i have one hour

things are busier than ever at the g household.



umm, really wished i could give a daily update like i did with ak, but i know better this time to sleep when i can, and on top of that i dont have time as its. my goal is to do everything i can to allow mother and baby the time to recover and bond. T is doing good and recovering but is taking things really slow. lots of rest.



that means getting ak out of the house from dusk till dawn

when the fam is together for meals and what not, IT IS CRAZY! trying to stay attentive to both their needs while remembering the right things to say to keep sibling resentment and jealousy to a minimum is mentally tiring (for me anyway).

ak has been super funny whether he knows it or not lateley. here are some quotes, excuse me if some are repeats...

ak - "i want to go to einsteins (bagels)"
me - "its tuesday, we only go to einsteins on saturdays"

ak looks around and processes the thought....

ak - "well i want to go to chick-fil-a, or something)



another time when we were en route to chickfila and ak knew that we were going there. we came to a red light.

ak- "hey! your not driving!" whats wrong!


ak was sitting on the potty and i was waiting him to finish his BM.

AK- " I dont have any more poopoo dad.

me - "no? finished?"

ak- "yeah finished, my butt is closed"



brushing teeth this evening in fact:

ak picks up the toothpaste and hides it in his towel and then yells, "wheres the toothpaste?"

i see his smooth move and after he asks i grab for it. he giggles and i say, "here it is!"

he chuckles and says, "im a silly goose!"



so ak loves his sister.

when he went to the hospital to meet her for the first time i didnt know what to think. he came in with the grandparents, i setup my camcorder in the corner on a tripod.









he wanted to see her, touch her, sing for her, hold her. it was great.

ak also has been figuring himself out. finding his place. he wants to be held like a baby alot now, . "wrap me up like a baby grandma"



he wants to get in M's carseat, sleep in M's tiny cestina, basically wants to be a baby again. T explained this to me in a very academic way. basically saying this was normal.

when i picked up ak from school and brought him home to see them he was pretty excited, he grabbed a drum and ran into the bedroom where they were and started banging it and singing a song for her. sweet, but what a crazy scene!

baby m was not too crazy about this either




ak tells everyone, "i have a baby sister!"

thats prolly one of the sweetest things. and when he says her name, it even sweeter.

Baby M

Baby M has arrived.

A very precious 7 pounder with whispy black hair and dainty fingers.
We are in love all over again and have had a beautiful day with just the three of us. We look forward to welcoming AK to meet his baby sister manana when T has healed from her cesarean surgery.

she looks alot like her brother when he was born


baby ak on the left, m on the right


heres a video of the day!
if it doesnt show up on the blog than click on this link.
http://www.vimeo.com/4840349

if you click on the x to the left of the word vimeo it will go full screen

We are Ready

disclaimer to post...camera acting funny so i apologize for bad focus and exposure where you see it. ok now that thats out of the way,

Well the day is here. We have been waiting patiently and slowly getting ready, one weekend at a time for the last 9 months and tomorrow, we will finally see star trek.

just kidding,



but we decided not to see it tonight, and just go home and wrap things up leisurely. We have had a wonderful sunday with Ak at his grandparents since saturday to giving us time to get the house ready and time to relax.

t's mom was here helping out with the school, (it's the cleaning that's the really physical hard work) she also helped to harvest lettuce crops with the kids.



ak loves to get packed for grandmas. he decided to wear his hard hat too because Grandpa Ted and i were repairing a hole in the ceiling in the garage when Ak stepped out the door. "uh oh! construction! better get my hard hat!" (ted almost fell through while working in the attic the other day! whew! like daughter like father! (t did it too when she was little)






so this sunday we went to costco, got a bunch of food for the freezer, went to get T a massage from our friend Luna Wood at vidaluna.com.

then a trip to ikea to get a few things, most notably a yucca plant for our ritual of planting something to symbolize the new birth. this plant has 4 stems, symbolizing the four of us!







We have put a lot of thought and energy into transitioning our family with ak. We have been preparing him in a number of ways on the new addition. friday we had a family celebration and celebrated the three of us with some carrot cake and some figure toys to tell the story of our family up to now.







also to tell that story, we made a book for ak that has pictures expalining his life, from the first picture of him in mommas belly to the last picture of our family looking at mamas belly.


photo by madicyn

We want him to know that the arrival of the new baby will not usurp the attention and love he receives from others and us. This baby is, “his baby.”

If you bring a present for the baby please be sure to also bring a present for Ak (We will probably even have a stash of gifts that people can give). Many advised us that this was helpful in lessening the resentment/jealousy experienced by the older sibling.

we are also not to putting any, “you’re the big brother now,” pressure on him. The best thing is to allow him to be who he needs to be.

Saturday I spent a good two hours putting together his "big brother gift" a kitchen from Mellissa and Doug. (that's a brand name) it takes up his half of the bird room. the other half is designated to baby g.



We have added a second mirror this time to the area for movement. along with a movement mat from ikea versus an everlast excersise mat that we used with ak.






we transformed our living room back to a house since T's school finished this past friday. its temporary for the summer so we aren't putting too much into it, but are very happy with this summer setup and we are looking forward to eating at a regular table and i'm sure friends and family are looking forward to having somewhere to sit when they come over.

















new in the living room are some accommodations for ak,

we are doing things diff this time in regards to babycare logistics. last time we had the changing table in the bird room, two rooms away from our bedroom, even though the baby slept in our room. umm....



so this time we picked up the malm dresser from ikea which makes for a perfect changing table. along with it above the table is cabinet from ikea. i didn't like it initially because for the ornation, but T said that i could leave that off.



a lot of people ask me what's the difference between modern and contemporary, or what constitutes modern furniture, or aesthetic. this is a prime example. there is no use for this thing on top of the cabinet. its just for show. in modernism, form follows function. therefore modern furniture = lack of ornation.



we also got T a descent chair, (also in the bedroom) otherwise the eames lounge chair would do just fine. This chair is more ideal for nursing than an eames rocker. sorry t! this chair is great because its stable which is ideal for nursing. but if you want you can give it a little bounce and it has a nice rocking motion to it.

here's t with ak back in the day!



montessori says: don't move when nursing, therefore all concentration is on nursing. no distractions

same thing with the baby changing table. last year we had a mobile above the table to distract ak while we changed him. Now we know that this is a perfect time to see baby eye to eye, communicate what we are doing and connect.

we will be connecting with convenience as T's parents gifted us 6 months of cloth diapering service. we are very grateful. it helps with the cotton diapers that we are committed to using. we wanted to do that with ak, but never got around to it.
'
so who says that baby #2 doesn't get the love that #1 does! Im shooting this pregnancy HD! i will be the nerd dad in the op room strapped with my slr and HD camera. no dorky bluetooth earset or anything, im geeky, not dorky.




T's mom rocked the sewing machine and made us a cestina for the baby out of a doggy bed form ikea, (i swear ikea doesnt pay me to write this stuff). once the baby is big enough (around 2 months) we will transition him or her to the floor bed. we have installed some pics of us next to said bed.

we also added a self care table in ak's room. a place for him to brush his hair and look in the mirror






ok, got to go to bed. tomorrow's a big day!

ak and i went to the bicycle sport shop to geet a flat fixed on the jogging stroller. Needles to say he went nuts in there, wanting to sit on EVERY bike they had.

i had never seen a "hip" mannequin before. i was surprised there werent any black mannequins in the store. i mean, if they have "sasha" you figure they would have "jarome"



Ak is so funny these days, he just says one thing after the other that just has us rolling. of course i cant think of anything funny at this moment. oh i know.

so we are leaving a party...ak's calendar is booked with birthday parties these days..
here he is trying his first candy apple.



little did he know that he was sitting right under the pinata



so anyway were in the car headed home for nap when,

ak - "i want to go to einsteins"

dad - "we only go to einsteins on saturday mornings."

ak - "well...i want to go to chick-fil-a...or something"

so i have been taking ak to school for the past month in my truck as a way to start that transition early rather than have so much change come when the baby arrives.

he loves to listen to "daddys music" and we rock out all the way to school. he keeps a shaker in the car and he is beginning to learn some of the lyrics to some of the songs.



ak - "i want to listen to sade!"

daddy - "ok, let me put it on. there. (music starts playing)

ak - "no, dont like that one. i want a faster song"

daddy - (skips songs)

ak- "yeah thats it. this one's my favorite. louder! roll down my window! put on my sungalasses! (begins to sing chorus) "smooth operator!"

pics from other people

ak is really getting into water play lately. This little sprayplay was unplanned, hence the clothes, but he's been getting into his swim trunks and running thru the hose alot lateley.

We really wanted maternity photos this time. One of t's friends happened to come thru for us gratis. this is just one photo that i managed to steal from her.



T and ak and ak's friend D, were at Heartsong Music together the day they were taking photos for their new website, so i stole these pics off the site. We love heartsong.




speaking of other peoples photos, here are some of ak at school. they planted a garden and have been harvesting some crops.






our garden has been coming along nicely too and we are excited to harvest some lettuce.