BFFs

This is Ella the day we got home from the hospital.She's already hangin' outwith her best friend Italia from across the street. Italia is about 2 months old - and they're about the same length!Yay for friends!

Sushi

I get asked a lot by my third graders what my favorite food is. I'm not sure why it's such a must-know topic, but they get really grossed out when I tell them I like sushi. Their curiosity made this school year especially hard because saying I "like" sushi is an understatement. Better said, I LOVE SUSHI! I adore it, crave it, practically live for the stuff. And for nine months I told myself it was worth it to abstain from my one culinary true love (with only a couple of cheats) if it meant we'd have a healthy baby.

The only fantasy that helped me through it was that I was going to send Jon to our favorite sushi bar for celebratory spicy tuna the minute our baby was born. Imagine my utter devastation when the lactation specialist at the hospital told me I ABSOLUTELY could not have sushi while breastfeeding. Other prohibited foods have been found to be myths (chocolate, onions, spicy food) so I asked again, just to be sure, and she looked at me like I wanted to feed my baby arsenic. My question is ... what do women in Japan eat after they give birth? Their babies seem just fine!

So, lately I've been haunted by sushi. I want it so bad I can taste it ... almost. And I can't have it for at least another year. Oh, the cruelty. But I found some alternatives that just might have to do until then:

SUSHI USB drives... pretty funny.



Fruit sushi. Not nearly as good, but might trick my eyes and tummy for a while.



Do you have any ideas?

Oh MY GOSH!

We are so lucky! Our friends Alana and Caity are VERY talented photographers. I had fun taking the cheesy photos from the last post, but then these two came over and put me to shame! (In a good way!) We had a fun time posing and ooh-ing and aaah-ing about Ella. She is so beautiful, if I don't say so myself. To see some of the results of our fun afternoon, click here:
Alana's blog

Caity's blog

Thanks girls for all your help and attention. We are amazed at all you can do!

Photo Shoot

This darn baby is so cute I just can't help myself. This may be considered borderline child abuse for how long I made her sit in weird things and wear little outfits, but I just had to try to get some fun shots! Ella loves the sun, but doesn't love the camera, so it's hard to get her to "pose" - I guess I'll cut her some slack for being only 8 days old. :) I promise every post won't be pictures of her, but that's my life right now, so that's what you get!

More Photos

Wow. I've been a mommy for one week. And what an exhausting week it has been! I've never been so consumed by one single thing - and it's amazing. I love Ella so much it brings me to tears about 20 times a day. The sleepless nights, the endless feedings, the MANY diapers are so worth it to have her cuddle up to me and sleep contentedly. They say the first week of a first child's life is the hardest week of a mother's life, so I'm sure glad I got through it! She's a joy and we're so glad she's joined us! Here are some cute pics our friend Caity took of us on our big day. Enjoy!

And the winner is...

ELLA GRACE HAGEN!!
My favorite was Lola, Jon's was Ella, and Amelia had such great sentimental backing. I have always loved Stella, for no particular reason, so we had a serious dilemma on our hands. The interesting thing is that when we got serious way back when about naming this child, Ella Grace was the first name we both thought of. Then we let it simmer in the back of our minds, mostly because it is super popular and we didn't want that for our little jelly bean.

So, when we saw her on Tuesday and tried out all the names, Ella fit the best. Lola seemed a bit too sassy, and Stella was a little too strong. When it came to Amelia and Ella, we just had to pick one, and this one seems to fit! So, that was a long story for a very small baby with a pretty small name!

Thanks for your votes and support! We love you all!

Baby Hagen

Hi, my name is...

Lola Mae
Ella grace
Stella Mae
Amelia Grace

Which one suits her the bestest?