Tea Party

A couple months ago, Auntie Alicia took Kristin to Party City to get some odds and ends for the baby shower we had for Tandy. While they were there, Alicia got Kristin a Cinderella tea set. Kristin was in heaven. She plays with the set all the time, but has been extra serious about tea parties the last couple weeks. Today when we got home from Grandma's house the first thing Kristin did was spread out a blanket and get things ready for a "fancy tea."You can see that she dressed her bear up special for the occasion:Then she explained to me that she had this magic flower (which was a plastic rose that came with the set). With the flower, she could make any flavor tea we wanted. She demonstrated this by holding the plastic flower over the teapot and snorting on it. Here's Simon. He insisted on being one of the guests. His favorite thing to play with was the sugar bowl. I was kind of impressed because he seemed to understand that he needed to sit on the blanket like we were at a picnic. If you moved him, he'd go right back to sitting on the edge of the blanket like he is in the photo.Here, Kristin pours her special magically flavored tea. "Oooooooh!"Then she said she needed to take my picture with the tea cup. This is actually the second photo we took. In the first one, I didn’t have my pinkie up. “That’s not how you drink tea, Mom.” I have so much to learn.
Kristin is such a character. Takes after her mom.

Tomato Progress

Look! They're actually changing from red to green! I might really, truly end up with an edible tomato from my plants! Hooray!

Meeting the Cousin

Tandy and Korinne were released from the hospital on Monday of this week. So that evening, we brought them dinner. Joey and Kristin were SO excited to meet their new cousin! Simon fussed a bit when he realized he wasn't the center of attention, but he was fascinated by the new baby, too.



No matter how much we moved that baby around, she stayed fast asleep! It made me laugh to see her sleep with her mouth wide open like that. She even snored a little bit!

She's arrived!

Please join me in welcoming my niece Korinne Dawn Sparks! She was born via c-section on Friday August 7th at 4:30pm. She weighed 7lbs, 10oz and measured 19 inches long. We are so excited she's here!!

Tandy's labor was quite long. She started having contractions early in the morning on Thursday. She went in for a regularly scheduled appointment Thursday morning around 10am, and when they checked her they said that while she was definitely in the early stages of labor, she was only dilated to 1cm. They advised her to go home and walk a lot. Which she did! But it didn't speed up labor much. Finally, Friday morning her contractions were close enough together where they decided to admit her to the hospital. My mom, Alicia and I arrived around 9am. (HUGE thanks to my beloved husband who stayed home with the kids so I could be there to welcome my niece to the world!) We waited...and waited...and waited. Around 11am they said that the baby was showing signs of distress and they might have to do a c-section. But the baby's heart rate recovered shortly after that. So: more waiting!

Finally, Tandy was at 10cm - the pushing stage. They got everything ready, and she started pushing. Only to find out the baby's heart rate would plummet with every push. After two contractions worth, they decided a c-section was needed after all. Here's a photo of my mom talking to Tandy just before she was whisked off to the operating room. Mom was so excited! I love the look on her face. "Tandy! You're going to have a baby!"
About an hour or so later we were able to go into the recovery room to see Tandy and Korinne. Everything had gone well. Tandy, considering she'd just had major abdominal surgery, looked good. And Korinne! What a beautiful baby! Tandy was exhausted, but obviously very happy.

Look at that adorable squishy little face!

Here's a picture of me - the proud auntie!The Sparks Family!