Roly would look like this…

Poppa and YaYa were very generous in taking Max and Lucy for 5 days last week.  They also had Katie, Rich, Abbie and Alex staying with them, so it was a full house.  Of course, any summer stay at Poppa and YaYa’s would not be complete without a trip to Auntie Jan’s pool.

Kids having fun with Uncle Rich.

While they were with the Grandparents, the boys (Poppa, Rich, Max, Alex) were able to attend a Dodger’s game.

The tickets Poppa had were in the ‘all you can eat’ section.  “For fans that can’t get enough Dodger baseball and great ballpark fare, the All-You-Can-Eat Pavilion provides the ultimate value at the Stadium with unlimited Dodger Dogs, nachos, peanuts, popcorn and soft drinks for fans to enjoy during the game.”  Max said he had 2 Dodger Dogs, 2 nachos and 2 sodas, and was still hungry.  Yikes!

Although a bit blurry, you can see Max’s excitement.  I wonder if Alex was pulling for the SF Giants.

The results of so much excitement

Two videos for your viewing pleasure

Lucy Dancing, Gran Piano’ing from Matt Theule on Vimeo.

Lucy Gran GranDon from Matt Theule on Vimeo.

In the video, Gran and Lucy are holding ‘ribbon roses’ that Gran was showing Lucy how to make.  Gran attached one to a hair barrette and Lucy wore it in her hair to church.

Due to the vagaries of hospital discharge procedures, we didn’t end up leaving the hospital until nearly 3:30p on Thursday.  By the time we arrived home, there were quite a few extended family members waiting to wish us congratulations.  My sister Katie and her family were in California on vacation from Michigan, and were leaving for the airport on Friday.  YaYa was not going to wait until Christmas (or longer!) to get a picture with all her grandkids in it. 

Before I had even made the second trip to bring in the luggage, the grandkids were being posed together.

3 pictures of 3 kids.

Gran and GranDon have been a huge help, especially this past week.  Toby wishes (and I concur) that they could stay for a few more weeks.

Our alert boy.

We found out in spades that when Roly is going to cry, he doesn’t work up to it in little baby increments.  It comes out like a giant dinosaur bird shriek right off the bat.  This is especially alarming at 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 am (we got all of those last night), when you have just dropped off to sleep for 10 minutes.  We are not sure what was the deal – he’s still too new-born to just be awake at night; it seemed to be either gas, or maybe discomfort from his recent circumcision?  Whatever the case, it was a REALLY tough first night home.  He had trouble nursing (which was not the case in the hospital); he preferred to scream into the nipple like a microphone, rather than nurse from it. 

I (Toby) am recovering from the birth, and the subsequent tubal ligation pretty well. I have come off the heavy meds, though I still feel like I got punched in the the gut when I walk.  My sweet big children remind me daily that I ‘still look like I am going to have a baby!’  Oh, the honesty…

Roly is quite handsome (no partiality here); very pink and filled out in his face.  Though Max and Lucy were not considered preemies, they were both quite yellow and looked more like funny little monkeys.  Glad to have a healthy boy, and such support and love from family and friends.  🙂