Just over the 1 month mark!

Whew- this is a marathon. yes, yes, TWO children is much, much different than one. I now believe all of you who warned me. I get it now. WOW! Anna and I are now splitting the night up so that we can both get at least a little sleep. Most of the time we're stumbling around in a haze trying to be responsible and do things like pay bills and operate a gas powered vehicle.


So far it looks like we've got another laid back child. He's a pretty cool and collected guy - but wow can he toot and burp! What's up with that?!!



I love his indignation in this photo. How dare we blast a bright light into his eyes?! But really, I swear that aside from this brief moment, he's not very demanding. Now, the fact that we hop to meet his every need might play a small part in that :-). .... having just typed that he's erupted in a crying jag that perplexed us both. "But he just can't be hungry again!" HA! HA HA HA! If only I had a dollar for each time I've said that!


Talk about perplexed! Poor Annika. She'll hardly let me out of her sight. She's not quite sure what this new creature is up to in her house, but whatever it is, it's clearly thrown her equilibrium off. I know - all of us first sibs get over this - but my heart breaks a little for her going from our undivided attention to this craziness.


Here she is running through the house - possibly in protest?! I go back to work full time the week of the 20th. Yikes. Wish Anna well!!

Yikes, baby spit-up all over me, laundry to rescue and bottles to wash. Gotta run!

Welcome Jakob Tyler!

Baby Jakob arrived last Saturday, May 30th, after many days of contractions and "is it time's?" Anna started early labor in the wee hours of Wednesday morning of that week and it kept up for days. Finally, on Friday night it was time - for real. By the time we got to the hospital and into a room at about 8pm, Anna's contractions were coming very, very hard. She went from 2 cm to 8 cm about an hour and a half - all without any drugs. (This was not her choice; two C-sections that night took precedence and the anesthesiologist wasn't able to get to her for many hours.) But once she did get the epidural - guess what - it didn't work. By midnight or so Anna was moving into full gear - and still in considerable pain.

"Blow it away," was our mantra... Blow away the urge to push. Finally, by about 2:00 she was fully dilated. The pushing was intense (to say the least). And watching Jakob's head peak out, then recede, then peak out further and further was wild. But then seeing as this little white, rubbery, swollen tiny being get pulled into the world was indescribable.



He's a beautiful boy! At birth 8lbs, 13oz and now up to 9 lbs. Anna is a milk making machine. We're trying to keep him off the human pacifier and onto a rubber one as much as possible so poor Anna can sleep an hour here and there. She knods off sitting in the chair nursing, she's so exhausted. Anna's mom is here and a huge help. How are we going to manage without her help when she goes?


Little Annika doesn't quite understand what's going on, of course. She fluctuates between being curious and apathetic about Jakob. What's changed, though, is that she's become pretty clingy and "needs" her favorite blanket a lot of the time. We'll see how it goes.

That's the news here at the Xerxes Ranch. Stay tuned for more!

Annika cracking herself up at 18 months

Hi everyone,

We're less than a month away from Annika's little world being completely rocked and shaken up, down and all around... in other words, her little brother, Little Jakob Tyler, is due May 28th. We are SO VERY EXCITED!

In the meantime, wanted to post the latest video of Annika. She is SUCH A DELIGHT! I just can't tell you how lucky we are to have such a wonderful, easy-going, fun-loving child! (We're crossing our fingers that we should be so lucky for the next one! :-))

She's a busy, busy little toddler!

Annika is now 16 and a half months old. She loves to spontaneously break into song - a special favorite is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Her favorite musicians are Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and Aerosmith (especially "Sweet Emotion."). She's turning out to be a great little dancer and a future drummer to be sure.



Annika is currently very interested in lights and insists that we all point them out frequently during the day. Figuring out how to put caps on and take them off is also endlessly delightful to her. How things work has captured her imagination for months now, so we're thinking she's already developing essential skills to pursue a lucrative job in engineering. This is good, because we think a college education funded by athletic scholarships has slipped through our fingers - the poor kid is huge for her age and still can't balance that load and walk on her own. So, let's hope for a scholastic future.


Annika continues to be a very happy, easy-going baby/toddler. Our next - a boy - is due at the end of May and so we're hoping to get lucky twice in a row. We'll see!

It's a boy!

We just found out yesterday that our next little one is going to come in a package full of testosterone. Oh boy, oh boy!

Isn't he a cutie? We're so excited to have both a girl and a boy.

Anna is still nauseous, but at least not throwing up everyday which helps.

Annika has no idea what's coming! She remains blissfully the center of all our attention (smothered by mothers).

Here's a couple of photos from Christmas. She's getting "sooo big!"




Cheers!