Ta-Da!

Memorial Day proved quite memorable, as you can see! After 16 hours of labor (more if you count what was lovingly endured at home), our beautiful daughter Kayla Marie was born into the world at 10:45 pm, weighing in at 6 lbs, 11 ounces and 19 1/4 inches long. She started out looking like a little slimy raisin, but with the help of the wonderful hospital staff was quickly transformed to the bright-eyed, cutest little girl in the world that you see before you! Her hobbies include sleeping and furrowing her little brow and then sleeping some more, with an occasional yawn in between. She loves to be held and prefers sprint-crying to marathoning, which is okay with Mom & Dad, but we'll see if she picks up the latter in the days to come. Tiff endured like a champ, and I was beside myself when she was born (I'm convinced that becoming a Dad is the quickest paradigm-shift that can physically be endured). Enough of my rambling, here's some pics!


Proud Daddy
Proud Mommy
Proud Granny

We gave birth to a robot! Actually, its the hearing Test- She passed!

Strapping her in...
She's Home!!!

Well, our little girl continues to be unwilling to step out of her comfort zone, so while we had hope to have a baby in our arms by now, we don't.  As a result, today's edition of the blog will just feature some of the things we've been doing while waiting.

First up: 

Tiffany has become a world-class swaddler!  Because we don't yet have a baby, she does this to the stuffed Sheep her mom got the baby for Christmas.  I'll spare the details, but suffice it to say we've got about 30 different pics like this. No way this baby'll get out of that swaddle!!!  

Next:

A little-known fact of apartment living is that, in a pinch, a front porch can be a surprisingly effective garage (as long as the complex doesn't find out).

Item C:

We went to Chicago a little while back to celebrate the anniversary.  We had a pretty good time wandering around the "Magnificent Mile" and Navy Pier, and enjoyed the beautiful views. While there, we also stocked up on the essentials from Costco: diapers, wipes, and trail mix.  Also, if you read the plaque you'll notice that Chicago is named after smelly food, which actually makes sense considering the odors that abound in the city (sorry A-town, but it's true).

Fourth:

Tiff made awesome rice crispy treats.  They were amazing.  I'm positive that 10 years from now our house will be flooded with kids at about 4:00 pm because we'll have the best after-school snacks on the block.

V:

The following is the Rock Island Trail. Spring has finally arrived to Peoria and it is beautiful!  I'm trying to get a better picture of a cardinal, this one's kind of out of focus, but it'll have to do for now

And finally:

Tiff is still pregnant, and our love cactus bloomed!!! We thought it might have died over the winter but low and behold it grew a flower!  Maybe we'll be able to handle this parenting thing yet! (That funny looking sash is actually not a sash at all, it's a baby sling Tiff made with her OWN TWO HANDS! Although it could be a sash, and if it were, it would be the winners sash for the "Most Beautiful Pregnant Woman in Peoria County"!)

Quick Update

It seems we have a stubborn little girl on our hands here. Tomorrow is the official due date, and so far very little progress has been made towards delivery. I am still pregnant. We are getting impatient. Our doctor told me that there is a 90% chance I'll deliver sometime this weekend. But we made another appointment for Tuesday "just in case" I fall in that dreaded 10%. Ergh. I promise we'll let everyone know when something exciting happens.