Bath time

This is one of our favorite pictures of Eli. He's getting his first bath at the hospital. He didn't cry too much during the bath, but we may have shed a tear laughing at how he looked during it!!

Night 5

Following a terrific 4.5 hours of sleep, Eli refused to fall back asleep between 3-6 am. Mom fed him twice in there, and Dad tried to lull him by watching Kung Fu Panda. We're feeling good at the moment, but we'll be tired this afternoon. We're going to keep the little guy more awake today.

Baby Ellis

Jen gave birth to our son, Ellis Isaac, on Friday around noon. He also goes by Eli. He wass 6 lbs 15 oz and 20.5 in long. He is a wonder to behold! It was a natural birth involving a fast 4 hours of intense labor after Jen's water broke. The pregnancy was considered term, though he came 2 weeks earlier than his due date. Baby, Mom and Dad are all healthy and doing great. We came home Saturday evening and have since figured out breastfeeding, diaper changes, and we made a few field trips to the pediatrician, Babies R Us and a neighborhood walk.

Andrew caught Ellis as he was born and gave him to Jen!

The closest I'm coming to getting a tattoo.

Proud and tired.

Long and lean!

Carseat installation

LATCH system is operational. Now to have it checked by a professional (police officer).

OnLive - the future of gaming

http://www.onlive.com/

Two minute video. Wow.

Cradle

A kind and generous coworker has loaned us this cradle that her father made for her to use with her own children. There is a metal nameplate for each child that has used this crib over the years - I think our child will be about the fifteenth - as other friends of this woman have also been blessed with it for the first months of their children's lives. It fits nicely in our bedroom along one wall, a foot's reach from the bed to give the little one a gentle rocking in the night if s/he is fussy. That means neither of us has to get out of bed!

Diapers

Here you can see our cloth diapers are washed, air dried, and ready to go.

Diapers Ready

30 weeks

Crib

We received the crib at the shower over the weekend. We set it up tonight. 48 minutes flat. Check out the clocks if you doubt it. This baby thing isn't going to be that hard, is it?!?!

Starting at 5:21p

In the middle of it

Finished

Ready and waiting...

Obama speaks with Republicans

This is a long video (slightly over an hour) but it gives us an idea of the interaction happening between the president and house Republicans.

No GM Alfalfa!

From the Organic Consumers Association:

Barack Obama, despite promising us "change we can believe in," is unfortunately turning out to be just as pro-GMO as the preceding Bush and Clinton administrations, packing the USDA and other government bureaucracies with Monsanto men and biotech cheerleaders such as former Iowa Governor, Tom Vilsack, named "Biotech Governor of the Year" in 2001, now serving as USDA Secretary. Vilsack, notorious for flying around in a Monsanto company jet during one of his previous election campaigns, is now busy trying to get the court-ordered ban on Roundup Ready alfalfa lifted by issuing a new draft environmental impact statement (EIS) that denies or downplays the obvious environmental (genetic pollution and creation of herbicide-resistant superweeds) and human health hazards of GM alfalfa.

Alfalfa is the fourth most widely grown crop in the U.S. and a key source of dairy forage and hay. The first perennial crop to be genetically engineered, GM alfalfa can regenerate itself from its root-stock. It is open-pollinated by bees, which can cross-pollinate at distances of several miles, spreading Monsanto's patented, foreign DNA to non-GMO and organic crops. Widespread GMO-contamination of organic alfalfa is inevitable if the Obama Administration successfully distorts science and ignores public opinion and allows Monsanto's GM Roundup Ready alfalfa to be planted across the U.S.

Take action!

http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=14469696

Why's everyone wearing glasses?

I have thought for a long time that as our worlds become smaller and smaller, our eyesight is getting worse and worse. Now there's a little something to it. Solution: have your kids play outside for 2+ hrs/day! So we can avoid both Nature Deficit Disorder and near-sightedness.

Read the article here.

Pistons Plays of the Decade

When your team is on a 13 game losing streak, you need to remember the good times. Go Pistons!!!

Relationships and Rightness

I read this morning and thought it aptly described some of my own thinking and feeling:

The question is how to relate to these individuals when a controversial topic—abortion, say, or Afghanistan—is broached. We have a stock of options for response: retreat, limited resistance (arguing only until someone gets upset), a strategic diversion (speaking of Afghan affairs, did I tell you I’ve learned to crochet?), or full-scale engagement.

Hmm … Interestingly, these are all military metaphors. There’s something about political dialogue more than any other topic that flips us into combat mode. There’s ground we feel compelled to protect, or to gain. For the duration of the argument, the other person stops being my sister or my uncle or my friend: They are my opponent, and I can either convince them of my rightness, or lose.

But lose what? I’ve been mulling that over. Why do I feel so threatened when people I care about take a different political path—and are vocal about it? It’s not the same as reading a columnist I disagree with, or exchanging political punch lines with Facebook acquaintances, or getting into a discussion over healthcare with a colleague at work. Such cases may generate hot air, but they don’t leave me feeling as heated up and vulnerable inside. There’s no personal relationship. When we care about someone, we let them have a stake in our well-being. And part of our well-being, we believe, is staked on being right. The relationships and the rightness get all tangled up.

Read the full article.

Google Wave

Anybody interested in the future of online communication? Here it is in less than 8 minutes!



Here is the complete guide, if you want more: http://completewaveguide.com/

Takraw

This is the favorite sport of one of our sponsored children in Thailand, Peerawat. This 5 minute video gives an overview of the sport.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15asVgf66KI

Squirrel Problem No Longer a Problem

Who'd have known that the answer to all the squirrel attacks against the plants, pots and chairs on the porch were just a click away?? Thank you YOU TUBE!!!

Put Poor People on the Climate Change Agenda

I liked this response from Jim Wallis to a group of senators who asked for feedback from a small group of religious leaders on a Senate bill on climate change.

Thanks for the invitation. You have, I am sure, heard us speak about creation care as the commitment we have to the environment. Most of us believe that human-caused climate change is a threat to God’s creation. Religious leaders actually do listen to scientists, and they are telling us that the pace of climate change is all happening even faster than expected. A good climate bill could signal a whole new direction and could even be a “three-for.”

1. It could protect the environment and begin to slow and eventually even reverse the dangerous and deadly impact of climate change.
2. It could create important and meaningful green energy jobs, many of which could be an opportunity for low-income and undereducated people, and also be good paying work.
3. It could change our foreign policy, which has been dominated by successive wars over oil. This could begin to decrease our dependency on foreign oil.

Read the rest of the article on the God's Politics blog.

A Joyful Surprise!

This morning, we had our routine first trimester ultrasound! Yes, that's right, I'm pregnant! So much has happened since I last wrote, and we've decided it's time to make it public with everyone online.

In mid-July, we went camping with my cousins as we do every year. A week and a half later on a Friday, I got a call that everything was finally ready to go for me to make an appointment at the fertility center. I decided to wait to call on Monday morning so Andrew and I could look at our schedules to be sure we could go together.

Then a strange thing happened. Over the weekend, I didn't get my period. Remember, I've been charting my cycles for years, so when I was one day later than I'd ever been, I knew it immediately. My temperatures remained high, and even had gone to a higher level. A tri-phasic pattern is one sign of pregnancy. So, on Tuesday morning I took a home pregnancy test, but at that point it was really just a formality. Of course, it was positive!

I've been very tired. That's the biggest thing I've noticed. I also am craving Kraft mac'n'cheese and anything with Velveeta. NOT NORMAL! :) But, I can definitely handle this!