Further video proof of the previous post.

She loves that cat.

Thank goodness the cat is so sweet. I cut the video short to go save the cat. She's got both bottom teeth now, and two eye teeth (I think) are coming through the top, you can just feel them.

Peek A Boo!

At the restaurant today:

Constance and Oliver

Video of Constance trying to hug Oliver. She does this a LOT, and thank goodness he's such a well behaved cat.

9 month check-up

Today Constance had her 9 month appointment, and things are exactly on track! She is 16 pounds and 12 ounces (which is the 25% for babies her age), and she's 27 inches long (50% for babies her age). She has only ever had a runny nose once (for a week), and diaper rash for that same week. She has been a VERY healthy girl, and happy too! She's talking to the cat now. She has tried to say "cat", but it comes out as "hat". She's crawling REALLY well, but she hasn't walked yet. She's still scared to let go of the couch. But the big news is that we got her a potty chair this week (a little kid toilet that sits next to ours). We sit her on it sometimes while we are in there, and she has gone pee in it about 4 or 5 times already. We think that's impressive for a baby who can't walk yet. :) Mike and I are gearing up for the holiday season. Christmas shows start on Thanksgiving day, and continue through Christmas Eve. And then in January-February we will be performing in Grease at the theatre. So we have a lot going on here! Happy Veterans Day (and also happy 11/11/11)!

New videos and look

Here are two new videos that we took recently. Also, I'm updating the blog look so you can see more blog posts all at once. ***If you want to view the whole post, you'll need to click on the post you want to see more of.*** To view both videos in this post, click anywhere on this post. If you're viewing on a phone, you don't have to worry about this. This first video is of Constance and her friend baby Jess. He's bigger than she is, even though he's younger (she's 8 months, he's 5 months). She's playing peek-a-boo with him. The second video is how I found her one day when she didn't want to sleep for her nap. She usually wakes up pretty well.

A new video of Constance

She was laughing at me, and we clicked the video record button on the computer before she realized it, so she laughed really good until she noticed herself on the screen.

Part 3 of our Italy vacation is up on the other blog, click on this link to view the photos (and a few videos!!!) If you click on the photo, you will NOT go to the blog, you will just see the photo bigger, just to let you know. www.shortphotographer.com/?p=764

First comes the crawling, then she stands...

She was after the chapstick that I put on the ottoman for her. The loud noise you hear is the chapstick hitting the ground.

Sideways

She got tickled at herself and wanted to look at everything sideways.

We have liftoff!!! (video)

See for yourself:

Our Italy Trip, part 2!!!

I just put up part 2 of our trip, which was Pisa and Lucca. Enjoy:

http://www.shortphotographer.com/?p=695

Our Italy trip, part 1!!!

I have it posted on my professional blog, so click on the link below to see our first day of our honeymoon in Italy, along with my narration of what we did and the culture there. I'll post the next one soon!!!

http://www.shortphotographer.com/?p=671

A photo before we go...

Betty will be staying here with Constance for the first half of our Italian honeymoon (we leave Monday morning- our anniversary!!!), and Jackie will be here for the second half and bring us back home.

Since I won't see Betty when we get back, we did a photoshoot today so she would have one with Constance at 6 months old. :)

Our next post will be photos of Italia!!!

Family Vacation photos!!

Our recent family trips in the past 2 weeks took us to MO to see Juan, Sara and Jon Kuanfung, IL to see Grandpa Gray and Grandma Shirley, Grandma Bev, and NC to visit with Clint, Luisa and Karl Van Roekel. Here are some of the Highlights form that trip.

Ball Game

We went to the Savannah Sand Gnats game this past week. I think we won (we didn't stay til the end), and we had a good time. Constance definitely likes being outside and seeing the crowds of people. I enjoy the games, but the real gnats like to bite me. :/

The really cool thing about the ballpark is that they've started serving cool foods like grilled shrimp, smores sandwiches, and chicken and waffles! lol. Only in the south.

Videos, as promised!!!

One pic

I'll post new videos this week, I promise. I've fallen behind, trying to do other things. But here's a picture for your enjoyment. It was an outfit of mine from when I was a baby. My grandmother (my "Nonna") made it. She was the same one who made "my" wedding dress. And the bracelet Constance is wearing was from my dad. It won't fit much longer. :)

Videos, photos and happy 4th!

New photos and whatnot, just because we have them. My new phone takes pretty good videos, so I keep recording.

Also, the family pic is from July 4th, as well as just a couple that I took today in my office chair, and thought everyone might enjoy.

She can now roll from her back to her stomach, but no crawling. Also, teeth might be happening in the near future, though you can't really see any yet. We're hoping hair happens in the near future, but we're not crossing our fingers. Haha!

For your enjoyment, I just uploaded 3 new videos to youtube. Whether they are interesting or not… well, I didn't really review them before posting them. The lemon one is funny (the second video).

New Videos

We went downtown the other day after the Sunday show and decided we needed some outside time. So we headed to River Street and ate at Tubby's Tank House and sat outside. We figured that if the baby was noisy, nobody would care out there.

While we were there I tested out the new black and white feature on my phone and also gave Constance her first lemon. Enjoy!!!

Constance playing with her feet

A new photo

I thought I'd try to recreate the photo I did last month, but she's a bit more active now, so it was a little more difficult. Still, she did smile for me.

She's been a little fussy this week, so we're really regulating nap times. She sounds like a pterydactyl when she screams, which is kind of funny, but not so much when it's in your ear.

She hasn't started rolling over yet, but she sits up well on her stomach (as you can see in this picture) and she can scoot herself around on the floor or crib (you know, when we don't really want her to). It's all progress. She still doesn't sit in a baby chair by herself, but we're working on that too. Sadly, she is getting to the age that we are probably going to have to stop taking her to the restaurants that we really enjoy, so as to not disturb the other guests. :/

This coming month my mom (Jackie) will be coming to help babysit, as I'm headed to Texas for 4 days to shoot a wedding.

Coastal Chevrolet Commercial

So, Mike is one of the top 5 finalists. Here is his commercial (and Constance's debut):

New videos coming soon

But for now... enjoy a photo our friend took on his iphone.

Easter

We spent Easter with Clint and Luisa and got to see Karl while we were there (he's back from New Zealand and living in Raleigh for the next few months).

The only picture I got was at dinner, Mike holding Constance in the new Easter dress that Connie bought for her.

Model?

I thought I'd try my hand in making a headband for Constance, as I was not finding any at the stores nearby. So this is my first headband creation. I'm thinking that if I get enough variety and good enough at them I might sell them.

Either way, I have a model. :) She did so good today.

Edit to add: We had her 2 month checkup this month. She's in the 50th percentile for height and weight. She

is 10 lbs 12 oz, and 22 inches long. We knew she had been getting longer, since she got much skinnier this month. She finally started chunking back out in the last week or so. She's a very healthy happy baby. I guess we'll keep her.

8 Weeks old with Dad!

Squeaky!

Computer nerd.

I'm teaching her to geek out on the computer today. We've been on the computer for about an hour. She has slept the entire time until this photo.

A new family photo

Just thought I'd share it because I like it. Click to view larger.

Happiness is a warm... diaper?

Since I know that not everything comes across in photos, I decided to videotape her today while she was on her changing table (her favorite place), and while I was waiting for her to "finish". You get a little bit of her talking for a second in this video too, near the end.

Springtime in Savannah

We went out to Forsyth Park here in Savannah a couple of days ago and the trees are fully flowering right now, so I had our friend Michelle snap a few family photos while we were there.

Directly after we finished the photoshoot, Constance crapped all over herself, me, got some on Mike, and we had to wrap her in a blanket (unfortunately it was white) just to get her back to the car. It was fun.

Click on the photos to view a little larger. ;)

This is about how we feel right now.

Nap time!

It's been a whirlwind month for us, and after St. Patrick's day, we are all a little zonked out. :)

Btw, at her 1 month appointment, she weighed 9 lbs 4 oz, and was 21 inches long. She is just exactly average for her age so far. And she's started to smile finally. I'll get a good picture of that soon.

One Month!!!

Today marked the one month day of when we had Constance. I have no idea what she weighs, we'll find out tomorrow at her 2nd pediatric appointment.

In the mean time, I've gone back into the show at the theatre, and have already started shooting headshots again, so I'm nearly recovered. We are still having guests here at the house, too. Betty is still here with us (or back, as the case may be- she was in Florida for a while), Dawn came down to visit for 2 days and brought a "pre-loved" blanket that she made (and Jackson slept with so that Constance would already have it loved and broken in for her). And tomorrow the Avent family is coming down for the weekend to have fun and visit. After that, my brother Josh (or Alex, whichever you happen to call him) will be visiting for a few days through my birthday.

The cat isn't sure what to think about all of this lately, but he's decided that if he hangs around the baby, he gets pet, so he's been a little more accepting lately.

Well, that's nearly all the news for now. This is a picture of Constance today, her 4 week old smile (she smiles crooked like her dad and cocks her eyebrows like her mom).

Bed rest. Even less fun than it sounds.

So I'm officially on bed rest, which is nearly impossible for me, as apparently I can't stay in the bed. But we've had a lot of help with Betty, my mom Jackie, and my dad Josh and stepmom Elisa. In the meantime, I'm on antibiotics until my lab work comes back and they decide why I was/am having severe lower abdominal cramping. They're trying to rule out anything serious. Today my dad and Elisa go back home, and Betty left a couple of days ago to Florida to visit some friends, and mom will probably be leaving shortly, so we'll have a few days to see how it feels with no help before Betty comes back up for a little bit.

The show has taken a turn for the worse as well, and they had to cancel last night's show, since all of the cast members seem to be puking and pooping out of everywhere. Hopefully Mike doesn't bring it home, as I don't know that we can handle a baby AND either of us being sick right now. But he's not showing any signs, so we're crossing our fingers.

We took our first mall outing with Constance yesterday, and that went just fine. She slept the whole time, except when she decided to take a massive blowout crap all over herself and my mom, requiring my mom to get a new shirt, since the one with poop stain

on it was white.

She sleeps fairly regularly, but we've noticed her food intake is going up. That's good, as she was born at approximately 7 lbs 9 oz, and by her 7 day checkup she was up to 7 lbs 15 oz. She's a hearty eater. But she rarely needs a pacifier, as we are using the Dunstan baby language theory thing my mom showed us on youtube that helps you decipher what the baby is crying for. So far, it's 100% accurate for us.

In the mean time, I had my parents get in a photo for us, and we'll do a shoot with Betty when she gets back, and hopefully with all of the family members as they join us. As long as I don't get in too much trouble for "doing too much". :/

Constance Noel Zaller

Our due date was guesstimated at January 30th, but we were never sure on the date of conception, so it was all based on ultrasound measurements. Still, you always hope your baby gets there by the due date. Every day after that seems like forever. Our plan was to have the baby at the Midwife Group in Savannah. And, no, we never did know the gender.

My mom got here on January 8th to help out, and assuming we'd have a baby by then. Mike's mom had been here since mid January, hoping I would deliver early (hah!). So it was a waiting game.

On the night of January 9th, around 10:30, we were at home watching movies and I got up as I had my first contraction that actually kind of hurt. It felt like I had menstrual cramps that wrapped around like an inflatable floatie on my middle and back. We finished the movie and went to bed. By midnight, I started timing the contractions, as they were all starting to have that crampy feeling. I was instructed not to call the Birth Center unless my contractions were 5 minutes apart or less for an hour, or if my water broke, so I stayed home, as the contractions were timing between 5 and 10 minutes. But they were getting pretty intense, so I left the bedroom to give Mike some sleep, because I started to not be able to stay still or quiet.

By 3:30am I had been having regular contractions at 5 minutes or less, so we called the midwife and they told us to come in so I could be checked. We assumed we'd be sent home, though, because I was convinced I'd be pregnant forever (I was officially 11 days over my due date at this point). About 4:15am they hooked me up to a monitor and checked my dilation, told me we needed to stay there and get comfortable because "it looks like you're gonna have a baby tonight!".

So we woke up our moms and they came down to help us. The birth center was pretty busy that night, and it was really late, so we decided it was best not to call people, as it's a very small place, and there was nowhere for people to stand if they showed up. That, and the contractions were so painful that I didn't want to have people watch me go through them (even though they only lasted about a minute each). Between contractions, however, I couldn't have been more normal or felt better. Except that I was tired (I hadn't slept since the night before).

It was apparently a record-setting day, as there were 5 women who had called in to deliver that day (there had been no births over the weekend. I guess babies decided to take Chinese New Year off this year). I was the second person in, so I was hoping to be the second person delivered. Betty was staying with the Meeces, and Michelle came by in the morning and talked to me, played with my hair, and prayed for me during my contractions until she had to leave. However, things were progressing slowly for me, so I didn't call Erin (to take photos) until around 10:30am. Mom was hoping I'd deliver by 1:00pm, but that time came and went. They finally gave me a little medication just to take the edge off so I could sleep during my 5 minutes of non-contractions (the medicine worked for just about 2 hours- they decided I needed the energy for when I had to push).

I'm not sure when I started pushing, but from what I've heard, it was well over 2 hours. Mike kept telling me I was his hero, and Erin put down the camera toward the end of the labor to help hold my legs and coach me through delivery. They were great. The midwife, Nancy, was within 10 minutes of sending me to the hospital to deliver when I finally pushed the baby out. The staff was excited to find out if it was a boy or a girl, and it ended up being a girl. They handed her straight to me, right out, still attached, and cleaned her up right on my chest. Where she took a huge dump. Thanks, baby.

It was 9:17pm. She was 7lbs 9oz, and we named her Constance Noel Zaller. Erin put some of the photos on her blog, if you'd like to see what the whole process was like. http://erinrenephotography.com/blog/?p=732

We're home now, and trying to rest. She's been a pretty easy baby, but it's been less than 2 days, so I'm not counting my chickens just yet. I'm on bedrest for 2 weeks, though, and I'm taking full advantage of it. :)

Last days..

So my mom comes in tomorrow from Vegas to stay for a week, and my dad and stepmother will be here the following Monday (Valentine's day).

We saw the midwives again today and they said that while things were progressing, the baby is just too comfortable in there. I had a non-stress test which measures the baby's heart rate and the contractions. Had an ultrasound to determine amniotic fluid levels. The baby is still at 2.5 cm dilated and 75% effaced, and at a -1 station which was exactly the same as last time. They also did a "membrane sweep" which is fairly unpleasant, but the midwife said that it didn't really do anything because there was "nothing to sweep". If you don't know, google it. It's too weird to explain.

Though I told them my grandma advised me against it, they are putting me on a castor oil regimen starting tomorrow morning. They're making me mix it with things as well as... well a few other unpleasant things I have to do. :/ I'll leave a couple of things to your imagination. They advised me against shopping at the mall tomorrow. :)

Anyhow, they're hopeful that they can get me to go into labor by tomorrow night, but if I haven't, we go back in for another checkup on Wednesday. The nurse said that they would probably not let us go past Saturday before inducing at the hospital, but the midwife didn't want us to think about that just yet, so she said we'll get there when we get there. Taking it all one day at a time. Definitely will keep you posted.

Nearly one week past due

Just sharing a photo that Mike took today. We're officially 40 weeks and 6 days (approximately... apparently ultrasound due dates can be 2 weeks off in either direction). Next appointment is on Monday, and they'll check to make sure the baby's heart rate is okay, and there is enough amniotic fluid.

Hopefully, though, they'll just tell us that our newborn is just fine. We'll see. I'm not crossing my fingers. This IS a Savannah baby, you know, and time ticks a little slower here.

February

Well, luckily, Savannah is completely missing the massive ice and snowstorms that the rest of the country seems to be stuck in. That's a great thing for us, but a really crappy thing if the baby gets here in the next day or so, as my mom won't probably be able to make it here right away for the birth. Still, she'll come when she can, and my dad and stepmom will get here on the night of Valentine's, and it'll be fun.

And, as you may have noticed, the January 30th due date has come and gone, and now we're 4 days past the due date. That's okay with me, though, as today marks the first day of the Chinese New Year! It's the year of the rabbit, so it should be a much calmer year than last year's tiger sign. Rabbit year is a symbol of fertility and commitment, so it will be good for family and relationships.

The Savannah Tenors show opened last weekend, and it's getting great audience reviews. Michael went on tv today and did a segment, complete with a few show clips, so I'm posting a link here. Mike's appearance on WTOC

We've also started ordering this cool thing called Farm Box where we get bi-monthly deliveries of fresh organic local food, and we're really enjoying it. I'm sitting here eating organic chocolate peanut butter granola. Hey, I didn't say it was 100% healthy...

Oliver has misunderstood.

He thinks the baby stuff is for him.

Rehearsals, strollers, and waiting.

This week has been full of Michael's rehearsals for the new Savannah Tenors show that opens on Friday. That basically means that in the car we only listen to isolated piano plunking of notes, so that he can learn the difficult songs like Bohemian Rhapsody and Yesterday.

Yesterday we went to Bluffton SC to follow up on a craigslist ad that we saw for a Valco

stroller... about 600 bucks worth of stroller for 250. It ended up being awesome, so we got it, even though we have a stroller that we got as a gift. The craigslist stroller (it's TCU purple) will be our rough terrain stroller, as it's a jogging stroller, and it's a bit larger than the stroller we had picked out for ourselves, which is the easy to use smaller stroller for everyday use.

While we were in Bluffton, we ate at Cheeburger Cheeburger, which is a burger joint... but they had an AMAZING milkshake. We got the pb, chocolate, and banana shake, and it was a good choice. As we were leaving, I saw an advert that I thought sounded silly. I realize that Karate Kid the remake was not karate, but the irony was still there.

Other than that, we're just playing the waiting game- there haven't been any "signs" or anything, so we're just twiddling our thumbs, hanging out, enjoying date time and nap times while we still have them.

Home stretch

Betty has been here in town for a week now, helping out with the Meece's kids and waiting on the word from us that we're headed to the midwife birthing center. It hasn't happened yet, but we're only just now entering the 40th week of pregnancy (it can last up to 42 full weeks, so we theoretically could go for 3 more weeks). And since my mom didn't realize she was in labor with either child... well, let's just hope mine is like that!

Betty did help us sort out the clothes and gifts from the baby showers, which really helped clean up the back room (the baby/guest room). Today Matt dropped off their cradle for us to borrow while we have guests in town. We decided it would be a good idea not to make people have to sleep with the new kid screaming, and instead, during the time we have guests, put a cradle in our room, although we are both pretty opposed to sleeping in the same room as the baby.

Seizing an opportunity of good lighting and a few minutes of down time, I did a photo today. Enjoy.

Our 37.5 week checkup and our crazy cat

We had our next appointment today, which is the second of our weekly visits until the baby comes. Everything is good, I've plateaued on my weight, which is apparently also good. The midwife said something about how pointy the shoulder was and we thought that was really funny (since Betty complained about Michael's shoulders). It probably won't be so funny in a few weeks, unless I have my mom's amazing uncomplicated labors and feel no cramping or signs of labor until the baby is coming out.

In other news, Michael is recording a cd to sell at the theatre. They are all Broadway songs and I'm featured on a few of them, and Eddie Wilson is recording them for us. Just a few more tweaks and everything should be good to send to the company.

And, lastly, I'm adding a video of Oliver, our cat, being weird like he always is. Enjoy.