She’s here…

I know this is a little late coming, but things have been a bit busy around here lately (besides the obvious, the icky winter storm also left us without power for almost three days).
So, our baby girl has arrived. Avalee Apryl was born on December 12th at 8:19 AM. She weighed 7lbs 10oz and was 19 ½ in long. She came out looking gorgeous, of course, and a lot like her big brother Z. She had lots of black hair and piercing steel blue eyes.
Colin and I spent three days in the hospital bonding with her, which was amazing. Z came up and spent time with us as well, although he didn’t much like leaving Mom and Dad. We also rode out most of part one of aforementioned winter storm. It was nice just watching the snow falling outside, knowing we had nowhere to go. We had a beautiful view from our room of the Capitol building and the trees at Willamette University, lit with Christmas lights. The worst day of the storm though, just happened to be the day we were released from the hospital. It had been snowing for days, than everything froze. We ended up driving about 5-10mph to get home. It was like a completely different world from what we had left. We were never so happy to get home!
So, now we are all home enjoying each other. Colin is off work until the second week in January, which has been so nice.
Avalee is doing very well and growing quickly (she has already grown an inch and a half!). She is the mellowest baby I have ever encountered, and we’re certain she has Colin’s personality. ;) She rarely fusses and doesn’t let much bother her (even when her big bro is running around screaming!). She is also quite strong, already holding her head up for lengthy periods of time and rolling to her side. She just might be our little overachiever. :)
Z is taking his role as big brother very seriously. He is great with Avalee and it’s so exciting to see them together. He asks to hold her and wants to help with everything. If she does get fussy, he’s right there to kiss her head or rub her tummy. He tells us that he loves her and that she’s “just precious.” Of course, we agree with him. :)

One Week left...

It’s hard to believe, but we’re only one week away from our delivery date. These last few weeks (well, months!) have just flown by, and I can hardly believe we’ll be meeting Avalee in just one week!
We’re very excited, but a little anxious too. Although Z seems to be taking everything pretty well most of the time, he has moments that concern us. He will get jealous if Colin talks to A and sometimes tells us he’s a baby, not a big boy. We’ve been trying to prepare him as much as possible, and of course spend as much time with him as we can. Last week, he and I went on a ‘date’ to McDonalds. I explained to him what will happen before A comes, and that he will stay with Grandma and Grandpa while Colin and I are in the hospital. He told me he wanted to stay with me, and not to leave him. That broke my heart, but I told him he can come to the hospital every day, that we’ll still read to him and that Daddy will take him out to lunch even.
We have also told him he gets to be the first person to hold her (after Mom & Dad) and he seems very excited about that.
Monday, we’re going to take a tour of the hospital to show him where we will be staying and let him take a peek at the new babies.
I will miss our little family of three, but I’m so excited to start a new chapter in our lives as a family of four!
So, Friday is the big day and everyone is welcome to come visit us after the surgery. We should be settled into a room by noon, and welcome visitors. :0) We will most likely leave the hospital on Monday.
Hope to see you soon! :0)

He’s three, right??

Last night, Z decided he needed his froggy backpack (who knows why…). It was downstairs and we were already upstairs for the evening. We told him he could go down and get it, if he came right back up. Well, after several minutes he hadn’t come back, so Colin went to search for him. He found him, candy cane in mouth sitting under the Christmas tree. They came upstairs and Colin told me what happened. Z was listening carefully and watching our reactions closely.
He then says, “I don’t want to call Santa (we’ve told him we have Santa’s phone number and can let him know if Z is being naughty). I’ll get new candy canes for the tree.” Trying to hold back our laughter, we asked how he would do that. Without missing a beat, he says, “I will go to Wal-Mart. You’ll drive (pointing to Colin) and I will sit in the little seat in the cart.” Now, at this point, we’re trying incredibly hard not to laugh. We ask him how he’s going to pay for the candy canes and he says “the girl at the store will give me money.” We’re not sure who this mystery girl is, but we’re a little concerned that he’s already got girls paying for him and he’s only three!