Almost 3 Months

Bran is 12 weeks old as of yesterday! On the one hand I can hardly believe how the time has gone, but on the other, I feel like so much has happened in such a short time.
During those 12 weeks, Bran has done perfectly everything a new baby should do: eat, sleep, excrete, become more awake and aware, and start to learn to control his body. He probably weighs around 12 1/4 pounds now, and looks a little chubby, but just right. He sleeps at somewhat regular intervals, and has good long periods of wakefulness everyday, during which we all delight in his smile, which he shows easily and frequently when spoken to. He has just started to grasp onto things with some intention, which delights Ginny most of all!
Ginny is a wonderful big sister. She is usually in tune with his mood and his needs, and will play with him appropriately, or sing or speak soft words to him as needed. In only twelve weeks she has grown up tremendously, now all of 3 years old! She has a great imagination and is very social and fun-loving. She is having a blast at preschool, where she is making good friends.
Since my last posting we have had many adventures, aside from the "having a new baby" one. We spent at week at Aubrie's parents' cabin near Chama, NM; we went to the State Fair and the Balloon Fiesta; we have had great visits from family and a wonderful visit to California to visit our family there.
The Fall in Albuquerque is beautiful, cool, and clear, and colorful. We are enjoying nice runs among the bright yellow cottonwoods. All is well.

Bran Oliver Dunnington

We have a baby boy! Bran Oliver Dunnington was born on Saturday, August 7, 2010. He was born at home, in a pool in the living room. He weighed 7 lbs 4 oz. His birth was beautifully smooth and peaceful. We feel so incredibly lucky to have had such an easy pregnancy, uncomplicated birth, and now a perfect baby boy. Mama, Dada, and Ginny are all doing great as well, taking it easy with the amazing help of family and friends. (The last picture is of Ginny at gymnastics. She is the littlest one, the first kid from the left.)

Here we are, very much enjoying our summer in Albuquerque. The pictures are: Lynn standing in the "pasture" in front of our house, at 8 months pregnant; Ginny sporting her new goggles (they're not just for swimming, you know); Ginny in her room, surrounded by wikki sticks and, of course, books; Ginny on a "climbing wall" at the park, climbing to the top over and over again all by herself (she was pretty proud of this) with Tim standing by.

We are all doing great. Ginny is in her third week of swimming lessons, and has already become a fish like her mama. She wears these huge goggles and can't hardly help herself from going underwater and looking around. She is still loving gymnastics and can soon move to the 3-year-old class (without parent). She likes to practice her jumping and forward rolling whenever possible.

Tim's work is going well. He has just started taking classes in Brazlian jiu-jitsu, and loves it. He has also been doing long trail runs in the Sandias about once a week.

Lynn is feeling great these days, getting very excited about this new baby coming soon. I was lucky enough to participate in a 4-week Yoga for Birthing class over the past month, which was some of the best childbirth preparation I can imagine. I have also been swimming and walking regularly, which feels great.

Our most recent adventure was yesterday, to Blue Hole and Park Lake, in Santa Rosa, NM. Blue Hole is an 80-foot-deep by 60 foot wide natural spring, with crystal clear, blue water. It is the best place to scuba dive in New Mexico, and also a most refreshing place to swim (as long as you love the water at 61 degrees, like I do these days). Park Lake has a water slide, diving board, and places to picnic. Ginny had a blast swimming, watching Dada and Nonny cliff jumping at Blue Hole, and going to the water slide with Dada and Nonny over and over again.

Happy Halloween!

We are having a wonderful Halloween! How about you? Here is Ginny "playing with candy", her favorite pasttime that began last Halloween. Also Ginny in her lion suit. She still growls well, too. We're about to go out trick-or-treating, which promises to be very fun this year.

Ginny's New Dresses

Ginny has recently been the recipient of some new, beautiful dresses, which she is modeling for me in these pictures. They have been great to wear around Madison, since the weather finally warmed up somewhat over the past couple weeks. Plus she has Uncle John's wedding coming up in September. She is the flower girl, so will need a good dress to wear.
I can't believe she is almost 2!!!!!! We are already talking about her birthday party, since she absolutely loves the idea of cupcakes. She is talking so well these days. When she is sitting in her highchair for a meal, she likes to have a fork to use herself. Then she picks up a piece of whatever is on her plate and says, "I fork it!" as she attempts to stick the fork into the food while holding the food in her other hand. "I fork it! I forked it!", she continues, as Tim and I are rolling on the flooring laughing. Last night she was forking kohlrabi.

Summer Pastimes

Hello hello! So sorry about the long absence in blog updates. We have been busy folks since the last posting. But here a couple new videos so you can see Ginny at her best. The first is with her uncle Nonny (John), who can somehow make a very simple action into something absolutely hilarious. The second was taken this morning, and even though Ginny is sick with a cold and wheezy, shows her very much enjoying the heretofore off-limits marbles.
Besides having a cold the last couple days, Ginny is doing wonderfully. Her language skills are improving exponentially. It is so fun to be able to talk to her about all sorts of things. She even speaks in sentences quite often, usually to say something like "I want one", "I want to go see it", "Mama sit by me", or "There's pizza down there" (the last is a quote from yesterday at a pizza parlor, when she was peeking down a crack between the booths -- I didn't see the pizza she was talking about, but who knows..." ) Ginny also still covets her top loves: balls, water and something to fill and dump, anything ride-able, and anything organized that can be taken apart and rearranged (e.g. a pile of folded laundry, cards in my wallet, nesting measuring cups, coins in a jar, etc)
She also got another haircut yesterday, which you'll see in the second video. She did amazingly well, sitting almost perfectly still on my lap. She liked the smock so much she wanted to keep it on and take it home (all of which she told me in her own words).
Our busy-ness of the past few months has been a good busy-ness. We traveled to Texas over Memorial Day weekend, where Tim and I competed in the CapTexTri, an olympic distance triathlon, and my first triathlon. We had a great time touring Austin, New Braunfels area, and Houston, and spending a lot of good time with family and friends. In June my family ,came up here to Madison and we all drove together on Duluth, MN, where I ran in my first marathon, Grandma's Marathon. It was a wonderful race, a beautiful course with interesting entertainment at almost every turn (bagpipes, cheerleaders, hoses tied to ladders to spray the runners..) My running partner, Amy, and I both finished (!!!!) and only one of us (me) had to spend an hour in the medical tent afterwards!
Since recovering from the marathon, we have been working (Tim as an all-star ICU nurse, and me as a farmie), playing frisbee with the high-spirited Crayola Revolution gang, watching fireworks (the best show we've ever seen, seriously), going camping, swimming, bike riding, and enjoying the news of new marriages and new babies among many of our friends and family.
It has already been a wonderful summer. Please stay in touch!

Monday With New Shoes

Here is Ginny playing with bubbles with Dada. This is the end of a long, exciting morning at the end of a long, fun weekend. On Saturday, Ginny and Tim cheered me on during my 10-mile running race in Black Earth, WI. They had a great time going out to breakfast (Ginny loved her usual blueberries and eggs), playing outside (she didn't even care that her hands were bright red popsicles), going to a giant shoe store (shoes are tied with books for her first love), and cheering for the runners (she got all excited cheering "Yay, Mama!" as I approached at mile 8, but then was completely heartbroken when I just kept on running :(

Saturday night was a dinner party with Andy, Amala, and almost-3-year-old Gemma. I had never seen Ginny play so well with another kid and have so much fun, too.

Sunday was playing in the snow (yes, we got a little more, though it's all melted now) and reading lots of new library books. She had a wonderful dinner of kale frittata and toast (did you know that frittat is best dipped in toast? Ginny could show you how)

This morning we all 3 went to check out Honeybees Preschool, where Ginny might start going for 2 days a week. She absolutely loved it, and none of us wanted to leave when the time came. At one point a little boy (probably about 4 years old) was sitting on a little chair speaking to the rest of the group, and Ginny went up to him and asked to sit in his lap. Fortunately, he has a little sister Ginny's age, and was very sweet about letting the teacher help Ginny to accomplish this.

Have a wonderful week!