4 Is More Than 3

Just so you know we're still alive, here's a quick update:

Steven's applying for a million academic jobs right now, which is taking most of my free time (as his administrative assistant/editor); the kids are doing great playing soccer, piano, and violin and getting over the flu; my grandfather passed away (he was 88, so it was somewhat expected) and I flew to Oregon with Abraham and spoke at his funeral--it was wonderful to have all my siblings there, too; and I was called as our Stake Music Chair (meaning I'm in charge of all the music that goes on in the 7 congregations of our church in the Baltimore area) but not released as ward choir director and ward music chair. In other words, I don't think I'll have a free minute again until after Christmas. This is just playing to Steven's and my current motto: If you think your life is hard, just do something harder. : )

Here are a few pictures to tide you over. My great photographer friend Katie Ash http://katiesphotogblog.blogspot.com/ took these newborn pics of Abraham. There's also a few of the funeral taken from my point-and-shoot camera. We'll see if I can download my nice camera's pics soon, which I haven't done since Abey Baby's birth. Doh!

I guess 4 really is more than 3.

In the Mood for a Musical

I'll be posting soon once I download our pics from our camera, but in the meantime, I'm in the mood for a musical. So here are some of my favorite songs from musicals. Unfortunately, no songs from my favorite Sunday in the Park with George were available, but I still found some good ones. Enjoy!

He's Here

Last week Ben was delighted to receive a birthday package from Grandma Delys and Grandpa Phil full of magnificent books and even some spy gadgets. Ben says, "Thank you very much!"

Little did we know that another birthday was right around the corner . . .


The quick run-down:

On Thursday (June 18th) I woke up with a big contraction and it seemed as if my water broke, so I concluded that it was indeed The Big Day. All my previous babies had come late or were induced (or both), so this was an utter surprise to us 5 days early. In fact, we were pretty much still in denial that the baby was coming and therefore hadn't packed for the hospital, gotten out any baby paraphernalia, or even decided where we would put the baby when we got home. (Yes, I realize we had 9 months to think about all this, but hey, once a procrastinator always a procrastinator.) : )

Since my previous labors had lasted hours and hours, I took my time before waking Steven. So by the time I'd showered, packed, and Steven had gotten the kids ready, we were all surprised with how strong and fast the contractions were coming. Here's the happiest I could look between contractions.


Thursday was a VERY rainy day.


We rushed Sam & Ben to the Holbrooks' (friends from school--thank you, Joyce!) and William to Jairus's house (friend from church--thanks, Hillary!). I don't think I've ever been so impatient with traffic as on the way to Johns Hopkins Hospital.

[Note: Here begins the Too Much Information Section, so skip ahead if you don't want to know.]

So we made it to triage by 9 a.m. The doctor came and checked me, I was 4-5 cm dilated, and he said the best words: "You can have your epidural now." The nurses took their sweet time calling the the anesthesiologist and by the time he arrived the contractions were excruciating--the worst I've ever felt (which is saying something)--and coming remarkably fast. So I signed any paper they put in front of me and the anesthesiologist left to go get the goods.

I was clearly in exceptional pain, so he checked me again even though it had only been about 20 minutes and I was dilated to 9 cm! Wait! That can't be good, I thought. The nurse turned to me and carefully said the worst words: "This means it's too late for the epidural." What? No, you can't tell me that! I not-so-calmly replied. I asked for any of those other kinds of pain medication I'd heard of people having, but they just sort of laughed and said that by the time any of them kicked in I'd already have delivered the baby. O, the humanity!
So all I'll say about the rest of the delivery is that it turns out what I thought was a 10 on the 0-10 "Pain Scale" was really only about a 7 or 8. Apparently I only pushed for 7 minutes, but it felt like ages to me, and the baby was born at 9:53 a.m.--less than an hour after we arrived at the hospital! All of this was rather unexpected.
Nevertheless, I cannot deny that the excruciating pain and anguish were all worth it. I don't think there's much else in this world that would be worth it, but giving life to a beautiful new soul is definitely worth it. Here is what that new soul looked like with bruises all over his face--about as happy with the pain and anguish as I was.

And here is why the anguish was so painful. In case you can't see, it says "My weight is 9 lbs 15 oz" (4500 grams). Yes, that's right, almost 10 lbs. Now you may be thinking, "Yes, Cristie, but you've delivered two almost-11-lb babies in the past. Why are you complaining? Plus, didn't you wish for 'anything under 10 lbs' at Christmas?"

Okay, you're right. So my tiny little baby gave me my Christmas wish and technically came in 1 oz. under 10 lbs; however, hindsight has taught me that I should have wished for under 9 or better yet, under 8 lbs! Oh, and for an epidural. : )



That said, I give you

Abraham Moncur Charles

18 June 2009 9:53 a.m.

9 lbs. 15 oz. 21 in.

Here's the whole gang.

Sam's a pro at being a big brother.

Ben made sure to count fingers and toes.
And William is happy to finally have a baby of his own to play with (and, I suspect, to have moved up in the pecking order).

Many people have asked what Abraham's hair color is considering the Neopolitan brothers who came before. Here is a great picture of Strawberry, Chocolate, and Vanilla kissing their new little brother we like to call Caramel. Abraham's hair is a mixture of all three: it's darker blond than William's, lighter brown than Ben's, with a little of Sam's red mixed in to make a kind of Strawberry Blond.

Sam and Ben brought me beautiful flowers they picked from the Holbrooks' garden.

And another hero, Aunt Celina, was inspired to plan a trip to Baltimore for the weekend, which worked out perfectly with the early arrival of the baby. Thank you, Celina, for all your help! What a blessing.

Abraham's name comes from, of course, the original Abraham in the Old Testament (with a little Lincoln on the side). His middle name, Moncur, comes from my maternal grandmother June Moncur Waite. (If Abraham had been a girl we would have named her June.) Moncur is a favorite family name that comes from a group of Scandinavian Vikings whose families moved to Normandy, France and then generations later to the Dundee, Scotland area--they even built a small Moncur castle that I've visited. It comes from the French words Mon Coeur, meaning "My Heart," which we think describes Abraham perfectly.

Because Abraham was so big and bruised, he had a hard time breaking down all the extra red blood cells in his system and got a bad case of jaundice. Consequently, he had to spend an extra few days in the hospital in what we liked to call the German tanning salon.

Luckily, the stressful few days paid off and we finally got to take home our little bundle earlier this week. Steven's mom Angie arrived yesterday to stay for a week--thank you! And Cristie's mom Delys and step-dad Phil will stop here on their way back from a conference in England soon. We are so grateful for the support of all our friends and family. Thank you!

Goodbyes, Birthdays, and Black & Orange Birds

Friday was the last day of school as well as Ben's 6th birthday. William and I delivered the end-of-the-year class gift to Sam's 2nd grade teacher Ms. Lough (for whom I was the class parent this year). Ms. Lough is known for being really strict and for demanding a lot from her students, but also for helping her students progress by leaps and bounds, which has definitely been true. She has been absolutely wonderful for Sam! Here's a terrible photo I took of Sam's class photo--I really need to get my tripod fixed or get a scanner.

Next, William and I brought cupcakes to Ben's Kindergarten class for his birthday. Here's Ben with his wonderful teacher Mrs. Zimmerman who was quite emotional having to say goodbye to all her little children. She is known for being gentle, patient, and very loving, which was just perfect for Benjamin in his first year of school.

When we broke out the cupcakes the kids automatically started singing "Bonne fete a toi" because Mrs. Zimmerman has taught them a ton of French songs and phrases, which we adore! Even though Steven speaks German to our kids, I admit that French is really my favorite language. We'll have to sneak more French into our lives as long as it doesn't confuse everyone too much.

These Kindergarteners are so cute! Their main discipline problem is that they hug and kiss each other too much. : ) In fact, if Ben (or any other child) walks in late or has been absent, all the other kids get up, swarm around him, and give him a big hug one at a time. We feel really blessed to have found this great school.

Ben will tell you how excited he was to get Pokemon cards from Grossmama and Grosspapa. He carries them everywhere he goes.

That night both the elementary school and our church organized an Orioles night, so we took the light rail to Camden Yards and were very impressed. Although we missed the ambiance and quality of play at Fenway Park (no offense, Orioles), I admit that sitting in comfortable seats with plenty of leg room and an excellent view all for only $6 was quite dreamy. The downtown backdrop was spectacular.

We hoped our fellow church ward member Jeremy Guthrie would be pitching that night, but the schedule didn't work out. Oh well.

William's best friend Jairus brought his parents to the game.

And David Grow (from church and also Steven's lab) came with Josh and Esther. We also saw the Gwilliams, Parkers, and Hardys as well as all the missionaries from the Baltimore, Maryland mission.

What a great birthday!

Bonus: Ben just lost his first tooth and was delighted to discover he could eat a lollipop while keeping his teeth closed!

We forgot to take pictures of the Holbrook family and all our elementary school friends, but trust us that they all had a great time, too.

Oh, and for those who were asking for some pregnancy shots, here you go. If you were lucky enough to witness the endless pregnancies of 2003 or 2007 (endless in time and in girth with the resulting almost-11-lb babies), then you can attest to how small I am this time around. No really. This is small for me!

I've been feeling great and measuring somewhat in the normal range, so maybe I'll have a tiny little 9-lb baby this time around! Keep your fingers crossed. (Due date June 23.)

Pomp and Circumstance

Even though Steven technically graduated last September, he never walked at graduation, so in order to have closure, we made the trek up to Boston last week. We had a fabulous trip--and I didn't even have the baby even though I was 37 weeks along! I certainly got a lot of comments and stares, but I'm used to that. : )

Thanks to the Theobalds who hosted us (it takes courage). Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of them even though we did video record the wonderful play Sam and Amber wrote, directed, and produced with all the kids. Someday we'll figure out how to add video to our blog.

On Tuesday we also failed to take pictures at the picnic the Kaufmans put on with us (they were in town for Trent's graduation). Tons of people came and the kids had a blast. Here's some of the people I remember so you can imagine us all frolicking together: the Kaufmans, Jared & Mary Christensen, Andrew & Katherine Poulsen, the Fletchers, the Dionnes, the Theobalds, the Walthers, the Smalleys, Monique Doreus (aka Bonnie) & Rodnick, the Hammonds, Elaine & Jackson, and probably more I can't remember. I adore being with friends, so this was a wonderful gift. Thanks to all who came!

Wednesday was the first and fanciest of 3 graduation ceremonies. Steven's program HST (Health Sciences and Technology) is a joint program between Harvard Medical School and MIT, so the only way to have everyone at the same graduation is to hold their own hooding ceremony. This year it was at the Harvard Club of Boston--about as fancy as it gets:

Sam came with me to this ceremony and even admitted, "It wasn't as boring as I thought it would be--I didn't even have to pull out my Harry Potter book."

Sammy took this picture--not bad, huh? We're so grateful Steven's mom Angie could come for this special day. Thank you, Angie!

Here's Steven (in the middle) right after being hooded, holding his diploma and shaking hands with the directors of HST. The HST ceremony was only about 100 people, so they read a bio about each person as they got hooded and gave everyone lots of attention.

We're so proud of Steven and so happy to celebrate and have closure of his PhD. Mid-ceremony Steven kindly lent his robes to an MD student who had forgotten his. When Steven put it all back on he got the hood upside-down (it's supposed to be blue velvet). But the MD hoods are red, so luckily no one noticed.

Quite a nice spread in a room with portraits of JFK, other famous Massachusetts politicians, and even George Washington standing next to the backside of a horse (not his most flattering pose!).

Us with Cathy Modica, the mastermind behind all great HST events, not to mention everything else that happens at HST. She has always been incredibly kind to us. We'll miss you!

Many years ago we hosted this great couple, Adam and Lisa Treat, when Lisa was interviewing for HST. Here we are all those years later. They're still just as wonderful as ever.

Sam as minute man.

Angie took all the really great pictures like this one.

Steven's diploma is HUGE! (like 16 by 20") I'm glad because it sure felt like a hefty experience when we were going through it. We still stop every once in a while in awe that he really did finish after all those years. I just can't seem to find my name on the diploma anywhere--an oversight, I'm sure. : )

After picking up our kids from the Smalleys (thank you, Pam!) we went to see our old church building that burned down 2 weeks ago. It was so sad to see the burned-out shell. But we heard that the church is planning to keep the brick walls and rebuild inside that frame. We also saw the new stake center that is currently being constructed in East Cambridge (sorry no photo), which filled us with hope.

Across the street, we walked around Longfellow's house and its beautiful gardens.

Ben didn't want to leave, either out of love for the garden or exhaustion (possibly both).

After dropping Steven's mom off in Providence for her flight home, we ate at one of our favorite places--Anna's Taqueria.
That night I had a magnificent Girls' Night Out with some of the best people in the world! I think heaven will be like that--being surrounded by all the people I love. In case you can't tell, this particular heavenly group consists of Anna Walther, Sarah Nichol, Margaret Moore, Jonina Mazzeo, Sharon Clarke, Bev King, Jen Magleby-Lambert, Liz Hammond, Elaine Jackson, Elizabeth Harmer Dionne, and Mary Beth Fletcher. Rosie Kaufman also showed up. Thanks to all who could come--it was the highlight of my trip!

Thursday was the MIT Hooding Ceremony. MIT hoods all 600 PhD & ScD grads, so all they have time to do is read the name and quickly put on the hood. Here is Steven with the hood coming over his head. (We're hoping that getting hooded twice isn't like a double negative and that it still counts.) : )

Before (less distinguished):

After (more distinguished):
After picking up our kids from the Plants (thank you a ton, Terese!), we went to visit our old stomping grounds at Eastgate (MIT family housing) where we lived for 7 years. Here we are with Carla, the awesome House Manager.
We love the view from the penthouse lounge--the best-kept secret in Boston! We will be sad to miss our first Fourth of July without this view!
For anyone interested, the Eastgate committee now has 8 (yes, count em', 8!) positions (not the measly 5 when we started), and someone tech-minded has been making decisions b/c there's a new huge flat-screen TV on the wall, a surround-sound audio system, and huge speakers for (I assume) dance parties. Oh, and new curtains.The Hancock tower is my favorite. The weather vane on the smaller Hancock is my 2nd fave.
The Prudential and Back Bay.
You can even see the State House's gold dome, the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade and the Duck Boats in the water.

Here's the progress on the new Sloan Business School building for which we endured horrible construction noise and dust, not to mention parking nightmares. All I can say is, Eastgate better get the promised air conditioning after all of that! (Okay, so I admit the building looks like it will be very nice.)Thursday night our good friends Ned & Katherine Codd had us over with the Hicks family. It was really nice for Sam to see his friends Jackson, Graham, and Ben from his old Elementary school. We enjoyed excellent food and adult conversation so much that we only took one picture that night:
Finally, on Friday we attended the big MIT Commencement with all 2500 undergrads and grads on Killian court in front of the great dome. Deval Patrick (Mass governor) gave an underwhelming talk, but the pomp and circumstance certainly made up for it. Even though the names were read extremely fast, it still took about 3 1/2 hours to get through everything. You wouldn't believe how swollen my feet were by the end! I'm happy to say that we feel like we finally got enough closure and were even ready to come home to Baltimore (which I wasn't sure about when we left).

Diploma number 2 is completely different than the first, but we decided not to ask questions and just take it and run. : )

Thanks to Rosie Kaufman who watched our kids when Elizabeth Dionne got sick Friday morning, and to Anna Walther and the Westgate bunch who took the second shift. You are all heros! And thanks to everyone who made this trip possible. We had a great time! Oh, and thanks to baby #4 who was so accommodating as to not make his arrival while on the road. We feel very blessed.