The 1st of December was covered with snow...

...and a new baby was on the way!

Magnolia Jean, otherwise known as "Maggie" was born on December 1, 2010. This is the picture Joe texted me from the hospital. We're so excited to have another girl in the family. In a matter of a couple years, the girl grandkids have caught up with the boys!

Miss Maggie was born at 11:04am, weighing 7 pounds and 14 ounces. I think she was 21 inches, but I'm not sure if that's true or if I'm just assuming because aren't all babies born at 20-21 inches?

Congrats to Joe, Erin and big sister Gracie! We're so happy to have an addition to our family!

Happy Birthday, Jay!

Baby Jay has finally arrived!

Jamie sent me this picture of her with her nephew and sister, taken not long after the little guy made his entrance into the world. Doesn't Abbe look incredible? Sounds like both Mommy and Baby are doing great!

Jay Patrick's Stats:

• 7 pounds, 10 ounces
• 20 inches long
• born at 7:14am
  

Congratulations to Abbe & Jimmy!

Six Weeks of Meredith

Soon, she'll be smiling! We get little glimpses of it every once in a while, I just don't have the camera ready!

Trying out her highchair. Not sure if she likes it.

Meredith and her cousin/aunt, Katie

Such a lovely dress.

Trying out the swing while her brothers are out of town.
She likes it.

Sleep, reminiscent of five years ago

While the boys were gone this week I've been experiencing something I haven't since Lou was a newborn. Although I didn't bring Louie in bed with us I would wake up throughout the night with the thought in my head that he was caught in the sheets or that Kevin had rolled on top of him. It was a terrifying experience, and I since then found out that it is common for new moms to have this happen.

It's strange, because it never happened with Benny or Charlie, and up until this week, hadn't happened with Meredith. Let's just say, this is not something that I missed!

Reagan Visits Meredith!

My good friend Jamie came for a visit today, bringing with her Miss Reagan who is almost 3 months old. The girls had a great time, and learned that they had a lot in common like clothes and toys. Ah, it's so nice to have friends who have kids my kids' age. With Charlie I had a few friends who had kids, but with Ben and especially Lou I kind of felt like I was having these experiences by myself. This time around it was so nice to be able to talk to people during my pregnancy who knew exactly what I was going through, and ask for advice or commiserate with the gals who if they did experience it that day, they had it happen the day before.

It'll be so neat to have our kids all grow up together!

Buddies

I have a feeling that these two will be good friends. I know that Charlie will play with his brothers, but Lou and Ben are pretty much inseparable and so by default these two will hang out and become close. Not a bad thing. Charlie is so cute with her.

4 for 4

In honor of Aunt Joanie's birthday, Meredith was able to go to her first Reds game! There was a lot of pressure because all three of her older brothers helped the Reds to win on their first visit! And how lucky for Miss Meredith, Mario Lopez [a.k.a. A(lbert) C(lifford) Slater] was there promoting some show he's doing.

Here he is doing the "Skyline Scramble" or whatever they call it. I got really excited to have a "famous person from my childhood" at the game and when I turned to Lou to tell him I realized that he had no idea who he was, nor would he ever care.

The lady and her husband won cheese coneys for their entire row. And Meredith didn't get her picture taken with Slater. Oh well.

The game didn't start off so well and the boys put their rally hats on really, really early.

Aunt Joanie came down to say hi and we tried to get this group picture, but Ben was being a ham and poor Meredith got her head blocked out.

Grandma and Miss Meredith. I should take a minute to address the clothes situation. I had a really cute outfit from my friend Missy (red and white stripes with stars) that I was going to have Meredith wear...until it was only going to be 70 degrees that day! Can you imagine? Seventy in July! So I pulled out some of the boys clothes and tried to make her look a little bit like a girl: I put a white bow in her hair. Almost all of her clothes are pastel, so we had to make due!

A precursor to the end of the game: fan favorite, Joey Votto is up to bat and gets a big hit!

The game was lasting a long time and the boys were asking to go home. They were tired, but there was no way I was going to go without getting Meredith her win...so I started loading the boys up on sugar.

Probably the most amazing thing about the whole day, Miss Meredith slept through the ENTIRE game. We left our house at 11:45am and were on the road to go home by 5pm. She's been such an incredibly good baby!

Here are some cheese balls in their rally hats. Can you see Lou doing the whole "I'm Five Now And Not So Into Your Photo Shoots Anymore" pose?

I guess I should give some substance to the game: It was pretty frustrating for the fans because the Reds left a total of 16 players on base. How ridiculous. So it wasn't like they weren't given opportunities to score, and yet they were behind the entire game. They trailed 2-1 going into the bottom of the ninth and scored with two outs to send it into extra innings. (In the picture: the team in jumping on top of Votto after he hits in the winning run.)

The Reds were about to blow it in the top of the 10th when our closer Cordero loaded the bases and the next batter hit a shot out to right field. Jay Bruce ran down the ball, caught it, and fired a bullet into Hanigan who tagged the guy out, stopping the Diamondbacks' rally. The Reds were back up to bat and it looked like it wasn't going to be hard to win the game, although they have a record of 1-34 when trailing after 8 innings.

The fans were standing and cheering and although I almost lost my voice and was jumping up, Meredith continued to sleep through the game! Dickerson, Hernandez and Bruce got on base and then the Reds got two out before Votto got up to hit a blooper and score Dickerson. What an exciting way to end the game!

Really, they were a lot happier than this picture shows! They were tired of taking pictures, and like I said, it was 5pm and we had been there a long time. On top of they were probably coming down from their sugar high!

Here are some memorable moments from the day:

• Lou was concerned because he wore his Jay Bruce jersey to the game and Bruce wasn't starting. Baker must have heard Lou and put Bruce in at the end of the game, and the right fielder almost single-handedly stopped the Diamondbacks from winning the game.
  
• When the Diamondbacks are trying to take the win away from us Ben yells, "You're killin' me...the other team!"
  

Of the game, manager Dusty Baker said, "That was the best comeback, the most exciting, most thrilling and most up-and-down emotional game we've played all year." So glad Meredith was there to bring them the luck they needed!

The Elephant in the Room

Almost since the moment we found out we had indeed had a little girl, I have been wondering what the boys would think. Specifically, what the conversation would be like when they found out that a girl is different than a boy--more than just different types of hair, which was blown out the water when she wasn't born with long, flowing locks.

That first week I assumed we'd have some sort of discussion, but they were so much more concerned with Little Meredith's belly button that it didn't come up. For whatever reason nothing has been said since, until Thursday.

I was changing Meredith when Benny came up and stood next to me. He started laughing, "Ha-ha-ha! She hasn't grown her pee-pee yet!" and then he ran away. I guess it's another conversation put on hold.

Baby Girl @ One Month

"How He Saw Me"

He'd expected more, of course, from my arrival. A muted brilliance, a glow, maybe even a halo of some kind. That mystical feeling of completion. But none of that came. I was just a baby, like any other--except, of course, that I belonged to him, and that made me special. I cried a lot and slept a lot and that was about it; my repertoire was very limited, though there were those moments of peaceful clarity and joy when I stared up at my father from his lap, my eyes beaming, as though he were a god--which, in a way, he was. Or godlike anyway, having created this life, having planted the magic seed. At those times he could see how smart I was, how bright, he could visualize my potential in the world. So much was possible.

--from Big Fish


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So many cute outfits!

One of the great things I've learned about having a little girl is that you have lots and lots of options for what to wear. We've been so fortunate to have many friends and family members who want to help us in this area, too!

The one bad thing I've come across: sometimes she has a bit of "explosion down below" and we have to change her outfit before I can take a picture! Here are a couple of outfits that she's worn the past two days. She a bit shy about her photo shoots, so I apologize for lack of poses and her not wanting to look at the camera.

I'm Three Weeks Old!

Technically, she is one day shy of three weeks in this picture, but just thought I'd include this for her cute dress. On the front it says "Daddy's Girl" and she wore it for Father's Day. All day today she's been sleeping, so I wanted to include a picture of her with her eyes open. And it would be nice to have one without her pacifier...

...but here she is, all sorts of upset because she's missing her paci. Gotta make the little gal happy.

Charlie and Benny wanted to sing "Happy Birthday" to Meredith for her three-week birthday, so here they are:

I'm Two Weeks Old!

The Many Faces of Meredith

Gesundheit!

Check Up

The doctor wanted to see how Meredith is progressing and so Kevin and I took her in for an appointment this morning. I could have figured this out on my own, but it is nice to have the doctor say it: She is doing great! The doctor was hoping she'd gain about 2 ounces and Meredith has gained 8!

She eats so well during the day and has been doing fairly well with sleeping at night. I am wondering if this is a part of her personality, or if it will change when her crazy brothers get back in town. Right now, all the focus is on her. She eats when she wants to. She sleeps, uninterrupted. The returning of her brothers might cause things to change a bit!

Wish us luck :)

Three Boys and a Little Lady