Good Neighbors and Jammin with an infant & chihuahua

This morning while Julia and I were walking Chewy I was running through the list of things I wanted to get done before heading to Northern California for the Holidays.

I had been putting off making jam because:

1. It had kind of "hot" earlier this week (85 and sunny...aren't we spoiled?) New England friends please don't be mad at me. I miss you but I am also happy to not be experiencing another New England winter right now.
2. I was waiting for a time when Pete was free to watch our precious little daughter
3. And I needed lemons

As I walked around the neighborhood with yards containing citrus trees I was thinking how nice it would be if someone just handed me a few lemons so I wouldn't have to go to the store. And then... a Christmas miracle happened (if we use the term miracle loosely).  As we rounded the corner this woman came out of her house, waved at us, and yelled a greeting. She then stopped me and insisted on giving me a bag of lemons. Now she could have seen me longingly looking at the lemons in the neighborhood, been softened by Julia's angelic looks (people are always nice to me now that I have a baby) OR it could have been a coincidence she already had lemons picked and was just a nice person. Either way it was very generous and not a common occurrence in Hollywood.

So I decided it was fate and to take a risk making jam with Julia. And I'll tell you, it was no surprise she was a perfect angel. Pete and I really got lucky. 
 

Some of the lemons generously provided by a nice neighbor

My helpful crew (mostly cheering squad)

 

Other ingredients donated for this cause were some delicious summer peaches from my parent's tree

And our finished products:

         Christmas Jam                          Blueberry Peach Spice Jam

Julia was exhausted afterwards and needed to take a nap.

She can talk!

Sorta... Or maybe the right word is gurgle? 

She can definitely coo and likes to make noise. She obviously gets this from Pete.

Julia at two months

Since Julia isn't 3 months old yet, that must mean it's not too late to post her 2 month pictures right? Maybe I'll be more on time next month...Maybe...

When Pete saw these pictures his first response was to question the legitimacy of saying she can roll over. So to be clear and avoid misleading anyone: Julia has rolled over 4 times and it takes more then that to impress Pete Harris (for proof of both of these things please see Julia rolling over).

Julia rolling over

At Thanksgiving Julia was playing on the mat that my Grandma got for the babies (CORRECTION: This isn't the play mat, but a beautiful blanket that Kathie made) and something amazing happened. She. Rolled. Over. Obviously this impressed me more then it would most people but I still think it's INCREDIBLE. And wonderful. And all-around great. Grandma and I are in the background cheering her on and my Mom is playing with her.

When I showed Pete this he questioned the validity of the video because my mom is close to Julia and "you can't see her hands the whole time". Let me be clear: My mom DID NOT help her. If you wonder how strongly I feel this way please re-read the first paragraph in this post.

If after viewing this video you side with Pete Harris, I only have three things to say to you:
    1. Jealousy looks ugly on you.
    2. Haters gonna hate.
    3. You are now dis-invited from this blog.

Catch up time

In May we moved from New Hampshire back to California. Somehow that was almost 7 months ago and wow that time has flown. So to catch everyone up quickly, here's some of the bigger things that have happened between now and then.


 - My Dad flew out to NH and helped us move. He and Pete packed things up and together we road-tripped to California.. It was truly a life-saver to have my Dad there. I worked until the day before we moved so while I was at work he and Pete managed a "Mary Poppins"-like feat fitting all of our things in one crate for shipping and two cars. What champs! Here's a link to more pictures of our road-trip adventures (Road-trip 2013). Once our stuff arrived both my parents and older brother, Nick, drove down to LA to help us unload and then drove back to Northern California all in the same day!!!

Dad at the Baseball Hall of Fame

- Chewy came back to Casa Harris.  He'd been staying at my parents' house since Christmas and lucky for us he was returned better socialized! Thanks Mom and Dad!

- We flew back to New Hampshire and Pete officially became a doctor! Pete started intern year in Pediatrics at UCLA. He's worked and worked and worked some more. He's gotten to know great coworkers, learned new procedures, seen and helped manage some really complicated cases, and met some amazingly strong patients.(more pictures here)

Pete at graduation & dressed as a "Pete-e-a-trician"





 - I took a summer session course in Microbiology that was 7 hours a day, four days a week and a 2 hour round-trip commute. I was worried about being the old pregnant lady in the class...and I was. But, I made great friends and hopefully the baby didn't catch TB or anything...

 Me with my Microbiology class. I'm the large pregnant lady in the middle

 - We had some awesome visits with friends (some of whom we didn't think we'd get to see for awhile).

With Asha at a rooftop bar in Downtown LA

- We got to see our family! Living in New Hampshire for 5 years meant seeing far less of our family then we wanted to. Since moving back to California the amount of time we've spent with them has increased. We wish it was more, but we're grateful to be this much closer.

- And, the biggest thing of all...we became parents! In September little Julia was born. Obviously there will be a bigger post of this and she will a large part of them moving forward. To say that we couldn't be happier is the biggest understatement I could make.