Eliza Jane Burger!

So I wasn't exactly keeping current with this blog as I had pledged a few months ago. You can blame Facebook for that I suppose. I've had a great time reconnecting with old friends through that page. Plus with the pace of work and home life in 2008 it was hard to find time to blog. Still, we've had a lot of great things happen lately. Most notably, the birth of our second child, Eliza Jane. She was born December 14th at 9 am. 8 pounds 12 ounces, and that was after she took a huge shite Brandi wants you to know. So technically she was a 9-pounder. Hey, don't argue with a woman who just gave birth. That's my advice. She weighed over 9 pounds. Just leave it at that.
Eliza is now just over three weeks old. So far she is a great sleeper and eater. However, she is a crazy little snuggle bug. She insists on being held most of the time and has so far managed to avoid her crib at night in favor of our bed. That's probably because it is so cold here! Okay East Coast friends, it's not snowing in the 20's, but it is 30s/40s at night (cold for sf) and we have no central air! We survived December by wearing jackets in the house and running space heaters 24/7. So I guess EJ will be sleeping with us until it "warms up" into the 50's overnight. We're not eskimos!
After Eliza was born I still had to work most of the last few weeks of December, but now with the new year I can more easily take time off. I'll be off for the next two weeks until Jan 19th. We're looking forward to getting out and doing some fun family stuff. Hopefully we'll be able to see our friends. Sometimes having a newborn can be confining. These little ones don't come programed with a schedule. Although their needs are pretty simple. Hungry? Tired? Gassy? Dirty Diaper? That pretty much covers it.
Anyway. Enough rambling. Here are some of the best pictures so far. I will try to post more pics from the time leading up to her birth. We still have plenty of Rex stories to blog too.

Pregnant Again!

So in my blogging vacation I neglected to mention that Brandi and I are pregnant with Number Two! We are expecting our little girl to arrive on December 9th. Just like with Rex, Brandi was terribly run-down and tired through most of the first trimester. The second trimester over the summer has been much easier. No morning sickness but she had quite a long battle through the past winter-spring with somekind of asthma. Anyway, all is fine now. She's definitely showing but still mostly comfortable. So far I've only had to rub her feet once or twice. But I'm sure that come November we'll be buying the Aveda foot therapy cream by the gallon.
Rex is somewhat aware that mommy has a baby in her tummy. My new favorite thing to do is point to the belly of a friend or family member (usually male) and ask Rex "what's that?" To which he always replies "baby!". He even points to the baby in his own belly sometimes, so don't take it personally if I pull the trick on you.
We have the feeling Rex is in for quite the rude awakening once his sister comes. He will have to find a way to share the throne! Plus with the wardrobe we're already accumulating we may have to move Rex's clothes from his closet to the laundry room. This girl is definitely going to have some threads. And I hope she looks good in pink. Do they make baby girls' clothes in any other color?
No name yet. It seems the more we openly discuss our naming thoughts the more ughs! and blehs! we get. There probably isn't a single name out there that at least 1 of 10 people absolutely hates. And then there is the whole Texas accent complication. Did you know in Texas the name "Julia" (Jul-i-a) only has two syllables ("Jul-ya")? Neither did I, but there was enough of a discrepency to kick that name off the list. So perhaps our strategy will be to go underground and keep it secret until her birthday. That way it will be too late for anyone to say "Oh I hate that name". They'll just smile and say "Hmm...Zoyalynn...How lovely."

Swim Lessons

Rex has been in swim school since January at Le Petite Baleen, a popular school here in San Francisco. This summer they opened a new pool in a renovated army hanger close to Fort Point. Since Brandi is pregnant (have I failed to mention that?!) she recruited me to be the mommy fish in the pool with him. Apparently pregnant women don't do swimsuits.
The classes are a blast. Rex has always been happy in the water, so it's been mostly easy to deal with him in the pool. He loves to hop in the water from the step or from on his bottom on the deck. And he's getting quite good at holding his breath underwater and kicking a few feet to the wall. He's pretty much a natural!
Dad is still working on singing the fish school songs without sounding like a complete idiot, but he's trying hard.

Back from Blogging Vacation

I've spent too much time on Facebook reconnecting with old friends lately and I've completely neglected blogging. We've had a busy, productive, fun, mostly foggy, pregnant summer. My sister Ingrid moved here in June and we've spent a lot of time with her and my parents, who have been up to visit twice (including the entire month of June!). Brandi is now six months pregnant with our second child -a girl. We've been working quite a bit while trying to save our vacation time for after the baby comes. But we've been living vicariously through friend's blogs, reading about exotic trips to Europe and Hawaii and every other place in the world where the sun shines in summer. We're so freaking jealous!!
We've built up an arsenal of photos, which I will try to write individual blogs for. Here are a few of the best.

From The Vault

Just going through the iPhoto library and I came across a few gems from the good old days. So I thought I would take a break from the continuous Rex pics and post a few of these. I even added the sepia tone to put 2005 in it's proper context. Enjoy.

Eight Days in Arizona

Just got back yesterday from a week vacation in Arizona. We stayed four nights in Tempe and then went down to my parents' "bungalow" in Bisbee. This was Rex's third trip to AZ and his longest. The warm weather was a welcome change from cool San Francisco. We dug up our short sleeve outfits from the bottom of the closet. I wore flip flops every day! Can't beat that!
Brandi and I took advantage of some grandma babysitting and got out for dinner a few nights. We even snuck out for an entire day to visit Tucson on our way to Bisbee. Thank you mom!
We had a great time. It's great to be back home, but tough to get back in the grind after such a relaxing week.

Little Manny!

This is one is for our friend Vanessa, numba one Red Sawaks fan livin out in Wus-tah! She sent Rex a Sox jersey for the upcoming baseball season. It's very confusing to some of our friends who know us to be Giants loyalists, but it's cute on Rex. Plus I haven't seen too many Dave Roberts jerseys in kid sizes. Go figure.