Ruby cut my head off...

It's been too long since our last post; we've been very busy waiting.  AND we had some wonderful visitors as well.
On January 26, ELEVEN days after my due date (yes, that's right, even later than the first two) I decided to have a castor oil milkshake for breakfast.  It was actually delicious - I'd be happy to share the recipe.  
 
I laid down for a nap with Gus just after 1pm, and about two hours later (I'll spare the intense details on this public forum - but I'm happy to share, let me know)...VOILA!!

Arlo Peter

Weeman!!

January 26 3:26 pm
9 lbs 14 oz 21 in 

His bag of water started to come out first, which made for an interesting picture to say the least.  (Again, I'd be happy to share - if you think you can handle it.)
And he is absolutely perfect in every way. Gus was there for most of the birth and was fascinated. Ruby chose to hang out with Ben, Angie, Grandpa, Milo and Ellie out in the yard and wait for updates. She's only interested in the baby part of the process - fair enough!

Proud papa weighing our catch with our wonderful midwife, 
Tammy, who also delivered Ruby.  Arlo weighed the exact same as Gus, only he is an inch and a half shorter than Gus was. -ish, that whole measuring the length of a newborn seems pretty inexact. It all depends on who is measuring them and how much they will stretch out their little legs for you that day.  

 These are first-day photos, 


 followed by a bunch from the first week.  It's taken me so long to write this in between nursings, that we've accumulated quite a few! I've tried to be selective...

Mondays and Fridays are now 'brother days'.  So fun.
Gus is really enjoying is dual roles now.  He is even more amazing than I thought he would be at being a big brother and he is SO taken with Arlo.  Yet, he still LOVES being able to turn around and pull little brother crap with Ruby.  win win!


 

 

Ten days has gone too quickly. Armed with the knowledge of how ridiculously fast this all goes, Joel and I are doing our best to drink up EVERY SECOND of this experience. And Arlo is making it extremely enjoyable.  He enjoys nursing, sleeping, nursing, walks on the beach, nursing, brother and sister, and pooping.  What a life. 

For those of you out there like me, please pardon all of the grammatical errors here.  I have to be quick. And I'm currently only working with a small fragment of my brain .  La la babyland.  Sigh.  
Thanks for reading - we'll be back!!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

 Merry Christmas!!
A skinny dip on Christmas Eve, because we can! (that is a tradition I could get used to)

 And a quick trip to the beach on a beautiful Christmas Day to make a sandy snow man...












Merry Christmas, y'all.
We'll be back in 2014!
xoxo

 I almost stepped on this guy on one of my walks last week.  We're not in New England anymore..

I knit a sweater! Who knew? It's full of imperfections, but completely functional.  Score one for old dogs learning new tricks.

 Gus and the other youngins' at The Pine School put on a great show for us before the holiday break.  Look at that adventurous little pilgrim.  
And then we had a delicious "Feastival" cooked by Joel, which he renamed Feastivus.  






Insert Gus's birthday party - and then off onto....
Vacation!
We went to Long Key for our Thanksgiving break, and had a blast. Hopefully Yaya and Poppy left with more photos than we did - as our are mostly of sea creatures!
 

  Joel caught this guy on camera off of the dock at our resort.  Meanwhile, Gus is yelling "Mama! Ruby! Shark! Come see the shark!" I'm not sure the tourists in the water between us were thrilled. 

 Ruby got to PET A DOLPHIN!! Toby and Sherman put on a very impressive show for us - this obviously being the highlight:

  









And then we moved on to the Sea Lions.
This is Wilbur: 

Don't be frightened. He was singing to us.



Another impressive trick:

 Our favorite trick of Wilbur's was when we would smile for his trainer.  "Say cheese!" It was a pretty ferocious smile, and I didn't manage to get it on camera.  Luckily, Ruby and Gus do a spot on impression:

This was where we had our favorite dinner - outside on a stormy night.

SURPRISE!!
We had a great party for our sweet little five year old.  He was very surprised and so excited.  I didn't take one photo the whole time, so thank goodness Britt brought her camera.  This post will be mostly pictures from here:

 

A moment for this cake...

Straight from the brain of Gus:
Dolce de Leche and vanilla ice creams, chocolate crumbles, brownie chunks on top with a caramel drizzle that was supposed to spell his name, but I goofed so it just turned into a complete drizzle.  This kid can design my birthday cake anyday!

And no party is complete without a serenade from the birthday boy on his new ukelele!
xoxo We love you so much, buddy.  You get more fun with every year!

Ruby and Gus holding up their end of the bargain..

If we get a surfboard, they carry it!

And look what we found in the sand:

 

Baby Sea Turtles emerged under the full moon the night before and we found a bunch of shells. 

 Sure hope these guys made it into the water...

 

We are enjoying having fun neighbors/family right across the street.

 

AND we've got an exciting weekend/vacation coming up..

We are kicking it off Saturday with a surprise birthday party for our five year old - and it only gets better from there.

Stay Tuned!

 

Hold on, back up, how did we end up here again?

So, you may be confused.  Last we spoke we were looking for jobs in Maine, right? Yes, and then we expanded that search to New Hampshire as well.  You see, Joel worked at Camp Huckins with me this summer - he killed it in the kitchen and is willing to give it another summer.  This means looking for seasonal work - schools ideally, for the schedule.  Well, employers in Maine and New Hampshire couldn't even grace us with a return phone call, and do you know where else they have lots of seasonal work? Florida.  
AND Grandpa lives here. Win win. 
Joel's passion for food may not be quite satiated with school lunches, but he is testing the waters for good reason - THIS SCHEDULE RULES.  
ok, all caught up? for now anyway...