Hello, BMW!

Yeah, we did it.  Dad gifted his old car to us since he's now enjoying his new 2011 323i.
So, we're the proud new owners of a 2003 BMW 325i.  Comments from others on why we did this have been mixed, some said cool, others said why?  The nice thing is, it's not their decision!
Hopefully we'll get more than a few years out of it...  Dad kept it in pretty good condition, and it has low km's on it (118000).  Lower than any of our cars now, if you can believe that!
So, we'll be selling off the older Caravan, hopefully soon.  The only thing we'll miss with that van is the captains chairs in the middle row - the other one has 2 benches, which kind of sucks with 2 car seats beside each other.

Good bye, Honda!

Forgot to mention that I sold my car the other day.  A guy emailed me on Sunday and said that he "could come tonight with cash, but I had to be flexible on price", so I said I am, and to come and see it.  He didn't come on Sunday, so I thought it was another cold lead - the 3rd one so far.  Anyway, at Volleyball on Monday night he called the house when I was at volleyball and said he was coming to look at the car.  She gave him my number, but I didn't hear it at the gym.  I checked my phone half way through volleyball and I saw that I had 14 missed calls mostly from Home.... so I panicked a little thinking something was wrong with Des or Vi and called back.  Anyway, I get the story that this guy is coming with cash and wants to possibly take the car tonight, so I cut volleyball short to get home to meet him -- He didn't show up until 11 pm!  I didn't need to rush home....
Anyway, he brought a friend and his brother.  The friend was a mechanic, so picked the car apart.  I told them flat out that it needs a lot of work, but I didn't know what because I didn't have it checked out for safety.  All I knew was it needed brakes and front bearings for sure, the rest I didn't know.  Well he haggled me down for a while and we finally settled on a price.  The mechanic thought it needed $2500 to safety - I didn't disagree as the mechanic at work told me probably at least $1500-2000.  Anyway, he said that he'd agree on $1500 on condition that I take it to his shop and get it on the hoist for them look it over.  If they didn't like what they saw, then they might back out.  Or, they take it home now, no questions for $1000.  I thought $1000 was a little low, so I said, how about $1200 and you take it now.  They agreed.  So then they started looking it over some more and found another "problem" with it that would be another $200 to fix (the rear tail lights seal was broken and water was getting in the lights), and haggled again.... I said, take home now for $1100 (and thinking to myself, and get out of here - it's midnight!!)  He agreed again, this time a done deal.

Anyway, I knew the car was needing a lot of attention, and it's a far cry from the $3500 I was asking (which was high) -- but I was hoping to get about $2000 for it.  Oh well, not our problem any more!

Photo Shoot

We had another photo shoot done on Monday with the same photographer that did our pregnancy shots, and then again when Violet was born.  She's the sister of Marn's friend and co-worker, Marcie.
So far, the two she's posted on Facebook are pretty cute.  I hope the others turn out as well!
You will be able to see the "public" ones on her blog soon at http://edisonphotography.com/blog/  We're told some will be on there today or tomorrow.

Desmond

Well I've had my week and a half at home, and it's back to work for me.... it went way too quickly, as it always does.  So far, he's been really great.  His latch is way better than Violet's was, so the breast feeding with Marn went as good as can be expected.  The first 2-3 days waiting for Marn's milk to come in weren't very fun as he was up every hour or so looking for food, but after he got some food into him and he settled into a more normal routine fairly easily.  I wouldn't say he's on a schedule yet, but he is sleeping well, getting regular feedings in and having longer awake times.  He hasn't regained his birth weight yet, but he's slowly getting there and probably gaining a little every day.  He's 9 lbs 10 oz now, so only 3 ounces short.

Violet is doing well with him as well.  She hasn't gotten too "out of joint" about him yet, but we suspect that's because she is way down on the grandchild list, and is used to having other kids around.  She's had lots of time with both Grandmas each with other young kids, so I don't think it was too big of a shock for her.  The biggest thing right now is she loves him a little too much!  She wants to kiss and hug and hold and poke and prod him all the time, sometimes, doing it a little too hard for our tastes, constantly being told to do it softer, gentler.... or ok, that's ENOUGH, stop already!  Both Marn and I have caught ourselves getting too angry at her for "loving on him" a little too much or a little too hard which upsets her.  It's a tough balance!  We try and involve her a lot by asking her to get diapers, blankets, bum bum balm, or whatever, and she loves to do it. She's a great little helper.  Her reply most of the time is, "OK Mommy/Daddy.  I will get it for you", then off she runs to look for it.  It's too stinking cute!  Yesterday after she retrieved the bum bum balm for me, I used it and looked away for a second only to look back with her finger full of it trying to put it on Desmond's bum as well.  She also says that he's her best friend and that she likes him. lol

Anyway, things are going well.  Hopefully the little guy will gain back that weight so that Mom can sleep a little longer than the 3 hour stretches she's getting now.  She's waiting until that 9 lb 13 oz mark before letting him sleep as long as he wants.

Welcome Home Desmond Kyle Rolt!

A bit late for an announcement, but here it is...
Desmond finally made an appearance into the world on Friday, October 15, 2010 at 6:32 AM!  Apparently he was in a rush to meet everyone; Marn started labour at about 1:30 AM Friday morning.  At 5 AM things were getting heavy so we called her Mom to come over. "No Rush, but come when you can" I told her, or something to that affect.  Her and Drew came at about 50 minutes later.  During that time, Marn's labour intensified a lot.  We headed to the hospital at about 6:10 AM.
When we got to the hospital, I got out with Marn and put her in a wheelchair.  I was going to wheel her up and then go park the car, but she told me to go park it and meet her up there.  I heard this after, but she had contractions before the elevator, in the elevator, and then again before getting into the child birth area.  A nurse came by to let her in to admit her.  I showed up shortly after and just in time to hear, "she's 8 cm and her membrane is bulging!".  I'm thinking to myself, wow 8 cm!?  Marn's telling the nurses now that she has to push, so they wheel her into a birthing room and get her on a bed.  No time to even change into a robe. Now Marnie is asking for water and the nurses tell her that they can't leave her, so I offer to get it.  The nurse turns to me and says, "you might miss it".  I'm like, what?  Seriously?  We just got here!  I decide to get it anyway, and by the time I get back - maybe 2 minutes? (the kitchen was just down the hall, not far) I see that the doctor is there and Marn's water broke.  Two nurses have her legs up and she's pushing...
I find out later that one of the nurses was "down there" checking her when Marn started pushing and her water broke all over the nurse.  Apparently it was like a water balloon and soaked her!  LOL  I'm SO MAD that I missed that!
Anyway, around this time, after another contraction, Marn yells out that she wanted an epidural... I think everyone in the room laughed and the doctor tells her that it's much too later for that.  The baby was starting to crown, but Marn didn't know this.
5 minutes later, Desmond was born!  The doc says to Marn, reach down and feel your baby, and she was like, what??  I was first to yell out that it's a boy so I may have been a little bit excited about that.   :)

So to give you an idea of the time line here, we arrived at the hospital at about 6:20 AM and he was born at 6:32 AM!  LOL  Yeah, 12 minutes!  All in all, the whole thing took 5 hours.  Quick?  Heck, yes!
Marn's Mom wasn't too happy about that because she wanted to be there for it... no time!

Well, it's official, we're a family of four!  Wow, that sounds weird!  We were out today and Marn said to me, "can you watch 'the kids' for a sec?"  That sounded very strange....

Enough blabber, on with some pics!

Sleeping Beauty

For Violet's first Christmas (2 years ago!), I bought her the Sleeping Beauty Blu-Ray/DVD.  It seemed appropriate.  I've since started a little Disney collection in Blu-Ray. So far only Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and hopefully today Beauty and the Beast.  I missed out on the good price of Pinocchio when it was released, but maybe some day still.  Anyway, I think it's a nice little "tradition" and I think she'll love them growing up.

We hadn't watched any until the other day because she just wasn't old enough (she may not even be yet), but Marn was out at the movies with her friend, and I wanted to do something fun with Violet.  So I opened it up and we watched some of it together.  She LOVED IT!  Maybe she was in a good mood that night, or something, but she was interacting with the characters and telling me about what was happening.  We didn't watch a lot because it was getting late.  The first time the grown up (16 year old) Princes Aurora was shown, there is a scene where she's walking through the forest and starts signing (humming? yodeling?) with all the animals coming out.

Here's a refresher - Fast forward to 2:50 minutes in.
Sorry about the size - it's too big to fit in this template.



Ok, so we're sitting on the couch watching this, and all of the sudden after a few "verses" of the humming, Vi starts singing and Yodeling away mimicking the TV.  It was SO FUNNY, and SO CUTE that I was laying on the couch trying to cover my face and stifle my laughter. When the scene was over, I HAD to get it on camera, so I rewound to the start of the scene, grabbed the new camcorder, set it up and played it again.... no joy.  I ruined the moment, I guess. I'm going to have to do this again and prepare for it another day.  I SO Badly want to get this on camera...