Our Firsts

I had a few firsts yesterday.


I carried James in his car seat.
I drove my car post-delivery.
I used our stroller.


James had a first yesterday, too.

He had his first visit to the library.

15 days!

James is 15 days old today. He had his 2 week appointment today and he's perfect. Healthy, growing and perfect.

He was born at 7 pounds 3 ounces and now he's 7 pounds 14 ounces. Dr. Mark says that's fantastic.
He was born at 21 inches and now he's at 21 and a half inches. Dr. Mark says that's perfect. That's the 75th percentile. (Well, he does have tall parents)
His head circumferance is 36cm. That's the 25th percentile.

A friend from church drove me to the appointment. I LOVE this church.

They are providing some meals.
They're driving us to doctor's appointments.
They come over and hold James while he's awake so I can do other things.
They're giving us a baby shower in a couple weeks.
They're always interested in how we're doing.
They let us and welcome us to participate in the church--as soon as we came (we lead worship, we're on a committee, I'm involved in GEMS).
They unloaded our moving truck and brought it all up two flights of stairs. They hadn't even met us, yet!

Someone's knocking on my apartment door. Just a sec...

Eric just came home a day early and surprised me! I'm outta here!

Of not being pregnant

There are two things about not being pregnant that I love:

(there's more, but here are two that are coming to mind at this exact moment).

No heartburn. 

I can slouch.

Oh, pain-free esophagus and curved spine, how I've missed you so.

James Philip Sjaarda

Our long awaited has arrived!

Welcome to our family, James Philip Sjaarda!

He was born on Thursday, January 5th at 6:06pm. He weighed 7lbs, 3oz and was 21".

He's very, very sweet.

Gift Card Luck

Five months ago Eric and I found a Starbucks gift card. No one was around. It didn't have a name on. We assumed it was probably empty, but I put it in my wallet anyway.

Two nights ago, while being very pregnant, but also being New Year's Eve, Eric and I went out to a cute area in our town and walked around a bit. There were free horse drawn carriage rides if you waited an hour--and shared your carriage with strangers. We went to Starbucks.

We each ordered a drink and a snack. I remembered the gift card and handed it to the nice lady with a: "I have no idea if there's anything left on here."

She checked.

"There's a bit."

$7.42 worth.

NICE!

On Black Friday, I had my first experience ever with ... well, Black Friday. And I didn't shop. I work in retail and had a shift that day. It was a lot of fun. It was crazy busy the whole time and I just kept helping customers. Anyway. While walking past the clearance section I found a gift card on the floor.

For: A Children's Place.

The envelope says there's $8.62 on the card.

I let my manager know and when no one claimed it in the appropriate amount of time, I took it home.

Once I find out the gender of  Kiki Bebe (which we often call him/her), I'll be using that card on a little something.

Same same

Still sick.
Still pregnant.

Winter Fruit

A couple of days ago Eric and I went grocery shopping together. While he was finding pepperoni for a cavatini recipe, I was in the produce section.

I walked over to the small berry section. Of course there were $4.00 per ounce blueberries and $7.00 per pound strawberries.

And then I saw cherries.

For $3.99 a pound.

I love cherries. Fresh cherries. I don't like cherry anything else. No cherry candies or pie or cheesecake or medicine. But fresh cherries I could eat until I'm sick.

This summer cherries were $6 or $7 a pound.

Winter cherries?

I'll take it.

I ate about half of them when we got home and I'm eating the rest right now as part of my breakfast (along with hot chocolate and orange juice and a Nutrigrain bar knock-off).

Why were the cherries such a good price? Is it because I'm living in the south?