Tessa meets her relatives

I'll keep text to a minimum here and just post some more cute photos of Tessie and Owen. We are all enjoying lots of grandmother time, first with Nannie Mary and now with Grandma Pam and Great Aunt Nancy.

Group self-portrait attempt:



Big brother gives little sister a kiss:

And now a kiss for Nannie:

Tessa Mary

Our baby girl has arrived! Tessa Mary Bacheler made her grand entrance in record time (a mere 20 minutes or so after we got to the hospital!) on Wednesday morning. With such a speedy delivery and a healthy baby, both Tess and I felt good enough to come home from the hospital the very next afternoon around 1pm. A huge thanks to our friend Christine, who watched Owen while we were at the hospital (and even had time to whip up a delicious lasagna for us before she left!).

Owen made a brief visit to meet his little sister in the hospital, and has shown a mix of mild interest or indifference toward the new addition since her arrival home, which is all that we had hoped for. Nannie Mary arrived yesterday around lunch time to help out around the house and Owen is clearly delighting in the extra attention. We are all doing great, watching our baby girl wake up to her new world and adjusting to the new parent-to-kid ratio!

Owen meets Tessa for the first time, in his "Big Brother" t-shirt:

Proud parents getting ready to leave the hospital:

Baby Tess in her going-home outfit:
The family reunion at home:

The final days...

We are still a family of three, but not for long. My expected due date is Tuesday, so we're in a state of readiness for whenever the action begins! Until then, we're trying to stay busy and continue life as normal.

Nate has been using his free time on yard/landscaping projects. Today, he's taken on the task of starting to dig out some recently cut Bradford pear tree stumps, with the help of our uber-energetic friend Paul, who was crazy enough to agree that an afternoon of digging roots and swinging an ax was a fun way to burn some calories. I just have to hope I don't go into labor before Nate's had a chance to recover from his manual labor...

As for Owen, life is pretty good as two-year old. He now eats dinner in his booster seat the dining room table, and is pretty good at drinking out of a regular cup. He enjoys modeling Mommy's clogs and gives plenty of smiles for the camera. You can tell that he knows just the antics that will get a laugh (or a stern warning) from his parents. We're curious to see how he welcomes the new addition, since he is still quite the cuddle-bug/lap-baby. I guess we'll find out soon enough....