Henry Steven Gibson

We welcomed little Henry three weeks before his due date, just hours after my parents had driven down. We had spent the day cleaning and getting ready for their arrival, and I also fit in a swim and a nap. I had no idea that I would go into labour that night, in fact I was mentally preparing to go overdue. But to my pleasant surprise, my water broke that night, and after 7 hours of labour, Henry was born! He weighed 8lb 3oz, and was 20" long. He is named Henry after my maternal grandpa and great grandpa.

 

About 40 minutes after his birth, the nurse noticed that he was working hard to breathe and checked his blood sugar. It was extremely low, so they took him to NICU for IV dextrose and more monitoring. He stayed there for the rest of the day and the following night, and I went back and forth from my room on the postpartum unit (where my meals were) and his room in the NICU. Fortunately, I was still able to hold and feed him. The kids came in to see him and were just in love with him and so gentle. Ross picked his shirt out specifically for Henry's birthday.

He is much more fair than either Ross or Madeleine were at birth, and he has far less hair!

We were all very happy to be back at home after two days in hospital. He has no shortage of loving arms to hold him.

He did have some jaundice though, so he had to spend a couple of days sleeping on a "biliblanket" sent to us by the hospital. Then he got oral thrush, but I noticed it early, and got the prescription he needed and he is already improving. So far, he is a very settled baby - sleeping well, feeding well, and only really squawks and squeaks when he's hungry. He does cry a bit more if his diaper is being changed, or we're trying to put clothes on him.  We are all so thankful for him, and very glad he came early!

Long Overdue Catch Up

Ross turned four in January! He loves helping me bake and was a big help getting his cake together. He was very specific about what he wanted his cake to look like - layers of chocolate and vanilla, with whipped cream and berries on top, which he arranged to look like an alien cake (so he said, anyway).

My birthday followed Ross's and the kids had fun baking a cake with Daddy.

Both kids have loved going to the Oakland Ice Rink, and they are getting good enough now that they don't have to take turns with Daddy!

Daddy and Ross enjoying some lego, tractors, snacks, and beverages on a typical weekend morning.

During Madeleine's spring break I took them to the San Francisco Zoo, which was a lot of fun. It wasn't very crowded and they loved it.

Looking far too grown up...

Ross and I took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train to Berkeley one day to do a few errands, and stopped at Peet's for a hot chocolate. It is so fun having so much one-on-one time with him!

Here he is with all our dress-up fairy gear on to do some painting...

Ross and I visited Daddy at work one day this past week. Ross was so excited to see what he was working on and asked all kinds of questions - why do you have two computers? What is that pink circle on the screen? Shouldn't you be working right now, Daddy?

Ross is also super excited that he will be a big brother later this summer! I am 27 weeks now, due in early August. I'm thankful to be feeling really good still and baby is looking healthy so far. My life here in California is much more car-based than my life in NZ was, so I do have to make more of an effort to get regular exercise. We decided to find out what we are having this time (mostly so that I could purge some clothes from one or the other!), and it is a boy! I thought maybe Ross was holding up two fingers for two boys, but no, he said he's making the peace sign, of course. I'm not sure two boys will bring peace, but at least he is happy about it! Madeleine was a bit disappointed at first about not having a sister, but now she is also very excited and they both talk a lot about how they are going to help me with the baby.

I may not be very good at getting belly shots this time around, but here is some proof that my belly is growing. Madeleine had just gotten this new umbrella in the mail from Great Grammy Inez, so she was very excited to use it during story time before bed.

Happy 6th Birthday to Madeleine!

Madeleine was so excited for her 6th birthday! Being in kindergarten makes it even more special because her class celebrated her birthday on Friday (the 5th). 

Here is Madeleine and her teacher, Ms. McCormick, who is an incredibly kind, patient, and fun teacher. She has made Madeleine's first year at school very special and fun.

On Saturday, May 6th, Madeleine had four of her school friends over for a birthday party in the afternoon. She was so excited!

The girls had so much fun, and quickly took up Ross's suggestion of a pillow fight!

Then they settled down and spent some time painting wooden boxes and blank puzzles, all the while chatting away and telling stories.

Here they are, from left to right - Sophia, Dylan, Madeleine, Amelia, Ross, and Kaylee. Ross felt pretty special to be included in the birthday party and they all know him well from drop off and pick up at school.

Just before the cake, the girls' kindergarten teacher, Ms. McCormick dropped by for a little visit. Madeleine had invited her, and it was such a fun surprise for the girls. They all love her and it was like having a celebrity visit.

After all the girls were gone, Madeleine enjoyed doing some more painting on her wooden box.

On her actual birthday, May 7th, she got to Skype with Grammie and Grandpa who are in Paris, France for a bike trip. They had sent her a gift before they left, which she had fun opening.

Then she got to Skype with Grandpa Don and Grandma Georgia in Ontario, and was very excited to get a Playmobil Children's Hospital.

We spent the rest of the day assembling and playing with her toys.  We still had half of the angel food cake leftover, and thankfully she felt like that was sufficient for our family day celebrations, and didn't ask for a second cake!

A White Christmas

I am finally getting around to posting some pictures from our wonderful white Christmas in Ontario. We spent 2.5 weeks with Steve's family, and were so thankful to get lots of snow while we were there. As we landed in Toronto, there were huge snowflakes blowing past the windows, and snowplows and dump trucks scurrying around the runways, and both kids got huge smiles and were so thrilled. 

Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids just after Christmas.

Madeleine and Auntie Julie in the snowy backyard.

One of our rare family pictures!

Madeleine and Ross both loved being in the snow. We were a bit worried that living in California would have softened them to the cold temperatures, but they were as hardy as we could have hoped and lasted for hours outside.

Ross especially loved shoveling and looked for any chance to do a bit more...

While Madeleine was sledding off the deck with cousins Caleb and Brody, Daddy and Ross were building an igloo, at Ross's request.

Cookie decorating with Grandma and cousins...

And of course a visit to the local John Deere dealership with Grandpa Don. These kids know their farm equipment!

Lots of snowman-building with Uncle Chris...

Lots of cousin time and Christmas presents...

And there was definitely lots of ice skating! We took advantage of the free skate sessions on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at the local rink, and both kids quickly became very comfortable on the ice. They loved having the metal bars to practice with (our Oakland ice rink does not have any helper-devices), and having the whole rink to themselves a lot of the time was also a treat.

Madeleine is careful and cautious, but confident and eager to go by herself even if it means going more slowly. Ross has proclaimed that "faster is funner!" and loves furiously zooming around the rink with Daddy's help, or the metal bars.

Another highlight was the neighbour's sharing their outdoor rink with us - they worked on making it really smooth and by the end of our visit it had gotten cold enough that we were able to give it a try. Madeleine, Ross, Caleb, Brody, Steve, Chris, and Grandpa Don all got out there with sticks and nets and played a bit of hockey. The kids (and adults) loved it! 

We had so many wonderful times with family, and are so grateful that we had such a long visit with everyone. It had been over seven years since we spent a Christmas there, and obviously the kids first Christmas in Ontario, so it was memorable for all of us. 

Thanksgiving Camping Trip

It is better late than never to post some pictures of our Thanksgiving camping adventure! Grandpa Mark came with us, and we headed to Mt Tamalpais State Park, where we had our pick of campsites thanks to the cooler weather and holiday weekend. 

We went for a hike from the campsite and got to this beautiful lookout, with the big city far in the distance. 

A view of our campsite...

And Ross posing with some firewood.

Madeleine loved finding lichens, mosses, and ferns and talked about how much Grammie Jean would love them.  We spent two nights camping, and the second night it poured rain.  It was still lots of fun though and the rain made our return home and Grammie's homemade cinnamon buns even sweeter.

Later on in Grammie and Grandpa's visit, Madeleine asked Grammie to show her how to knit, and she got the hang of it quite quickly!

Grammie and Grandpa were here for a few weeks, from just before Thanksgiving until just before our visit to Ontario (which, coincidentally, will be the topic of my next post).