clothing

It's been a long time since I've worn holes through the knees of jeans. The hand-me-downs pictured below (because that's the only place I can figure to put a pic with this Blogger app) have served me well, if only since Cohen was born.

I typically wear clothing long past the holes. It's a trait I don't know whether to be proud of or ashamed of. But after seeing such a hole in my skirt this fall, Ben asked if I should take a certain allotment of the Winter student loan to buy new clothes.

I'm excited to "grow up" by getting rid if clothes and buying new ones with the season. Eeeeeeeven though I'm wearing a shirt from High School (also pictured below) right now and don't know if I wanna give it up...

Do I really want to be blogging again? This all seems like pointless words… meh.

2013

Testing out the Blogger app, yo. Right from the phone. Youbetchamyheck.

2012 brought another kid, an iPod then an iPhone, the final and eventual loss if the ol' college laptop, so much Instagram, and thus, a so-called "death of blog".

But 2013 shall bring better documenting. Starting with telling you about the sewing I did today and loved. If it weren't so gosh darn tedious, I think I'd do more of it. But I'd love to do more of it. I'm working on some hand-painted type on banners. I love work like that.

Twenty-thirteen shall be like magic beans!

growing exponentially

For over an hour, I've been experiencing the magic of both boys asleep at the same time. And although it's been my intention to give this good news update since then, it has still taken me over an hour to start. I better get better at maximizing this magic time. Soon enough...

Well, as you faithful readers (Rebecca!) might have guessed, yes, I was in labor while I wrote the last post. I wasn't wanting to admit it yet, because I'd carefully prepared myself to go overdue. But an hour later, I was at the midwife appointment. The pains were regular on my drive there and I was already feeling an urgency to take a picture of my belly because the belly wasn't going to be there soon. I took the above shot on the way into the appointment, where my suspicions were confirmed. And by 6 o'clock that evening, I was back at the hospital, dilated to an 8. Yeah, man.

I think I smiled in this photo just because I knew it was being taken, but remind me not to do it next time because it looks goofy. Delivery with a midwife wasn't much different from my doctor/nurse experience. I expected her to do a little more coaching, but I really liked that it was one person there with me through labor all the way to the end.

This was the view from the room, though my personal view consisted more of the backs of my eyelids. I still can't believe it was daylight during all this—I fully expected a birth around midnight.

But hallelujah!

It was but 7:32pm when they handed me this wee one.

And he immediately grasped my fingers! I like to think it was reassuring for him.

Kinda like holding Ben's hand was reassuring for me for the few hours previous.

It was past his bedtime (hence the jammy-shirt and the über-tired face),
but Cohen got to come meet his brother while he was still under an hour old.

 It was probably more fun for us than it was for him.



Actually, it was fun for me to have LOTS of family come meet Baby... fun enough to stick my tongue out.
But for the rest of you that couldn't be there, it's fun to tell you via the ol' blog:

Meet Baby Silas Benjamin Knudsen!

8lb 3oz  20.5"

We're giddy to have him here. The first night we brought him home, I told Ben as we went to bed that I had an some kind of excited feeling, as if it were Christmas Eve or the day before a trip to Disneyland. Maybe it was a little naïve—going to sleep with a newborn shouldn't necessarily be exciting. But I confess that part of me still has that feeling. Our joy multiplied with Cohen and it's pretty much exploding with Silas and I guess we'll just hope that it will continue to grow exponentially. 

straight-up up-date

Someone asked if I was taking a break from blogging. I guess you could technically say so, but does it count if it wasn't intentional? It's not. I'm sorry!

The special birthday gift two months ago was an iPod touch—the new kind with a camera which meant I instantly fell addicted to Instagram (see my photo feed here), and it served as the update-my-family-from-afar outlet.

But there are indeed lots of updates:

• We moved out of the "loft on the daylily farm." (moment of silence)
• We put most of our belongings in a storage unit.
• We parked our car under the NC summer sun.
• We caught a plane by the skin of our teeth and made it to Utah.
• We enjoyed the wedding of Sean and Hannah!
• Ben interviewed at Landform Design Group and started interning there the following week.
• I found someone to keep a medical eye on my pregnancy and sheepishly have asked to borrow important things like a carseat and bassinet for our time here. 
• Cohen has been living a much higher quality of life with someone to give him attention at every turn, and more cars to play with than he ever knew existed.

We are feeling grateful for our situation. Happy to be here in the 'homeland' and even happier to be with family and friends that have been far for so long. Things are still up in the air for fall—we know Ben's classes start in mid-August so we hope to be back for that, though all else is just details at this point. :)

Until the next time I opt for blogging over taking a picture and clicking "Done"!

(or until I can finish a brother and a brother-in-law's birthday haikus!)

the woman's amazing

happy 27th on the 27th

he's really a softie