Two week update

This is Harper on her way to her 2 week doctor's appointment on Monday, where she was given a clean bill of health.

After loosing almost 10% of her body weight in her first week, she has now come back strong, weighing 6 pounds 9 ounces -- 7 ounces more than she did at birth. Here are the rest of her stats:

Height: 20.25 inches (50%)
Head Circumference: 13.5 inches (25%)
Weight: 6 pounds 9 ounces (10-25%)

The doctor noted that she's very alert and strong for a two-week-old. Harper proved the doctor right by celebrating her 2 week birth day with a night of little-to-no sleep.

Photo Shoot with Ben

My dad and little brother Ben drove down from Connecticut early Sunday morning to meet Harper. They drove back that night in order to go to work and school the next morning. While they were here, Ben (who is a budding photographer) and I experimented a bit with his camera. Check out his flickr site to see the awesome results.

Introducing...

Harper Sophia Allen

November 30, 2009 5:40 p.m.
Arlington, Virginia
6 lbs. 2 oz. 20 in. long

The birth went incredibly smoothly - we couldn't have asked for better. Our amazing doctor and nurse made the entire experience really pleasant. We are loving the new role of parenthood we have found ourselves in. I hope you'll enjoy some of our favorite pictures (so far) of the little lady.

I guess this is really happening

I'm now hooked up to many machines, and am hours from welcoming this little lady to the world. Just thought I'd keep everyone up to speed.

I started having contractions at 8:30 this morning, by 3 p.m. I was checked in to the hospital and was getting an epidural. I'm now just playing the waiting game. Unfortunately, we can't find the cord to our camera, so it may be a day or two until we post pictures... but they are coming. I'll post again later tonight or tomorrow morning with more details.

For the record, Shiloh thinks I'm crazy for blogging right now.

The Return

I know, it's been a while... and this post isn't about the inauguration. Someday I may post about that day, but today is not that day.

The last six months have been crazy, with lots of changes and fun. In hopes of quickly capturing all (or most) of it, I've come up with the following top 10 highlights. Some of which I may elaborate on in future posts. No promises though.

10. Fabulous Hat Brunch
A bunch of my girlfriends got together this spring for a Fabulous Hat Brunch. It was so fun to get dressed up and go out with the ladies.

9. Adventures with the Tingey's
The Mud Sale: Every year the Amish community puts on a large auction that is usually very muddy. Luckily for us we stayed quite dry. We're excited to go back next year to get in on the bidding action.

Homemade Strawberry Jam: In a marathon weekend, we joined Shiloh's cousins to pick fresh strawberries and make more strawberry jam than I could have imagined. By the end, we had the process down to a science. It was so fun and have completely enjoyed our delicious jam ever since.

Kite Festival: Panda, Nate and the kids came to the District for the annual kite festival. In spite of some cold, wet weather, we had a great time and loved having the Tingey's in town.

8. NY Ladies Trip
In early April two carloads of girls spent a weekend running around NY. We went to see Wicked, visited a local flea market, did a lot of shopping and got very little sleep. It was a weekend full of memorable moments.

7. Back Surgery
In a less than fun time of the year, Shiloh had back surgery to relieve some severe back pain that had developed over the past couple of years. Recovery has been a long process, but he is finally starting to feel the benefits of the operation.

6. MT Allen Visit & AT&T National Golf Tournament
We were lucky enough to welcome Shiloh's family to the area for the Fourth of July. Shiloh's mom had given his father tickets to see Tiger Woods and several great golfers play at the AT&T National Golf Tournament. My parents thought it sounded like such a good time, that they came down to join us. We had a great time with everyone! Thanks again Jan & Lyle!

5. Virginia Beach with Adi
We took a quick weekend trip to visit our friend Garret at Virginia Beach, where he was stationed. He showed us some excellent beaches where we were able to bring Adi in the water with us. She didn't love it at first, but by the end of the trip was jumping the waves and swimming around like a pro.

4. Landmark Birthdays
2009 brought several significant birthdays. It was great to celebrate them!
My Mom turned 50 (July 27th) - We were able to drive up and surprise my mom the weekend before her birthday. It was a great weekend. Love you mom!
Shiloh turned 30 (August 17th) - Keeping with the surprising theme, I sent Shiloh out shooting with some friends while I pulled together a surprise birthday BBQ/party, with the help of our friends, Eric and Krysta (Thanks again guys!). He was totally surprised and had a great time!
Ben turns 18 (August 28th) - We weren't able to celebrate with Ben, but are super excited that he's finally exited the "kid" stage. Happy Birthday Ben!

3. Cancun
Shiloh and I took our first solo vacation since our honeymoon at the beginning of August. It was such a great trip - better than we expected, and we didn't want to leave. We went to an all-inclusive resort and enjoyed a week of no responsibilities and lots of fun.

2. Buying a House
In March, we decided we were ready to buy a house. We started looking at properties every weekend and by the end of May found the home we wanted to buy. We put an offer on the home, and unbelievably are still waiting to hear back from their bank. Fingers crossed!

1. Page Family Reunion
My mom's immediate family got together recently for a family reunion. My mom is the oldest of seven children, and all of her siblings were able to make it to the reunion. I hadn't seen all of the family for a couple of years, it was great to catch up with everyone!

** Just one more thing... **
In case you hadn't heard,

we're expecting a little girl on November 29th. We're so excited and can't believe how fast the pregnancy has gone. With just a few months to go, look forward to more updates soon!

Stay Tuned

I biked into the District this morning with my friend Jewel. Stay tuned for my inauguration experience.

Obama's Oath

New Years Photos

Last Saturday we sqeezed some time in to take some long over-due pictures in D.C. It is awesome to be able to drive 5 minutes and have such a sweet back-drop. Happy 2009!

Getting to know the Singer

In mid-December my friend Julie welcomed her adorable little boy, Bronco, to D.C. -- seven weeks early. Bronco is doing really well now; we're counting the days 'till he can come home and play. [Update: since writing this post, Bronco has been given the o.k. to come home!]

As Julie was thinking of ways to thank the many amazing nurses that have taken care of Bronco, she sent out a call for help. It seems many of Julie's friends have sewing skills. I, unfortunately, am not one of them.

When I was 11, I had watched my mom make many, many amazing dresses. She made it look so easy. too easy. I decided I was going to venture into the sewing world by making myself a pair of fabulous shorts. I chose a (most likely, hideous) jeans fabric.... it was the early 90s ... then I went to work. Without a pattern, I started cutting, ironing and stitching my masterpiece. My poor mother was probably bitting her tounge the whole time!

Throughout the whole creation process, I didn't think to take my measurements, or even try the shorts on. I figured sewing was like wrapping a present -- just eye it. When I finally finished, I was so excited to try them on. As I stepped into them, they didn't feel quite as I expected. And although I was awkwardly skinny, the shorts wouldn't fit beyond my knees.

Since then I've had several [slightly more successful] sewing experiments, but the original experiment has always haunted me.

When I got married, my mom bought me an awesome sewing machine, which I've had a love/hate relationship with. I've LOVED that I have a sewing machine [especially such a snazzy one], I've hated the guilt it gives to me as it gathers dust. Well, last week, Julie's request made me give sewing one more try.

To my suprise.... it was fun! To be fair, the blanket was about the least complicated project. perfect. The blankets were not flawless, and the first one took me much longer than it should have, but they left me feeling the need to create.

So the next project? We bought this great bench for our living room, but we do not love the cushions. I've had my eye out for the perfect fabric, and am trying to decide whether to do one, long cushion, or three square ones. Stay tuned.


In the meantime, if anyone would like to help out with Bronco and Julie's awesome service project, please let me know. We'd love to have your help!