Videos

Here are some videos of the girls doing their thing. Mazie continues to be a performer. This weekend she put on a one-girl production of "Cats," which her cousin Mia was in recently. Note the cameo by Papa, playing Mia's role of the "old, wise cat." Mazie was not impressed by his performance.

And here she is dancing at home. Is it just me, or does this one look a bit like Elaine dancing on Seinfeld?

Here is a very soulful interpretive dance to Boyz2Men. (Watch the head-jiggle at the very end.)

Meanwhile, Athena continues to gradually wake up to the world. Here she is just hanging out and stretching.

Our Girls

Athena looking at Mazie, August 16, 2011

From Tiger

It's been nearly 3 weeks since Athena was born. These weeks have flown by, but it also feels like Athena has always been with us. Our transition to a family of four has been incredibly smooth. After Athena's rapid entry into the world, we spent just over 24 hours in the hospital and came home on Saturday morning, August 13. The doctors at the hospital were just slightly concerned about the amount of weight Athena lost in her first 24 hours -- she was born weighing 6 lbs 14 oz and a day later she was down to 6 lbs 8 oz. She then spent the next 2 weeks alternating between sleeping and eating, and by her 2 week check-up she was up to 7 lbs 9 oz, so doing great. We also got some percentiles at this check-up: 84th for height, but just 24th for weight, so we've got a long and lean girl! She's also only 13th percentile for head circumference, which probably at least partially explains her quick delivery and her mom's relatively quick recovery!

Anyway, after sleeping through most of her first two weeks, Athena has just recently started spending longer periods awake and alert. Here's what that looks like, with a little fuss at the end.

From Tiger

So our second child has been pretty easy on us so far. Meanwhile, our first child really couldn't be a sweeter big sister. Before Athena was born, we were pretty optimistic that Mazie would handle her new role well. She talked about "BabyBrotherSister" all the time and during the last few weeks of the pregnancy she would ask me daily if the baby was going to come TODAY??? So we knew she'd be excited to meet the baby, but we still weren't sure how she'd feel when the baby came home... to stay. But three weeks in, Mazie continues to be incredibly loving and sweet to her little sister, giving her lots of hugs and kisses and telling us how much she loves Athena (or "Aflina" -- she's still working on the "th" sound). So we're a pretty happy little family -- definitely tired, but loving our girls!

Here are some pictures of MJ and Aflina... we're still adding to this album.

Meeting her sister for the first time. Mazie got to lift up the sheet and look between the baby's legs to find out if she had a sister or a brother, then went out to the hall to tell Aunt Michelle and her cousins, "It's a dirl!"


Mazie and Nana inspecting Athena in the hospital


Mazie holding her sister


At the Rapids game on August 17, Athena's due date

Visiting Great Gram

First trip to the zoo, August 26

Can't Help Falling in Love

Amazing video by Uncle Logan

Athena Lee Dickinson

It's a girl!

Athena "Tea" Lee Dickinson was born at 8:19 am on August 12, 2011, at Exempla Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette, Colorado. She weighs 6 lbs, 14 oz, and is 20 3/4 inches long.

The birth story in brief is that I woke up to my first contraction at 4:59 am, we got to the hospital at about 7, and Athena was born after about 3 pushing contractions (less than 10 minutes). Caleb caught her and put her on my chest, where she spent her first hour and a half cuddling and nursing. In addition to me and Caleb (and our wonderful nurse and doctor), Athena had quite an audience for her birth: my mom (Ahya), Caleb's mom (Nana), my brother (Logan), and our doula (Lisa). Logan and Lisa both took some amazing pictures, some of which we've already posted here. (We'll post more soon.)

Athena hasn't left our room since she was born, and we've spent the day in the company of many loving visitors. Mazie came in less than an hour after Athena was born and said, "Where's my baby?" Not surprisingly, her first interactions with her little sister have been incredibly sweet and loving. She has also been lucky enough to get to spend a fun day with her Aunt Michelle and cousins Haylie, Katelyn, and Crosby -- it's been great to know that she is in good hands while Caleb and I enjoy some quiet first moments with our newest little angel.

Athena was also visited by Uncle Ian, Grandpa Gil, Great Barb, Ty and Sara, Auntie thing, Doug, Lana, Treyden and Carleigh, Mark and Dan. She even skyped her Nanny and Papa in Washington.

Thank you all so much for all the love and support that you give us. It's nice to be home...

Katie, Caleb, Mazie and Athena...oh yeah, and Wiley and Bailey...and the fish.

From Instant Upload

Full Term

Our little "Tiger" hits the 37 week mark today, meaning that he/she is officially full term and would be just fine if she/he decided to make an appearance now. I'm still counting on at least another week of work, so we're not in a huge rush, but the countdown is definitely on!

We are so excited to meet BabyBrotherSister. Ahya hosted a lovely baby shower last weekend and it was really nice to spend an afternoon just relaxing and focusing on Tiger's arrival... work, soccer, travel, house stuff, and Mazie have kept us so busy this summer that I haven't had many opportunities to just stop and contemplate what it's going to be like to meet another completely amazing human being. So the shower was great, and then on Monday evening Caleb and I had Ahya, Nana, and Lisa, our doula, over (while Mazie had a sleepover at Olivia's) and got to spend a whole evening talking about our plans and visions for the birth. With all of this, it's definitely becoming more real, though I still can't quite get my mind around the reality of having another child that I'm as crazy about as Mazie. I know in my head that I will be, but it just doesn't seem possible.

Also really curious to find out if BabyBrotherSister is a brother or a sister! Guesses have been skewing heavily in one direction, but I won't give it away just yet... take the poll and let us know what you think!

7th Anniversary

This past Saturday was Mom and Dad's 7th wedding anniversary. A couple of days earlier, they showed me their wedding video. I loved watching Mommy and Daddy and was especially interested in all of the flower girls: four of my cousins who are such big girls now but were so little at the wedding! I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to be a flower girl, and kept asking Mom WHY they decided to exclude me from this event. Somehow the fact that I wasn't born yet seemed like a lousy excuse to me. Mom said maybe sometime we can re-enact the wedding and I can be the flower girl. I asked if she could wear her beautiful dress, but she says she doesn't think it would fit over her huge belly.

Last night at dinner I looked over at Daddy and said very sweetly, "Daddy, at my wedding can you walk me down the steps?" Daddy made a strange face -- he was smiling but I also thought I saw tears in his eyes. Weird. Anyway, he said he would be honored, and gave me a really big hug.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Cottage Trip 2011

From Instant Upload

We took our annual family trip to the cottage this year from June 30-July 10. I had so much fun playing with all my cousins -- we had awesome weather all week, and we rented a pontoon boat one day which was super fun! We didn't get to have our friends up this year, but have already started planning for next year's friends trip!

From Wisconsin Summer 2011

From Wisconsin Summer 2011

From Wisconsin Summer 2011

From Wisconsin Summer 2011

On our way home we stopped in Madison and saw Eric and Maggie and MORRIS, Shanee, Neil, and baby Orly. I had a great time with Morris and even suggested that maybe he could be my boyfriend. It's a long distance relationship for now.

From Wisconsin Summer 2011

From Wisconsin Summer 2011