our growing babe

lela had her 4 month visit a little early since we're taking off for the states. she's healthy!

4 month check-up:

weight: 14.8 lbs. (86th percentile)
length: 25.4 in. (95th percentile)
head circumference: 16.3 in. (77th percentile)

merry christmas

lela got rollerskates for christmas :)


...and today started melodically gurgling. this continues all day - oh what music to our ears! :)

first family photos

we had a family photo shoot done in mid-november since we have close to zero pics of the three of us. we hired the photographer that taught the class that i took in july and as we already knew, he was awesome. princess peach didn't quite cooperate (she was nine weeks at the time what can we expect, right?), but we still got some sweet shots. please forgive the cheesy ones and lela's look of distress in the ones of the three of us (not quite sure if the beret was too tight or if she was going for some euro-chic look that i didn't know about). they are posted here. this is one of our faves:



these days lela enjoys listening to books, laying on her changing table and cooing at her pictures, reverse crunches (these are her fave, she's really working on toning up), shadow boxing, bicycling her legs as fast as she can, and doing thumb wars against herself. she has an early 4 month appt. this week where we'll find out her new measurements.

did i mention it is STILL snowing here... ! we got 4 inches, then 6, now 2-4 again, and snow is forecasted all week. i love it! on saturday night we went to a christmas party in bernkastel and then to an ugly sweater party after that. we ended up leaving early because the snow was coming down so hard and we were afraid for the drive home. we took the long way home on the autobahn (to avoid curvy country mountain roads) and it was horrible. no one was out, but the roads hadn't been touched yet. it took us forever to get home, but we made it safely. the base rates the drivability of the roads as either green, amber, red, or black. yesterday (sunday) they were black. they NEVER go to black. this means that you can only drive on them if it is a life-threatening emergency. the germans are saying this is looking to be the worst winter in 100 years... german gossip. good thing we'll be in vegas in less than a month, for a month. :)

zermatt and christmas markets everywhere

over the thanksgiving weekend we headed to zermatt, switzerland, home of the matterhorn. :) we rented a chalet with a bunch of friends and skied as much as we could handle....it was blistering cold. brant went out the first day, i skied the second day, and we were very fortunate to be able to ski together the third day as our friend lauren tended to our kin. :)


black friday shopping at its finest...

lela hanging with the boys...








we've also been hitting up all the christmas markets we can. they are so authentically german. we love the gluhwein (hot spiced wine) in town specific mugs (our collection of these is getting a little out of hand) and brats.

koblenz christmas market



trier christmas market



lela is a little chubette... loves to eat, smile, half roll over, and laugh hysterically. we are trying to catch the laughing part on video, but she gets camera shy. as soon as we do, it will be on our mobileme site. she also showed us that she can sleep through the night! she started in early november and has been fairly consistent. we get her off schedule a lot with all our traveling, but when she's been home for a few days she sleeps from about 10pm to 6am. good enough for us!




class is over for me as of last week... i will be taking two classes starting in mid-january, but until then i'm going to read something insignificant and trashy.

brant is taking a grad school break. he will be heading to the desert in april for 6 months and will finish up grad school there.

we did an overnight trip to the rothenburg ob der tauber christmas market. it is a walled medieval city - we went there with my parents in september and knew we had to go back for their christmas market. we arrived late at night and when we went to check into our place, no one answered. we called, rang the doorbell, and rang the bell (yes, they had a real old-fashioned bell). it was icy cold and the streets were snow-covered and there wasn't a soul in sight. we walked with our friends lauren and tommy to help them check into their place....and asked if they had any more rooms. she said that they were waiting up for us and there was one room left. can you believe it? literally, one room left at the inn. a christmas miracle. ;)

rothenburg christmas market



lastly, we have a LOT of snow. it's gorgeous and it just keeps on snowing...

lela takes paris

two nights in paris were a blast, but I think the cold, rain, and parisian attitude finally wore her down. she saw many of the tourist spots to include notre dame cathedral, sacre coeur, the eifel tower, champs elysees, and the louvre. the most exciting was visiting the chateau at versailles were she was screaming bloody murder throughout the hall of mirrors and marie antoinette's former bedroom.

to see some more pics from the trip, click here.

-brant

p.s. as we were voyaging through the streets, alleyways, and subways of paris, we came across the black and white postcard at the top of our blog. could not pass it up as it seems to illustrate our life at the moment to a tee (minus the moses basket and add the car seat!) it was taken during easter break in 1948 at st. lazare train station. ~sara

p.s.s. brant forgot to mention our louvre escapade... well, we walked in without paying thinking we were sweet...realized they closed in FIVE minutes. so we ran carrying the stroller toward the mona lisa. sprinting past famous sculptures, up flights of stairs, around marble hallways, and we arrive at the base of the 200 stairs that lead to ms. mona...to hear, "sorry, closed", as the frenchman points to his watch. really? really. anyway... the only thing we saw was a mouse running on the floor on the way out. chintzy museum. ;)

ll's stats

2 month check-up:

weight: 12.8 lbs. (98th percentile)
length: 24.4 in. (100th percentile)
head circumference: 16 in. (95th percentile)

2 week check-up:

weight: 8.8 lbs. (62nd percentile)
length: 22 in. (95th percentile)
head circumference: 14.6 in. (73rd percentile)

birth:

weight: 8.1 lbs. (70th percentile)
length: 22 in. (98th percentile)
head circumference: 14.2 in. (78th percentile)

lela's 1st halloween

lela attended brant's squadron kids' halloween party yesterday as a piece of fat belly tuna.... she was shy at first, but then bonded with the two edamame, cow, and zebra. :) pictures are up on our gallery site and here are a few.

mobileme gallery

lela has been the focus of our camera for about 6 weeks now... :)

you can see the pictures at http://gallery.me.com/sbreilly

the sweetest peach

lela lucille reilly
september 5, 2010
9:29pm CEST
8 pounds, 1 ounce
22 inches long



the full lela collection can be viewed (and photos can be downloaded if you like) at: http://gallery.me.com/sbreilly

brant made a "lela's first days" video that is pretty sweet...and posted on that site as well. :) i recommend letting it load entirely first and then watching it.

also, you can view lela in the st. elisabeth krankenhaus baby gallery by doing the following:
go to: www.verbund-krankenhaus.de
click on: MEDIZINISCHES LEISTUNGSANGEBOT
click on: Frauenklinik (the guy on the right, dr. domagowski, delivered lela... he was awesome.)
click on: Babygalerie

she is on the second page. jackson guy on the first page is our friends', the ulibarris', baby boy born two days after lela. if you go into august, our other friends', the youngs', baby girl camden claire was born on august 28th.

over the hill AND the little chi chi foils us again

our appt. on our due date, september 1st, showed lots of braxton-hicks contractions, but that's it. watching the spikes on the monitor, i was thinking...ooohhhh this might be it. but the midwife came in and said, "oh no, just braxton-hicks. baby is doing great....see you friday."

so today, friday, we go in to get monitored (heartrate and checking for contractions) for 30 minutes. the midwife checks out the printout and says, "everything looks great. please come in again on sunday." wait, that's actually not true. she said, "on sunday, please stand up, eat breakfast, and call before coming in." :) love their english... i asked her if she saw any contractions and she said two small ones, but that's it. a doctor came in and looked at it too...and said, "ok, good." they're so nonchalant and at ease - which i appreciate. the midwife asked me if i wanted to be examined, but also said it wasn't necessary. so, i declined. the wait continues... :)

echternach and luxembourg city

maybe our last trip as a traveling duo... (39.5 weeks)

it's just about time...

...to take off this santa claus suit. things are getting a bit too heavy. we had our 39 week appt. today and, again, i gained almost four pounds! i'm like a bobble person. if you push me from the right angle, i will fall over, and most likely won't be able to get back up. :) the babe is now weighing in at 7.7 lbs which is about 7 lbs. and 11 oz. this is more than my birth weight...so i have a feeling things are going to be happening around here REALLY soon. not to mention i have been more uncomfortable than ever and the doc said, "oh, this baby is ready!" on the ultrasound, things looked pretty cramped. the baby was moving a lot (i know weird, right!?), but we still managed to see its feet, toes (which the doctor called its "feet digits"), hands, legs, heart, and big head. he said the head size was normal, but it looked big to me. i'm just going to keep drinking my raspberry leaf tea and we'll let you know if anything crazy happens....

next doctor's appt. is on our due date, next wednesday.

it's a muskrat - noooooooo!!!! 480th reactivation party, 38 weeks, and pig fest...

brant's squadron, the 22, just closed and it is now the 480th (which used to be an old fighter squadron in germany back in the day). they held an auction and big party a couple of weekends ago to get rid of all the 22 paraphernalia and "reactivate" the 480th.









two nights ago i had a dream that i am still recovering from. this isn't a surprise because i dream a LOT, however this one was particularly horrifying. i was allowed to take a quick look at our baby as long as i put it back in....and i took it out and it was a swamp muskrat! it was so disgusting. it had coarse brown hair, little scrawny claws, it was super ratty, long, and had a worm grub stuck in it's nasty hair. i tried to love it but it was squirming all over and biting me. disgusting. i am still disturbed by this! the baby is moving in my belly and i'm slowly starting to warm up to it again. i ignored it the day after the dream i was so disgusted.

i attended a bachelorette party in our neighboring town of wittlich on friday and afterwards we all went to pig fest. brant and i went back on saturday and sunday as well!







isn't she adorable:


this guy tried to kiss the bachelorette's sister:


the unlucky swine:


making the pork sandwiches:


at the "make your own bag of gummies" stand...oh heaven.




on sunday we did a photo shoot with lauren and tommy (they are due tomorrow!) and here is a picture of me eloquently posing by the highway at about 38.5 weeks. i look like the REALLY creepy person spying, but it's all i had.