Cute Pics

Awww!

 

Allowing our baby to claw her eye out.

 

Putting Daddy to sleep.

 

Creative ways of amusing herself while mommy feeds the baby.

 

Happy Halloween!

Halloween has been far, far from the top of my priority list and yet we still managed to enjoy the day quite festively. Luke ran to the grocery store to buy candy, we had lots of fun Halloween visitors throughout the day, we pulled out last year's costume and found that it still fit Eden - ish, and we visited three whole houses.





The Paredes fam swung by on their way to the costume event at the mall. Gene isn't wearing a costume, but we think he looked enough like a Cuban drummer to pretend he was all decked out.

 

 

 

Matt and Keiko were in town for Keiko's brother's wedding. Amazingly they were able to dodge the wedding craziness for a few hours and come and meet Kate.

Eden decided Keiko needed a costume too...

Kate and Birthday #2

Here are our two favorite Kate pictures from today.

 

Luke and I were worried that Eden's birthday would be overshadowed by the new baby, so we had her birthday party early (remember, the one we tried to cancel). Turns out that it would have been fine to just celebrate today. Lots of Eden's loved ones came by bearing gifts and balloons. Here are a couple of pictures that capture some of the excitement.

 

 

 

Kate Eliana

Kate Eliana

 

Born on October 26th at 12:50am
at 9 pounds 3 ounces and 20 1/4 inches long.


The Story

I woke up Sunday morning convinced that my water had been leaking for at least a day. The midwife recommended I come in immediately to test and see if I was right. Luke, Eden and I loaded into the car ready to head to church should everything be okay and ready to stay at the birth center should it not. Sure enough, The tests came back positive and although I was given permission to stay at the birth center (as opposed to heading to the hospital), I needed to have the baby as soon as possible. We spent the day trying to send my body into labor - a fully bulb, castor oil (which, I'd prefer never to experience again), taking stairs two at a time, and lots of waiting. The castor oil had the biggest effect, but eventually the contractions started to go away again. Here are a couple of pictures of Luke helping as we wandered around outside the birth center.

 

 

At about 10pm I was only 4 cm and my midwife decided I needed to try and take a nap. I finally began to drift off by 11:30 when a big contraction came. Another followed at around 11:45 and my water broke. Kate was born an hour later. It was not my favorite hour of my life, but definitely the most productive.




Later that morning we headed home and got to introduce Kate to Eden.
Here is Eden pondering her new life with Kate on the outside. So far she seems thrilled about the new baby and always asks where she is if she isn't with me. I haven't seen any jealousy yet, praise God!

 

Many thanks to all our birth support: the midwives Vickie and B.J., the doula Angelique, Mom, Leslie, and Dad and Kathleen for taking turns watching Eden.

A Boy Stood On a Burning Deck

My great grandfather liked to make up songs. The one that Eden is going to sing for you goes like this:

A boy stood on a burning deck,
his feet were full of blisters.
The flames roared up and burned his pants,
and now he wears his sister's...
without a shirt!

My mom has been teaching this song to Eden. It is sung with a lot of emphasis on the last word in each phrase, which apparently Eden has picked up on.

As for her hair... she pulled her hair band out 5 times today and I finally gave up.

Eden's Canceled and Then Uncanceled Birthday Party

A couple of months ago Luke and I decided we should probably have Eden's birthday party a week or so early since the baby's due date is literally the day before her 2nd birthday. We invited my parents, Scott, and the Mayers family thinking that she is still not old enough to bother with inviting friends. The day of the party I was feeling super tired, my cousin Grace was still recovering from the swine flu, and I still hadn't made the wheat free cupcakes or purchased Eden's present. We decided to cancel. Somehow the message never trickled down to my brother who was on his way to pick up his kids. Alexa was in a party dress and had wrapped her present herself, so we decided that they should at least come over to play at the park or something. Scott and the kids arrived at the same time my parents came by to drop off their gift. After the kids had played a while, we decided to stick some candles in the cake I had bought for everyone else (no one seems to be a fan of my wheat and dairy free baking ;)) and did the whole singing and present thing. So basically I managed to have a party without cleaning up, buying a gift, providing food, baking, etc. AND I managed to sneakily univite the family exposed to H1N1 without having it be about that. I think I am on to something.

 

 

 

 

Aunt Lisa and A Fancy Shower

Aunt Lisa flew in from San Francisco last weekend to help us celebrate all the birthdays. She and Rod had been traveling in Asia and Africa for months, so it was really good to see her.

 

These are the boots she bought Eden in China. Eden LOVES them.

 

On Friday Mom hosted a shower for me for her close friends. Her good friend Katie made all these desserts. They tasted as good as they look :). Katie has a blog if you are a foodie and want to see more of what she does. Just click here.

 

 

Not exactly the best photo in the world, but better than just pictures with no people.