"First name? Baby. Middle name? Boy."

Okay, he's been here for a week, but hey, we're not ones to go around willy nilly giving our child a name after only 10 months of deliberation. We knew things looked grim when Ava's teacher asked Ava what her baby brother was named and she replied, "I don't know. Maybe you should come over to our house and help us pick a name." That was day four.

We were even more certain we were in trouble when the hospital called--twice--to inform us that there actually is a deadline for picking a name for a newborn. That deadline was today, so we turned to the most decisive person we know: Ava. We told her the names we had on our trusty list and asked her which one she liked the best. Without hesitation, she sang, "James. James. James. James-James. James." And it was so.

Re-presenting:

 Mr. James Dylan Rabold

Now weighing in at 10 lbs, 8 oz!

The biggest, baddest baby around

Little Man

To give credit where credit is due, we also received assistance on the middle name, courtesy of Rodney.

Introducing...

...our gentle giant,

Mr. Baby Boy Rabold
Born on Friday, November 4, 2011
5:04 p.m.
9 lbs, 15 oz (conversion = 1.5 Avas)

23 inches (conversion = almost 1/2 of a Paula, as she pointed out)

The young man is behaving well, even though he is yet to be named.

Let's Get This Party Started

At two days past due, we're fearful that Helen has made things a little too comfortable in the baby condo. Of course, we're slightly apprehensive about labor, a newborn, and bouts of toddler envy, but the alternative is to be pregnant forever. Seriously, it's time to move on from this:

This weekend we took to some folksy but indisputably reliable baby expulsion techniques.

Step 1: Smoke him out. Here is Helen eating something named "Hot Pepper Chicken Bath," which receives four out of four bombs on the restaurant's "ass-kicking scale." What's that, baby? Can't handle the heat?

Step 2: Hiking "Mt. Labor." Just like every other pregnant woman in Portland, Helen walked to the top of Mt. Tabor, squatting often to encourage the baby to move along. If nothing else, this one was worth it just to see the concerned look on strangers' faces when they saw a big ole prego squatting on the side of a mountain.

Step 3: Nesting. Chores that require being on ones hands and knees have helped pregnant women stay productive and induce labor for Millenia. So we're told. By men.

With this combination, we are certain that our average-sized baby will be here any day now. In the meantime, our hearth is spotless.

October 2011

The family spent most of October wondering when the baby was going to come. October 29 came and went without an arrival, but we are certain we will have a reasonably sized addition to the family very soon.

Today in Ava

While reading a book:

Ava: What's this spider's name?
Brian: I don't know. Maybe Momma knows.
Ava: Momma, what's this spider's name?
Helen: Um...Spindy Spider.
Ava: That's a good name for this spider. Good call, Momma.

Big Sis in Training

As we get closer to baby #2's arrival, a number of people have been inquiring about Ava's level of understanding about what lies ahead.  She talks about her new baby brother pretty much constantly and tells everybody interesting facts about him. Here's a brief summary of what seem to be her baby talking points:

• The baby is in Helen's belly and will be coming out soon
• He has no teeth 
• He has a penis
• He can't walk, talk or do anything much at all
• She will be in charge of diaper changes
• She will also hold the baby and feed the baby a bottle
• She will need to teach the baby how to walk
• He is her baby brother and she is going to be a big sister
• The baby will start out nursing, then will drink from a bottle, and then eat "yucky baby food"
• The baby will be born in hospital and she will go on a field trip to Nana and Grandad's house.  Then she will visit him.
• The baby will cry. The baby might stop crying if you put him on your shoulder, put him in a swing, bounce him on a ball, or put him in a vibrating chair. It is best to try all techniques in quick succession.
• When the baby spits up, you run and find a cloth diaper and vigorously rub it against the baby's face.

Ava isn't taking her big sister duties lightly.

September 2011

September marked the beginning of the college football season for Ava.  Last year's horrible season taught Ava to say, "Oh no!" whenever she saw football on TV. This season she's recognized a change in the football mood around the house and has taken to cheering throughout the games. Her take on the sport: "Those men are going to run and when they fall down I say, 'Yay!'" which I guess does kind of sum it up.

Ava's non-football-viewing time was spent preparing for the baby. There's a lot of stuff for her to practice and the latest is wearing "Baby Katie" in a sling while pushing "Calf" (a doll, not a baby cow) in the stroller. For a new mom, she's getting out quite a lot. Just today she took the kids to the "country," the zoo, and the park, all of which are located somewhere between our dining room and our living room. With around three weeks left, we're hoping to dedicate a little more practice time to diapering as we would really, really like to outsource that.

Ava's School Picture

This year's picture is so angelic, it's almost hard for us to imagine that 30 seconds prior to this photo and 30 seconds following, she was most likely screaming, "MOVE BACK, FRIEND! I NEED SPACE!" to some innocent kid in the play yard.

Put that kid in a helmet

 Poor parenting caught on tape.

Lonely MacDonald

Everyone's always talking about Old MacDonald's animals but few take the time to think about his lonely life on the farm.

Fashion Week

Ava is a girl who knows what she wants.  She certainly isn't going to let anyone else choose her outfits.  We thought you might appreciate seeing the results of her independence. Here are her choices from last week:

Ava's most "Portland" outfit of the week. This owl skirt (handmade by the fabulous Sharon Margaret Weir) routinely solicits compliments, but pairing it with a skull and crossbones tee really knocked it out of the park. Black patent leather Mary Janes complete this ensemble.

A classic look.

A sensible sweater really makes this outfit work. She specifically requested that just one button be buttoned. She's got great instincts.

Retracting statement about great instincts. Many people wouldn't pair an Aran sweater with a spaghetti strapped sundress, winter tights and motorcycle rain boots. This outfit is really all about the details. Naturally, Ava requested her hood be up.

 

Ava got new shoes this day. As you'll see in the next few pictures, she is quite fond of them.

Can't even comment on this one. Too distracted by the Farrah Fawcett hair.

She would wear this dress every day if she could.

Silk-screened tees are hot right now. Ava's never had an ice cream cone but she's pretty sure they're awesome and she's got the t-shirt to prove it. The leg-warmers also deserve mention.

 

Ava's purse is a must-have accessory. She always makes sure she has enough of Brian's business cards in her wallet to get her through the day. We spent much of the morning looking for her cell phone, should Ian or Caleb wish to text her a photo--an imaginary scene she enacts on a regular basis.

Today in Ava

Helen: Ava, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Ava: Able to climb trees. With daddy.

August 2011

The theme for this month was travel. Brian was on the road for work and Ava and Helen jetted off to Boston to visit Ian and her new cousin Caleb. While Ava claims she had a great time on the airplane and she wasn't at all "scaried" during her 15th cross-country flight, the 36 passengers who received earplugs compliments of the cabin crew might beg to differ. There are some who would make the argument that no 8-month pregnant mother should travel alone with a two-year-old, and perhaps we should have listened to those people before making our travel plans. But even with its challenges, the trip and family-time was well worth it.

Ava arrived just in time to experience her first hurricane (if we're being accurate, it was a tropical storm), which she slept through during a rare nap. As always, she was thrilled to see Emily, Tom and Ian, and was head-over-heels for baby Caleb. Ava got in some serious big sister training and soaked in every minute of it--picking out his diapers and outfits, suggesting reasons for any crying spells, and proposing activities to keep him entertained ("Maybe baby Caleb would like tummy time," "You should put baby Caleb in the bumbo," etc.)

July 2011

This month our activities were real estate heavy, with the purchase of our new home, 8 home inspections, packing up our old house, moving, and unpacking. On moving day, Ava showed off her leadership skills by standing in the doorway of the new house, shouting "move faster" to the moving men. Not that we weren't thinking the same thing...we just didn't have the nerve to say it ourselves. Kids can be handy sometimes.

We're all settling in to the new place quite well. Ava is especially fond of the porch, where she likes to stand and scream, "You're my new neighbors" to everyone passing on the sidewalk. There are plenty of kids and sidewalk chalk to keep Ava entertained so that piece of the move has been nice and easy.

This month's slideshow includes a picture of the whole family saying a fond farewell to our old house and hopefully by next month we'll have pulled ourselves together enough to take a family portrait in front of our new house. Until then, we'll be wading through a sea of boxes.

June 2011

Oh, June. Yeah...not a big fan. To put it simply, this was a very hard month. That being said, there were some standout moments:

June started out with a bang, as Ava skyped for the first time with her new cousin Caleb Edwards, who finally "came out of Tommy's belly." I suppose congratulations should also go out to Emily, who we understand was smoking cigars in the waiting room during the delivery. Just as Ava's baby fever was subsiding, our next-door neighbors brought their new baby, Austin, home from the hospital and she hasn't stopped talking about Caleb and Austin since.

At the end of the month, Ava and Brian made their way to D.C. to visit the Rabold and Stephenson families to celebrate Layne's 70th birthday. Brian, of course, proved he was well up for the task of solo parenting on the plane and received far too many compliments from his fellow travelers to be considered reasonable. While in D.C., Ava met cousins Casey and Paige, whom she is still talking about weeks later. It was a whirlwind of zoo animals, parties, and sprinkler fun.

Almost Homeless!! (in a good way?)

To make way for another human in our home, a couple of months ago we decided to put our house on the market in hopes of finding something larger. Today, the deal was sealed and soon we'll say goodbye to our first home. It was a good little house and needing to move makes us all a little sad. Well, actually, Ava seems pretty excited but she's a little foggy on exactly what this means for her.

Being that Ava is the boss of the household (I jest. Don't worry...we totally have this kid under control), we let her pen the deal. She likes signing papers and was happy to do the honors.

We don't exactly have a new home to move to, which might make the next few weeks interesting for all of us. Wish us luck...

Today in Ava

Ava: You got a baby in there?
Us: Would you like a new baby in the house? We would need to buy a new house.
Ava: Okay.
Us: Then yes. There's a baby boy in there. That's your baby brother.
Ava: I meet him at the hospital and I feed him.

For those of you who didn't know, our new arrival is coming around Halloween.  We've been trying to keep the news from Ava, reasoning that she couldn't handle the many months of wait.  She can be a little--how should we put this--obsessive, and we were anticipating a bevy of questions about how soon we'd be able to see the baby.  Now that she's uncovered the truth on her own, the gig is up.  And now we look forward to a few months of this scene:

Piggies!!

After--I kid you not--2 1/2 years of attempts, I have finally achieved Piggy success.  It took some convincing. I had to tell her that the brand new baby boy next door would like to see her in Piggies and she was happy to oblige. I have been informed by other parents in the house that it was wrong to convince Ava to pretty herself up for others. Okay, sure, but I don't regret the manipulation. Look at how cute she is. I took 100 pictures and almost cried in excitement.

May 2011

May was a big month for everyone in the family. First, the weather finally started to cooperate, and we were able to get outside. Second, we had a nice visit with Brian's parents. Lastly, Ava packed up her pacifiers and mailed them to the babies in the hospital. As she recounts, "The babies are crying in the hospital. I give them my binkies. Cuz they are crying."  She was rewarded with a "big girl bed" and a pillow, both of which were much more welcome presents before she knew we were serious about the mailman taking her binkies. We hope the babies are enjoying those pacifiers because it has been a grueling four weeks in the Rabold house.  We are currently in a no-nap standoff and Ava seems to be fairly sure this is a battle she can win.

Slumbersault

So exactly how would you suggest she get into bed?