Welcome home!

Tomorrow is an exciting day as we welcome back to the States Aunt Amy, Uncle Eric and cousins Shelby and Spencer. They've spent the last four years living in Sydney, Australia, and haven't ever met Josie. We're happy to have them back home for a while before they head off again for new digs in Jamaica.

Hopefully we'll get a chance to take Shelby and Spencer around the city some. Spencer has spent almost his entire life down under, so he is more familiar with rugby than baseball.

In other news, Chuck and Kim have returned home with baby Sally and have posted photos of baby and family at Chuck's site. I talked with Grandma Jones on Sunday and she sounds very happy and anxious to meet her latest grandchild.

Swim lessons have begun for Madeleine at the pool. She and her friend Santiago are taking them together. Her teacher is a very nice young lifeguard named Gaby who has already taught her how to properly chop the water with her hands. At the start of the first class, the pool manager instructed all parents of children in Madeleine's class to wait in the snack area during the 30-minute lesson. He did say if your child is nervous and scared, you could watch by the pool. So, of course, we found we were the only parents in the snack area. I don't know who was more nervous, the kids or the parents.

Laura had better luck than last week at the Wednesday Mom's Movies where she saw "The Lake House" with Sandra Bullock. Probably just as well she saw it when she did since there's a good chance I would never want to rent it.

Today's magical moment: while driving past a display window at CVS, Madeleine said, "Look, Dad, Redskins!" Then she said, "I'd like to go see them at summer camp this year." Brings a tear to an old man's eye.

Bringing up Babygorilla

Bringing new meaning to their website babygorilla.com, Chuck and Kim welcomed wonderful Sally into the world yesterday afternoon. Because the birth was in Chicago, Sally is about as big as the Sears Tower -- a whopping 10.5 pounds! Apparently the two-week late baby girl had no intention of ever coming out of poor Kim and took an ungodly long time to finally make her appearance.

All three members of the family are exhausted but doing well. Sally reportedly has a tuft of red hair and really long purple fingers that are incredibly wrinkly. Chuck, a successful artist with questionable cross-hatching skills, already plans to make use of a few years worth of messy diapers for some sort of "personal artistic statement."

We are so happy for Chuck, Kim and Frank (the dog) and hope to see Sally soon. We love them all very much.

Sick Little Girl

You think you had a bad night? Josephine seems to have picked up a bad cold after a very fun and hectic trip to Chapel Hill. It's unclear where she may have picked up enough bacteria to induce a runny nose, cough and high fever, though we suspect the Burger King across from King's Dominion we stopped at for a bathroom break on our way home. Now, no one can say I have ever had a bad thing to say about the King (see embarrassingly gluttonous Whopper snacks after high school). But we literally took one step into this particular establishment and I could feel the mold and germs cling to my ankles. Five minutes, I'm sure, was enough for the feisty bacteria to invade poor Josephine's system.

So last night at 1 a.m., Jospehine's mom drove her to Children's Hospital where she says they were very attentive and took great care to treat our little girl. Just the same, it wasn't until 6:30 a.m. that mother and daughter finally arrived home.

I stayed up from the point they had left for the emergency room waiting for a call with an update on Jospehine's condition. To pass the time, I first watched some late night cable movies ("Flight of the Phoenix," "Sin City" and Keith Carradine, I think, as Woody Guthrie in a film whose name escapes me). At 4 a.m., I then turned to lousy local news which I watched with a bizarre paranoia brought on by stress and sleep deprivation -- "And a young mother and her daughter were in a car accident on the way to ..." Ugh.

Of course, both made it home fine. Josephine is already showing signs of improvements -- her fever is down considerably (though still there). She's been in good spirits, very smiley and kicky, and has a good appetite. Probably the worst part of all of this for her would be the humiliation of having her temperature taken every couple of hours.

Quick mention
Someone should ask the decision-maker at the Wednesday Mom' Movie Club in Silver Spring. It was bizarre enough that they opted to offer "Mission Impossible III" for a small gathering of moms and would-be napping infants, but this week they really thought the perfect film to offer new moms would be ... "The Omen." I kid you not. See Questionable Decision Skills