go for a walk around our neighborhood.

Wow, time is already flying past! We've been home for 2 weeks now, although it feels like one really long weekend with lots of naps. Travis has been home the whole time - yay!!- but is headed back to work tomorrow. So, this is a good time to recap what's been going on around here lately.

1) Napping. Lots of napping. :) Sierra has been a wonderful baby and has slept SO well at night. Of course, Mamaw (Grandma Cherry) has been her night-time buddy, which has let Mama & Papa catch a few more zzzs. GiGi (Grandma Cindi) has been our day-time buddy, keeping Mama sane and the house in order. Yay for Grandmas!!!!!

2) Diapers. Lots of diapers. This has been an extra special project at our house, since we've ventured out into the world of cloth diapering! Yeah, it's back! And it's not the old flat rags of previous generations. Here's a sample of the different types of diapers we have in the stash now. The bottom two (a fitted on the left and a prefold on the right) are our main choices right now while she's still so little. The fancier diapers on top are pocket/all-in-one styles that she'll need to grow into. Laundry hasn't been bad at all- newborn poo is eeeeeeasy! (that will get more fun in a few months). And of course, we need a pic of the little model.
Stay tuned for more fun! :)

Happy Halloween!

A little too early for trick-or-treating, but not too early for a gaggle of Halloween outfits. It doesn't hurt that Sierra's pretty good about getting her clothes messy to precipitate a wardrobe change. Official costume for 2009? Ladybug

Coming home

Oh happy day- we're coming home!! What an overwhelming experience to put that tiny little girl in the car and leave the hospital we'd been hiding in for 4 days. The weather was terrible and streets were flooded, but we set out on our adventure about 2:30. You can see how impressed Sierra was with the moment. We made it home and are settling in- it feels so good!

Mom vs Food

I finally get real food again! A wonderful, wonderful hubby offered me to fetch any food I wanted, so I ordered up that reuben sandwich I'd been craving during months of pregnancy. Papa called up the local NY deli and was off to pick it up.
Well, I got a reuben. I think I got about 3 lbs of reuben. In fact, the reuben might have weighed more that little Sierra. Delicious, but enormous.
For any fans of Adam Richman: This time, food won.

The Baby Has Landed!

Just after 6:30PM on Friday October, 23, our beautiful little daughter Sierra Elizabeth Pichot arrived in the big bright world. She weighed in at 7lbs 1oz and is 19.5" long. It was a long 17 hours of labor for Mama, and not everything went according to our birth plan, but all is well and everybody's doing well now.

More pics from the nursery

The Readers Digest version is as follows:
It started with Chrissy going into labor at 2 in the morning with regular contractions and plenty of back pain. Around 4:30 the doctor (I can't even remember which Doctor it was at this point) told us to head into the hospital. We got checked into the hospital at 5:00 and set up all our paraphernalia. Fast forward through 14 hours of natural labor (read: no drugs) and the sleep/exhaustion was starting to take its toll as she was getting close to transition. Baby had decided to turn sunny-side up and causing Mama lots of back pain. Doc broke the water & found meconium, (insert epidural here), we started seeing 2 different types of heart rate drops, and our 4th doc of the week decided there was probably some fetal distress, so we were off for a quick C-section to see our new addition. Faster than a Ginsu knife commercial, our new daughter had arrived. She had the cord wrapped around her neck, but was doing great once she made it out. After a trip through the nursery to be weighed, bathed, etc, Mom and baby got finally got to be together around 10 Friday night.

So now it's on to recovery, training Papa in the baby-arts and getting Mama back on her feet!

Oh Hai!

And we're off!

So, here's the first post! Very exciting, right? We promise this site will soon be full of cuteness- check back for Baby P updates! Until then, leave your vote- will Baby P be a boy or a girl??