Easter morning

We dyed eggs saturday night and left them for the easter bunny to find. Madeline also hid a few empty plastic eggs. The bunny came and put cranberries inside of them! She was thrilled and then enjoyed the rest of our very secular Easter.
We made a ham and called it easter dinner but, without going to church, something felt missing. we just havent found a service for kids that we like around here so for now it will be pagan holidays for the dc manns.




Anyway, she loved hunting for eggs, rooting through her basket for thhe fruit leather and snacking on a special treat (mmm slice and bake bunny cookies!) no dairy in those folks bc there isnt one real food ingredient on the label! its all polysyllabic words that mean artificial... but they are so good warm...


and then Bennett got his treat- Easter mommy's milk. but there was too much for him, and as is the case every other time as well, he pulls away just as the milk comes and we all get a milk bath. thanks B.

xoxo

tropical vacation

Don and I took the kids on a tropical vacation



to the rain forest exhibit at the aquarium ;)



Bennett slept through the whole thing -and Tina might have too for all we know as she seemed to walk around bleary eyed at the whole thing- but what do you expect? she is a 17 year old girl - hard to impress LOL


xoxo

Bennett week 2

smile- mostly in his sleep but occassionalyy i get a good one too!


wearing big boy clothes... style and size(3mo already!)

egg hunt. week 2

I took the kids (By myself!) to an egg hunt the other day.
Madeline loved running around and hunting but was dissappointed when the eggs were full of candy i wont let her eat... we had to go home and trade it all in for Nori and then she was thrilled. the kid eats enough seaweed to be a mermaid ;)
Anyway, no pics of B bc he was in the sling- its the best way to help the big one run around and get the best eggs people!

uncle zygo

Uncle Zygo came back for the night on the 30th on his way to FL .
M was thrilled and she ran and got her bike helmet on for some reason. Then insisted she wanted to wear it to play in the backyard (a commentary on our t-ball skills perhaps?).
Anyway, uncle z thought 'cant beat em- join em'.
we love you zygo!

oh and an apology to those of you who have been awesome houseguests and have not hounded me that i have not gotten any pics of you and the kids up. It has become very hard keeping on top of who has been here and making sure we get pics of everyone and i know some people are sad when we dont put up their personal pic so this time around im not being too ambitious in getting the posed kid pics up on the blog. happy to share them with you though, if we did take them and you havent seen them here.

i think we have not pictured aunt jill, maury, aunt veronica or aunt margaret, the wongs or any of our neighbors or local friends who have been through to meet bennett. hoping nobody takes it personally!
xoxo

perfect belly button

bennett's umb cord fell off (i think that was day 11 but im not sure).
Here is the little spiral belly button that it left behind.
aw
xoxo

no new posts

Okay so... I have not posted this week , it has been brought to my attention
and No. it has nothing to do with being overwhelmed.
NUMBER 1: computer is broken and sd card went mia.
NUMBER 2:
I just happen to have a two and a half year old that doesnt go to sleep before 10.
And while in the past i could blog after then when she finally went to sleep, i require at least 4 hours at night. which i cant get unless my head hits the pillow by 11.
Wish i could keep you all better up to date but im not so into letting her play alone while i play on the computer.
As i type she is standing next to me asking for 'one more cuddle' and i am trying to avoid saying 'no more tonight kiddo- you have had 10,000 already'.

I hope to get a chance to put some pics up tomorrow while don is home as i have some great ones of us decorating eggs, attending an egg hunt and visiting the aquarium this week! Oh yeah- we have been busy having lots of fun too:)

tummy time

mmmm dinner...

Rub made w/ brown sugar, paprika, salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic powder and onion - baked in oven for 2hrs then thrown on the grill with bbq sauce... delicious!

"put him in MY lap daddy"

Hanging with her bro'

some pics with the Mann family

Don's family seems to be the only ppl we remember to take pictures with!
Here they are with the kids!

Grandaddy Bill

Aunt Peggy (Don's Mom's Cousin)

Grandma Rose

And the winner is...

Tina is the only one who knew it was

Bennett
Madeline
Bennett

but, in fairness its bc she recognized the old pic of madeline and not the two new ones! But good job Tina, even we have a hard time telling them apart in baby pics!

xoxo

"jew'ry"

Madeline got some fabulous jewelry from our awesome doula, Ursula and has been feeling divinely dressed up these days!

quick pics

its way past my bedtime but i wanted you all to see some pics of the little bear today.

<

and video of how strong he is at 5 days old :)




julie thinks he has big hands so i took this pic-
hmm he DOES have some long fingers julie!


i am in love.

who's that baby?

which is madeline and which is bennett?






which is which?

Update Day 2

Bennett is officially 2 days old at 12:35 today.
We came home yesterday at lunchtime- working on a 24 hour turnaround but they wouldnt discharge us till the vampires came and took his blood for the newborn screen. Nevertheless, we got to have our afternoon at home in the warm sunshine of our house, homecooked dinner and a few hours of sleep in our own beds!
Madeline is thrilled to have us all home and takes every opportunity to kiss her little brother.

Here are a few pics
Bennett is sleeping like a champ (ok he is not even two days old yet) and we think he may have some serious milk from mom soon so we anticipate a few days without much sleep at all as it comes in and he starts to fill up.

On his way home from the hospital!

Home at last!

Sibling love


If we have not returned your calls or messages, Im so sorry- we are juggling it all still and hope to talk with you soon.
Much love
The Manns
Don, Ashia, Madeline and Bennett!

woah

What a day.
Supposed to come in for an induction at 9 but called at 8 to say we are running late since i was in labor all night.
After a hearty waffle and sausage breakfast (a la gramma rose)we arrived at the hospital to find we were more than halfway there. 2 hours of labor, transition and a few pushes and voila! We are a family of four!
Happy Birthday Bennett.

Loving her baby brother!

Madeline came to meet her baby brother and was tickled pink!
She was particularly thrilled with the size of her Bennett's thighs and several times mimed snacking on them!

more pics

Bennett James Mann

9lbs - 14oz
21 & 3/4 inches!

He was born at 12:35pm today 3/21/09.

Ashia had no induction and no medication. We had contractions through the night and arrived at the hospital just after 10AM. We labored at the hospital for 2 1/2 hrs...

All is well - can't wait to speak with everyone.

First Haircut

I finally gave in and we took madeline for her first haircut on saturday.
Don and i found one of those kid cuts places with the tvs and the bells and whistles. Frankly, she was equally amused at the Hair cuttery so we go there next time LOL!

She did great- was mesmerized, i think and after having been with me to watch Grandma Rose get her hair done, she was eager to have hers snipped too.
She got a little hairclip at the end and loved running her fingers through her new healthier locks.

i do miss those curly cues of baby hair but it is an adorable pixie cut. Our friends in san mateo have a little girl, Bella, whose hairdo this reminds us of, and she is precious so we are loving it.

here are some before, during and after clips
xoxo



get her done!



posing with her smock on at the salon.
(incidentally, she has a dance teacher named "miss salonge" and she is utterly confused by the similarity between the words...)


hamming it up with her pixie cut with Dad- making tapioca

Not Yet

No baby boy yet.
Which is normal.. In fact it is more abnormal to have had a baby by his due date. Approx 75% of moms dont deliver till after the EDD.

So... what that simply means is, this baby is growing and happy to be where he is for now. We are certainly in no hurry to have him arrive before he decides he is ready to be here. Although, of course we are so excited to meet him and mom's belly is growing and growing...
Everyone is perfectly healthy and happy and we intend to keep it that way :)

Anyway, we thank you all for checking in with us but we have no news to share as of yet and we PROMISE to post on the blog and send a few emails and phone calls when the big day comes.

much love
xoxo

name that character

what famous movie charcter do you see?

big sister

big boy

this boy is going to pick his birthday soon so we took some pics just before- to capture the girth of this belly of mine!
And sue, our photographer friend took some family pics too!

an omen

My dad had this visitor to his neighborhood and just sent this out
so we are hoping its a sign that the stork is coming to see us soon too!
maybe he got stuck in this bad weather and will arrive closer to the 10th after all :)