And in this corner in the white trunks...

weighing in at 6 lbs, 12oz. Baby "no name as of yet" Patterson. Claire has a little baby sister and I have another Valentine!!! She is so beautiful and long (19 inches). Mom and baby are doing well. I will post photos in a little bit. So congrats to the 20 of you who voted for "girl".

37 weeks and SNOW!

hi all. lynn here. just an update on our little family. we made it to 37 weeks yesterday and are still hoping to hold off on the little little one's arrival until the first week of march. not that we really have any say in the matter. isn't that just like kids - you think you are in control, but really you aren't. :)

we had a couple of inches of snow yesterday. it was really beautiful. we tried to get claire out in it, but she wouldn't have anything to do with it. kind of like how she is with sand. oh well, hopefully she will grow out of this stage soon. we want to have fun this summer at the beach! i will post the pics we took last night and this morning of her out in the snow in a bit.

claire continues to delight us. she loves to laugh and sing and play and color/paint. she has a few songs in her repertoire now - frere jacques, twinkle twinkle, the alphabet song (as sung by the pig on super why). she loves to play with the electronic keyboard that used to belong to my grandmother. i think her favorite part is to keep pushing the "demo" key and dance around. over and over again!

well, that is all for now. take care and happy valentine's day. reach out and give someone a hug today/tomorrow/every day.

xoxo,

lynn, mark and claire

Dancing Queen

As promised, here is a video from last weekend when we were over at our next door neighbors. The girls were playing Just Dance on the Wii and someone couldn't resist joining the fun. (note: we are having trouble with the viewing the video, but it does seem to work sometimes. just refresh and try again. also, that is baby sam and not baby patterson in the video!).

Uncharted Territory...

Lynn is at 35 weeks, 5 days!!! Claire was born at 35 weeks, 1 day. She has never been this pregnant before. She now has weekly doctor appointments. The doctor is certain we won't make it to March 5 - the due date. Lynn has been confined to chair rest and has to keep standing and walking to a minimum. I still think Claire has no idea what's coming. She knows what a baby is and she does like baby Sam. We can't even spell S-A-M without Claire saying "Sam!" But when Claire realizes that this baby is not leaving at the end of the evening and will be there first thing in the morning, I wonder how she will react. I have no doubt this baby will have the best big sister in the world.

Today we entered uncharted territory for another reason. Claire threw up for the first time! Fortunately it was over all Lynn and not me. I could tell she wasn't herself this morning (very quiet and a little warm), but I had to go to work, leaving her in the capable hands of Mom. Good move on my part. She went to sleep tonight with no fussing. i hope she sleeps for her regular 12 hours.

The next posting will have some funny videos of Claire and will be worth the wait.

It's squishy in here

Ok, as promised here is Claire's brother/sister. It's a little hard to make out, but its head is sideways, with the forehead to the right. You can make out the eyes, nose and mouth. It weighs 5lbs 11 oz. And here is the kicker! Lynn has been placed on seat rest (as opposed to bed rest). She must be seated as much as possible, with her feet up, and she cannot lift anything, including Claire. The doctor told me to get her a bell so Lynn can ring when she needs something. I told Lynn to get a new doctor. Anyway, we are super excited and have pledged to each other that we will start getting ready for this baby, including packing a hospital bag this weekend.

Has July 4th Come Early?

Someone has developed an independence streak. Whether it's peeling her own orange or going up the stairs, Claire has adopted a "I can do it" attitude. My little girl is growing up so quickly. Good thing, because in 6 weeks or so, she will be a big sister! Lynn has an ultrasound tomorrow morning and I can't wait to see the baby.

Two weekends ago we took Claire on her last free flight. We are going to have to start paying for her tickets after she turns 2. Anyway we went to Florida to visit Grammy and Grampy. As you can see, it was warm enough to go swimming. Grampy and I even got to play 9 holes of golf. She just loves swimming. Too bad she still doesn't care for the ocean or the beach.

Last weekend we went to Nick and Kristi's (and Sam's) for dinner. Nick was changing Sam's diaper and Claire was right in there watching the action (making sure Nick was doing a good job). She points to Lynn's belly when we ask her "where's mommy's baby?" and answers yes to, "Are you going to be a big sister?", but I am pretty sure she doesn't know what's coming. Heck, we don't either! The voting is tied for boy or girl and there are only 34 more days left to vote. We are still desperately seeking names, so please email them to us.

I will post pictures from the ultrasound tomorrow when I get them.

Happy New Year!

Claire had a great Christmas with Grammy, Grampy, Lola, Uncle Paul and Auntie Taya visiting (we did too). Even Santa made a surprise visit to our house to see Claire - she wasn't too interested in Santa. She was spoiled by all of the attention she got, and we were spoiled too as family members lined up to play with her. To the right is Uncle Paul and Claire outside, looking for airplanes - she has a knack for spotting them in the sky. Claire also went to the Georgia Aquarium, which she loved because of the fishes in Finding Nemo. I got a season's pass to the Aquarium for Christmas (from Claire) and Claire gets in for free, so I suspect we'll be going there a lot - that's like my buying Lynn a power tool for her birthday. Needless to say, everyone had a great time over Christmas, especially Claire who is now learning to play the drums on Rock Band

After the house emptied on Dec. 29, our friends Kim and Jason (and kids) from Dallas arrived to spend the new year with us. We went to the bounce house again. Claire was not as timid this time around. We also went to the Georgia Aquarium. Did I mention I got a season's pass for Christmas from Claire? Everyone celebrated New Year's Eve together with sparkling apple juice, followed by fireworks in the front yard, with the kids watching from the front porch. The adults barely made it to midnight.

Lynn is doing well with baby number #2. I feel bad I have not written much about him/her. This one is quite a bit more active than Claire was. He/she has a strong heartbeat and we go for an ultrasound in a couple of weeks. It is hard to believe that we only have 8 more weeks to go, and then the lack of sleep cycle repeats itself. Well, it is a small price to pay for such joy. And speaking of joy, I would be remiss if I did not tell you that our neighbors Kristi and Nick (guitar player in above video) had a baby girl, Samantha, on Dec. 31. You can follow their chronicles of parenthood on their blog.

And the last bit of good news, Nick and I were earned a t-shirt at the local watering hole for reaching a certain level of beer consumption. "Years of preparation got us to this momentus occasion. Hard work really does pay off", said Nick Estes, as he rested his pint on his belly.

Finally, you can see some photos from the past couple of weeks here. We are flying to Florida for the MLK weeking to see Grammy and Grampy. Pictures to follow.