interactions

Margaret Anise

Margaret (also to be known as Greta) was born at 12.24 the morning after her mother's birthday. Jen had initially hoped that she would come on the 27th, but I think it surely says something about her personality that she held out for her own day of celebration. She had some difficulties as she was born -- the cord was wrapped around her neck and she had swallowed some gunk, making respiration difficult. But our attentive and competent midwives got her settled and before many minutes had passed, her color was good and she was comfortable.

Every sport has its spectators who are particularly interested in statistics, and for those of you, she weighed 8 pounds, 9.5 ounces, and is 21 inches long. She looks a great deal like her sister, with the exception of a surprising shock of dark hair (which none of her siblings had anything like). Here are a couple of birthday portraits:

(Something like an hour after labor ended, if you can imagine that.)

A strong candidate for my favorite picture ever.

Why is it that I look the most haggard and exhausted after the experience?

two birthdays

On her birthday, Jen told us that all she wanted was to give birth to Baby Sister. The children and I had planned to take her to lunch, but her contractions were intense enough that we didn't even make it to the restaurant. Casper and I returned to campus to shut down my computer and get the car, and we returned home to hours of slowly-intensifying labor. Before long, I took the boys to stay with friends (a play date which turned into a sleepover), and Gwennie remained to help and to be present during the delivery.

I'll let Jen go into detail about the birth story itself, but it really was an incredible, beautiful event. Staying in our home allowed Jennifer a level of comfort and focus which she could never have managed at a hospital, even with the support of our midwives. She also claims that the purchase of the kiddie pool which Gwennie is modeling above was the best $35 she ever spent; she stayed in the pool for much of her active labor, and her delivery was in the water as well. As always, I marvel at her strength, determination, and resilience throughout all the difficulties of childbirth. She did a remarkable job.

update

We had a very nice visit from Tiffany this weekend, and were fortunate to spend some valuable time together. (We were a little too distracted to be good hosts, but I think she was understanding.) Unfortunately, the primary reason for her trip -- to see a birth -- was a bit of a failure. Jen is still in a pronounced state of pregnancy. Maybe we'll try going out for a walk.

chatter

Casper, who is used to hearing Gwennie say similar things while complaining about her chores: "Oh, man! That's one of my useful jobs!"

C: After looking for some of the treats we'd promised for dessert: "Here are the Warios! And the Nerves!" (That was the package of oreos and single-serving boxes of nerds, incidentally.)

C: after hearing about Grannie's favorite salad dressing, tried to ask for what he'd heard: "I want Dozen Island . . . I mean, Disney Island."

C: "We could play Seekers . . . or Warriors . . . or Penguins!"

moveable feast

These shots were taken at the park where we like to feed the ducks and turtles. This time, we decided to buy loaves of cheap bread and really give the critters a feast. With the exception of Gwendolyn, who in her haste and excitement tripped on the uneven ground and scraped up a hand and hip, we all had a great time. Apparently the little egret was attracted to the commotion, and stood around waiting to get a mouthful of minnow.

little scold

If you asked her, Gwennie would tell you that she is the only person who is more anxious for baby sister than Mama. She's reaching the end of her patience. A few days ago, she decided to solve the problem by scolding it away: "Mama! Go into labor!"

She also tends to get worked up, often when she's playing games. (She recognizes when she's being a bad sport, and the lack of control frustrates her even more.) After starting a card game with Mama this afternoon and fearing that she wouldn't win, she went into hysterics. When Jen refused to continue playing, Gwennie shouted at her, "You don't love me! I know you're just pretending to love me so I won't run away and then Daddy would start asking questions!"

whaley whaley

Casper recently got a new stuffed animal at an aquarium in Dallas, and he's become pretty attached to it. He decided to name it after one of his favorite books, which we've been listening to on tape -- the Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett. The best creation of the books is the "pictsies" (pretty clever, that), a group of very small supernatural men who love fighting and boozing. When anxious, they say, "wailey, wailey," which Casper has found hilarious from the beginning. Which is good, because he frequently hears it from his brother and sister, who will call it out to him when he's working himself up.

due date

Today was Baby Sister's due date, and we've all been a little anxious. Since each of the other children have been born later than anticipated, we weren't entirely expecting Jen to go into labor (especially considering that who-knows-where-it-comes-from statistic that only five percent of women actually give birth on their due dates). Still, we're all preoccupied, excited, and -- well -- ready. Especially after our record-breaking summer, we (mainly Jen) feel that it's time to go. We want to meet the new member of the family.

job surprise

We took the children out for dipped soft serve cones under the guise of taking them to do an undisclosed job. (This is a ploy that is starting to fail, incidentally, since their levels of skepticism are increasing.) Says Linus, "my favorite thing about ice cream is that you can eat it. That was a joke."


And a bonus:

stalking

While we were at the park feeding the ducks and turtles, we stopped to watch a great egret fly across the water and onto a nearby tree. The children finished feeding the snapping and box turtles and turned to birdwatching.

On the left side of the crown of the tree, you can see the egret extending its neck and starting to fly off.

nature spot

positioning

Plume routinely sits like this, with her legs extended and front paws on her tail. I suppose that she does it to help with her relentless grooming (she's very particular about her appearance), but she'll go on sitting this way, alert and part of the family, until something startles her.

a boy and his bodyguard

Casper likes to have pictures taken with Daddy, and Linus likes to take them.

costumed trio

What I really admire about the children's costume play is the seriousness with which they approach the entire enterprise. Gwennie plainly takes great pains to make sure that her magical princess has a cape that matches her leotard-and-yoga-pants ensemble, and that her mage stones match the jewels on her knife hilt.

Linus also works for verisimilitude in his knightwear, with silver (mail-colored) short pants and a back scabbard for his sword. He also takes great care to get into character -- who would dare to cross a scowl like that?

And Casper's dragon -- what do those faux-Japanese pants and the tie-died Bible camp shirt say but "ferocious monster"?

what day is today?

Since Gwennie is nine today -- and we have adopted the family's rhythm of having parties for friends only every other year -- we had planned a modest evening. But we also thought it would be a lot of fun to see our friends the Torres family, so we decided to have an informal get together. We got the grill going and cooked burgers, brats, and chicken while the kids played.

One of the highlights was certainly the cake Gwennie chose, described as a "county fair-winning three-layer cake with chocolate whipped cream icing." It was as good as its billing; we'll have to try this one again.

ice cream anti-social

We'd committed to take homemade ice cream to a church event, so last night I'd put together one of our favorite recipes, strawberry with balsamic vinegar. For those doubters who cannot imagine vinegar in a non-savory recipe, understand that the role of the balsamic vinegar is to deepen the flavor of the strawberries and add a little edge. It's beautiful stuff.

When we arrived, I had to serve the ice cream into tiny tasting cups so that everyone could get a bite of each of the seven or eight homemades (before going to load up on the storebought stuff). There were some really great flavors, too; perhaps my favorite was the cherry/almond/white chocolate. As you can see from Gwennie's picture above, the tasting ended with a voting, and thanks to the boosterism of my daughter (I assume), we narrowly took the lead. That was when Linus came running up to me and bellowed, "Daddy, you won the ice cream social!"

Warriors

Gwennie's great passion lately has been a series of books called Warriors, about various clans of feral cats and their intrigues and battles. She has, in fact, made it through the first series of six books (each of which is around 300 pages), and will soon be starting on the second series (when she receives the first four titles for her birthday).

I decided to make her a birthday present of "battle cards" featuring the characters from the first series. (Some of you will have played a similar game with her -- it's another of her enthusiasms.) Unfortunately, I couldn't make this a surprise, since I needed her to choose the thirty most significant characters and provide them with attribute scores for the game. She's been working with me on the details, and I will be producing the cards, with images of cats matching the descriptions in the books, by the end of the week.

gabberjab

Mama: You did a good job on your talk, Casper. You spoke clearly, and reverently . . .
Casper: And intentionally?

Casper asks for some "hot Pudge sauce" (intentionally).

Casper, asking Mama about his educational future: Is it almost Fall? In the Fall do I get to go to Shining Star?

Casper, speaking through his transformer (Kup) to Linus's new toy: "Wheeljack, it's so much fun to have my robot legs!"

Mama [calling from the kitchen]: "Guess what I just found?"
C: "A mouse inside a shoe?"

misapprehensions

Linus, asking about the name of our town: "Was it called Afghanistan first?"
Mama: No! Where did you get that? From the radio?
Linus: No, from you!

L: My juice box keeps backfiring on me!

Pharisee face

We were recently reading our illustrated New Testament and came upon a picture of a very unpleasant Pharisee. He was making the most horrible, hateful face at Jesus. Sad to say, it reminded us of a relatively common expression which the children make at each other. Now, whenever we see this look, we warn the children about their "Pharisee face," and it usually does a good job of stopping the grimace (unless, of course, we ask them to demonstrate their best version, and then we get this).

let's all have some cake

We celebrated half of Casper's birthday on Saturday, when we had a little more time to spend on some of the activities he'd planned (like his breakfast waffles). We also gave him the last couple of presents we'd kept in reserve -- his first big boy bike (with the training wheels from Gwennie's SeaStar; unfortunately, they don't fit well, and we'll probably have to get a larger set for stability) and his first big boy Transformer (more on this later, no doubt).

We'd also convinced him that it would be all right to wait until today for his birthday cake. I'd remembered a cake that some friends in Wisconsin used to make for me, ho-ho cake, and thought that its mixture of goopiness and trashiness would appeal to Casper (don't get me wrong -- I think the stuff's delicious, too, and it fits perfectly with my Hostess obsession). As you can surmise from the following pictures, it was a pretty easy hit with him.

I especially like the chocolate Clark Gable he's showing off in this one -- makes him look kinda mature-like.

there's no butter there?

Here's one from a few weeks ago: while Jen was alone in Dallas with the kids, they all went with Granny to the Wal-Mart. After a bleak couple of hours shopping and price comparing, Jen was exhausted. That's the context for this conversation:

Linus: I can't believe this place is still open! What's the name of this place, again?
Jen: Hell.
Linus: I can't believe hell is still open!