RR Days and a Photo Shoot

Andrew's dream came true today. We went to the train station for Railroad Days, an annual train extravaganza in Fullerton. We got to board several different trains, see model train sets that were really cool, and even see a steam engine! It actually was pretty interesting for me too. But, for the most part, it was for the visitors under the age of 5 or over the age of 70. (by the way, this is Andrew's new pose for cameras. I'm not sure why.)

All three boys enjoyed the train tour.

Right across from us was a freight engine going by on the tracks too. For those of you who don't have boys, this is about as good as it gets when you're 2.

Keira's first ride in the big stroller. She loved lying down and looking at the patterns above her. This is her literally smiling at the plaid.

Below is a photo shoot I had with Keira yesterday during Andrew's nap time.

This is an outfit from cousin Nathan. We love it! Gabe thinks it's perfect for the NBA playoffs right now. It's very non-committal to any team... Go NBA!

Sometimes Andrew goes down the hall and comes back with strange things on. I just think he's so cute.

Chubby cheeks.

The following video is mainly for grandparents. It won't be exciting for everyone, but it shows off Keira's new sounds. I love listening to her. It makes me smile.

Smiles For Everyone

Above: Keira smiling

Below: Andrew smiling at about the same age (Do they look alike???)

Isn't she a sweetie? (btw, Andrew picks out her socks every morning. I actually kind of like his choice here, but they certainly do make a statement.)

Gabe's grandparents were in town yesterday. It's always so nice to visit with them. I think this is a good pic of them with Keira.

Look how much our hair is alike! Whoa!

Father-son bonding time.

A couple more random shots...

God, is that You?

Here's a good Andrew story:

I had just gotten off the phone with a friend who was telling me she had a headache. I told Andrew and we prayed for her. After we were done praying, Andrew was asking why we prayed to God for her to feel better. I was trying to explain God to a 2-year-old. I found that very complicated as I wanted him to understand the fullness of God and that He wasn't just a magician who could make people feel better, but also the Creator of the universe and Jesus' Father, and our Father, and Jesus Himself... I was in a little over my head, let alone Andrew's... I gave up after a while and started checking a voice message on my cell phone on speaker phone. It was my friend, Flo. "Hey Cheri. It's me..." Andrew gasped and exclaimed, "God!" as he pointed at the phone...
I don't think I explained God very well.

Here's a good delirious mom-of-a-new-baby story:

Keira just started only waking up once a night to nurse Saturday night. On Friday night, the following happened:
Keira woke up to nurse and was crying. I rolled over and nudged Gabe.
C: Hey Gabe. Could you get up with her?
G: Well, I think she is hungry and just wants to nurse.
C: You can't get up with her? I already have the baby in bed. How am I supposed to get Keira too?
G: I'm sorry. What?
C: You can't even help out with Keira while I nurse the baby?
G: Exactly how many babies do you think we have?
C: What? Ugh... Nevermind!
I got up and it took me halfway through nursing Keira when I realized that, in fact, there was no baby in bed with us.
The best part... the exact same thing happened the next time she woke up to nurse 3 hours later.
The next morning, Gabe (who earned about 1000 husband points for this) asked, "So... was I really confused last night or... were... you?"

I know all y'all want pictures. I know I have them. I'll share some soon.

Smiles!!!

Keira smiled for the first time on March 22nd and I've been trying to get a picture ever since. She doesn't like the light that comes on before the flash so every smile turns to a weird look right as the picture is taken. That's why I thought that a video might work better. This still doesn't show off her BIG smile. I'll try again soon for that, but I hope this will suffice for now. :)

On a less important note, Gabe and I play the grocery game. We use coupons and deals at the grocery store to see how much we can save. Last week, we just made a new record. Our total before coupons, etc was $92.19. After the coupons, it was $17.59. Not bad, huh? Anyone else here play???

Shout Out to the Fresno Fam

I guess after listing off 10 names, 2 more is too much to ask... we do love you, Nathan and Eli!

I spoke with my sister, Sara, today and she wanted in on the "Daddy swaddle", as it's known around our house. It works wonders for us (mainly Keira), although Gabe always enjoys a good swaddle every once in a while as well. :)

Happy Birthday!

Andrew has been learning and singing so many different songs lately. It's so fun! Here's a video of Keira too. I just think it's so funny how random baby's movements are.
ps Sara- Do these clothes look familiar???

I want to post more, but haven't had the time. Sorry folks. I'll see what I can do! :)

A Day at the Beach

This morning our friend Allie babysat Andrew for us so Gabe and I got time alone with Keira, which as those of you who have kids know, means we had time pretty much alone. We went to our favorite breakfast place over in Newport and enjoyed uninterrupted conversation for once in what seems like quite a while. We even had some deep theological debates. Don't worry. Gabe finally came around to seeing things my way. :) (In my dreams!)

Here are just a couple shots that we took while we were there.

Our debates bored her.

My First Day "Alone"

Keira's first time in a dress... let the dressing up begin!!!

Keira's first bath.

Andrew did a good portion of the soaping.

She actually enjoyed it quite a bit... at least she wasn't crying...

Can you see Keira's hair here? Isn't that awesome?!

Our friends, Gary and Carolyn with their daughter Lauren, came the other day for a visit. It was really good to see them and it was so cute to watch the two big kids play. They had a lot of fun together. It's always so special for me to see Andrew enjoy someone so much.

Gabe is having fun being a dad of two. I think he's got the hang of it more than I do.

This is Andrew's train that he sets up in his room. He asked for Keira to ride in the engine with him.

Nonnie and Papa came down for a visit last weekend. We went to the park near our house for an Easter party.

Andrew with his monkey tatoo. Doesn't he look tough?

Andrew during the Easter egg hunt.

Tuesday was Gabe's first day back at work without anyone being here to help me. This is the view of the house towards the end of it.

Cheri quote the day before this: "I don't expect much, Gabe. I just want the house cleaned up a few times a day."
Cheri quote when Gabe got home from his 4-hour work day: "I'm reconsidering taking the second one out of the womb."

Our First Week at Home

Andrew has been doing great adjusting to having a little sister around the house. He kisses her, covers her with blankets, gives her a pacifier. It's very sweet.

Have you ever heard of the "fourth trimester"? This is why. I'm sure this is how she was folded in the womb. We call her our legless baby because you can never feel her legs when you hold her.

I love this little smile- even if it is just gas.

Keira was crying a ton the other day and Gabe and I tried everything to calm her down. Finally we swaddled her. Gabe and I both had to go do something and we came back to this content baby lying in the middle of the floor alone. We look like awful parents, but it must have been what she wanted.

The second night at home, Andrew wanted to sleep in our room with the other three of us. It was so cute, but we had to explain to him that it's not as good as it sounded.

Andrew's Easter basket. (made from an OJ carton, etc.) It was our first official art project together. I learned a lot.

We had an egg hunt Thursday night with the Encarnacions. Between both families, we had 39 eggs hidden. Once it took the boys about 5 minutes to "find" 2 each, Gabe and Gabe started sneaking some into their pockets. The boys had a lot of fun collecting candy and stickers and fake bugs.

Josh's technique was finding an egg, opening it, eating the contents, and moving on to the next one. Maybe not efficient, but instantly gratifying.

Andrew's technique was finding an egg, emptying its contents into the grass, and eating the jelly beans ("jungle beans") off the ground. Still not efficient and maybe not completely gratifying, but very unique.

Andrew and Keira got each other gifts. Here is Keira holding the hand of the doll that Andrew picked out for her.

Here's Andrew with his Thomas train that "Keira" got for him. It's Emily (the only girl train on Sodor).

What a 2-yr-old!

This video was taken after Andrew's "2 hour nap" yesterday. He never fell asleep and by the sound of things, this is about what sounded like happened in his room. By the way, I always make sure his room is totally clean when he goes to bed for naptime.

Now Introducing...

Keira Charis Barber
Born 3/13/08, 1:35pm
7lbs 4oz
19" long
cute as they come. here's the proof:


The story of her birth is long and pretty cool, but I'll save that for Cheri to tell since she's the stud of the family. :)
She's recovering from a c-section and will be in the hospital until probably Sunday. But she's ecstatic and beautiful as ever. Here's the proud family:


More to follow in days to come. Thanks for all your encouragement and prayer...

Update: Gotcha!

Well, about an hour after my last post, the contractions started to become much weaker, and now they've disappeared altogether for the past hour.

So now we're back to waiting, only this time with less sleep...

Could This Be It???

Here it is. Tell me if you think today is the day.

* I've been having contractions on and off for 2 weeks now.
* Yesterday afternoon I had cramps on and off through the evening.
*I woke up about every hour between 1am and 4 am with painful contractions that lasted about 2 minutes each. After each of these contractions, I felt like barfing for a few minutes. Yum.
* The following are the times of my contractions since then. They have been much shorter and milder with a backache too.
4:16
4:43
5:00
5:14
5:28
5:42
5:50

What do you think???

We're really excited. I'm nervous. Gabe is sleepy. (I woke him up after the 4am contraction because I thought I was going to barf and I thought maybe something was wrong since it hurt so bad so early on.) Having him up with me has helped a ton. I hope today is the day we get to meet our daughter!!!

Ridiculous!

I wasn't sure it could get more ridiculous than yesterday's posts, but this morning when Andrew set up oatmeal for 9 of his closest friends, I was proven wrong. He even pretends to open cupboards, etc to make the oatmeal for each of them. Ridiculous!

On another note, 1 day left?! Is that a guarantee? Ridiculous! Gabe and I are fairly sure she's just never going to come out.

I'm waiting (impatiently) to hear from my older sis, Sara, about her new baby. She's having her baby right now!!! (not very ridiculous, but exciting!)

My Chinese Son

Belly Shot! I've been feeling really good the past few days and really enjoying this time being pregnant. The only problem I've been having is sleep. It's getting tougher and tougher. I'm not comfortable and I've been having contractions that wake me up and get me all excited. I went to the doctor today and the non-stress test and amniotic fluid level were good, but I'm still not effaced or dilated. Oh well. The contractions have still been good for me to condition myself to relax when they come instead of tense up. Last night I had contractions every 30 minutes for 4 hours. I thought for sure that was it. I'm sure my daughter was laughing at me from inside the womb. Very funny, daughter. Very funny.

Me and my last carton of ice cream. Once I'm nursing, I'm not allowed to have any milk or eggs due to the allergy potential in our family so this is my last shot! I just realized today that I wouldn't be having ice cream for a year so I went to the store and bought one of my favorite flavors. YUM!

I thought I only had one child to take care of.

This is getting ridiculous! How am I going to manage ANOTHER baby and still care for all of these???

Andrew's first time using chopsticks.

Andrew using the American-Chinese method with a significantly higher success rate.

These Last Few Days

Andrew set himself up for this portrait with Daisy and Dumbo the other day. He stayed there and posed for a good 5 minutes or so asking us to continue taking pictures.

Gabe and Andrew have been having a lot more quality time lately as I get bigger and bigger. I love watching them! Gabe is such a good dad. I am continually blessed by his love for Andrew (and the new baby too!)

The 2 pics above and one below are from the rocket ride at Disneyland. We went with the Encarnacions (as you can see here.)

"Yzma! Put your hands in the air!" (Emporer's New Grove)

Here are a couple cute videos. Andrew and Josh are just a little excited to ride on the train. If any of you have any guesses what I was talking about, I'd love to know. It's driving me crazy.

The second video is from Monday morning after Andrew and Gabe got home from their morning out. They went to look at trains. I just wanted to put this up so that you could get a good idea of how Andrew talks... and makes things up. I love it!

NOTHING!!!

Here's the update on the baby: NOTHING!!!

What's up with that?! Since my last post, I had contractions for four more days (just little ones.) I thought for sure I'd be dilated today at my appointment, but I was wrong. Bummer.

The great news is that my amniotic fluid level is good and the non-stress test went well too. That is really good news and it takes some of the pressure off of wanting to go into labor soon. I still have a whole week left before my due date and I could very easily go past that.

We're ready for her to come so now it's just a matter of kicking back and waiting. I really think I can be patient. I guess whether I am or not, I have to wait.

(twiddling thumbs)