Four Part Harmony

I know many of you have been patiently (and some not so patiently) waiting to find out the name of the newest member of our family. So, without further ado, we’d like to introduce…Milo Juniper Gunderson.

Here’s a few more pictures from his first week and a half of life.

He’s been pretty sleepy, and when he is awake he’s usually nursing, so this is one of the rare photos we’ve managed to get of him with his eyes open. He’s got those slate blue baby-color eyes.

Another awake picture!

Here’s what he spent most of the first week looking like. Sound asleep. Now that he’s nursing more and getting stronger, he spends a bit more time awake.

Mama and Milo getting a late morning nap.

My mom has been in town, and has been helping out quite a bit, mostly as a playmate for Anna. They’ve had a lot of playtime together. Anna, true to form, took a day or two to really warm up, but now seems to be really comfortable with Grandma around. Anna seems to be a lot more comfortable in general, considering all the change and excitement these past couple of weeks. She is much more herself, is mostly over her cough, and seems much more content. She still seems to have endless love for her baby brother, and sometimes its all we can do to pry her away from him if he’s laying on the ground.

Brother and Sis.

Thanks again to everyone who has stopped by or called or written. It’s really great to know that we have such a loving community of family and friends.

I’m sure we’ll end up with a few more pictures in the coming days and weeks, so stay tuned.

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Big excitement here on Holgate Street…Monday evening Nicki gave birth to a healthy baby boy!

Here’s baby Acorn (still his name for the time being). He was born in our home, just before 5pm on a cold and blustery June 9, 2008.

The labor and birth happened pretty quickly once it got going, and was an amazing experience. The midwives and I were all gathered around Nicki, there mostly for support, but there was little that we could do to help, and frankly there was little else that we needed to do. Nicki was totally focused and confident the entire time, and seemed to know exactly what she needed to do.

Unfortunately, we ran into some complications with the placenta not detaching, so we ended up having to call for an ambulance and Nicki had to be transported to the hospital. It was a scary couple of hours for us, but the hospital experience went about as well as we could have hoped for. Nicki did end up having to spend the night, but now we’re back at home and getting settled in.

Here’s a few photos, and I’m sure we’ll have a bunch more in the coming days.

Acorn sleeping on my chest. Tuesday morning in the hospital.

Sleeping on Mama’s lap, Monday night immediately after our car ride to the hospital.

Wednesday morning at home.

Anna holding Acorn for the first time. This is in the hospital, Tuesday afternoon.

We’re super thankful for all the well wishes and help we’ve had these first few days. We are truly blessed with great family and friends. Feel free to call or stop by and say hello when you’re in the neighborhood.

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Well, once again it seems we’ve gotten busy and once again the blog updatin’ falls behind. I’ve actually sat down the past two nights with the intention of putting some pictures up, and both times ended up getting thwarted by this or that. In the interest of getting caught up, then, here are a few photos from this past weekend. I uploaded a few others to our flickr page, which you can also see at our photo gallery here on this site.

Last Thursday, Corrie came over with a friend of hers and we had a big family haircutting party. Anna, Nicki, Corrie, and I all got our haircut. Aside from being really super convenient, it was pretty fun and Corrie’s friend Shannon did a great job.

I ended up getting 21 inches of hair cut off.

21 inches. I know, we couldn’t believe it either. It’s all bagged up in two long ponytails to be donated (though to where is still a matter of discussion).

Anna wasn’t super keen on the haircut idea at first, but she warmed up to it. In the end I think she enjoyed it, and she keeps saying “I love my haircut!”, but I think that’s because that’s what Corrie kept saying.

Saturday a bunch of us went to help Steve set up an aboveground swimming pool in their backyard. On the surface you might think that it might not be that big a job, but you’d be wrong. Thankfully there was a pretty big crew of us and a fair amount of beer and food so the pool went most of the way up by the end of the day. We also got a chance to see Steve and Keri’s new chickens and fancy chicken coop, and of course Anna had fun playing with the girls and running around.

We ended up harvesting our fava beans on Sunday, and making the fava bean risotto recipe that we always make right around this time of the year. There weren’t a ton of them, but it was a decent harvest, plenty for what we needed for dinner, though there might not be enough for a second meal.

Here are the first few after initial shelling. These get briefly boiled, and then the tough outer skin of each bean gets peeled off. By the time all is said and done a big pile of giant fava bean pods is reduced to a handful or two of tiny, bright green beans. We mash ‘em into a kind of paste and then mix them into a risotto with some leeks and parmigiano. Worth it.

Sunday while Anna and I were picking and shelling beans, a bunch of the girls held a blessingway for Nicki and Keri. It sounded like they had a lot of fun. I can’t tell you a lot about it…because I wasn’t there! Thankfully, Angela did a nice post about it on her blog. I think you may need to be registered over there to see it though.

Here’s one of the reasons I haven’t been able to get the blog updated. On Monday night I sat down tonight after everyone had gone to bed, grabbed the camera and started downloading our pictures from the weekend. At the end of the roll were about 25 or so pictures that Nicki and Anna must have taken today. They were just so awesome…I lost all ability to deal with the rest of the pictures, and sat there trying to make a slideshow or a movie, or something to do them justice. Which I was able to do, sort of, but then I couldn’t for the life of me get it up onto the blog. Apparently my old method of putting up videos isn’t working anymore. Well, I think I’ve figured out one way of doing a slideshow, which isn’t quite as cool as my little movie but what can you do… Hopefully you all think these are as great as I do…(I still have no idea how Nicki managed to pull off this little photo shoot, by the way).

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