9 YEARS OLD!!!

8 YEARS OLD!!!

The Ninja and the Princess.

A strange b-movie that played out beautifully on halloween night.

Some fall family pictures with the changing Aspen tree leaves up near Mt. Evans.

Wow. Wow. Wow. 

Your response to Liam’s birthday has been incredible. We will give it a few days (to allow some more greatness to happen) and post an update on who, what, and how things got done. 

Thank you. 

Goodness.

I texted a friend the other day who just had their second child (congrats Josh & Jessica!) and I told him that the good news with this addition is that you actually don’t get sleep deprived – you just get even more sleep deprived.

It’s not that there hasn’t been the want to post, and it’s not even that the time hasn’t been available; it’s that the energy to write and the time to do so haven’t lined up yet. I mean, for crying out loud, we haven’t really even updated Facebook in a while. Seriously. I don’t know how we’ve survived either.

Elia flew through the second week of life as of yesterday, and she is doing pretty well. She has done – by all accounts – pretty dang good at night, and seems to really have days and nights in some sort of working order that we can generally manage…with the occasional hiccup (metaphorically and physically).

We were treated to visits and stays by Ahna’s parents and her oldest sister, all of whom had to leave on Monday…so the last couple of days have really been our first ones without help just down the hallway (which was exceptional).

Ezra’s fall break is over, so he is back in school which brings it’s own challenges and opportunities. Ahna is healing just fine and is heading out into the world without a chauffeur, and I am hanging in there. The house seems to have taken shape and things have made their way out of the basement, through the laundry cycle, and into baby rotation. However, the laundry for the rest of us is on a permanent assignment as it seems like mission impossible to get caught up, let alone ahead of the curve.

And aside from Elia apparently holding up her end of the bargain in the contract that she signed with an unnamed diaper manufacturer (without telling us or cutting us in on the deal), I have renewed my deal with a coffee company – although that seems pretty one sided as I am waiting on my first royalty check.

Photos soon.

This kid is amazing, and I mean AMAZING. There will never be words that would adequately describe how well he has done in meeting his sister. He has been so excited for the past few months, and that excitement has not diminished since her arrival.

Last night, when he saw her for the first time, he exclaimed “she is so beautiful!” Remarks similar to that one filled his visit last night, and while the newness wore off a shade (in the way it does for four year olds) by the time he came this morning, his obvious and apparent love had only begun to grow…like walking around and telling anyone that would listen about his sister.

When he came in this morning, he had his first chance to sit and hold her. Elia immediately relaxed and fell asleep in his arms, and he sat there like a pro – not moving around, making sure that we were all staying quiet enough for her to sleep, and keeping her warm. Both Elia and Liam have been blessed with an outstanding brother in Ezra.

How in the world did this happen? 200,000+ views on the blog? We eclipsed that number last week, and have sailed a few thousand higher over the past few days. We enjoy sharing some of our lives and experiences with you, and are thankful that we have been able to connect in this way. Cheers to the next 200,000!

The 18th and the 19th. The 18th and the 19th. The 18th and the 19th.

We are three months into this new reality that we are living, and there is a set of two days that will seemingly forever be something different than what they were before. It often feels like the rest of the month is just some sort of between time between one set of 18/19 and the next set. Of course, the 19th would be the day of the month that Liam was born, and the 18th is the day of the month that Liam died. With such incredible emotion handcuffed to each day, and those days being on opposite ends of that spectrum, they make for some long and sad moments.

On the 18th of each month, we think back to those last few moments at the hospital; and we think about how long it’s been since we last held Liam….hoping above all else to not forget what that felt like. On the 19th of each month, we think back to the night that he was born, to joy and sorrow, and to the unknown. We also inexplicably think about what life would be like today had Liam lived: last week he would have been 5 months old.

These mark hard days for us, and I suppose at some point – just like it would be with a healthy baby at home – we will stop thinking in terms of weeks and move onto months. Then months will move onto years, etc. It seems like so long ago since we were in the hospital, yet it the internal hole grows each day.

I wanted so badly to be able to share something positive and non-down-emotional in this post, but it just isn’t happening. It’s not there yet and it might not be for a while.