Random pictures

This picture may not seem so important and it's no great picture. Really. She's way cuter than this. But it is important because this outfit was actually her first present! Lisa Diane bought it for her at Cambridge this summer. We've been waiting for Chiara to grow into it. Now she has and it's snuggly warm and cute.


Look, Asher has a beanie/propeller hat just like Pablo.

Asher's Birthday Party

Well, we had Asher's birthday party. Four years old! That seems so unbelievable. The main attractions included a Dragon moonwalk, the new trampoline, and a map of the world cake.

Jumping:

Jonah can touch his toes.Mitzi, waving.
Molly hippity-hopping in the trampoline.
Asher and Keegan running and jumping.



Cake:
The joys of licking the spoon.

Make a wish.

Presents:

People holding Chiara:

Chiara is 4 weeks old

Well, it's been a few days of not much happening around here. We've all had runny noses/sore throats , including the baby which has not been fun. I think that we're all on the mend and we're looking forward to Asher's birthday party tomorrow.
The junior cartographer at work.


We love this little outfit. We originally bought it to bring Asher home from the hospital but it was way too big. We just looked and Asher first wore at at 3 weeks, 6 days so they're about the same size. She looks like she's dancing in both pictures, don't you think?

More pics

Asher and Andrea dancing.Look, grandma got plenty of smiles out of Chiara.


Here's Chiara yawning and the blanket Andrea made her.

A visit and the new Trampoline

We got a visit from Grandma and Aunt Andrea today. How wonderful. Grandma has spent the day carrying and holding and snuggling Chiara with great success. Look how intent Chiara is on her Grandma.
And then Andrea got to flirt with the new baby.

After 44 missing springs and a dropped nut requiring two return visits to Academy and one to Home Depot, the trampoline is done! Thanks so much to Joey for giving up part of his Saturday and the warmth of his fingers.

Asher loves it.

Me too.

Asher is Four!

Well, somehow I can't believe that Asher is four. Four years old. I've been saying it all day today and yesterday kept saying that it was his last day to be three. It seems like a moment in time and all the time in the world at the same time.

We had a very quiet family day at home. Asher, the homebody, didn't want to go out for breakfast or lunch. He just wanted a chocolate cupcake with green frosting. You can see his presents in this picture. The desk/table is adjustable in height so that he can stand at it and make puzzles or draw and later we can raise it to be a desk he can sit at. And the marble run was a much more huge hit than we even expected. We all played with it all day. The first few times we dropped any marbles in the run, Asher danced up and down and cheered. I tried to get some video but he was over the cheering and dancing by that time.
The lady at HEB had to go in back and put green icing on a cupcake but she did.

Did I mention four?


Also, LD had this picture of Joey and Chiara on her phone from last week but we just got it. Look at what a great picture and Chiara is totally awake and alert.

Chiara's first big outing - Tuesday

I don't have any new pictures but yesterday we took Chiara's first big outing. The entire family went to IKEA and then Kim Phung (our favorite Vietnamese restaurant). She was kind of unhappy getting into the car seat but once we started moving she calmed down and went to sleep. At IKEA, Rachel wore her in the sling and Asher walked/ran (stepping on all the arrows). We even ran into a friend at the store (hi, Sarah). We got an adjustable table/desk for Asher's room for his birthday (no, we didn't spoil the surprise -- he doesn't know what we bought or why). Interestingly he was very upset that the table top being between their seats meant that he couldn't see Chiara for the rest of the ride. We don't want him upset but we like that he's so attached to her that he wants to be able to see her in the car.

Then we went to Kim Phung and had all our usual meals. Interestingly, our usual waitress made no mention of Rachel no longer being pregnant and now having a baby in a sling. It was very busy but it was a bit strange.

We declared the outing a success.

Sunday and the Cowboys lost?

Well, except for the Cowboys forgetting to show up at the game on Sunday, it was quite a good day. We had visits from Karen, Libba, and Christie, David, and Ezra. You can't see it very well but Chiara is wearing a cute little blue overall set with some orange socks.


Karen and Chiara bonded for quite a while.

Knitted hat

Monica, Willow, and Owen came over on Thursday and brought us food and bags of baby clothes. Wow. We're still amazed at how generous people are. Thanks to them so much. And they brought this adorable hat and sweater combo. How are these?

Two weeks

Asher continues to love holding Chiara. Here he was kissing her hand but it looks like he's trying to eat her. Particularly before I fixed the red eye.

Chiara likes to smile and she has a dimple on one side only. We haven't managed to get that on film yet. To tell the truth, she doesn't like the camera because of the flash.