She's a walkin'

This has been a year of change. New car, new computer, three new jobs (two for me and one for Sarah), new degree, and of course a new Hope. Anyone who has ever been around a baby knows its an insane wonderful thing to watch them grow. Every second seems like its a new thing. New sounds, new teeth, new foods, new expressions. This has been the busiest but most exciting time of my entire life. Of course things are about to get even crazier, because yeah....she's a walkin'...

The Wave Good Morning

Obviously I'm biased because she is my daughter. But isn't she so cute it makes you giddy? I was greeted with this when I woke up this morning. Man, it is good to be me!

Six Months

Little Hope Luthien turned 6 months on Friday. All kinds of things are changing. She had her first non-breast milk food and she's starting to do the baby rock. Check it out.

I know everyone probably would like to see more pictures and videos, but hanging out with Sarah and Hope somehow my time disappears. When Hope flashes her wide mouth smile I can't look away long enough to even consider grabbing a camera.

Monkey Feet

Hope is getting more dexterous with her hands every day. But she still loves playing with her feet just as much if not more than her hands. For example Hope loves to pull daddy's hair. So I pinned her arms down and moved in to attack with kisses. Unfortunately she was able to attack with her monkey feet and rip out a good chunk of hair. Anyhow here is a video of my little monkey toes!

Command Center

Each morning as we get ready for work Hope sits in her excer-saucer and entertains herself. But, because I'm a geek to me its actually a command center. From it Hope can control anything in the world (for you fellow geeks she's the voice of the Terran army in StarCraft). Here are some pictures of her at work.

 Uh oh, now she's got an aquatic mobile Command Center. From here she commands the naval forces and also chews on stuff.

Hope Laughs

Honestly how could I find time to blog when I have this to keep my attention all day?

Sweet as Honey

Blogging is a funny thing. I think it really gets you to think about the best moments of your life and why they are so sweet.

This weekend Hope went to her first birthday party. Avery Bryce turned one and nearly everyone came out to celebrate.

  I had a great time at the party and it is always fun to get to show off Hope, even if she was sleeping the entire time.

 But truly the sweetest moments of the weekend were at home. Hope was a little fussy and could only get comfortable sitting up right. So I spent most of my weekend holding my little girl (Sarah does it all week long, she deserves a break right? That’s what I tell her every time she asks for her back).  I know, I spent most of the weekend just holding a little girl, pretty terrible, huh. I can only pray the rest of my life is filled with such sweet terror.

Everyone wants some Hope

Hope turned three weeks old on Friday and she has been busy. She’s like the most popular little girl in the whole world. Everyone wants to meet her. She has been passed around quite a bit, but in general she’s happy to meet everyone. She even took time to make an appearance at Livi’s 80’dance party. She’s cool like that.

She Hung out with Mom-Mom

Mason got some quality time in

She stole Steph's heart

and Todd's as well

Even Livi took a dance break to make sure her  Sope got fed properly!

Where do Foxes come from?

I don't actually know, but the fox in my header is from http://vobot.tumblr.com/. So I thank her for letting me borrow it!

A New Hope

Around 4AM on January 27 Sarah’s water broke. She was having small, easy contractions. I asked her if she was going back to sleep, and she was. So I happily shut my eyes.

We woke up at 6:30 and were starting to get antsy. We went for our last walk together as a party of two. Sarah enjoyed some time on the swing and we watched the sunrise.

The rest of the morning was filled with errands. Clean litter, pack bags, clean dishes, etc. Around 9ish we headed to the midwife to get checked out. She confirmed that Sarah’s water had broke, and she felt the labor was going to progress pretty fast. We still went back home, but she didn’t want us to wait too long.

Sarah and I watched Spaceballs together and she found the last quarter of the movie significantly less funny than the rest of it. Her contractions were getting serious and so we got serious too. Sarah lay down and together we relaxed her body and worked through each one.

At about 5 minutes apart we headed to the hospital. Sarah seemed to think it was the furthest hospital she had ever driven to. When we got there, Sarah walked herself to her room. We stopped for two contractions along the way.

We checked into the hospital around 3PM. The midwife immediately checked Sarah out and she was already 9CM dilated. A few hours of work and at 5:25 Hope was born.

Hope Lúthien Toledo