Introducing Emily Hope

A long-overdue welcome to the lovely Emily, born August 9 at 8:12 am. 

7# 13oz, 20 inches, giant head (just like her brother).

She is just an angelic little lady. She hardly ever cries, and her favorite activity (technically, an inactivity, I suppose) is sleeping. She 'naps' for 4-5 hours at a time - her mama is not complaining!

Poor little girl is not extremely photogenic this week, owing to an impressive case of exuberant milia (wow - the first baby on that page looks so much like Emily I thought maybe someone had snagged her photo for their site - but Emily has more milia than that baby...), so many of our photographs are in dim lighting. I am assured by my physician husband that the milia will disappear soon and no treatment is required or recommended.

Big brother is fascinated by her and checks on the crib any time he hears a cry. He's been a little more clingy lately, but that's to be expected. He loves to sit next to Em on the play mat and investigate her ears, face, hair, and he really seems to understand that he has to be gentle.

I'm enjoying a splendid 2 1/2-month maternity leave, recovering from the c-section, taking the occasional nap, baking bread, doing needlepoint, cooking dinner, and (rarely) blogging.

Yes, we're tired, and sometimes frustrated, but I really am so grateful for 2 happy, healthy kids and a devoted husband/dad. Life is good.

The big Hawaii trip

Oh yeah, and we went to Hawaii in June. Again, thanks to my amazing mom and her amazing timeshare in Maui, on Ka'anapali Beach, our family and my brother's family got to spend an amazing week in paradise.

Jessica, as always, took much better photos than I did, so I will direct you to her post for a great recap.

We were understandably nervous about the flight, with a 10-month-old who is always on the move but wasn't yet walking - I was not looking forward to his crawling around the airport and especially on the plane. And while the flights weren't awful, they were definitely not our favorite part of the trip. Plus, the airline somehow forgot to put our gate-checked stroller on the plane, so we had to borrow a stroller from the desk at the Maui airport to use for the first 2 days of our vacation.

We did make it, however, and the week in Maui was really wonderful. We took lots of walks, played at the pool (Jack is enamored of the pirate ship pool and showed E the ropes, so to speak), had a date night with Kev & Jess at the great Mama's Fish House, and generally just relaxed. This was the last family trip before the new baby arrives - and the last family trip for at least 2 years, Joe and I have decided!

Jess arranged a family photo session with a photographer at the resort and we got some great pics - one of these days I'm going to get some of these printed and displayed here at the house!

hard to see here, but whatever E dropped on the floor was retrieved by the little birds who were constant companions on the balcony - it appears they have toddler radar!

R&R in Galveston

Wow, I found this draft of a post from 3 months ago. Well, it's still true - life is so good. We have happy photos from the trip to Galveston so I'll just let those speak for themselves.

Life is so good. This weekend [in May!] we took a much-needed escape down to Galveston. My mom has a timeshare that we get to borrow from time to time, because she is wonderful. My brother and sis-in-law and Ethan's cousin Jack joined us for part of the weekend - they spent most of their time at the pool.

Hello, puppy!

yummy sand

He's not sold on this wet sand thing yet.

Fried oysters for mama and dada, raisins for E

Dad, you should apply sunscreen before you fall asleep on the beach with me.

Nap time - now what?

Yummy lunch at an amazing Galveston sandwich spot called Eat Cetera.

Dancing to the live music!

Bonding

A not-so-functional pirate ship kite provided endless entertainment.

The cut under his left eye, mentioned in his 1-year birthday post!

Hm, what's on the other side of dad? Only one way to find out...