Hello, Baby!

This baby held on till the very end...baby Peter David Istvan was born at 42 weeks, on April 25. It was a rough couple weeks leading up to his birthday, with every day feeling like "this could be the day!" and turning into "oh...we're still here with no baby." By about halfway through that last week, we finally just resigned ourselves to the fact that the baby wouldn't come till after Friday when induction was scheduled to start. Our attitudes (well, mine at least) really improved after that and it actually worked out for the best to have things start on Friday night. There were no frantic phone calls trying to find somebody to come watch the big brothers, no worries about coordinating school drop-offs and pick-ups, and the boys were able to watch us go instead of being surprised by a different adult showing up instead of us. (And, with the baby being born on the weekend...no parking fees in the hospital lot!)

 Everyone likes feeling Mommy's tummy...especially since baby Peter was super active in utero.

 We arrived at the hospital on Friday evening. When the nurses discovered that this was our fourth baby, they decided we should get the big room. Apparently, somebody pretty high up at Northwest Hospital had this room made specifically for her birth. It was the most luxurious birthing suite we've had yet. :)

I'd been 4cm dilated for the last week or so, and the induction process started at 8:45 Friday evening with a dose of medicine meant to soften my cervix over the next 12 hours. This medicine technically could've started labor, but in my case, nothing happened. We tried to get a good night's sleep before starting the next step (pitocin) in the morning. The pitocin IV was started at 10:30 or so, and contractions started soon after. But even after eight progressively higher doses of pitocin we still weren't in active labor, so at 2:30 the midwife broke my water and from that point everything shifted into high gear.

Just over two and a half hours later, we welcomed this little guy into the world. Hello, Peter!

Peter measured 20 inches long and weighed in at 8 lb 0.4 oz, our largest baby yet. (Probably because he stayed in for so long and Mommy was eating a lot of ice cream toward the end).

The big brothers came later that evening to meet little Peter. For a few weeks previously, there was a lot of discussion about who would get to hold the new baby first. Daniel claimed that he should get to because he always gets to hold the new baby first. Aaron claimed that he should because he's "the littlest." Matthew had no interest in holding the new baby because Daniel had convinced him that the baby would spit up on him. In the end, Aaron won out and got to be the first to hold Peter.

 Daniel's first words when he walked in were "I really wish he'd been a girl," but by the end of their visit he leaned over to Chris and said "I really like him, Dad."

 Three proud big brothers. (And, Aaron was very fancy, wanting to make a good first impression on his new little brother.)

 Grandma, meeting her eighth grandson.

 And Auntie Laura, getting some snuggles in with her eighth nephew.

 Peter had a great first night in the world, snuggling in with Mommy and sleeping for most of the night. He needed lots of rest because the next day he had lots of great visitors.

 It just so happened that his godparents were in town from Zillah, so he got to meet Brynn, his godmother...

 and his godfather, Casey!

 It was a very special day, since we had yet to meet Gemma, our newest little goddaughter.

It was a long day for Peter, he got pretty tuckered out with all the visiting.

 We had a little quiet time before getting ready to head home.

 One last snuggle with Mommy before getting in the car seat.

 All buckled up and ready to take his first car ride.

 We made one quick stop on the way home to meet great-grandma Eva.

 With a little help from Grandma and Auntie Laura, the boys had made Peter a birthday cake.

 I think it's safe to say the big brothers are smitten.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Today is Grandma's birthday!

 We had a pre-birthday dinner yesterday at Auntie Laura's apartment...

 where we got to eat on the roof!

After dinner lounging. :)

 Today, we met Grandma in Tacoma, making a stop at the cemetery to visit Grandpa's grave,

We also stopped by Grandma's brother's and parents' graves, too. All the flowers are from our gardens!

 

 Then we went to this deli that Grandma had read about to get some yummy sandwiches for dinner

 Oh, they were delicious!

 Daniel was so full, he almost fell asleep.

 It was a super sketchy place, but the sandwiches were incredible. We'll definitely be going back.

 Afterward, we went to a nearby park to burn off some energy before heading home.

 Things got pretty silly on the way home...

[disclaimer: all silly car photos taken by Auntie La-La, who was in the passenger seat.]

Happy Birthday, Grandma! We love you!

Fly Days

Back in June we stumbled across a really cool event at Paine Field in Everett. Paul Allen has a museum of historic aircraft called the Flying Heritage Collection, and every other Saturday throughout the summer they pick two or three of the planes to do a flying demonstration. We just happened to go on their first free fly day of the summer, and it was so much fun we've gone again.

The first day we went was gray and drizzling, and they almost cancelled the flight because it's not safe for them to fly with any precipitation in the air. But, lucky for us, they waited a bit and were able to fly a little later. These two planes are the Focke Wulf Fw 190 and the boys' favorite, the P51 Mustang. The 190 crashed in Russia in 1943 and wasn't found until the 80s (!); it is the only 190 in existence that still flies. These two planes are flown by a father and son team. And, since we had purchased admission to the museum that day, we were treated to a meeting with the pilots and signed photos of them flying the planes.

 I'm not sure if Aaron was more excited for the airplanes, or for the kettle corn snack we had there.

After the free fly day on the 14th, Daniel kept asking if we could go back for the next one on the 28th. I'm not much for going on big outings on my own with the boys, but this is such an easy event to go to that we went even though Chris was out of town. We almost didn't make it in time (there were quite a few tears when we pulled into the parking lot and saw the planes taxiing toward the runway already), but we somehow managed to make it over just in time. Today's planes: the IL2, the P47 Thunderbolt, and the P51B Mustang.

Since Paine Field is in operation during these flight demonstrations, sometimes larger aircraft get in on the fun. The boys LOVED seeing this 787 up close!

After the flight demonstration, the pilots taxi by the crowd. Here's the IL2.

 The P47.

 The P51 Mustang.

The lady in the wheelchair is THE Tallahassee Lassie, who the plane was named and painted for by the man standing next to her, the pilot.

Today was supposed to be another free fly day, and we were excited to go and introduce Grandma to the festivities. But, when we approached the museum we found that today is actually a huge event called Skyfair, and there wouldn't be any flight demonstrations till much later. Having been out so late last night, missing naps was not an attractive option (neither was joining the massive crowds) and we opted to go to a nearby playground instead. 

This new-fangled playground equipment is fun, but it's no free fly day. Aaron cried all the way home. :(

Blueberry Picking

On our trip to Rochester, we also went blueberry picking with Grandma. I think this might be the first time the boys have gone berry picking. They did pretty well!

Daniel got really into it. He picked lots of berries himself, and would often wander by to check everyone else's buckets to see how they compared.

Matthew did okay--though he did ask to go back to the car anytime the sun came out. And he and Aaron definitely had more fun playing than picking.

Aaron would ask after every berry picked "is this a good one?" 9 times out of 10 the answer was "no," and Aaron loved throwing the bad berries away. 

Fun at Grandma's

We spent some time at Grandma's farm this weekend. We had lots of fun, as usual...

We found this little guy outside. Matthew and Daniel wanted to put it in a jar and bring him home with us...

Mommy thought he'd rather live here.

We also helped Grandma pick garlic from her garden. Look at the size of those bulbs!

No trip to Grandma's is complete without sweets. This time it was fresh raspberry pie. Yum! The boys are already asking to go back. (Can't imagine why...)