Funny Drawing

So Matt and I taught preschool yesterday (always a bonus when Matt can teach with me :)) and had a really funny moment—a moment when we realized, again, that our kid is just plain hilarious. (Well, to us, at least! ;-)) The topic I picked for my rotation this time around is: my mouth. My three lesson days are the sub-themes: teeth and dental hygiene, nutrition, and communication. Yesterday we started with teeth. We busted out big ol' butcher paper and traced the kids with the thought that they'll decorate these drawings throughout the lessons. Step one, yesterday: draw your face on there, and don't forget your mouth and teeth!

Here were the first drawings we saw:

Then we look over at Seth as he pops his marker cap back on and proudly exclaims: "There! My face looks ALL done...!"

:-D
Hahaha!

Grumpy Monster

Seth has occasional episodes of extreme grumpiness. Most of the time, he's his normal ol' happy self. Some of the time, he's ridiculously happy. And some of the time, he's a total grump! Part of the problem is that he's an INTP, like Matt, and honest-to-goodness cannot relate one bit to the concept of an "authority figure." We are peers, through and through. It's hilarious! Also...it will never change.... (I know this because I know Matt. Haha! :)) We just hope to be able to appeal to his sense of reason often enough to teach him something. "Because I said so" is never, ever, not EVER going to work. Not even with punishment—he'll just take it in stride. Just ask Matt's parents. ;-)

So here's an example of a grumpface conversation with Seth:

Seth: Can I watch a Wonder Pets, please?
Us: No, sorry, no TV right now.
Seth: WHY?!!
Us: Because we don't want to watch a lot of TV.
Seth: IF YOU DON'T LET ME WATCH WONDER PETS, THEN YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE CONSEQUENCES. SO I SUGGEST YOU LET ME WATCH IT! RIGHT! NOW! [Hahaha!]
Us: Seth, see? Wonder Pets is making you talk meanly. It's ok to be disappointed. It's not ok to be mean. You need to calm down and talk nicely.
Seth: I am very MAD at you! If YOU don't let me watch Wonder Pets, then you can NEVER watch ANY tv. AT. ALL.

At which point, I can't often resist saying something like, "oh, ok. Who is going to stop me?!" (Haha! Ok, not that bad.) It will mean nothing to him, but I sometimes say things like, "hey, I'm the mom, and you're the little boy...." Pointless. :-)

Anyway, Seth does relate to our reasoning—sometimes it helps him learn things, but sometimes he just turns it right back on us. It's hilarious. He really, truly, honestly thinks we're all on level ground together. Not because he's at all insubordinate; just because it's his innate view. (He really is a little Matt. I love it.... :))

This whole story is just to be able to show a couple of pictures that have been cracking me up all day! I was with some ladies the other day who were all talking about kid challenges, and one of them mentioned taking her 6-year-old to therapy to confront some anger issues. The therapist made the girl name her "Angry Monster." There was a chart on the wall at home. Every time she was asked to do something, a point went to her, or it went to her Angry Monster, depending on her response. He challenged her to not let her Angry Monster beat her! She had to win!

I thought that sounded totally brilliant. The mom said her little girl—who had been throwing tantrums her whole life—totally changed in a matter of weeks. She really could see how frequently she was giving over her control to her anger, and that she had the power to beat this. Brilliant...!

We decided to try this with Seth. He named his "Grumpy Monster." It's very creative: Grumpy. Hahaha! (I think it started out "Grumpies," which is kind of cute, but it morphed to "Grumpy.") We've been talking about it a few days, and today I finally made a chart. My initial inclination was to put a picture of Seth versus a creative picture of "a Grumpy Monster," but then I realized that I wanted him to see what we see when he's grumpy. It worked! He was completely taken aback when he saw the picture of Grumpy. All day he's been trying to get me to change it to one of the drawings he brings me of the Grumpy Monster. (Ha! I win!) I catch him staring at the two pictures sometimes, and if I ask him who he wants to be, he's pretty emphatic that he wants to be Seth, not Grumpy. He's been fantastic all night...! Happy as can be. Will it last...? It might be a fluke. I mean, this kid is happy most of the time anyway.... But maybe it has something to do with these two great pictures! And, really, which one would you want to be?! Hahaha!!

Hahahahaha!!! Will it ruin everything if he catches on to me that when I'm totally delighted and laughing, it's over Grumpy's photo? HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I adore this kid. There are no words.... :-)

Thanks for the tip. :)

Courtesy of Copper Mountain Ski Resort in Colorado. 

Stressed?

Want to know how to reverse it?!

One word: desserts.

No, really. It's the reverse. Don't EVEN try to say it's not because, look! It is! I need more chocolate....

Yayyyy 30!

Anyone who has asked me about it knows that I have been way, super-duper excited to turn 30. I've been looking forward to it for years!

It's just been sort of . . . embarrassing . . . the last few years to . . . admit to my age.


Still in my 20's? You kidding me? 

Would they never end?!!!! ;-)

I remember my friend, Amy, mentioning her sister's observation that: "You know the picture in your mind when you think of yourself as an adult? That's your thirties! They're the best!" I realized this must be true. And somewhere along the line, I also realized I was ready to not be a juvenile 20-something anymore. Ready to move on! Own it, baby! Own it! Woooooo hoooooo!!! Thirty!

(I haven't outgrown my juvenile shouting.... ;-))

In honor of achieving the birthday to which I've looked forward so long, I thought I'd document the mood of all the birthdays I remember. It's a little bit funny to look back and remember a distinct excitement (or not) for each one, and why. And since 30 isn't actually that adult, listing all my birthdays just doesn't take very long....

I'll start with not the first birthday I can remember, but the first when I actually cared about the age I was turning. Eight!

8—Super excitement. I felt old and cool.

9—A little bummed to not be 10, but a little excited to be that much closer.

10—SUPER excitement! I still remember everyone in my class (they were all one or two years older than myself) actually seeming excited for me. "How's it feel to be double-digits?" Oh boy. Like I was on top of the world. (Interesting: just now I was thinking about talking with everyone about my birthday, and remembered standing near class with everyone talking about, whoa, being at war! I looked it up: the war actually did start that week!)

11—Already looking forward to 12.

12—WOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!

13—I'm a TEENAGER!! YES!!! A teen! I could already see myself being 16 and kissing boys.

14—Eh.

15—Driving permit, baby!! (And, since I was the youngest in my class, I actually did get my permit right after my birthday. Very, very, very cool.)

16—Oh boy. THE. Best. Birthday. EVER. (Even though my super-moral me had sworn off kissing. Hehe. And even though I wasn't the 5'10" blonde I'd always pictured for my 16-year-old self. Hahaha!)

17—It seems impossible, but I'm pretty sure I was even more excited about 17 than I had been about 16. I was graduating from high school this year and going off to college. And maybe something inside knew I'd meet Matt that year.... :)

18—Eh. I liked being a 17-year-old college student better. Plus, I had Mono. (No, not from kissing. ;-))

19—I was excited about that one, but my family might not have believed it. I left a series of messages on their voicemail playing "I Hope They Call Me On A Mission" and other missionary tunes in a minor key with sounds of wailing. Haha! If I were male, I'd have been in the MTC that week, starting a mission. It was my dream.

20—Kristin decorated the London Centre with happy birthday signs! Then she helped me get home when I felt totally sick at the Tower of London. Best of times and worst of times! As far as the number is concerned, I was not all that happy about it. I was studying psychology at the time and was overly amused at being classified as an "adolescent." At 20, I was an adult. That sounded too normal. I wanted to be weird. ;-)

21—WAY excited to turn 21! And I wrote in my journal: "Now I don't have to be too embarrassed that Matt and I are seriously dating." Haha!

22—Now I didn't have to be too embarrassed that I was newly married. (Although, with a little hindsight I realize, whoa! 22 is still SUPER young!)

23—Thought it was very aesthetic.

24—GOLDEN YEAR, baby!!! I had been looking forward to it since I was a child and had first heard of a "golden year." (Your "golden birthday" is when your day of birth and your age are the same number.)

25—Sad to see my golden year end, happy that it had ended so happily with miraculously getting pregnant with Seth. Also happy that 25 sounded more "legit" than the early-20's. My suspicion was confirmed when some ladies at work were hassling me: "Ohhhh.... It's your birthday. What are you, like twenty-three? Twenty-four? Ooooohhh...." I laughed and said, "25." And—no joke!—they all went, "oh, ok! Happy Birthday!" New respect was in their eyes, I could tell. Hahahaha!!

26—Eh. Not aesthetic. Kind of blah.

27—I thought 27 sounded AWESOME. I still do.

28—Eh. I really wished I were turning 30. Or staying 27. But 28 just sounded blah.

29—Even more disappointing than 28! Let me be 30 already!!

And then there was 30, which was the most eagerly-anticipated since...well, since my Golden Birthday. :)

Funnily enough, I was too tired on my 30th birthday to do much of anything. An omen of the decade to come? Hahaha!! Even funnier, I just didn't care that I was too tired. I thought, "woo hoo, 30! Now let me sleep...." And I was totally happy with that.

Time can only tell how I'll feel about 40, but for now I'm still thinking that getting older is good stuff.

Our Sweet Boy

Sometimes I look over at Seth, and his eyes are doing their Seth-thing, and he absolutely takes my breath away. Oh, I love this boy.... :)

One of the unpublished posts. From September.

One of our more intentional goals as parents has been to help our kid not be afraid.

We might be too good at this.

(Hahahahaha!!!)

So, a few weeks ago, Seth was out playing the backyard when all of a sudden, he comes crashing through the bathroom door (I was getting ready for the day) and announces: "Mom!! You've GOT to see! I found a cockroach!!"

And he runs back out.

I go back to my mascara, thinking...great. A stinking cockroach. (And around here, that means the BIG outdoor buggers.... Not those little gross guys in the kitchen. The BIG dudes.)

Five minutes later he bursts through again! "Mom!! I'm building a house for him, mom! It's a GREAT house. It's just for the cockroach!"

So now my son builds cockroach habitats...!

When I got outside, the cockroach was on his back in a pool of water, and Seth was trying to feed it an ant. HAHAHAHAHA!!! Even better, there were a bunch of goldfish crackers strewn around. I guess when the cockroach failed to be interested in cheese crackers, Seth got a little more practical. An ant. Perfect.

"I poured him some water so he could have a drink...." Ohhh. Ok. What a great plan! (I'm thinking of the legs-up result. Most excellent!) Then Seth tells me something about how the cockroach was soooo happy to have a great house and food and water that he did a little dance and flipped onto his back and wiggled his legs. "Like this, Mom...."

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

[The next day, the water had evaporated and there were still a few dead ants laying next to the dead cockroach, laying next to the cockroach house Seth built from sticks, with goldfish crackers all around. What a funny cockroach grave.... Seth said, so matter-of-factly: "Welllllll. I think he must be dead." Not a little dance after all....]

Random Thoughts. Shelved.

I have so many posts I wrote while pregnant that I never published. Too much thought-dumping, I guess....

Now you know.

But now, here are some pictures. ;-)

Seth and cousin Kenny! Don't you think they look like they're singing a bar song right here? Haha! Cute boys. :)

Handsome boy #1....

Handsome boy #2.
And...3.... ;-)
You never know what might happen when you conk out at Christmas.

Some More Pictures

The sad thing is, you delay publishing a post for a few weeks and the pictures already look like an era gone by.... My goodness! The newborn phase passes in such a hurry.

This is where Seth decides it would be great fun to burp her. I just kept taking pictures, perhaps a little too confident he wouldn't just drop her. Haha! She dealt with the abuse like a champ. ;-)

The Name.

Why Maren Elise...?

I still remember the spot in the road, driving along Mission Bay (in 2003!), when I said to Matt: "Actually.... Ooooooh! I think I like Maren even better than Morgan." And he said, "Ah! Me, too!"

And Maren never wore on us, not in all these years.

I love that we decided on her name in San Diego (the first time we lived here), and that she ended up being born in San Diego, coming home to a house right near Mission Bay. It's kind of sweet.

There's a logical sequence that both name-decisions have followed. Seth's went like this:

1) Williams is boring. A boring first name would be criminal!
2) Boy names are always either: a) too popular or boring, or b) bizarre.
3) We want a non-bizarre but not-popular name.
4) We want a Hebrew name.
5) We want a meaningful name, referencing God.

Seth!! It was perfect from the second we thought of it. WAY down on the Social Security Administration popularity list, yet not bizarre. Sounds great with Williams. Looks great with Williams. And references an incredibly touching moment in the scriptures when Adam and Eve, suffering from the tragic losses of Abel and Cain, are blessed with an "appointed son" to comfort their souls.

It's more than a little hilarious that the scriptures say of Seth that he was "the perfect image" of his father. Our Seth might look much like me, but he is Matt reborn! Really, they're indistinguishable.

(On a more serious note, I love that Adam's and Eve's Seth was said to be "the perfect image" of his father. I think that's a reference to the Father and the Son.)

Then there's Gabriel because it was the only name that ever, ever fit with Seth Williams—the only thing that made the name seem like our child-to-be instead of just words on a page. It was him. With the added bonus that my brother, Jordan, who we adore, is named Gabriel. (Seth was even due on his birthday! And we had picked out Seth Gabriel, with Jordan's permission, years before. Coincidence?! :)) Seth Gabriel was his name long before we met him.

Seth's miraculous circumstances made the name so incredibly meaningful to us. He truly is our comfort after loss. And, as the name Gabriel references, his strength is from God—he is a strong man (or boy :)) of God. We love and relate to how the angel Gabriel announced miraculous births, and brought peace and comfort to our hero: Mary.

Enter Maren...! She's named for Mary, the mother of Christ. We love Mary. We love the nativity story for its quiet simplicity, for its meekness. We adore Joseph, and we're endlessly fascinated by and in awe of him. What a family. What beauty, and kindness, and humble meekness. Besides Jesus Christ himself, there is no one in the scriptures we love more than Mary and Joseph.

But, per the aforementioned logic, Mary Williams just will not do. Haha! (As our friend, Amy, had said about another favorite name, Anne Williams: "She'd have to be really pretty to pull that one off!" Ha!) And so we turn to the Danish: Maren.

A side bonus is that Matt and I are both of Danish descent. I even have a couple Maren Rasmussens on my family tree—Rasmussen being a name that Matt and I both share, he from his mother, me from my mom's grandmother. (Don't worry. We're not related. :)) We were never ones to turn to the family tree for name inspiration, but it is kind of fun to see a Maren Rasmussen or two on there. And even though our kids are a gazillion times more British than Danish, it's fun to remember that ancestral line in her name.

Maren—or Mary—has a disputed meaning, but we like the meanings we find. We learned when we were Hebrew students that her name (Miriam) meant "bitter," referencing the bitterness of the death of her Son. His was a "bitter cup," which His mother shared in a way unique to the world. (Does it astound you that Christ came as a baby? And was born to a woman? That even God needed a mother...! It's a beautiful thing to ponder.) We love that Mary's name carried the mission of her Son, almost like it were hers, too. We love that Maren will carry a remembrance of His sacrifice in her name.

Mary may also mean "wished-for child." If ever there were a name appropriate for this baby!

It may also mean "beloved." Or it may mean "exalted," which we particularly like juxtaposed with "bitter"—for though He descended below all things, His sacrifice creates exaltation of all things. That a single word could mean both "bitter" and "exalted" is further testament to the reference it can be to Christ.

And as for Elise.... We were on a roll with the nativity names, so enter Elizabeth! Elise was the form of Elizabeth that we most loved with Maren. Elise was also on Matt's shortlist from the time we were married—since 2002. (I remember coming up with that name, too! Matt was cooking in our first apartment, and I was sitting on the couch doodling names, and he said that he had always loved the name Elise. This girl of ours has had this name for years!)

Maren gets to bear the names of two beautiful women from the world's best story—how the Love of God was made Man, how God cares for mothers!, and how miracles happen to bring babies to this earth. We have relied on the Lord to bring us our babies, too....

"Elise" references a covenant with God. We are so grateful for God's voice in our lives, and for the covenants we have made with Him. We know He is mindful of us—every moment, in every circumstance.

And so: two babies, three nativity names, four references to God's hand in their lives.

And nothing too boring.... ;-)

I'm Sorry.

I didn't mean to win the poll! Honest! (We should have known, though, since I am often eerily clairvoyant.... It's kind of crazy! Maybe I should have foreseen my win.... ;-))

But, hey, three cheers for me! And, really, isn't it kind of fun to have the mom be the most in tune? That's kind of fun. :-) Right? At the very least, it was fun for me, while things were kind of painful and crazy, to be watching the clock thinking about poll times. Thank you, all, for playing!

And a HUGE congratulatory 2nd-place prize to Christy! Christy guessed 2:34! Only 11 minutes short of Maren's actual birth time should have gotten her major, major props. Again, I'm sorry to have been only 3 minutes off. (Three minutes, people! Three minutes! Haha!)

3rd place was a distant hour off, so Christy was solidly in the pocket. You rock, Christy! You might even find some cookies in your mailbox sometime. ;-)

Maren Elise

Best few days EVER: Maren was born on November 24th, the next day was Thanksgiving (what a perfect day to go home with a new baby!), and the 26th was our 8th anniversary. I love November and Thanksgiving so much! It's been wonderful to celebrate our anniversary around Thanksgiving every year, and now we get to celebrate our daughter then, too. Happy Thanksgiving! So many things to be grateful for.... :-)

In honor of the fact that my due date was this week, and to finally reveal the results of our prediction poll, here's the two-week-old story of Maren's birthday! (Thank HEAVEN she came two weeks ago instead of staying in there clear until now. :))

The Timeline!

5-something in the morning: I get up after a nasty night of bad pregnancy-sleep to get ready for the hospital. It didn't take long, since I was, you know, going to have a baby. Haha! You don't exactly do your makeup for that unless you're the most ridiculous, vain lady in the world. :) (I did tame my bed-hair a bit. And I enjoyed a loooonnnng shower. :)) Matt made me a not-too-big-but-not-too-small breakfast. And then I went to hug Seth in his sleep so I could have a little moment with my boy—the last moment it was just him in our family. Oh, I love that kid. I was glad when he wandered out of his room a few minutes later (oops, I guess I had woken him up.... :-)). He sat on my lap for a while, hugged me and the baby over and over, and told me I'd do great. I could have cuddled with him all morning and then some (even though it kept making me cry). Ah, my sweet boy!

7:00 am: We show up at the hospital for my 7:30 appointment time. By the Grace of God (really...), I wasn't overly nervous. Nervous, yes, but not phobic-nervous. I was so grateful for that relative amount of peace.

They took a couple hours to get me a room.

9:30 am: My day started with a botched IV. The bruise all up the side of my arm is way impressive! My battle scar!! (I was pretty bummed that my day started this way. Great, I thought. So this is how it's gonna go! ;-))

Then on to IV #2. Then on to the first of five—FIVE—liters of saline I got that day. That's 11 pounds.

The nurse was pleased to see that, "hey, you're already having a lot of contractions! You feeling those?" To which I could only say, "uh... Sure.... I pretty much ignore them but, sure...." I mean, hahaha! I had been having them for months. Her enthusiasm was amusing.

10:30 am: The induction begins! Doctor placed a tablet of Cytotec to ripen the cervix, which was hardly dilated at all and still ridiculously posterior. There was a long, long way to go. (Matt had predicted a birth time after 7:00 pm and I had predicted 2:48 pm. I was now laughing about my early time as hard as Matt had always laughed over it.... :))

10:30 am to 11:45 am: I had to lay flat and pretty still so the tablet would stay in the right place and do its job. Contractions were the same ol' same ol'. I started to feel bad for Matt that things were so boring. (I wasn't too chatty. I was listening to Tosca. :))

Sometime in the noon hour: I started to have contractions that were totally new to me! They weren't the uncomfortable-yet-painless Braxton Hicks contractions that I'd had 10 million of, but they weren't the destroy-your-soul contractions that Seth's labor had started with. It was something . . . in between . . . . I'd breathe through the intermittent pain that was progressively getting worse and wonder, huh, is this what normal labor is like? Is this what women are talking about when they sit at home counting contractions and they don't want to die but the pain is manageable? Huh. Huh. ;-)

1:00 pm: Still finding the contractions absolutely fascinating even though they were starting to get extremely unfun. (And starting to wonder.... If these contractions keep getting worse, and I keep listening to Andrea Bocelli sing Recondita Armonia, will I ever be able to listen to that aria again? ;))

1:10 pm: My doctor stopped by to see how things were going. The idea had been to break my water after four hours of nothing really happening. But here we were only 2 1/2 hours after getting the tablet and I was, surprisingly (or NOT ;-)), apparently in active labor. (Cervical-ripening drugs are slow-mechanism stuffs—this is why you can get them and then go home for the night. We always thought if they'd have sent me home, I'd go right back to the hospital in major labor. Ha! We were right!) He mulled it over for a little while, smiled and asked me if we wanted to get on with it, and went ahead and broke my water. Cervix was only 2 cm dilated and still horribly, horribly posterior. (Worst exam EVER.) Long way to go, still. Dr. Awesome had to go to clinic at that point and told me he'd be back late that afternoon. (Hahahaha!!)

2:25-ish pm: I had been suffering through some really bad contractions. The nurses were just checking stuff on the computer and dawdling around when one nurse told the other: "She says she went pretty fast with her first, maybe you should just check her now...?" Uh...ok.

So, rather perfunctorily, she did.

I keep trying to think of an awesome way to express the mood of the room, the thoughts in my head, the look on Matt's face, and the tone of the nurse's voice when she said: "Ohhhhhh.... Yeah, you're 10 centimeters...."

But I can't.

It was hilarious and shocking and action-springing and a relief and validating and, well, I'm back at hilarious.

I wish I could have read all their minds so I could tell you their thoughts—it was obvious they were funny.

My thoughts, all together at once, were:

—Whaaaaaaa...?

—Of course! HAHAHA!! Of course!

—Huh. So THAT'S what that incredible, mind-boggling pressure was that made me feel like the bottom of me was just going to explode in half.... Yes, now that I think about it, I've heard people describe this as "the urge to push." Huh. Maybe I should have said something. Also...that's been going on for at least half an hour. Have I been fully-dilated for half an hour?

—HA! I KNEW I was in PAIN! This proves it! Dilating in an hour? So validating. Thank you, thank you.

—Woo hoo!! Baby's coming!!

—Whoaaaa.... Baby's coming....


And, of course:
—Hey, two minutes ago, who knew my prediction wasn't so off after all?! Laugh at that, Matthew! ;-)

2:35-ish pm: The nurses are happy to find out my doctor is already back at the hospital, but he is headed to the OR for a c-section. I have two options: I can have them get the on-call doctor, or I can try to wait half-an-hour for mine. In the back of my mind, I knew this baby wouldn't last a half-hour. But I really wanted my doctor. He's awesome and amazing, and one of the benefits of the induction was that he'd definitely be the one there. So I said I'd wait (and wondered what kind of craziness might ensue...!). Five minutes later....

2:42 pm: My doctor comes in! Sweet! His other patient was being prepped for the OR and since he's awesome, he rushed over to my room hoping to be able to deliver the baby before his patient was ready for surgery. He seemed pretty confident it would be quick. (What? Do I seem like a quick laborer or something? ;-)) I look at the clock, thinking about my 2:48 prediction. If I really hurry, maybe I can be right on! YES!! (Six minutes, though? I didn't think I could hurry that fast.)

2:43: Doctor sets things up.

2:44: Doctor takes a look and says: "Whoa, look! The head! Look at this, Matt!" Matt says when he heard the doctor say that, he genuinely didn't believe it. He actually thought the doctor was mistaken—because, you know, awesome ob's can just be wrong about that sometimes. ;-) ("But Auburn, I've been to a lot of deliveries. The head doesn't descend that fast unless it's a seventh baby or something. Insane.")

2:45: Beautiful baby Maren was born. It took about 45 seconds and two whole pushes.

She hardly cried. By the time she was back to me, she just laid on my chest and looked around with wide, bright eyes. She seemed so...comfortable. And actually happy...? Can a brand-new baby have joy in being alive? She seemed to.

Matt called Seth to tell him the happy news. Seth's response: "Ah. Welllll.... I'm just going to play on the slide a little more, then I'll come to the hospital." Haha!

Matt texted my parents in the waiting room. (They had knocked on our door just before the surprise 10-cm discovery and been turned away with the promise that we'd invite them in "in about five minutes." Haha! :)) Because he underplays everything, Matt's text just said: "Auburn wins the poll." My mom said: "What was her prediction? Oh noooo.... Does that mean it's gonna be a while...?" My dad said, "No, he said she WINS. I think she's already born! Say what?!" Then my dad texted it to Matt: "Say what?!"

Seth was the first person to come see Maren.... It was beautiful. I'll probably write about that all on its own sometime.

And then Seth got to bring all four of his grandparents in to meet his new sister.

All in all, it went well! A beautiful day. A painful day (yowza...), but a beautiful one. :)

So here she is: Maren Elise Williams. She was a petite 6 pounds even, 19 inches long. She's beautiful and amazing, and the best Thanksgiving/Anniversary present we could have ever waited our whole lives for. We're a happy family!

(Pictures are all from our day in the hospital. We went home the next day—on Thanksgiving! Our more recent pictures still haven't been uploaded from our camera. But I'll post more later.... :))

First moments.

Later that day (or maybe the next), just playing with us for a while....

THE POLL ENTRIES!

The High-Hope-ers (Pre-Induction)

November 20th

2:19 pm

Laurie (sister-in-law)

November 22nd

8:15 pm

Sandy (friend)

10:16 pm

Kristen (sister-in-law...soon! :))

November 23rd

11:41 am

Samantha Burns (friend)

11:23 pm

Steven (brother-in-law)

November 24th

12:24 am

Ellie (sister-in-law)

Induction Day!

November 24th

11:24 am

Kathy (mom-in-law)

1:12 pm

Greg (bro)

1:46 pm

Tera (friend)

2:34 pm

Christy (friend)

2:48 pm

Auburn

4-o-clock-ish-sunset-y-ish :)

Gwen (my mom)

5:34 pm

Becca (friend)

7:09 pm

Jordan (bro)

7:13 pm

Matt (my man :))

8:27 pm

Janelle (sister-in-law)

9:23 pm

Hillary (friend...and labor-delivery nurse!)

The Apologizers

(Sorry, but I think the induction will last all day and night...!)

November 25

2:15 am

Chuck (dad-dad-daddio)

2:17 am

Amy (friend...and "Godmom" ;-))

The Foes!! ;-)

November 27

12:14 pm

Elizabeth (friend)

December 2

2:30 am

Bruce (dad-in-law)

Honorable Mentions

Before I announce The Big Winner, I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize some special participants.



Special Thanks are in order for everyone who guessed I'd have the baby before the induction day. That was pleasant of you. :-) So for making me really hope you'd win, Honorable Mention to Laurie, Sandy, Kristen, Samantha, Steven, and Ellie!



Honorable Mention to these people with remarkably similar ESP:

Jordan and Matt had guesses only four minutes apart.

Our friend Amy and my Dad had guesses only two minutes apart! (And they were the only two people to have guesses on that day at all.)



Honorable Mention is in order for Elizabeth and Dad-in-law Bruce, who had the courage to guess the induction would be derailed even though they knew I'd just have to label them foes for it ;-). And who still had me going into labor well ahead of my due date. Nice to know that nobody's ESP was picking up the vibe that I'd be miserably waiting for labor into the middle of December or something. Thanks, guys!



And, finally, Honorable Mention to everyone who had a fun number that was obvious enough for me to recognize:

Steven for 11/23 at 11:23
and his mom, Kathy (my mother-in-law) for 11/24 at 11:24 (like mother like son!)

Ellie for 11/24 at 12:24 (24 is an awesome number—no, the awesome number—of course! 11/24 at 12:24 would have been pretty cool.)

Christy for 2:34

And Jordan for turning his birthday into a guess of 7:09

Big Winner and one more Honorable Mention coming up!

Don't forget to vote!

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Me and My Girl

For a lot of this pregnancy, I haven't felt so much like I'm getting to know this baby. And, honestly, I'm not really, am I? ;-) But Seth was such a funny dude even in the womb that I had distinct impressions about his personality. Which I wrote in my journal. And which were correct! Ha-HA!

Tell-tales for Seth.... He was a total acrobat, moving in strange, discernible, and funny ways. He was wildly active as such a tiny thing that I could feel crazy stuff at only 15 weeks. He never got into fetal position. (Hahaha! I wrote in my journal: "If that's not Matt-like behavior, I don't know what is." HAHA! Fetal position. Who needs it.) His ultrasounds were hilarious. Then I'd get those non-stress tests where they strap you up to a monitor, and he'd kick the monitor off—over, and over, and over again. I don't remember how I got the impression that he was also a mellow dude but with a physically active personality, but I did (maybe just because I guessed he'd be much like Matt), and it's totally true.

This baby has been asleep at every single ultrasound. Aw.... Darn! And she's more of a rumbler, not an acrobat. Her movement is fairly nondescript to me—instead of feeling feet and arms doing weird things, I just feel a rumbler in there hurting my organs. :) I also didn't feel her for so long because of the anterior placenta. She's a mystery to me!

[Amy says the mystery part is what I'm learning about her personality. She'll be an enigma! She'll be . . . like me!! I think that's an awesome and hilarious theory. As she grows up, if I ever think to myself, "man, you're just a tough one to figure out!," I'll also think, "you've been that way from the womb!" :)]

But lately there's something I've really, really been bonding with this little girl over. She's been throwing little fits. My little rumbler has these sudden bursts of activity where she frantically kicks as hard as she can—this jolting side-to-side craziness for a few seconds that makes all her other movement look weak.  For a few brief moments—as knees and feet and butt and shoulders take turns frenetically stretching as far as my skin will let them—she seems like she's fed up with being a good sport about her compromised space, and she's just got to bust out.

"AAAAHHHH!!! Get me OUT OF HERE!!!"

I swear, I hear it! ;-) [I hear you, mija!]

And, while I grimace in pain from all the things her little fit is destroying in there :), I also smile to myself and think, "ah... You and me baby girl. I'm with you on this!"

And I think, hey, we can do this together. Almost there, baby.