Introducing Lydia

Alright, it was one thing for me to plod along with this blog while our family still had the same cast of characters but now that there’s a new one, we’re going to have to mesh present day pictures with flashback photos from the catch-up era.  The back and forth may be a little crazy but you’ll deal with it, right? 

Because she’s worth it :)

 I did type up her birth story; if you’re still terribly curious I probably wouldn’t mind sending you an email with those details but I’m not going to pop it up here for everyone to read.  It took me a while to process that whole craziness, Jake and I even sat down one evening to put the pieces together since there were bits that I didn’t remember and I didn’t really have a chance to take stock of everything as it occurred.  I have to admit, it’s been a fun story to tell though :)

And yes, you’ve seen many of these pictures before on Facebook.  But I want the record here on the blog too.  So you get to look at them all again.

The transition for these two seem to be going pretty well.  The biggest “problem” encountered so far is that one of them will decide Lydia needs something, a blanket, a toy, a loudly-sung “lullaby”, while she’s already asleep.  The impulse is kind and well-intentioned though, so it’s hard to get too upset about it.

Also, I’ve gotten a lot of “superwoman” type comments because of the birth story.  The more I think about that, the less sense it makes.  I certainly didn’t choose to give birth that quickly, delivering my own child in the front seat of the car was NOT my plan.  The one thing I did do right through all of that adventure was be prepared.  Having that waterproofing underneath me in the car was genius and probably kept us from having to replace that entire seat.  My bag was packed: I had snacks, a brand-new toothbrush and deodorant (because I knew we wouldn’t have time to grab a lot of little things on the way out the door), and even a couple books, like the one you see us reading here, to greet the bigger kids with so they’d have something familiar and comfortable when they came to visit.  I can’t take credit for my crazy-strong uterus, but what I did have control over, I think I managed pretty well.

                
My girls.  (Actually, that still sounds strange to me.  At this point, I tend to mentally divide them up into “the kids”—Logan and Naomi—and “the baby”; I don’t really think of them in terms of one boy and two girls.)

     
I do think she’s beautiful though.  We’ve gotten quite a few comments about how nicely shaped her head is.  I guess that would be one of the benefits of the quick birth—no time for the skull to get squeezed.  

 
My boys :) 

               
So, after Lydia made her dramatic entrance and we got everybody cleaned up, it was a little after 5:00 (AM) when we moved over to post-partum.  Jake brought my bags up (didn’t exactly have time to grab those when we came in) and then turned towards home so that he could be there when Logan and Naomi woke up.  He was able to greet them with the news and make them a special breakfast before he brought them out to visit and meet their sister.  Meanwhile, Lydia and I were back at the hospital sleeping as well as we could in between interruptions “to check your vitals”.  So for those who stated that I look more rested in this picture than Jake does: you’re right, I actually was more rested at this point.  And if I get any super-mom points, Jake definitely deserves a few for being super-dad as well.

Despite the broken sleep and parade of nurses and corpsmen through the room, I’ve never really minded staying in the hospital.  It’s a day and a half to focus on just one child and not have to think about dishes or laundry.  And it’s even better when you’ve got a perfect ocean view from your hospital bed.

                 
These are from my own in-hospital photo shoot.  Lydia’s a good baby.  She latched on well right at the start and continues to eat well.  At her two week appointment today, she weighed in at precisely 8 lbs.  Best of all, she gets all of her alert time during the day and goes right back to sleep at night after eating.  So far, so very good! 

SD Natural History

I gave the kids first pick and, after describing to them what types of things each museum held, they chose to see the dinosaurs.
         
I remember being mesmerized the first time I saw a Foucault pendulum as well.  The dino displays were cool—the models were open on one side to show the bones but, as you can see, were mocked up on the other side to resemble a “real” dinosaur.

                
Another pretty neat display—you were able to move the bones to see the motion of the joints.
 There was a spectacular section on plate tectonics, movement of the earth’s crust and earthquakes, followed by mastodons, giant sloths and other prehistoric models.


A few more large-scale skeletons, but mostly lots and lots of skulls.  We actually had a pretty good discussion, comparing sizes, types of teeth, etc.
                
Then there was a nice little play and dress-up area.  Always good.

The design-your-own-skull/dinosaur station was our last stop here.

                      
Then we went to a playground, because . . . you know, it’s what we do.

Even from the playground, you can still see the bell tower of the Museum of Man.

   
Time to check in!  Instead of staying in a hotel and eating out all week, we rented a studio apartment with a full kitchen and brought all our food with us.  It worked out beautifully!

My dining and adventure companions :)

SD Balboa Park

As soon as we arrived we headed to the Visitor’s Center to pick up my ticket package, which ran something like $85 for the week and covered admission everywhere, including the zoo.  The kids were both free everywhere, all week, thanks to a promotional month (October) that they run every year.  And that, by the way, is the 90% of the reason we made this trip—no way were we going to miss out on this much culture for those kind of discounts!

This first set of photos is just the exteriors and grounds—things we saw as we strolled between the car, the Visitor’s Center and our first real stop, the Natural History Museum.
                 
Parking was surprisingly easy (and free again), although I expect it’s much worse in the summer.  As we left the parking lot and came around the corner, the first thing we saw was the side of the organ pavilion.  Just past that is the Japanese Friendship Garden.  We haven’t even made it onto the main avenue of the park and already I’m pleased and impressed.

If you had to pick just one landmark from Balboa Park as the most recognizable, it would be this bell tower which is part of the building housing the Museum of Man.  The bell tower, along with several other prominent buildings, was constructed for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition to commemorate the completion of the Panama Canal.

                     
After that quick stop at the Visitor’s Center, we turn to walk down the central (pedestrian) avenue, El Prado, and see, on our left, the Botanical Building and, on our right, well, that’s just a covered walkway.  The vast majority of the architecture in the park is in that ornate Spanish Colonial Revival style, with the exception of a few distinctive buildings such as the Botanical Building there and the replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. 

Passing several other museums along the way, we reach the Natural History Museum and head inside—I’ll show you that next time.

                      
Eventually, we finish up with the dinosaurs and their buddies and we come on out to grab a snack.

                    
Happily, there’s this nice fountain directly in front of the Natural History Museum—that’s the Science Museum right across the way—where we can sit for a moment.  Circling the fountain, you can see the bell tower in the distance.

The kids enjoy the echoes of the colonnade, and since there’s no one else around at the moment I let them give me an impromptu concert.

                            
Frankly, at this point I couldn’t tell you precisely which buildings these are, other than to say that we saw them as we were headed back the way we’d already come.  But you should be getting a pretty good idea of the overall flavor of the park at this point.  Not a bad place to walk around for a while, definitely.

Almost back to the car, we’re passing the organ pavilion again when someone starts playing Phantom of the Opera!  Free concerts are given every Sunday but, unfortunately, we weren’t there on a Sunday so we never did get to see the organ itself, but getting to hear the organist’s practice session was pretty fabulous.  Naomi jumped right up on stage and started dancing to the music—she probably danced up there for 20-30 minutes while the organ played bits and pieces of well-known tunes.

Most of October

Zippity-zoom!  Look at me go!

         
Autumn decorating and the announcement of a third little pumpkin!

    
A fair came through town and, in addition to riding a few rides and eating pizza, we also got to see some belly dancing!

Still doing my own toenails and getting pretty darn good at it, I think.
  Afternoon “camping” on the island at the end of the cul-de-sac.

       
Not that they actually slept out there, but if they had, this is about what they would look like when they woke up.  Naomi’s more of a slow-starter and the bedhead is about right too; Logan is always up with a bang and a grin.

                            
Super-hero style.  Yes, super-heroes definitely do dishes.

                           
Artwork.  This was how Naomi “did school” with us for a while.  On the right is Logan’s self-portrait.

Our big San Diego field trip is up next!