Samara and her favorite toy, Mr. Whoozit!

December5 from Victoria Dosch on Vimeo.

A Merry Christmas

Christmas with a baby is what it should be. Those around her are envigorated and enlightened. It is like those much anticipated magic mornings we all had years ago, understanding the wonder and beauty of it all through a little one's eyes. While Samara was not really interested in Santa, or what he brought her, she did love the gathering of everyone, the endless piles of tissue and ribbon, the laugh-out-loud stuffed animals, the candles and cuddling, the music at church and at home. Our Christmas was divided into five parts. Around 5:30 we awoke to our own at home. With just the Christmas tree lights on, Steve and I opened the couple of gifts we got each other, very surprised that our baby was still asleep. Around 6:30 she awoke and we raced to see that first sleepy smile and bring her with us into the living room. She unwrapped a couple of small gifts but fell in love with the sparkly wrapping paper and was as content as could be. Around 8:30 we headed to the Hare, Henderson and Hernandez folk just around the corner. We had a lovely breakfast, listened to the Queen's speech and exchanged gifts, this year, Secret Santa style. It was great, if also very heart-wrenching at times. Not having Nana and Papa with us, not having them ring, not seeing their thoughtful and endearingly predictable gifts under the tree was very hard, especially for my father. I wonder if it ever gets any easier... Around midday we drove the 45 minutes or so to Steve's Nana's nursing home. She had only met Samara once before, so it was lovely to see them together again, and as you imagine, all of the other residents were overjoyed to have a baby in the house. She was holding up ok, although we aren't sure if she recognized us this time, but she was less emotional than in recent weeks. We were grateful for that time with her. After that we drove to Peabody and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon with all of Steve's side of the family. Samara was again spoiled rotten, but so well behaved, laughing all through Christmas lunch. For the evening, we returned to Marblehead and had a lovely dinner and celebration with all of the family, once again. Samara stayed up until 10:30pm, just as she had the nights before, and it's safe to say her schedule we worked hard to achieve was thrown out the window! While we are now dealing with the ramifications of this tiredness and chaos, I am glad that we can be flexible with her and that she is so dear as to put up with us all. She was rarely not passed around and bombarded by at least 12 other people this week and she has been very cheerful and truly a Christmas angel. We are so lucky. It is December 29th today, 4 years since the day we met on a perfect blind date, 3 years since Steve proposed at the lighthouse that winter's morning. Tonight we will celebrate all over again!

Christmas pics

A very special Christmas

We recommend the Bumbo chair, one of our gifts to Samara :)

The cutest Santa

Mi Primera Navidad

Me and my little girl

Among so many blessings this year, none is greater than having my little girl in my arms. Every moment of happiness is magnified by her, every silence made joyful. I cuddle Samara to no end and pray that she always loves us as much as she does now! A mother's love grows and grows and I adore my little angel.

Happiest Times

Outside it is snowing. We are expecting a foot. Samara just had her 6 months shot and is now asleep in her crib. With that behind us, and the snow on the ground, Christmas is finally upon us. We are so very excited for Samara's first.

6 months old!

My little girl is half a year old today! She is more loving, adorable and fun every day. As her great-grandma said this past weekend in Tampa, "we hit the jackpot with her!" We know it! Here is a photo of my little one in her new dress today, as the sun melted the ice and snow outside. Tomorrow... 9 more inches. She'll love it!

Happy Days

Samara and Grandma were kindred spirits. While she really is a good, happy, energetic baby, I do not exaggerate when I say that she literally did not cry once the whole 3 days we were there. The picture above was their first meeting, preceeded by an enormous smile, and what followed was smile after smile after smile. It was a beautful thing. I think Samara loved Tampa. They certainly loved her there.

Blue Jean Baby

Just in time for our trip tomorrow to Florida to see her great-grandparents, Samara has her first pair of jeans. I wish I looked this good in mine! Too cute! This will be Samara's 5th flight. At 5 months of age, that's pretty good. Luckily this time, flying internally, it's free. Did you know you pay up to $500 for infants on intercontinental voyages?! Next year will be costly! We're packing plenty of sweet potatoes and green beans for the journey, the all time favorites, and a few best toys. Yes, we're in the toy stage now and it's very, very fun.

Samara sitting (!) by our tree!

First Snow!

We had our first snow today. While we snuggled inside a lot of the day, adding some decorations to our new home and enjoying our fixed heating, we did go out for a photo outside Number 31 for y'all and then later this evening for a nice long walk and a chance to see all the Christmas lights in the neighborhood in all their glory. We walked to have tea with Mummy and Daddy and co. and enjoyed the joy of seeing them on this enchanted winter evening and the fun of walking to Samara's grandparents and surprising them once the sun had already gone down and they expected not to see the little angel until tomorrow. Life is so happy. And on this night of white wonder and bliss, Samara is fast asleep, my hubby and I sit cuddled on the couch with Cuba Libres on hand and... I am the lucky one.

Red & Green

We took Samara on the Marblehead Christmas Walk today. It was such a beautiful day and she was given her first ever balloons. Here's a shot of our little one and her Christmas toys, taking it all in.

The Do

Here's a picture of me and Samara next to our Christmas tree, without those 12 inches of hair that I had chopped off for Locks of Love on Tuesday.

The Latest

Here's a family shot from Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful day, as usual eating way too much...twice! We are so lucky to be home.

Our super exciting news is that we've moved!! We are now living at 'Number 31' in the most beautiful little cottage-style home. We arrived on the weekend. It's one of the houses we've been considering to buy, but right now we're just renting. We realized over the last few weeks that we may still be months away from closing on the other home we still have our offer on, and this one is still too pricey for us, so negotiations were entered and we got a great deal on this beautiful home, 5 minutes walking from my parents and 1 minute from the beach! We have a fire place, a beautiful yard and deck (yes, not at all useful now, but they are still 'ours'), two bedrooms, a lovely living room already decked out with our photos and Christmas tree, and it's just perfect! It is so, so wonderful to have special family time. The first few days of endless boxes and bitter cold, wet weather were tiring and we did miss everyone at the Hare household a lot, but this is very exciting for us and it already feels like home. I'll post some photos soon.

Even more exciting than our home is the arrival of baby Talitha Emily Harvey on November 23rd! Harriet is a Mummy! And Tali is so sweet. How lucky I am that two of my best, best friends in the whole world had babies so close to me. Gavin Parker was born to Hilary on September 18th, exactly 3 months after Samara, and little Tali came 2 months later. Right now 5 months seems like an eternity, but I have big plans for these friendships in future years! Now, if we could all just live a little closer. It's crazy how the arrival of a baby fills you with all of those same emotions and excitement. I now understand why my mother cries every time she hears of a baby being born. There is such a kindred bond between mothers, that is for sure. I feel so close to these women, blessed by God with their little ones. And... dare I say, it makes me long to do it all again!