Sawyer's Tricks

Well Sawyer had his 4 month appointment today....he is 15.5 lbs and 25 inches long, which makes him normal. He is no longer on track to be a behemoth...which is a good thing. Here are a few of his latest tricks...enjoy!

HALLOWEEN!

From humble beginnings...



...plus some glue...



...plus some paint...



Wall.E!

Dad was pretty proud of himself.



Here is Michael in action....



To the first house...






Michael with his loot.


He actually got much more into it than I thought he would. He had a blast with all the other little kids too. Thanks John, Leigh, Madeline, and Johnson McGuire for inviting us over to your neighborhood!

And not to be outdone by big brother Sawyer went as an incredibly cute (but very sleepy) dinosaur...



-R

Michael + sidewalk chalk = Big circles

Better late than never. Michael had a great time visiting "Gra" and "Pa" in California back in August. He especially liked getting to draw on the driveway. Of course this meant that everyone had to help, especially to make "beeeeg cirrrcules" (big circles). This is a tour of most of the results with narration from Michael at the end. As you will also witness his little knees discovered blacktop as well.



-R

The Two Brothers Meet

Here is the initial introduction of Michael to his new baby brother. He was very careful to check and make sure all the fingers and toes were there. He has been very sweet so far. Micheal will check on Sawyer when he cries, likes to offer him things to eat (got to watch this one), and won't go to bed until he has "kiss baby". I know this will all change once Sawyer gets more mobile and starts getting into all Michael's "stuff". Until then we are content to pretend that they are going to be the best of friends...

-R

A Healthy Happy Baby Boy

By now hopefully all our friends and family have gotten the news that our second little boy arrived yesterday at 10:36 am. We named him Sawyer Emmerich Birkhead. We both just liked the name Sawyer and of course Emmerich is a family name from my mom's side. Sawyer weighed 9 lbs 13 oz and is 21 inches long. Nice big guy.










The real purpose of this post is to thank all those involved and to brag about Chelsea. After having to have a Ceasarian for Michael she was determined to try for a natural childbirth this next go around. Let me just say that it was an amazing experience and I am so impressed with Chelsea, and the human body (thank you hypothalmus for endorphins, and collagen fibers for their ability to stretch!). Trust me when the delivering doctor says "Whoa...that's a big baby!" you know she did some work.
GO CHELS!!

The first difficulty was finding a natural childbirth class in our area. Fortunately Chelsea heard about a Bradley instructor in Auburn. I must say I was nervous about taking a natural childbirth class, but the Bradley classes we took really were a big help (http://www.bradleybirth.com/). So our first big "Thank You" goes out to Linda Kerr our Bradley instructor.

The next goes to our friend Sean Graham who drove us to the hospital at 4am and then helped get little Michael to daycare the next morning so Chelsea's parents could be at the hospital with us.

Which leads to Mike and Fran. Though we had not planned to have any family in the room with us during delivery, Mike and Fran came to see us and as things progressed they got more and more involved with the actual delivery. Fran was great and got right into the thick of things once the pushing started. I am so glad that they were able so share the experience with their daughter. It truly was a beautiful moment.








Which then leads us to Cynthia Clearman. She was our nurse through the delivery, and I am not sure it would have been such a great experience without her. Not all hospitals are too open to having an unmedicated birth much less a "higher risk" birth like a VBAC. She was so supportive and reassuring through the whole process. Chelsea was not dilated fully by the time she wanted to start pushing and Cynthia calmly got in there and talked us through it. Had she not stepped up at that point I am convinced it would not have gone as smoothly as it did. Of course we have continued to get great care and support from all the doctors, nurses and staff here at EAMC.

Finally to all our family and friends a big "Thank You" for all your well wishes and support!!

Mom and Baby are now resting well and we are all really excited about getting home and being a family. We just can't wait to tell Michael he is a big brother!

We will keep you posted on our latest adventures!

-R

Michael's latest tricks

Michael just turned 2! and along with all the wonderful things that go along with turning two (lots of new words, a sense of adventure...tantrums...) Michael has been surprising us with new tricks!

He is an excellent dancer! (He must have gotten lessons from Uncle Donald)

He loves to 'get stuck' in places and then clearly exclaim "I stuck!"

Jump in puddles....

...and perform guitar solos complete with applause, bows, and "Thank you, thank you" at the end.

Getting Bogged Down

Our Bog garden through time





18 April 2008.
Digging out for the bog. Dug down about 18-20" then placed thick rubber pond liner given to us by some friends (thanks Tug and Jen!).







Mixing the sand and peat moss. Ever seen an armadillo at work? Fun playing human mix-master.









The previous "bog gardens". Chelsea had had these for several years in their galvanized tubs. While they are OK for a while it was hard to keep them watered well, plus they get crowded quick!









20 April 2008
Everything in their new home. Doesn't look like much yet, but we had high hopes it would fill out the next spring.

12 Oct 2008
Actually by that fall it was looking pretty good!










12 Oct 2008
Chelsea adding some S. leucophylla. Of course we continued to add to it as we were given more plants or purchased them. One of my favorite additions were a bunch of venus flytraps that I found in the clearance bin at Kroger (FLESH EATING plants!...marketed to kids obviously) for like $0.99 each. They have done fantastic. Probably just glad not to have died on some kid's windowsill.....











4 April 2009
The first spring after planting. At this point I realized that it took quite a bit of water to keep the bog happy through the summer. In a flash of brilliance I decided to reroute the air conditioner condensate drain so that it came out right at ground level behind the old heart pine log at the back. This worked out great and pretty much eliminated the need to add water.





17 April 2010
The start of year three and it really looks like a real bog. We have; Saracenea flava, S. leucophylla, S. psittacina, S. purpurea, S. rubra, and some other Saracenia hybrids, Dionaea muscipula, Utricularia subulata, Drosera filiformis (green), D. tracyi (red), D. capillaris, Spiranthes odorata, Pogonia ophioglossoides, Polygala nana, Helianthus angustifolius, Xyris sp., Rhexia sp., Ludwigia sp. etc.






We are on the waiting list for some Lilium catesbaei from the only nursery I could find that cultivates it. I would also like to get some Ctenium aromaticum. I tried some seed but it did not sprout. Chelsea wants some Pinguicula spp. too.









Special thanks to these friends for advice, plants, seeds, and encouragement: Tug Kesler, Jen Trusty, Heather Summer, Carol Denhof, and John McGuire.

Sex and violets

Sorry I could not resist the pun . Along with all the pollen there has been a profusion of violets flowering in the front "lawn"*. So what do you do with lawn weeds if you are a Birkhead? Turn them into jelly. We tried two batches last night, but we made that fatal error of trying to work off of two recipes. Hopefully at least one batch will jell.
-R

*we don't really have a"lawn" just something grassy that grades into "pasture" then woods...

Attack of the tree sperm!

Pollen. It is everywhere this year. I can't ever remember it being so bad....
-R

Hopefully just a stage.....

Lately Michael has wanted to make everything line up, toys, rocks, sweetgum balls. It is pretty amazing how straight he can get things. Unfortunately he also gets frustrated pretty easily when they don't. Here are some examples of his handywork:

We are home!

Well we have made it home successfully, although it was a long trip.  We started just about at the Panama border at 4am, 6 hours by bus to San Jose, 2 hours in the airport, 3 hours on a plane, 2 more hours in the Miami airport...by the way there are only 2 bathroom stalls in customs!  2 hours to ATL and then 2 hours in a car..phew....

WELCOME!

This may be a funny time to start a blog...what with an almost two year old, one on the way, and sitting in a small cabin in the south of Costa Rica waiting out a rain storm, but what the hay!

So welcome to our little slice of the internet.  Instead of bombarding you with unwanted e-mail you can simply click over and read about the happenings in the Birkhead household when ever you like.

So stay tuned...

Chelsea, Roger, Michael, and Baby Birkhead-to-be