Our alert baby:

With her great-grandmother.

Amelia goofs around on the playmat with Zoë - the little one definitely seems interested in the big one, even if it's a look of confusion and being startled...

LOVE THIS!

Here we have Zoë and our middle child, Yoda. His reaction to her was totally unanticipated by me -- I really didn't think he would be that interested or affected (I don't know why I thought this...) But he is turning into Carl* from the children's picture books -- he licks her head and her feet; he runs right over to her immediately whenever she is crying, even if she is upstairs and he is downstairs; he sleeps at the foot of the bed when we are there; he follows me around whenever I am carrying her anywhere. It is too cute...

*Don't know who Carl is? Click here!

Big Sister

Amelia has been a lucky girl the last few days and gotten a lot of "big sister" presents. Here she is with some from her Granddaddy & Heath:

Big Sister flowers - she loves the silk butterfly garnish.

A big sister dress and Dorothy shoes.

Spinning in her new dress.

Being a good tomboy on her bike (with new training wheels) in her dress.

Start your anniversary early!

Around 11pm last night I finished sanding a little stool that I made so I could sit beside Amelia's new bed and read her stories. I was up a bit late because the night before I went to bed too early and was fully awake at 2:30am.

I was sleeping well until I heard Amelia moaning about her head. She had bumped it at school on a little stairway. No big deal--just a little black and blue. I went into her room and she was holding her cold compress. She wanted me to "make it cold." I went downstairs and got a new one but it was not shaped like a car. She wanted the one shaped like a car. I brought back the warm one--the one shaped like a car--and she happily put it on her head, pulled the covers over her face and went back to sleep.

It is 4 steps to get out of her room if you take long strides. The first step is the worst you have to avoid a loose board that doesn't just squeak--it pops as it clips its nearby boards on the way down to the joists. Tonight I missed that one. And I didn't make too much noise as I tried to glide over the last three squeakers. I had one leg over the security gate in Amelia's doorway and she popped up her head, looked right at me and loudly said, "TUCK!"

Tuck means that she wants to be tucked in. I hate this because I always tuck her in when I am leaving her room. She is just totally using me and my softiness. She knows I will come back and tuck her in one or two more times. But it was early in the am--argg. I tucked her in and escaped the room. She asked for more tucks but I scurried downstairs and after a few minutes she was quiet. I didn't want to wake Amelia, Heidi or Zoe by climbing back up the stairs so I took up a spot on the couch. I sat in the middle of the couch, adjusted a pillow in the right place, turned my body and began to lie down on my back. The instant before my head was down--I heard a shout--"Tails."

Tails is what Amelia shouts when she wants us to redo her pig tails. At the hour I didn't consider trying to convince her that tails were not needed in bed. I just went up and redid them. But I redid them poorly. Those of you who pull your hair up or who have kids will understand. You grab a sufficient amount of hair and put on the elastic. Then you twist and pull it over the hair again, then back. If you don't do it enough times it is way too loose and will fall off in minutes. This is where I left it.

So repeat the lying down on the couch paragraph and I was back upstairs to do the tails again. I don't know how many times this happened but I eventually took my sleeping bag and pillow upstairs to sleep on Amelia's floor. The squeaky boards are squeaky partly because they are uneven so my hip settled into a spot about 1 inch lower than my legs and body. This would be comfortable if it were a sleep number bed but a substrate of wood is not so forgiving. Amelia kept talking and intermittently sleeping, or at least being quiet. I never felt like I got any sleep but I did feel like I was protecting Amelia from herself and had her contained in one room.

Feet on my head. Amelia was crawling out of her bed and using my dozing head as a step stool on the way out. I saw light out the windows so I figured we could go down and begin the day. Amelia was beginning her morning mantra--hungry, hungry, hungry--and I can always get up when the sun is out. We made our way downstairs. I turned on Clifford (and entire blog should be dedicated to analysis of this kid heroin program). And I again took my repose on the couch. I looked at the clock and it was not our normal wake up time of 6am----it was 5am.

Sure there is more to this story. Amelia falling asleep on the way to school. Me falling asleep at my desk at work. Loosing my glasses because I was that tired. Wandering in to a Staples and wondering why it was so dark--before realizing that I had sunglasses on. But to get the whole story you would need an essayist who had slept all night. I knew that kids would be lots of work but I didn't know of their virus/parasitic quality. Like a parasite they not only are part of your world but they begin to control your world--no one told me this. Life is amazing and fun but it is not longer controlled by Tom or Heidi. It is controlled by Amelia who is quickly training Zoe to do the same.

Happy 4th anniversary to my great wife Heidi!

Hiking with Friends

Our friends Ron and Emily and their kids came up on Sunday to do a little hiking. This also gave Heidi and Zoe a little break to do some more sleeping. We hiked my old standby Mt. Major. It was a little bit longer than they might have expected but their son Eli (6) was a trouper and made it the whole way up and down with no complaining.

Here we are at a view point taking a break and eating some blueberries.

And here is Amelia doing some picking of her own.

Just to make sure we were not bored we were joined that evening by Heidi's mom. Edie has been great in the last week. She took care of Amelia, made us tons of food and has made the 45 minute drive multiple times just to see Zoe and Amelia.


Here is one final picture of Dad and Amelia with their babies.

Film from before Zoe was born

Here are a couple of video clips from the days before Zoe was born. Don't worry it is short.

A few more pictures that you might enjoy.

Amelia no longer seems small. Her legs are huge compared to Zoe's
I'm pretty excited.
This has been Zoe's go to position for the past few days. (Wait the past few days are the whole of her life.)

It also shows her swaddled. While Heidi was pushing, in the last tough hour, there was a point where I wondered if I remembered how to swaddle a baby. It is one of those things you do a ton but then don't do any more. I was a bit panicked to tell the truth. But then Heidi mentioned that she was going to push again and I forgot about it for a few hours. In the end I did somehow remember.

Lots of Zoe and Amelia Pictures

Here are a bunch of pictures of Zoe.

http://picasaweb.google.com/crumlives/ZoeIsBorn?authkey=Gv1sRgCNjT6NqIi_nYKA#

Enjoy!

Zoë the Great!

Zoë Winter Crumrine arrived yesterday at 5:30 pm. Just like her sister she made Heidi put in a long work day. Heidi woke up at 4:00 am on Wednesday with contractions 5 or so minutes apart. She did an amazing job working through the pain of giving birth to Zoe and once again proved that she is a great laborer.

Here is a picture when she is about 2 minutes old.

We liked this next one because it is how she slept in the womb. Every ultrasound had her hand in this position.

I don't know about Heidi but it really helped me that Dr. Stevenson was so calm. Here he is sending a text letting his colleague know that he is going to stay a little late to deliver Heidi's baby.

Actually, it was Andrea, our nurse, and Heidi that did all of the really hard work. The nurses at Concord Hospital are all great but Andrea is one of the best.

This is Amelia's first look at Zoe. She was intrigued.

Grammie with Zoe for the first time.

Amelia played with her toys for a while and finally asked if she could hold Zoe. She held her for about a minute and then...ran back to her toys.

Here is Grandmother Perkins with Zoe.

And Becky too.

Just like with Amelia labor was exhausting for me. I have slept almost as much as Zoe today.
We will send more pictures when we get home. Hopefully tomorrow.

PS: Here is a bonus picture from when Amelia and Yoda were both a good bit smaller.

Here is why this picture is funny...

Amelia had just woken up from her nap and was screaming (she does this sometimes and we find it to be a lot of fun). She stood in the middle of the living room and screamed, she laid on the floor and screamed, and sat on my lap and screamed. We gave her a snack and a drink and Tom decided to take a picture of the screaming...

He walked up to her with the camera, she stopped the scream fest and posed for the camera with a cute little grin...

Door

Dinner from the other night.


This is the new door that I made last night.


Heidi made fun of the high security lock that you see below. BUT look at the picture above. NO door handle. No burglar could crack that system.

This is all pretty exciting because we can now fully lock our house AND all of the entries and exits have real doors in front of them. Not just screen doors.

Another hike wif Daddy

Tom took Amelia on another hike today - noticing a theme? I get to rest at home and they have fun time together. Don't worry - he always has cell phone service on these little hikes, unlike many other places he could take her.

At the top: Both Amelia and Yoda re-fuel.

A new hat because she lost her last one on the last hike.

I caved and bought a new infant car seat. We HATED the one we had last time for many reasons and so while at Target today this one was calling out to me. We already like it better and have found it immensely easier to use than our old one. I'm going to work on selling our other one to some unsuspecting soul... wish me luck :)

"I went on a hike wif Daddy"

Tom took Amelia on a hike Monday morning - he took her and Yoda up the same mountain he's hiked a million times, but this was the first time this year and when she was old enough to "get it." She had a BLAST. They picked blueberries and ate them on the way and has talked about it ever since. She felt very important going just "wif Daddy" and going "in his backpack." She sadly also lost her hat - but didn't seem too devastated (it wasn't a Spiderman hat, thank goodness).

Just starting out...

Eating blueberries

At the top

The view...

The view with a cuter focal point...

Heat Wave

Well if you are not from the northeast, we hope you are not experiencing the heat wave that we are... Just let me say how awesome it is to be 9 months pregnant and enjoying 95 degree heat. Anywho, Tom bought a new sprinkler so that Amelia could play in the yard and while it took her a little while to warm up to the idea (no pun intended), she loved it.



She then came inside and wore her elmo towel to warm up. She loves to wear the "hat" part and walk around the house - she looks a bit like a red Darth Vader wandering around with this cape / towel set up.

Cheese!

38 weeks

Well here we are! Waiting waiting waiting. We are ready and excited and going a little crazy wondering when our big day will be...

Is Yoda telling the baby to come out?

Enjoying time with her before there are two...

Amelia tries out some big girl underpants - she loves them but does listen to us when we tell her that she can only wear them at home. We were expecting a fight over it, but she's fine with it. For now.

Amelia's new method of watching t.v.

I went to check on Amelia before I went to bed the other night and noticed she wasn't in her bed. I panicked for a brief second before looking down on the floor to see this. I laughed so hard - and she let me move her back into bed. She hasn't done this one since...


Amelia at the pool. She loves going - but she usually only swims for about 20 minutes or so and then wants to lie on the lounge chair. She would sit there for hours if I let her. I am anticipating she will be a lounge chair princess as a teenager...

Sporting her Spidey shades from Aunt Becky.