Meeting the 04 Girls

This past weekend was Emily's first '04 reunion. (Well, a mini-reunion since many friends were missing.) Here she is with Annabel (home from overseas for a brief and all-too-rare visit!!) and Katie (who just moved to Philly from OH -- hoorayyyyy!). Juanita and Jackie C. also came to town, but my camera battery died before they got here. :( I'll post more pictures in our July picasa album once I have them. This weekend we also both met Jackie C's fiance, Brendan, who was just as great as Jackie promised.

On Saturday we did all the standard Philly stuff: visited Independence Hall (mini Baker Tower!) and Benjamin Franklin's house, and ate soft pretzels, water ice, and cheesesteaks! Sunday (after everyone else went to Spirit & Truth church with the Leanders and Emily and I caught up on some sleep) we spent the afternoon walking around Valley Forge. It's a beautiful park, and I can't believe we've lived less than 30 minutes away for three years and never been!

I don't know what I'd do without these women who have been there through so much since we first became friends 9 years ago, and I'm glad Emi will grow up knowing them!

Baby's First Ball Game

Aunt Becky and I took Emily to her first baseball game last night! We had tickets to the Coventry suite from a rainout back in April, so we all donned our Phillies shirts and braved the scary storm clouds and traffic. It rained (and Emily cried) most of the way there, but by the time we parked both had stopped, and we were able to enjoy watching the game. "Uncle Cole" pitched a great game, and Emily got a certificate from the ballpark to commemorate her first game.

Arranged Marraige?

Quite a few of our close friends have had baby boys in the past year, so we are contemplating the possibilities of an arranged marraige for Emily. Here she is making eyes with Jake Hunt, so he seems to have a head start on the others. She's also met Boaz Sironi and we are looking forward to seeing what she thinks of Sam Rice, Elliott Wilson, and baby Pruszinski (who I believe might be in the process of being born as I type)! And of course, if Baby Larsen or Baby Hanauer turns out to be a boy, we really will have our hands full with good options! :)

One Month-day Cupcakes

Granny Groves took time out of her busy schedule to bake cupcakes for her Hebrew class on July 14, to celebrate Emily being one month old!

We are so thankful for a family so supportive of us and so excited about Emi.

Cloth Diapers

I love cloth diapers! Emi is just barely big enough now to fit into the "one size fits all" BumGenius ones, so with those and the small FuzziBunz (love the names...), we have just enough to do laundry every two days. It makes me happy to hang the diapers out in the sun to dry in the morning, to feel how soft they are on her skin, to see the fun colors, and to think of the money we are saving! It's only been a couple of weeks so far, but I'm calling this experiment a success! Now to figure out reusable wipes...

Missing Grandpa Groves

It makes our hearts ache that Emily won't grow up with her Grandpa Groves, and so it's important to us that she know him through our stories and memories. We took Emily to this place of remembering for the first time last Sunday (4 weeks old). I can't help but believe he looks down on her from Heaven and smiles.

Cousins!

Growing up with cousins was such a fun part of my childhood (and adulthood!), and I am so glad that Emily has a cousin her age. At five months to Emily's one, right now Rosalie seems SO much older, but soon enough they will be having fun together. In the meantime, Emily is enjoying borrowing the clothes Rosalie has outgrown!

Westport

At 2.5 weeks old, Emily made her first trip to Lake Champlain. She attended her first family meeting (well, technically she eavesdropped from the porch), spent a few afternoons on the Palace Rocks, and even visited the Marina (in the car, since Mommy wasn't quite ready to let her ride in Grampy's boat). The real highlight of the weekend was meeting her Uncle Nick, Uncle Mike & Auntie Bekah, and cousin Rosalie!

Two Weeks Old

I took a bunch of pictures of Emily after church on Sunday in this adorable outfit from Grammy Ware. Isn't she beautiful??

(You can see some other highlights from the photo shoot at http://picasaweb.google.com/alasdairgroves/June09)

Nicknames

We call Emily so many different silly nicknames right now - I hope she eventually learns what her real name is!

A couple of note...
My first night in the hospital, I just happened to be served eclair for dessert. It had never crossed my mind until Eowyn pointed it out that night, that Emily is E. Claire. Fun!

When Emily was a couple weeks old, Alasdair and I had the following conversation.
Alasdair: How do people usually spell "Emmy"?
Lauren: E-m-m-y
Alasdair: Oh. In my head, I've always spelled it E-m-i.
Lauren: Nope. But, I guess we can spell it that way if you want.

Onesies

I was so blessed to have two baby showers, one hosted by my mother- and sisters-in-law in Philadelphia and one hosted by my Auntie Cindy in Massachusetts. It was so much fun to be surrounded by other women and showered with love and adorable baby clothes! :)

At the Philly shower, the guests decorated onesies. People came up with all kinds of great ideas, and it's been so fun to see Emi in everyone's creations. At some point I will make a collage with pictures of her in each one.

We're a Family!

Emily Claire Groves was born at 12:54am on Sunday, June 14. She weighed 7lb, 4oz and was 21.5" long (including quite the cone head). My labor was relatively easy. We arrived at the hospital around 5:30pm on Saturday, and I was only in real pain for a couple hours. By the time I got an epidural, it was about time to push. She was 5 days (4 days and 54 minutes, but who's counting...) past her due date. My theory was that she was waiting for the Red Sox to get to town; Alasdair and I were at the Red Sox/Phillies game the night before I went into labor, so I guess I was right.

Granny Groves, Aunt Rebeckah, Auntie Eowyn & Uncle Alden arrived at the hospital at 2am to meet the newest Groves. Grammy and Grampy Ware arrived from MA by the time Emily was twelve hours old.

Lots of pictures from the hospital on our picasa page: http://picasaweb.google.com/alasdairgroves/BabyAtHospital

Before

This is the last picture taken of "Belle." Alasdair's family has a tradition of picking obscure Old Testament names to call babies in-utero. Ours was Zerubabel (I'll have to ask Alasdair who that is again!), and once we found out she was a girl, it became "Belle". It was a fun way for the baby to have an identity while keeping her name top secret. I can't believe we made it all the way through the pregnancy without slipping! This picture is taken at a graduation celebration for all (11!) people from our church who graduated from Westminster Seminary this spring, including Alasdair and his mom, Libbie. I was 39 weeks pregnant. Baby Belle graciously waited to make her appearance until Daddy & Granny Groves finished finals and graduation, Auntie Eowyn graduated from high school, and Uncle Alden turned 16. (We'd been hoping for birthday buddies, but that was not to be.)

Welcome to our blog!

I love getting Christmas cards with pictures and letters. I also love reading my friends blogs. I have never done either of these things myself...but now that Emily is here, maybe the time has come. I'm thinking this blog can be a sort of baby book replacement, since I haven't gotten around to getting one of those, but you're all welcome to read along too! Who knows, maybe we'll even send out Christmas pictures this year...

I've made a bunch of posts to catch a bit of the last few weeks, although it hardly seems to do justice to everything we've been experiencing! Life before Emily seems like another lifetime altogether. I felt very disoriented; all of life had been turned upside down and we had to relearn how to function in this new world. Thank goodness for my mom!! I absolutely don't know how we would have survived the first weeks without her. I fed Emily and she did everything else, from cooking to cleaning to a million errands to pick up all the things we needed. That, and constantly reminding me that I was not supposed to have everything (or anything!) figured out yet, that I and Emi were both doing fine. I was also ridiculously emotional during the first couple weeks; everything made me cry, from being overwhelmed or happy or for no reason at all. I even choked myself up saying grace for dinner! It got to the point that Alasdair & my mom & I would just start laughing when I teared up. I also laughed a lot those first couple weeks. Alasdair especially liked that I was laughing at his jokes! It's really just been an amazing time, and we've been trying to soak everything in while she's so new. The country song "It won't be like this for long" by Darius Rucker came out this spring while I was pregnant, and aside from making me cry (duh), it was a good reminder during those early sleepless nights!

We've been so well supported by our families and friends. We are constantly saying to each other how lucky we are to have these awesome people in our lives. We have not cooked one dinner yet, and Emily is almost six weeks old! How spoiled are we? We've had lots of visitors too, and we're so glad so many of our friends have been able to meet Emily while she's so little.

Now, almost six weeks into our new life, things are going very well. I'm getting more sleep and feeling less disoriented. We're getting used to being a family. I like it. :)