one week today.

i realized today that maya has woken up each morning since she was born around 3:45 for a feeding. kinda strange. i wish i would have thought of that this morning since it's her one week birthday!!!!

she is doing so great on all fronts:
*she basically sleeps through the night except that one feeding.
*hardly ever cries but it's precious when she does.
*calms down when i kiss her face.
*when finn gets up in her face she's reached out a couple times & touched him & he gets so tickled by that.
*is a pooper! several times a day, luckily they're sharts so we hear it & can change them right away. (she's yet to shart on bryan. although just tonight she projectile puked on him.)
*is so great in front of the camera!

this evening we went in for our first pediatrician's appt & things are looking good!

she weighs 8lbs 8oz. so she's gained weight!!!! bryan said this morning he thought she was bigger :)

so she's in the 50th percentile for height, 90th for weight & her cute lil noggin is near the 10th percent mark. i love that my kids have small heads. you each get out of one major grounding for that!

& now for some pictures.

maya is barely a day old in these next two. our friend, joanne, came over to get finn(which was awesome, a million thanks joanne & keith!) & bryan asked if she'd take some family photos... i love the sequence she got!
finn said "my maya" & grabbed her!

he's fascinated by her & stops to look at her for a few minutes every day.

she found her thumb pretty quickly, but so far only a couple of times. it's pretty darn cute.

sleeping angel.
good ol grump face! or i'll get you one day finn face.


you've only been here on the outside for 7 days... but baby girl, you have rocked our world with your sweetness. how, we love you so.

our little peanuts!

we are now plural. we have peanuts.

we welcomed maya leigh paris into the world this past friday morning at 3:50am. she was born at home with our beloved midwife, mary, her assistant jen, our friend, short jill who documented it for us & my mom. finn slept through the whole thing- even though i was a little bit louder this time. i was in labor from about 10pm on, but we were all able to take a nap from about 12-2. i woke up with some pretty intense contractions that quickly progressed to 5 minutes apart. after 3 contractions bryan called the midwife & she headed over.
we barely had time to fill the pool!

it was beautiful. well, i say that now!

but our sweet little girl is amazing. she has already swept us off our feet.
even finn!!!

maya leigh paris.
8lbs. 3oz
20" long

preparing for the new baby.

we've been talking a lot about the new baby with finn & with other parents that have experienced the life altering experience of going from one to two. we expect some bumps. a few steps back, which is why we aren't pushing potty training (although on his own, he's pretty much potty trained while naked or in underwear, but not with a diaper on) or the big boy bed... we'll see if it helps keeping his world as normal as possible until he's more use to the baby.



he practices with his monkeys... putting them in the swings & rocking them.
this babe is going to be so safe with such a protective big brother :0


we bought a present (thomas the train puzzles) that the baby will give to finn. then bryan & finn picked out a cute lil stuffed animal that he'll give to the baby. finn, often tells me "here ya go baby!" & shows me how he'll give the baby the present. i think he gets it. being gentle is the main thing we're stressing.

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bryan & finn have always gotten to spend quite a bit of time together alone, when i escape or work at rei or have a session/wedding. which is good because it's likely to happen even more when this babe is attached to my hip.

here are some of the cute moments i've caught lately:
i posted on facebook that bryan had fallen asleep on the futon in my office with his hands in his pants & when i went to check on finn, he was asleep in the same position. a few friends commented on how i hadn't photographed it... so when i saw this while they were watching a movie i was quick to get my camera.

finn helps bryan workout...


this time i braved taking a picture of finn while he was sleeping with the flash, because here they were sleeping the same way again, except this time with arms tucked underneath.



too cute.

on finn's actual birthday

we had a very chill day. we opened some presents from dee & pop, aunt di & grandpa & aunt lissa. & then he kept asking for more so we gave him our presents, too. next year, we're going to save all the presents for one day, because it being drawn out for 2 weeks made it hard once there were no more presents to open! he still asks for presents in july!

an elmo magnet book!
after his nap we went & got some mojo... we always park near "daddy's train".
yum.
& then we decided to walk down to the lake & let him run free.





it was a nice relaxing day. happy day of birth baby boy!

baba's visit

a few days after nana left baba came! barbara is my mom's oldest sister. she's very much my other mother. i lived with her & don, in atlanta, one summer in college. we've always been incredibly close, so i was thrilled when she called & said she wanted to visit. she'd not yet made it out to phoenix to see us! and her timing was perfect since bryan was going to be out of town for two days to san fransisco on a business trip.

well, remember how i said i'd prepped the kids for the birthday party in my last post... about painting on the walls. well, apparently i didn't stress that it was on paper only! baba babysat for me while i ran errands one day & when i got back she said "he was wonderful. just played with his trains & read his books & let me start cooking dinner without a fuss."

sweet. love hearing that my child was a perfect angel! except, my child is NOT a perfect angel, he is a full blown stinker.

well, while i was cleaning up a bit i noticed a new masterpiece in our living room. all over our living room :0 tehee. my perfect angel is following in my footsteps- i drew all over the dining room in our house over on hillsboro! luckily the crayons were easily cleaned off, but he'd drawn everywhere... on the wall, on the picture frames on his desk, on his train track, on the tile floor.
baba let him help make dinner & he loved making sure the crumbs covered the chicken.

then baba brought him birthday presents!!

one of the nights was nice enough to play outside in the pool & go swinging.

we went to the park one morning!
& then finn was a perfect gentlemen & helped her with her luggage.
"love you baba. have fun on the plane!"
thanks for visiting us :0 please come again & bring that handsome husband of yours!

finn's second birthday party...

i had this crazy idea that we'd have a painting party. we'd line our kitchen walls with recycled paper & i'd have a big tin of paint out for the kids & let them have at it. it would be washable paint & we have tile floors, so whats the big deal! oh my son. my messy, messy, creative son! it really wasn't a big deal, they had a blast! a few grown-ups cringed, bryan included, but the kids had a blast.


i'm not a huge fan of party favors, finn's never cared for what's inside the goody bags & even if he did it was thrown away a couple days later. so i wanted to give out something that was lasting & useful. so i headed to sas & bought some jean fabric and made art smocks for the kids. i had so much fun with this project. the pattern was simple & i simplified it even more by not sewing & instead grommeting the neck straps. i'd wanted to add pockets, but ran out of time & steam.

so here's the set-up.
we let the kids play in the other room with the cardboard house & balloons for quite a while.
& then we called them in & explained to them what we were about to do.
then heather, mom & i handed out the smocks.

they were all timid at first...

with nice little brush strokes!


& then they got into it! i was so proud of how messy emma got- she normally likes her wet naps & clean hands :) i made a comment that i'd never seen emma get so messy! & stoli's response was "we don't let her get that messy!"
mixing...


hand prints galore!
daddy grinning & bearing it.
the start of some messy thoughts entering his mind...
hmmm...
want a hug?
or maybe just a kiss for finn.

what mom?
i posted this on facebook & a friend said it looked like he was trying out for the little people's braveheart.
& then this happened.
so we had fun with it & tried to put hand prints on the belly.


he was definitely having fun -which was the point!!
but, then dad said it was time to clean up.
so all the kids eventually followed us outside to be sprayed off.

with a new outfit & somewhat tired kids, we had lunch. pizza bagels for the kids & chicken salad sandwiches for the adults.
emma & finn.

& then cupcake time! organic chocolate & yummy powdered sugar icing! that organic/non food coloring dye is expensive. i'm gonna have to invest one of the days, but dang!

finn had like three pieces of cake...
tom & finn talking boy stuff.


michael & jill, thanks to jill for coming early & helping set-up! (heather too!)
finn & kyan reading together.
i can't believe how big kyan's gotten! so excited for him to start crawling & playing more with finn!
nana's flight was a few hours after the party, so as the party started to die down, she started her goodbyes.


thanks for staying for the party nana! love you.