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)

Baby Updates and Kitchens

This was the first night that Andrew officially set the table for us. I didn't even ask him to. He got out forks for all 3 of us, his sippy cup, and set them on the table just like this. Then he went and turned on the light. Voila!

I got to clean a kitchen today and it was such a blessing. One thing I really miss since having Andrew is being able to help clean places up. I used to love cleaning up after church events or parties at people's houses or wherever. Now, I'm too busy watching Andrew to be able to do that kind of stuff. Not today though! I'm part of a women's Bible study on Thursday mornings that provides childcare. Today was their community service day. Since I still needed childcare, I (along with about 6 other moms) cleaned up the church kitchen. It was so nice to be able to scrub and clean and chat and laugh without having to watch Andrew. What a blessing!

BABY UPDATE: On Tuesday night, I had 3 official contractions! I had another one yesterday afternoon. I know it could still be a while, but it's still so exciting!!! Since Andrew had to be delivered c-section, I never had any contractions with him. This is totally uncharted territory for me. I'm really hoping to have a VBAC this time so please pray for me to go into labor soon. The level of amniotic fluid is starting to get a bit low and if it goes below a certain point, I'll need a c-section right away. I REALLY want to have a VBAC, but I know that in the end (like last time), what I really want is the baby delivered the healthiest and safest way possible. :)

Mooner Eclipse

For those of you who didn't know, we had a lunar eclipse a couple nights ago. As Andrew and I were outside watching it, I explained to him what was happening. After my in-depth explanation, Andrew said, "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh... a mooner eclipse." After I was done laughing, I said, "It's a LU-nar eclipse. L-L-L-Lunar eclipse." Then Andrew replied, while staring up at the moon amazed, "La-La-La-Mooner eclipse." "Yes Andrew."

Cheri

1. What is your occupation? Homemaker and Pastor's wife
2. What color are your socks right now? Blue and white socks from New Zealand! (I'm almost ALWAYS wearing plain white socks. You asked on the right day!)
3. What are you listening to right now? My son's breathing on the baby monitor. Ahhhhhh...
4. What was the last thing that you ate? Banana Chocolate Soy milk smoothie
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Depends on my confidence level that day... today, perhaps.
6. What color would you be, if you were a color? Red
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My friend, Rachelle
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I LOVE FLO!
9. How old are you today? 29
10. Favorite drink? High quality H2O
11. What is your favorite sport to watch? Football
13. Pets? Nope
14. Favorite food? Duh! Ice cream! Although, I am also known to succumb to Frito attacks... and peaches are always good too.
15. Last movie you watched? Bourne Ultimatum (sweet!)
16. Favorite day of the year? The first day of fall
17. What do you do to vent anger? Talk to Gabe (poor Gabe)
18. What was your favorite toy as a child? Drowsy (a very sleepy doll in pink polka-dotted jammies)
19. What is your favorite, fall or spring? Fall! (see 16. Were you not paying attention?)
20. Cherry or blueberry? I like both...but only the real fruit, not flavored things (This was Flo's answer, but I completely agree!)
24. What are your current living arrangements? we've got a garage and a washer/dryer. does any mom ask for more?
26. Who is the friend you've had the longest that you are sending this to? I met this really nice girl last week. I think her name was Jane... probably her.
27. Favorite smell? I'd have to agree with Flo on this one too: garlic sizzling in olive oil. Also, water on sidewalks and good old-fashioned roses
30. Favorite cat breed? No one should breed cats.
31. Number of keys on your key ring? 3
33. Favorite day of the week? Monday (Gabe has it off, it's my sleep in day, everyone else is working)
34. How many states have you lived in? 1
35. What is your favorite hobby? Working out and staring psychotically at Gabe (he loves that)
36. Last book you read: "Caps for Sale" (good children's book); I'm also reading "The Sacred Romance" and "Blue Like Jazz" (both good books);

Belly Shot!

Here's the belly you've all been waiting for! Even Gabe admits that I'm finally starting to get a bigger belly. I'm 37 weeks now and still healthy and happy! :)
I LOVE this pic of Andrew giving the baby a hug and kiss! Does it get any cuter than this?!

This morning Andrew put his sock puppet on his foot as a slipper. Not a bad style, huh?

I think Andrew was hungry for lunch today. He got out every utensil of his that he could reach and then climbed into his booster seat while I was just starting our lunches. (Sisters: Do you recognize the banana spoon?)

Andrew Helps...

This is my first post that Andrew has helped me on... We'll see how it goes. We went to Newport with Gabe, Allie, Josh, and Zach yesterday. It was Gabe's (other Gabe's) birthday and he had the day off... very good reason to get out and have some fun! Here is our son eating jelly from the restaurant we ate at.
Andrew's comment: "jelly! jelly! jelly!"

Gabe is fairly sure that Andrew was mocking him here, but either way I think it's cute!
Andrew's comment: "Daddy... doing pocket!"
\Allie and I almost never have our picture taken together so this is a special shot.
Andrew's comment: "Allie!"

Andrew's comment: "Baby Zach please". I'm not quite sure what that means.

We found this fro wig in Andrew's closet the other day. It looked SO gross. It definitely needed some pick action!
Andrew's comment: "Elmo!"

From the back, it looked like a cartoon woman's hairstyle.
Andrew's comment: "Mommy." That's not okay with me.

pl[;Chinese New Year Party. Andrew has been wanting to wear these clothes every day since. He was pretty sick all weekend, but still really enjoyed the party.
Andrew's comment: "Andrew"

Happy New Year!
Andrew's comment: "Gong she pha ti!"

You Can't Catch Me!

"Run! Run! Fast as you can! You can't catch me! I'm the gingerbread man!"

Interesting art, eh? These are the kind of things that impress me about kids. We've never set a tree on top of blocks. They don't typically grow that way outside. Where did he get this idea from?

Go Seahawks!!! This is the pay off for Gabe for making a bet with 2 of our friends at the beginning of football season. Whichever person's team (Rams, 49ers, or Seahawks) had the most wins, that person won. The Seahawks won by a landslide so here are Cam and JS sporting their new shirts out at dinner earlier this week. (They also had to wear them EVERY day throughout the week prior with only handwashing it in the sink at night.)

A couple more funny Andrew stories:

Andrew was twirling around the family room this afternoon, singing something or other and swinging Daisy. He did this a number of times and then said very sternly to Daisy, "Daisy, LAST time. LAST time, Daisy." After the next round, Daisy came and sat down next to me.

I had just finished the bow on the back of one of my maternity shirts when Andrew came up to me, patted me on the back, and said, "Tubbo!" Now I'm not afraid to admit that I've got a little extra junk in the trunk these days, but... my own son?! Then Gabe came in and interpreted for me: "Tie bow." Much better.

Exciting Day

Well here's one way I never thought I'd see my mom. If you look closely, you can see Andrew looking out of his window checking the side of his truck. The things a grandma will do for her grandchildren! :) (By the way, this was at Knott's Berry Farm today.)

Mom and Andrew being silly.

This is Andrew playing "The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night" on both the guitar and guitar tuner. (taken this morning) Can you catch the melody?... I can't either.

Lastly, I'm only one month away from my due date!!! 29 days left and counting! If I had to predict (which perhaps I don't) when she'll be born, my guess would be March 17th, St. Patty's Day, also Sera Sage's b-day (Flo's oldest daughter). 5 days late seems about right to me. We'll see!!! I had 2 strong (braxton-hicks) contractions last night. It was pretty exciting! I never had a single contraction with Andrew so this is all new to me. I can't wait!

I'm 29?!!!

This was the sunset that Gabe and I got to enjoy the day after my birthday. He took me out for sourdough bread bowls and clam chowder in Newport. It's the first time we've been to the beach alone since Andrew was born. It was so nice. We really missed it!

We are now both less than one year away from our 30's!!! Gabe made me an amazing dinner and dessert- all from scratch. This is the coconut cake that was yummalicious! He also made me chicken kiev for dinner. That husband of mine is a great cook!

This was at The Coffee Bean on the morning of my birthday. I think Andrew looks so much like Gabe here. He's so cute! ("He" meaning Gabe and Andrew.)

Once again, like father, like son.

For my birthday/baby shower, a few of my friends took me out for tea at a place in San Juan Capistrano. It was so pretty and girly and just the perfect was for me to spend my birthday afternoon!

A Fun Saturday

Every Saturday morning is Gabe's sleep-in day so Andrew and I always try to have a special morning. We began yesterday with a tea party. We had huckleberry tea with Dumbo (whose tea was quite hot) and Daisy (who kept trying to drink others' tea).

Next, we went to one of the trails that I used to run on. We saw roosters and chickens, chipmunks, dogs, and horses. Here are some more pics of our walk...This is Andrew, our little dinosaur. He has to do breathing treatments with the nebulizer twice a day for now. Although it's quite loud, he thinks it's pretty cool because of the dinosaur mask. Every once in a while, he'll randomly growl like a dinosaur while he's using it. It took me a while to get used to him using this (it's just so sad to me), but it doesn't bother him and it has helped his breathing a lot.

Then, we went to Newport with Cam and Janelle for brunch and some play time on the beach.

Here's Uncle Cam teaching Andrew how to throw mud in the water... very important to know how to do.

Did any of the rest of you realize how big pelicans are? These ones were about the size of geese. It was down right shocking!

Cute Stories

Two nights ago, when we checked on Andrew before going to bed, this is what we found. He was sound asleep like this. A night or two before that, he started frantically crying in the middle of the night. I went in there and he had completely mummified himself in his sheets. It literally took me about 2 minutes to unwrap him!

Some of my friends (Allie and Flo) have inspired me to tell you about some of the funny things Andrew does, so here goes...

Andrew on Prayer: There are about 100 great Andrew prayer stories so I'll try to limit myself here.

* We were at the train station watching the choo-choo's go by when a voice came over the loud speaker: "This is the first call for the Amtrack northbound. It will be on track 1 and arriving on time. Thank you." Andrew then shouted out, "Amen!"

* Andrew usually prays for our breakfast. We usually help him out a little, but this is about how it goes on a typical morning:
Cheri: Dear God
Andrew: Dear God
C: Thank You
A: Thank You
[pause]
A: [As fast as he can spit it all out] for Aunt Allie, Josh, baby Zach, uh... uh... uh... Uncle Gabe, babies, Andrew, Daddy, Mommy, hot oatmeal, uh... uh... uh... Aunt Allie, Josh, baby Zach"
[that's our queue to wrap it up.]
C: In Jesus' name
A: Amen!
[pause]
A: pray for Aunt Amy!!!

Andrew on worship:
We were at winter retreat with 400 youth. The bands they have there are great... and very loud. Andrew loves it. He'll dance to the music and even catch on to some of the words. One night, they had just finished a song so it went from loud to very quiet and Andrew started shouting, "E-I-E-I-O! E-I-E-I-O!" I don't think he gets it.

Andrew on fast food:
The only fast food place Andrew has ever been to is In-N-Out. One day, though, we needed a wireless connection and we knew that McDonalds had one so we went there during a road trip. We told Andrew where we were going and the whole time we were there, he kept saying "Old McDonald farm E-I-E-I-O" It took us slower folk a while to catch on to his connection.

I'll try to post new stories as they happen. :)

For those of you... who are waiting to hear my post, "Cheri's up on her soap box again" (a VERY political and angry post about emergency rooms today), I'm very sorry to tell you that it was sensored into oblivion. Gabe proofread it for me and told me not to publish it until he got home. After rereading it the next day, I could understand why. I had some venting to do, I did it, and I feel much better now.