One Week Old

We can't believe how fast this past week has flown by. We have been absorbed in loving up our little Maya and adjusting to the MANY changes it has brought. She has been sleeping and eating great and has become more and more alert each day. What an angel she is.

Maya was a little jaundice for the first couple of days, so we just stripped her down and let her bask in the sun in the bay window. It has cleared up nicely. I'm sure the neighbors were a little concerned about our parenting tactics! ;-)

Gabi is adjusting well. She does get jealous quite a bit and her dramatic side has been magnified often. She does kiss and pat the baby a lot and loves to pull her socks off. We've been trying to give Gabi lots of attention so she doesn't feel left out. Just like the rest of us, she'll need some time to adjust. This picture is what happens when you let a 20 month old pick out her own clothes. At one point, she had Joe's shoes on and looked quite comical!

Here are a few more pictures from when our families were here.

Love to you all,

Joe, Tara, Gabi, & Maya

Meet Our Newest Arrival...

Maya Katherine

May 26, 2009

4:30 pm

7 lbs. 11.5 oz.

19.5 inches

We are so excited that Maya finally decided to join the world! She is healthy as can be and such a joy to have in our lives. So far she has been sleeping most of the time, but during her awake hours she is eating well and very observant.

Her labor was quite the ordeal. I don't know if 41 hours breaks any records, but it should come close to a few! Yikes! I started having contractions at 11:30pm on Sunday and we decided to finally go to the hospital at 4:00am Monday when they were 3-4 minutes apart. Much to our dismay, they sent us home. I spent Monday at home in labor and we decided to finally go back Monday evening. Again, they sent us home because even though my contractions were strong, my cervix was not dilating very fast. Finally, at 2 am Tuesday morning, we made our final journey back to the hospital. So, labor continued through the morning and I was only 5 cm by noon. They decided to break my water, but that didn't even help anything except make the contractions even worse. I really wanted to have a natural labor, but when they told me it was either get pitocin or have a c-section, I chose the first option. An epideral was needed as well because I was so exhausted that I wouldn't be able to push either. So, those two things sped things along and by 3:30pm I was pushing and by 4:30pm she made every little part of labor and pregnancy worth it by joining our family!

Gabi gets to meet her new baby sister -- "BABA!!!!" My mom flew in to Denver on Monday morning to watch Gabi for the week. They had lots of fun going to the park and playing. We're so thankful she was able to be here to hold down the fort this week.

They finally released us from the hospital on Thursday afternoon. We were so excited to go home -- Maya was too -- she didn't mind her car seat at all!

Joe's parents arrived just before we got home from the hospital. My dad had arrived on Tuesday evening to join my mom in Gabi duty. It is so nice to have our families here to help us out.

I'm sure we'll be taking lots more pictures, so check back soon! Thanks to all of you for your support, prayers, and love. We have the best friends and family ever and our sweet little girls are so lucky to be surrounded by all of you.

Love to you all,

Joe, Tara, Gabi, & Maya

In the Spotlight

I figured that since Gabi will have to share the spotlight soon (or as our doctor always puts it, will be "dethroned") I wanted to have one last post all about Gabi!

Ready for Summer!

Sleeping Beauty -- I had to wake her up from her nap one day and found her like this. It's a good thing we don't have to wake her up often -- she was not a happy camper.

We went to a 3 year old's birthday party on Saturday and Gabi got her own apron and immediately fell in love with the pockets -- they can hold all of her rocks! Do you think she'll love rocks enough to follow in her mom's geology footsteps?


Happy Mother's Day!

Have a great week you all!

Tara

Little Miss Chatterbox

Hello!

I'm sorry it has been so long since the last post. I've been swamped with school work and chasing after a 19 month old when you're super pregnant is extremely tiring!

Gabi keeps expanding her vocabulary and we loveto hear her try new words. Her new word to say is "salsa". She has always loved this word and used to giggle everytime we said it when she was little. She can say most animal sounds and do lots of actions for animals. She still won't say her long "e" sounds. So, "me" sounds like "ma". She is able to identify all animals and most colors and shapes. It is so fun to watch her absorb everything in. She especially loves to go for walks in the stroller and see everything. Here is a little sampling of her talking:

Here's a few other pictures from the past few weeks:

Dressed in her cowgirl shirt, riding her pony!

Gabi gives playing outside a thumbs up -- she loves it! (Notice the scratch under her eye -- the cat finally got revenge -- enough said. She hasn't pulled his tail since.)

So, because of high demand from distant friends and family, I've gotten the courage to post a picture of my very pregnant self. Don't I look like I'm about to tip over? I feel like it anyways. Only about 2.5 weeks left (hopefully less). Baby is doing great and weighed in at 6 lbs. 4 oz. almost 2 weeks ago, so we may have a big baby if we go full term. The baby has dropped already, I've had some mild contractions, and I've already started to dilate, so the doctor thinks it may be a little early. Keep those fingers crossed! We've narrowed down our list of names (but we're being mean and not sharing) and have just about everything ready.

The next post just may well be of Gabi's new baby brother or sister. Thanks for checking in on us!

Love,

Joe, Tara, & Gabi

Happy Belated Easter!

Hello Everyone! We hope you all had a wonderful Easter! Ours was fairly low key, but fun nonetheless! The Easter bunny brought Gabi a sandbox that she LOVES! We're glad that it has decided to be spring again, so she can enjoy it as much as possible.

Since Easter Sunday was rainy, we built Gabi a playhouse out of an old box. Funny how free stuff is way more fun than those expensive toys!

Gabi in her Easter dress:

Joe's idea of sympathy weight (it's a beach ball)-- ha ha! The only one around here putting on sympathy weight for me is the dog. He's going to be the one losing it too once we can start running together again!

About 5 more weeks or so until baby #2 is due. We have another ultrasound next week, so hopefully I'll be able to post the pics and you'll get your first glimpse of him/her as well! I've had a very healthy pregnancy and still feel great (except for that belly that is always in the way!) When Gabi is asked what is in mama's tummy, she says "baba," and gives it a nice little pat and then pokes my now outie of a belly button. It is very cute.

Love to you all,

Joe, Tara, & Gabi Girl

Fun at Grammy & Papa's!

Gabi was very fortunate to spend the last 2 weekends with Grammy and Papa at the ranch. All 3 of us went up the first weekend and Gabi played a lot with cousin Gio. We had to cut that visit a little short due to the weather, but Joe and Gabi headed up again last weekend with some of Joe's buddies that he works with and their boys. I stayed at home and put my recent "nesting" instincts to good use by getting a lot done around the house! I sure missed my Gabi and my Joe though! Here are some pictures from their visit last weekend:

Dying Easter Eggs with Ella & Kate (2nd cousins -- Natalie's kids!):

I thought this was a really cute picture of Kate!

Wrestling with Jerry's twin 7 year olds and 5 year old boys:

From all accounts I've heard, Gabi held her own against them. Maybe this will have her hoping for a baby brother!

Wrestling with Papa:

Giving Grammy's huge cat a hug:

Petting one of the lambs:

She loves saying "Baaaa!" at the top of her lungs. Whenever she heard the lambs bleating, she new dada and papa were on their way inside!

Propped up in a snow bank:

It sounds like everyone had a great time last weekend even though it was snowy. Joe's friends, Jerry and Yung, and their boys really enjoyed their first taste of ranch life -- they got to see all kinds of stuff including the new calves and lambs, the horses, a sheep being sheered, the lambs getting docked, and lots of other daily happenings. I heard there was a great snowball fight and lots of sledding as well.

On the home front, Gabi is doing great and saying more and more words each day. Today she has said, "dirt," "trash," and finally, "ruff ruff". It is fun to listen to her try to say other things as well. For example, chicken is "cha cha" -- very funny. She has been having fun with her Easter eggs and basket and we finally got to go outside in the sunshine today because it has decided to be spring again instead of this bout of winter we have had the last couple of weeks.

Finally, here is a little video for you of Gabi trying to walk in Joe's size 12 shoes!

Have a very Blessed Easter!

Joe, Tara, & Gabi

Happy Gotcha Day, Gabi!

Can you believe it has been a year since Gabi has "officially" been our daughter? We cannot believe how fast time has flown by! It doesn't seem like a year ago that we were in Guatemala, waiting in the US Embassy with our little Gabi, and praying that everything would be finalized so we could take our sweet baby home FOREVER! Our lives have been filled with such joy this past year -- Gabriela is such a blessing to Joe and I. We cannot imagine our lives without her, nor do we want to!

We celebrated this special day by cooking and sharing a Guatemalan dinner -- Guatemalan black beans, pollo de crema (creamed chicken), and corn cake. All very tasty! We might have to pull those recipes out on days other than Gotcha Day. Of course, we had to add in some Guatemalan bananas as well! :-)

We gave Gabi the little cat toy that we bought her while in Antigua last year. She loves cats -- one of the first things she does when she gets up in the morning is look for Rocky and say, "cat!"

We also decided to take a family picture on this day every year. Here's the one from today and the one from last year. She is getting so big and her hair has grown so much! Her silly personality is still the same, though!

We ended the day by reading, "A Blessing From Above," a special book about the miracles of adoption.

We're headed up to Buffalo this weekend for a visit to see all of the new lambs, calves, and of course, "papa!!!" (and grammy too!) I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures for another update next week!

Love to you all,

Joe, Tara, and Gabi