Boy, Am I Behind

I've been a very bad blogger...no updates. I guess Santa will just have to bring me coal for Christmas. I also have to do Ellie's 3 month post, but I'm going to make that a separate entry, so this one's going to be a little all over the place.

• Tom had to attend a conference in Newark last week, so the three of us decided to head up to CT for a week. Tom took the train to New Jersey to do his thing, and Ellie and I were able to spend the whole week visiting friends and family. It's so rare that his work takes him up that way, so we're very blessed to have been able to do it twice within just a couple of months. The drive home was a bit treacherous, with some fog and rain, and I nearly rear-ended a police car. But we did all get home in one piece, and that's what matters most.
• Tom has had some good news recently: his Master's thesis work on Net Assessment has been tentatively accepted for publication, pending a few edits. Also, he has been accepted to join the Nuclear Scholars Initiative, an opportunity that should help him learn and grow more in his field.
• Eleanor is doing ok. Unfortunately, not great, but it could be worse. At birth, she was at about the 5% for her gestational age. Since then, she had been gaining weight and growing along a very nice curve, and was set to eventually catch up. However, in the past month her growth has slowed down quite a bit. The doctors like to see a gain of about 1/2 to 1 ounce per day and Ellie has only gained 4 oz in the past 17 days. We have to head back on Monday to discuss supplementing her breastmilk with some higher calorie formula. So it's not ideal, but she isn't sick or in any major trouble at the moment.
• I went into the office yesterday to sign some final paperwork and collect my things. I didn't bring Ellie with me. It was a bit awkward - no one really knew I had been laid off and everyone really wanted to see her. I just didn't think it would be worth it to bring her in with all the illnesses going around, and Tom happened to be home, anyway.
• We are about 99% ready for Christmas. I have one gift left for Tom that needs to be wrapped and one for someone else that hasn't been delivered yet. All of our decorations/lights are done, though!
• I'm working on losing weight. I gained way too much before getting pregnant and still haven't even lost all the baby weight. Right now I've lost about 8.5lbs, and I plan to do a blog post every time I lose 10lbs, so look for that.

So that should catch you up to where we are about now...and now onto writing up Ellie's 3 month post!