More pictures. She's a beauty!

I just looked waaaaay back in this blog to try and remember what I blogged about when Eli was a week old. Linden is wonderful, beautiful and perfect but, well, she doesn't do much. Not much to report.

She sleeps a lot, and even manages to get some shut-eye at night, often in her own bed. She's a sweet little thing, relatively calm with few big productions (other than those in her diapers--good heavens!).

We had her one week doctor visit today. She checked out well. She's gained a pound since we left the hospital (she was 8 lbs, 8 oz when we left) so she's topped 9 1/2 lbs. Big girl!

Eli's doing alright. He's acting up a bit, nothing major, nothing unexpected, but it is tiring, nonetheless. Bedtimes are especially tedious. We know this will pass and that he'll get adjusted, but it is still hard to take.

Linden Holly has arrived! I haven't gotten the pictures downloaded off my camera yet (there are tons of them, she's beautiful!), but I will post them as soon as I do.

Linden joined us at 12:37 p.m. on Friday, May 15. She was 8 lbs, 14.9 oz, 22 1/4 inches. At least tow of the baby nurses commented that they had never seen a baby this long in 25 years of nursing. She's a string bean, for sure.

She is, of course, beautiful beyond measure and clearly brilliant, even at 5 days old. She's a decent sleeper for a baby and a voracious eater. In short, she's perfect!

Eli is totally smitten with his new little sister and thinks she has come home for his own personal entertainment. He loves to kiss her and pat her and really wants to hold and carry her (um, no). He can't wait to teach her to talk, play tennis, eat ice cream and use the potty. He calls her "Baby Sister", which may stick for the rest of her life.

He is transitioning into big brotherhood pretty well, although he is clearly having a hard time getting used to his new position as NOT the center of the universe. He's been a little louder and busier than usual and has a hard time calming down, but we expected this so we're trying to take it in stride. From a mother's point of view, it is a little hard to watch, my little guy is now the big guy and he doesn't really get it. He can't snuggle with me like he wants to (I'm too sore!) and doesn't understand why he has to wash his hands and be gentle. He doesn't really get the new rules and even though he tries, he doesn't really like them, either. We'll get there and our family will be stronger for it, but it is hard to watch him struggle through it.

Pictures to come!!

Still no baby. Much like her brother, who was nine days late, she's taking her own sweet time getting here. Six days late and no sign of arrival.

I'm getting desperate. So desperate, in fact, that I took the advice of a friend and went out for eggplant parmesan at a restaurant on the outskirts of town. Apparently, this dish has a history of helping women go into labor in 24 hours. Old wives' tale? We shall see, but they have a wall of over 300 photographs of babies born 24 hours after eggplant parm was eaten by mama. Sign me up.

Kevin's response to my request for this dinner adventure was, "So let me get this straight: you want to drive 25 miles in rush hour traffic, outside the Perimeter, to eat Italian, which you don't really like, specifically eggplant, your least favorite food, because it MIGHT send you into labor?"

"Um, yeah," I replied.

The eggplant parm was actually quite good, even though I hate eggplant and don't really like Italian.

AND, if I go into labor, we get $25 off our next meal and a free baby t-shirt.

Come on Baby Sister!!

Eli has recently begun to enjoy accessorizing himself. It was not raining the day he decided to wear his frog boots to the store.

And I don't have any pictures because I was laughing too hard, but earlier this evening, he brought me a piece of pink tulle that had decorated the top of a baby gift. He asked me to tie it over his eyes with a bow in the back. Tulle is transparent, so he could see through it. He ran around the house in his cammo underpants with a big floppy pink bow tied around his head, randomly stopping to dance and shake his tailfeathers.

Weirdo.

I recently got a call from Eli's preschool teacher. I'd only dropped him off about 45 minutes before, but she sounded very concerned.

Teacher: Um, Noelle, Eli took a fall and I need you to come over and take a look at his eye.
Me: Oh? What happened?
T: Well, I think he's fine, but he fell and hit his face on the edge of a table.
M: Oh no. How?
T: He was playing baseball inside.
M: He knows better.
T: That wasn't the problem.
M: Oh?
T: He fell because he was wearing high heels while he was playing baseball.
M: (silence, muffling my hysterical laughter)

Eli was totally fine but did sport a colorful shiner for a couple of weeks. Here it is at about day 4.

Well, Baby Sister hasn't made her appearance yet. The due date is tomorrow but there's no sign that she's going to keep that appointment. And so we wait.

This afternoon, I casually said (in the direction of my belly), "Alright, Baby Sister, time to come out!" Ever since, Eli's been calling out "come out of there and play with us, Baby Sister!!" It is really funny and, actually, kind of helpful. Maybe Baby Sister will actually listen and come on out... that'd be great!