first foods

Winter Squash!

I wasn't thinking that I was going to start Zach on solids until he was at least 6 months old, but he seemed really ready. So, when Phil got back from his trip, and my parents were around to watch, we started him on squash.

Getting ready


Trying it out


Hmmmm....


He definitely wasn't sure what to think of it that first day, but he's really taken to it since. He eats a whole thing of baby food at a sitting, and would probably eat more meals if I was ambitious enough to try.

I can't believe he's getting so big already!

california trip

Since Phil had a business trip that he was going out of town for, the boys and I decided to go down to San Diego to visit my family and see their new house. Noah loved Grandma and Papa's house. There were stairs, a lot of rooms to discover, a gazebo, and a playset outside. Not to mention all the attention from grandparents and Uncle Nate. He also got to see his second-cousin, Aubrey, which is always a big hit.

Playing with Nate and Aubrey


Calling Daddy on the phone


Outside





As for Zach, this was a big event for him. It was his first plane ride, and he discovered his toes while he was there. He also had just learned to scoot a couple of days before we left so he started mastering that skill as well.

Happy mobile boy


Yummy toes


Lots of love


We also got to meet Elijah (who is exactly 6 months older than Zach)!


The plane ride down was great with the two boys. Zach slept most of the way, and Noah was happy watching Monsters, Inc. on my laptop. Unfortunately, the trip back was a little more interesting. We were supposed to leave San Diego on a 10:30AM flight out. On the way to the airport, I came down with an intense abdominal pain. We stopped on the side of the road, but I still didn't feel any better. We decided to go to an urgent care facility, but it wasn't yet open. My pains were increasingly getting worse, so my dad called 911. The ambulance came and picked me up and took me to a local ER. They hooked me up to IV, gave me pain meds, took blood/urine samples, and did an ultrasound. Everything checked out good, and three hours later my pain was mostly gone. We finally got to the airport at 2ish, but all the flights were delayed because of the bad weather. We caught a plane via standby at 6PM and got home and transferred the sleeping boys to bed at 9:30PM. Thankfully, my parents were on the trip with me so I didn't have to do this alone.

It was a great trip overall, but I don't think I'll be taking the boys on a plane flight alone again anytime soon.

zach's name

As you know, Phil likes self-referential names. Zach's name is Zach Aaron Christopher Hagelberg which gives him the initials of Zach. What you may not know is that for both our boy's names, we used an Old Testament Name (Noah/Aaron), a Saint Name (Augustine/Christopher), and a Prophet Name (Zach(ariah)/Obadiah). When trying to come up with Zach's name, we were pretty sure that we liked Zach Aaron. Christopher was pretty high on the list for the "C" name, but it wasn't until we discovered that St. Christopher's Feast Day is July 25th (Phil's Birthday) that we were totally sold on it.

But here's the cool part... I just found out this week that Aaron, besides being an Old Testament name, is ALSO a saint of the Coptic Church. And he has a feast day too! October 19 which is MY birthday. We didn't even know this until this week. So, now Zach's middle names have a part of both his mommy and daddy in them. (Noah is named after his daddy too as Noah is Phil's middle name.)

10 more weeks of cuteness

holidays

Since Noah's birthday party, it's been a flurry of activity here in the Hagelberg home. We've had guests, two Christmases, trips back and forth to Graham, and explorations of our beautiful city. Here are a few highlights...

12/21 - Green Lake
We love this gem of Seattle. It's about 3 miles to walk all the way around it, but we almost never do that. This time we spent most of our time just looking at the ducks, splashing in puddles, going on the piers, and (sorta) trying to escape the rain. On our way home, we made a detour to see Candy Cane Lane, a row of houses that are decked out for the season.








12/22 - Museum of Flight
Noah's infatuated with all things that go. Be it planes, trains or automobiles. Consequently, we've really wanted to take him to the Museum of Flight for a while now. We met up with Luke (a good friend from SoCal), and had a fabulous time exploring. We got to get into some of the cockpits and go inside a Concord and a retired Air Force One. Noah loved it!










12/24 - Christmas Eve in Shoreline
Phil's brother, Dan, arrived the day before so we had a Christmas time with just Phil's immediate family on Christmas Eve. Only his youngest brother, Peter, was missing since he's in Afghanistan serving our country. We had a great time opening gifts and having a feast on fondue.

Here's Dan with his newest nephew


Grandma and Papa enjoying their new calendar starring their favorite grandchildren


Zach likes his present


And so does Noah


Yummy Fondue



12/25 - Christmas Day in Graham
We traveled down about an hour south to spend Christmas Day with Phil's more extended family. His grandma, aunt, uncle, and cousins were all there. It was a lot of fun to see them again.

With "Aunt" Lindsey


With Grandma and Great-Grandma


Zach's First Christmas




12/26 - Experience Music Project
Phil had some free passes to EMP (thanks Aunt Shirley!), so he and Noah took his parents and Dan there the day after Christmas. Mommy and Zach enjoyed their quiet time at home!




12/31 - Our 5 year anniversary!
I can't believe it's been so long already. And yet, so much has happened since our wedding - after all, we do have two kids! Grandma and Papa kindly met us at Southcenter Mall to watch the boys while Phil and I had a nice, uninterrupted lunch at BJ's Restaurant. It was very nice to have that time, and we sure did enjoy our pizookie. It's been too long.




1/1 - Downtown Seattle
On the first of the year, we went downtown to go see the lights and all the Christmas decor in Westlake Center. The Holiday Carousal was still up, but unfortunately not running. It was really windy, but Noah loved it. So much fun!





We also moved Noah into a "Big Kid's Bed" by converting his crib into a toddler bed. He's doing pretty well with it!

resolutions

Noah's New Year's Resolutions:
1. Pray every night before bed with mommy or daddy
2. Brush teeth every day
3. Get potty-trained
4. Lose the pacifier
5. Learn to count to ten
6. Learn the alphabet

Zach's Resolutions:
1. Sleep through the night (almost there)
2. Learn to crawl, then walk
3. Eat solids

Ok, so maybe these are mommy's resolutions for her kids, but they are good ones, no?

top 3 of 2009

Like every year, this year has had it's ups and downs. It's been a year of sicknesses, recession, and struggles. And yet, through it all, we have seen God work in amazing ways this last year. Things that at first looked like a bad situation, God has turned around for good. To Him be all the glory. Here are my top 3 from 2009:

1. Phil lost his job.

Although at first glance this seemed horrible, it was actually the best thing that could have happened to us. His company (that we loved) laid off one-third of its workers last March. Phil was one of them. It was really scary at the time. I was 20 weeks pregnant with Zach, and we had just bought a house 6 months before. It was also the middle of the recession, and jobs were hard to come by. But here's what God did... First, Phil's old company gave him a month of severance pay to help him while he looked for a new job. Second, Phil was in the middle of a side project for Peepcode at the time. He was able to finish writing a screencast, and get an advance on the sales. Then, through the powers of twitter, Phil found a remote job working with his current company exactly a month to the day from his lay-off date. He now gets to work from home and gets to work with Clojure, a programming language that he really enjoys. Sonian (where Phil works now) also allowed us to keep our current health insurance coverage through COBRA until the end of the year since we needed to make sure the pregnancy would be covered.

2. Zach was born.

As I mentioned here, everything surrounding Zach's birth was an act of God. The timing was perfect. My mom was here to help with Noah, and since my labor started in the evening we were able to get to the hospital quickly and get Noah down for sleep without too much trouble. It was a quick labor, and I got my VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). Zach is an amazing baby. We are enjoying every minute of our time with him. I love to see my two boys starting to interact. I can't wait to see what this next year is going to bring.

3. Noah.

Just Noah. He is wonderful, and this year has really brought out a lot of his personality. He's starting to talk a lot more, and he's a gentle, caring, and fun-loving kid. He loves to read books and cuddle in our laps. He likes to share his toys with all of us - including Zach. He's a great big brother. He's a much better sleeper this year - yay! He loves his "huggies" and all the time he can get with us.

Thank you, Jesus, for such a wonderful family.