Collin came early!

Collin Michael Repede was born at 8:11pm on Saturday, August 30. He was 20 inches long, and coincidentally weighed 8 pounds - 11 ounces. It's strange to look at a nearly 9-pound baby and think he looks so little. But Will weighed in a 10 pounds - 4 ounces, so it's all relative. Another relative thing I tease Meg about is that with only 12 hours of labor and delivery, Collin practically flew into this world. Compared to Will's 24-hour adventure, she halved her personal best in childbirth time!

In all seriousness, I am overwhelmingly proud of Meg. For all the right reasons she was so dedicated to having a VBAC, and she made it happen. Meg can fill people in on the details, but let's just say our team (Meg, me, 2 doulas, and 3 nurses throughout the day) held our ground in the battle to avoid unnecessary interventions. I was sadly disappointed it was such a battle and I'm having a hard time letting go of that. But it was also a bonding experience I'll forever cherish. We went through a lot the past few years to have Collin, and it was all worth it!

Speed Racer!

While I've been at work this week, Will and Mike have been having "Daddy and Will's Week of Fun" which has included mastering the two-wheel bike!  This is a HUGE accomplishment for Will.  Last summer he wasn't even really riding with training wheels until he got a new bike right before his birthday.  He has done really well with the new bike, but didn't want to try it without training wheels.  A friend gave us a great tip-it is hard for some kids to master pedaling, steering and balancing all the same time so if you take the pedals off and let them coast with the bike they can master the balancing and steering without the pedaling.  This really worked for Will!  We started by taking the pedals his old bike until he got comfortable coasting.  Mike put the pedals back on yesterday and by today he was riding like a pro!  I can't believe how big he is getting!! 

Our New Arrival

August 23, 2008

2:48 PM 

(via FedEx Ground)

20 lbs

18.5in tall

Our new iMac!!

I plugged in a total of FOUR cords to get it up, running and connected to the internet!  It took be longer to unhook our Dell than it did for me to set up the iMac.   I could have wept tears of joy!  I've been busy moving music and photos, which has taken a little bit of work.  I only wish the other "new arrival" we are waiting for came with a FedEx tracking number!! 

More Baby Parties!

What we thought was just an ordinary playdate at Collette's house today ended up being a a party for Big Brother Will and Baby Repede hosted by some of Will's favorite preschool friends! Collette's mom hosted a delicious lunch (the bar has now been set way too high for playdate lunches! please send recipes!!) and Josh and Emily's mom baked and decorated a cake. We received a very generous gift card to Babies R Us from the three families. I was even able to run to my OB appointment alone while Will played with his friends. (I'm now 2cm dilated for those keeping track!)

Zoie, Emily, Collette and Henry (Will and Josh from the back)
Zoie, Emily and Josh watch Will licking the frosting off his baby brother!

We are so grateful for such wonderful friends here in Rochester!

Happy Birthday to a New School Year!

Tonight we held our 4th Annual Happy Birthday to A New School Year Party at the Winters in Byron. It all started as an excuse to eat our favorite treat, Sam's Club Cake, during a month with no Repede or Winters birthdays and has become a fun annual event. In recent years it expanded to include the Kruse girls as well. We held it a week early this year because all of the moms will be back to work for work week! Marla and I haven't worked a school year together since 2005/2006! This year's party goers include Allie-4th grade, Andrew and Hanna-1st grade, Ella-Kindergarten and Will and Katelyn-preschool, and moms as well-Sue-half-time 6th grade, Marla-Kindergarten, Meg-just work week!!

William Phelps, Gold Medalist

Off the blocks
Hits the touch pad
GOLD!

Here we are at the pool at the Winter's campground in Zumbrota (Will's favorite place to be in the summer!) Our little Michael Phelps was buzzing around the pool showing off his skills from swimming lessons. Although, I'm pretty sure the real Michael Phelps isn't worried about how deep the water is and whether or not he can "touch." We were swimming at the athletic club not too long ago and after going down the slide, Will got out a little too far, requiring some lifeguard intervention. He was a little shaken up, but we were very embarrassed to be his lazy parents that were sitting on the side when it all happened!!

Other exciting news from the Repede Blog is that our new iMac is on it's way!! Our Dinosaur Dell is on it's last legs and is so slow that if it doesn't die soon, I'm going to kill it! Educators get a nice discount from Apple and the current promotion is a free iPod Touch with iMac purchase. I'm most excited to use the calendar features on the iPod touch. I was recently at a meeting for work with teachers and administrators from other buildings. They were announcing future meeting dates and while everyone else took out their various PDAs, I had the cutest little pocket calendar that I recovered with scrapbook paper and matching stickers. Not cool.

37 weeks and counting...

With three official weeks left, Mike is the one that is now in panic mode! Will's bed isn't finished and he's complaining that all my nesting is just leading to a longer to-do list for him. We finished our Refresher Childbirth Class tonight, so they'll let us have the baby now! I'm on weekly appointments and according to Dr. McKeon I'm 1cm dilated and 50% effaced, which is exactly where I was at 37 weeks with Will. The good news is that they estimated Will to be 7.5 lbs at 37 weeks and Dr. McKeon thinks this is an average size baby, weighing 5-5.5 lbs at this point. She did say that high achiever babies do all their high achieving in those last three weeks. We're keeping our fingers crossed that this little guy isn't as "gifted" as his big brother was (10lbs 4oz at birth!).

Baby Luncheon

Danielle, Meg, Amy and Hillary

Today I was treated to a wonderful lunch at Chickadee Cottage Cafe in Lake City in honor of Baby Yodi by some of my favorite friends from work.

http://www.chickadeecottagecafe.com/

Amy arranged the shower orginally to be held at her mom's tea room in Red Wing, A Tale of Two Sisters Tea Room. Unfortunately, Amy's uncle isn't doing well and her mom needed to be with him. Our prayers are with them. Amy was able to move lunch to Lake City and we had a wonderful time! I'm grateful for such thoughtful, generous and fun friends!!