LTR1.wmv

Saturday

Here are a few pictures from this afternoon. Diego and I are really enjoying Luis. He is settling into life nicely, and we are settling into life with Luis. He is a champion sleeper. In fact, we have to wake him for most feedings. I over slept a bit for one, letting Luis sleep 4 hours. While it's a bit difficult to wake him, Diego and I appreciate the sleep Luis allows US to get.

The first couple of days we were home, we got very few glimpses of Luis's eyes. And more often than not, he was only willing to open one eye at a time - as if whatever was going on around him was clearly not that interesting to him. But today, he has had more awake. He has such a pensive and peaceful look on his face. It is easy for me to just sit and watch him.

Ashley has been a great sport this last week, and seems to have adopted Luis into the fold already. She follows us around the house - up into the nursery for a diaper change, sits at the edge of the sofa during a feeding, lays in the living room when we're all napping. Twice now, Luis has been in another room and started fussing. Ashley comes to find me to let me know that the little guy isn't happy. It's very sweet. Of course, Ashley will like Luis a whole bunch more when he's old enough to drop food on the kitchen floor and she'll LOVE him when he's coordinated enough to through the frisbee. But all things in good time.

NOW the Crib is Complete

So several weeks ago, I bragged about how Diego had completed the crib. Then I posted pictures with linens and toys and such. But now, with Luis peacefully sleeping in it, now the crib is complete. Luis - who sleeps well almost anywhere - spends his nights in his crib. In order to vary his surrounds a bit, he tends to nap in other rooms.

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Luis demonstrates as much Christmas Cheer as he can muster. Honestly, he didn't stay awake long enough to do much more.

Juan Felipe arrived at our house at 11a on Christmas morning with several bags of groceries. He then spent the next 8 hours preparing a feast like none I have ever had. A couple of the highlights included chestnut soup with pork dumplings (that started from in-the-shell chestnuts), Mashed Sweet Potato and Yuca, Garlic Green Beans, and ended with crepes with ice cream, blue berries and chocolate sauce. Spending Christmas with my Rincon family was very special and after dinner, Diego, Juan Fe, RC and I all exchanged gifts while Luis napped. Makes me wonder how many more Christmas's he'll sleep through...

Our Hospital Stay

Here are a few pictures from our hospital stay. No narrative seems needed.

Some of the Many Faces of Luis

Diego put together this collage of pictures. Luis doesn't spend much time with his eyes open, so these pics were hard to come by.

I like these photos because you can really see Luis's face and a couple of his most-used expressions. He is a sweet, sweet boy.

He is doing well, and we are doing well. It didn't take long for us to become adoring and doting parents!

Pictures of Luis

Here are a couple of pictures of Luis and his fan club. We all continue to do well - though only one of us can be described as well-rested.

A little later today, we all head home. This is both an exciting and a daunting idea. It will be great to be home, as a family, with the four-legged kids we already have. It's a little scary to not have a full-service nursing & doctor team at the push of a button.

As we settle in some, we'll post more pictures. I want to get a few up that show his full head of dark hair, his dark-green eyes and his sweet, sweet smile.

Welcome Luis Tomas Rincon!!

A quick note to say that our son, Luis Tomas Rincon was born yesterday, 12/22/06 at 1:57 pm. He weighed in at 7lbs 15ozs and was 21 inches long. He is doing GREAT! He's super cute with dark green eyes and a head full of dark hair. I'll post pictures when we get home tomorrow (we have one more day at the hospital).

Everyone is doing well, and Diego & I couldn't be more excited.

38 Weeks!!

Both the nursery and I are almost ready for Baby Rincon's arrival. As you can see from these pictures, my belly continues to grow (and grow and grow). But also, you can see that the nursery gets a little more organized and a little more put together each week. Since the last post, the changing table was completed and moved into the nursery. A friend made curtains that are now hanging in the window. The crib has been moved to it's "final resting place", and most of the miscellaneous baby stuff has been put away. The glider even has a corner cleared out for it (as soon as it's ready).

Speaking of the glider, Diego is almost finished with it!! Though it looks assembled here, this is just a dry fit. He did this first to ensure that all parts intended to glide, do glide and that everything fits together properly. He has also finished all of the wood with a stain and a coat of polyurethane. The final step will be to take it apart and then glue & screw it all back together - which he will do upon his return from Mumbai. And the same friend who made the curtains for the nursery is making cushions for the glider. It's really all coming together!

It's Beginning to Feel a lot Like Christmas...

For the last 8 months, I've associated the arrival of Christmas (and the Christmas season) with the arrival of Baby Rincon. And althought I'm technically full term (I'm 38 weeks), I'm not quite ready for the baby to arrive. So I've been dragging my feet a little on getting into the Christmas spirit - buying a tree, decorating, etc. But Diego and I came up against a bit of a block: tonight, I put Diego on a plane to Mumbai, India for a quick 5 day business trip. He really wanted to participate in the decorating, so last night was our last shot.

I TiVo'd Rudolph & Frosty, so we had those going while we hung lights and ornaments on both our Christmas Tree and our Ficas tree. Ashley couldn't quite figure out what was going on, but dutifully sat for a portrait in the end.

A New Baby or Nuclear War?

I can admit that I am a planner. I'm not a big fan of surprises and I like to have a plan for everything that's coming up. Diego insists I have a little German in me. :) I have done much to plan for Baby Rincon's arrival - getting the nursery together, taking care of projects around the house, early Christmas shopping, etc. But even I was a little taken aback when I went to put some groceries in the extra freezer: when I opened the door it looked more like I was planning for war than for a baby. In my attempt to stockpile food to cut down on grocery store trips in the first few weeks after the baby's arrival, I have packages of frozen pork chops, chicken breasts, & hamburger meats, 4 lbs of coffee beans, several pounds of bacon, several pounds of butter, as well as multiple containers of prepared chili, spaghetti sauce and a few casseroles. While it seems a little bit out of control right now, I am already looking forward to being able to pull meals out of the freezer and be able to produce dinner with very little effort. And with an newborn in the house, I think I will appreciate that more than I can know!

Working into the Night

At 2:30a last night (this morning?) I realized that Diego was still out in the garage, working on the glider chair. When I had gone to bed, he said that he was "on a roll" and hoped to get a lot of work done. I hope this is practice for the upcoming 2a feedings...
As you can see in these pics (taken earlier in the evening), he's started staining some of the pieces and sanding the connection spots. When I went out to check the progress this morning, the chair is fully assembled - though still needs to be connected to the "gliding" mechanism. After such a late night last night, I encouraged to catch his breath today. He's upstairs right now, but it is only 9:00p. Tomorrow I'll post more photos of the chair and some of the nursery (we got the changing table/dresser up there) and so it's continuing to come together.

Glider Chair

On Friday, Diego finished the changing table/dresser re-finishing, and has since been focusing his attentions on the glider chair & ottoman for the nursery. These pictures, taken on Saturday are already out of date. On Sunday, Diego started putting the chair, base and glider mechanism together - after staining each piece. The chair construction is moving along so fast! Stay tuned for completed pictures!

Where does the baby go??

Alison, my sister-in-law, has been extraordinarily generous with us, and has almost single-handedly outfitted us with baby gear for the first year. She has passed down a bouncy chair, a moses-basket, a baby bjorn, an infant carrier, a bumbo seat, maternity clothes, a swing, an activity gym, and bags & bags of clothing. I've had a hard time saying how thankful I am for it all. And as the gifts have come, I've been putting everything in the nursery. The other day Diego asked, "Where does the baby go?" I took another look at the room and was a bit shocked at how much stuff we had piled in it.

Diego has finished restaining the dresser that will become the changing table, and we hope to move it up into the nursery this weekend. That will help tremendously with the organization of the room. And work on the glider chair is coming along great! I've got curtains being made. All we need now is a baby...

Thanksgiving

This year we had a mini-McDow Thanksgiving here, in Falls Church. Thomas & Lucy, Randolph & Lauren, Dodie, Alison, Maggie (6), Franklin (3) & Sol (1), and Abby, Piers & Charlotte (1) came from SC, GA, CT & NC (respectively). I made the turkey, stuffing and gravy (Alison gets most of the gravy credit - I just read from the cookbook) and each family contributed their favorite part of the meal. We had lots of GREAT food.

Originally, I invited people to come here because I didn't think I'd be up for the trip to Rock Hill. Turns out hosting Thanksgiving dinner is a lot more work than I thought it was. Despite EVERYONE pitching in, making food, cleaning up, etc. I was exhausted by the end of the weekend.

It was a lot of fun having everyone here - and it was great to not be on the road this year. While I really, really enjoyed the more intimate-ness of Thanksgiving - we had 13 people at the table in lieu of 40 or 50 people at a typical McDow Thanksgiving - I was a bit sad when I saw photos of the T-giving I missed in SC. But still, it was nice to have everyone sitting at the same table, for people to be able to participate in the conversation, and for all of the food to be served hot.

Diego also had a unique Thanksgiving - in Rome. He went to speak at an international conference. It was a very successful trip for him. His speach was well received, he got to visit with a high school friend he hadn't seen in 17 years, and he had some time to tour Rome. We missed him here, but are glad he had such a good trip.