Hey everyone, here is our Christmas newsletter that we sent out last year:
Matthew!
This has been the happiest and most exciting year for us since (as you likely already know) we have a new addition to the family!
Anne and Matthew
Matthew Joseph Paulson was born on February 21, 2013 at 10:54 am weighing 8 lbs 5 oz and measuring 55 cm. Anne had been sent to the hospital on February 20th (the due date) because of high blood pressure. After a long and unpleasant night, we became very anxious when the baby’s heart rate was dipping dangerously low and Anne had to have an emergency C-section. Unfortunately, mommy and daddy couldn’t breath a sigh of relief quite yet as Matthew was born with small holes in his lungs. It was rather heart wrenching to watch our perfect new born baby boy get hooked up to miniature medical equipment (gas mask, IVs etc.) but, thanks to modern medicine, after just a few days in the neonatal intensive care unit Matthew was health and ready to come home to meet the cats.
After just four months at home with Matthew, Anne started a new job as Deployment Manager at Athena Software in uptown Waterloo. Anne loves the environment, enjoys the work, and is making great new friends. The only downside is the occasional jealousy that occurs when Anne misses out on seeing one of Matthew’s many firsts. That said, she was going a little stir crazy during the four months at home and is very happy working during the day and spending time with the boys on evenings and weekends.
Kevin and Matthew
Since Anne returned to the work world a bit earlier than anticipated, Kevin began an eight month parental leave in June. As it turns out, Kevin is a superstar dad and he loves staying at home with Matthew. In addition to watching Matthew crawl into trouble at every opportunity, Kevin has been doing more reading, video game playing, new hobbies such as learning to build a web site from scratch (www.paulsonfamily.ca is his project that is still under construction!) and of course some not so fun household chores.
We enjoyed our first family trip this summer with a road trip to visit Anne’s sister in Kentucky. Anne was very pleased to officially become our nephew Adam’s godmother during the visit. We had a great time seeing family and watching the boys play for an extended weekend visit. Luckily Matthew was a perfect angel for the ten hour drive in both directions!
Matthew all ready for Christmas
One of our favourite firsts this year was Matthew’s first Halloween. Matthew and Anne both dressed up as cats, handed out candies and even went to the neighbour’s house for a treat! Kevin sure had his hands full with five cats in the house.
We were also thrilled to get a new nephew this year—only 6 weeks older than Matthew. We are hoping they will be the best of friends. We are also excited (though feeling a bit old) to become great-aunt and great-uncle for two little ones this year. We are very much looking forward to celebrating Matthew’s first Christmas and watching him play with all the other children in the family. It should be a very cute Christmas this year!
Matthew all ready for Christmas
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
The Paulson Family
PDF Version of Christmas Newsletter 2013