5 weeks

claudia is 5 weeks old and doing very well. the last few days she has slept 5-7 hours which is so amazing for a breast fed baby. she is getting so big, almost 12 pounds. she smiles at big brother jack when he tickles her toes. she loves to be held and i love to hold her. her little eye lashes are growing and she has a little fountain of hair on top. i have an amazing family!

jack is on his way to underpants. he used the "man" potty all weekend while we were at Maker Faire. the man potty is the urinal inside the port-a-potty. i am so proud of jack. he has the most wonderful personality. he's wild, he's empathetic. fun, loving, smart and creative. while at the museum he created a story about a rocket ship while we hid out in the photo both as daddy was packing up the puppets!

official birth announcement

family fun

the past 12 days summed up with this shot!

She's Here

home stretch

yesterday was full of activity for us. we had a nice walk around belleville in the morning. we stopped for awhile and watched the baby ducks at the lake and someone water skiing. jack was very excited to see the activity on the lake. from there we walked back to the park where none of jack's friend's were playing–so we didn't stay long. when we got back home we did a lot of yard work because it's not going to be easy doing that with a newborn (much easier pregnant). for our evening out, patrick and i walked around royal oak quite a bit. i really appreciate that city every time i visit. it's very different than ann arbor in lots of ways. it's nice to find a pastry shop open til 1AM!

even after all that activity, no baby yet. maybe this little girl will stay inside for awhile longer than jack! jack was born at 38 weeks 2 days.

37 weeks

i had a great day today. patrick and i weeded and jack and i watered our new raspberry bush. the burst of energy also allowed me to get the car seat together and my hospital bag (which i never did for jack's arrival).

mother's day 2010

today brings back many memories from 3 years ago when i went into labor with jack. it certainly was a surprise that warm sunday in may 2007. we spent brunch with my family and were on our way to celebrate with patrick's when my water broke. there was no time to dwell on what was about to happen and less time to do a lot of complaining.

soon, jack will need to share his momma bird with another baby bird. that brings me lots of joy because i know that there can be lots of joy in having a sibling and if our little girl is anything like jack, we will have a lot of fun together.

jack gave me a really nice framed photo of the 2 of us on the beach from last summer. that picture means a lot to me for many reasons. it's quiet but stormy and peaceful and joyful. it was the vacation we decided we would have another baby.