Four Months Old!

Our baby girl is four months old!

At the four month mark our little Miss Natalie;

Has disovered her toes!

Is trying sooooo hard to roll over

LOVES her exer-saucer

Laughs out loud when we make funny faces

and so much more.

Here are some recent pics,

Exer-saucer-ing

Busted plotting schemes with birdie

Is this Tummy Time stuff really necessary?

More posts to come!

Happy Halloween!

Here are a couple of pics from Natalie's first Halloween! She had a great day, starting out with a visit to Dad's work, followed by a visit with the gals from SMART. Then the Abbotts came by for some tricks and treats and finally we topped off the night with a stop by Uncle Brian and Aunt Donna's for some Halloween treats.

Happy Hallween everyone!

Our Little Pumpkin

Halloween is almost here and since I'm a Halloween fanatic, I thought I'd take some pictures of our little pumpkin. Here she is at 15 weeks sporting her very first Halloween costume.

Miss Natalie Bean is doing great lately. She loves to smile and even gives us a few giggles. Lately her favorite toy is her playmat. And she's learning to grab and hold everything in sight. She's also become quite the drooler - we're pretty sure her first tooth is just around the corner!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

A lot can happen in six weeks...

I can't believe six weeks have come and gone so fast. And what a six weeks it's been - Natalie has done everything from travel 5000 kms to learn how to hold a toy (with a whole bunch more in between). Here are some highlights.

First off, on October 1st, our little monkey munch celebrated her third month of chillin on planet earth. If the smiles and goos are any indication she seems to like life.

Before her third month was finished Natalie and I travelled to Cape Breton for a little over two weeks to visit with family. She was a great little traveller and we had no problems at all. The trip was jam packed with walks at the beach and wildlife park, a super sweet baby shower and visits with tons of family and new friends.

In Cape Breton Miss Natalie hit a fun milestone - babbling. Our little babe started gabbing at us in September and hasn't stopped since. She really gets going when we mimic her sounds or talk with her. And the smiles are endless if we stick our toungues out at her, make piggy snorts or whistle. Back east Nanny Prince also helped her learn how to pull herself up from lying down to a sitting position - which she loves to do now.

In the past few weeks Natalie has also started to grab and hold toys (she loves her grab apple - thanks Liza and Nicole for introducing us to that fun toy), sit in her Bumbo chair and suck her hands. Man does she love to suck those hands - the smacking noises are hilarious (and loud).

Yesterday Natalie had her first set of shots and while she wasn't happy about it, she did very well - we're all happy it's over and done with.

So at the three-month mark life with our little Natalie Bean is going great - we're in love with her and we're pretty sure the feeling is mutual :) Here are some three-month Natalie stats to close off this post.

At three months Natalie:

Weighs 14.5 lbs and is a little over 61 cms long

Is still a baldy :)

Loves to play and sing with her Dad (she loves when he says ma, ma, ma or da, da, da)

Has discovered TV -I caught her actually watching Treehouse one day (usually I turn it on for background music and sound) but this day she actually watched and smiled at the characters.

Wendy, Dan and Natalie Bean

Natalie's first six weeks...

Well it's been over six weeks since our little Miss Natalie arrived and they've been amazing, wonderful and stressful all at once.

First off I want to say Thank You to everyone who sent cards,e-mails, Facebook notes and far too many beautiful gifts for our little girlie. We really appreciate your sweetness in welcoming Natalie into the world.


Now on to the Natalie news...

In the short time she's been here Natalie has had a ton of visitors who she manages to quickly charm with her big eyes and pleasant personality.

Two very special visitors were Natalie's Nanny and Auntie who came all the way from Cape Breton for a two week visit. We had a fantastic time. They took good care of us and managed to get us out of the house on our first few outside adventures. While they were here we went to the Sun and Salsa festival, hung out in Bragg Creek and even took a trip to Banff. I also managed to get caught up on my sleep which was nice :).

Here are some pictures of our little cutie pie from the past few weeks. Now that we're getting into our groove we'll be sure to add more pics and updates in the coming weeks.

Natalie hanging out with her favorite toy - Birdie. She loves the crinkly sound his wings make.

Snoozing on her change pad... that was her favorite daytime sleeping quarters for her first few weeks of life...

Mommy and Natalie hanging out...

The Prince gals in Bragg Creek enjoying one of the many lattes, espressos and caramel macchiatos we drank during our visit...

Miss Natalie chillin...

Natalie Stats @ six weeks:

Weight: 11.5 lbs

Hair Color: Blonde as blonde can be

Eye Color: Still blue, we'll see if that changes

Talents: Smiling at mommy and daddy, saying ahhh gooo and charming the world

Favorite pastimes: Doing webcasts with all the Capers and hanging out in her bouncy chair

Bye for now

Hello World!

Natalie Marie McMahon arrived July 1st at 2:49 p.m.

She weighed 7 lbs 4oz and was 19 inches long.

She's keeping mom and dad really busy - more pics to come soon!

Still waiting for the Bean...

Well we're two days from our due date and still no Bean.

I went to the doctor on Monday and Baby Bean looks to be ready to go and is still in the right position (very low). My doctor says it looks like it could be any day now - but we've heard that before. So we're playing the waiting game.

Luckily my nesting instinct is still going strong. I've been filling my days with cleaning, cooking, and baking - our freezer is stocked with casserols, cookies and more strawberry jam than two people will ever possibly eat. I'm starting to feel like I've been possessed by Martha Stewart.

The one thing keeping me sane is visits and chats with friends who are also on maternity leave. Thank heavens there are friends to chat with throughout the day. Today I went to my first ever Stars and Strollers movie with Julie and Maisee. It was super fun -Bean and I will definitely be taking in some movies - especially when the weather gets cold.

Other than that things are pretty quiet in the McMahon household. Although we get excited at every little pain - thinking it could be time. So far it's been nothing but false alarms.

Oh well Beaner will set things in motion when he or she is ready, until then... we wait.

PS Favorite food of the week - I'm still on the STRAWBERRY kick! Strawberry jam and tea biscuits are so tasty!

Thirty Eight Weeks!

I'm thirty eight weeks preggers -and as of tomorrow I'm officially on maternity leave! Hooray!

I'm hoping to cook and freeze a few more meals over the next couple of days, and get in some naps before The Bean arrives. Although Beaner may have other plans. Dan predicts that tomorrow or Wednesday will be delivery day. I'm guessing Wednesday since that marks the full moon and - hokey as it may sound - full moons tend to bring on the babies. We'll just have to wait and see.

In the meantime - check out the belly! This is me striking a preggers pose during a recent walk in Griffith Park - a fantastic park not far from our house. My belly is definitely growing lately, although it's feeling pretty cramped in there. I can feel every little movement The Bean makes.

More updates later this week - I am on mat leave now so I've got time on my hands. Oh and the food of the week - strawberry jam (with tea bicuits). Tasty!

Thirty-six weeks preggo

We got some wild news this past Friday during my regular doctor's visit. The doctor was doing her regular checkup and noticed that my belly hadn't grown since last week's visit. She explained that sometimes that means the baby has dropped and proceeded to see if that was the case.

Well her reaction of "Wow - this baby is really low!" told me Bean had definitely dropped. The doctor explained that this means the Bean will likely arrive sooner than expected. Although she couldn't say how soon - it could be a week from now, maybe three weeks from now. Either way that news set a fire under my nesting instincts (Dan's too). So we've both been busy wrapping up our last minute To Do items.

Other than that everything was fine during this last visit, the Bean has a speedy heart rate of 148 and is head down and ready to go.

Our little Beaner is also moving around a lot - and these are some big movements that make my whole tummy move in waves. It's pretty amazing to watch so we're trying to get some video of it to post.

Hope you like the new belly shot - 36 weeks preggo - and hot all the time.

This weeks' favorite food - blueberry muffins. Mmmmmmmmmm.....

We have a crib!

This weekend we (actually Dan) put The Beaner's crib together. And I love it!

I picked out some sweet material (sage green with white polka dots) for my mom to use when she makes the bedding. But other than that I'm going to leave most of the decorating until after baby arrives and we know whether we have a little boy or little girl on our hands.

I have to say, having the crib set up makes it feel like we're getting close to go-time. In fact, despite my due date of June 28th Dan and I both think The Bean will likely arrive in about 3 weeks. We'll see - maybe we're just over-excited first-timers. :)

Here are some pics of the crib and the latest belly shots.

PS My favoorite food of the week is...WATERMELON. I can't get enough.

Meet Miss Maisee!

Our friends Julie and Jay welcomed thier sweet little girl

Maisee Olive Hallelujah Woolley

into the world this weekend.

We can't wait to meet her! I'm sure she and The Bean will spend tons of time together.

Congratulations Julie and Jay!

Everything Must Go!

We held a garage sale today - in an effort to free up storage space for some of The Bean's things (and some of our stuff).

It was a HUGE success. We knew it was going to go well when our first customer came knocking on our door at 7:30 a.m. - despite the 8 a.m. start time on all of the signs we posted. And the fact that we hadn't opened the garage door or put anything outside yet.

By the time 10:30 hit we were pretty much cleaned out. Hooray!

Now we're off to enjoy the 31 degrees of glorious heat! Enjoy your long weekend.

PS The Bean and I had our regular check up yesterday. Beaner is still head down and had a heart rate of 154. And the doctor says my belly is measuring at exactly 34 weeks. Yay!

Happy Mother's Day!

Dan, The Bean and I want to say

Happy Mother's Day to our Moms

We Love you!

Nap Time!

It's been a while since our last post - and the reason is twofold. First, we had a busy weekend last week. Gary and Kathy came out for a fun visit and a we hosted a big BBQ and jam with some friends. There were lots of guitars, an upright base, a violin and some serious fiddlin'. The music lasted until about 1:30 a.m. which I'm not sure our neighbors loved. But we had a great time!

Then, for no real reason (other than the fact that I'm in my 33rd week of preggersness) I was hit with a giant wave of exhaustion this week. I've napped every evening for the past four days -which is unusual for me. But today I seem to be coming around, I even made it out for a quick walk.

Before my tired phase kicked in Dan and I went for a walk on Sunday afternoon through Edworthy Park since the temperature got up to about 20 degrees. The park is pretty close to our house and is a great area with a giant dog park, lots of pathways and some pretty steep hills.

As you can see we took advantage of the scenery and played around with our camera again.

Oh and since I'm updating I'll fill you in on last week's doctor's visit. As usual the belly is measuring the right size, Bean had a healthly heartbeat of 150 beats per minute and my blood pressure was perfect. So things are going well. The Bean is still moving tons and had a rare case of the hicups this week.

Only a little more than 7 weeks to go until we meet our little beaner.

Ahhhh... weekends

This weekend marked my 31st week of being pregnant - a mere nine weeks to go (and that's only if I don't deliver early - which seems to be a habit with Calgary women).

But being 31 weeks preggers isn't slowing me down - this weekend we had two breakfast dates, a BBQ at a friend's place and a cooking class. It was busy but so fun.

Our winter weather finally broke so we drove out to Bragg Creek, our favourite outdoor stomping grounds, to go for a walk and play around with our camera. It was wet and muddy, but fun.

Here are a few of our pictures. I think Dan is pondering what life with the Bean will be like in his profile shot :)

PS This weeks's favourite food is... fruit salad! Yum!

30 Weeks Today!

Today I'm exactly 30 weeks pregnant and heading into my 31st week. Only 70 days until our little bean arrives.

I had my regular doctor's appointment this past Wednesday and my doctor says everything is going really well. My tummy is measuring bang on at 30 weeks and The Bean's heartbeat was a healthy 146 beats per minute. (As usual the doctor barely touched my belly with the doppler before picking up The Bean's heartbeat.)

While she was measuring my tummy the doctor let it slip that based on the way my tummy looks she thinks little Beaner might be a boy! My friends from work aren't buying it - they say according to the Chinese birth calendar we're having a girl and they're pretty sold on that idea :)

Baby Bean is definitely a busybody lately. At any given moment there's a ton of movement going on in my tummy and it's strong enough that Dan can see and feel it. We spend a lot of time just feeling the Bean move around in there.

This week we also started our prenatal classes. And suprisingly for both of us it was great! We'd heard the classes can be a bit dry and not all that informative - but ours was fantastic. Our instructor is a former doula who wasn't shy about role playing and acting out the stages of labour for us. She also has a great sense of humour which helps a lot.

Of course I was the complete keener of our class - showing up with every single item our booklet said we might need (pillow, yoga mat, water bottles, pens and paper etc). No one else was quite as prepared as I was :). I was also the first person to sign up for weekly treat duty (nerd I know - but I love that stuff).

I heart Eggos!

My obsession with Eggos started about two weeks ago. We were watching TV and there they were - yummy, delicious-looking Eggos staring back at me through the TV screen. So at 9:30 p.m. Dan made the trek to the grocery store to buy me a 16 pack of homestyle waffles - which I devoured over the course of about 4 days.

But instead of trying to control this craving I'm totally giving in. In fact my second 16-pack will grace the freezer tonight - ready for me to devour early tomorrow morning . Bring on the Eggos!

Hello World!

Here are some gorgeous pictures of Samuel, baby boy of our friends Melissa and Dave. Samuel is now a whole two-days old.

Is he not the sweetest little guy you've ever seen!

New Additions

Today two of our friends announced the arrival of of their beautiful babies.

The first was our amazing friend Melissa who had a rockstar delivery earlier today - she actually called me only a couple of hours later sounding like her usual chipper self.

She and her husband Dave are now the beaming parents of
Samuel David Ruginski
Born April 8th
7lbs 9 ounces
and of course cute as a button I'm sure.

The second was my friend Krista who (poor soul) had been having preterm labour for no less than two months. But on Thursday April 3rd she experienced the real thing.

Krista and her husband Jeff are now the proud parents of
Benson Henry-Arthur Moore
Born April 3rd
8lbs 9 ounces

Congratulations!

New Belly Pics - Week 27

Here are the latest belly shots. I'm 26 weeks and 3 days preggers. What do you think - is it getting any bigger?