Elinor’s first walk!

Today we went on our first walk!  It was a gorgeous, sunny day in Portland so we wanted to take advantage of it.  Sarah and Stefan (born 8/18/08) and Jen and Clare (born 11/30/08) came over and we walked in the neighborhood.  The daffodils are coming up and the winter daphne is about to bloom.  I love this time of year when there is such promise that spring will indeed come!  Elinor loved being in the Moby Wrap and slept the entire walk.  I’m very much looking forward to many more walks, especially in the next few days of nice weather.

Elinor is one week old!

We are having problems with the blog design at www.elinorstoll.com so we will keep posting here until we figure that out.

We can’t believe that Elinor will be a week old tomorrow!  We finally uploaded some pics from the hospital and from her first week of life.  Please check out this link.  We tried to document all of her visitors but some were in and out so quickly we couldn’t get their pictures.  There are still lots of people for her to meet…and we can’t wait for that.

The first week has been challenging but we made it through!  Today I turned a corner in how I am feeling both physically and emotionally.  It might be that good old sunshine shining in our windows, but whatever the case, it’s nice.

Elinor came home from the hospital with some neonatal jaundice due to a bit of head trauma during her birth.  We have had a couple of doctor’s appointments and we found out today that she will not need treatment.  Yay!

I am staying up with Elinor during the night and Burke is sleeping, so that during the day he can be more functional and do more of the household chores and I can nap.  So far this is working well but do notice all the pictures of Burke sleeping! 🙂  My lack of sleep might catch up with me at some point.

We are loving being parents to this beautiful little girl.  It’s hard to put into words all the emotions we’ve felt.  Such intense happiness and joy….

Introducing Elinor Jordan Stoll!

Elinor Jordan Stoll

Born: January 7, 2009 at 12:38 PM

Weight: 7 pounds, 8 oz

Length: 20″

New blog: www.elinorstoll.com (but give her mommy & daddy a good while to get it started!)

Week 39 belly and nursery photos

One more week!  We wake up every day wondering if this could be the day!

The nursery is ready although we are using Jubu’s crib as a staging area for packing for the hospital.  We still need curtains but that can come later.  What a group effort the nursery has been!  In addition to Bonnie’s mural, Aunt Jennifer got Jubu the precious owl mobile hanging in the corner, and Hugh and Jack were so kind to give us their great mobile hanging over the crib.  GrandJan gave Jubu the alphabet caterpillar hanging over the window, and our friend Michelle made the most beautiful quilt that is hanging over the rocking chair.  Burke painted the lamp and the bedside table, my mom spent hours with me looking at rugs, and my dad vacuumed every spot of dust from the room (before he fell on the icy front steps and cut his hand open, but that is another story!).  We think the room is coming together…and we can’t wait to show it to Jubu! We will update the blog as soon as we can after Jubu’s arrival!

Merry Christmas from Burke, Julia, and Jubu!

We had a lovely Christmas and hope that you all did too!  We loved receiving all of the wonderful Christmas cards, letters, and photos which we have up on our mantel now.  We didn’t get around to sending cards this year but wanted to wish everyone a merry Christmas and an amazing 2009!

Here is a link to a photo gallery I created with some of the year’s highlights.  We packed a lot into the year, especially Burke with his successful summits of Mt. Hood, Mt. Baker, and Mt. Rainier!

SNOW and Week 37 belly shot

Whew, what a week!!  We are going on day #9 of extremely unusual winter weather.  We have more than a foot of snow and it’s not melting anytime soon!  Last week really wasn’t so bad compared to what arrived this weekend, but I ended up having to work from home two days and Burke’s office was closed one day.  Friday was my last official day of work before maternity leave began but I still have a project I am finishing up so hope to make it into the office a bit next week.  Burke’s office was closed today and we are hoping tomorrow, too.  After being very cautious about venturing outside the house with my big belly, I finally had enough and convinced Burke to take me out on a walk today.  We walked for about an hour and a half (slowly!).  It’s so beautiful out!  I loved seeing all the people out skiing and snowshoeing and sledding and walking.  There are hardly any cars on the roads.  If Burke stays home tomorrow, I hope that we can take another long walk and enjoy this snow before it melts.  They say the last time Portland had this much snow was 1980, and that this might end up ranking in the top 10 snowstorms of all time.  My mom has been in Denver with Jennifer and Mike this past week and was supposed to get back Sunday evening.  No surprise that her flight was cancelled.  She’s now scheduled to arrive Tuesday night and we really hope it works out so that we can celebrate Christmas together.  Otherwise we will put off our Christmas festivities until she is back!

Here are some more pictures of our backyard and our neighborhood from our walk today.

Christmas tree and Week 36 belly shot

Burke after placing the star on the top!

We were debating getting a tree this year, but last Thursday we decided to go ahead and get one.  Burke promises to put all the ornaments away after Christmas! 🙂  As for the belly shot, well, let’s just say that Jubu AND Julia are getting bigger!  I’m glad that the photo is dark!

Nursery preview

While we were at the beach last weekend, Bonnie painted the mural on the nursery wall.  We love it!  Now we are working on getting the rest of the room put together.  We are still working on a rug, curtains, framing some art for the walls, painting the bedside table, etc. but here is a sneak preview for now!  We will post more pictures when it’s done.

Snow!!! and baby shower photos

We are having snow and wind and cold in Portland today!  Burke and I have been being lazy…reading on the sofa in front of the Christmas tree, watching all the birds come to our backyard birdfeeders, and of course watching the snow and listening to the windows rattle in the wind!

My friend and boss Martha posted some pictures of my work baby shower in mid-November to her flickr site and I thought I would link to them here.  It was so much fun and so many of the “big” things we needed (car seat, stroller) were purchased as a group gift.  Be sure to check out the black mary jane shoes that my friend Sue knitted.  So cute!  I’m going to miss all my fabulous coworkers when I am out on maternity leave!

Another kayak update…

The kayak has finally reached the point where you can get a good idea of how it will look upon completion. The deck is still full of wires (click the pic to get better detail), and it’s not actually attached to the hull yet, but once I get some epoxy on the deck it will really start to look like a boat that’s ready to hit the water. Looks are deceiving though. I still have some work to do.