The Holidays in Norfolk

We have been very blessed to already have so many visitors in the few months since we moved to Norfolk, and Thanksgiving was no exception. All of the Burgin siblings and families gathered at the Norfolk Burgin house to celebrate the holiday together. We had a great time going to the mall, seeing Santa, playing together and eating lots of food! I probably did more than I should have, considering I was 34 weeks pregnant, but that's just the control freak in me! It's so nice that we are close enough to do this and that our house is big enough to hold the whole family, well for this year anyway... :)

The whole family (minus Mom and Dad) getting ready to feast!

Now, onto Christmas! Our house is decorated and ready! I have had fun decorating this house with lots of new (and old) things. This year we got a Fraser fir tree for the first time. We have always gotten Douglas firs in honor of Oregon, but decided to do something new this year. We also got Leah her own tree this year, and boy does she love it! We even let her put her ornaments that she has gotten for her first 4 Christmases on her tree.



We have wanted to participate in any holiday activities we can find, so we went to Colonial Williamsburg for their Grand Illumination, to start the Christmas season. They light up all of the houses with candles in the windows, have an 18th century Santa, a drum and fife parade, and fireworks after dark. We decided it was worth staying up late for, and Leah really seemed to enjoy the fireworks! We are having lots of fun getting to know our new city and are excited for our first Christmas here. Maybe we'll have snow for Christmas (and a baby)!

33 weeks down, 7 to go (hopefully)!

I know I have not been very good at documenting the growth and changes I have been going through during this pregnancy.  You can trust in the saying "no news is good news"! So, not only for those who read the blog, but to remember myself, I am going to update the similarities and differences of this pregnancy and Leah's. Despite getting some flack from my doctor over my lack of weight gain (my pre-pregnancy weight to 32 weeks is only a difference of 7 lbs.), everything is going very well with this pregnancy. Just to reassure, I have gained more than 7 lbs during this pregnancy. I just lost a lot of weight during the first trimester, but have gained it all back plus 7 pounds in the last 20 weeks. This also happened during my pregnancy with Leah. I have often joked that the first trimester of pregnancy is the best diet I have been on, if only you were supposed to lose weight! Aside from the weight gain issue, I have also only gained weight in my belly with this pregnancy. I hesitate to say that, knowing that it will make many mothers upset that I don't seem to gain weight in my feet, face, nose, and other unfortunate places, but I'm just sharing, not bragging, I promise! This baby also has hiccups all the time, like Leah did, at least once every day. I didn't really have any strange food cravings with Leah, and I don't with this baby either.
Now, for some of the differences with this pregnancy. This baby is more active than Leah. This baby has spent a lot more time kicking me in the ribs and jumping on my bladder than Leah did. She moved, but her movements were more polite. I have not had the sciatic pain with this pregnancy that I did with Leah, which makes walking a lot easier! With this pregnancy, I am finding it more difficult to get comfortable and not just when trying to sleep. Just finding a comfortable position while sitting on the couch takes me several minutes of rearranging pillows, my position, etc. I don't remember that with Leah.  I have noticed that this baby reacts to certain foods in a way that Leah never did. We went to a Mexican restaurant and this baby was doing the Mexican Hat Dance in my belly when I ate salsa. I'm hoping that it was the baby's way of saying "yummy" and not "yucky", because Mexican food is an important part of our lives!
I'm sure there are many more things I could write about, but my pregnancy brain has made me forget anything else, and my dancing belly is telling me it's time for a snack. So, I will finish with a picture of me at 33 weeks:

Hurricane Days

What do you do when you're at home, stuck in the house, with nothing to do, because a hurricane is going by outside? First, stay in pajamas all day.

Second, hang out and look out the window.

Third, look at the computer with Mom.

And, if you're still bored, sing! Check facebook for a video of Leah singing. For some reason it won't let us upload to blogger.

Student of the Month

With Hurricane Sandy coming through, I totally forgot to share about Leah's Student of the Month celebration at school. On Friday, Leah was honored, along with the students from the other classes, with a special certificate and little party. Each student was called by the principal, given their certificate, and got to have a cookie and juice with the principal. Stephen took the afternoon off of work to come with me, and then we took Leah to a special lunch at Cheesecake Factory. Well, the lunch might have been more for us!

Leah liked getting a certificate from Dr. White!

Leah did NOT like eating the cookie or drinking the juice!

New Letters for Leah's Room

Okay, prepare to be amazed... I have done something crafty! With the help of my encouraging mother-in-law, we made new letters for Leah's room. Now, Leah already had 2 sets of letters in her room, but as cute as they were, they don't match her room anymore. We finally decided to give Leah her first girly room with pink/purple/green bed set and I saw a cute idea for letters hanging them from a curtain rod (thank you pinterest), so we decided to try to make our own. Check out our creative efforts:

What I Found When I Went in Leah's Room

Let me start out by saying that about a month ago, we took the front off of Leah's crib and put a bed rail up. It was just getting too hard for me to lift her up and over the front of the crib and we will at some point transition her to a big girl bed. One of the benefits of Leah's blindness is that she doesn't know how high she is off the ground, so we have just made sure to not let Leah get in and out of bed on her own. We have seen her a couple of times with her legs hanging off the edge of the bed about an inch above the ground. But since she couldn't feel the ground, she has given up on trying to get down. This was all working out well for us, until about a week ago. She finally got brave enough to let her feet get all the way to the ground. This has slowly progressed to standing up and leaning against the crib, getting all the way down and sitting on the ground, and finally today... I walked into Leah's room while she was supposed to be taking a nap and here is what I found when I went in Leah's room:

Aside from the fact that she was out and over at her changing table, clothes and blankets were strewn about her room. And, don't mind her pants half down... that's just her style! Our girl is getting to be a brave one! Let the fun begin!!

Update on Leah at School

Well, Leah has been in school now for more than 2 months and is really liking her school. She knows where she is when we walk in the door and is happy to be there. The school has a walker that they have provided for Leah to use while in school. After some resistance, she is using the walker again! However, she walks EXTREMELY slowly with it. I guess it's her way of saying, "Fine, I'll use it, but I'm gonna use it my way!" You gotta love this girl who knows what she wants! Here is a pic of her at school in her walker:

Another great thing at school is that Leah was chosen to be the Student of the Month for her class!  Every month a student is chosen from each class and then there is a special celebration that parents are invited to, where the kids are honored. The Students of the Month also get to have a special treat with the principal. We are so proud of our little girl who has obviously impressed her teachers with her determination and strong spirit! On one of the bulletin boards in the hallway at school is a display of information sheets about each student. Below is a pic of Leah's. In case you can't read it, it says: "Hello! My name is Leah! I am three years old. This is my first year at Easton Preschool. I like manipulating my braille books and light up toys. I like walking with my teachers and playing on the playground. I enjoy sliding on the slide!" They seem to know our girl pretty well!!