We welcomed our sweet Archer Clay to the family a week ago today. He was born March 24 at 1:34pm weighing 8 lb, 3 oz and 20.5 inches long. He has been a delight and joined our family rhythm so seamlessly. We are so in love with this little guy.

He was heartily welcomed his first week by the two neighborhood families we are close to, all of his grandparents, Auntie Boo and Uncle D with cousin Abraham, Aunt Chelsey, Mary, Heath, and the Changs. He's been to froyo, coffee shops, and two of our favorite restaurants. It was a wonderful, busy week. Jonathan was an amazing servant and Quinn is a very gentle big sister.

And I survived my first solo day with these rascals.

We chose "In Christ Alone" by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend as his life hymn and we pray that these words would be etched deep into his heart all of his days:

In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow'r of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand.

Sometimes one's husband is so good at completing to-do lists that a preggo gal is left with nothing to do during naps while waiting for labor to start. All the bookkeeping is caught up. The freezer is packed full. The house is pretty clean.

So, I decided to sew a dress. This was my first one (aside from attaching a skirt to the bottom of an old tshirt) and it was such a fun project! I actually purchased the fabric for a blanket for baby brother. I've adored it for quite a while. But when it arrived the orange was way too peachy-pink for a little boy so I decided it would have to be a sundress. I followed this simple tutorial and I love the result. It took about 2 hours over the course of a couple days. It was designed for a size 2T, and Quinn is getting closer to a 3T so I just added a half inch to the arm holes and body. I'm not sure if that's the proper strategy, but it seemed to work fine. I think it will still fit as a little tunic top as she grows taller. It passed the twirl test with such flying colors that I couldn't get a non-blurry photo.

Otherwise, we are just trying to make each day special as we await our new little fella. Oh, and we have some tiny sprouts of spinach and kale already! Oh, glorious spring.

My sweet nephew was born! On Friday morning, my sister and her husband welcomed Abraham Adam to their family. Since I wasn't showing any signs of labor, we decided to make the trip to Eugene early Saturday morning. I'm so glad I got to meet him while he is still tiny! He's a very snuggly little fellow and the birth process went great for my sister, praise God! Quinn has never been interested in holding other babies before, but she was really excited to hold Abraham. She kept making little lovey faces at him and gently patting his head.

As an added bonus, I was able to go to my lovely friend Kendra's baby shower on our way back home while Jonathan and Quinn spent some time with Heath's family. 

Quinn did her first official preschool activity on Friday. I presented her learning cupboard, learning materials, and activity mat which she was thrilled about. Then she chose an activity tray, completed it, and put it away again and said, "Nother activity, please!" When she was all done with activities, she put away her mat, closed the cupboard and said, "I do school!" Then she got very focused and said, "I practice writing my numbers" and wandered off to find a pencil and paper and sit at her table. Granted, her numbers look like a hundred swirls that form a dark circle, but the focused expression is very cute.

And now I'm just waddling and waiting for our little guy. Cleaning, and walking to the park, reading Quinn lots of stories, and playing the "Is This the Last Time I'll go to the Grocery Store Before He's Born" game.

It's starting to feel like spring around here. We planted our spinach and kale seeds last week and added three more blueberry bushes and a raspberry bush to our yard. My feeling is, if I'm going to pull weeds and do yard work, I better get to eat something afterward. The daffodils are starting to pop up too which makes me feel so cheery. We've had some lunches at our picnic table and made more trips to the park. And then the rain has encouraged some tea and cuddling up to read.

Our buddies the Thielmans came up for a visit last weekend. Their little gal is almost one and Quinn loved bringing her toys and trying to hold her hand as she practiced her walking. My dear friend Mary visited yesterday for a nice ladies lunch out and it was so good to catch up with her. We had Matt and Holly over this weekend too. They are sweet to Quinn and humor her every request. I hope Quinn will always remember her quartet bedtime serenade of "Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood". And we've just enjoyed some good fellowship with our home group and at church lately. 

My mom came up for a visit on Friday which is always a treat. She took Shinobi with her when she left so we don't have to worry about him when labor starts. And so I can actually get the house clean. At dinner, Quinn said, "Nana, I don't want you to take my doggie." and we reviewed that he was just going to have a sleepover party with Nana and Boppa until baby brother was born. Then, when he got in the car and my mom started driving away, Quinn burst into tears and started wailing, "I miss my doggie!" I totally started crying too, it was so sweet. It took a while to calm her down and until mid-morning Saturday she kept saying, "I miss Shobi". I'm glad to know she loves him so much.

The home visit went well and we were able to go to the Children's Museum for a birth center potluck. The midwives are totally celebrities to Quinn. She loved having them at our house and seeing them out in public.

This is possibly the last photo of us as a family of four. Crazy!

Since my last post, we've crossed a lot off of our to-do list. I have to brag about my awesome husband (whose birthday is today - Happy Birthday, my love!) who has been knocking out projects right and left. I'm seriously amazed by all the work he has done lately and being brave enough to try things he doesn't have prior experience with. Not to mention, having lots of quality time with Quinn so I can get things done too and go to the pool. We appreciate you hubs! And I think we can officially declare that we are ready for baby brother any day now. I'm past the 36 week mark, we have everything collected on the midwife preparation list, and we have our home visit this week. We even excavated the archaeological site of crumbs and stickers in the car so we could rearrange the car seat setup. 

All I really have left is putting the Montessori learning activity trays together for Quinn. I'm almost done reading the ebook, it has been very helpful in figuring out what materials to purchase, most of which are from the dollar store. Now I just need to get them organized for easy use and train Quinn on the activity cycle. This is my plan for keeping her entertained while I'm nursing baby brother, but I'd love any other tips people have!

Quinn's been getting ready too. Baby brother's room is pretty much set up. She helped me choose which books from her bookshelf would be good books for a baby and put them on his shelf. She's been practicing feeding her babies and burping them, giving them toys when they cry, and laying them in the crib or swing. She spends most of her time in the nursery these days pretending to be a mommy. So precious! 

I have to record some favorite quotes. Well, one is more of a tone. To add emphasis or enthusiasm to a word, she'll drop her voice an octave and open her eyes wide. For example (bold being the voice drop), Q: "I'm having a party." Me: "What kind of party?" Q: "A chocolate party!" 

She has a a little plastic sandwich from a picnic set that she insists on sleeping with. If she can't find it after we close the door, we'll hear her shout in a panicked tone, "My sandwich!!" She hoards tons of books in her bed when she goes to sleep too, so when we go in to move them after she's asleep, we'll usually see the sandwich still clutched in her tiny fist.

The other day, she started eating dinner while I was still finishing up cooking. She shouted to Jonathan and me in her best sales voice, "Come try some, I've got pear on a fork!"

We've been working on using a nice voice when asking for things and her second attempt usually sounds like, "Mommy, please, can I have ____ please, Mommy?" 

A lot of her sentences are about "I love ____" or "I don't like ____". I guess she is forming a lot of opinions right now. She and Shinobi are starting to become closer. Probably because one of her responsibilities is to feed him dinner now. Another responsibility for her is choosing pajamas and she loves to choose, "mix and match". She's really into maps and puzzles right now. She tried caribou for the first time last week when Jonathan's parents were visiting. She requested a third helping! She received a US Map puzzle from Nana and Boppa and wants me to get out the Disneyland map a lot. And we got some 16 piece jigsaw puzzles that she likes to do on repeat. 

Aside from projects, we've had some social fun and Jonathan and I have had a couple date nights. One was to a Peter Bradley Adams concert. We saw him in SF when I was about seven months pregnant with Quinn, so we had to go again. It was at a really fun, small venue so it was easy to get a photo with him. I even wore the same outfit for the joke.