Elliot had a bad fall off the couch and got this nice shiner and gash

Snuggling Sleeping Boys

Last week, Aaron earned the right to buy and prepare a fish with a head. Here's the chef preparing the feast.

He stuffed it with spinach, cut holes in the outside and filled them with garlic, and covered the whole fish in lemon juice. It was quite tasty. He's making his own recipe book, and this recipe is already in there.

This picture is a few days old so she already looks much older than this, but this is what Libbie looks like most of the day-- swaddled up in her blanket. Usually she is sleeping when swaddled though.

Reading Horton Hears a Who
(Do I seriously have three kids?!)

Aaron likes to make a bed between the bottom of his bed and the closet door. He piles up whatever pillows and blankets he can find then snuggles in and falls asleep. (Yes, he is actually sleeping in this picture.)

Well, my parents are gone now and we already miss them. Here are a few pictures from their visit.



I mentioned a few posts ago that Elliot is really into puzzles. Well, that interest has exploded into an obsession. He probably does 5-10 puzzles a day, mostly by himself. This one, his favorite, he can do completely by himself. We just sit and watch because it's so entertaining.

Tato and Grandma swinging Aaron

Lately, when not doing puzzles or reading stories, Elliot likes to set up these fire people, animals, cars, and anything else that can be stood up. He usually says that they are off to fight a knight(s).

Grandma Karen and Libbie

Nine Days Old

Libbie Anne




















Aaron and Elliot delivering a birthday cake to Libbie, to celebrate her nine-day-old birthday

Life is about to get a lot crazier because my parents are leaving tomorrow. These last two weeks have been great, with mom as resident slave and dad as entertainer. Part of me feels bad when I see them scrubbing the house down, cooking every meal, etc, while I sit and nurse the baby, do puzzles with Elliot, or play chess with Aaron, while the other part shouts "Enjoy it!" The latter part wins.

Grandpa LeeR and Libbie

Grandma Karen and Libbie



Aunt Bonis and Libbie

Feast Day

For the last month or so, Aaron has been planning a Turkey Feast while grandma and grandpa are here. Cooking large birds with a grandma has become a theme for him-- a big goose at Christmas with Grandma Marsha and now a turkey in March with Grandma Karen. Fun fun fun. To prepare for this feast, we talked about it, made lists, assignments, and Aaron has sent numerous emails to mom and dad, such as the following:

(Subject: cooking hunting)

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

Dear Grandma-- Can we cook a big animal like a bird? Dear Grandpa-- When we go out into Central Park let's bring my bow and arrow. When we come home, I don't expect for a huge bird to be on our backs.

Please Grandma and Grandpa, please send a message back when you get this message. On your message, please tell me if you can do this or not. Dear Grandma, write your message like this: If we can't, say "Dear Aaron, we cannot make the bird this time. Maybe the next time." And on Grandpa's message, you say, "We cannot go hunting dear Aaron. Maybe next time."

Dear Grandma, I love you too. And Dear Grandpa, I love you too.

Love,
Aaron

We told Aaron we could have the feast on the first Saturday that was at least three days after the baby was born. The first Saturday that mom and dad were here she wasn't born yet so we aimed for the next Saturday. On Sunday morning when Aaron came to the hospital to see Libbie, one of the first things he said, in a sort of sheepish tone, was, "Now we can have our turkey feast!" with eyebrows raised. When Saturday morning finally came, Aaron woke up at 6:30 as usual and ran to wake up Grandma so they could start cooking. They were in the kitchen pretty much non-stop from that point until about noon, then on and off again for various things until we had dinner around 4:30. Aaron was in heaven all day. As he said when Ben asked him if the day was just like he had dreamed, "It's like my dreams came true!"

Showing off the big turkey
This is at about 11:00-- notice the pies and chocolate birthday cake for "huge Tony" (Aaron's words. Huge Tony as opposed to Little Tony.) already prepared that morning.

Making orange rolls

The spread-- notice the Thanksgiving St. Patrick's Day mix. We thought it appropriate given the timing of the turkey feast

Aaron and Libbie

Aaron has always loved babies and that has shown through with baby Libbie as well. As soon as he wakes up or comes home from school, he runs for the hand sanitizer (or "hanitizer," as he calls it) so he can play with Libbie.



Sometimes he just caresses her fingers, face, etc.

Here he is holding her. I love the position of his left hand-- he's trying so hard to hold her head up.

Some more pictures

Slightly more effective way of working from home

Baby Libbie (three days old) on the quilt made by her great grandma Libbie

This is our first time with two kids in diapers. Here they both are getting changed.

Five Days Old

ABC Lullaby

Elliot loves to "hold it a baby Libbie" and, if she's not squirmy or upset, sing her songs. Today she listened to him sing ABCs about ten times.

The Whole Story

Here I am 39 weeks and 6 days pregnant. I basically had had about two weeks of pre-labor, with several days of thinking, "Hmm... maybe this will turn into the real thing...?" Obviously, I was wrong. So on Saturday at about 11:30 (after consulting with my midwife) I decided to drink a bottle of castor oil. After a fairly unpleasant five or six hours, I started getting light contractions that got pretty close together, but nothing seemed much different than the two weeks before. At around 11:30 I decided to try to go to sleep. I fell asleep fine, woke up at about 4:45 to go to the bathroom and thought, "Well I fell asleep like every other night, so I guess that was another false alarm." At 5:15, however, I knew it was for real and woke up Ben to call the midwife. She called the birthing center and told us to meet her there by 6:00. We got there a few minutes after 6:00.





After 30 minutes of lying on the bed during routine monitoring,
(this is me during contractions)









I got in the jacuzzi and the smile came back. They don't call it "the midwife's epidural" for nothing. We sent my mom and sister Kami off to get us some breakfast. Not long after that, Ben called mom and said, "Run!" They ran back as fast as they could and then...








baby was born about four minutes after they walked in the door!

So yes, she was born an hour and a half after we arrived at the hospital. It was fast. A little too fast, actually. It was so intense. I was sleeping one minute, then three hours later I had a baby. I know it probably seems strange, but I could have used a couple more hours in there to ease into the intensity of the last hour of labor. Aaron's birth was long and drawn out-- about thirty hours or so. Elliot's was fast, about six hours, but it was in the evening and I slowly built up to it, with contractions on and off all day. Libbie's birth was a few hours but more like getting hit by a truck, as my midwife put it. Not really sure what hit you. Regardless though, we had a wonderful labor and enjoyed it. And now we have a beautiful, healthy baby girl, and that's all that really matters.

Some more Pictures from the day

Libbie and Mama, soon after birth

Aunt Bonis

Tato

Grandma Karen

The boys arriving with Grandpa LeeR and Grandma Karen
(with midwife Georgia to greet them)

Aunt Kokies and little Tony checking out Libbie

Snuggle

And, finally, a well-earned rest for the Libbies

Announcing Libbie Anne Lambert Peters, born March 1, 2009

(Ben writes:) Kourtney and I are pleased--thrilled really--to announce the birth of Libbie Anne Lambert Peters. Libbie was born at 7:20 am on Sunday, March 1, 2009, weighing 8 lbs. 8 oz. and measuring 21 inches (53 centimeters) in length. She shares her name Libbie with Kourtney's grandmother (and Kourtney); she also shares her name Anne with my mom and grandmother. Both Kourtney and baby are now home and doing very well. The images below take only one step toward representing March 1, 2009, one of the best days of my life. Words were not made for times such as these.