Family

Out of order, a few pictures from recent visitors.
In Mill Valley with Bubba & Gramma Nance

Is it just me or does Natalie look *a lot* like her Aunt Pam?

Prodigious Growth

Noah had his two week appointment today (he is 17 days old). He has already gained a full pound as well as grown 1/2 inch since birth. We would be thrilled about this development but for the sheer amount of eating it has required to achieve these statistics (97% for weight and 95% for height). We might consider giving up an ounce in exchange for a few less nighttime wakeups around here!

For posterity he now weighs 10 lbs 8 oz, and is 22 1/2 inches long. I was too tired to remember his head circumference but I will update that later when I find it in the masses of papers the doctor gave us about how to deal with colic. All this for a baby who so far has only cried during diaper changes which take "too long" in his opinion, or during baths. We know his temperament will change about a hundred times in the upcoming few months but, for the record, 17 days after his birth he remained a very placid baby.

Natalie is doing quite well. She definitely has been much more moody and sensitive in the last week or so but we have survived with lots of extra TLC from Aunt Pam, who came for a visit to help us. Today marks the beginning of "life as usual", where I will need to learn to balance the needs of two little ones on my own (as Tyler is fully back to work and our next visitors don't arrive til Memorial Day weekend). Wish us luck!

Noah's First Playdate

Today Noah had his first playdate, with Madison Isabella Keenan (born May 5th at 1:29 p.m.)... the 7 day old and the 12 day old baby got along well.

Noah "woke up" a little today (vs. the last few days where he has been asleep most of the day), so it was a very good day to meet his friend!


Madison was hungry... and she wanted to let her mom know.

We are so excited for our friends Cheryl and Adam, and feel lucky to have seen Madison only seven short days after her birth. She is a delight.

Mother's Day 2009

My two little dreams-come-true!


Natalie loves to stand on a chair near Noah's crib, looking down at him... she gives him little pats and hugs. But her favorite thing to do is to turn on his mobile, then squeal with delight "I DID IT!!!"


She is so proud of all of her newfound abilities.

Quite a change from the time in August 2007 when she interacted with that very same mobile in this way:

Noah Johnston Gibbs - May Day Baby

Born May 1st at 12:47 a.m.
9 lbs 8 oz, 22 inches long

Noah came home from the hospital yesterday... we are so excited to start getting to know him.

Gratuitous Video Posting

Family members may be very interested to see the videos of Natalie in the bath! As you can see, she is doing very well on her alphabet letters - though often she knows who "goes with" the letter more than she knows the letter itself :-)

Monterey Trip

Last weekend, we went to Monterey for our "babymoon" - one of our last weekends together as a family of three (well, four, but the fourth no doubt spent the weekend curled up in Baby Boy Gibbs's crib - meowing happily when her cat-sitter arrived to feed and play with her).

Here's a picture of Natalie in the "Splash Zone" at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Friday. She loved the giant blocks more than the tiny little fish they had in this section... at first I was worried that this meant she wouldn't be that into the rest of the fish at the Aquarium. No need to worry about *that* though.

Looking out at Monterey Bay from the Aquarium.
On the Otter slide!
Her favorite exhibit was actually Outer Bay. Check out the link for a cool picture - but the exhibit was a little dark for us to try to take pictures, plus it was always crowded with people. It was super-cool though! After our trip to the Aquarium, she now gets really excited to point out "fishies" anywhere she sees them.

Here are Natalie and Tyler at the Dennis the Menace park - designed by the creator of Dennis the Menace. This park was right across the street from our hotel. It would have been even better for a child a little older than Natalie, though we did spend a really fun hour here on Saturday morning.

After the park, Natalie had a spirited lunch in our hotel room. Tyler and I love it when she makes this face! She worked up an appetite for "shawbees" and "beebees" - strawberries and blueberries.

Then Saturday afternoon we tried to go in the hotel's pool, but the pool was absolutely freezing... and the hot tub was too hot... so we walked across the street to the Monterey State Beach. Natalie loved finding rocks and bringing them to me for our collection. We also built sand castles and ran around a fair bit.
Let's be honest - I was 37 weeks pregnant at the time - Tyler did the running around with Natalie :-)
Below, one of the only pictures we'll have of me being pregnant. I prefer to keep the camera trained on my photogenic subject Natalie.

That whole thing Natalie's left leg is resting on? That's her baby brother. He's huge. As am I.

Sunday, our non-sleeper woke up at 4 am and didn't really fall back asleep... so we left Monterey very early (8 am) in order to make it home for a proper nap here at home. On the way back to San Francisco, we drove up Highway 1 for some sightseeing.

We couldn't resist stopping at Pillar Point, our favorite Northern California beach. This is the beach where Tyler asked me to marry him almost four years ago! Natalie has been here a few times.
It was a gorgeous day with a nice low tide. Tyler and Natalie did a tiny bit of tide-pooling while I relaxed. Then it was back home for a nice long nap for Natalie and I! A very fun weekend was had by all (even Reese, who apparently took several nice naps with the cat-sitter - who also happens to be one of the workers at Natalie's daycare)!