The scoop on Brinnly Ruth...

A few more details on our littlest girl:

She is now five days old and doing great! We came home from the hospital on Thursday and have been pampered by doting grandmas ever since. Grandpa Gregg and Aunt Kara are now visiting too.

Her big sister LOVES her--really! And suddenly matching outfits have gone from being considered cheesy and over the top to an adorable necessity.

And for those of you that asked, we use both her full name, Brinnly and her nickname Brinn. Her name is Welsh in orgin and we both have family roots from that general region. We thought it was a nice compliment to Amalia's German name. Her middle name, Ruth,was chosen for her godmother, Ruth Meyer, and Kaethe's great-grandmother, Ruth Shunkwiler. We certainly hope she can live up to those namesakes!

Today...is even better than yesterday

Brinnly Ruth Ward entered the world on September 11, 2007 at 10:52 pm, weighing seven pounds, one ounce.

Although her labor was long, she is healthy, strong, and beautiful. Everyone is doing well, especially big sister Amalia who can't get enough of her.




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Cute Mali story

In the absence of having any baby news to post about, I thought I'd pass on a cute-but-naughty anecdote of our firstborn from last night:

After a delicious pizza dinner, Mali was finally free to be out of her high chair and roam the house. However, she decided to go pursue one of her favorite, off-limits activity--climbing the side of her high chair. We told her no. She persisted. After she had one more chance to make the right choice, I picked her up to put her in time-out. Seizing the opportunity of having Daddy, Grandma, and neighbors all nearby, amidst her time-out protests, she somehow turned around in my arms and blew kisses to everyone in hopes that they would rescue her from her punishment.

No luck, but everyone present did have to turn their backs so they could laugh quietly without her seeing them.

What a character! And what tricks will the next one come up with?

Still growing...

Countdown until due date...0 Days!

"Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.”

~Evelyn Waugh

Our children are many things--adorable, feisty, good kickers, etc., but neither of them appear to be too punctual, at least not in regards to due dates. So unless I give birth in the next 11.5 hours, I will be officially overdue, again. Thankfully, I'm still feeling well and am prepared for more waiting, if needed. Mali, of course, was 8 days late and would have been later if she had her choice (I was induced).

This does give all of you time to enter your guesses in our contest (link on the right). And of course, we'll post as soon as the newest Ward officially enters the world!

A shout-out to parents

"Children do not accidentally become righteous leaders or emotionally healthy and productive adults--any more than seeds thrown randomly to the wind grow to be part of a thriving garden. Simply throwing children into a cultural tornado and hoping for the best gives them little chance of living up to their potential or coming out unharmed. Someone needs to take responsibility for their nurture, protection, nourishment, intellectual development, manners, recreation, personal needs, and spiritual development. Someone needs to commit time and energy into staying close to them as they grow, encouraging and correcting and teaching."

--Sally Clarkson, The Mission of Motherhood

(a book I should try to find time to read)

Summer lovin'

Free jazz concert at our favorite walking-distance-away park, sunshine, fun neighbors, and a dinner menu of chips, salsa, garden veggies, peanuts, and brownies.



Can life get any better?



Jonathan and Mali vote "no".

Fourteen Months Old

Since she's no longer able to sit still long enough for a monthly Winnie the Pooh picture, here are a few other updates on our (for a few days more) only child:

1) She is WALKING! (kind of). She took her first few steps on August 13th, and now averages about five steps a day. She hasn't really caught on to what she can do with that new trick. Of course, she would much prefer to be moving vertically, and climbs every piece of furniture in our house. We have a feeling she may skip walking altogether and go directly to sprinting.

2) On the same day she took her first steps, she also learned the signs for "bird", "hat", and "dog". Add that to "more" and "hot" and she has quite the sign language repertoire.

3) Her actual words now include "Daddy", "Mama", "Hi", "Uh-oh", "Up", and "Hi-yi-yi".

4) Fruits, broccoli, yogurt, pancakes, and meat of any kind top her favorite food list. Much like her mommy, she DOES NOT like milk, although we're not ready to completely accept that yet. She drinks water like it's going out of style.

5) The good news is she understands the word "no". The bad news is, she definitely gets practice hearing it and we are seeing a defiant side to our precious little girl at times. Time-out does seem to work. She still enjoys lying her head on the floor and pouting when she doesn't get her way. She does NOT appreciate our laughing about it.

6) Unlike her extremely mild-mannered parents, our kid is opinionated! (I'm sure no one missed the sarcasm there). She insists on eating with a fork, reading her specific choice of books, and even wearing her sunglasses if and only if she is in the mood. Last week she wore her sunglasses while we carried her into church--and left them on for half of the service! Considering it was raining outside, she looked like she was either being chased by the paparazzi or had a tough night of partying behind her.

7) She was excited to welcome her newest friend into the world on August 9, 2007. Adison Elizabeth was born to our friends Mike and Kim Hildebrand. We can't wait to meet that little cutie, especially as we pride ourselves in being the first to know that she was coming into the world. Hopefully these little girls can help their daddies stay out of trouble.

8) She also did great while Grandma Sandy watched her overnight last weekend and enjoyed being spoiled. (Good preparation for the upcoming weeks...). Plus, Great-grandma Dena came to visit this weekend and it was wonderful to watch those two get to know each other even better.

How middle-aged are we?

We've been meaning to post this for a while...but the newest light of our life is the 2002 Ford Windstar that we now own and LOVE! Seriously, who knew that they made cars with so many perks these days? Power locks that can operate from a keychain! Rear-controlled air-conditioning! (Mali loves pointing at it.)CD player! A clock that works! And space...so much space. Plenty of room for growing toddlers, bellies, and car seats.

And yes, we've heard all of the Ford jokes and don't believe them at all. (We actually were really impressed with the Consumer Reports recommendations for our van). We've decided that FORD really stands for First On Race Day, which works out well as it seems like we're on our way to becoming a stereotypical Soccer Mom and NASCAR Dad.

Bizarre things to do while in your third trimester...

1) Begin a new part-time job. Thankfully, it's been a really easy transition and allows me to focus on my real job, (mommy-hood), and the needs of my two real bosses (my children).

2) Join a new gym. It's cheaper, much closer, and much, much trendier than our other one. It makes us feel like we're not the middle-aged couple with two kids driving a minivan that we really are.

3) Pull a leg muscle (no, not related to the new gym membership) and after the pain doesn't go away for several days, go into the hospital to rule out a blood clot. Hang out on the labor and delivery floor, chat with the nurse who was there for Mali's delivery and after a leg ultrasound, hear that everything is perfectly fine. This was re-confirmed by a midwife appointment a few days later. The pain did go away after that, possibly due to the time resting in the hospital room with nothing to do but read magazines with my feet up.

Only five more weeks until due date!

My, how she's grown!

Remember this little girl?



Well, she now looks like this and has way too many things to do stop and pose for a monthly picture with Winnie the Pooh.



Take note of her new "drama queen" pose, face on the floor, that she pulls out every time we ask her to do something she doesn't want to do, i.e. sit still.

Thankfully, our neighbor, Kaleab, was visiting and was able to at least make her smile for the camera.


Click here for an entire year's worth of Winnie the Pooh pictures!

The guessing game

Click on the ExpectNet.com icon at the right to make your best guess about our baby's arrival stats. After the birth, the website tallies everyone's guess points and declares an official winner. Just for the record, Kaethe has entered exactly two of these games previously and was the winner in not one, but both of them! One family was so impressed, they even named the baby after her. (Okay, that's a stretch). We'll promise the winner of this game a ride in our new vehicle!

Scenes from a baptism...and another birthday party

We were honored to serve as godparents at Madeline Yingst's baptism last week, plus it was a great excuse for a chance to celebrate Mali's birthday with her daddy's family. Another great trip!

Great expectations...

Our kids have yet another new friend on the way! We are especially excited to track this one's arrival and love checking this ADORABLE blog for updates. The proud parents are our former neighbors, Nick and Becky. Coincidentally, Becky introduced me to the the Kate Havnevik song "Nowhere Warm" while I was pregnant (and overdue) with Mali. The words to the refrain are:

"And I’m sure you’re on your way
Yes, I’m sure you’re on the road
And I’m sure you’re faster than before
Yes, I know you’re somewhere on the road"

Isn't that great while you are expecting a child? It was played many times in our house last June and even during labor as well.

We can't wait to meet you "little spring roll"! We know that you're on your way.

Going, going...GONE!

As we mentioned, we're currently in the market for a new vehicle. Since the time to take care of things before the baby arrives is quickly disappearing, we thought we would speed of the process and list our car for sale on craigslist.com. We had no idea what we were getting into.

Within 24 hours, we had 15+ contacts regarding the car. Remember, this is a 1996 Pontiac Sunfire, with 187,000 miles! One person called at 9:30 pm and said that if we would drive the car to meet him right then, he would give us cash on the spot. We chose not to take him up on that offer, for obvious reasons (not just the fact that we usually go to bed at that time).

By the next day, a family came over to test-drive. The 17-year-old daughter was ecstatic that the color coordinated with her softball uniforms and the 10-year-old liked the fact that it matched her blue slurpee. Less than THREE HOURS LATER they had agreed to our asking price, we had completed the title transaction at AAA, and the money was deposited in our account. (During this process we received several more offers of people to pay cash immediately for the car if that buyer didn't work out). Was it supposed to be that easy? The new buyers then had to take us home, considering that was the beginning of our car-less-ness.

So, now we're mourning the loss of the car that I bought right after starting my first real career job, that we drove to Michigan to get married, moved to Waukesha and to our two homes in Pittsburgh, and even used to bring Mali home in from the hospital. Thankfully we have generous neighbors who are lending us a car for a few days until we finalize the transaction for our new one. And maybe we should consider opening a used-car lot.

Another birthday

One year ago today, Amalia was baptized at our parish, First Trinity Lutheran Church. What a beautiful service and great celebration that was! We plan to remember that today by lighting her baptismal candle and saying a special prayer. Other than that, we're out of ideas. Does anybody have any other suggestions for baptismal recognition celebrations?

We did start the day with a sonogram and finally heard the news we were waiting for--the baby's growth is good and everything looks healthy. The next time we go to Allegheny General Hospital, we plan to leave with our baby!

June 2007

One year ago today, we brought a two-day-old, 7 lb, 10 oz baby girl home from the hospital.

What a difference 365 days makes! It seemed like we had been waiting for her for so long--not just the eight days she was overdue. June 26 last year started with a scheduled sonogram at the hospital to monitor my fluid levels and the baby's growth From that, it was determined that was I to be induced and that a baby would be here that day. My mom was there with us and we quickly went to unload the suitcase that we had (thankfully) packed and made our way to the hospital room, after calling everyone else in our family to tell them to circle the date on their calendars--we'd have a baby today!

Being induced is surreal in that you arrive in the labor and delivery room feeling great. After a few IV's, you're "in labor" but don't feel anything yet for quite some time. We actually enjoyed those few hours--chatting, watching television, and doing what we could to prepare for the next few hours. Then, of course, the pain came, and then the epidural, and eventually the final stages of labor.

The last part was hard on all of us, especially because our yet-to-arrive baby insisted on being born with her hand up by her head. We had originally planned on an unmedicated birth but we're thankful that our midwife had encouraged an epidural for this situation. (That intervention is already written into this baby's birth plan!) But, at 9:27 pm, we were holding our child. The midwife immediately handed us to her and then prompted us to investigate and tell the world "A GIRL!". We had settled on the name Amalia June several months before but hadn't really shared it so many people were surprised.

After a few days at the hospital and several visitors, our little girl was ready to get the rest of her life started. We took her home and feasted on a "Thanksgiving Dinner" that Jonathan had requested that my mom prepare to celebrate. One of my favorite memories of that day is Mali sleeping in the bassinet next to the table with Jonathan quietly moving her closer and closer to him throughout the whole meal.

Fast-forward one year--tonight she feasted with us on pasta, meatballs, and fresh zucchini. Our meal was MUCH louder and messier than last year and the clean-up took almost as long as the eating part. I doubt any of that will change in the near future. What will this next year bring?

Vacation Pictures

Click here for more glimpses of our fun!

She's ONE!

And all vactioned-out.


More Florida stories and pictures to follow.

I hope Florida is this much fun!

Off to visit the great-grandparents for a few days! Lots of swimming and spoiling to follow.

Third trimester update

Can you believe we're already well into the third trimester? 28 weeks and counting! Mom and baby are doing well, as are Dad and Big Sister. I just had the gestational diabetes screen this week and we're awaiting the results, but there doesn't appear to be any need for concern. However, this pregnancy has caused some inconveniences, but thankfully nothing else. So far, we have had four sonograms and are already scheduled for our fifth. Here's the run-down:

Sonogram #1--Establishing an exact due date of September 7th. (The first pregnancy test I took was negative, on New Year's Eve of all times. However, I most certainly was pregnant as my round belly indicated several weeks later. Lesson learned: always take two pregnancy tests to verify a result).

Sonogram #2--A routine 18-week scan. At this point, the OB (who consults with our midwives) noted that the placenta was slightly low, possibly indicating a chance for placenta previa. The idea of bed-rest or a C-section later on was not pleasing to any of us. How exactly would you handle bed-rest with a toddler to care for?

Sonogram #3--All is well with the placenta, however, the baby is smaller than expected, in the 27th percentile. This doesn't worry us (neither of us has been contacted recently by the Guinness Book of World Records for setting any record of height or weight), but the OB asks us to come back again in a few weeks "just to monitor".

Sonogram #4--Overall growth is okay, except now only the baby's head appears to be on the small side. The OB noted that although I also have small-sized head for my body frame, Jonathan, most certainly does not. (We found this HILARIOUS for an OB to observe!) So, we're scheduled to come back in a few weeks to make sure that his/her head is growing at a decent rate. Everything else looks beautiful.

So, other than paying for parking each time and constantly reminding the technicians not to dare spoil the surprise of the baby's gender for us, we're grateful that we've got to glimpse at our baby so often. Last time they even gave us a 4-D image of the baby's face and he/she looks strikingly like Mali. Chubby cheeks and a radiant smile. Less than three months until we can see that face up close! (The below picture doesn't do it justice)

More expanding...

Sadly, we're finally outgrowing our much-used and much-loved 1996 Pontiac Sunfire. Somehow, we just don't think it's fit for two cars seats, plus all of the extra gear that comes with kids. So we've begun "THE SEARCH".

At one point we were considering:
1) A larger sedan
2) A station wagon
3) A minivan
4) A SUV

Obviously, that opens the discussion quite a bit. However, after test-driving a Nissan Maxima and a Honda CRV, we've decided that passenger space is critical, especially at the rate at which we're having children. It was hard to close the door without hitting a car seat in the CRV! And since we love being a one-car family, being able to fit everyone in plus a friend or two is pretty important. Other than passenger space, our other deciding factors are:

1) Safety
2) Price--isn't craigslist.com the best invention ever?
3) Reliability
3) Coolness (we hope that goes without saying)

Factors that aren't as important to us are:
1) Age/mileage of the car--assuming the other criteria are met.
2) Gas mileage (believe it or not, we don't drive that much right now, with Jonathan taking the bus to work and Southwest Airlines providing our travel arrangements to Michigan. We actually might be able to get a good deal with everyone trading in their SUV's right now)
3) Japanese vs. American--we've driven both and really believe the difference in quality is marginal.

Next on the list to test-drive are a Honda Odyssey, a Toyota Sienna, a Ford Windstar and possibly a Ford Explorer. Any recommendations? And anybody want to buy a REALLY COOL Pontiac Sunfire?

Happy Annivesary Mom & Dad

Thirty-one years ago today, Sandra Koch and Gregg Shunkwiler became husband and wife. Today they're the parents of two daughters, in-laws to one son-in-law, and grandparents of two babies, one of whom is still in utero, but spoiled by them nonetheless. Our favorite wedding day story for Kaethe's parents is how they didn't follow the tradition of not seeing the bride before the wedding, but rather had lunch together and enjoyed leftover sloppy joes instead! The wedding--and marriage--went on to be a success. And they still enjoy dining together, although ever since Jonathan came around, there are significantly less leftovers, especially when sloppy joes are served.

Thanks for your wonderful example of marriage Mom & Dad! We love you!

We're Godparents!

Madeline Dianne Yingst was born on Monday, May 28th at 4:00 am. Her proud parents are JR and Amanda Yingst. She was 8 lbs, 19 inches long; almost exactly Mali's size at birth. Also like Mali, she was born with her hand up by her head--OUCH!

Jonathan and JR have been friends since grade school and even survived being college roomates for a year. Here's a picture of them at our high school reunion last year, in the same pose that we have of them in every picture for the past 15+ years. We were thrilled when JR finally married Amanda and know they'll be great parents to their beautiful little girl. We're excited for another trip back to Michigan for her baptism. Congrats, Yingst family!

11 Months Old--and much harder to pose

More pictures to post

We seem to always be behind on posting, but click here for the rest of our pictures from our San Francisco trip. We definitely recommend that as a wonderful place to visit and only wish we would have had more time there. Since then, Mali has been on yet another airplane flight to Michigan to catch up with family and friends as well as celebrate a belated Mother's Day. Our girl is a traveler!

Happy 29th Jonathan!

Belated birthday wishes to our favorite man of the house. We had a great time celebrating his birthday last week in California with yummy Italian food, San Francisco sight-seeing, and birthday hazelnut chocolate crepes. Not many guys could handle a wife experiencing not one but two pregnancies in the last year, new parenthood, and an-ever increasing number of pink clothes around the house, but he does it with grace, humor, and enthusiasm. We're grateful every day for him and his example.

We love you Jonathan/Daddy!

Home again

One great vacation. Here's a shot of us at John Muir National Park, under one of the famous redwoods. As you can tell, Mali is trying to escape, probably to go play with her dear friend and role model, Kaeta. Maybe to snack on some "boo-rahs" (aka "Cheerios" to those of us over age 2) together.

More pictures to follow.

Mali's milestones

Yes, we realize that she's been practicing standing for weeks now, but nothing quite prepares for you walking in to see your child whom you laid down and tucked into bed now standing fully upright in her crib. And of course, incredibly proud of herself.

She had another big event last week, on her 10-month birthday--her first word! Not, the "mama", "dada" or "baby" that we've been practicing, but while we were at Whole Foods, a complete stranger walked down our aisle, and Mali greeted her with a distinct "HI!". The woman herself said "You just said hi!", and again, smiles all around. We're now working on saying it to people we actually know and love, but no luck so far.