Merry Christmas!

It has certainly been a hectic few months since we arrived home!  Our sea shipment was delivered to our home on November 15, which worked perfectly with my work schedule. I had been planning to take 2 weeks off work to unpack leading up to Thanksgiving, so our stuff came  just in time!  But first, I need to back up to the girls' first Halloween in the USA. There was a lot of crying when I showed up for the storybook parade at school, mostly from L since she thought it was time to go home!

L REFUSED to wear the lion costume I bought her, so I dressed her up in a traditional Vietnamese Ao Dai.

Baby H is less-than-enthusiastic about her bunny rabbit costume.

Back to unpacking -- we unpacked our sea of boxes, and we were able to move in the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  The day before Thanksgiving, we picked up Baby H's plagiocephaly helmet.  Basically, H's head is flat on one side, and so this helmet will help correct the roundness  of her head.  It's critical to do it when babies are young because the bones in the skull are mostly fused together by the time babies are 24 months, and growth of the head slows down quite a bit.  Once the growth slows, corrective orthotics have much less impact.  Instructions were for Baby H to wear the helmet 3-4 hours at a time for the first few days, then 23 hours per day once she adjusted.  She actually isn't terribly bothered by the helmet - it's more of an inconvenience for me because nursing her is not as comfortable when she's wearing it.

Baby H at her helmet fitting - she's such a pro!

We spent the girls' first Thanksgiving with Granny and Granddad in Baytown, wearing the matching outfits that Granny bought for the girls.

Baby H and L playing around before heading to Baytown!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving was the big Michigan-Ohio State game, and we hosted friends and family in our home for the first time since moving into our house. I was able to get a snapshot of Baby H in a wicker chair that had been G's when he was a baby in Singapore. L also had a few snapshots in the chair when she was the same age as Baby H, and here are the three of them together!

G on the left, Baby H upper right, and L in the lower right.

L is geared up and ready for some Michigan Football! Sadly, despite our enthusiasm, our boys in blue still lost.  There's always next year!

Of course, L was very curious about Baby H's helmet at first (and a little bit jealous), so we found her old soft helmet from when she was learning to walk.  She wore it for hours and hours over Thanksgiving weekend!  Now, she only wears it when we "play football" - this mostly entails G or me throwing the plushie football, and L runs to fetch it.  Yes, fetch it.  Just like a puppy.  We're still working on the catching part!

L in her best Heisman pose.

Amidst the chaos of moving, and much to G's displeasure, we had our family photos taken. I had some sticker shock when I started looking up local Houston photographers - most things in UAE are more expensive than in Houston, but photography is NOT one of them!  I think I was just very fortunate to befriend two very wonderful lifestyle photographers in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and I have been spoiled by both of them.  Both of them take amazing photos, and both of them give the client the full gallery - no picking a set number of images for a price. I miss you tons, Lacey and Jo!

Sayonara complete galleries, that is not how the business works stateside!  At least, I haven't been able to find a photographer that operates that way yet. 

After much searching, I did find a lovely gentlemen whose prices I could stomach.  I understand that professional photography is an investment, and so I believe in paying a photographer a reasonable amount so that they can continue to take beautiful photos of my family and others. At the same time, some of the prices seemed outrageous. Aurélien was wonderfully patient with the girls, his photos came out beautifully, and while we still had to pick 20 images from the gallery, extra images weren't too expensive and he had a lot of nice little touches (like special editing for social media profile photos, and a mobile app of my gallery so I can easily bore my coworkers with more photos!)  The matching "Mommy and Me" dresses are courtesy of G's Aunt Robyn, purchased from Elestory. 

Family Christmas photos!

And that brings us up to this lovely Christmas holiday season. Despite my many objections, Granny still bought dresses for the girls for Christmas. We made it to a church service every Sunday during Advent (pretty amazing - 4 Sundays in a row is previously unheard of because the girls kept getting sick!) We're so happy to be able to spend our first Christmas with both our girls in our home in Houston, creating new traditions that will hopefully stay with us for years to come. As we wrap up 2019, we are so excited to see what 2020 brings for us!

Baby H in her dress from Granny with her helmet "dressed up" to match. L refused to pose with her baby sister.

We started a new tradition! Picking oranges from our orange tree on Christmas Eve. L is helping us gather them up for freshly squeezed OJ (and mimosas and screwdrivers for the grownups!)

Baby H in the same PJs that G wore when he was a baby.  L was too big for these when we got them (and she would have been too small her first Christmas anyway), but they fit Baby H pretty well!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours!