Monday, December 26, 2011

A few more pictures...

Waiting to head home from the hospital!  It was COLD and WINDY the day we brought Andrew home.  Additionally, the visitors parking lot at the hospital was full, so Tom had to park a mile (literally) away and then take the bus.  Instead of taking my precious three-day-old out into the elements, we waited in the foyer and let Tom do the traveling.  I snapped a few pictures while we were waiting.

Laura went on St Nicholas Day to retrieve her newly stuffed stocking.  Everything with Mommy being gone and Andrew arriving must have had her a little off, because she wouldn't go near St Nick to get her goodies. She did get her stocking back, though.  It was stuffed with the traditional Dec 6 fare - peanuts, oranges, gingerbread and candy!

Laura decided that she didn't want to nap one day.  I heard her in her room playing and talking, but was dozing on the couch with Andrew, so figured I would just let her be and enjoy my brief repose.  When I finally went in to get her, her first word to me was, "mess!", and indeed it was.  She had emptied the little bottle of Andrew's iodine everywhere and taken every last wipe out of the box.  Everything was pink from the iodine, so we had to strip her and the bed and wash everything.  Her hands were pink for days...  The little rascal :)

 The "mess"


Sunday, December 25, 2011

First Family Photo

We've found it really difficult to get family photos with all four of us.  If one child is happy, the other isn't.  And if we decide to take pictures when Andrew is happy, by the time we get all set up, his happy window is over.  However, we do have a few, this being the first.  It may not be a perfect picture, but it's real life :)


Sweet Andrew sleeping in his bassinet.  I love sleeping babies.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

More Andrew Pictures

Andrew is 5 days old today.  Crazy how much has changed in less than a week.  We came home on Monday and have been enjoying being at home.  Laura is doing pretty well, though you can tell she's struggling a little with all the changes.  She's super sweet (most of the time) with Andrew though and we only need to worry about her smothering or poking him too much.  She loves to watch us change his diaper, swaddle him and feed him.  Then she goes and does the same with her baby.  I'm waiting for her to start nursing :)  She hates it when he cries and sometimes cries with him.  I'm enjoying seeing them interact as well as having my parents here to give me a hand with the two of them!

 She LOVES to kiss Baby Brother.

 What we got when we told her to show her teeth when she smiled.


 Big hand, little hand

 Ba-by An-rew, nose!


 Tom's starting him early on GT and airplanes


Trying for some artistic shots :) 



 Father and Son!

My sweet baby snoozing away!  Did you notice they have the same blankets in Switzerland as you get in the US?

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Introducing Andrew Paul Holst


At Katie's first doctor's appointment after finding out she was pregnant, the doctor insisted that Katie's due date was the 1st of December; Katie was indignant, having already determined that the due date was supposed to be the 2nd of December. In our broken French we found it impossible to argue. I, personally, had a difficult time bringing myself to care much about this trivial detail in the life of my first son, and to be honest, over the coming few months came to side with the doctor leaning toward the 1st. But not so with Katie. She made it her mission to prove that lady wrong. And though it took nine long months, she succeeded.

We went to the hospital on the 1st for the official "due date check-up" and you could see the fire in Katie's eyes as they told her she wasn't dilated at all. "I always knew that doctor was wrong," she told me with a gleam of satisfaction. The nurse gave us a "contraction cocktail" all-natural recipe that was supposed to get things moving, so to speak, but Katie was not going to get to try it. 

At 12:50am on December 2nd, the contractions started and at 5:34am, we had baby Andrew Paul laying in Katie's arms, whimpering and looking thoughtfully at his persistent :) Mommy (he looked to me like he was a day or so over-ripe!). 

Anyway, I'll spare you the details for now and let you see what you really care about: the pictures. I'll update a bit later with a more thorough account of Katie's victory.

Katie on the 1st of December--just to prove that she was not, in fact, in labor yet.

Andrew Paul Holst...hand-picked and fresh!

She really does NOT look like she just gave birth. You would think that we staged this picture some days later, but I promise you, I didn't.

Laura meeting Baby Brother!

I think she likes him!

That's what Laura does when you tell her to "smile".


<<---Same baby--->> 


Gramps and grandson

Andrew Paul Holst


Chillin' with Daddy in the sun

That's all for now, folks. Come back later once we've all had a bit more time to catch up on some sleep!