"baby, kiss."

Each visitor who has come to see Elsie has been introduced by Ivar. Ivar will proudly walk them to the baby, saying "baby" the whole way to the cradle. And then he says, "Baby, Kiss." And gives her a kiss, quickly looking at the visitor to be sure they saw how sweet that was.

And it is pretty sweet.

welcoming elsie

Elsie was welcomed into the world with joy and enthusiasm. She is one blessed baby.

I am so grateful for our families and for the prayers of thankgiving that were prayed over her during her first hours of life. She has been placed in the middle of a great cloud of witnesses who are ready to encourage and support her... to help raise her in the ways she should go. As the mama, I am overwhelmed with a thankful heart.



It's a girl!

Introducing Elsie Rebecca Groves. We had a girl! Joy overflowing. She is beautiful, precious and seems so teeny tiny even though she came out at 8 pounds 9 ounces. Elsie made her arrival on Thursday night and it is quite the birth story. Absolute opposite of Ivar's... I'll share it later this week. Bottom line: we'll have more kids.

We are doing well. We're working really hard on nursing but I think we turned a corner today. This evening Ivar will come back from Grandma Margaret's and we'll celebrate our family of four. So far he has been interested in counting her toes and greeting her with a happy, "Hello, baby!"

"patience, grasshopper"

This is the invite I made for Rory to tell him our big news, way back in November. It's been on our bulletin board ever since and now the "sometime in mid-July" and "who knows" are starting to haunt me. Wish I had been more specific! But the top writing is still the same...a baby is coming!

Thought I had better drop in, so you don't think I'm absent because we're at the hospital. Nope. We're not. And in fact, I have heard a whole lot of stories in the past 24 hours of babies who were 9, 10 and 11 days overdue. Which means we're getting a bit more clever in how we pass our time. It might still be a while...

Here's what we've been up to so far:
-Played littlest pet shop with my nieces, pretending the pets were spending a week at Mount Carmel
-Had Kyle over for lunch for a playdate with Ivar
-Ate two loaves of good crusty bread with balsamic and olive oil with my mom, sister and nieces.
-Went for Thai with Troy and Sara
-Walked around the Galleria sharing a mocha frappuccino with Ivar and Rory.
-Bought this book at Pottery Barn Kids
-Spent some time under a tree during our morning walk, waiting out the rain.
-Filled more boxes with mom and dad's help
-Saw these onesie stickers on Kathy Lee and Hoda and love them.
-Went to Linden Hills with mom and Ivar to the Wild Rumpus and Great Harvest
-Watched a whole lot of Ninja Warrior with Rory and Ivar. Ivar loves it.

At this point I really cannot complain. I am sleeping fine at night (miracle!) and on the whole feel pretty good...not all that uncomfortable. So we're hanging in there. We're ready, beside ourselves bored, but doing fine overall. :)

climbing trees

This morning the three of us went for a walk down to the creek. Yesterday I didn't get out of the house at all because it was so hot, so today we snuck in some outdoor time before it got too sticky.

When we got to the creek I told Rory that I wanted to sit on the bench for a while, that I felt like I was overdoing it...my stomach was really tight and I had good cramps under my belly.

He replied, "good. keep overdoing it. let's have you climb that tree for a bit before you sit down."

We're so ready for this to begin!

When we got home Ivar lost a ball under his dresser. I told Rory that I am done getting down on all fours to retrieve toys. He needed to go get the ball.

He replied, "actually, I think that would be good for you. Maybe check under the crib too. And you could water the garden."

Heh. He makes me laugh.

The thing is, this baby is only one day overdue. I wouldn't even consider it "late" yet...

My trouble is that a few weeks ago I just sort of decided in my head that the baby would probably come early because that would be handy for our moving date. In my head the baby coming early would actually be more like the baby coming on time. The baby coming on time would be late. The baby coming later than its due date would be hard to imagine. I mean, we move in 10 days. Two of those will be spent in the hospital.

As we get closer to the move date I laugh a little more awkwardly about the absurdity of moving with a baby so tiny and a body so tired. Not sure how this will all turn out. But I'm not actually that stressed about it either. Our house is pretty good and packed up. My folks were here yesterday filling more boxes. The basement is completely ready to be loaded into the Uhaul. My clothes are packed except for a few outfits. We'll be okay. And Rory has had full warning that there may very well be a moment when I fall apart, and so at least he has been prepared.

So we wait. Today we're heading to the mall to pass some time. And we will work in some tree climbing and leg lunges after that.