The summer is ending...

Yes, the above is a picture of Sam, not Jake. They look a lot alike, don't they?

Jake is a great big brother. Here he is helping me with Sam's stroller.

Jake becoming cultured at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

One of my favorite pictures from our family reunion. We just finished playing in the river and are waiting for Tom-Tom and the RV.

We've enjoyed a pseudo summer vacation this year as my maternity leave has coincided with typical summer vacation dates. July 4th through Labor Day weekend. We've had many adventures, including adding Sam to our family. I go back to work in a week and I think I'm ready. Here are a couple of favorite shots from our summer adventures as well as recent pictures of Sam and Jake.

More cute pictures

Caught Jake on camera holding his brother for the first time, and he didn't even drop him. not much else to report around here, Sma is eating and sleeping and we are sleeping whenever he lets us at night.

Play Ball

Grandpa Tom Tom and I bought Jake a few new toys to play with after we brought Sam home. One of his favorite is the whiffle ball bat and accompanying tee. At first he seemed to get mostly the tee instead of the ball but from the video here you can see he has already improved his game. Usually when I get home in the evenings we trade off between using the tee and slow pitching the balls to him. We also got a miniature basketball hoop at the same time but haven't used it yet since he is still so excited to "play baseball"

Balance

I just read Kate's entry on James' blog and have been thinking about balance while I am a brief stay at home mom. First of all, I am still in the midst of the first 4 weeks of Sam's life so I know that my current life is not about balance, but about schedule. Scheduled feeding, sleeping, playing with Jake. I am hoping for the balance between my two kids now and am not even thinking about balance at work. It does make me nervous to go back to work, but I have some more weeks to figure things out.

Yellow Babies, Wet Toddlers

Well we just came back for our second bilirubin check at the doctors office this morning. Sam is still looking yellow but not having any trouble eating or gaining weight. He is now almost back to his birthweight of 6 lbs 9 oz (6 lb 8 oz today). Fortunately Sam doesn't need to go back to the hospital for phototherapy and instead a special bed was sent to the house. Jake is having a lot of fun with all the extra attention from grandparents. Yesterday they went to the Atlanta botanical gardens down the street and had some misadventures. (watch the video, soon to be viral)

Samuel Paul Cuda has Arrived

He came a little earlier than expected but both Mandy and baby are doing fine. After having contractions most of Satruday during the day the starting coming stronger and more frequent that evening. We arrived at the hosptital around 0600 and starting pushing at 1250 pm. The official time of birth is 1331. He was 6 lbs 9 oz, 19 inches long and healthy. I wll try to start posting a little more frequently now that the new baby is here and it's sometimes hard to get pictures out to everyone.







He has dimples just like jake and has his nose as well. Mandy should be able to come home from the hospital today. Thank you for all the family support

Summerfest

We live in a pretty awesome location here in Atlanta. We didn't realize how awesome until spring arrived and every festival that is worth attending in Atlanta seems to be within 1/2 mile of our house. We live in Virginia Highlands and they had their summer festival this weekend. It was an amazing collection of artist, vendors, and live music. Even free dinner and beer on Friday night for neighborhood residents. We live really close to Piedmont Park where concerts, movies, and other festivals are held on a nearly weekly basis. I think it is good for us because we'd probably never venture out to any of these events if we weren't able to walk to them. I know, we're just really boring right now. Here are some pictures of Jake at the Summerfest. He was supposed to dress as his favorite movie character. We quickly grabbed his lederhosen and he became Pinnochio or one of the boys from the Sound of Music. True, not his favorite movie, but costumes are tough to throw together. Well maybe for everyone except Kate...