Welcome Baby Will

Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to William Britton Olson! He was a little anxious to come into the world so we got him two weeks early. He was 7 lbs and 4.5 oz, and 20 inches long. He has brown hair, and we'll have to see what color his eyes decide to be. One of my favorite features is the little tufts of hair on his ears!
I was originally going to work until the 28th, but decided to give myself a little more time to prepare the house and my doctor gave me a note for the 21st instead. My last day of work was great! I celebrated my soon to come baby by going out to brunch with my team, and then later in the day we had a baby shower. I was looking forward to sleeping in the next day and getting into the full-mode nesting instinct. However, I found myself at 5:30 AM telling Britton that my water broke and our little guy would be likely to come sometime in the next 24 hours!
All our birthing classes and videos had us expecting to go too the hospital, get sent home, wait around for hours, etc. So we leisurely packed a bag just in case, ate breakfast, played a quick game of Risk (j/k), and headed to the hospital. After being hooked up to an IV, and all other kinds of monitors, Will was born only six hours later! Britton cried and giggled like a school girl, and I think I might have been yelling or something like that...it's kind of a blur.
He is really a joy and getting chunkier by the day. It's fun to see him experience all kinds of firsts. Like his first bath, his first time wetting the bed(diapers are too big), and his first trip to Target. He's growing, and the pediatrician says that he's actually gained weight since leaving the hospital! I can't wait for his first double chin. Well, hopefully it will be his first and last double chin. Thanks to everyone for the fun baby gifts, and your support. Luckily my mom could fly out here and get to the hospital right after the birth, and has helping me do all the nesting I didn't get done earlier. To repay her kindness Will stayed up crying from the hours of 1-5AM last night. We still love him!


On top of being 2 whole weeks early, Will decided to come on uncle Alex's birthday.

Getting Baby-fied

We are getting baby-fied, baby-prepped, and baby-savvy. We have the car seat strapped in, the crib assembled, and the hospital route memorized. We've been to childbirth prep, breastfeeding prep, and newborn care classes. It's pretty much set in stone now--we're going to be perfect parents. Right? I mean, with all this gear how can we not? I don't know how our parents managed without it.
As any freshly returned from Babies R Us couple can tell you, this whole becoming parents thing these days can be pretty overwhelming. I find myself worrying about the smallest details. Like, should I get the stroller that has a convenient lever to lock the front wheel in place, or do I actually have to bend down to lock it each time? Does my baby need a cashmere blanket? I definitely need a stroller with shocks--don't want the baby bouncing too much when I go off jumps to catch some air. Should I go "green" with my diapers, or let them stink in a landfill for 450 years? (That fact is from a baby shower trivia game...I'd have to ask Erin for the source) These are just a few examples, but it's funny how caught up you can get in all this baby gear.
It reminds me of when Britton and I were registering for wedding gifts. We totally bought this sales pitch for special Japanese crafted kitchen knives. They're made with the same technique as samurai swords or something. I can just see us ceremoniously raising these huge swords to cut...some eggplant. Luckily we came to our senses and bought some ordinary kitchen knives that work great!
I'm sure our gear and stuff will pile up over the years, but it's good to know that we don't have to sweat the small stuff too much. The only thing our kid really needs is us!

Welcome to the Jungle

With a smirk, the Escondido Village garden coordinator accepted my garden dues, and offered to show me my newly acquired plot. "Instead of telling me they were done with the plot, the last owners just didn't return my emails for a couple months." He informed me. "So it's a little overgrown." We passed cute little patches of dirt with nice rows of corn, lettuce, and ripe, red tomatoes growing. Then he stopped in front of what I like to call 'my little monstrosity'.
The whole thing was completely packed with waist high, dried out monster plants. At first I thought they were all weeds, but I found little plastic tags hinting to their civilized beginnings as such things as lavender and broccoli. So the sight was a little overwhelming for pregnant ol' me, and I promised the guy I'd get my husband started on it right away. :) A couple weeks later I got a "failure to use" warning from the garden coordinator. (Our plot is right next to the "Welcome to the EV Community Garden Sign" so it's very noticeable.) So I decided we better get started even if our progress was slow, and the monsters nasty. I wasn't kidding...waist high monster plants. We've made some good progress, and the only things remaining in our plot is some ridiculously tall asparagus and a decent looking rosemary plant. We're hoping G-ma lita will come out some time when we actually plant our own veggies and share her gardening wisdom. Hopefully it's not too late in summer to plant things. All I ask is for some tomatoes, lettuce, and good herbs like basil and cilantro so I don't have to pay Safeway's ridiculous prices for a hunk of herbs that I'll never be able to use up before they rot in my fridge. Luckily we live in an area where you can grow things year round I think. Ooh, zucchini and butternut squash would be great too. Does okra grow around here? Ok, getting carried away now.