Sleeping Beauty

"REALLY, Mom?!! Do you have to use the flash?"

Back to sleep....

Halloween 2010

Kian, the duck!

Sage, the pumpkin!

Our neighborhood community center held a kids' carnival on the Friday evening before Halloween, so we checked it out. Kian's favorite activities were going down the slide, jumping around in the bouncy house, and eating a watermelon-flavored BlowPop (having a total meltdown when we took it away once he reached the bubble gum middle).

We wonder what Kian really thinks of being a big brother. So far, he's been very gentle with Sage, offering sweet kisses on her head and "snuggle-snuggles", which is Kian's general term for cuddling, either little nuzzles forehead to forehead or hugs. However, we have had some night-waking issues and loud protests of "MY mama!!"

"Daddy's little pumpkin"

All geared up, ready to go trick-or-treating at shops in the West Seattle Alaska Junction in the torrential downpour. Sage stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa.

Kian loved all of his Halloween lollipops, which we gave him to replace the many milk chocolate candies he received since he still has a dairy allergy.

A few photos from Week 2 with Sage

Our Family of Four

All (sleepy) smiles with our two-year-old and two-week-old kiddos.

Welcome, Sage Chow Liddell

We are overjoyed to announce that our beautiful baby girl, Sage, arrived at 8:23 pm on Friday, September 17, 2010. She weighed 6 lb., 9.5 oz., measured 19 inches tall, and was delivered via VBAC (darn right, I'm proud of that!) at Swedish Hospital in Seattle.


Here's how it all happened...

9/17/10

12:30 pm - Althea calls Ryan at work to let him know that contractions are getting a bit stronger and are now about 5-6 minutes apart, so Ryan heads home!

1:30 pm - Kian requests that Mama reads stories at naptime, so Althea breathes through a couple books and then lets grandma take over.

1:45 pm - Althea lays down and keeps track of contractions...and now they are really starting to hurt at 4 minutes apart.

2:15 pm - Ryan and Althea decide to begin driving to Swedish while still on hold with the ob/gyn office, knowing that they would say just head straight to the hospital.

2:30 pm - We arrive at triage and document this step with a smile (in between contractions).


2:30- 2:50 pm - Althea's contractions are monitored in triage, cervix dilation is checked and reported to be 4 1/2 cm., and a birthing suite is ordered up.

2:50-3:15 pm - Ryan coaches Althea through breathing exercises as we impatiently wait for the room to be ready.

3:15-4:15 pm - Two nurses unsuccessfully try to find a vein to hook up an IV. This is a necessary step before receiving an epidural and relief from pain. Althea powers through very intense contractions, nearly breaking down with the fear that this could end up being a natural childbirth.

4:15 pm - The anesthesiologist arrives and saves the day with the IV and an epidural. Unfortunately, the pain medication hasn't had time to soak in much, so Althea feels the epidural needle and has never before tried so hard to remain still and has never before looked so intently into Ryan's eyes for strength.

The 4 hours in between the epidural and the birth consisted of discovering that in just a couple of hours - between the triage exam and the birthing suite exam - my cervix had gone from 4 1/2 cm. to fully dilated and effaced....waiting for a couple more hours for contractions to naturally move the baby down the birth canal... and the pushing itself lasted for just 40 minutes.

The ob we had seen for all prenatal visits, Dr. Judy Kimelman, was not on call (again...she didn't end up delivering Kian either), so the dr. who delivered our baby girl was Dr. Susan Harvey. She was incredibly encouraging, optimistic, and wonderful.

Mother-daughter bonding just moments after birth.

My rockstar breathing coach holding the fruits of our labor.

Here are more pictures of Sage, when she was less than 24 hours old, taken by the professional photographer associated with the hospital...









More snapshots in the postpartum room....

Grandma and Grandpa bring big brother Kian to meet Sage.

Our first baby...where did those two years go?!

Kian "holds" his baby sister.


Kian checks out the new addition to our family.

Kian thinks that Sage's sneeze was funny.

This little baby is entertaining!

Uncle Max visits Sage in the hospital.


A rare look at Sage with her eyes open.

Basking in the Seattle sunlight in the arms of papa.

One final snuggle on the hospital bed before going home.

So tiny in the car seat...buckled up and ready to head home!

My, have you grown!

The photo above shows Kian on his 2nd birthday with the bear of comparison, and the photos below show Kian on his 1st birthday and at just 1 month old.

We can't put to words the joy that Kian has brought to our lives over the past two years. He has such a joyful and distinct personality, and we just love watching him learn and grow. We'd like to remember some of the things that Kian did prior to his 2nd birthday, since this blog is also our online baby book:

• first complete sentence: "It's sunny outside." (22 months old)
• example of a longer sentence: "Put it away in the refrigerator." (23 months)
• 9-word sentence: "The other kids are all done with the shovels." (23 1/2 months)

Over the past two months, his vocabulary has grown tremendously. He loves commenting on just about everything! Kian has good spatial sense and is familiar with his neighborhood: He'll notice when Ryan doesn't turn left off of California Ave. at the usual street on the way to school and understands that means that he is heading another block to Red Cup for the drive-thru coffee stand: "Dada coffee". He'll comment when we exit the West Seattle bridge a certain way (to the viaduct) that we'll go through a tunnel, even when it's still another couple miles until we reach it. He'll also add, "No school today...the weekend!" if we deviate from the school route to Columbian Way. He'll sometimes suggest a different route: "Go that way?" He'll often request a trip to the toy store "go toy store, play trains?", the playground, or to a "different park" after school.

Kian also loves to request certain songs by saying simplified titles in the car, and often insists on listening to some over and over again. If he wants us to skip a track, he'll say a quick, "no?" He enjoys singing along to the Caspar Babypants song, "I'm a nut!" and others.

Kian has improved his counting to ten and has wowed us with singing the ABC song, nearly correctly. He skips a few letters (F-G-H) and blurs a few, but he's pretty close!

He requests certain clips from Baby Einstein DVDs or from the TV show Super Why, recent favorites including, "see girl with the red shirt?" and the musical scene from a Super Why episode where the Super Readers fly around in their "Why Fliers"(he likes singing along when they sing the phrase, "working together").

He is pretty good about ending his play time downstairs when we give him a one minute warning and then let him know when it's time to go upstairs to go to sleep (or to transition someplace else). He says, "one minute all done," and he prefers to walk up the stairs (or wherever the intended destination is) by himself instead of being carried. Once upstairs however, Kian is a master of stall tactics at bedtime. He'll walk in every other room except his own bedroom...he'll want to pick out a book at the book shelf and take forever pulling some out and then changing his mind...he'll request additional lullaby songs...ask for a kiss....ask for a hug...until before we know it, it's 9 pm! He's been sleeping in until about 8, which is lovely, but it means that his napping at home is from about 2-4 (or later!), which doesn't coordinate with his school's naptime.

At school, his teachers report that he talks a lot. He even speaks a bit of Spanish: "Vamanos!" (let's go!), adios (good bye), hola (hello), como estas (how are you?), a dormir (go to sleep), manos (hands), in addition to his first Spanish word that we've written about before, "agua." He learned to sing "Happy Birthday to You" at school, but only in English so far. He comments about friends by name, including the ones who have moved up to the toddler room because of their earlier 2nd birthdays: "Jordan go to da udder room!" He also joyfully tells us about when he gets to play in the "other room" on days when we pick him up after 5 pm. The toddler room teacher loves him already, so we are excited for September when Kian moves up. He's been a nice friend to other kids who are new to the waddler room, where he is now one of the big kids. Last week he told us after school that he gave Julie a hug (because she was crying). He even recognizes the cars of his friends' parents on the road: "Vivi's daddy car!"

Kian is a very active, rough and tumble boy, but we love that he also gives snuggles, hugs, and kisses. We try to deal with the tantrums that come along with his age as best we can, but he is quite the insistent little guy and wants his way! Fortunately, Kian is typically cooperative, reasonable, loving, and happy! He will make a wonderful big brother in just under two months.

Kian Turns 2!!

Kian celebrated his 2nd birthday over the period of several days, with a party including friends and family at The Children's Museum last Saturday, a ride in his new wagon from Nana on Sunday, a visit from Lilly and Chris, who came with the gift of an awesome monkey backpack on Monday, and on his real birthday today, we celebrated by skipping school and taking a trip to the Seattle Aquarium; enjoying a lollipop from the doctor's office; playing with his cool, new bead maze; opening thoughtful cards that arrived in the mail and birthday messages via email; and when Grandma and Grandpa visited, they brought a new kitchenette, complete with a frying pan that sizzles and pot that "boils" with a sensor on the stovetop.

Thanks, everyone, for making Kian's 2nd birthday so fantastic!

Here are some pictures from these great experiences: