And Now We Part Ways

For the last week (following the hurricane), we have enjoyed early Fall temperatures – highs near 80 and lows in the 60s. It’s been absolutely beautiful and though I haven’t gotten out much, just knowing it was not 100 really made me happy. Well that is all coming to an end. I see that NE is forecasted to stay around 80 for the remainder of the week. Tomorrow we creep back up to 90 and will stay that way until about Halloween. Y’all will be enjoying cool, crisp days with trees changing their colors. We will go to the pumpkin patch in t-shrits and shorts. They say you don’t appreciate what you’ve got until it’s gone and that has certainly rung true for me – how I miss you, Fall!

UPDATE: Here is a graph of our average temperatures for those who think they long for 7 months of 80+ degree weather! I realize there are harsh contrasts between NE summers & winters – I just prefer the variety!

One Week

Happy one-week birthday, Violet Frances! We are all enjoying having you at home and everything is going quite well. You are really a beautiful baby and Mama & Daddy can’t stop talking about it, especially all your dark hair! You have been a good little eater & sleeper and that is all we can ask of you so far. Your big sister, Olivia, is so sweetly devoted to you and wants to hold you all day long. She also enjoys fetching things you need and entertaining you with her stories. Molly loves you, too, in her own way. She is so excited to see “baby” and learned to say the word just for you. Sometimes she gets a little too excited and wacks you, but it’s really just because she loves you so much. Mama is recovering well and so happy to have you to cuddle. We tried the sling for the first time today and you fit just right. Daddy is back to work half days and really misses you in the afternoons. He says he’s ready for Mama to take back her “homemaker” job, but other than that no one is really complaining. We love you so much, sweet little flower – welcome to our family!!

Violet Frances Andrews

Violet Frances Andrews was born at 2:22 PM on Wednesday, September 10th 2008. She weighed 8 pounds and was 19 3/4 inches long. Everything went great and Jenny and Violet are doing wonderful. Visitors are welcome, but please call first to make sure we’ll be around. We’ll post more details about the deliverly later, but for now you can meet our precious little girl here.

Tomorrow is D-Day

That is D as in Delivery. Since this baby is now about a week and a half overdue we’ve decided to take our doctor’s advice and evict her tomorrow. Jenny has been having contractions, although not regular, and is far enough along (almost 7 cm) that this would probably be considered an augmentation rather than an induction. We did an ultrasound on Monday and everything looked good so we don’t expect any trouble. The doctor actually said, “This ought to be easy”, which if I had said I would have probably gotten punched. So say a few prayers for us as we are supposed to arrive at the hospital at 6 AM to get things rolling. We won’t have internet access at the hosipital, but the news will probably break first over at drozmonkey.com’s sister site, From The Lyon’s Den (which would also be drozmonkey’s sister’s site).

Not Complaining, But Maybe Bragging

Jenny had the urge for Chinese food tonight so we went out to Pei Wei. The food was good and the girls were garbage disposals. When we got home Jenny’s hips were really hurting so she grabbed the heating pad and laid down on the couch. That left Olivia, Molly, and I to take baths and get to bed. But I’m not complaining. Actually, the girls and I have become pretty good buddies since Mama’s been out of commision, which sometimes is a little bit of a rub for Jenny. Thirty minutes after I started the bath water running, both girls were sound asleep in their beds in the same room. It doesn’t always go that smoothly, but I’ll take it while I can get it.

Impressed. Very Impressed.

I hope y’all got a chance to hear Gov. Sarah Palin’s address to the Republican National Convention tonight. I’m considering it my silver lining that I got to watch her introduction to the national stage from the comfort of my couch (yes, that means I’m STILL pregnant). Those who know me will not be surprised that I was pleased with Gov. Palin’s selection from the get go – her traditional values and conservative social policies mirror my own. She comes from small town America and is proud of her roots. And it is terribly exciting to see a woman after my own heart, seeking public office, not to mention the Vice Presidency of the United States. Sarah Palin is a woman of faith, a loving wife & mother, and an intelligent, clever and tenacious public servant. These are also my passions and she shows me one example of how to combine them. I was impressed, very impressed by her speech tonight and look forward to her impact on the campaign and her performance in the VP debate. She will add an important voice to our national dialogue. How could I not be impressed by a candidate who lovingly praises her newborn son and carries him in a sling during a gubenatorial press conference? How can I not admire her balance between feminine charm and brute strength? She is really going to make the rest of the campaign exciting!

PS Oh, and I LOVED the shot of Palin’s youngest daughter, Piper, licking her hand and smoothing over the hair of her baby brother, Trig! What a hoot!!

Welcome To The Jungle

OK, so Livy isn’t quite old enough for school, but she did start at the St. William’s Early Childhood Development Center this week (a.k.a. Mother’s Day Out). We found out last week that she got a spot – just in time for Jenny and Livy to go to Meet the Teacher Day. Livy was pretty excited to go to “school”. Jenny was a little nervous. It is from 9:30 to 1:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Over the weekend we went out and bought our school supplies and talked about how much fun school would be. School supplies included a Princess lunchbox; Mom said no, but I’m a sucker. Who wants to be the only girl at school without a Princess lunchbox? Anyway, since we had a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday at 11:15, I took the morning off and got Livy around for school which included everything except ponytails. (I still need to find a good YouTube video to teach me how to do that.) Jenny and I both agreed that it would probably be better for everyone if I dropped her off. So we took some pictures and told Mom and Molly goodbye and went off on our adventure. Livy sang along to her Sesame Street CD on the way there and didn’t seem to be worried about anything. We were a little early so we waited at a picnic table before they opened and watched all the other kids show up. Then when they opened up, we went in and put her lunchbox in her cubby hole, hung her Sesame Street backpack (thanks Lyons cousins!) on her hook, and she grabbed a chair at the table and started coloring. I figured I’d leave well enough alone and quickly handed some paperwork to the teacher and made a break for it. I ended up waiting for a pen to write a check by the front door and as the last few kids showed up, you could hear that some of the kids weren’t so happy. I was tempted to go back and look in the door to see if Livy was one of those, but I figured it was best to not know. This is where I think Jenny would have had a hard time.

I realized I am in a different stage in life when I was talking to Jenny on the phone and she told me to “enjoy the parents meeting” which was right after dropoff. Do I really go to parents meetings? I guess so, because I did. Then it was off to pick up Jenny and Smallz to see the doctor. That went well and then it was out to lunch at Longhorn Po Boys on the edge of UT campus. It was nice to just be Jenny and I, oh and one small child. I guess that won’t last long. By then it was off to pick up Livy. The first thing she told me was, “I had a good time at school, Daddy!” The teacher gave us a report card for the day, see the pictures, which pretty much summed up Livy on a good day. Note that I got Livy dressed, but she chose the “Welcome to the Jungle” shirt on her own. That’s my girl!