More Pictures!

Hey everyone, it's Jane again! I'm actually sitting down at the computer...haven't really felt like it much this week. :) Anyway, Nate and I wanted to post more pictures. Hopefully it's not too many for you! (make sure you keep scrolling down for Cate's birthday pictures, too)

Here we are right before we took off for the hospital...


I had to be in bed overnight for the medicine they gave me to dilate, so Nate was a super husband and spent the night with me. When we got there the chair on the left (it pulls out) was what he was supposed to sleep on. GROSS. Our nurse disappeared for a bit and came back with the one and only brand new sleeping chair in the wing. What a lucky guy!


I love love love love this picture.


Mom and Anna.


The new big sister! We had a baby doll waiting for her in the hospital the first time she came to meet Anna. She was a little interested in Anna when she first got there, but not at all once she discovered the doll. Surprise surprise. :)


Cate has been excited about her baby sister for some time now - she's done really well with her this week, although whenever you ask what her baby sister's name is she says "I don't know." It's funny.


Here's Anna the first night. As you've seen, she has a cute little round face...and as you can see here a super double chin...when you crease it with your finger it stays creased. Nate and I were laughing so hard when we discovered that trick. Gotta love baby fat.


Here's Cate holding Anna in the hospital - she does pretty well!


Just a sweet picture of Anna sunbathing at the hospital (she is on the verge of jaundice, so she gets to start out life as a true southern california girl...laying in the sun three times a day)


Anna has super long fingers and toes...in fact the longest infant toes any of us have ever seen! Her hands are so pretty, but I've yet to get a good shot of them.


You can see here that her big toe is very talented...she can stretch it so far from her other toes!!


Briniging the babies home!


Just a cute little series of Cate with Anna...so sweet.

Cate's 3rd Birthday!

Since Anna was born the day before Cate's birthday, we were still in the hospital. We wanted to make sure Cate had a special day (especially because she LOVES birthdays so much), so Nate took her out for smoothies that morning, she made cupcakes with Grandma (complete with all kinds of fingerprints and holes all over the cupcakes), and we had a little party in the hospital room. She finished the night off going for ice cream with Dad...needless to say Cate had a LOT of sugar that day.

So, of course we had to light and blow out candles, right? And of course when Cate wanted to do it again I said sure (b/c I felt guilty about being in the hospital as it was!). And of course we didn't stop to think we were in a HOSPITAL...5 minutes after the candles were blown out 4 nurses coming running in our room looking for fire. Come to find out the smoke detector in our room is connected directly to the fire department (DUH)...thank GOODNESS it didn't go off. So embarassing. But it was worth it - Cate was happy.


Present time!


What a beautiful setting for a birthday party, eh?


On Thursday night we threw Cate a "real" birthday party at home. We invited her friends Hannah and Amelia over...I'm sure she would have loved to have had more friends, but this was nice and small for us and as far as Cate knew it was a huge party. The girls were totally cute and danced like CRAZY people. My mom is the best at doing cool birthday cakes - Cate wanted a blue car birthday cake, so Grandma obliged. Cate sat there and watched her decorate - it was so cute.


Cate and Grandma.


Here's the cake!


The party animals.


Here's the real Party Anna-mal (ha ha). She slept through the entire party - don't know how she did it with those crazy girls running around, but she did. :)


Cate got all kinds of princessy-girly-dress-uppy stuff for her birthday, including this lovely pair of clip-on earrings. They must be really comfortable, huh?


Here she is all dressed up. Nate asked her if he could take a picture and she totally started striking tons of poses - it was so funny and kinda weird - we have NO IDEA where she picked up those moves. Nate and I could not stop laughing. When my sister Anne was in town we were watching Project Runway, at which point Cate told us she wanted to be a "perfect model"...again, have no idea where THAT came from. Apparently she's been practicing.

Anna Louisa Maynard

Here are some pictures that Jane took today. As you can see she is beautiful!

???? Maynard is here!

We are happy to announce the successful arrival of "baby sistah". She's a beautiful little girl with some beautiful chubby cheeks. She arrived at 11:49am PST today (12/16/07). She weighed in at 8lb 1oz and measured 19 1/2 inches. Mom and baby are doing great! They proved to be a great team. Only 15 minutes of pushing and a successful feeding less than an hour later. Here is a pic and a very short video. All the good pics are on the other camera I left at the hospital. We will try to get those up tomorrow.

Baby time!

We're going to the hospital in THREE HOURS! Woo-hoo! Here's one final shot of the baby pre-birth...still pretty high and dry!


We'll post pictures of the baby (still no name!!!) SOMETIME in the next few days...

Stil no baby, Part II...

Unbelievable! Went to the doctor yesterday and despite 10 days of contractions, I had not dilated any more than I was before Thanksgiving! What the?!?! So, to stop the madness, we will be going in on Saturday night to get things going...they'll give me a drug that will help me to dilate, which in turn can put me into labor (it did with Cate, so I'm SURE it will this time since I'm already having contractions). Anyway, it's looking like Sunday will be the big birthday! I suppose she could surprise us before then, but I kinda doubt it at this point. Anyhow, the girls' birthdays will be just 1 day apart - the 16th and the 17th. Pretty crazy!

Just wanted to give a quick update since we know a little more now. Wish us luck!!!

Sleeping Beauty

Still having contractions, but still no baby. Doctor's appointment tomorrow...we'll post an update then! We're crossing our fingers we won't need the appointment, but certainly not holding our breath.

In the meantime, look how sweet Cate is. We have church in the afternoon, so she usually doesn't get a nap on Sundays...she does pretty well, but is quite exhausted by the end of the day. She totally zonked out on Sunday in her "thinking chair" - it was soooo cute.

Still no baby...

not to get any hopes up out there, but I AM having contractions...all week in fact. hopefully they'll stop teasing me (and making me uncomfortable and unable to sleep) soon!!! anyway, keep checking in as I THINK we'll have a baby announcement soon enough (we better!).

last night we took cate to see santa. she kept saying she was going to sit on his lap, but when push came to shove she kept a 2 foot distance at all times. she did sit on the stool next to him so the picture FINALLY doesn't have mom and dad feeling stupid sitting on santa's knee. I'll scan the picture in later...it's cute. anyway, she did like talking to him and asked for 2 cars (matchbox cars)...when he asked if she wanted anything else she said "a piano for my mommy so she can play christmas songs." this was the cutest thing she could have said for two reasons: first, the other day I said how I wish I had a piano so much and I really feel it at christmas, and ever since her mission has been to get me a piano from santa. second, we just LOVED that when santa asked her what else she wanted for christmas, she thought of me instead of herself. what a sweetheart.

off to enjoy more contractions.

And we have a decision!

Drumroll...where is Nate going after he graduates? STANFORD! That's right, folks, he's made a decision and will be doing a post-doc at Stanford when he graduates from UCSD this winter. Yea! We're super excited about going to Northern California and that Nate will be working for our good friend Markus Covert. It's going to be great!

Nate also met with his committee last week and it looks like he really is going to graduate and be Dr. Nate after all. He will have his final defense late Feb/early Mar, then we're off to Palo Alto.

All great news for sure...it actually feels very strange knowing when he's going to graduate and where we're going to go, but it is really nice knowing too. Go Nate!

Nate's especially excited about being affiliated with a school that actually has some decent sports. I mean Tufts has one mean sailing team, and UCSD has, oh wait, nothing. Go Stanford!

In other news...my belly is growing to crazy proportions. 3 weeks to the due date and we can't wait!!!

T-4 Weeks!

Only 4 weeks until the due date!!! Here's what I look like today. Obviously I haven't dropped yet - I think Nate described my belly perfectly by calling it totally perpendicular to my body. I don't want her to come tomorrow, but she needs to not be TOO late so we can take advantage of the time that my mom is scheduled to be here. Everyone cross your fingers.
Cate is very sweet to her little sister - she talks to her and gives her hugs and kisses. Gotta love it.
I have super nice friends who insisted on throwing a shower, even though I tried to stop them. Isa Sabey got everyone together for a nice breakfast at a local restaurant...and my friends totally spoiled me. Thank you everyone. I had such a nice morning with all my dear friends. Here I am with Kristin & Barbara. I didn't get a picture with Isa - I'm so mad! Thank you, Isa for getting us all together for a great morning out!
Here's Cate at her last music class last week - she LOVED music class. I'm sad it's over. I would have signed her up for next session, but we'll be moving too soon...no, we still don't know to where!
This is a picture of a CRAZY BIRD. It was sitting on the rearview mirror the other day when Cate and I were out...it didn't matter how fast I drove, he just held on tighter. I let him hitch a ride around the corner, but then honked to get him off so he wouldn't die on the freeway. Cate told me that we gave him a ride home. It was really cute.
Tonight Cate came walking in the room with a concerned sort of look on her face. Then she said "I don't want to do the hiccups." Sure enough she had the hiccups. She hated it. She kept telling us she didn't want to do the hiccups. We tried to scare her, so after that she kept saying "Boo" after she would hiccup. It was really funny.

To answer any pregnancy-related questions: I'm feeling well overall, getting very tired, eating lots of Tums. Thankfully I'm not swelling up like I did with Cate...hopefully it will stay that way! It's so much more comfortable when your hands and feet don't feel like they're going to explode. Not that I'm all that comfortable these days, but it could be worse I guess. I went to the doctor Friday and am about 1 cm, although not thinking we're really very close to a delivery. Baby is measuring fine and everything looks good so far. Will keep you posted! We're starting to get into the weeks where I'm scared to call anyone on the phone because they always think it's with "news." Let's just say, Nate will be doing the calling, so if it's me on your caller ID, probably no news. :)

Halloween Report

FINALLY getting some pictures up from Halloween. Cate had a BLAST and kept telling me how she said "trick or treat" - it was very cute. She is still swimming in candy - will it ever be gone?!?!

Okay, so here are LOTS of pictures. For those of you who AREN'T Cate's grandparents, sorry! :)

Here's the beautiful little ballerina.

Showing off her moves...

Finally, I get to go trick or treating!

Even though carving pumpkins is kind of a pain and takes forever, it was totally worth it - when I was almost done, cate woke up from her nap and was so excited about the pumpkins, especially the one that is smiling. It was really sweet. The next few days we had them on the kitchen table and she kept winking like the pumpkin. What a cutie.

Amelia, Hannah and Cate ready to go off for some Halloween fun...this is the best picture I could get of the three of them. Talk about wiggly.

Here are the girls with their dads, who were also their halloween bodyguards on the trick-or-treat trail.

After trick-or-treating was done, a group of cate's little friends (and parents) came over to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Hannah is generally the most energetic of the group, but she was completely enraptured by the cartoon - it was pretty cute. None of the kids like the part where Snoopy pretends he's in WWI. Also funny. Anyway, after everyone left, Cate was pooped. I tried to get her to come cuddle with me, but instead she climbed up with Dad.

The ballerina and her mommy.

Cate & Friends...

You need to go visit my friend Emily's blog to see a FUNNY series of pictures...just click here. Amelia and Hannah are our neighbors who also happen to be Cate's best buds. Unfortunately for Amelia, Hannah and Cate are a little older and, shall we say, pushier? Especially Cate...she gets VERY defensive of Hannah when Amelia is around, which is totally understandable since Amelia is so HUGE and SCARY. The three of them together is seriously a crack-up - and it's so cute how they love each other. Anyway, Emily's post is funny, so make sure you go see it.

I promise to post my own pictures from Halloween soon, as well as some video!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The Pumpkin Patch

Here are a few shots from our trip to the pumpkin patch Sunday morning. This is the farm in Ramona that we are afraid may no longer be there due to the fires. Once all these fires are gone we're going to drive out to check on things. It's so strange looking at these pictures knowing that the weather and condition out there is SO different now. I'm so glad that we went when we did. We've gone there for several years. Just a quick update (Nate's Grammy McCarthy called today to check in - I hadn't emailed or posted any updates, so she got worried, so I think I better fill you all in!). We are definitely safe. Never had to evacuate. They're starting to lift the evacuations closest to us and the winds have shifted, blowing the fire away from us. Sadly it's just blowing the fires towards other people. Wish these fires would just GO OUT. We're still staying inside in our clean, filtered air. What a week!

On to the fun pictures of our trip to the pumpkin patch - let's lighten things up a bit, shall we? There are a LOT of pics, so get ready (I'm not even posting all the cute ones!) Also, make sure you keep scrolling down. I did a LOT of posts today. :)

Cate did such a good job pulling the wagon all over the farm! It was so dang cute.

Nate makes a new friend...

Nate and I were kind of looking around the farm, then we turn around and Cate's picking pumpkins like there's no tomorrow. She's much stronger than we realized. :) We had to put some of the pumpkins back, and we still came home with more pumpkins than we know what to do with.

What's cuter? Cate pulling the wagon alone, or pulling it with her Daddy? I still can't decide. :)

Believe it or not this is Cate smiling. I could NOT get her to give me a normal smile - she looks like she's in pain for ALL of these pictures. I promise I'm not torturing her! She really is smiling!

Still no smile, but at least it's not quite so painful...

This face actually does reflect her mood. Needless to say it's the last picture I took at this perfect picture-taking spot. I'm just glad I got her to actually sit on the pumpkins - she wouldn't do it earlier because she said she would fall. Ah, our adventurous daughter.

Nate's turn behind the camera trying to get Cate to smile. He was as successful as I was. After several strained, squinty faces, we finally got her laughing, so this is the best we could get in terms of actually looking HAPPY at the pumpkin patch.

It was such a fun morning. I love our little family!