First impressions

Before Zoe was born we really had no idea how Owen would react. It was hard to even tell how much he understood. When we took him on a hospital tour designed for older siblings a few weeks before she was born, he started yelling at the tour guide to "take the baby out NOW," but he also told everyone on the tour the story of getting a cast on his broken leg (the last time he saw a hospital bed, I guess), and cried "It's Owen!" when he saw the babies in the nursery (we must have overdone showing him pictures of himself when he was a newborn, swaddled in those hospital blankets).

When Nana brought Owen to the hospital to visit us and meet Zoe, it was clear he definitely understood. As soon as he saw Zoe in her bassinet he said, "it's baby Zoe!" Then we gave him an etch-a-sketch as a present for being a big brother and that was pretty much the end of his interest in Zoe.



Before the end of the night he did manage to "pat her gently" a few times. Surprisingly, her crying actually piqued his interest, and he came over to help Mike rock the bassinet to calm her down. Mercifully, it worked, and he beamed with something that looked a lot like brotherly love.

Since coming home he still hasn't shown much interest, but what interest he has shown has been positive. He really doesn't like it when she cries - "Don't want Zoe to be sad again!" he yells - but he does occasionally ask about her if she's not in plain sight and he smiles whenever anyone says her name. He was a little afraid of the boo-boo on her belly button, but then who can blame him? And though he doesn't want to interact with her much, he has also shown almost no signs of jealousy. All in all, we're counting it as a big win.

That Orglet look

I've been thinking that Zoe looks a lot like Owen, but even I'm surprised by the remarkable resemblance upon direct comparison:
Zoe, left, Owen, right. Owen was 11 days old for his picture, Zoe just 5 for hers.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Owen!!!

She's here!

We're excited to announce that Zoe was born on Feb 11th, 2010 at 4:03pm. She weighed in at 7lbs 6oz and 20 inches, with a perfectly reasonably sized head. We're all doing well.

...or maybe John Hancock

Sometimes progress is fast and furious. On Sunday I was really proud that Owen had scrawled his name on the back of an envelope in almost-recognizable, only slightly out-of-order letters (see last post). Just one day later at school the kids decorated their own placemats. Much to everyone's surprise, Owen wrote his name on his:

You can call him Picasso

Drawing is one of Owen's favorite activities. Markers are his preferred medium. His style has undergone something of a transformation in the past year, as you might imagine. Last spring, when faced with an empty canvas, he would usually do one big scribble, and then one small one, and the result was often something like this:

In the summer and fall, he started to experiment with different textures and patterns, like "wiggly lines" and "raindrops":


Most recently, he has distinguished between "writing" and drawing. Here is a writing sample from a month or so ago:

In the past few weeks he has made dramatic progress. Both his drawings and his letters have become more recognizable. Today he drew some faces:

and then he wrote his name (he wrote the letters in the right temporal order, though didn't place them quite right so it reads OEWN plus a scribble):

The artist at work:

It (will be) a girl!

This week, we finally got the news that Orglet #2 is a girl! We are excited for so many reasons.

We're also relieved that Owen won't have to be any more confused than he already is. We had been hoping to prepare Owen for the new baby by telling him that he was going to have a little brother or sister, once we found out the gender. Then we weren't able to find out for sure. So we tried telling him he was going to have a "little brother or sister," but that confused him. Then we tried to focus on the fact that he was going to be a big brother, but he would just correct us every time and say "or a big sister!" So we finally threw caution to the wind and told him he was going to have a little sister and be a big brother, even though we weren't completely sure. And he's been OK with that. In the past few weeks we started asking ourselves how we would explain it to Owen if we found out that Orglet #2 was actually a boy. We agreed that the easiest thing might be to just raise it as a girl... Owen can get very stuck in his ways.

How is Owen taking the baby news? Well, he seems excited, but it's hard to tell how much he understands. He talks a lot about the baby in mommy's belly. He likes to pat it and snuggle with it. He knows that some of the things in the house are for the baby. And he knows that in a few weeks we will go to the hospital to take the baby out. But when I asked him what would happen after we took it out, he said, "Then we'll put another one in." Which is definitely NOT the right answer!

Yesterday we asked him what we should name her and he said "a hyphen." He is a big fan of punctuation, so this is probably a good sign... though hyphens generally rank below semicolons and curly brackets, so all bets are still off.

Christmas photos

"How pregnant are you?"

These days, that's almost always the first thing out of anyone's mouth when they see me. There are several answers.

1. I'm pregnant. It's all or none. You can't be just a little bit pregnant.
2. I'm officially 34 weeks pregnant as of today.
3. I'm this pregnant (no, these aren't mugshots):
4. I'm due February 16th.
5. I have six weeks left to go.
6. Check the countdown to the right!

And how am I feeling? Pretty well, all in all. This pregnancy hasn't been dramatically different from my first, though I'd say if anything, it's been easier. The only unpleasant parts are heartburn, middle of the night leg cramps, and restless leg syndrome. All of those I had last time. There were a few other symptoms I had while pregnant with Owen that Orglet #2 has spared me - so far, at least. For one, I seem to have avoided the overwhelming stupidity that I experienced while pregnant with Owen. I was a complete airhead for months. Second, I remember lying awake at night (on my side, of course) with what I called "screaming hip pain" - presumably a result of my bones realigning themselves for delivery. Not even a twinge this time around. And last, but not least, for my 3rd trimester with Owen I was so tired all the time that I went to bed every night at 8:30 pm. And here it is 11 pm and I'm still awake! Party time!

2009, a retrospective

Happy 2010, everyone! At this time last year I remember wondering what 2009 would bring. I knew it had the potential to be an unusually exciting year, because Mike and I were applying for new jobs that would probably require a move - but where to? Now, a year later, I can hardly believe everything that happened in 2009. So for those of you who have been wondering what we were up to all year (and rightly so, since the blog posts were few and far between), here goes:

Between February and August, we traveled to a combined 23 job interviews, to locations domestic and international. The trips averaged about 3 days each, which works out to one of us being away - and one of us being a single parent - for 3 out of every 9 days. Of course, during that time we were also both trying to keep things moving forward at our current jobs, prepare as much as possible for our interviews, and spend as much time as we could with Owen. I also spent a total of a month working on a collaboration in Philadelphia, and missing my boys terribly, in the late summer and fall.



We had expected that the job interviewing and decision making would take a few months, probably ending in April or maybe May at the latest. We were really, really, wrong about that, as it went into September and the loose ends weren't even all tied up until November. But in the meantime, at the beginning of June, we found out we were pregnant! So exciting! We suddenly had an extra factor to consider as we made our decisions about where to move, and when. And although it's been a pretty easy pregnancy, it has definitely affected me physically - there's no escaping that extra person you're carrying around. And that wasn’t the only medical issue, including...



Just as we thought we saw the light at the end of the tunnel after all the interviewing, Owen broke his leg at the end of August. He took it really well, and only had to have a cast for 3 weeks. But it was a long time before he made a full recovery - he had to wear a boot for 2 weeks, and limped for almost 2 months. At about 30 pounds and with a very strong will, carrying him around everywhere wasn't easy! Then once he recovered, it became clear that he was ready for potty training. He has done really well, but it didn't exactly happen overnight, so that's been another, shall we say, challenge, for the year.



We never could have made it through 2009 without lots of help from grandparents. Nana, Granny and Grandpa all spent a lot of time with us, and with Owen, filling in for daycare vacations and lending their helping hands during those single-parenting bouts. Thank you!



As we sit and look back on a challenging year, we couldn't be more excited about the end result. Now, looking forward to 2010, I'm not even trying to imagine what it will bring. I just know that by this time next year, our lives will be incredibly different from what they are now. We'll be a family of four, living in Portugal! How can we even dream of what it will be like?