This one is completely true

Yesterday Dad said to Mum, "Did you leave items in our amazon shopping cart? There's a bunch of Thomas stuff in it."

and Mum said. . .

"Nope."

Mum says that I have to blog and let you all know that yes, I had put four items in our shopping cart on amazon, which included two Thomas videos, one Veggie Tales DVD, and one Curious George DVD.

Chariots of Fire

Aimee has taught me how to be a real runner.

Merry Christmas!

The extra testosterone in the house has even started to affect mom. I decided to pass on wearing a mustache.

Merry Christmas Eve from the Grumpy Elf

Graceful?

Mom says that this type of "dancing" I do is perhaps the first thing she has noticed me being graceful in.

Dad put me in ballet (mom doesn't know) in prep for football training next year. Dad says that all the greats in football took a turn in ballet. He says it will strengthen my toes, which is vital if I want to play with the Eagles one day. I have been negotiating contracts lately, but the owners of the Eagles are hesitant to sign on a two-year old with only low-level college experience.

I'll keep up the steroids and pumping iron and see where that gets me. But for now, I'll keep working on my graceful moves with Pooh.

Does it look better when you try?

Dad wanted to experiment: Ya know how most often when you want to look good in a picture, you end of looking bad? Well Dad decided to try to look bad- in the hope that it would return a favor and make him look especially good. Now dad is a good-looking man, that is surely not in doubt, but you be the judge below.




Merry Christmas everyone. The advent season is upon us and we Bownes are celebrating the gifts of God (past, present, and future). May we all know the peace of Christ and be ready to share it with others. And may God's peace be especially strong this week and coming months for those of you who have a hard time during this season. Christmas songs get old and lights come down, but the Holy Spirit remains. May He be the anchor to your soul.

oblivious

This video was taken before I even set eyes on Clay. They hid him in the corner when I arrived at the hospital. I had ice cream and fruit. Then I met Clay and got more presents. Mom and Dad gave me "Jack" (I named him) to take care of. He rides on the train with me, cleans up my messes, and likes the Eagles. He can't poop though. Clay can.

the hospital

and then Clay was here!

Grandma Moore came to help out.



Mom was really sick after the birth and took a while to feel up to eating anything. She looks a lot better in this picture than she felt.

This video was taken within the first two hours of when Clay was born. It's a bit dark since the room lights were low when Mom was resting afterward.

The Birth

And then Clay was born.
Mom did well, but says the memory will be great birth control for a few years at least.
Clay was born at 3:45pm, just one hour and forty-five minutes after the monitoring stopped.

The clock is ticking, part two

This is a picture of Amanda, a fantastic midwife that they had that day. Dad asked her to pose with the gel-0-induction.




Then mom and baby Clay were monitored for an hour to make sure the gel didn't have any negative affects. When the midwife came in an checked on mom the last time, mom asked if it looked like labor was really happening or not (sometimes the gel doesn't start labor) and the midwife told her that judging by mom's looks, she was in labor. When the gel hour was over, it was 1:55pm.






After the hour was over, the midwife and her assistant started to eat lunch and mom and dad and grandma went into a living-room area to wait out the "beginning" of labor..... but mom looked pretty bad, pretty quick so dad timed a contraction at 2 minutes apart. That was at 2:27pm.

We were told later that usually the gel takes several hours to get labor going. We were also then told that mom's body seems to be rather good at laboring!

The clock starts ticking

So then we were getting ready to be induced.
Here's a video Dad took that we forgot to include in the past post.



We were waiting for a while for the IV to finish so Dad took a camera into the "birth room." It is kind of like a bedroom with a large bathtub. They hide all the medical equipment in closets so it looks more homey.

The Progression

Dad has this great idea to show you step by step the morning Clay arrived. Mom says that she'd rather not re-live this experience in any form so close to its actual occurrence, but we voted her out.

So here we go! These two pictures were taken right before they left for the birth center. It was around 10:30am.
This video Dad took as they headed into the birth center. It is across the street from Beverly Hospital. It is a converted house into half house/ half OBGYN office. The house part is where they had Clay over the next few hours.

For me, Mom climbed these steps at 1:30am and she barely made it up them.



After we arrived, Mom got a dose of Penicillin for Clay (she was Group B Strep positive) before she was induced. Mom, Dad, and Grandma Moore sat and ate lunch while the meds were pumped in. When this picture was taken, it was about 12:00 noon.

Next up, induction!

My Brother has Arrived!

Clay is here and I'm loving it.
Clay Mark Bowne, born December 10th at 3:45pm, weighing 8 pounds, 4 ounces and with a length of 19 and 3/4th inches. He does have hair!

He only has one foot.

Dad took videos and pic of the play-by-play of the birth (until Mom said it was time to stop) so we'll have a fun post ready for you soon.

Love,
Sim

Thoreau went to the Woods; We went to the Beach

Thoreau went to the woods. Today we went to the beach.
In the midst of great change in life (like a new brother, for instance) one finds the need to get away.
Mom and I drove to the island of Nahant today (about 4 miles away) and walked around. Here are some pictures for you to browse. I threw stones.

This one just below is a good belly shot.



This picture of the sunset is of the Boston city skyline. We were just north of it.

Update on the Clayster

So that y'all are in the know, Mom is going to be induced on Thursday morning if the baby does not come on his own by then. She will be at the birth center still. The reason we are are inducing is that there are a few medical concerns that we have taken into account.

Although inductions are never ideal, our family feels it is a wise decision for Clay. The midwives have been encouraging that since mom is already dilated significantly and because this is her second child, that her body should respond well to being induced.

We'll keep you posted after Thursday and we've be honored to have your prayers to our Lord.
Love,
Sim, Mum and Dad.

The REAL Question is......

Will Clay have more hair than me?

6:30am raisins

Serve them up in pots and pans for added flavor. More than one pan is desirable.

Good things come to those that. . .

Nine months is a relatively short period of time for a human being to be fashioned.

Many of the famous cathedrals took hundreds of years each to be built.

Herman cake takes something like a week to make.

A high-school diploma takes an average of 13 years to accomplish.

The Great Wall of China was built over several centuries.

And we all would agree that a human being’s: beauty far surpasses cathedrals, value is surely more valuable than 40 Herman cakes, and intelligence (even at birth) is positively more magnificent than any diploma. The human body still baffles scientists, and yet the Great Wall is easily understood.

I think that may be why mom is so tired.

So here’s to God, who fashions us from the dust into a being that is astounding and mysterious.

December 1st. Happy Birthday PopPop!