Enjoying the Mozart

This past weekend Emily had call so little Monito, Mabel and Mommy-Daddy Rachael all headed out to the "shire" (The Berkeshires) to have a weekend with grandma-grandpa Phancy (Phil and Nancy) and Grandma-Grandma Anne. Riley had a lot of firsts... first time in the car with Rachael Driving (scary), first weekend away without momma emmy, first time in the pool... but only his toes cause that alone was enough to make him SCREAM. First outing to Tanglewood (courtesy of G.Ma Anne - thankyou) .. which was also his first concert --- he worked on holding his neck up to enjoy the music as you can see. He also got to meet Liz and Iya from Portland because in keeping up with our tradition of vacationing together - inadvertantly... they were in the shire this weekend as well. Last year we all ran into each other at Doe Bay on Orcas Island.

Mama Time

Em & Riley relax after a bath 

Here's Lookin' at you....

 

Hello World

The view from mama's arms... 

Kathy bear

Riley discovers the teddy that Kathy gave him.... 

Farah at the Farmers Market

This is Riley's new best friend!!! - his big cousing Farah who lives about three blocks away from us in Cambridge & knows ALL the coolest parks to hang out in (especially important in the Hot Boston summers). She was famous this week with her picutre in the Boston paper as she enjoyed a snap pea from the local farmers market. This summer Riley expects to spend lots of stroller time learning the ins & outs of the hood from Ms. F.

Zahara Effie & Matai Liana

Well, they are here! Rina & Steph's two girls decided to enter our world on Father'sDay... June 18th at 9:30pm. When I showed the photo to little Riley he stared at the computer for 5 minutes. We are so sad to not be in SF to meet the girls until October... but are so happy that they are here & healthy & gorgeous. Congrats Rina & Steph!!!!!!!

Saying goodbye to SF

June 12th - Monday

Marianna relaxes on the couch with lil Blasto before taking the futon away. Mabel is going nuts at this point barking at everyone who comes into the house and touches any of the remaining furniture - we are getting down to not much left to sit on... 

Tea Time

Jenny took us out to tea with Annie & Mama Roseanna at Lovejoys. Funny that this will be the last time at Lovejoys for awhile - I feel like I have been coming here for special occasions forever - Emily planned a lot of our wedding over pots of tea, talking about having a baby, our baby shower ... Little Riley will hopefully have a birthday celebration here some time in the coming years - until then I am sure we can find some type of tea party in Boston. 

Love, Love, Love

With Aunt Melanie at Hollys Memorial Day BBQ

THE FIRE DOG 1946 AND 2006
Fire Dogs are natural leaders.
Fire Dogs are popular, charismatic people, always surrounded by a group of admirers. Not only admired for their vibrant personalities, these Dogs also possess a sexual attractiveness that makes them irresistible. These people are adventurous and vivacious, yet, honest and openhearted. However, because they are so active, they are generally not the settle down type.

Packing Break

This is what we look like when Melanie & Em take a much needed break from packing - as you can tell by the hospital gown on me I take the breaks a little more often. Thursday June 01 - the container truck gets filled up & our stuff heads off to Boston.....

Momma's Day on the Deck

Here is emily enjoying her first "real" mothers day ... with a coffee au lait, the Sunday NY Times & lil blasto strapped to her chest. It was one of the hottest days in recent memory & the boy decided he would go on strike with the nursing for the day... but lucky for me picked it up again like a natural once it cooled down in the late afternoon.
Mothers Day --

Mama Emmy chose these socks 

Perfect 

Lambskin Beauty 

Newest Arrival - leaving St. Lukes

Crossing the Threshold

Here I am bringing little Riley (still called blasto by his moms) into the house for the first time. He is about 2 days old & not really paying attention but it was a BIG moment for us.
At the doorpost of your home

Mable meets Blasto

Tuesday May 9th -- scenes from St. Lukes

Occasionaly we remembered to pull out the camera... some of our first visitors --
Marianna & Jenny (not pictured), Spencer & Mama Kathy (Lily was at camp),
Prochovnick's - especially Shayna who couldn't get enough of the lil guy.
Deb who couldn't stay long enough!!!!! & of course Mel - bringer of the Jamba.
(and Maria my counselor from the Diabetes clinic - she rocks) 

Hospital Nap....

HERE I AM (scroll down for newer photos)

Riley Isaac Newfield
Born --- Monday May 8th 8:30 pm
Weight 5 lbs 13 oz Length 19"
Eyes -- grey
Hair - lots - dark & curly

Wow 13"

 

Hello Cruel World

 

Senior Boat Trip....

Who knew that we were only a couple days away from being moms.... Em invited me to come along with her, Chitra, Mel & Holly on the UCSF Grad midnight cruise around the bay. I didn't realize at the time that it was going to be our last dinner out together as a two-some. Blasto did enjoy the music and dancing and I only felt a little sick once during the ride... although we all agreed it could have been about an hour shorter than it was. Side Note: I have always loved the big metal things they use to unload the ships - they look like giant horses to me. 

Lovejoys Shower

Jenny invited Annie, Remi, Melissa Ortega and Melanie for a lil baby shower at LoveJoys - our favorite tea hall.

 

SHOWING THE HOUSE

We are starting to informally show the house to folks – friends and friends of friends. It feels really weird on one hand, but also like a move away from inaction on the other hand. I so don’t want to leave my home – especially now when I am supposed to be all about nesting – and instead I am supposed to start tearing my messy little nest apart!!!!

Anne Williams is thinking about moving in with her mom & they think the house may be a good fit for them, and Jenny from the JMP needs to move into SF in a place where they can keep their dogs. In addition Steve & the Prochovnick family are sending over some good long term friends who need to move back into SF after living down Skyline for the past years.

I am excited that it looks like this process may be fairly painless, but I am so sad to be leaving our house.

BABIES

Both Maya and Margaret had baby boys yesterday!!!! And now they are next door to each other at UCSF. The JMP gals dropped into see Maya today & I joined them after scarapy. Maya looks GREAT & the baby is really cute as well. She told us a chunk of the birth story and it wasn’t too bad – I guess its never too bad when you’ve got your perfect baby at the end of the day.

It did make me feel safer & a little less freaked out to see them all doing so well. I definitely like the feel of the Homestyle/St Lukes option better than the feel at UCSF – the halls sorta vibrate with the anticipation of an exciting case – I don’t want to be an exciting case – I want to be a really really boring birth – routine, as expected with nothing too exciting going on.

Both Maya and Margaret had some D-Cells at the end stages and had some scary moments- but like I said as soon as you know baby & mama are fine then every birth looks like a good birth.

I am glad that we all got to do belly photos together at the baby showers. Hopefully they will shoot copies to Em at some point and I can post them here.

What’s UP? My Blood Pressure

Just before we got to 33 weeks my blood pressure shot up to 146/89 - at our homestyle visit that night Yeshi asked me what I do during the day to relax … I said that I went outside for a few minutes when I could. She didn’t like that answer so much and told me to let my boss know that I wouldn’t come in for the rest of the week – instead she wanted me to spend 2 hours resting in the morning, in the middle of the day, and in the early evening. They also had me set an appt. with Dr. Norrell who is the Ob-Gyn in charge of the whole she-bang.

So we saw Norrell the next week and after 4 days out of work the BP was 110/60 and the Dr. was joking about why was I there… She went ahead and acknowledged that if the modified rest schedule was working then its’ best to keep me on it & filled out SDI paperwork to put me into maternity leave now. My plan was to stay through the end of the month – but not if its making me sick to be on my “feet”.

Norrell also basically asked Em to seriously consider coming back to SF & working with them at St. Lukes – that was really cool.

Emily Came Home..... YEAH!!!!!

So Em got home for her birthday. I am so happy. For a few reasons... I am quite proud of myself for actually driving her car to the airport & picking her up at close to Midnight on Saturday night. (go me!!!) I have that feeling the rest of you may remember from when you were perhaps 16 and driving for the first couple of times on your own - like I am such a rockstar for not killing myself on the freeway.

Also I just missed her sooooo much.... and I need help now to pick up anything thats on the floor... by next week I'll need help to tie my shoes.. So I pretty much needed her home.

We saw Lily & Eric last night for B'day dinner & Sopranos

We went grocery shopping at Rainbow & had vietnemese for lunch & em rubbed my ankles before bed ... really how much better could a birthday get.