vonRoeschlaub Family News

Victoria Staten vonRoeschlaub, born 6/1/07 at 8:30 AM. 7lb 13oz.
Overall the most uneventful birth we’ve had. We went in, an hour and a half later Diana was wheeled into surgery, twenty minutes later the C-Section was complete and we had a very alert new baby girl. During the post-op cleanup we got to hold her and, aside from the initial shock, she didn’t cry at all. She did keep opening her eyes until, by the time she was taken off to neonatal care, she had both eyes open constantly and was looking around at everything.

In the picture her hand looks a bit purple, but that’s misleading since in reality it was very very purple. The doctors assured us that was normal.

Diana is now in the maternity ward and I am headed to sleep for a very needed nap.

Perhaps sensing the pending change in his life, Avery had a hard time sleeping last night.  He was up a few times, once because something in his room was going to eat him, the last time for the more mundane problem of his nighttime sippy cup being out of water.  Needless to say down at eleven up at four is not a happy night for me, but the constant interruptions just made things even more difficult.

Still no solid decision on a name.

I just returned from California for a three day trip, missing Avery’s birthday by less than an hour thanks to repeated flight delays on Friday. Fortunately, Avery’s party was scheduled for Saturday, so I didn’t miss his birthday as he sees it. We had a good time, but there was a surprise this morning.

When Claire woke me, it was to invite me downstairs where she had prepared breakfast for the family all by herself. Eggo waffles and orange juice, but she also put out the syrup and honey, a few pieces of fruit, the plates, and even poured the juice into the glasses. I assume Diana gave her a hand with reaching the glasses, but she has been known to climb on her stool to do it.

It was worth getting up after only four hours sleep for. Claire knew it was hard for me to get up, since just before going to bed that night she told me “I’m going to let you sleep late, you know how? I am not going to make breakfast, for you.”

Thanks!

The kids and I went to Noni and Grandpa’s to assemble the new Jungle gym Avery got for his birthday.  As Noni and I assembled, the kids turned on the hose and made a “pond”.  After it was done, and the kids had played for a while, we went inside and cleaned up.  I called Diana and told her we were coming home, then hunted for the kids, finding Claire upstairs watching TV.

As we were talking, Avery walked in and announced “I am naked.”

“Yes,” I said, “why are you naked?”

Avery contemplated this looking down to make sure.  “Um, because I have no clothes on.”

Last night we went to the PRC gala. Last year Diana won a number of baskets, this year, for considerably less money, we won three. My mother also won a basket, which she is going to divvy up among her friends with us getting the biggest piece for Avery’s birthday.

Two of the baskets are for a baby boy. This isn’t as big a deal as you would think, since the only real hint they are for a boy is a dominance of blue, and no difference for the toys.

When we first married, as we moved into the new house, I asked Diana how to throw away a garbage can. It was largely academic, we needed the old owners can as a spare anyway, so she just dismissed me.
Well, an animal had been getting into our old can, and with the holes in it we decided to buy a new one with a locking lid. This time the question wasn’t academic. On Monday I tried putting the can out empty next to the others. No good, it was still there after the garbage men passed. Then, last night, I tried putting the garbage can in the recycling bin.

It didn’t really fit, so it just kind of balanced at an angle on top, but one of the garbage men noticed it, looked inside, and asked the others what to do. The other guy shouted, “just toss it in.”

So that’s how to throw out a garbage can.

At 5 AM this morning I’m headed to Vegas for a week, so of course at midnight Avery came into the bedroom wheezing like a broken squeeze toy.  My first thought was that he aspirated one of his toys.  He goes to bed with a cavalcade of stuffed animals, each with a possible loose piece.  Diana thought the same thing, but with a sippy-cup valve.

After looking with a flashlight and trying to get him to admit to anything in his mouth, we rushed to St. Francis.  They immediately diagnosed it as the Croup.  After a while on Oxygen he insisted he felt better, and went right to sleep when we got home.

I wish I did too.

We brought the kids over to Noni’s house for dinner with Judy, and I told them about a time Edd’s father tried to get him to take a trip to Israel.  When Edd asked why his father suggested it was part of the Jewish experience.  Edd responded “Being shot at by Arabs?  Yeah, I guess that is the Jewish experience.”

Everybody laughed at the story, but a few days later Claire remembered it while riding in the car with Ava.

“Did you know people with experience shoot Jews with arrows?”

I think I’m going to have to be more careful about the jokes I tell around the kids (or at least take the time to explain them).

Did a little Christmas shopping over the weeked with Avery in tow. A big mistake since he not only remembers what we picked up, but even remembers everything we said while picking it out. No more shopping trips like this with him, it would seem.

While at Target I did convince Diana to get a Lego set for him. She didn’t feel he was playing much with what he had, but I felt it was more an issue of how the Duplo sets are geared to be assembled only one way. We purchased a bucket of generic house-parts and opened it when we got home.

Avery fell in love. It is by far his favorite toy right now. I still do most of the assembling, but the house is built to his specifications while he puts together the fence. All on his own he worked out how the pieces need to overlap to form a locked joint. I think he’s really beginning to see how Lego work now. It’s a great introduction to mechanics, and his “engineering geek” cred is starting to show.

Avery spent last night with my mother. When he came home this morning, Claire immediately left with her to New York to see a Mermaid play of some sort. Avery sat down to watch TV, and then suddenly noticed Claire wasn’t there. So I took him to the window and pointed to Claire getting in the car. “Say ‘Goodbye, Claire'” I suggested. He refused.

As she got in the car Avery suddenly started calling out “Hi! Hi, Claire!”

I puzzled over that a bit and suddenly realized. “Are you saying ‘Hi’ so that Claire will stay home?”

“Uh huh. Why it not working?”