4 weeks

Gavin is 4 weeks old today, so here are some pictures and a video. The below 2 pictures are from Christmas Eve when he took his first walk in the Baby Bjorn. If you wonder how comfortable it was, he fell asleep immediately.

The brief video is Gavin on his play mat, which he enjoys in limited intervals (and mostly just to look at himself in the mirror). One cute Gavin characteristic you can see here is the kicking of his right leg, which he does all the time. This is the kicking I got the last month of the pregnancy--right in my ribs. I like it much better now. :)

Christmas

If we're lucky Christmas is usually a quiet, relaxed day for us, and this year was no exception. We talked to family, watched the Queen's speech and had dinner with friends.


Because of Gavin's arrival, we didn't even get our nativity out this year (and we haven't done a tree in years). So our only holiday decorations were gifts and cards others sent us. We thought the cards on the staircase (below) and gifts in the fireplace (above) were actually pretty festive.

We also managed to do a bit of holiday baking--Jacob made a batch of his delicious chocolate chocolate chip cookies, and between feedings and naps I made sugar cookies, peppermint bark, cranberry wassail (I know that one isn't baking ), and these cute gingerbread trees (below). Thankfully our friend Becky made an amazing Christmas dinner.

Mostly we just enjoyed Gavin this Christmas, and it was great!

Merry Christmas!

Even to those of you who are feeling a bit grinchy...

And Happy New Year!

Let our little elf caution you not to party too hard. :)

3 weeks

The little guy was 3 weeks old Tuesday! After his cord fell off we discovered that he LOVES taking a bath (but I can't say he loves it more than Jacob loves giving him one).And babies really do sleep a lot. I'm amazed how much I like just watching him sleep. He makes adorable facial expressions and noises. (In the below photo, I love the way he positioned himself during sleep. We also love him in his England outfit.)
Waking up is a particularly expressive time. I took a series of waking-up videos, but we've only captured parts of the yawn (which is super-cute and showcases his perfectly round little cherub cheeks). Here is a video from the waking-up series. We'll keep you posted if we manage to get a yawn on camera.

Hiccups

I took this video to record Gavin's hiccups (because they're pretty cute), but the video ends up showcasing something else we love about him. He is very expressive with his hands and arms, and we think he looks a bit like an orchestra conductor sometimes. Let us know what you think.

Baby snores

Here's a video of Gavin in his car seat (after church on Sunday). We thought his little snores and sleep noises were too cute not to video.

Couch milk

Sometimes while I get myself ready to feed Gavin I put him on the couch next to me. If he's really hungry, he looks to the couch for food. I think he'll eventually realize there's no such thing as couch milk. :)

Gavin, animated

We've taken a few videos, which STILL don't quite capture how cute Gavin is. But we'll be posting a few just so you can see him doing cute things (well, we think everything he does is cute).
Here he is on his changing mat about to be changed.

Sir Gawain and the lost tribe

We've had a lot of questions about Gavin's name, so we figured we'd address it in a blog post. In the end, we can't claim anything more than the fact that we both just really love the name.As for Gavin, we sort of wanted something British, and Gavin fits the bill because it's Welsh (it means "white hawk"). We have to admit it first entered our consideration because of a TV character (we posted a clip from the show on this post), but we don't want to give the impression that he's named for that character. The name Gavin derives from Sir Gawain, the knight of Arthurian legend, nephew to King Arthur and sometimes called the greatest of the knights of the round table. He is known for his loyalty and courtesy, which is cool, but basically we just like the name. :)Asher comes from the bible; he was one of the many sons of Jacob/Israel, and his descendants comprise the tribe of Asher. The name means happy. While you're reading in Luke chapter 2 this month, go ahead and check out verses 36-38 to briefly read about Anna the prophetess who came from the tribe of Asher. Again, we just think it's a cool name.

A week old

We know, the blog is turning into nothing-but-Gavin. We do promise our European adventures will resume eventually (never to be the same, of course--in a good way), but we're thinking most of you won't mind that we keep posting pictures of this little guy.

in the car seat

going-to-church outfit on Sunday

checking Mom out

hanging out with Dad

Baby carrier

We got a Baby Bjorn, and Becky & Mike got a matching one. So when they were over a few days ago we decided to check it out and see how it works. [You'll remember Jacob and Mike's very close relationship...] Because all of the photos are pretty hilarious, I'm going to just let the sequence of pictures tell the story. Note especially who is having fun and who isn't. And the last photo makes them look like a couple who just adopted a baby.

More of the Gavin story

Pictures just don't begin to convey how precious he is, but here are a few more from his first 3 days of life. The one thing I mention to all our friends (and any of the hospital staff who note how much he looks like his dad) is that he has Jacob's chin dimple--so adorable!! For those of you who would like more information about why he was so early, here are a few of the details. [I'm keeping it pretty general as far as the birth but don't mind giving more birth-story details in a less-public place than the blog.] We went to our regularly-scheduled 38-week midwife appointment Monday afternoon. Jacob didn't even fully log off his computer at work, and I left a half-made dinner in the fridge, so neither of us expected anything other than a routine visit. But my blood pressure was strangely high, and it's usually well below normal. Several elevated readings prompted an afternoon of extensive tests. Everything came back totally normal, and they were about to let us go until an ultrasound showed there was insufficient amniotic fluid around the baby. So they checked us into the hospital that evening for overnight monitoring, intending to induce labor Tuesday morning. The things they did to prep my body for the induction probably helped jumpstart the process, and I went into labor on my own Monday night around 10pm. The midwife I saw Monday afternoon was shocked to arrive early Tuesday and find me ready to finish bringing Gavin into the world. The process went relatively smoothly, and he arrived at 10:17am--a November baby after all!

(taking his first nap at home)

He's Here

Today we welcomed into the world our little boy, Gavin Asher. He weighed in at 7lb 9oz and is 20 and 3/4 inches.

Frankfurt in Birmingham, Christmas on Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving we skipped the traditional turkey meal and opted instead for a drive across the country to the largest German-style Christmas market outside Germany. You'll remember how much we love the German Christmas markets (here and here). It's about a 2-hour drive to Birmingham, which is a twin city of Frankfurt, Germany. They try to have an authentic German Christmas market, and we felt like they were successful in recreating that experience. As usual, we were there for the food, and we had some tasty stuff!

So many sausages! We loved the Bratwurst and Weisswurst we had. Here's a photo of Jacob eating his and holding mine; and a photo of me using the industrial-sized mustard squeezer.

This girl is making Poffertjes, which are little yeasty pancakes. We had some with powdered sugar, which were delicious.

Here's a photo of a yeast dumpling filled with plum preserves, topped with vanilla sauce and poppy seeds. It was actually super-delicious!

We did try one thing that wasn't good. They fry potato pancakes, and we've seen this at the markets in Germany but never tried it. They smother it in applesauce. We thought the pancake wasn't worth eating, but I did take one last lick of the apple stuff (which was yummy), and Jacob got this very unattractive photo.

Below is Jacob in front of the Haribo stand. We may have purchased something there too. :) Things we also ate (not pictured): candied almonds & peanuts, chocolate-covered strawberries, pudding pastry, cherry pastry, chocolate-coated almond bar and a rotisserie ham sandwich.

Just a couple of photos of the stands. We know we should be saying Happy Thanksgiving today, but we're really saying Merry Christmas!

A Wilde night

Last night we went to London and saw a production of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband. You might remember that I'm actually a huge Oscar Wilde fan; and you might also be thinking that we're a little theatre-obsessed. Yes, we love the theatre, but mostly we just want to see as many plays as possible because we know the arrival of our son will make that super-challenging.

The play was wonderful. I've loved it since I first read it, but this is the first of Wilde's plays I've actually seen on stage. The acting was flawless (particularly impressive was the guy who played Lord Goring-- Elliot Cowan), and the sets were gorgeous! Mostly we just laughed the whole time and enjoyed Wilde's witty writing.

I'm not sure why the photo is so skewed, but you'll notice a famous face among the cast of the play. As Mrs. Cheveley in An Ideal Husband, Samantha Bond (far right) is best known in her role as Miss Moneypenny in the Pierce Brosnan James Bond movies.


In addition to seeing this production, we also ate some German food at the Bavarian Beerhouse restaurant. No one who has read the blog will be surprised to see Jacob's selection of the Schweinehaxe. The food was ok, but not wonderful. We recommend getting your German food in Germany, not in London.

And just for fun, here are a few of the best quotes from the play:

• I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.


• One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.


• ...life cannot be understood without much charity, cannot be lived without much charity