Surfacing.

When I was little, my sister and I used head to the pool and try to recreate that scene from Disney's The Little Mermaid where Ariel first bursts out of the water after she gets legs. For those of you with small children at home, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

For those of you aren't in the Disney-movie stage, here's the synopsis: Ariel, the little mermaid,  is suddenly given legs and lungs by the sea witch and she frantically rushes to the surface of the ocean. When she emerges and takes her first breath as a human, she triumphantly flips her hair and begins her new life.

Yeah, I kinda feel like that. Except with less sparkles.

Having a new baby and readjusting all the family dynamics in the middle of a very long, cold, snowy, germ-infested winter was kind of like being dropped into the depths of the ocean.

Without scuba gear.

And, as a bonus, there were sharks that came in the form of sleepless nights, baby-feeding woes, milk protein intolerance, reflux, mastitis, and just plain ol' exhaustion.

Anytime you add a new little person to your family there are some growing pains. And Miss Z had her share during the first six weeks or so. In fact, those first six weeks were downright brutal.

As in sunk-to-the-bottom brutal.

Not that we didn't have fun while we were visiting the bottom of the ocean. Because we did.

There was the annual chocolate-dipping activity:

 And our Christmas Eve clam chowder dinner.

Followed by new pajamas for Christmas Eve.

(Wow. This picture is really yellow. I should edit it and fix it. But, since I'm thinking I'm doing good just to upload it, editing will not happen. Sorry folks. You'll just have to imagine our life not quite this yellow.)

And of course we celebrated Christmas.

 And then took our time cleaning up after Christmas exploded in our living room.

Dr. C finished building our entertainment center. I went to a furniture store, picked out an entertainment center that I liked, Dr. C looked at it, drew up some plans, bought the wood, and built this for me. He even endured some crazy cold out in the garage while he was sanding/staining/sealing it so that it would be done by the time Christmas break was over.
Isn't he a gem?
Love that man.

We broke out all of our college blankets and held mini-indoor-tailgating parties while we watched copious amounts of bowl games.

This one is from when Mizzou won the Cotton Bowl. Go Tigers!

And we cried when football season was over.

We made Rainbow Loom bracelets like they were going out of style. (Which they probably are...) 

Even Miss Zell got into that trend.

 And sometimes we wore Miss Banana out until she reach just tried to catch some shut-eye wherever/whenever she could.

Miss Zell kept growing and turned one month old.

And Miss Banana worked hard on learning to write her name. (She's almost there.)

Miss B also decided that from now on, she can bundle herself up when she goes outside. This is what she came up with.

And the whole time we were trying to have fun inside--trying to breathe underwater as we adjusted to our adorable little Miss Z...it kept snowing.

And snowing.

And snowing.

And SNOWING.

But thankfully, this is a slow time of year for Dr. C's job, so he's been around more to cheer everyone up.  

(Or at least to make sure that I didn't drown.)

T-Man worked hard on his Pinewood Derby car and took 3rd place for his car "Gold Rush".

And Miss B and I browsed Pinterest to find new hairstyles to try.

Valentine's Day Heart Hair

I didn't even realize that she had stuck her tongue out at me until I was downloading the pictures from my camera.
Sassy little lovey, isn't she?

While Miss Z learned how to smile.

And suddenly, two months had gone by with this new little love in our family.

And now, finally, it is March. Spring is around the corner, my friends, and I think we are going to make it. And despite the fact that the wicked arctic cold is upon us again, I am ready to emerge from our polar plunge in the deep, flip my hair triumphantly, and join the human race.

(Which really just means that I will take a shower every day, vacuum my house, and cook real food. I might even be bold enough to go grocery shopping. 

Impressive, eh?
 
Hey, it's a step in the right direction.)

Ariel would be jealous.