Evan

Just a quick one.  Lauren got home from work last night about 8pm, we ate tacos, put Adam to bed, and went to sleep ourselves.  I woke at 12:30 and Lauren had been up for an hour with contractions - not the kind she'd been having for several months, but real ones.  They weren't painful, long, or frequent yet, so we hung around until they began to be, and I made her call the OB.  We got into the hospital about 3am and by 6am she was ready.  The OB came in, broke her water, and by 7am we had a baby.

His name is Evan Matthew Giambattista, he was 7 lbs 9.5oz, and 20 inches long.  He has a dimple in his chin, thin blond hair, and dark blue eyes. Also, a picture of Adam in the snow yesterday:

He was only a few minutes old here, so his skin is mottled, I'll add a better picture later on

Adam loved the snow

EDIT:

Here is a better one of Evan

Adam turns two, plus Thanksgiving

I figure I better post about thanksgiving and Adam's birthday now because when Lauren pops that's all anyone will want to see.  Adam had a lovely little party.  We invited over three other families with kids he knows, and I made cake.  I was going to make a 4-layer cake, but the slices wouldn't have fit on our plates, so I did two 2-layer cakes instead.  Lemon cake with raspberry filling and lemon whipped cream frosting. Adam had a good time.  He got lots of loot and really enjoyed having so many friends over. 

For Thanksgiving, my brother Aaron drove up from New Orleans and Dave drove down from Fairport.  We had a really good time, the weather was nice, and we spent a lot of time outside.  Lauren did the sweet potatoes, apple pie, rolls, gravy and deviled eggs (her specialty as you know).  I did the other stuff, with some help from my father, and it all turned out pretty well. 

We ended up with a 15 pound turkey, two bags of stuffing, mashed potatoes, a tray of sweet potatoes, rolls, cranberry compote, deviled eggs, and an honorary salad.  Plus 5 pies (3 pumpkin, 1 apple, 1 cherry) complete with a carton of vanilla ice cream and a bowl of whipped cream.  It sounds like a lot, but by the time Dave & Aaron left Sunday morning, we were down to sweet potatoes, cranberry compote, and gravy - and Adam is about to polish off the compote & sweet potatoes (he'd eat that stuff for all 3 meals if he could).  Giambattistas know how to eat. 

Lauren is still doing well and still working.  My father was surprised by how much energy she has, she acts like she's not even pregnant.  She's ready to go though, so hopefully her Obstetrician can give her some good news this Wednesday about dilation & effacement.  She was 3cm and 80% two weeks ago, hopefully she's further along now. 

One totally unrelated note.  We retired Lauren's old eMachine computer this Week.  It was an 866mhz celeron with 64mb of memory, designed for windows ME.  We'd been using it as a file server, running Debian.  It was stuffed with hard drives and running in our closet uninterrupted since we've been married, which makes it 10 or 11 years old now.  It was still running just fine when we took it down and moved the disks to another computer (amazingly, the disks are 6 or 7 years old too, and yes, everything is backed up).

Here are a few pictures, the next set will include a stranger no one has ever seen before!

Adam loves musical instruments, so we thought he'd like this, but he used it like a stick and it broke the second day

Cake!

Adam's cake at the party

 

Thanksgiving, with my recipe book on the shelf!

Our first round of servings consumed one and a half pies

Thanksgiving!

Adam loves my glasses too

Sheryl wanted to see Lauren's belly

Adam loves his new tricycle he got for his birthday

This was a nice picture

Aaron loved playing with Adam

Adam loves his bat too

Adam is fun

I thought this was a nice picture

Adam loves drums

Adam really loves drums

This was when the city lit the downtown lights

Karen at the Squirrel's Curl Promotion

Karen and I went to the Lift Bridge Bookstore in Brockport last Sat. 11/19 so she could promote her book. We were met by one of the staff who had set up a table right by the entrance for Squirrel's Curl. There was a big sign with Mom's name and the book title. Check the picture that is posted.

Karen is a great salesperson. She brought a nice fuzzy stuffed squirrel with her, and she added a little curl on the top of his head. People who entered the store could fill out a lottery ticket (name, address and email) for a drawing to win the squirrel.

Several looked at the book and congratulated her especially when they learned this was her first published work. Some even bought the book. The book store charged 40% of the sale price for the promotion, so Mom didn't get rich this time. But, I think she is slowly being recognized as an author.

She has sold several books locally to Church members and friends. Her aunt Fran in W.Va. has purchased eight for Christmas presents for her nieces and nephews.

J.K. Rowling, move over.

Fall 2011 Becomes Winter

Adam is still developing quickly.  He has an impressive vocabulary.  He still can't do consonent blends, so "creek" becomes "keek" and tough words like "refridgerator" become a syllable soup.  He has started singing songs with words; he only knows twinkle twinkle entirely, but he knows a few lines from several nursery rhymes and primary songs. 

Winter is coming soon, and I think Adam will enjoy snow.  I doubt he remembers last year's snow.  He's 30 pounds of muscle and loves to run & jump, so hopefully we get enough for him to enjoy it.  But we'll be sad to see fall go.  We've done a few fun things.  We went to an apple orchard and got gobs of apples and pumpkins for all of us.  We also got some of their hot cider and "biscuits" with apple butter (they were basically donuts). 

We went on a nice "trick or treat trail" put on by the parks department.  Lauren hadn't finished Adam's costume, so he got to wear one provided us by the Walkers - a tootsie roll.  This seems to have begun his fascination with tootsie rolls, he's already eaten all the tootsie rolls he got for halloween. 

Our church did a chili cookoff (I made giant molasses cookies, which I thought were very good) and trunk or treat.  Lauren had finished Adam's costume, so he got to show off as a porcupine.  He ended up winning "best child's costume" too, for which Lauren and I got a king size kit-kat (he the privilege of wearing the best costume!). 

For halloween, he selected what he wanted on his pumpkin - a character named "Muno" from a show he loves (Yo Gabba Gabba).  He helped scoop out the insides and tried to cut a little with the pumpkin knife.  Lauren had to work that day, so I took him to an old folks home (they were having "safe treat") and he showed off for the residents.  Then we went around our little housing complex and he ended up with a lot of loot.  Lauren and I have been the primary beneficiaries. 

I finally heard about the NY Bar, and I passed.  Which is one less thing to worry about, so that's nice.  Come January 19th (assuming I get everything I need for the application), I'll be licensed to practice law in NY State, which should be a little frightening!  Still nothing regarding work, but I'm approaching 100 applications, so something is bound to turn up.  In the mean time, I'm the stay-at-home dad. 

Lauren is doing well.  Just 5 weeks to go until Adam has a little brother.  Her employer is understanding with her pregnancy, and treats her well.  She has a few complaints about pregnancy - she waddles and sometimes the baby isn't very nice to her - but by and in large, it has been manageable. 

We're considering visiting this Christmas for a few weeks, we'll let you know what turns out.  Enjoy the pictures!

The zoo photographer got this one, we thought it was worth the exorbitant price they charged

This was the trick or treat trail

Adam with his friend Barec

He picked this pumpkin, so we bought it

They had several goats in a pen for kids to touch, Adam went in and gave the goats a kiss

He wanted to pick up the apples on the ground

Adam really liked playing around in the orchard

Adam ate two apples there, just carried them around & ate them like anyone else

Still munching

Reach!

This is how we could reach good apples no one else could

We had another bag of apples too

This is what happens when you read while the tub is filling instead of watch (nothing spilled!)

He's stomped out in puddles a few times with boots sent from the Walkers and a raincoat from the Cains

Adam's Costume!

He loves that spatula

He loves the piano, and insist on playing whenever we're in church

This was during the trunk or treat

We get this view a lot - him running away

Lauren put some black makeup on his nose too

Scooping out the guts

Adam also colored the tiny pumpkin he picked out at the pumpkin patch

Adam's is Muno (top left), Mine is Link as a wolf in Twilight Princess

The bottom one is Midna, the picture doesn't do it justice

Catch Up on Summer 2011

I can't believe the last time I posted was back in June! Yikes! Thanks to Lauren and Sean at least our family blog is on life support.

We've had a fun and busy summer. Grace had her dance recital in late June and did a great job. There were over 300 people in the audience. Her class danced to Tomorrow, from the musical Annie and It's a Hard Knock Life, also from Annie. Carl's parents were able to come up for the recital which was really nice. We wondered how Marshall would handle a two hour recital but he loved it and clapped and cheered for Grace after every number even though she was only in two dances.

July brought the Kopshina family reunion in WVA. The kids and I got to spend some great time with Mom and Dad, Sheryl, Alex, Dean and Norma and lots of Kopshinas. I even convinced Mom and Dad to drive by their old houses. Aunt Sheryl stayed with me in the Hotel and was a great help with the kids. We did have a small incident where the kids ran a head of us in the hotel and got onto the elevator and when who knows where. We finally caught up to the in the lobby after I sent Sheryl downstairs and I ran upstairs. Yes, we had a stern conversation about getting into elevators without adults.

August sent us home to NY for a visit. Grace spent two weeks with Nana and Papa. It was great to see everyone. Carl and I got to attend the Palmyra temple and baptize and seal his grandparents and his aunt. Lauren came with us and helped us do the work. It was an amazing experience. 

I'm sure most of you know that poor Marshall got attacked by yellow jackets that had built a nest under Mom and Dad's deck. It was terrifying to see all those bees swarming around him. Carl and I ran out and ripped off his shirt. We counted over 20 stings! Needless to say Marshall and Grace have been very leery about going outside and really panic if they see even one bee. Thankfully, Marshall wasn't seriously hurt although I can't tell you how awful it is to watch your child be hurt.

Grace started school Aug, 25th. She was very sad to see the fun and carefree days of summer get tucked away for next year. She's kind of ambivalent about first grade. I think she's OK being at school but given the choice she'd much rather be at the swimming pool, jumping on the trampoline or watching power rangers. 

Marshall misses his big sister. Our big challenge is to try and keep boredom at bay. We have a weekly play group and also a few little friends we try to meet every week. I've been taking him to story time at the library and he really loves that. The other day he invited me to race rolls of tape across the family room floor. He was the masking tape, I was the duct tape. It was actually pretty funny.

Speaking of Marshall, today is his birthday! He's 3. We will be having a small family party for him tomorrow. He's really excited about balloons and cake. I'm going to wrap all his presents in actual birthday paper. It's way more fun than opening up a bag. I can't believe how fast time has gone.  I'll post some birthday party pics later this week.  

Miss you all, Amber

Ballet costume for "Tomorrow"

Tap: It's a hard knock life

Isn't this so classic. Little Brother steals the spotlight.

Swim lessons

This is the first time Carl and I have been to the temple on over a decade.

OK, is this not such a cute picture of cousins?

The Bros

Auntie Sheryl was a favorite with the Walker Kids.

Uncle George and Mom

This was taken the morning after the reunion

all tuckered out...shhhh

foolin around in the pool at  the Giambattistas

Just some of the Cains.