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.

Why we love Fridays

For about a month now, we've been participating with our neighbors in a new way of buying produce in our neighborhood, Community-Supported Agriculture. Basically, we signed up in advance for a "share" of local farmer's produce. Then, every Friday we pick up a box of whatever is in season that week. Today, we expect to get salad greens, portabella mushrooms, farm-fresh eggs, tomatoes, sunflower sprouts, green onions, and watercress. Other weeks have included fresh cheese and bread.

We're not always sure how to prepare the foods, but the research has been fun too. The foods have always been DELICIOUS and honestly, the "surprise" of not knowing exactly what we're getting is part of the fun. It makes us feel like we're on Iron Chef. We split our portion with our neighbors and enjoy the anticipation together. Here's more information from the original article that sparked our interest.

Now off to learn how to cook and eat watercress...

Ten months old!

She celebrated by throwing her breakfast from her high chair on to the floor, as she does most mornings. We're working on this NOT becoming a pattern. I do think the spitting hobby is here to stay.

Halfway there...

We are now 20 weeks and counting into this pregnancy, and Baby Ward #2 is growing like a weed. Neither of these pictures seem to do justice to our baby's size. We've been told that this pregnancy will go by much more quickly than Mali's and September all of a sudden seems pretty close. We've had two sonograms so far and everything looks great, thankfully.

A few more answers to frequently asked baby questions:

1) The official due date is September 7. We're hoping this one is more timely than his/her older sister
2) We don't have any names chosen yet. Our boy's name for Mali was Lincoln, and that is still a strong contender.
3) Yes, we will be choosing (at least) two names before delivery, as is we will NOT be finding out the sex ahead of time. We're sorry to disappoint all of you who are dying to know that information before the birth, but we're not sorry to save that wonderful surprise for ourselves when we actually meet the baby. It was well worth it last time!

More Easter pictures

For even more spring-time cutness, click here.

Easter blessings to all.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Celebrate good times...

We're winding down after a wonderfully busy and celebration-filled weekend. Mali not only slept all during church this morning (something she hasn't done since she was 6 days old) but also napped until 6:30 pm tonight! Maybe it had something to do with having Grandpa's lap to cuddle in during church today.

Speaking of grandparents, before we post about Easter (including lots more pictures) we'd like to wish Grandpa Gregg (Kaethe's dad) and Grandma Deni (Jonathan's mom) happy birthdays this past week. We loved having them here to share such special days!

Now back to un-spoiling our little girl...

Signs of things to come?

We've been having fun visiting new babies recently and Mali is definitely intrigued. As you can see from her expression, she's not sure what other emotions to express. Of course, the first thing new parents say when seeing her is "You're SO big!". How do they grow so much in nine months? Was our big girl once THAT little?

Here are pictures of her with her adorable new friend Jack (more pictures of that little cutie can be seen on his own blog, The Ryans,). Check out how closely we have to hold her hands so she doesn't completely scare him.

Nine Months Old

She has now been out of the womb virtually as long as she was in the womb!

Amalia June Ward is now officially on the go--scooting, rolling, creeping, and almost crawling everywhere. That is, when she's not too busy going out to eat and visiting newborn babies (pictures to follow in upcoming posts). Her current favorite toys, listed in order, are:

1) Anything she is not allowed to play with, i.e. plants, electrical sockets, heating grates, buttons on the computer, tubes of diaper ointment, and electrical cords.

2) Mommy and Daddy's books that she can reach on the bookshelf. We are continually entertained to turn around to find her immersed in reading material like "The Complete Fondue Cookbook".

3) The paper feed button on the printer (we do allow this one, just to enjoy the look on her face when the papers shoots out of the printer).

4) Doors and drawers, and anything else that opens and closes.

5) Her hairbrush, resulting in it being lost throughout the house.

6) Measuring cups and spoons.

7) Any of her own toys, books, or stuffed animals.