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| Hina's new project this fall semester is to learn to write her name. Some of you may remember when we began this blog and she composed her first paper on our old Mac laptop. More of you probably recall her melodious rendition of ABC's last winter, in a short video premiering from the Michigan house. Now, hopefully, all of you will watch, love, and sear to your memory the following video, which shows Hina scribing her first perfect "H." It won't be too long before you see all four letters in full glory. In fact, she went on to mark up her page with many an "I" later that same night. And, truth be told, some of her "H's" look a little like "A's," so we really only have to work hard on the ideal "N" from here on out. Enjoy the video!
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| True, "emerges" may be a strange word to use, but it seems to me, now, the appropriate one. I say that because I'm fixated with the image of Shawn, during the c-section, looking over the curtain covering my stomach to see Siri's head, rising out. Startled, eyes squished tight, head shaking back and forth, covered in new baby goo, Siri emerged from my womb to not only the sight of doctors, a green curtain, and sterile instruments, but also to her father's face. For this, I, a mother who is unable to have children naturally, will ever be thankful.
Since Friday, July 18th, 2008, Siri has also emerged from the recovery room, her fashionable hospital-inspired t-shirt, and, of course, the hospital itself. We made it home on Sunday, the 20th, and took a little nap before Bibbits and Poppy brought big sister Hina back to the Forest Avenue house. Hina is a very concerned sibling, always asking Siri, "What's wrong, baby?" when she cries, and eagerly jumping to turn on her light when it's time for a diaper change. Now if we could just transfer that eagerness to potty training...but that's for another blog.
We hope you are equally eager now, as you view some of the pictures we have taken of our new daughter, Siri Mae. Her first name is, to us, "a burst of new life," just as it was to Andrew Wyeth when he painted a girl named Siri after two of his very dear friends had died. Mae was my great-grandmother's middle name, as well as my grandmother's middle name (I think--the story is a foggy one). We like how the two names sound together, and Hina also has a family name (Davis--from Shawn's side) as her middle name, so the two sisters complement one another in this sense. (There are more pics in the Siri Mae album on this site and on our Facebook, if you are connected there, in the "new baby" album.)
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| I suppose it's appropriate that I'm two months late on sharing the fun of Hina's second birthday. Since tardiness is an ongoing theme for this blog, I'm sure all of you are simply getting what you've expected, and, if you think really well of me, you're actually getting it earlier than you expected. So let's get to it....
You may remember that last year, when Hina turned 1, I talked about the phenomenons of the birthday week and birthday months. However, it's more appropriate this time around to tell you about her birthday through something else that's becoming a theme (in this blog at least)--the number 2. Hina was graced this year with two parties--one in Georgia, with her friends and family down there, and one in Michigan, with Mama, Papa, and more friends.
We were in Georgia for ten days in February when Shawn went to Honduras to help build a church in a remote village. The night before our return to Michigan, Aunt Taytee (aka Katie), Uncle Will, and Cousin Ceanna hosted Hina's first party. She opened a Cabbage Patch kid from Bibbits, Poppy, and the above hosts. She also received a pretty cool animal encyclopedia from her godparents, and she now asks us to read it to her often. Of course, no toddler party would be appropriate without at least one gift of candy, and Tova delivered there. I try to reserve those candies for successful potty attempts, so they should be around for a long, long while.
 
At Hina's second party, Mama and Papa spent hours and hours cooking Southern food for a group of mainly Northerners and Midwesterners. The dishes trailed us for days, but Hina could have cared less because she was presented, mid-party, with a giant platter of homemade chocolate donuts (see video below). We learned at her first birthday that she's not a fan of cake, so the donuts seemed the next best thing. We nailed that one. Thankfully, the chocolate sauce came out of her clothes pretty easily. By far, it was the hit of the party, despite the piles and piles of fried chicken and macaroni and cheese at the other end of the table.
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| When I look back to last Halloween, I think of Hina trick-or-treating in sleet and snow. I remember my fears that we were inviting major sickness upon our child for letting her get candy in below 30 degree temps. I see her dressed in her butterfly costume, walking down the halls of Shawn's school and receiving candy from students outside their dorm rooms. I see Shawn dressed as a bag of espresso beans, with thanks to Brian and Michelle Miller, who gave us the bag when we first moved here four years ago. I cringe at my red shoes, which were supposed to complement my Keroppi get-up in a tree frog sort of way. What I didn't think of at the time, but that I do think of now, is something we were unaware of then. Rather than being cryptic, I should probably just deliver the obvious.
And perhaps that's why I'm finally brave enough to deliver...because it is so obvious. I guess when you're six months pregnant, it gets harder and harder to physically hide. It's been an up and down pregnancy, with two scares and one emergency room visit, after which I was told I was never pregnant and was misdiagnosed at 6 weeks with a blighted ovum. The Tuesday before Christmas changed all that, when we discovered how grateful people can be at refusing doctor's suggestions (in this case, for another D & C--dilation and curettage). At any rate, here we are now, still wondering the sex of our second child (since it's legs were shut at the twenty week ultrasound; see picture below), and still a little nervous whether or not we will actually add a new feature to this blog come July. We covet your thoughts and prayers in this respect. So, for the time being, here's a peek at Apostel #2:
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