As usual, you can tell who wrote what part of the letter:
Mary - all of the basics and details
Andy - funny little quips, intro, and conclusion.
I can't tell a story to save my life so I tend to leave the story telling to Andy, but he's been a little busy so I tried to cut down the amount he had to do. But if I'd sent the letter with only what I had written, it would have been incredibly dry and boring. It is so much better with his extra bits; hopefully y'all enjoy them as much as I did.
Hi all,
2012, like 2011, flew by. Last year, we moved to California and bought a house. Much of this year revolved around renovating the house and having a baby. As it has been noted before, the more you have going on in life, the quicker the year seems to pass. Thank God for video-chats on Skype & FaceTime so that we can keep up with everyone we know spread throughout the nation.
We’ve made a lot of changes to the house this year – some planned, others not. We started the year shivering in a few rooms that were closed up by plastic and curtains as Andy tore up a majority of the tile floor in our house. This was in preparation for the new flooring to be installed throughout the house in March. About one month later, we had a cracked pipe in our upstairs bathroom that required a new shower and essentially a new kitchen. We’ve painted almost all of the interior and can park our vehicles in the garage because the garage doors now work...woo hoo! We ended the year toasty warm with a new pellet stove.
The big news of the year is that we had a baby. We found out we were pregnant in February. While Andy was excited, Mary promptly freaked out. Thankfully, there weren’t any problems with the pregnancy or Mary’s pre-existing conditions for most of the pregnancy. We enjoyed our Babymoon in Carmel at the end of July. Then we got busy putting the house back together from the kitchen and bathroom renovations and setting up furniture for when the baby was born. Caroline Adele Walker was born on October 4th at 5:41pm; she weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was 19 inches long. We call her Adele or Addie. No, she is not named after Adele the singer; Caroline, Adele, and Addie are all family names. We look forward to sharing pictures and stories with her of the women after whom she is named. Addie has grown lots in her three months of life. She is now about 13 lbs and loves smiling and making noises at us. Her favorite place to play is on her mat/gym with a whale, an octopus, and a giraffe that hang above her. She bats at them and kicks the whole structure so that they move all around.
Addie met her Auntie Meg (Mary’s sister) at the beginning of November; Meg gave us lots of information about dairy-free dieting so that Addie wouldn’t have as many issues with keeping her food down, gas, and an unhappy bottom. Both sets of grandparents were able to come out to California to meet Adele. It was a very special time for everyone to be able to interact with her. Logan and Cici (Andy’s sister) got to meet the baby in utero about a month before she was born, since they stopped by while out west for a wedding.
We are very pleased that our dog, Bandit, doesn’t seem to have any problems with Addie. Sometimes he wants to sniff her; I imagine that is usually when he happens to walk by and she has a dirty diaper. Now that she is more vocal, he occasionally cocks his head at her trying to figure out what all of the noise is about.
Andy has many hilarious stories of middle of the night feedings or diaper changes. One involves him mistaking a pillow for the baby at 2am, and trying in earnest to change itsdiaper. Another time, he brought the baby to bed mid-diaper change… with no diaper on!!! Suffice it to say that she messed in our sheets a bit…but it was nothing that couldn’t be washed out.
Mary’s mother, Charlotte LeAnn Rodgers, passed away on October 16th. It was a blessing for her to be released from the pain and confusion related to Alzheimer’s disease. She donated her body to science for further research of the disease andtreatments she underwent while alive. We think that LeAnn was able to have at least one moment when she comprehended that Addie had been born before she died.
Andy has continued to enjoy his work here in California. We really appreciate the flexibility that the company allows him. When Addie was born, he was able to take two full weeks off and work two additional weeks at only half-time. He has continued to make progress on his Master’s degree. He is enrolling in his last class this Spring; then, he has to write his thesis.
We are anxiously awaiting several new babies in 2013. Both of our sisters are pregnant so by the end of April, we will have eight nieces and nephews. We plan to make at least one trip back to Texas this year. Hopefully, we will make more progress on the house so that it is safer for Addie when she is crawling, running all around, and making a general mess of things. Andy should be close to finishing his thesis up by the end of the year... then he’ll have even more time to chase the baby around. Maybe, we’ll even manage to hang pictures on our walls (we’ve been that busy around here).
We hope this year is one of happiness and hope for you. Feel free to visit Mary’s blog for more stories & pictures about our family antics throughout the year at http://windowtothewalkers.blogspot.com/.
Best Wishes for you & yours in 2013,
Andy, Mary, & AddieWalker
PS
Here are some general lessons we learned in 2012. We’d love to know if these lessons mean anything to you (good, bad, or indifferent):
1. Ask for responsibility and it shall begranted. People are looking for others to do work for them.
2. Always handle the “safe side” of a used diaper. Handling the “business side” has consequences.
3. Get more sleep. You’ll be a happier camper for it.
4. The clean diaper goes on before you hand the baby off.
5. Deodorant goes on before the Baby Björn or any other baby carrier.
6. Call the Employee Service Center to report a birth and get your health insurance changed. Don’t try to use an automated/online system. The Internet doesn’t know how to have a baby.
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