Robyn's Graduation

On Friday, Robyn officially finished her MFA in screenwriting from UCLA with a graduation ceremony that was outside on a spectacular LA afternoon. Robyn's parents were here and both Jack and Avery went as well. Knowing how hard it has been to juggle the classes, meetings and writing with being a mother, we were all so proud to watch her walk across that stage and get her degree.

Avery slept through most of the ceremony and Jack had a hard time finding Robyn among all of the black robes and ended up playing with his cars or climbing on trees behind the audience, but both kids were great. After graduation, we went to a reception were Robyn got to see a lot of her friends as well as several who graduated last her but were there to help celebrate. All in all, it was a fantastic day! Below are pictures of day and weekend.

Robyn's UCLA Graduation

Avery Grows, Robyn Wins

Avery continues to grow at a rapid pace. At her two month checkup, she checked in at 12 lb. 4 oz and 23 1/2 inches long. That means she's grown almost 6 pounds and 4 inches in only 2 months! She's shot up from 17th percentile to 85 percentile in two months and at this pace, she'll be the biggest three month old around. Needless to say, the doctor was very happy with her progress and said she's doing great! She's super sweet and loves napping in her pink vibrating chair and trying to talk to Mommy, Jackie, and Daddy.

Robyn found out some great news this week. Her script, "The Dog Conspiracy" which is a family comedy, won two awards this week. The first is called Oliver's Prize and is awarded to the best family or kid oriented film. The second one is the National Association of Theater Owners Fellowship in Film and is given by the faculty at UCLA for both an individual script as well as overall great performance in the classroom. It's one of the bigger awards UCLA gives so she's really excited.

Robyn also has a couple of big events this week. The first is the Screenwriters Showcase which is Monday night. At this event, the students and faculty celebrate another good year and showcase a few scripts. It's always fun, most of Robyn's classmates are there, and then there's a big party afterward. The big event though is graduation, which is Friday afternoon. It's hard to believe that three years have past, but they have, and Robyn officially earns her MFA on Friday. She's worked really hard for it and has somehow managed to do it while having one toddler and being pregnant with Avery. Jack, Avery, and I are all very proud of her!

Below are links to some new pictures.

Memorial Day 2008

Avery & Jack, End of May, Early June 2008

Avery's Relaxing, Jack's Playing, Robyn's Writing, Brad's Travelling

That pretty much sums up what each of us has been up to in the last three weeks. Avery continues to be a very mellow baby. She loves to sit in her vibrating pink chair and watch all of us do stuff. She rarely cries and she's sleeping better now that we went back to swaddling her at night. Her long stretch is between 4 and 6 hours every night. That would be even better if Jack would sleep past dawn. Now that the sun comes up early, he generally starts stirring before 6. Apparently, I used to get up early when I was kid so I guess this is my payback. When does fall start again? :-) Avery seems like she's going to be a good eater. We had steak tonight for dinner and she was imitating Robyn bringing her fork to her mouth. She also licked her lips and opened her mouth as if to say, "I'll take some!"

Jack's been doing great, but recently has shown a few signs that he misses being the only child just a tad. He whines a little more than he used to and has become even more particular than he was before, but other than that though, he's great. He gives Avery lots of hugs and kisses and loves talking to her. She stares in amazement at him and likes watching his antics. He's gotten better at hitting the baseball off of the tee and loves playing in the backyard.

Robyn has been working on rewriting one of her scripts for a producer that is interested in seeing it. It's tough to do with the baby around in the morning and impossible when both kids are home in the afternoon, but she's been making some progress and hopes to send it off in the next day or two. She's still doing her Netflix movie reviewing gig and as we speak is watching another classic movie. Not sure if it's just me, but she seems to get allocated a lot of black & white movies to review.

As for me, I did a mad dash to Korea last weekend for work. There aren't any pomegranates in Korea, but there are people who want to buy them and we have to figure out a few things to make that happen. The trip was very short: I left Saturday afternoon LA time, arrived Sunday night Korea time, had meetings Monday and Tuesday morning and then landed back home Tuesday morning LA time. I spent most of the time at the hotel but did get to spend about two hours at this tower on top of a mountain in the middle of Seoul. What a fantastic view!

Well, this entry has gotten a bit long, so I'll sign off. I'll post some pictures of everyone tomorrow.

Brad

Avery: Growing Little Girl

We took Avery in for her four week checkup on Friday and were pretty amazed at how much she has grown. We knew that she'd been often and eating a lot, so we knew she'd grown, but she has REALLY grown. At her four week visit, she was 9lb 4 oz and 21 3/4 inches long. That's almost 2 pounds heavier than she was two weeks ago. Two pounds in two weeks and 2 1/4 inches in 4 weeks! She's gone from being a small baby to being right in the middle of the range in only two weeks. She's clearly following in the footsteps of her big brother!

Speaking of, Jack is doing great and his teachers at school say he has been very happy recently. He really likes being a big brother. He's also been pooping in the potty at school which is a really big step forward. He got the baseball tee out this morning and was smacking the ball all over the backyard. Unlike two weeks ago, he was listening to my suggestions and realized that I can help him hit the ball farther. Moms and Dads do know about some things.

Robyn and I are doing ok and we managed to take the whole family to dinner at our favorite Mexican food place last weekend. This two kid thing is not easy, but it's doable. It's tough on the days that I go to the plant b/c I leave early and can't take Jack to school. Not that it's easy on the other days, but it's tougher then. It's hard to believe it's already been a month since Avery was born. Time really flies.

Below are some pictures.

Settling in at home

Well, we're settling in to life at home with a newborn, at least sort of. Robyn's parents were here for the first weekend at home, and her mom stayed the rest of that week, and then my parents have been here for the last week. Sooooo, we've had a lot of help and that has been fantastic! Thank you, thank you! I'm back at work and the last of our help leaves Saturday morning though, so next week will be the real challenge.

Avery is sleeping better now than the first week, but is still getting up every two to three hours. Poor Robyn! At least it's now every 2 to 3 hours rather than every 1 to 2 hours though. Jack has been enjoying all of the attention from the grandparents and has settled into his role as the big brother. He's very helpful and loves to get things for the baby. We got him some new backyard toys (a baseball glove, some soft baseballs, a tee to hit the balls off of, a little baseball bat, and a new soccer ball). In typical three year old fashion, he'd play with one for about 5 minutes then want to play with something else. Last weekend was really hot so it was a great time to play outside.

Avery Elizabeth Paris - March 29, 2008

The newest member of our family joined us on March 29, 2008 at 2:23pm. After all of our concerns how how small she was, she weighed in at 6 lbs 5 oz and measured 19.5 oz long. There was a bit of confusion about her actual birthweight though. The scale in the delivery room showed 6 lbs 0 oz but she weighed 6 lb 5 oz a few hours later in the nursery and weighed 6 lbs earlier this morning, so everyone has concluded that there is no way she only weighed 6lbs at birth. Regardless of how much she weighs, she's doing great. She wants to eat essentially anytime she's awake so that has been challenging but it's a great sign. Robyn is recovering well and is already free of all tubes, is eating solid foods, and just took a shower. Looks like we'll be at the hospital until Wednesday but Robyn and Avery are doing great. So far, Avery seems to have a very laid back disposition and only cries until she realizes that someone is taking care of whatever ails her (dirty diaper, need for food, etc). She also loves to be held which has been great for dad and Nanny (Robyn's mom).

Jack has been really excited to see Avery and has been really cute around her. He keeps saying, "She's so little" and "she's so cute" and has been talking about her to pretty much everyone we see, nurses, doctors, kids at school, people at the cafeteria, etc. He told us he wants her to come home so that he can show her his toys and teach her to ride his tricycle. Such a good big brother.

Below are some pictures form her first 24 hours.

Easter Egg Hunt

Jack got invited to an Easter egg hunt at his friend Zion's house and he had a blast. Before the egg hunt, Jack played and swam in the pool in the pool with Daddy. The actual egg hunt went really quickly (that's what happens when you have lots of three year olds), but they all still had fun.

Robyn's doing great and we found out on Friday that the baby is growing fine. She's still a bit small for her age, but the doctors aren't concerned anymore.

Robyn & a funny Jack story

This is probably the one and only time we'll be excited to point out that Robyn has gotten bigger. The full story is that she's put on a pound and her abdomen has gotten bigger since last week, both of which are good signs that the baby is putting on weight as well. We get the baby weight measured again tomorrow, but things look pretty good for now.

Jack had a classic line tonight. We were signing some documents to increase our home equity loan in preparation for remodeling the house. The notary was here and as part of the process we had to put our thumbprints on a few of the documents. Jack thought this was neat and wanted to do it too, so we grabbed a blank sheet of one of the forms and let him do it. After he'd stamped a few, the notary made a joke that Jack now had to help pay back the loan, and I then asked him if he was ready to go to work. He responded saying, "Noooo, I'm not a man, I'm just a kid!!" He was pretty adamant about it and it took a minute to convince him that we were joking and that he didn't actually have to work. He's becoming quite the funny little guy!

Baby #2 Update 2

Robyn's been feeling a bit exhausted recently and had some contractions Friday while she was being monitored. As a result, the doctor wants her taking it easy and resting 2 to 4 hours a day. Needless to say, this is not the easiest thing to do with active Jackie running around and while she is trying to finish up her last script. Over the weekend, she was able to rest and at least not be on her feet much. This seemed to pay off as she has felt much better the last two days and had only one contraction while being monitored today. That is great news and means we're less likely to have to have the baby earlier than we'd planned. She goes to a different doctor on Friday to have the baby measured again. As long as the baby's growing well, we'll be able to wait at least another week to have the baby.

Baby #2 Update

We're down to the last three weeks now and we're certainly ready for the little girl to make her appearance. Well, we're not quite ready as we still need to do some rearranging in the house and buy a few things, but we're excited nonetheless. Jack is getting excited as well and was talking about how he will get to show the baby how to do things and will get to hold her. He also likes reading his book about being a big brother. His future baby sister still does not have a name yet, although we've narrowed it to two.

Below are some pictures of Robyn and the new baby to be, in utero! We found out from the doctor last week that the baby is a little on the small side, so he wants Robyn to try to take it easy and to get monitored at the hospital twice week. Everything looks ok so far, but we'll need to keep an eye on how well she is growing.