Baby Smiley Update

Despite the severe flooding in the area the past few days, a colleague did us a favor and performed a fetal echo on the newest Smiley fetus. In addition to having a structurally and physiologically normal heart, the pediatric cardiologist did take a look at one other area for us....

Baby Smiley is a Boy! Pictures to follow when we get them.

The "November Nor'easter"

The combination of the remnants of Hurricane Ida passing through our area coupled with a Nor'easter that hit us at the same time in addition to already high tides because of the full moon left Norfolk in a state of emergency the past few days! Heavy rains (over 1 foot) and strong winds (60 mph) started Wednesday night and lasted through Friday the 13th. This combination led to the tides rising over 7 feet above flood levels, the worst since Hurricane Isabel passed through this area. At its peak on Thursday night, the water in our street was above my (Mike) waist, over 2 feet higher than the pictures posted. We were lucky in that we had electricity the entire time and our basement only had minimal flooding. Other people fared much worse though and the city is starting to clean up and get back to normal.

Water in front of our house. Still 2 feet to go!

Flooding at our intersection

More Flooding at our intersection

Across the street from us

Looking towards Tatum's preschool - which was canceled (of course!).

Swimming Lessons

For the past two months Tatum and Lindsey have been attending weekly parent-child swim lessons on Monday mornings. Today was the last day so we wanted to snap a few pictures of Tatum enjoying her time in the pool. Starting in January, Tatum will move up to the parent-child level II which she will complete up until baby #2 arrives!

Reaching out and working on splashing our hands

Getting ready to be dunked...

...mission accomplished!

A trip down memory lane...

It is hard to believe that Tatum is already 2 years old...time really does fly when you are having fun! After uploading the Halloween pictures we began looking at some pictures over the past two years and it was such a trip down memory lane. These are pictures of Tatum from Halloween 2007 and Halloween 2008 - what a difference time can make...

Halloween 2007 - 2 weeks old

Halloween 2008 - 12 months

Halloween 2009

Just a couple of shots from Halloween day/night 2009. We started off the afternoon with a party at our friends, the Snyder's home, and then we finished the night with trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Sadly Mike had to work a shift at the local ER so he was not able to participate in any of the fun but Tatum had a great time and she received a lot of delicious candy. Tatum did spend much of the day confused because of all of the scary masks and silly noises and it is apparent in many of the pictures.

Wrapping the dad's up as Mummy's

Tatum, like the other kids, unsure of what to think of the mummy's?!

Caleb, Elise, Tatum, and Carter ready to go out and get some candy!

Checking out some of the scary masks and costumes

Stopping for some treats after a few blocks

Back at the Arthur's after 2 hours of trick-or-treating