Monday, December 21, 2009

New Toys

Gumbo hasn't quite figured out that all the new toys aren't for him.



But he's willing to share.



A cute close up smile.

Friday, December 11, 2009

On Children

Vince's co-workers had their holiday party and turned it into a baby shower for Julian as well. Peggy gave us a writing from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. It is quite profound, and I'm going to spend a bit more time with it, but I would love to hear your thoughts too!

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said,
Speak to us of Children.
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but see not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows set forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with his might that His arrow may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so he loves also the bow that is stable.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Visitors

Julian (and Vince and I) have had a number of visitors. We just haven't had time to blog about it, so here's a few pictures.


Godmother Bridget


Bridget with JB, Casey, and Sam


Our neighbor Nora with her baby Henry (who's 5 weeks older than JB)


JB and Grandpop (or Vince's dad)


JB and GG (Grandma Glenda - Vince's mom)

One Month Old

Our good friends Jeff and Bridget (who are Julian's godparents) have two sons, Casey (3 1/2 and my godson) and Sam (18 months). Each month during the first year of their lives, Jeff and Bridget took pictures of them in the same chair in their house with the same stuffed animal (a bear, in their cases). This way they could show the progression of their growth.

We thought that was such a great idea that we decided we would do the same with JB. Of course, we had to take our own spin on it...or at least Vince's own spin on it. So, this is the first installment of the SAME JEDI, SAME CHAIR pictures.


The long view of Julian and Yoda


"Mama, I'm bored with this...how much longer do I have to sit here?"


"I really don't want to be here!!!"


"Ok...this isn't so bad. Who is this guy next to me anyway?"

And for those of you who are interested in stats...JB was born weighing 7lbs 13oz and 19in. On his one month check-up 9lbs and 21in.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Tub Time

So until this week, we have been giving JB sponge baths. We started this, of course, so as not to hinder his umbilical cord from falling off. But then it just became the way we bathed him.



His umbilical cord has been gone for two weeks now, so we finally made the leap to a tub bath.



And actually, he liked this much more than a sponge bath. I think he stayed warmer, and it didn't take as long. He didn't cry or scream at all and mostly just looked at us with that "I don't know what I'm supposed to think of this" look. Perhaps he'll be like his mom and love a good long bath!


Heisman winner?


And a couple other photos for your viewing pleasure...


What kind of face is that?


Drama king in the making?

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Detroiters Visit

We were glad that our friends Mike, Amy, and Lucy were in town visiting family in Joliet from Detroit. And they came over to meet Julian. It was great to have them here for a short visit.



Lucy was born on November 13th last year, so it was fun to think of Julian being as big as Lucy. It's hard to imagine but fun to speculate!



And just for kicks, this was the sunset that night out our window.

Thanksgiving

We knew that we would not be up for cooking a big Thanksgiving meal this year. We weren't even sure that we'd be up for socializing with others, but I emailed James and Jason anyway and invited ourselves to their Thanksgiving dinner. They were happy to have us there, and we were happy to spend our first Thanksgiving as a family with good friends.

JB did pretty well - and even let us eat - once he was asleep. And Amanda got to feel motherly while holding him.



What you don't see is that he's wearing an outfit (Thanks, Becky!) that says "Thankful for Mommy and Daddy." Too cute!



Nicole made homemade butter...absolutely yummy.



Thanks, James and Jason, for letting us crash your Thanksgiving dinner. It was delicious!


(Sorry we didn't get better pictures of you!)

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Sweetie

When my mom was a little girl, her father called her "Super Sweet." Pa'Pa' gave all of his kids nicknames that they loved into adulthood. So, when my sister became pregnant for the first time, we asked my parents what they wanted to be called. It took my mom no time to say she wanted to be called Super Sweet.

We tried hard to get Jonathan (my oldest nephew) to call Mom Super Sweet, but it was really too much of a mouthful for a little one, and so it ended up as "Sweetie." It is still really cute to hear my nephews say, "I got that from my Sweetie" or "my Sweetie is coming to visit."

Sweetie had been with us since we came home from the hospital last Wednesday and just left today. I have to tell you the truth: I am not sure how we would have survived without her here. While she was certainly here to love on JB, her primary role became caretaker to me and Vince. She made sure we ate and napped. She washed dishes and walked the dog.



She did her fair share of Julian care as well. She changed a bunch of diapers and sang a ton of songs (and even made up quite a few). She got to change the worst diaper in JB's short history and has been the only one to experience his diaper fountain. AND she let us wake her in the middle of the night to take a shift with Jules so that we could get an hour of shuteye.


(Sweetie's handiwork.)

Thanks for coming, Sweetie! Sure you can't stay for another month or so?

Friday, November 13, 2009

Confessions of a first time parent

I have a feeling that this is only part one of a continuing series that will be upon the McGel household. Today is day five of our new lives together, and we are constantly learning what we know and what we don't know. We are also realizing that there are things we just haven't thought of.

So, here's our first confession:

We had a doctor's appointment for Julian at 8:30am (who knew that was early!) on the morning after we got home. Now because I am still recovering, and we live on a third floor, the midwife said that we should go through a check list of everything we need to take with us. We run it through our minds and head out the door.

We get to the appointment on time (without the showers we thought we'd have time to take, of course), and we have to strip Julian down to his birthday suit to get his weight checked. Just when we get to the diaper, Vince turns to me and says, "Did we bring any extra diapers?"

At this point we both burst out laughing. Not only did we not bring any extra diapers, we had not even thought about packing a diaper bag. It never once occurred to us that we were leaving the house with a baby, and we might need to give him a change...even though we knew he would be getting naked. We were lucky that JB had a clean diaper, and we were able to put it back on after his check.

So, we have a lot to learn about this parenting thing. The one thing that is certain...Julian will never be without loving parents. We may mess up in a million other ways, but he will always be loved! Naked, but loved!

(More pictures to come...)

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Welcome, Julian Blake!

Well, after 31 hours of labor, we welcomed our son, Julian Blake, into our arms. Mom and baby are both doing well (can you believe no pain killers were involved?). Julian was 7 pounds 13 ounces and 20 inches long at birth. We will post more later, but for now we are still at the hospital. So here are just a few pics to whet your appetite.

Julian Blake

Mom and baby

A little daddy time.

How cute is he?

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Tomorrow's the day...or is it?

Well. I've almost made it. Tomorrow I will be 40 weeks pregnant, and our little (big) Jellybean will be due. The question that is on my mind (or perhaps more accurately...on my bladder) is will our child show his or her face tomorrow? To this question I do not know the answer.

I know that JB's mom is MORE than ready to welcome him/her into this world. And while I have used many a breath to compel JB out, McGlothins have never been known for their submission to authority figures. And for that matter, we have never been known for our patience either.

So to all of you out in the blogosphere, pray for the JB to make an appearance soon, and pray for his/her mother's patience. And especially pray for JB's dad, who has to deal with JB's mom. He's really getting the brunt of it all!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Flu mania

I just thought I would send out a quick post to let y'all know we are still alive and still have not given birth. I'm at 37 1/2 weeks, which means this baby could come at anytime. I'm hoping that we still have a couple of weeks to get things done. I'll try to send a picture or something soon. But I wanted to share an experience we had this weekend.

Courtney was in town this weekend, and on Saturday night we decided to go see Where the Wild Things Are. Now normally we avoid such things as movies on opening weekends, but in my delicate position, there is just no waiting until later to see movies. The line was long, but we were in the front of it and got great aisle seats. The theater was packed with no empty seats, so beggers cannot be chooser here.

Courtney, coming off of day four of a common cold, coughed. The woman (mid-60s) in front of her immediately turned around and asked, "Are you sick?" Court explained that she was at the tail end and felt well but still had a cough. "How many days have you been sick?" the woman asks more fervently. "This is day four or five." "You're still sick....Honey, get up we're moving." The couple proceeds to leave their great seats and end up sitting separately in crappy seats to avoid the cougher.

It was truly a bizarre experience. Mind you, pregnant me felt comfy being around these folks. (Vince was also on day four of a cold.) But it was just a little of the flu mania that I have been seeing around. Perhaps I'm being a little too confident in my health or lax in my flu mania, but this was a bit much. Good hygiene will take you a long way, folks!

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Gumbo and Lily

Our neighborhood has a ton of dogs, and Gumbo's the type of dog to get to know everyone (canine or otherwise) that we pass on our walks. So, we have actually become good friends with some of our neighbors. But one dog stands out from the rest...Lily the beagle.

While Gumbo does not shy away from any dog, big or small, Gumbo does have a special affinity for Lily. They are about the same size and play at just about the same pace. Lily is definitely Gumbo's favorite. Lily's people, Jeff and Laura, have taken Gumbo on many overnights, and we have done the same. On the Saturday of our staycation, Laura was out of town and Jeff had a gig until late, and Lily came over to have a sleepover with G.

They wrestled on the bed...a lot...


And they rested...a bit...


And then they wrestled some more...


And a couple other funny pictures of Gumbo's bad habit. Actually, any time you give him a treat like a rawhide chew or an asparagus or green bean, he always seems to carry it this way. And we finally got a picture of what looks like a dog about to light up!




The rest of the story

So we really did have more than one day on our staycation. It has just taken me this long to have a moment to blog about it. We really enjoyed our four-day break from the mundane parts of life: laundry, grocery shopping, chores, work, etc. A little break from it all was great.

On Friday we did something we have not had time to do and were at the same time putting off: registering for baby stuff. We went to be overwhelmed by the mass consumerism that is somewhat necessary for welcoming a new little life. While quite a bit of what we encountered is completely unnecessary, somethings you really do need. We also were able to buy paint for the crib to take it from periwinkle to white. I think the color was actually something like Fresh Snow, but we'll just call it white. Otherwise, we spent Friday lounging around the house and cuddling on the couch.

Saturday was a fuller day. We took ourselves back downtown. As long as we have lived here, Vince has never been to the Bean...the Cloud Gate, actually...but everyone just calls it the bean. Wonder why?



We had fun taking pictures of ourselves....


Vince's first visit to the Bean


Jellybean and the Bean



Chicago reflected





Vince also really enjoyed the twin fountains with the huge LCD screens that had faces of Chicagoans spitting water on the crowd playing in the water. It was quite cool this day, but that didn't stop all the kids and a few adults from jumping in.



This is a picture of us NOT going into the Art Institute.


So, we planned to visit the Art Institute to see the new modern wing that they finished not very long ago. We even went to the trouble to get our friend's membership pass so that we could go for free. But it turns out that you have to BRING the pass with you when you come. :) We were about to get off the El when Vince said, "Did you remember to grab the pass?" "Nope." Oh, well, I guess the Art Institute will have to wait until another day. Another point for baby brain.

Finally, we went to lunch at Blackies for great burgers and headed home. Once we got near our house, we ran into our neighbor Jeff walking their beagle Lily. "Sure, we'll take care of Lily for the night." And next thing we know, Gumbo's having a sleepover, but I will get to that in the next post.

Sunday morning, it began. The Dexter: Season 3 Marathon. Vince and I got into the show Dexter last year sometime and have been getting the discs from Netflix. Well, season 3 just came out on dvd, and so we ordered them. And then we picked up the rest of the season at the blockbuster. Yep, we watched the entire season almost back to back. We did stop to go over for dinner at our friends Nigel and Nancy's place, but that was the only interruption. The problem is that now we have to wait for season for to begin, end, and then come out on dvd. Maybe we should have spread them out.

Regardless, this is how we spent our staycation. A little bit out in the world, and a little bit curled on the couch. Just as it should be. There won't be another break from work for us until the baby comes. And I'm not anticipating that feeling much like a break!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Staycation - Day One

Vince and I knew we needed to take a vacation before the harriedness of the fall began, and so we decided to take Thursday and Friday off of work and have some fun. We originally thought about going up to Door County in Wisconsin and having a few days away. But as the time approached, we decided instead to stay in Chicago and enjoy some sights that we've been meaning to do.

So, here we are. It's day one of our staycation! As long as I have lived in Chicago, I had never been to the Field Museum. For a while now, we have seen signs for the Pirate exhibit they have, and we've wanted to go. That's just what we did today. We slept in and then headed down to the museum campus to check in with the pirates.

The exhibit was excellent, and we learned a lot about this one particular pirate ship, the Whydah. We also learned interesting facts like....pirates never really buried their treasure. In fact, they rarely held onto their profits for very long at all. There was always good rum and women to spend it on. Also, we learned that when the pirates took over a new ship, they always asked the crew whether the captain was kind or cruel. If they said he was kind, the captain often received a small ship and was set free. If the crew thought him cruel, the captain was often beaten and tortured, usually resulting in his death. This should be a warning to all you cruel captains out there!

We got to see Sue, of course. For those of you who aren't familiar, Sue is largest complete T-Rex skeleton found in the world. And she was found right here in the US. Pretty impressive.

The most interesting part of my day happened when we were entering the "Our Evolving World" section of the museum. We were walking in when a boy (about 8) and a girl (about 10) rushed in ahead of us. We heard the grandmother yell from behind, "Oh, you don't want to go in there." "Yes, I do," yelled back the boy. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Because we don't believe in that bullshit."

Wow....did that just happen? "We don't believe in that bullshit"?!? I was taken aback by this response. I guess it's been quite a while since I've heard such a compelling argument against evolution, but there it was...right in the heart of the Field Museum. And I have to say, her words followed me for the next hour as we meandered our way through our evolving world.

I could not stop thinking about her. I kept thinking to myself, "how do you explain...if not for evolution?" And I would frequently bother Vince with similar quandaries. Until finally, he explained it all to me. "God didn't create the dinosaurs," he explained. "God created fossils."

Well, doesn't that just explain it all!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

In Our Belfry

So we were sitting around earlier this evening chatting and Gumbo suddenly started paying a little too much attention to the magazine basket. He has liked to chew on the basket in the kitchen that has towels and such in it. Then we heard this sound.

We both looked at each other at the same time. April said, "What is that?" My first thought was that it kind of sounded like a cricket or some other bug, but I wasn't quite sure. and Gumbo was entirely too interested. So I went to investigate. Now we have rearranged the furniture, but in our current configuration, the basket sits right next to the shelf in the photo below in the corner of the room.










So I pull out the basket, I see a much larger something on the side of the basket than I expected.
I must have made some kind of noise when I realized what I was looking at, because April asked, "What is it?"

"A bat."

"A WHAT?!?"

"A B-A-T."

Then she starts freaking a little about keeping the animals away and hoping the thing doesn't decide to start flying around. Needless to say, I proceeded to put the poor little guy outside. He didn't seem very happy with me for pulling him out of his nice dark hiding spot and putting him out in the sun.

The crazy thing is that we haven't had any windows open since the middle of last week, so how long had he been there?