Pippa, Rowan, and a little bit of other stuff...

The End?

2010-11-05T15:16:00.002-04:00

It's semi-official, we pretty much never post here anymore. If you want to actually see what's going on in our lives check Emily out on twitter (emilyjs), or friend either of us on Facebook, or visit Emily's etsy shop www.gobbleturtle.etsy.com.

Music

2010-02-25T10:37:00.002-05:00

The girls love their music. If they're not having a dance party to the Pogues, they're playing and singing. Here are some vids.

Visit with GG

2010-01-20T09:39:00.004-05:00

We visited my grandfather this past weekend. A few pics of us with "GG" as they call him.

And a video of the girls playing with GG -- Rowan loves to tickle him.

Christmas Rejects and Dance Parties

2010-01-19T19:54:00.002-05:00

Now that you've gotten our xmas card and pic, I can show you a few of the reject photos. I like this one - it looks like James has magicked Pippa from thin air.

I have approximately 12,000 photos that look like this - our girls are tremendously unphotogenic, a trait they inherit from me (which is why I'm never on here). Most of our pics looks like this.

The girls love a good dance party. It's even better if it involves butterfly wings.

Witch hats and butterfly wings add a whole new dimension.

Another Mini Kitchen Reno

2009-12-26T17:39:00.006-05:00

James and Bill decided to replace the kitchen sink -- it was a nasty, stained, cracked undermount ceramic, and water ran all over the counter, cuz there was no lip to make splashes drain back into the sink.

The old sink, halfway through the transformation.

No more old sink.

The new one is clean and shiny :)
(and has a lip all the way around, so water stays where it should).

More Christmas Pics

2009-12-26T16:57:00.004-05:00

Santa's sleigh and reindeer tracks. The gold "x" is reindeer attractant given to us by cousins - it worked!

Look closely and you can see the sleigh tracks, Santa's footprints next to it, and reindeer prints behind it. Someone was busy xmas eve.

Rowan opening her present from Pippa - a new sled.

Not quite enough snow outside, so they practice in the living room.

True Mainers now - they asked for shovels for Christmas, so their Grandmama got them kid-sized shovels.

Pippa practicing for the next big storm. Believe me, we need all the help we can get.

Santa's presents to the girls - train sets.

And they love them.

A lot.

Even More Holiday Celebrations...

2009-12-24T23:03:00.002-05:00

Figgy Pudding - if you listen closely Pippa really sings the entire song even tho Rowan yells over her the entire time.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Jingle Bells - it gets a bit crazy at the end.

The girls leave bourbon and figgy pudding for Santa. While we were putting the girls to bed, Cabar (one of our dogs) ate the pudding. Luckily, the bourbon was untouched.

Christmas Carols

2009-12-23T18:01:00.002-05:00

The girls love singing Christmas carols. Here's a favorite:

Words are supposed to be "over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go". I'll try to record some more tomorrow.

Halloween

2009-11-01T09:47:00.005-05:00

So here are some halloween photos of the kids- the dragon may look familiar from last year.
The bunny was a new creation-- Pippa has said she wanted to be a bunny for halloween since the summer.

Chillin' after trick or treatin'

Haircut

2009-08-31T20:48:00.001-04:00

Continuing with the tradition of posting old photos long after they were taken, back in June we decided it was time to get Pippa's hair cut for the first time.

It had gotten down past her waist if you stretched the curls out.

before she went to 'Mama's hair place'

after

after (side view)

and more after (back view)

Rowan decided she wanted a photo of the back of her head too.

Here they are smiling

and here they are with their prettiest faces

Rowan decided she really wanted to eat the lemon I was cooking with.
She seemed to really like it.

Gramp and a Bates Visit

2009-08-11T18:38:00.004-04:00

Here are a few more photos from earlier in the Spring (Early June)

Visiting my Gramp - the girls call him "GG" for Great Grampy.

At Bates, feeding the ducks near the Puddle.

A rare family portrait, overlooking the Puddle.

Rowan and Pippa feeding the ducks, at the Puddle. Look at how dry they are.

Rowan, 30 seconds after falling into the Puddle. James was literally 10 inches from her. She's uncanny that way. We don't call her Destructo Baby for nothin'.

Pippa's Birthday

2009-08-02T18:13:00.007-04:00

So, we've got a couple of months of catching up to do. Here are some photos from Pippa's 3rd birthday party (which was back in May-- so these photos are pretty old at this point...). We had a bunch of our friends over and had a backyard party w/ lots of good food.

Pippa anticipating the birthday cake.

The cake was her request -- strawberry cheesecake, made from scratch by James.

Rowan boogies down by the garden.

Thank goodness someone is watching our kids, cuz clearly we're not.

Pippa's actual birthday morning, what better way to celebrate than a birthday blueberry pancake.

Her "big" gift from us - her first bike. It's a 'like-a-bike' knock-off -- no pedals so they learn to balance and learn pedaling later. She's gotten pretty good at it.

We were headed to the river, so the girls are sporting their swim tops and shoes.

Diddle diddle dumpling...

We'll try to get more up soon so we get caught up.

Birthdays, Outfits, and Bugs

2009-05-14T09:00:00.004-04:00

Pippa's school celebrates her birthday. Her teacher is helping her pick out bday stickers.

James and Pippa's teacher blow up birthday balloons.

Pippa decided to dress herself this morning. A button-down tanktop on backwards, a Bates College bib, and underwear. Stylin'. And if you're wondering what Rowan is doing in this pic (see bottom right corner), check out the next picture...

Yup. She's stuck.

The girls pick "dandyflowers" in the backyard and have a chat.

And find bugs.

Bar Harbor and Acadia

2009-05-08T09:16:00.005-04:00

So a few weeks back we made a day trip to Bah Hahbah and Acadia National Park-- it was warm and sunny, except on the beach where it was windy and sunny.

The day started with lunch at the park near the town harbor.

and continued with some rock-skipping and shell hunting near town.

Rowan decided it was time to drive around the Park Loop Road.

Sand Beach in Acadia was very windy

We took the time to pose for the obligatory "Look at the gorgeous scenery behind us" photos:

Did I mention that it was windy?

Finally, we got some ice-cream bars before heading home.

William Webster Jackson, March 2, 1948 to March 17, 2009

2009-04-25T19:57:00.006-04:00

As most of you already know, dad died on St. Patrick's Day. His cancer was an aggressive, untreatable kind and he died just over 2 months after he was diagnosed. He never recovered from the effects of a post-biopsy brain hemorrhage, but up until the end was able to smile and laugh a little bit, and was able to die at home surrounded by family which is what he wanted. We miss him more than words can possibly express. His obituary is in the Portland Press Herald among other places. The memorial service will be in Peabody, MA at Brooksby Village at 1:30 on May 2nd -- feel free to email me for details and directions if you want to attend.

One of Dad's favorite photos and days - his birthday last year when he turned 60. He had all his grandchildren with him and nothing made him happier.

One of Dad's favorite activities - he loved fishing and tying flies.

This is just such a typical Dad moment - he and James were testing the video feature of our first digital camera 8 years ago. This is why we miss him.

So, a lot has happened...

2009-02-16T18:44:00.009-05:00

Here's the short'ish version: after New Year's my Dad landed in the hospital with symptoms from what turned out to be a multi-tumor, highly aggressive, untreatable form of brain cancer. He then promptly had a brain hemorrhage that left him mostly paralyzed on the left side, with little ability to speak or move in general. He's confined to a hospital bed or wheelchair in a rehab center and my Mom is learning how to take care of him. We're not sure how long he has to live, but not very long. He's in remarkably good humor, smiles at everyone, laughs at jokes, enjoys company and music. My Mom is doing an amazing job -- she gets there early in the morning and leaves late at night, and stays at a hostel house for family of sick patients. This is the reason we haven't blogged in a while. I've visited a couple of times, and I'm going to bring the girls down to see him in a couple of weeks and James will fly down then, too. The whole thing royally sucks.

In girls' news, Rowan had her 15 month appointment and is doing great. She's 75th height, 90th weight, and 60th head circumference. She's got well over 30 words now, and knows 10+ animal sounds. Rowan has many 'signs' as well which she tends to make up herself. She walks everywhere, climbs on the furniture and can get down without blackening her eyes, and loves to drive Pippa crazy and imitate her every move. To the point where when Pippa had a stomach virus and had to carry a bowl around with her, Rowan insisted on having her own bowl and would periodically pretend to throw up in it. Her personality has really developed in the past few weeks and she's becoming a real 'little kid' instead of a baby. Pippa is 2 1/2 going on 16. She goes to school twice a week and still loves it, she's learning how to skip, and is trying to climb out of her crib (thankfully hasn't gotten there yet). She keeps us in stitches lately, some recent statements:

Me: How many times do I need to tell you not to throw that on the floor?
Pippa: Twenty.

Pippa: Mama, I have "pyoop" in my diaper. That's French for "poop".

Pippa: Mama, Rowan calls her binky a "buh buh". That's French for "binky".

Pippa reciting the French alphabet: queue, are, ess, tay, eww, vay.... the French alphabet has a "eww" in it. Like when I see dog poop in the yard I say "eww, please pick that up".

Pippa: Mama, I have a secret.
Me: What is it?
Pippa: I can walk.
Repeat with several variations such as I can eat, I can kick in the pool, I can sleep. Startling revelations, I know.

I asked Pippa to do something and she sighed loudly and rolled her eyes.
Me: That's really obnoxious when you do that. Are you imitating someone? (thinking it'll be someone at school)
Pippa: Yes
Me: Who?
Pippa: You, Mama.
Oops.

OK. Picture time.

So, we've had a lot of snow so far. Notice the car buried under it to the right of the truck.

The girls like to pretend they're butterflies.

Pippa's best smile.

Rowan trying to show us her stickers.

A typical winter morning in northern Maine.

And some videos:

Rowan shows her body parts.

Pippa loses her rat in an unlikely place.

Here are some more videos. Just click on the boxes - for some reason the pictures don't show up. And if you have time, even more.

New Year's and Silliness

2009-01-06T09:35:00.005-05:00

This was the spectacular paella James cooked for New Year's Eve -- this year w/ lobster instead of shrimp because it's $3.99 a pound currently :) - gotta support our local fisher-folk, don'tcha know!

Ruffin and Jeremy (or Auntie Knees and Unca Monkey as they're known around here) made the trek up for the festivities. A night of paella and Killer Bunnies which made Emily very happy.

I know. We've got a lot of snow pictures already. But, truly, we've got a lot of snow and there's not a whole lot else going on around here. Rowan is sporting new snowpants, tho.

This is actually Rowan's new hat, but it's been a hit with everyone.

Whenever anyone wears it they roar like a bear - as Pippa is demonstrating w/ excellent bear claws. See Rowan also showing her bear-like qualities in the back.

Rowan has become a bit confused about this, and now roars like a bear whenever she has any hat on.

Quite possibly the silliest photo of all times -- Rowan is wearing two oven mitts and pretending to be a lobster. She "gets" people with her lobster claws. The item on her head is not a hat, but a tea cozy. The spectacle is made even sillier because she's started 'getting' things as well as people -- including the refrigerator, the stove, and her favorite, the dishwasher. She attacks them with her claws, laughs loudly, then does it again. She has really developed a lot of personality in the past few weeks and daily lives up to her Scamp nickname.

Too Many Christmas Videos and Photos

2008-12-26T11:38:00.006-05:00

Pippa decided (w/ strong encouragement by Dada) that she needed to leave Christmas pudding and bourbon for Santa. Here's the preparation...

And here is the leaving...

Here are Rowan and Pippa first thing Xmas morning.

Here is Pippa trying out her Christmas sled, straight from Santa's workshop -- he does wonders with plastics these days.

Rowan with her stocking

James in the Christmas spirit delivering his brother's stocking (Bill forgot his real one at home, but luckily had some boot socks)

Pippa with her stocking

Rowan sitting on the change bank "piggie"

James wearing the Christmas stocking I knit for him ages ago

Rowan talking on the phone which was Pippa's gift to her.

Pippa wearing her very first watch - from Auntie Sheri, Uncle Bryan, cousins Rian and Deven.

Everyone except for Uncle Bill who always manages to not be photographed, and Rowan who is probably off destroying something

Pippa opening her sled

The girls at the table and chairs Santa brought Rowan

The Christmas pudding James and the girls made from Little Gram's recipe

James dressed up as Frosty. We haven't made a snowman yet, but we will after the next snowfall.

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-24T08:42:00.001-05:00

Merry Xmas everyone!

SNOW

2008-12-22T12:59:00.005-05:00

We got some snow today. About 14" on top of the remaining 4" or so we already had; the drifts are thigh high in places; the snowbanks are taller than our truck. It took James 3 hours to shovel us out, and that was with some very nice neighbors coming over to help.

Lots more snow pics here.

Open House

2008-12-22T08:25:00.005-05:00

We had a big Open House this past weekend for friends, neighbors and coworkers. I took some pictures before the party because folks 'from away' have been asking for pics of the house.

My Mom in the living room, by the fireplace

The living room looking into the dining room.

The living room looking into the kitchen.

The living room fireplace (the kitchen door to the right).

The tree in the living room, looking into the front hall (it's a big living room).

The woodstove in the kitchen, w/ my Dad and Rowan.

The kitchen.

More kitchen.

More kitchen, looking into the backyard.

The dining room (set up for the party) and second Xmas tree.

The dining room fireplace; James letting guests in the front door.

More dining room.

Catching Up

2008-11-26T18:41:00.005-05:00

Some more pictures to enjoy.

Pippa never lets me put her hair up. But decided that Louise -- the librarian that she loves -- liked pigtails, legwarmers, and sunglasses so she put on this outfit for her. I think Louise needs to come to our house and help her dress.

The girls enjoying books separately, together.

Dumb Donald (from Fat Albert)

1920s flapper

A cowlick montage...

Girls just wanna text message

Crawling and Acrobatics

2008-11-12T15:21:00.003-05:00

Here are a few more videos of the girls.

The girls 'snuggling'.

Pippa doing acrobatics, and Rowan eating the camera.

Rowan the Igor.

Pippa tires James out.

Rowan Walking

2008-11-07T18:51:00.003-05:00

So Rowan took her first unsupported single steps on her birthday a few weeks back. Yesterday she started really stringing a bunch of steps together for actual walking.
Here's the video evidence:

Halloween

2008-11-06T18:17:00.004-05:00

Halloween was great. Pippa wore last year's dragon costume, and Rowan was a frog because she grew out of the bumblebee costume we were going to stuff her into. We went to a couple of Halloween parties, and trick-or-treated in our new neighborhood. Both girls had candy for the first time, really, and as Pippa has such a stash still I fear she thinks candy is now a daily activity :(

Pippa's somewhat-too-tight costume

The frog that ate Rowan

Rowan, in what seems to be a growing theme, trying to get at the liquor.

Rowan's true nature comes out. This was James' costume -- which instead of scaring the girls makes them both laugh. They both insisted on wearing the mask throughout Halloween, and it's still kicking around the living room because they like to model it throughout the day.

Every other week, Pippa has show-and-tell at school. Of course, they had a Halloween theme. This is what she wanted to bring -- one of our Halloween decoration bats with some plastic spiders. When I put these on the show-n-tell shelf, I noticed all of the other items kids' brought in were things like a plastic jack-o-lantern, a stuffed marshmallow-looking ghost, a princess hat from a costume. Oh.

Pumpkins, Arguing, French

2008-10-20T22:35:00.002-04:00

Masha, Byron, Carlos and Elena visited us this past week, and we went to the farmer's market to pick pumpkins for carving. Carlos was rocking these great sunglasses.

Rowan gets in on the pumpkin patch action by trying to claim all the pumpkins for herself.

Pippa and Carlos were absolutely adorable playing together all week. They rarely fought and had the BEST time. Unfortunately, I didn't get any videos of that. I did get one of their rare arguments. Here, they argue the vitally important question of whether a fire engine says "whooo-whooo" or "beep beep". They then move on to the thorny issue of whether the bird in question is a duck or a chick (it was actually a gosling) and what said bird would then sound like. Margaret is the first referee, I'm the second.

Pippa's preschool has weekly French lessons. I was reading Rowan an abc book when Pippa piped in that she wanted to sing the abc's in French. She then launched into this rendition. Notice that the only thing that makes this French is the lower tone and the ridiculously pursed lips. I could barely hold the camera I was laughing so hard.

Company

2008-10-18T21:37:00.006-04:00

We've had a pile of company this past week (thanks for visiting, everyone!) and I've gotten a few pics loaded already.

All the kids loved standing on these stools and peeking out the living room windows. Here are Iris and Pippa.

And Iris and Trevor

Another popular activity was emptying the 'kid cup' drawer. Repeatedly.

Since Rowan is now one, we can turn her seat around. She knows how to roll.

Pippa, Iris, and me at the 'bog walk' in Orono. It's a two mile boardwalk walk through a peat bog -- it's gorgeous.

Pitcher plants

Bog cotton

Iris, Rowan, and Pippa. It's impossible to get a picture of three energy-filled kids (even after a 2 mile walk) and have the all on the bench, and looking good. I think Trevor was asleep in the stroller at this point.

The two Yahoos

Here are a few old videos. Here's Pippa, singing Old MacDonald... or Mic-Old-Donald as it's known in our house.

Rowan pulls up and plays with James' phone, and Pippa tries to steal the limelight.

You've Come A Long Way, Baby

2008-10-18T07:27:00.005-04:00

Rowan had her first year appointment this past week. She's doing great. She was 24.5 pounds (93rd percentile), her head was 18.25 inches around (75th percentile), and her height was 32 inches (over 100th percentile!!!). We're psyched her weight is still on the bell curve, but surprised by how tall she is. This explains why she fits into her sister's clothes :) They've scheduled a speech/OT/audiology evaluation just to make sure her mouth is working properly -- tho everything points to it being normal at this point. It's more just to make sure we're not missing anything.

She is still pulling up and cruising on everything. The day before her birthday she learned how to climb stairs, and then on her birthday she took four steps on her own. Since then she's taken a few steps here and there, but isn't really trying to walk yet. She says several words now -- Mama, Dada, bye-bye, hi, dog, binky, button (this was actually one of her first words, which surprised me because it's so random), boo (as in peekaboo), more (w/ the sign language sign), book, and every now and then says Pippa. She also does sign language for milk. When we ask her what a snake or an elephant says she makes the right sound, but doesn't know any other animals yet. C'mon, those are the two most useful ones, right?

Rowan would rather climb the bookshelves than read the books (vs Pippa, who always wants to read, and always has), she loves to dance and play drums and piano (the girls have their own band now -- the Jackson Sanborn Sisters), she can catch a ball and roll it back, she plays peekaboo by covering her head w/ a cloth or covering her eyes w/ her fat hands (tho her timing is still a bit off because she says the 'boo' part while her eyes are still covered), she loves to clap and play finger games (patty cake, etc), and can give a mean high-five. When we play 'chase' with her, she's more apt to turn around and chase us instead :)

Here is Rowan after she was born, and shortly after her second surgery.

And here she is now.

Rowan's Birthday

2008-10-15T15:35:00.005-04:00

So, Rowan turned one this weekend. And Rowan loves meat. I mean, really really loves meat. I was going to make her a meat cupcake for her birthday party, until James hit upon the cheesecake idea. Which he made from scratch, and then took more pics of it than the kids... so here it is in its full glory....

Rowan really, really, really just wants the cheesecake, already.

Rowan with her two grandmothers. Note how she's eyeing her grandmama's hair -- 2 seconds later she got a huge hunk of it and poor Midge was covered in blueberry cheesecake. Sadly, I did not capture this on film.

Rowan showing Grampy how old she is. Just in case anyone forgets.

Midge and Charlie relaxing on the back porch where we had the party. It was unnaturally warm out (mid-60s, in October!). I told Rowan this was probably a once-in-a-lifetime birthday location for her.

Post-cheesecake

The birthday girl opens Pippa's present (a choo-choo train), which Pippa immediately commandeered and wouldn't let anyone else play with.

Rowan and her Uncle Bill

Evan Williams and Different Boats

2008-10-10T15:55:00.006-04:00

Rowan turns one tomorrow. It's amazing that it's only been a year :) Here are some pics I snapped today.

I swear that drinking age gets younger and younger...

The girls were playing in laundry baskets (or 'boats' according to Pippa). They were each in their own when I grabbed the camera, but by the time I got it turned on Pippa had hopped into Rowan's and was giving her 'snuggles'. What's great about these next few photos is that they were snapped one after the other -- but look how quickly they moved around :) Typical day in the life of...

In between this photo, and the last one, Pippa had gotten out and back into her 'boat'.

Pippa is now behind the camera, demanding that I show her photos of herself.

She needs a haircut!

We took this one the other day, but it was so funny. Both girls playing on their 'cell phones', both looking like they're texting away. By the time they're teenagers w/ their own phones, there probably won't even be text messaging anymore.

Boats and Zombies

2008-09-27T07:11:00.007-04:00

Rowan is crawling, pulling up, and cruising everywhere... leaving a path of destruction in her wake. Pippa is talking in full sentences and cracking us up w/ her insights. Here are some pictures and videos.... I'm off to paint and unpack some more.

Pippa built a boat for her and Tiger. See the devilish look in Rowan's eye? Three seconds later this boat was destroyed.

Pippa made me take a series of pictures of her being an 'acrobat' in this chair.

I was trying to capture Rowan's 'flock of seagulls' hairstyle, but it was really hard to do it actual justice. This pic shows only a small percentage of how silly it actually looked.

Pippa sings the ABCs (sort of -- she had a fever this day and was pretty dopey, she actually can sing the whole thing properly) and Rowan boogies down.

Mission Accomplished!

Rowan's crawling always reminds me of those old zombie movies, where the zombie's legs have been cut off and it's dragging itself forward with its arms. But cuter.

Videos

2008-09-15T15:56:00.002-04:00

Only two. But, I'm pretty much caught up and will start taking more photos and videos. For instance, Rowan has learned to crawl, to pull-up, to cruise, and is now taking a stab at walking. Honestly, she kind of did this all at once. Anyway, here are two silly videos while I try to capture all of that on film.

Rowan proving, yet again, that she's not our trained monkey

And Pippa proving that she is

And finally the house and girls

2008-09-14T10:22:00.006-04:00

We don't have many pics of the new house yet, or the girls, because the camera has been lost/dead. We'll fix that. But, for now, here are a few...

Pippa isn't potty trained yet, but luckily Peter Rabbit is

Pippa's first day of preschool

Rowan copies Pippa's habit of mugging for the camera

Pirate Festival

2008-09-14T10:10:00.003-04:00

My parents live about 2.5 hours east of us and every year their town has a pirate festival.

People REALLY get into this festival -- I felt extremely underdressed (or overdressed... since most of the women came as 'wenches')

Rowan rocking her inner Molly Ringwald pirate

Pippa and Rowan fight over pirate booty

Pippa won

We Miss You

2008-09-14T10:04:00.002-04:00

Just a few of the friends we're missing...

Catching Up...

2008-09-14T09:39:00.005-04:00

I know. We've got a crazy amount of catching up to do. The short version is, we went to the beach w/ friends, we packed, we didn't have a chance to say goodbye to all the people we wanted to, we moved, we're still unpacking and painting, and everything is fantastic. I'll be posting several blog posts that cover most of this.

Here are beach photos -- we go w/ a group of 12 couples w/ 10 kids. It's awesome.

Rowan catching some rays

Half, yes half, of the kids playing in the sand

Pippa really loves sand

Pippa and Lila were really casual about the alligators

Rowan LOVED fish

Pippa eventually got over her fear of the water

9 Months

2008-07-16T13:57:00.004-04:00

Rowan had her 9 month appointment yesterday, and everything looks great. We were able to reduce her acid reflux meds a bit, and her tongue/mouth isn't causing her any speech problems so far (yay). Here are her new numbers:

24 lbs 2 oz, 95th percentile -- the fact that she's not well over 25 lbs would surprise anyone who's picked her up lately. We can't explain it, but we're thrilled she's back on the charts w/ her weight.

28.5 inches, 75th percentile -- I've got some high six and seven footers in the family, and as I said to one of them the other day, I completely blame them for these huge babies we've got.

45 cm head circumference, 75th percentile -- again, after trying to put hats on her melon head I'm astonished it's this low.

Last night Rowan started to 'barrel roll'. I think she's given up on crawling for now, so when she's lying down she just rolls and rolls to get somewhere. We'll try to get it on video soon because it's pretty funny. Often, Pippa is in her path, and since they're only about 3 pounds apart Pippa gets pretty ticked when Rowan tries to roll over her. I'm not sure we'll be able to call her the 'little' sister much longer.

Her first blueberry pancakes.

She loves to play peek-a-boo.

This is the tail-end of her waving at me.

And now for videos...

Rowan catching a ball -- unfortunately this one is sideways.

Rowan doing a not-great job of standing, clapping, and sticking her tongue out, and Pippa generally interfering.

James carrying Rowan and chasing Pippa around and around. If you listen carefully you can hear both girls hysterically laughing. And then Pippa asking to be chased again.

Pippa imitating an opera singer. I love how she sings the bass and soprano parts.

Pippa went through a phase where she was imitating bugs. She'd only do the grasshopper on film.

July 1, 2008

2008-07-16T13:47:00.003-04:00

My grandmother, Gina Jackson, died at the age of 85, on July 1, 2008. She was an amazing woman in so many ways -- active in the community, the libraries, her churches, her art, and volunteering. She touched so many people's lives, and I will miss her more than can be expressed in words.

New News! (and a recap of old news)

2008-06-23T16:23:00.007-04:00

OLD NEWS: As most of you all know, I've accepted a new job in Maine.

I'm going to be the Executive Director for Maine InfoNet:
Here's the announcement that came out today.

We'll be moving to Maine during the first week in August.

Our house in Durham went on the market last week, and so far we've had a few showings so wish us luck!

And now for the
NEW NEWS!

Last week I went up to Bangor and Orono to look for a house-- after visiting 13 or 14 different possibilities, we put in an offer that, after some negotiation was accepted!

Here's the house:

Wait, that's not the house...

Here are some pics of the house we'll be buying. The original portion (front) of the house was built in 1834. There are two additions to the back of the house, which make it much bigger than it appears from the road. The location and the side porch really were the deal sealers.

The house is located in downtown Orono, about a mile and a half away from where the Maine InfoNet offices will be, on the U Maine campus. We're about a block or so from the restaurants and shops in downtown Orono, and probably 2 1/2 hours (in different directions) from both my family and Emily's parent's summer home.

There are a few more pics, including some photos of the inside, here.

We will have tons of room, so this is a standing invite to friends and family to come and visit.

Orono is a neat small town, and we're about 45 miles from Acadia National Park and 2+ hours from some really top-notch whitewater paddling, so we could be a great jumping off/middle point for a Maine Vacation....

First Day of 'School'

2008-06-03T18:44:00.004-04:00

Pippa started a "parents' morning out" program today that we call her 'school'. So, here is a picture on her first day of school.

I dropped her off and she immediately ran off to play while I talked with her teachers, then I told her I was leaving. No response, just playing. I told her again. No response. Finally I had to get right down near her and say I was going -- she looked right at me, said "bye-bye" in a very bored tone, and tore off to play with something else. When I picked her up, she was running up a piece of playground equipment and sliding down the slide by herself (something she refuses to do with us at the playground). I had to chase her around the playground to get her to come with me, and then she kept shrieking "No! No!" as I hauled her to the stroller. Oh yeah, I felt loved :)

When she got home, she told me quite a lot about her first day. Apparently she rode a bicycle of some kind, played with a big red car, went through/under a tunnel that was in the classroom (not on the playground), and went down a green slide about a million times. A girl in her class pushed her and it hurt. She ate some sort of round pretzels for snack that were "big". A full first day.

I didn't get any good pictures of Rowan today because she was sick and not at her most photogenic. Hopefully tomorrow...

Rowan learns to wave!

2008-05-27T13:53:00.003-04:00

This weekend saw another milestone event in addition to Pippa's 2nd birthday: Rowan now waves at people!

We haven't yet caught this on video or on film.
We do however have this video from a week ago demonstrating what it looked like before Rowan learned how to wave.

We'll try to capture an 'after' video soon.

Pippa turns 2

2008-05-27T13:14:00.005-04:00

Here are a few photos from Pippa's birthday, her birthday party, and a night on the town later in the weekend.

mmmmm Cake!

photo and caption from Jen: "...they kind of look like 2 year old sorority girls..."

running on the field after dinner out

Not related to her birthday, but cute nonetheless. When pippa is done eating, she flops her Elmo bib over her head and loudly proclaims "Elmo hat!" and waits for us to admire her sartorial splendor.

6 month comparison time

2008-04-17T14:53:00.005-04:00

Rowan had her 6 month check up yesterday.
She's doing great-- clean bill of health.

After getting her numbers, we decided to compare them to Pippa's at 6 months and were surprised at how similar (exactly the same for two) they were:

Height	measurement	percentile
Pippa	26.1"	75%
Rowan	26.1"	75%

Head Circumference	measurement	percentile
Pippa	43.5cm"	85%
Rowan	43.5cm	85%

Weight	measurement	percentile
Pippa	19lbs 1oz	95%
Rowan	20lbs 14oz	off the charts

So, basically what this is saying: Rowan is pretty fat.
Of course we knew that.

What we hadn't realized, until our friend Brian pointed it out, is just how much Rowan looks like Harvey Keitel:

maybe this means she'll have a successful acting career?
I shudder to think about drawing any other comparisons with Harvey or the characters he has played....

Rowan Maggie- 6 months old

2008-04-13T22:17:00.005-04:00

Rowan turned six months old this past week.

We have her 6 mos check up this coming week, so we'll have official numbers then, but according to our scale and tape measure, Rowan is a whopping 21 pounds heavy and is nearly 26 inches tall.

As you can see from the photos, she can stay sitting up all by herself now, and she's having lots of fun being in this new position. She loves playing with her sister. Pippa is turning into a really great older sister, too.

We put Rowan into the pack and play so she had a soft place to sit while we did kitchen work. Pippa thought it looked like fun and asked to be put in with her.

Where my peeps at?

2008-03-23T19:44:00.005-04:00

Happy Easter, everyone.
We dressed Rowan up in her Easter onesie (formerly Pippa's Easter onesie) for a couple photos (thanks, Jen!).

In other news, Rowan learned how to roll over yesterday.
Also, Rowan, as mentioned before, is quite fat. So to show both things we present the following vid:

Pippa has a real thing for birds, owls in particular (in a bird book we have, she can pick out more birds than either Emily or I: wren, cormorant, bufflehead, pintail, crow, snowy owl, barn owl, elf owl, pigmy owl, screech owl, horned owl, etc). She's decided to commemorate her love for owls with her own musical tribute:

Updates and some Videos

2008-03-15T21:55:00.003-04:00

So it's been another long while since we posted.
Here are some updates:

Emily's back is still pretty bad, but she does seem to finally be making some progress.

The last 3 days, I've been pretty sick with what seems to have been the flu- I had a flushot, but according to the press, the strains of flu are different than what the shot covered. That said, I was pretty sick, but a 3 day bout of flu is shorter than average, so the shot probably gave some cross-protection from whatever strain I had.

Pippa is really excited by the alphabet ("Aye-Bee, Aye-Bee")and can recognize and name all the letters now, rarely making an error. (I'll get this on video soon.) She's also getting taller, but staying the same weight, so she's pretty much a lollipop (big head, stick body).

Rowan is 5 months old and is humongous-- she has even more rolls and creases than Pippa did at this age. At her 4 month check up, she was 18lbs 5oz (which was off the charts for a 4 or 5 month old), so she's probably close to 20 pounds at this point. She's also just hit 26 inches, which means we have to move her out of her carseat/carrier to a rearfacing convertible carseat.

On to the vids:

Here is Pippa showing off some dance moves. When you see Rowan, please believe us that she is not normally this aloof or lethargic. She was pretty worn out from playing by the time this vid was shot. (I think this was shot on Thursday while I was lying in bed moaning with a fever).

After 3 days of knocking on death's door, I woke up this morning feeling pretty energetic, with nothing other than a sore throat to complain about. So I decided to take my little helper out to deal with some leaves that I had neglected to rake in the fall (remind me again-- what was taking up lots of time last October?).

We decided to give Rowan her first solid foods tonight (Pippa tried solids right at 5 months too). Here is some footage of Rowan sampling, for the first time, the taste sensation known as rice cereal. Once she figured out what the stuff was, she actually seemed to like it as evidenced by the anticipatory shaking when she sees the spoon getting near her. Not to be outdone, Pippa shows off her mad eating skills by tackling some spinach casserole barehanded.

Videos

2008-02-11T21:07:00.001-05:00

I know, we've gone from a two month dry spell to an embarrassment of riches. Enjoy it while it lasts. We've been trying to get videos of Pippa saying some of her cuter words, counting, and doing ABCs. These aren't the best examples of her talents, but they're the best we've got right now. Rowan's cold is really bad today so I didn't take any videos of her (but you can hear her crying in the background of some of the vids, poor kid).

Don't worry, she doesn't fall.

Just a few of her words

Pippa counting -- she can actually get all the way to 13 herself without any mistakes. I blame the headcold.
Alternate title for video: "9 is my favorite number!"

Pippa working on her ABC puzzle.

And here's a picture of my Dad working hard with Rowan.

And here's just a picture of Rowan's utter cuteness...

Finally, some more photos

2008-02-09T20:51:00.000-05:00

So, it's been a VERY long hiatus for the blog, but we're finally back.

For updates, Rowan is just about 4 months old, and Pippa is about 20 months old. Rowan is getting really big (probably 16+ pounds) and is sleeping through the night most nights, so we're very happy. Pippa is talking up a storm, stringing words together, counting up to ten (not always accurately) and continuing to dance, twirl, tap, kick and march.

For those that don't know, Emily has been dealing with a herniated disc in her lower back, so she has been very uncomfortable and unable to do all the things she wants to do. She has a new doctor, though, and thinks that the treatments there and at the chiropractor's are beginning to help her turn the corner. (We're using her back as our excuse for not blogging for so long, by the way.)

There's not really any news from me (James)-- the drought has been keeping me out of my kayak and away from the rapids, so I've just been working and taking care of Emily and the girls.

For those of you looking for photos, I've put up two really large albums. Here are photos from the latter half of December '07, and here are photos from January and February '08.

And here are a few photos for the blog:

Rowan and Emily, about a week or so ago.

Sadly, having the cutest Tom Brady fan ever didn't seem to help the Pats last Sunday. We're blaming the flamingo...

Here are a few photos from earlier today:

Happy Jail-Break Baby!

kisses (but only cuz we asked her to...)

Rowan's been losing most of her baby hair, and it seems like it's growing in a lighter color, but we're not positive, yet.

Both have cool silver shoes (thanks anonymous Duke undergrad race-runner for Pippa's sneaks and thanks to Angie for Rowan's boots)

Pippa was adamant that we put Rowan down on "Rowan's Rock"
after Pippa sat on "Pippa's Rock"

Totem Pole

Photo time

2007-12-19T20:56:00.000-05:00

So everyone in the house has colds-- it's not fun.

But here are some photos from before we got the colds
(sorry for the lack of captions-- my ability to compose thoughts is adversely affected by my afforementioned clogged sinuses):

Rowan Smiles, Pippa Tapdances and 'RuvRuvRuvs' you...

2007-12-06T15:06:00.000-05:00

Rowan has been smiling for a while now, and I finally caught some on video-- not the best smiles she's produced, but it should give you an idea...

Pippa has really gotten into watching tapdance videos and dancing right along-- here she is in two vids dancing along with Riverdance clips on youtube:

And Pippa finally says "I love you!" (sort of...) (although not as 'sort of' as Pippa's friend Molly saying I love you.)

Thanksgiving Time Photos

2007-12-06T14:51:00.000-05:00

So here are some photos from around Thanksgiving time:

My Mom with Rowan

Rowan Maggie sleeping (a far less common occurrence than it was for Pippa)

Pippa Reading

At the Thanksgiving day table

This year Pippa got to sit at the table, rather than...

... on the floor with Rowan.

Me, Mom, and Mags

Bill (Buh! in Pippa speak) with Pippa

Pippa with a real (stuffed) Maine Lobster!

Bill with Rowan

Rowan being held by her cousin Rian at their grandparents' house

Pippa reading with Grampy

Tattoos, Planes, and Trucks

2007-11-14T19:33:00.000-05:00

Pippa has several obsessions these days. Tattoos are high on her list -- she constantly wants to see ours and often points out other people's. It was a sad day when she learned the word "zebra" and stopped calling them horses with tattoos (designated by a neighing sound for a horse and "ta-tu"). Today she said her first three word sentence -- "Dada Tatu Rawr". Meaning of course -- my Dada has a tatoo that is a dragon, and dragons say "Rawr". Yup, that's our girl.

Pippa also LOVES airplanes -- if she hears one all activity stops while she chants her word for airplane (ah ah) and points to the sky. Then as it disappears she says "bye-bye" and blows kisses and resumes whatever she's doing. Recently we met two of her friends Molly and Alex (and their parents) at RDU (the local airport) where they have an observation deck. You can watch planes take off, hang out with friends, and eat at the really bad cafe. Pippa was in HEAVEN -- especially since Alex and Molly are two of her favorite people. Every day we have to look at Alex and Molly's blog and pictures several times. I usually just leave their pictures up along with Lila's (another baby friend) so Pippa can see them all day long.

The truck obsession continues. The trash trucks come on Tuesdays and yesterday's nap was a no-go until I let her go out and wave at the recycling truck and blow kisses. Then she went down easily for a nap.

Rowan is doing great, but continues to be very fussy. We have her one month appointment on Friday where we'll talk about upping her acid reflux meds again. Poor kid.

Enough talk. Pictures.

our Thanksgiving turkey puts itself in the pan

Pippa is still learning how to "smile for the camera"...

look at those chubby cheeks

Pippa Plays Piano in her PJs

Pippa loves to pretend she's sleeping in her tent

it also makes a good reading corner

an exciting time at our house is watching the laundry spin

Pippa reading her new favorite book-- written, photographed and bound by a cousin of ours,
it's titled "Pippa Goes to the Farmer's Market".
Thanks, Dot!

Photos from the last week

2007-11-01T14:08:00.001-04:00

Here are a bunch of photos from the last week or so:

Pippa in her reading chair

Rowan with Emily

Pippa with a 'big sister/little sister" doll set from Margaret in Boston

Rowan hating her first bath

Rowan sleeping after the stress of the first bath

Here are a bunch from some play time on Rowan's exercise mat-- I think Little Miss Eli enjoyed it more than Little Miss Maggie...

Halloween!

2007-11-01T14:00:00.000-04:00

So Rowan had her first Halloween and Pippa had her first Halloween where she vaguely got what was going on around her. We visited a few neighbors-- she really liked knocking on their doors: the entire time we were walking up the driveways, she was saying "knock-knock-knock-knock..." until we made it to the door where she would (very gently) knock on the door.

Dragons say "raaawwrrr"...

pumpkins are sleepy...

...and Halloween happens too late at night.

Turning a Corner?

2007-10-27T19:55:00.000-04:00

We've had a rough couple of days, but I think we've turned a corner and are feeling more confident that Rowan's doing okay. She kept needing a fair amount of pain medicine (acetaminophen and oxycodone), she was having a very hard time latching onto a bottle to eat, and was crying a lot in pain. All of this meant we've been worried about her weight gain (or lack thereof) all week. We took her to be weighed again on Friday and she had gained 4.5 ounces over two days which was great -- she's not up to her birth weight but she's making good gains so we can relax a bit. We've got a pediatrician appointment on Monday to check-in about her feeding and weight and just to get some general questions of ours answered.

Friday afternoon we had an appointment with part of Rowan's surgery team, including her lead surgeon, and they were super pleased with her progress. The swelling is way down, her tongue and mouth floor are healing nicely, and they were actually thrilled with how much she's been able to eat -- even though she's not making the 'proper' weight gains for a baby her age, she's doing great for a kid who has had major mouth surgery. We were concerned she's not learning to latch quickly enough, but they reassured us that her healing process will be 3-4 weeks, and at one week she's made remarkable progress. The pathology report came back on the cyst and, as they had predicted, it is not cancerous. Other good news is that Rowan is almost completely off her pain medications at this point and seems to be handling it alright.

[WARNING: medical content ahead -- those of you who might be squeamish (i.e. Josh B.) may not want to read this part. Personally, I think it's interesting]

The pathology report also showed that the cyst was not a ranula cyst from the salivary gland after all, but was instead a foregut duplication cyst. These are super rare -- she is possibly only the 10th case in existence ever to have one of these in her mouth (if you're interested, here's an article). Basically, when she was a ball of cells and they were dividing the work, the cells that eventually became the GI tract split up and a few of them migrated to where her mouth and throat were and then did their thing, actually starting to build a GI tract under her tongue. So what they removed at her surgery was a GI tract that started in the wrong place and then petered out. I think this is really cool -- it kind of skeeves James out. The great news about this is that a ranula cyst might've come back, but a foregut duplication cyst will not because it's associated with a specific stage in embryonic development. Which is great news!

[End medical content here (those who are squeamish can resume reading).]

My Dad went home on Friday leaving us alone with the two girls and we survived :) We're both feeling much better about everything, which is in a large part due to the fact that we're getting caught up on sleep.

Home!

2007-10-23T11:43:00.000-04:00

We are now home!
Rowan was discharged about an hour ago, and we are home.

Everyone is doing very well and Emily and I are thrilled not to be in the hospital anymore.
Rowan is currently sleeping and Emily is getting Pippa up from her nap-- they haven't seen each other since Saturday, so I'm sure they're both thrilled with that, too.

More later.
-James

Things Are Looking Up

2007-10-22T17:05:00.000-04:00

We had a down and up day today. This am the speech/ot person evaluated her suck/swallow reflex and said we could start bottle feeding w/ doctors' go-aheads. She thought it would be a multi-day process of slowly decreasing the amount of tube feeding and increasing the amount of bottle feeding. We were bummed because this meant we were looking at a release day of Wednesday at the earliest, but more likely Thurs or Fri. A couple of hours later, our nurse said the docs had given the go-ahead for all feedings to be bottle vs tube based on the fact that she sucked down 30 mL in 10 minutes and was clearly ready for the bottle -- this is great news because it means if things go really well tonight they might send us home tomorrow, otherwise it'll probably be the day after. Rowan's surgeon also visited her and was pleased with how the swelling is going down and with how well she's doing in general. It's so great to have her only attached to one machine now (measures oxygen saturation in her blood) -- we actually put her in real pj's! She's currently sound asleep in the bassinet after falling asleep in James' arms. I'm also excited because even if we don't get released tomorrow I'm going to have my mom pick me up from the hospital and take me home to see Pippa (I can't drive yet, and one person has to be in the room w/ Rowan, so James can't take me). I can't wait to see her again!!

She's Sleeping Soundly Now, But....

2007-10-21T10:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday morning they took Rowan off the breathing machine, and removed her breathing tube. This was the criteria for releasing her from the IC -- unfortunately they didn't have a room for her on the pediatric ward until yesterday afternoon, but by 5:00 pm we were all moved in. It's great -- they have beds for us, a fridge, bathroom w/ shower, and we can hold her whenever we want. However, they were only giving her tylenol for pain, and as she has a combination of things wrong (tongue stitched up like Frankenstein, thrush, diaper rash, raw throat and nose from breathing and feeding tubes, etc) this was simply not cutting it. So, she had a 12 hour hysterical crying jag with a total of one hour of downtime (split into 15 minute chunks). Needless to say James and I were on the edge of our emotional and physical brink, as were she and the nurses and, we're sure, the other patients on the ward who had to listen to it. The climax came when she ripped her own feeding tube out (these things are LONG going from the nose down to the stomach) and then I had to help the nurse get it back in by holding her down because she kept trying to re-remove it. She has quite a reputation on the 5th floor as she pulled her own IV out last week -- a very difficult thing for an infant to do it turns out. Messy, too. Ahh, these are the memories we'll fondly hold onto. They finally prescribed oxycodone -- the first dose didn't work; they increased the frequency, and it didn't work; they doubled the dosage and it finally took. She's been mostly sleeping ever since and James and I got some much-needed rest. They're going to keep her drugged up for a while so she can heal from the hysteria.

So, now we're waiting for the speech/OT folks to come make sure she can swallow and then we can start her on the bottle. They'll probably not come until sometime tomorrow. After she's proven she can get enough calories into her thru bottle feeding, and the swelling in her tongue goes down, and her pain gets under control, they'll happily discharge the lot of us. I'm thinking Tuesday at the earliest, more likely Wednesday but hopefully not later! I'm currently camped out in Rowan's room, James is going back and forth between home and the hospital a couple of times a day to try and bring some normalcy to Pippa's life, and my mom (the saint) is still taking care of Pippa.

One more day in PICU

2007-10-19T15:09:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update: Rowan will be spending at least one more day in the PICU, then should be released to the pediatric wing with us for a while. She still has a lot of post-operative swelling in her mouth and tongue, and although they don't think it would impede her airway, they don't want to remove her breathing tube, since the swelling would make it hard to put back in should anything go wrong. Although we're anxious to move things along, we don't want to rush anything needlessly. Everything else seems to be going great, and everyone at the PICU has said that she's in really great condition.

So for now, the order of recovery should be this: swelling should start to come down; the breathing tube should be removed; we'll get discharged to the pediatric wing; then as her tongue heals more, we'll work on bottle feeding again. Once she's able to feed orally, we should be able to get her home. We're hoping all this happens pretty quickly, and indications are that it should, so we're just looking forward to getting things all back to normal.

Quick update: surgery successful

2007-10-18T17:23:00.001-04:00

Rowan had her surgery early this afternoon-- the surgeon was very happy with how it went. They were able to remove the rest of what turned out to be a very large cyst from the floor of her mouth. Thankfully it was very easy for her to differentiate the different tissues and to separate them cleanly.

Right now, Rowan is in the PICU and is sedated and will be until tomorrow morning. Then they'll remove the breathing tube, and assuming she breathes well on her own, she'll be moved to a private room on the pediatric floor. We don't know how long she'll be there, but we'll be able to stay there with her. The length of the stay will depend mostly on how quickly her tongue gets full mobility back allowing her to swallow and feed well.

All in all, we're really excited, and we're not expecting to need any more surgeries. According to the surgeon, the cyst shouldn't recur, and there don't seem to be any other issues to deal with. So after her tongue heals we should have a normal, healthy, big baby girl at home.

Surgery Tomorrow

2007-10-17T20:55:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update, after several appointments and lots of running around, Rowan's surgery is scheduled for 12:45 tomorrow (as long as we're not bumped by emergencies). It should last about three hours after which she'll be taken to the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit). Our best guess is that she'll be in the hospital for a couple of days, but it could be as little as one night or as long as weeks depending on repercussions from the procedure. We'll try and update the blog tomorrow after her surgery.

Follow-up surgery scheduled...

2007-10-16T20:29:00.000-04:00

...for Thursday, probably in the afternoon.

We had our appointment with the pediatric ENT surgeon this morning. She was very pleased with Rowan's tongue movement, and with the fact that the swelling seems to be greatly reduced.

All that said, there is still a lot of extra tissue connecting her tongue to the floor of her mouth, and pushing her tongue up from a normal position. This is what they're planning on excising, allowing Rowan more freedom of movement and a more natural positioning for her tongue. We're all hoping that the tissue is well stratified allowing for easier removal with less chance of causing damage to the attached tongue and mouth floor; meaning that it's easy to determine what is tongue and mouth and what is cyst tissue. We won't know for certain, though, until after the surgery. Also, following the surgery, Rowan will probably have to spend anywhere from a day to a few days, back in the hospital in the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) until her tongue heals enough for her breathe without the breathing tube (which will go in during the surgery) and to resume regular feedings.

Changing gears a bit, these past two days have been hectic and definitely tiring, but it's been great to have everyone home together. Pippa seems to be fascinated by Rowan (or 'Ro-Ro' as she calls her) and has only had a couple meltdowns when she wanted to be picked up and read to while I've been feeding Rowan-- perhaps her first inclination that her world has been radically changed without her consent? The dogs seem to be accepting of Rowan as well, so that's also been a relief. Emily's recovery is going much better and quicker than it did with Pippa and she's looking forward to getting more mobile and being able to pick up Pippa again soon (the cut-off is 20 lbs -- which Pippa clearly exceeds).

photo time (too tired for captions)

2007-10-14T21:27:00.001-04:00

Quick update: We're all home!

2007-10-14T16:46:00.000-04:00

So we really didn't think that this would happen, but Emily and Rowan were both discharged today, and we are home.

Pippa's still napping since before we made it home so she hasn't laid eyes on Rowan yet...

More info later, but it looks like we might need a follow-up surgery for Rowan this Thursday, just to remove some excess tissue under her tongue, but everything so far has gone better than we had let ourselves hope.

More photos will come soon.

Rowan photos!

2007-10-11T20:57:00.000-04:00

So here are a few photos of Rowan and Emily-- she's still in the NICU and is hooked up to some wires for monitoring her vitals, and still has one tube in her mouth for helping to drain some fluid. Her breathing tube was removed mid-afternoon, and she's been doing great. Hopefully tomorrow the last tube will be removed and she can start to feed.

yes, she has lots of brown hair-- Pippa did too when she was born, and look at her now.

Rowan Margaret!

2007-10-11T12:57:00.000-04:00

Great News!
Rowan Margaret was born at 8am this morning.
She is a whopping 9lbs 4oz and only 19" long.
She's seems really healthy and very active.
Emily is doing well, in her recovery room, and is currently enjoying a sumptuous clear fluid lunch (mmmm, broth and jello!)

Everything with the delivery went just about as smoothly as we could have hoped. They were able to drain the cyst in her mouth easily, removing some of the excess tissue right then, and were able to establish an airway without needing to perform a tracheotomy. She's in the NICU now, and they're planning on removing the breathing tube this afternoon-- she never needed additional oxygen or breathing support, just the tube to make sure she had a clear airway. Once the tube is out we'll know more, but it's possible she might not need any additional surgeries... we'll just have to wait and see. As far as anyone can tell, the cyst appears to be an isolated problem as we'd hoped, and doesn't seem to have caused problems for any other part of her tongue/mouth/face.

We'll try to post some photos as soon as we can and post updates frequently.
Thanks for everyone's good wishes and support.

Where Pippa Gets Her Blond Hair

2007-09-26T11:53:00.000-04:00

Photos from back in the day...

Early 1989 - right after we met

Emily's Birthday, 1989
(gotta luv the mullet with shaved sidewalls)

Smiling Goths go to Prom, 1990
(yes, tux with tails, white gloves, cane and sandals)

circa 1990

Fall, 1994

August 1995

Let the public ridicule commence....

America's Next Top Belly!

2007-09-24T21:03:00.000-04:00

Due to popular demand, we've revived (for perhaps the last time?) the belly photo blog post.
Here's the belly at the end of week 36:

For those of you who'd like to compare, here's a photo from about this point in the pregnancy, last time around:

Just a note from Emily here -- I don't fit into this skirt at this point. And this pic is from 2 weeks later... ugh. I'm 46" around and counting.

Pippa in the Gardens

2007-09-22T21:44:00.000-04:00

So I took Pippa to the Duke Gardens while Emily went to an appointment with the doc.
Pippa had a good time sniffing flowers and walking around.

At one point an airplane flew overhead... very exciting.

She definitely liked splashing in the fountains...

and climbing the stairs...

and smelling even more flowers.

False Alarm Take 1; False Alarm Take 2

2007-09-19T17:33:00.001-04:00

So, Monday morning I started having contractions about 15 minutes apart. They continued for several hours, and after talking with the nurses at my obgyn practice, they sent me into the hospital for monitoring. We stayed there for a couple of hours and they determined that Rowan was doing fine, and I wasn't in labor, so sent they sent us all home. We were extremely relieved because it was one of two days Rowan's surgeon was out of town and unavailable.

Tuesday the contractions continued, 15 minutes apart still, and after talking to the nurses again they had me come in again to be monitored. After an hour they determined that, again, Rowan was fine and I wasn't in labor and sent us home. They also confirmed that even if we don't make it to the planned C-section (the date's not set yet, but will be soon) they can get Rowan's surgeon to the hospital in time to take care of the cyst.

Today, James stayed home for part of the day to let me keep my feet up, and the contractions have slowed down to one an hour... unless I get up. It's gonna be a long week, but we'll keep everyone updated. Hopefully this just goes away and we make it to the 38th week!

Medical Update

2007-09-13T08:21:00.000-04:00

So yesterday we had a meeting with the Pediatric ENT Surgeon who will be working on Rowan the moment she is born.

During the consult we reviewed the results of a fetal MRI that Emily had the day before, and talked over the different scenarios, good and bad, that might play out during and after delivery.

The news was generally quite good: The cyst in Rowan's mouth is, as was indicated on the ultrasound, just one large cyst, rather than a number of smaller cysts, and it appears to be liquid filled. All this tends to support the initial differential diagnosis that the cyst is a ranula. (you can read our original post on the diagnosis here.)

IF all this is accurate, things should go pretty smoothly-- they should be able to drain the cyst immediately to establish an airway, then take Rowan to surgery to remove some of the extra tissue. Recovery could be quite quick and she could be released from the NICU within a day or two.

This is the best guess scenario, and it is obviously the scenario we are hoping for.

However, there are a number of things that could alter this. One possibility is that the cyst could have caused developmental problems for her tongue, which may result in short or long term speech or swallowing issues. We won't know anything about this possibility until the doctors are able to see the tongue without the cyst in the way. Another possibility is that to effectively establish an airway (if for instance the cyst doesn't drain they way they hope it will) they might need to perform a tracheotomy-- the major problem with this, is that tracheotomy openings made in infants can't be allowed to close until they are fully a year old as the scar tissue could impede their breathing, so if this happens we'll be dealing with trach tubes for a year or so. Perhaps the worst possibility, though, is that the cyst is not a ranula, but might be one of any number of worse options (although the ultrasounds and MRI don't show any indications that this might be the case). If that happens, all bets are off, and our lives could get very complicated for some time.

In any event, we were encouraged, but also sobered, by the meeting yesterday. The doctor seems amazingly competent, and is recognized in the field for this sort of work, we're at one of the best hospitals for dealing with this sort of thing (some of the people we overheard in the waiting room had driven in from such distances that they needed to stay in a hotel the night before). And we have every indication that our best case scenarios are also the likeliest. It is difficult, though, to think about the other possibilities, but also good to have an idea of what they might entail so we can be prepared for other eventualities.

All in all, we are expecting and hoping for the best.

Phone Cam Vacation Pix and Walking Flix

2007-08-27T10:57:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures of Little Miss Eli from our recent vacation.

Very Serious.

Gotta do something to keep that hair out of the eyes...

To celebrate finally getting over our various sicknesses, we went out to dinner the other night some friends who were visiting. Afterwards, we walked around a bit. Pippa really is getting the hang of walking, and seemed to like walking on the grass. She also really liked to walk to the planters and sniff the flowers.

Here is a link to some grainy videos from the cell phone camera showing just how good she's getting at walking:

Words

2007-08-10T19:32:00.000-04:00

An update on the list of words she regularly uses. I've been meaning to do this post for more than a week, but kept adding words to the list, so I just decided to do it and update again later. Remember that most of these words are usually just the first syllable, and most people other than us couldn't understand them, but she really does use them in context at the right moment, etc. These are in no real order.

Hi, dog, Mama, Papa/Dada, up, please, light, what's that, nose, cheese, more, shoes, "Go, go, go!" (this is a cheer for the Tour de France and now whenever she sees a bicycle she says it), teddy, boom, banana, bye bye, all done, night-night, Oscar, Cabar, milk, cheese, ball, down (as in get down), down (as in to the dogs for them to go down), duck, book, truck (her favorite word right now), no, eye, bird, pop (usually used for bubbles), pat-pat (what you do to dogs), car, shake, Kix (a cereal), Cheerios, cracker, Pippa, cat, pineapple, Annalise (a friend of hers), key, Auntie.

46 words. Crazy. She also makes animal sounds -- elephant, fish, snake, dog. I couldn't even begin to make a list of the words she now understands -- she can follow tons of directions (whether she chooses to is another story) and clearly understands at least 1/2-2/3 of what James and I say to her... if not more.

Climbing

2007-08-10T19:17:00.000-04:00

So Pippa gave up on walking for several weeks and concentrated on other things (see the word post to get an idea), but tonight seems to be back on the walking train. For the past couple of days she's been really into climbing. Everything. Into chairs, onto the fireplace screen, up the outside of of the stairs, etc. It's made life quite exciting.

Here she is at Gymboree climbing up a ramp. She is a total monkey.

This is an odd perspective, but she actually climbed to the top of this slide and then slid down backwards -- her favorite game to play on slides now.

The girl loves bubbles and every time she sees the bubble maker come out she says "Pop, pop!" and smacks the ground really hard.

Wheee.

I think she was the only kid that didn't cry on this -- it's a huge teeter totter.

This is the first chair she learned to climb into. I wasn't quick enough w/ the camera to get her climbing into it (she's a fast little bugger). Apparently it's her reading chair -- she likes to push the blanket and pillow into a nest, grab a book and read to herself. Notice the book is upside down.

Oh yeah, she's got a rough life.

Pippa the baby sitter

2007-08-09T09:07:00.001-04:00

The twins Iris and Trevor came over the other day with our friend Gillian to babysit Pippa.

I can't tell if this looks like Pippa is helping watch the twins,
or if she just got done knocking them over like bowling pins....

Pippa Simpson

2007-08-09T09:02:00.000-04:00

So here is Pippa after being run through the Simpsons creator machine doohickey thingy... she looks a bit older, but it's not too bad. Maybe in a year or two.

Cartoon-Me

2007-08-08T15:41:00.000-04:00

So here is one of the few posts that isn't about Pippa or Rowan.

Danny, over at the Stinehelfer Blog posted a link to a place where you can feed in a photo of yourself and get it to turn you into a character from the Simpsons.

Here's the result:

I think it did a pretty good job...

This made me remember a couple other cartoon versions of me that I had kicking around on my hard drive:

this is from a caricature artist in San Diego

and this one is from a clipart disk-- I thought it was so close to being me that I could have probably sued for identity theft....

This ends the interruption of your usual programming.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled "All Pippa and Rowan-- All the Time" content.

Pippa loves bananas

2007-08-08T15:24:00.000-04:00

So Pippa loves bananas...

... but her mama doesn't really love bananas.
(listen for the faint commentary in the background noise from this vid...)

(these are all pretty grainy, cuz they're from the cell phone)

Walking

2007-07-18T18:27:00.000-04:00

Pippa took her first steps on her own tonight. Before this, we'd get her to stand up and hold onto us, and then we'd quickly take our hands away so she was standing on her own. If we were lucky, she'd take a few steps. For the past couple of days she's been experimenting with standing up from sitting down and maybe get a step in before going down. Tonight, she was across the room from me standing at a chair and very consciously let go and started walking towards me -- about 7-8 steps before hitting the deck. We're getting there!

In other news, she's been a complete pill to change -- either diapers or clothes. When we put her on the changing table she cries and kicks and tries to hurl herself off. Very difficult, especially w/ dirty diapers :( So I had the brain wave to give her a book during changing time a few days ago. Not only does it occupy her while we do what needs to be done, but now the second we put her on the changing table she yells "Book" (well, "BUH!") repeatedly and if the demand is not met soon enough she cries. It's much easier to change her now.

grainy cell phone (cutest) video (ever!)

2007-07-16T09:56:00.000-04:00

So we got new cell phones and they have a grainy little cell phone video camera--
Here is one of the cutest videos ever recorded (at least I think so)

Pippa Stands and Dances and (sorta) walks!

2007-07-13T11:08:00.000-04:00

So we've been really lax in updating the blog-- not that we've been busy or anything...

So here are some new photos and vids.

Pippa standing on her own, very proud of herself.

Pippa doing her 'sparkle fingers' dance while standing on her own.

Pippa Dances!

Pippa doing her dramatic/emo dancing in the 'spotlight' from our window--
she LOVES Billy Idol!

And here she is with her newest trick-- walking while only holding on to one of our hands...

Here are some more.

Words, Signs, Directions

2007-06-18T10:10:00.001-04:00

These are Pippa's words right now:
Mamama, Dada, Papa (this makes rare appearances), Hi, Bye-bye, Bippa, Muh, Bah, Dah, Nana, Buh, Mmmuh, Nigh-nigh, Nuhnuhnuhnuhnuhnuhnuh, Puh (rarely appears).

What? You can't understand them? Here are the translations in order:
Mama (I don't know why this rates 3 syllables), Dada, Papa, Hi, Bye, Pippa, More, Bird, Dog, Banana, Book, Milk, Night-night (always accompanied w/ a very cute wave), No, Up.

She also makes a kissing noise when you ask for a kiss. Her signs are waving hi and bye, signing for 'more' (points to hand), 'milk' (sticks finger in mouth like straw), and 'food' (taps finger in mouth). These last three are pretty interchangeable for her which makes it harder to figure out what she wants.

She can follow lots of easy directions, including when we tell her to wave, clap her hands, say something (like hi or bye), dance, put her elephant and binky in her crib, lift her arms up, give kisses, pat-pat (this is supposed to be gently petting the dogs but can turn into some serious banging -- luckily the dogs don't care), and to put an object she's holding into something else (like put the block in the bucket).

Grandma; More; Doc Appt

2007-06-07T17:48:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Pippa and I went to the museum with our friend Gillian and her twins. There were approximately 10,000 school kids there. One ten-year-old boy came up to me and said "Are you her Grandma?" Thinking I must have misheard him, I asked him to repeat himself -- "Are you her Grandma?" "No, I'm her Mama" I replied. "Her Mama?!?" he said incredulously, looking me up and down and obviously not believing me. Realizing that "her mama" might have different connotations to an inner city kid, I said "yes, I'm her Mother". He still did not believe me, and wandered off shaking his head. I've decided to take it as a social comment on family configurations he's familiar with, rather than on how I was looking today.

Later, in the grocery store, we toured the produce department and Pippa made the "more" sign at all the veggies and fruit she knew. "More" has many meanings for Pippa -- more of a particular food, more of an undesignated food (this can be very tough to figure out), and also that she's hungry in particular. It's the first time she's made the sign in a store for specific foods (the bananas and grapes got the most insistent signing). Happily, she dropped signing when we got to the aisles, except when we got to the cereal aisle and the Cheerio box but was again easily distracted (tickling works wonders).

Pippa had her one-year doctor's appointment yesterday and is perfectly healthy. She's 22 lbs 11 ounces (85th percentile), 29.75 inches tall (65th percentile, which we think is an under-measurement), and was 95th percentile for head size. Yup, she's still a big 'un. We expressed mild concern that she seems to be lagging in her 'gross motor' skills (walking, ball throwing, block stacking, etc) and the doctor said since she is "so very advanced" in her language skills we shouldn't worry. Good news :) To that end she's started making up her own signs for things -- the sign for milk is a finger pointing to her mouth. She only does it when she wants milk and not food or water. I think it's because we use a cup with a straw for milk and never use that cup for anything else or put milk in anything else. I'm not sure if she'll continue making up signs but it's pretty cute, even though it does make it challenging at first to figure out what she wants :)

Enough chitchat. Pictures:

Hey, pay attention!

Pippa's mad stair-climbing skills.

This is Pippa dancing. Sad, isn't it?

Pippa loves her big cousin Rian.

She's crying in almost every other photo of her in her helmet.

Likewise, these are the only happy pictures of her in her bike trailer. This was before Papa took her out. Then she realized she wasn't too keen on the whole idea.

Sadly, there is no sound with this picture -- you miss her actually reading herself this book making babbling sounds and pointing things out on the page. Notice the book is upside down. She is, however, turning the pages in the proper direction.

At the museum playing with the outdoor drum set.

In the butterfly house. Which, for you zoologists, are all birds ("buh") not dogs.

College Savings

2007-06-05T10:42:00.000-04:00

We just joined this service called UPromise that lets us save for Pippa's college education. It hooks our credit cards, grocery cards, pharmacy cards, and online purchases thru their website (they've got lots of coupons and deals for online shopping in every type of category), and when we make 'qualifying' purchases the brand company adds some money to our 529 account for Pippa's college fund. The cool thing is friends and family can hook all of their cards and purchases to our account, too. If you're interested in sending Pippa to college (listen, you gotta plan ahead these days), send me an email at emily dot jacksonsanborn at gmail dot com (that email address is all spelled out so those darned spammers don't get me, but you know what an email address should look like). Then I'll send you an email invite that'll hook you up to Pippa's account (which will be shared by Pippa and Rowan once she makes her grand appearance). Not to rob our kids of savings, but in the interest of full disclosure, for those of you who are planning on having kids, you can set up an account for your future kids, too, at www.upromise.com.

Pippa's Birthday

2007-05-30T11:03:00.001-04:00

Yup, it's true, she turned one on May 25. Crazy. Some of the pics (the bigger ones) don't get any bigger when clicking on them (they're from my 'rent's ofoto account) (so click on the smaller ones if you want to see full size versions). You can see more of them here.

Just a cute picture of her.

For her birthday day we went out to Tyler's Pub. Here's Pippa with her birthday beer (just kidding, of course).

Her first bubbles ever.

Her birthday party was a HUGE bash on Saturday with about 35 people (at least 12 of those were kids 5 and under) and we had a blast. Thank goodness my parents were here to help get ready and clean up!

A small cross-section of the chaos that was the party. Notice the only one playing with the bubbles is definitely over 5.

We had about 50 balloons that Dad and James just about killed themselves blowing up. Contrary to the look on her face, she really really liked the balloons. After the party James popped them all. Except that I'm still finding them underneath the furniture.

We got this sprinkler beach ball for the party -- it was a hit with everyone including the Pipster.

Pippa's birthday cake; which she didn't get any of because I didn't want her to have that high sugar, technicolor frosting. Never fear, she did get to sample some birthday cupcake.

The dessert spread.

Pippa is very excited. So excited that we decided to open presents the next day.

This took a while. Her current method for present opening is to tear off one tiny piece at a time, then try to fit it back on the present or put it in her mouth for some sucking. Papa had to help out a bit.

This is a tent Pippa got -- great for the beach in August, and for the screen porch now. Oscar also really likes the tent -- unfortunately we didn't get any good pics with him trying to get into it with her.

She loved this toy. She still loves this toy. So much we've had to remove it while we make some minor repairs from the loving.

Really really loves it.

Rowan Update; More Words

2007-05-30T10:34:00.000-04:00

We had our follow-up sonogram yesterday, and the news was pretty good. The cyst is still there, but it hasn't grown in proportion to her head, and the amniotic fluid level is fine. They caught pictures of her swallowing so it isn't impeding that function yet, there is still no vascular activity, and it's "floppy" (apparently, this is a good thing). The rest of her is looking normal. So the current plan is to monitor her every two weeks for the rest of the pregnancy -- the first appointment of each month will be a quickie sonogram to do a visual check on the size of the growth and measure amniotic fluid levels, with a follow-up appointment with one of my doctors to check on the pregnancy in general; the second appointment of each month would be a more in-depth sonogram to measure the growth of the cyst, swallowing, fluid levels, etc. I'm glad they're monitoring it so closely even though it's more of a pain to get in for that many appointments.

Pippa seems to be adding other words to her vocabulary. Today "bird" ("buh") made an appearance, and yesterday she started saying "up" which she says backwards "pu". We'll see if they stick around.

Words

2007-05-20T19:35:00.000-04:00

Pippa has a lot of words she uses now. Most of them consist of dog. For instance, at the zoo today, we saw bears (dog), wolves (dog), goats (dog), sheep (dog), and a great big cow (dog dog). She also says Mama, Papa, Dada, more (w/ the sign language sign), no, Pippa, hi, bye, and book. "Dog" is still definitely the most popular, followed by "hi" which is said to us, the dogs, strangers, trees, etc.

The Name Game

2007-05-19T10:16:00.000-04:00

Now that we know Finale is a girl, and with all that's been happening, we felt like doing something proactive. We'd been tossing around names for a while, and we just kept coming back to Rowan (which had been on our 'name list' when we were picking Pippa's names). We both really liked it, then started looking into the meaning and some of the lore surrounding the Rowan Tree and it just seemed to fit. Here are just a few of the things that seemed to make it work:

The rowan is the tree most often cited as the "tree of life"-- the image engraved on our wedding rings
Rowans are traditionally seen as magically protective-- something this little kid could use right about now
The rowan tree in 'Celtic Astrology' is the symbol for early to mid-October, when she'll be making her appearance in the world
In Greek mythology, the rowan was guarded by a dragon-- James used to collect dragons as a kid and has a dragon tattoo on his shoulder
And silliest of all-- there's an online quiz "What Tree Are You", and James scored as a rowan tree and I tied between a rowan and an ash. Take the quiz and see what you are :)

So anyway with all that and, of course, the fact that we like it, we've decided one of her names will be Rowan-- Still not sure if it will be her first or middle name, and definitely not sure what other name we might pair with it, but that's what we're calling her now.

Here is a 3d ultrasound image of Rowan from last Monday's scan:

With her hand at her chin, she looks thoughtful, no?

Preliminary, differential diagnosis...

2007-05-18T09:38:00.000-04:00

So we just got off the phone with our Doctor-- They had their case review with the entire practice this morning, and the general consensus is that this is a 'ranula' which is a cyst formed by an obstructed salivary gland under the tongue. There is an interesting synopsis of this condition here.

Overall, this is a pretty positive diagnosis, as these aren't typically associated with any other kind of birth defects or syndromes, and the treatment can be very successful. They also reiterated that the facial development (nose, lip, palate, jaw, etc.) was all just fine.

Because this is a 'differential diagnosis' (medical speak for a best guess when weighing all the options) things could change radically. However, if this indeed proves to be the correct diagnosis, we will need to monitor the size of the cyst as all the treatment options will hinge on how it behaves. Treatment could include regularly draining off amniotic fluid if the cyst grows large enough to interfere with swallowing, surgeries at birth (intubation to allow breathing if it interferes w/ that, and surgery to remove the cyst immediately or within a couple days after birth), and if it gets really bad then in-utero surgery to try and reduce the size of the cyst. Of course, as we get more info other treatment options might be considered.

In any event, this was about the most positive diagnosis we could have at this point, and now we just have to monitor things to see how the situation will unfold.

It's a Girl!

2007-05-14T16:52:00.000-04:00

So we had our 18 week detailed anatomy scan and Finale is a girl! Great news when it comes to reusing clothes, toys, etc...

The examination did turn up something somewhat concerning: there is a fluid-filled cyst inside Finale's mouth under the tongue, large enough to push her tongue to the roof of her mouth. What this means or indicates though, the doctors really don't know at this point. This type of growth seems to be very rare (no one in the practice has had any experience with it), and there is no good way right now to know what the longterm prognosis will be. If the cyst continues to grow it could interfere with the baby's ability to swallow the amniotic fluid, and thus regulate her fluids, which might require prenatal procedures such as drawing off some amniotic fluid, or possibly an operation in utero (though this is doubtful). If it interferes with swallowing, it could also possibly interfere with breathing, and might require immediate surgery when she's born, with possible follow-up surgeries. There is also a chance that it will stay the same size and just need a relatively minor procedure post birth. Obviously we're hoping for the latter option. We'll be meeting with the pediatric surgical team soon to discuss the birth and subsequent scenarios. This does mean Emily will almost definitely be having a planned C-section because if the mass interferes with breathing they want Finale out quickly so they can immediately perform surgery.

In any event, our doctors' practice has a case review this Friday and they'll be focusing on Finale's case and will pool information, expertise, and opinions. We will be having a follow-up ultrasound in two weeks and again in a month to see how this progresses, and hopefully we'll know a lot more then.

To end on a truly positive note, Finale's tracking right on target for size and development; hands feet, heart, brain, spine, etc are all just fine. Even more important, the lip, nose and palate are all well formed, and the rest of the mouth area seems to be developing fine, too. We'll post pictures from the sonogram soon.

A whole bunch of photos.....

2007-05-10T08:48:00.000-04:00

So it's been a really long time since we posted any photos, so here are more than anyone would ever want to see.... If you still want to see more than these, there's a whole album here-- along with the photos in the album, there are also a few movies of Pippa crawling to and devouring the camera-- gives some perspective on what it must feel like to be attacked by an extremely cute, slow moving and mostly toothless bear.

Pippa's favorite new toy is a stuffed rat-- it kind of looks dead and bloated, an effect not diminished by her tendency to carry it around when she crawls by biting the tail and dangling it from her mouth....

Pippa has learned how to pull up on things, including her pigpen-- a feat of which she is understandably proud.

look at that belly...

reading with grandma

For Emily's birthday we went to Charleston-- It really is a great little city to walk around.

We went on a carriage ride around town-- this is the horse that pulled the carriage, Cooper. Whenever Pippa saw the horses she'd call out "DOg DOg"-- yes Pippa, that is a very big dog.

There was a great wading fountain that Pippa thought was the best thing ever.

That's the fountain in the background.

After leaving Charleston, we stopped at Cypress Gardens, SC for a bit-- one thing you get to do is paddle a bateaux around the blackwater cypress swamp.

Here is Emily, the top of Pippa's head, and me in the background paddling.

There were alligators in the swamp (that's a gator swimming directly above the lily).

And that's a gator head to the left of the cypress knee.

Words

2007-04-19T11:07:00.000-04:00

I know, we've been totally slack on new pics. Unfortunately we're all stricken w/ colds right now so you probably won't see any soon. To make up for that fact, I'll throw you a bone and share that Pippa is starting to say a few words. "Dak!" means "dog" -- that was her first word which was no shock considering she LOVES the dogs much more than Mama and Papa. If she's crying, which I grant you is a rare occurrence, it can almost always be fixed by visiting with our dogs. The ungrateful little baby also says "Dada" to James. I think "Mama" will probably come after the other much more important things in her life like "Cheerios", "bottle", and "elephant" (she has a stuffed elephant that she sleeps with). It's very cool that she's starting to communicate with us like that.

Crawling!

2007-04-16T17:04:00.000-04:00

So on Saturday morning, Pippa decided it was time to crawl.

The first time she crawled she was trying to get to mama--
pretty much all subsequent crawling was directed towards getting to a remote control (what is it about those things?)

anyway, we'll have more vids to post soon, but here's one that Pippa's Grampy took:

This was taken minutes after the first time she ever crawled, so probably represents her 3rd actual crawl...

I'm hunting wabbits, I'm hunting wabbits...

2007-04-09T20:45:00.000-04:00

Well actually, brightly colored, plastic eggs-- but they come from wabbits, right? At least at easter, right?

and they're found in trees, right?

Right!

Thangya Easta Bunny! Bwak Bwak!*

*note: Emily had no idea what I was referring to here-- you gotta love YouTube, if only for being able to make a point (watch to the very end).

some more Pippa videos...

2007-04-01T21:30:00.000-04:00

So here's a small album of videos of Pippa-- click on the picture below:

Great Falls with the JJA&M

2007-04-01T19:51:00.000-04:00

So last weekend we went up to DC with JJA&M-- On Sunday we went to Great Falls of the Potomac-- here are a few photos:

Pippa clearly thinks she is the center of all attention!

With the falls behind us (note: I will never kayak this)

Not sure she likes posing for photos.

Huh?

Ultrasound of Finale

2007-03-31T11:34:00.000-04:00

So at Emily's regular checkup this week, they pulled out the small ultrasound machine and took a look-- Everything is going great. They redated the due date, again, it's now back to the original due date of October 18.

For what it's worth, here is the ultrasound image that they printed off. Normally I'm pretty good at figuring out what everything is in these, but I'm at a loss with most of this one. The circular thing is the yolk sack-- I'm not even sure which end is the head....

Let's Do the Numbers

2007-03-15T14:56:00.000-04:00

Pippa had her 9 month appointment a couple of weeks ago. The numbers won't shock anyone that's seen her lately. She weighed 21.5 lbs (89th percentile), is 28 inches long (75th percentile) and her head is 18 inches around (90-something percentile). The doctor was completely not stressed by the fact that she's not crawling yet. Since that appointment she's learned to clap, and is starting to try and pull up on stuff. Which means she's completely lost interest in crawling. Looks like she'll take after James and just walk without crawling -- tho the doc said she will probably walk late. Yay!

Finale is making headway as well. Its fingers and toes are forming, but webbed. Eyelids are growing as is the digestive tract. The heartrate will be about 150 beats per minute. It's just over 1/2 an inch long. I've gained 3 pounds.

And in NCAA tourney news, my brackets are already screwed up. Davidson lost and Stanford looks unlikely at this point :(

Finale

2007-03-05T10:18:00.000-05:00

Good news -- we're expecting our second child in mid-October. We are super excited. They won't be Irish twins, but they will be close -- 17 months apart. We've nicknamed this baby "Finale" because it will be the last. Whoever says "3 is the new 2" is out of their minds. I had a sonogram last week and saw the heartbeat going strong -- Finale was 3.5 mm across. I've been sick w/ this crazy 24-hour "morning" sickness which is the total pits (spaghetti and red sauce for dinner every night again), but the doctors say that's a really good sign for the viability of the baby. We're trying to figure out which room we'll empty for this one... a daunting task. No pics yet -- next sonogram is at 11 weeks.

Pippa, Rowan, and a little bit of other stuff...

The End?

Music

Visit with GG

Christmas Rejects and Dance Parties

Another Mini Kitchen Reno

More Christmas Pics

More XMas Videos!

Even More Holiday Celebrations...

Christmas Carols

Halloween

Haircut

Gramp and a Bates Visit

Pippa's Birthday

Birthdays, Outfits, and Bugs

Bar Harbor and Acadia

William Webster Jackson, March 2, 1948 to March 17, 2009

So, a lot has happened...

New Year's and Silliness

Too Many Christmas Videos and Photos

Happy Holidays!

SNOW

Open House

Catching Up

Crawling and Acrobatics

Rowan Walking

Halloween

Pumpkins, Arguing, French

Company

You've Come A Long Way, Baby

Rowan's Birthday

Evan Williams and Different Boats

Boats and Zombies

Videos

And finally the house and girls

Pirate Festival

We Miss You

Catching Up...

9 Months

July 1, 2008

New News! (and a recap of old news)

First Day of 'School'

Rowan learns to wave!

Pippa turns 2

6 month comparison time

Rowan Maggie- 6 months old

Where my peeps at?

Updates and some Videos

Videos

Finally, some more photos

Photo time

Rowan Smiles, Pippa Tapdances and 'RuvRuvRuvs' you...

Thanksgiving Time Photos

Tattoos, Planes, and Trucks

Photos from the last week

Halloween!

Turning a Corner?

Home!

Things Are Looking Up

She's Sleeping Soundly Now, But....

One more day in PICU

Quick update: surgery successful

Surgery Tomorrow

Follow-up surgery scheduled...

photo time (too tired for captions)

Quick update: We're all home!

Rowan photos!

Rowan Margaret!

Where Pippa Gets Her Blond Hair

America's Next Top Belly!

Pippa in the Gardens

False Alarm Take 1; False Alarm Take 2

Medical Update

Phone Cam Vacation Pix and Walking Flix

Words

Climbing

Pippa the baby sitter

Pippa Simpson

Cartoon-Me

Pippa loves bananas