Emily Lydia Gould

Emily Lydia Gould was born today at 14:37. 3960g and 53cm long. Both Eva and Emily are in great shape and doing well.

Quinn even had a chance to meet his sister today...and this is his 'what do I do with her now' look.
Doesn't he look a bit devilish here?

Super cute with her tongue out...but still with some blood on her forehead.

More pics and stories to come...but I wanted to post some pics tonight. I'm pooped, and I didn't even do anything.

Jetzt geht's los, Part II

Eva started having contractions a few hours ago, we've dropped off Quinn at friends, the bag is packed, and we're heading to the hospital soon.

More info soon, when we have it. Wish Eva luck.

10 fingers, 10 toes.

Late Summer Bliss

With Fall setting in and the temps dropping, we're waiting not only for #2 to join our family, but also for the weather to get a bit more rainy.

So, when we get a fall day like today, we head outside. We did start the morning with some inside playtime - with Quinn and his Duplos. He is really starting to play with the Duplos a lot, and if we play with him, we have to build things his way...

Today was the last home game of our local football team. Quinn had a blast the last time we went to watch the game, and with the perfect weather, we hopped on our bikes and took the few minute ride to the field.
Of course, we put on our football shirts (thanks to Mom and Dad!) and our CU hats. Since we lost to CSU, I put on my Miracle in Michigan T-Shirt on, hoping for better days of CU football while reminiscing on one of the best days of my life (almost as good as my wedding day, of course ;-).

There are no bleachers, just a soccer practice field with some goalposts, but it is still football, and it is live!

We brought our camping chairs, and Quinn took mine - forcing me to pace up and down the sideline in Ize fashion.

Quinn and his football. He loves the darn thing, and we're still playing 'touchdown' when I get home from work. I think this may be the reason my body hurts all the time...I'm getting too old.

But, it is worth it all, when you see the smile on his face.

C is for Cookie

Eva does it for my own good. She hides the junk food to protect me from snacking in the middle of the night.

It is a Gould thing: my dad is rather restless at night and oftentimes wakes up, and then finds himself in the kitchen snacking. When my uncle was visiting us a few years back, all three of us found ourselves in the kitchen in the middle of the night. While I rarely sleep through the night, and while I try not to snack when I do wake up, open boxes of cookies are just loud. They talk to me.

The last two days, I've seen leftovers (crumbs) of these cookies in the house, but I couldn't find the darn package. Eva really hid them good this time. Where did she hide the darn cookies. She knows not to hide them to high, for she is afraid that I'll climb on a chair in my half sleep trance to get them.

When I came home yesterday, I found a half eaten cookie...and wanted one myself. I looked...looked...and looked. Nowhere could I find the cookies.

Then, at dinner, I had an idea:

"Quinn, where does Mama put the cookies".

"Over there", he said, pointing to the cabinet where we put our games.

"Good boy". I finally found the cookies. Eva and I laughed hard and loud for a while - Eva's face even turned red.

"I knew I should have not shown him where I put the cookies."

It's a Gould thing, I guess.

Not Every Weekend can be Perfect

Lest you think that we only have perfect days and weekends...this blog post will attest to the normal ups and downs that we all go through.

First of all, Eva wasn't feeling well...with a sore throat and stuffed up nose, not to mention being ready to pop. Quinn felt the need to test his boundries this weekend, and I apparently left all my patience in the office on Friday evening. Not a great combination.
At least we could leave the weekend on a high note: One of the forest stations 'near' our house had an open house. We've been wanting to go there for a while, and we thought that this was the sort of field trip that would be good for all of us: Eva got a break from her boys, Quinn got some more fresh air, and I got to spend more time outside with the Quinn I'm used to.

It was about a 25 minute bike ride through the forest, pulling Quinn in his chariot. Of course, the first thing he sees when we park the bike is a girl eating ice cream. So we had ice cream.

I'm super paranoid when he's climbing, but he does really great, and it seems second nature to him.

One of the forest paths. When I told him this was not the path to ice cream, he immediately turned around and started running in the other direction. I think this was the only time he listened to me all weekend.

The mini roller coaster was the highlight. Quinn was the last one to get to go down...it was way past closing time, and I was getting a bit worried that Quinn would get hungry on me (and I, in my infinite wisdom, didn't bring anything to eat).

While the weekend wasn't perfect, it was (somewhat) relaxing and certainly family oriented. I think we are all (especially Eva) somewhat in a holding pattern, waiting for #2 to join our family. While we try to just enjoy the great fall weather and our time as a threesome, it is just natural to feel a bit uneasy...while you are in that 'calm before the storm'.

The Calm before the Storm

Eva is still going strong, and the baby shows no real signs of wanting to join us in the near future. So, we are trying to enjoy our 'quiet' time, before the cycle starts all over again.
Quinn got a new hat for fall, and was dorking around a bit when putting it on. We thought he looked like a Smurf (Schlumpf) ... or even worse, a Frenchman ;-)

This is typical Quinn: he sees his Papa do something (trying to fix his car) and he tries to do it himself. On this particular occasion, he went into our utility closet (Abstellkammer), got my electronics screwdrivers, and started 'working' on his car.

We knew something was odd when it got so quiet. He was quietly fixing his car...with 'his' tools.

One of my smaller cordless drills is his now too. He carries it around and 'drills'. Thankfully, we've convinced him that the only things that need drilling are on the small patches of carpet that we have...

Family pic: all of us hussied up before going to a friend's birthday party.

Mama and son.

There is finally a way for me to watch live college football games on TV. A while ago, I connected our flat screen in the living room to the computer as an extra monitor. Last week, I subscribed to espn360.com, which streams tons of live college football games.

Finally...the days of listening to radio broadcasts of the Buffs games are over.

Espn360.com doesn't stream all of the Buffs games, but I can still catch all sorts of other teams, and since they store the games, we can watch at 'normal' times.

To celebrate the occasion, I made a full on Tex Mex Fajitas meal: homemade fajitas, salsa, guac, refried black beans, and margs (frozen strawberry without tequila for Eva).

Unfortunately, after the great meal and after putting Quinn to bed...the Buffs lost. But, it was really nice to see real, college football again!

A Walk in the Forest

Knowing that summer will slowly come to an end, we headed to the Fränkische Schweiz for a 'hike'. It is about a 40 minute drive, which for us is becoming a really long drive. After all, we practically only use our bikes for transportation and seldom need to get in the car - even on weekends.
But, we overcame our laziness of having to drive. After getting up, we packed our gear, picked up breakfast at the bakery, and hit the road.

Our destination has a sort of 'path' for kids so that they can experience different things: from walking barefoot on different things like pine cones to pebbles, to crossing a hanging bridge (the logs were connected to chains that were freely hanging), to a maze, to a huge hanging xylophone.

(Editor's note: Eva is highly pregnant now...and may be only a matter of days!)

Of course, we had to take a break and eat our breakfast...

The weather was perfect, and it turned out to be a great way to spend the morning and early afternoon. We were beat...but for some reason, Quinn was full of energy and didn't want to take his nap.

What are we going to do in winter when it is more difficult to tire him out ?