The First Two Months

After quite a few shenanigans, Adelle finally decided to make an appearance. Since then, life has been an exhausting, fabulous whirlwind...

Day 1 as a family of 3*!
*Humans, that is. We all know that Gramps and the ladies are also important family members.

Adelle and her 'Poppi' get acquainted.

She chose this particular stocking cap to distract from the snazzy cone shaped noggin she developed during her shenanigans...

Coming home!

I think she was checking to see if her Nan wanted to smell her pit...

Hanging out in the same baby carrier that Sam Marie's folks used with their wee ones. We've gotten a few compliments on the snugli as there aren't so many zippered corduroy baby sacks in circulation these days.

However, the baby hammock is very popular (although not so much with Adelle as it turns out - don't let the sleeping baby fool you).

We went out to dinner for the first time when A was 2 weeks old. She slept through the whole thing. Fabulous.

Adelle's hurdle training also began at about age two weeks, though by the time that she competes she will likely have outgrown the cute embroidered dresses passed down through Sam's family.

Grandma H and the beeb hanging out, surrounded by chickens!

Adelle post-bucket bath, being dried off by her dad.

This is one happy, relaxed little ducky...

Grandpa H and his newest little buddy spend some quality time together.

I though the baby was supposed to sleep all day...

One of Adelle's first demands was a playhouse. We compromised and decided on a shed to hold all of the stuff that no longer fits in the main house since she arrived.

Despite this arrangement not meeting her original demand, she was still pretty psyched about it.

Next she wanted better wheels for cruising around town. Thanks to some wonderfully generous and kind family and friends, she got 'em. No compromises this time.

Despite the rumors about "Texas" suffering the "worst single year drought" on record and the "hottest summer in any state in the US since weather data has been tracked", Adelle is here to prove that the truly tough still require lots of clothing for such a wimpy excuse for warm weather.

Talking on her cell phone, already...

This is the little lady at about a month old.

Last month we took a trip to Florida to visit with Miguel's siblings. Adelle spent quite a bit of time contemplating a future in hip hop.

She also practiced the Macarena with the help of her uncle on occasion.

Part of the clan enjoying some digging in the Florida sun.

Adelle doing her best 'duck with half a brussel sprout on its head' impersonation...

The beach was fabulous, particularly the white sand that didn't heat up even when it was baking in the afternoon sun.

Adelle surely aspires to playing games like her older cousin's 'dunk your toys.'

Hopefully she can also take fashion lessons from him!

A new decade in life is always a good excuse for wine and dessert, and spiking your hair.

Back home Adelle meets another uncle, who appears to have been blown away by her cuteness!

There seems to be some degree of shock around this uncle at all times...

Nothing like an afternoon in the park, a good diaper, and dad's comfy hands to make you smile in your sleep.

The Due Date!!

... has come and gone ...

For some inexplicable reason all of my text is underlined. Sorry about that...
The first few pictures below were taken in mid-June by a talented photographer friend of ours who is days away from moving to Portland. If anyone knows someone in Portland looking for a great and economical photographer for any sort of event, please call Kim! Here's her website:
http://www.catscradlephoto.com/

This is the beeb's closeup. I feel certain that s/he was smiling when this was taken.

Mike always gets the giggles when he pats my round tummy.

I'm sure that we were discussing something really deep about the shape of the belly at this moment. We really only talk about deep things.

Grampa has begun to make lists of demands for how she should still be loved once the beeb arrives. She prefers purple paper and leaves the lists in inconspicuous places, like in the middle of the beeb's diaper changing area.

Here comes the random underlining again... When not making lists, Gramps continues her usual very intensive indoor prowling activities.

These are pictures from the due date... which Mike celebrated by having a cool one (as his Grampa calls brews) while I gave him a long overdue foot rub. I celebrated by dancing with the chickens.

Pregnant? Or a hieroglyphic Egyptian?

One of my uncles told me that my face got rounder every time he saw me (which was twice in two weeks). I wanted to make sure that I was keeping up that pattern of growth...

I'd say that the right side view is porkier than the left...

The seamstress that I go to used this view to make her determination that the beeb is a boy (as most folks have tended to venture). The acupuncturist and chiropractor both think it's a girl. Maybe if it takes a long time to get here I'll try to organize a battle royale between them??

Really, I swear I'm not choking gramps in this picture. Just scratching under the chin...
She came out for a little Kodak moment with the materials that Mike is using to make a shelf for our living room, and then proceeded to do some exploring.


Grampa and the ladies have met twice now, and the above is a good representation of their pattern of behavior: Gramps doesn't really even notice that the chickens are there and is totally uninterested, but the chickens are super curious about her and follow her around initially.

They followed her into this corner and basically had her surrounded. One got within six inches of her, and she didn't even notice. She turned around to get out of the corner that she'd worked herself into and at that point Japamala backed away. I'm not sure if this means that Gramps is fearless, clueless, or just really aloof. Or magical. I think I'll go with magical.

A few fun parties...

So... it's been a while since we've updated our blog. We sort of fell of the wagon for a while there, but we're trying to catch up now before the beeb arrives. There are a few new posts with some pictures of our expanding family and expanding Sam!

Some close friends of ours got married in early May, and they had a Texas-themed rehearsal dinner... Given the prevalence of teen pregnancy in Texas, Mike and I decided that going as a pregnant cheerleader and the football coach/babydaddy was really the most appropriate way to celebrate.

Pretty much the definition of "classy," right? Yeh, in this case classy deserves quotation marks.

The actual wedding involved much more traditional costumes, but messing with a man's suit pants was strictly prohibited as you can see from Mike's interpretive dance.

Ahoy matey!

The folks that I work with had a surprise baby shower for me at our last meeting of the year. Since the beeb's gender is still known only to the beeb and none of us outsiders, they went with a ducky theme. This was super nice of them to do!

Some other friends of ours got married, and they had a mendhi ceremony the night before the wedding. The artist was kind enough to give the beeb it's own little bit of art work.

30 - 37 weeks

Mike, Brother Dan, and Brother's Girlfriend Jenn.  D&J were in Arlington visiting Mike's parents, and we all (parents included) had lunch together in Waco.  You'll recognize Mike by the awesome hair (keep in mind this was during the last few weeks of a very tough legislative session)

 

We're pretty sure we got the crib put together correctly...

Still growing...

Berjaya (far left) has earned her name (after the airline).  She zips around the yard so fast, we have no chance of catching her.  The others are more approachable.

Sam in California, playing with two of her cousins.

The stud she's making kissy faces with is Buck.

Still in California - with cousin Katie and her son Joaquin (member, Future Studs of America club)

Sam was out visiting to celebrate Brother David's graduation from the Ranger Academy and to show off the beeb belly (visible at bottom right).

Hiking with Katie and Joaquin.

Back home in Texas, here's Sam at around 33 or 34 weeks.

Visions of the future.  Only new and excited parents could have taken as many pictures of laundry as we did...

Getting close now!  These pics are from 36-37 weeks.

We are getting excited, and having some of those 7th inning jitters. ("Is everything okay?  Do we have everything we need?  What else should we be reading right now??")

More to follow!