Day 4 - Finally Home

We're home from the hospital and doing well. Camryn lost more weight initially than everyone would like due to not eating well (low milk supply in Mama), but we're supplementing with formula and she's eating great. She's a very sleepy baby (yea!). We're so grateful to have Nana's help. Mason has been sweet, tried to feed her a bottle. He's being extra needy towards Mama.


She already has her first Ohio State gift!


We looked at old pictures of Mason and they look so much alike! Except Camryn has a ton of light brown hair. Still loving every minute with her.

Introducing Camryn Trind Huston

No words can describe our pleasure at the birth of Camryn Trind Huston August 25, 2009 at 1:53pm. She is 7 pounds, 15 ounces and 20 inches. She's healthy, eating well, sleeping well (so far) and just adorable! Dada, Nana, and Mason were all present for the birth and all thrilled to be there. Erika had an epidural, had to push for only a few minutes, and felt fine afterward. Much better than last time! On the way home Mason said to Nana "Having Baby Sister was fun." Oh, and Trind means "pure" in Swedish. We're so happy right now. More pictures to follow :)

Dust bunnies beware

103 degree heat and an enlarging belly won't hold us back. We cleaned a lot (as usual), prepared our bedroom for a new baby, packed the hospital bag, and had fun. Even though baby has a month left, Erika's friend just delivered at 33 weeks and made us nervous. So now we're ready. The biggest accomplishment was washing all 84 of the empty wine bottles decorating our kitchen and the shelf they sit on. Whew! That was a job. At least we could stay indoors. Seriously - 103 degrees.


Erika worked hard all week, hasn't been sleeping well, so she barely had the energy to put Mason to bed each night, but she just couldn't say no to a cute little boy that wants to read books in his new big boy bed.


Talk about child imagination. Mason came up with a game that involved making dinosaurs out of his railroad tracks. This one was a "nukasaurus." Mason posed nicely for this picture, saying "cheese!" When he doesn't want his picture taken anymore he turns away and says "no more cheese!"


We went to the pool where Mason was the most daring he's been in a long time. He played with a two-year-old boy who was swimming all over the place! He must have given Mason courage because he swam a lot and was leaping off of the pool sides without fear.

New chapters

Times are a-changing! June 30 Erika finished her residency in Podiatric Medicine and Surgery and then started private practice July 1. The new job has started off slowly and probably won't pick up too quickly. It is taking a ridiculously long time to get credentialed at hospitals and get on the insurance plans. We don't mind the delay at all, we're not sure how busy we want her to be while expecting a baby. The truth is she works plenty of hours seeing her boss's patients. It would be nice if she had her own patients, though!


Erika had her baby shower this weekend. Several of her closest friends came and it was a lot of fun. Mason of course didn't understand the gifts were for Baby Sister.


One of the games involved melting candy bars in diapers and trying to guess what it was. Kind of gross, but fun, and actually a tasty treat.


Mason has his big boy room now! The theme is Disney's Cars, complete with bedding, posters and wallpaper border. Mama and Dada went all out for their little man! We thought more blue walls would be overkill, so we went with a more versatile (we hope) color for the bottom half of the room which is supposed to be Mater (the tow-truck in the poster) rust brown.


He fortunately loves it and was very excited by his "surprise" this morning at the reveal. He wanted to nap in it today, but was too excited to sleep. We were able to reuse the curtains from his baby room and will get girly ones for Baby Sister. Too bad the baby's room couldn't have such a comfortable recliner also!


This is a Cars toy organizer. It has actually helped keep some of the mess controlled. There is so much Disney stuff to choose from! Next on our list is a cars laundry hamper :)

Pugs + pool = party!

We went to a pool party with our pug friends last night. It was a lot of fun, but you'd think a three-year-old would tire of the pool eventually. No. Unfortunately after our swimming last weekend we lost his floaties and his swimsuit, so he was limited in what he could do. But that's not why he's naked. He had already asked to get out of the pool, so we got him out and put him in dry clothes. Then he somehow ends up soaked from head to foot. So he spent the rest of the night in just a diaper.


Our friend Doug created a game in which he let Mason push him into the pool. Mason thought it was the best game.


Dizzy had fun, even went swimming. It shouldn't have been surprising that a dog raised in the desert, even if she is part lab, wouldn't be the best swimmer. She wouldn't leave Erika's side the entire night (not much different from most days) which resulted in her getting knocked into the pool once also. Did she learn? Of course not.


This was Mason last weekend at the community pool in the 'rents neighborhood. He loves swimming in his floaties, does so well. Not so well without them. We should think about swimming lessons.

So much, yet so little...

Unfortunately most of what we've been doing lately has been preparing for new baby. Erika's work is winding down (one week left!), there's not much to do anymore to get ready for the new job, so the focus is now baby sister. After living in a house for two years, a lot needs done that we usually don't have time for; we don't really have time now, but we're making it! We've been washing walls, washing grout, repainting/resealing grout (only Kevin), cleaning that impossible to reach knick-knack shelf - you name it, we're going to clean it. Erika is also experimenting with rearranging the furniture in the living room (just to see what it would be like) and Mason was not happy. He put the decorations where they used to be and gave Dada a five minute lecture on why it should stay there, then demanded the couch be put back.


But we have been trying to have some fun. Erika's parents bought the family a bike trailor as part of Mason's birthday. Mason was excited at once, here are picks of him climbing in it and trying to help as Kevin's putting it together. We have a great two-mile trail around our complex that works well. And we actually found space for it in the garage! Ok, so we don't use it everyday (Erika can't really ride anymore), but we're still optimistic for its plans.


Wonderful Dada doing the hard work! Most of our hard work has to be done while Mason is napping, which is about only every other day now (boo), so we still try to have fun. We've been going to parks and playgrounds a lot more now because Mason finally isn't afraid of the other kids! He plays with them well and is so cute having so much fun! We'll have to get some good pics or videos of that.


And cutest of all is how excited Mason is for baby sister. He puts a basketball under his shirt and calls it his "big belly" then pushes the ball out and talks about baby sister being born. Given how he didn't even like the furniture rearranged, we hope he adjusts to all the change. He's going to move into his big boy room soon. Erika has given up on potty-training - he'll tell us when he's ready, but Kevin is still slightly optimistic about not having two kids in diapers. What we do know is that Mason is going to be a wonderful big brother.

Maternity rewards

Kevin and Mason have been quite busy, for some reason they are both stir-crazy in the house and needing to get out. So this week they've gone to the zoo, the grocery store, and the park several times. Mason was having a blast going down the slide over and over again. He's still hesitant around other kids, but at least he's braver on the big boy slide!


Mason is still playing flour, and on this night he had it all over himself! And he also had woken up from his nap with a new mark on his forehead, no one knows how it got there. So we told Mason what a brave boy he was if he got a mark like that and didn't cry.


Erika has been studying like crazy for her board exams, one of which was today. She'll be able to relax completely and celebrate after next Tuesday when she takes the last one. But she decided to treat herself and her expanding belly to some clothes that actually fit and will keep her cooler during the hot Tucson summer to come.


Erika enjoying her new outfit and her doctor-prescribed milkshake. Maternity pants/shorts are a challenge: the waist has to go either below the belly or completely above it or the pants will fall down; don't know why some designers don't understand this. Kevin liked the outfit, was about to comment that the butt was quite nice, until Erika demonstrated the style of waist on the shorts (above the belly).


Kevin says, "Well that just ruined it for me."