Do you know the Muffin Man?

Aidan helped me make lemon cranberry muffins the other day.  He had a pretty good time, but especially liked stealing the finished product whenever possible.

Happy Birthday!

What did Daddy get for his birthday?  A nap.

A bit about The New Kid

The similarities and differences between newborn Aidan and Emma are kind of interesting.  At least to us.

Emma looks quite a bit like Patrick, but she definitely has my mouth.  She also seems to have inherited Uncle Andy's bottomless pit.  At the rate she's going her first food is going to be a pot of macaroni and cheese instead of rice cereal.  She's a bit more patient about eating than Aidan was at this age.  He would let loose his brain piercing pterodactyl cry that was sure to wake up the whole building.  Emma will snort in the most unladylike manner for about two minutes before crying.  Her cries aren't nearly as horrible as Aidan's were.  Unfortunately she also a noisy sleeper.  She grunts, whines, and gets squeaky hiccups.  After the second night she was home, Patrick commented that he'd forgotten how many noises a baby can make that you don't have to jump up for.  She also seems to like baths, Aidan hated them at this age.  I think he was about two months old before he started to enjoy them.  Emma is happy until you dry her off and she starts to get cold.

Aidan is warming up to her.  He likes to stick his head in the moses basket so that his hair gets in her face.  Our guess is he feels like she's petting him when she starts flailing around.  He's gentle with her, but then gets really excited and starts to tickle her head - Emma doesn't like that.  Aidan seems to like holding her and has tried to take her from Patrick a few times.  If she fusses and we aren't in the immediate vicinity he'll drag us to her.  This is quite difficult when one is in the bathroom.

She is also awake a lot more than Aidan was at this age.  He would sleep for four hours, wake up for food and a diaper change, and then promptly fall back asleep.  I remember being a bit disappointed about this.  Emma, on the other hand, has one hour bouts of wakefulness in wich she must be held.  Normally this is awesome, less so when she's awake at 2:00 a.m.

A few changes to the blog

On the old Mobile Me site we had a section just for Aidan.  I've had to tweak that a bit since Apple no longer supports the old service.  Each kid has their own blog that I'll update with pictures and such, but most things will still be on the main family blog.

At the top of the page you'll see our navigation tabs, the kids' blogs are on the right side.

Clicking on one of the "scrapbooks" will take you to that blog.

Aidan's Blog

Emma's Blog

I'll try to remember to post here whenever I update one of their blogs with pictures.

Bringing Emma Home

Not a very flattering picture of either of us

I decided to go home a day early.  Aidan was missing me and Patrick wasn't getting to spend as much time with Emma as he would have liked.  The checkout process was easier than getting Emma dressed and trying to take a picture of her.

You can see her outfit better in this picture.  Mira gave brought Emma two headbands and the purple one was a perfect match for the dress.

Emma doesn't like pacifiers, I think this is the second time she ever insisted on using one.  I would also like to add that Patrick bought the pretty pacifier she's using as well as her going home outfit.  While shopping for the outfit we ran into a coworker and her two daughters at the Carters store.  Patrick and the two girls (first and second graders) chose this dress.  I was a bit surprised that he went with polka dots and flowers but it was super cute on her.  The nurses all loved it.

Once home I tried to set up the pop up bassinet for her but ran into a small problem...

He will ignore it until we try to put Emma in it and then he crawls in too.  This shouldn't surprise me, Kiira did the exact same thing when Aidan was using it.  We still had to figure out living room sleeping arrangements since I can only go up and down stairs once a day.  We finally reached a truce.

I guess Aidan isn't interested in it unless it has a roof.

The Big Day!

Patrick to Aidan to school today while I packed for the hospital.  Once he came home he settled down with the baby name books and informed me that not only was it time to get down to business but also there could be no more "joke names".  Really?  Because I was the one with all of the silly names.

We picked up Aidan from nursery school and dropped him off with Meneka in the DAA nursery.  He wasn't happy but he settled down quickly.  We finally made it to the hospital only to find that there was NO PARKING!  This just topped off an already difficult trip down and Patrick was not happy.  We finally found a spot and took our sweaty selves into the hospital.  Checking in was quite easy and then they took us directly to my room.  I unpacked while Patrick settled in and continued looking for names. The nurses were in and out while getting me ready.  It was nice to be settled in and have Patrick there to chat with.

Patrick went with me when they took me up to the surgery floor.  At this point I went into a prep room and a nurse took Patrick to the cafe to wait until it was time for him to change into scrubs.  He gets the cafe and I haven't eaten since 6:45 that morning.  I demanded a danish.  I really liked the nursing staff, they were very relaxed and joked around with me (which was great as I was starting to get nervous).  The anesthesiologist was wonderful and kept checking walked me through the entire process.  In Kuwait the nurse put me in a type of headlock to keep me from jerking away from the needle.  Which I understand, you don't want people flailing about when you've got a needle in their spine, but it was a bit stressful.  This time the nurses held my arms but had me lower my head and relax and the anesthesiologist told me to remain in contact with her hand at all times.  It was all very calm and less scary this time around (there's nothing calming about a headlock).

Patrick came in shortly after Dr. Kasirsky started and we chatted.  The procedure took a bit longer this time around and with all of the clanking going on it sounded like the doctor was working on a truck.  (And I said that out loud, too.)  A few minutes later I hear, "Wow, she has a big head!"  Dr. Kasirsky told me later on that the baby's head got stuck in the incision.  It took four people, included the anesthesiologist, to push and pull her out.  Boy, was she angry!  Once they got her cleaned off, Patrick was able to hold her.  She quieted down as soon as she got warm.  When he tried to show the baby to me she started crying again, so Patrick just held her close until the nurse brought the warmer in.  Patrick took some quick pictures with his phone so I could see her without having to disturb her majesty. :P

Mira and Omar brought Aidan to the hospital after school.  He was interested in the baby but was more excited about being with the Ghosns.  Kiira declared that baby would be called Coco and that she loved pretend babies but also loved real babies.  "Coco" is apparently her baby and she's quite excited about it.  Kiira was really good with the baby, I'll have to see if anybody took pictures of the two of them.

Everybody headed out about an hour later.  Patrick said Aidan was asleep before he even started the car.  The baby and I just hung out in the room.  It was kind of lonely this time around.  But the new kid is healthy and all is well.    

We're back (no thanks to Frankfurt)

We were so busy with mom that I didn't get my doctor's note to fly.  I really didn't think it would be a big deal since nobody even asked to see my doctor's note for the previous 7 flights  I thought wrong.  We get to Frankfurt and it's not too horrible.  Aidan is exhausted and having a tantrum, he just wants to sleep.  We get to our gate and went through our only security checkpoint (yeah!).  I'm asked how many weeks pregnant I am and lie, saying 29 weeks.  I figured I'd play it safe, thank God I lied (I was actually 31 weeks).  We're all sitting down, Aidan is falling asleep in my lap when a airport employee pulls Patrick aside.  Apparently I can't fly after 28 weeks without a doctor's note.  Patrick told them that they had to tell me that they weren't going to let me fly, he wasn't going to tell me that.  Apparently the airport guy tried to fight Patrick on that, but Patrick won.  Which meant I was pulled out of the gate witha  screaming 3 year old to be given this delightful news.
I was so angry, and tired, and trying to cover up the fact that I was so congested that I couldn't actually hear anymore.  They were going to let me call my doctor in Dubai, but I explained that she was at the Olympics and nobody would be able to access my file because it was a weekend in Dubai.  I also pointed out that I wouldn't be able to call my doctor in the US (I was going to see if Melissa would fib for me) as it was 3 a.m. there.  I was ready to cry and kept saying, "But I'm just six hours away from home, please let me go."  I was really pathetic but didn't have  the f-bomb melt down that I had in New Jersey.  Finally they told me to just lie and say I was 28 weeks pregnant when I borded the plane.
Thank God!
Of course we wait in line at passport control for over an hour and when we finally make it home we find that NONE of the maintenance work had been done.  No painting, no handle replaced on the back door (it was just a hole that I had taped up), weather stripping was still missing from two doors (so there was a pile of sand inside), and the AC was still coming through the ceiling threatening to squash whoever was going to the bathroom.  I said screw it and went to bed.
On the other hand, we've had no problem getting Aidan to take a bath or brush his teeth now that we're back.  He's about five shades lighter now that he's had a decent scrub down.
Sarah, Aidan's nanny, has been a huge help getting things unpacked.  The house is coming together nicely and I hope to have pictures up soon.