Justin is Here!!!

My water broke on Monday afternoon and after a challenging labor, Justin Gregory Ponesse arrived at 8:06pm on March 29th, 2010. He was 36 weeks and 5 days, technically two days premature. However, Justin weighed in at 7lbs 12 oz. That makes him heavier than Luke's 7 lbs 11 oz and Michael's 7lbs 10oz! He was 19.5 inches long. He has a full head of BLONDE hair! We've had lots of wonderful visitors, but we can't wait to get home later today. Extra special love and thanks to Ali who came to take care of Luke and Michael. Here are some pics, the collage is care of Alyssa.

Zoo

Beautiful weather for the zoo yesterday. Too bad my stamina is non-existent these days, so we made it a pretty short trip. The boys saw their beloved snakes, manatees and bats, though.

A Nursery

We finally got the nursery done. Justin's getting the same Classic Pooh decor as the other boys did, but at least he got a fresh coat of paint, a spruced up changing table and a new guardian angel care of Poppy and Nan.

How to read a story. . .

Yes, this looks like the three-headed monster I posted a while back. Perhaps a bit cuddlier--nothing like snuggling while daddy reads about Komodo Dragons.

Justin wears pink . . .

. . . for the first and probably last time!

Alyssa turned my belly into an Easter Egg today. It was totally awesome. And we had a great playdate at Ali's. I think we were there almost 6 hours. It's amazing how well all the kids do together now that they're getting older.

Daddy goes to school

Matt's on spring break this week and so he visited Luke's class today for "parent sharing." Matt talked about his violin and then he played songs for everyone. Luke helped out by showing his violin and playing along with Matt. The kids sang and danced to the music. Matt was so great with the kids and all of the teachers kept asking me if he was a music teacher. Everyone really seemed to enjoy it.

Congratulations, Matt!

I can't believe we've been in Ohio for almost six years! This morning, we finally got the news we've been waiting for. Matt's been granted tenure and has been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor. Yaaaay! I guess that means we get to stay in Columbus. Woo hoo!

PJ Day

Today was Luke's pajama party at school. It's actually my least favorite day of the year because, on top of the usual stuff, we have to lug the sleeping bag, pillow and stuffed animals to school, too. But Luke loves it. Here he is with his friend, Sahar, showing off his Spiderman jammies.

Downtime

We've been telling Michael that when he turns three next month, it's time to give up the bottle. Until then he is, literally, milking his bottle and monkey time for all it's worth.

Saint Joseph's Soup

Matt went to an academic conference that was held at a Benedictine monastery in Missouri over the weekend. He came home with this cookbook written by a monk for me. Tonight we made St. Joseph's Soup. It was really good, although the recipe called for tomatoes which I'm pretty sure St. Joseph never ate since they are a New World food. I don't know why we don't make more soup. It's so easy and the kids really like it, so now we've decided to make a new soup each week. Upcoming recipes include St. Scholastica's Soup, St. Anthony's Soup and St. Lobia's Beer and Mushroom Soup.