Leland Richard Marquess

We are welcoming Leland Richard to the family. He was born last night at 9:26pm and weighed in at an enormous nine pounds six ounces and 21 inches long! We started at home with the Midwives, but ended up at the hospital as he didn't want to come out. He was facing backwards and had a bit of cord wrapped around his shoulder so the Midwives decided to transfer us up to the hospital in case we needed assistance. Of course the jostle of pushing labor in the car and walking into the hospital worked the baby around. Alissa had natural childbirth within ten minutes of entering the hospital. The Doctor arrived in time to pull the shoulders out. Healthy baby and mama. We were discharged this morning at 11am. Feel free to call - if we don't answer we are sleeping and will get back to you. Visitors, please give us until Wednesday, thanks.

A sidenote here - I guessed the date of birth to the day and Alissa owes me a Lemon Meringue Pie!

Photo Album http://picasaweb.google.com/TheLissybug/LelandRichardMarquess?authkey=7CJ3mpuMRKE

Man Nesting

O.K. - It is not exactly cuddly blankets, a new crib, or stuffed animals, but its Man Nesting. I have been doing some drywall (with Scott assistance), ripping out nasty flooring, running some electrical, and sealing the floor. Throw in a little mess and its enough to throw a woman into labor - or not. No baby (as evidenced by the photo of Alissa sewing), but everything looks good according to the Midwives when they visited last night. Maybe the newest Marquess tomorrow.....

Yes, we have no baby.

The baby was due July 2nd. Yes we have no baby. At least we are having beer pancakes made with stout this morning. If Alissa gets any bigger, she won't fit in the kitchen!

The Beer Garden

Uncle Rob and Jill were over and took many photos last weekend as we grilled skewers, brewed Alissa's After Baby Porter, and sampled the finished beers from the past several months. James even helped by adding the hops to the brew kettle (those are hops in the sock he is smelling and running around with). James also spent a fair amount of time helping the dogs get dirty... as if they needed help.

Album http://picasaweb.google.com/TheLissybug/BrewingWeekend?authkey=SrS0XKmk6bQ

No baby yet.....

Doing the photo thing.

I am testing my ability to put a photo and a link to an album. Here is a photo of James and I in the Model A with his special seat.

Hit the link to see the album: http://picasaweb.google.com/TheLissybug/MichaelSTestAlbum?authkey=-M5oepvT7oI

Baby photos will be posted when the little rascal makes an appearance. Bets on August anyone?

MM

No Baby Yet!

But while we wait here's a picture from exactly 1 week ago. I stick straight out and James thinks it's very funny that he can see the bottom of my belly most of the time.

Busy with scissors

I thought it was a bit TOO quiet

Do not attempt to adjust your screen...

Michael here. I am learning to use this new-fangled blog thingy so when the time comes, I can post a few pictures and comments on the new baby. Bear with me as I try a few posts and then some photos in the coming days.

Elizabeth and James

Sandbox Fun

Michael made James a great sandbox. You can see Jamie's latest haircut in that last photo- he's looking SO grown up to me!

Quick update

No pictures right now, just a quick update. I've been sick for what feels like ages now. Finally feeling a bit better today. James also has been sick and has had a runny nose (yuck) for almost a month! However, he had his two year check up last week and the doctor said he was fine.

We've just been hanging around home this weekend. Even though I was a coughing mess yesterday (my birthday) Michael managed to make it a nice day for me- bringing me presents on the couch,and letting me rest. James had fun "helping" him in the garage. I'll have to post pictures soon of those two with their new haircuts, they match.

Shots at breakfast

James loving the creamers

A new discovery

I can post from my cell phone! OK- the quality of picture isn't ideal, but I'm very excited to be able to post pictures I take with my phone from anywhere.

The dirt bug

Birthday Boy and Easter!

For the full Album click HERE.
And to see a short video click HERE.
We had a relaxing and fun day yesterday. James & Michael slept in while mama easter bunny got to work hiding eggs. When James woke up he got to choose his own outfit- very stylish.

He loved hunting for eggs so much that at the end Micheal and I started stealing eggs from his basket and re-hiding them.

After egg hunting he got to read stories with Papa, go to the grocery store, and (finally) dye easter eggs. (We'd hidded plastic ones in the morning.) He liked dyeing eggs, but I thin Micheal and I were actually more excited about it than he was.
After his nap family started showing up for his birthday party. Cliff and Zoe hid eggs again for him, which he loved. We had ham, potatoes and greenbean casserole. Birthday cake was homebaked chocolate with dark cherries. Yum.
He was willing to come inside to eat dinner and cake. He got through opening about two presents when he found the pinwheel from Grammy & Pop Pop and really just wanted to take that outside. Then he got a wheelbarrow type toy, and forget it- he had to take that outside to play with it.

Overall it was a really great day. I think Jamie would agree.

Carribean Photos Part 2

Here are a few black and white Michael took. I've loaded the rest of them into our Picasa web album.

Home From the Carribean Part 1

The West Indies

Our Crew: Mark (Skipper) Jaques (Cabin Boy- hee hee hee-actually also a skipper) Karin, Joan, Scott, Elizabeth, Zoe, Cliff, Alissa, Michael & James. So nine adults. When we left Jaques' family came aboard and they had a total of 14!

Our Route: (To the best of my recollection!)Flew into St. Vincent where we picked up the boat, got provisions ( Veggies and fruits from the crazy local market where we were glad we had a guide who knew what things were and what they should cost!) From St. Vincent we island hopped all the way down to Grenada-

St.Vincent, 1 night- near Kingstown

Bequia, 3 nights- 2 at Admiralty Bay, 1 at Friendship Bay
Mustique, 1 night- This is a private island developed for the rich and famous- rather a strange place to visit because of this.

Canouan, 1 night- Where we found our geocache

Mayreau, 1 night- Salt Whistle Bay
Tabago Cays, 2 nights- Fabulous snorkeling
Petite St.Vincent, 1 night- had a great breakfast on Petite Martinique. The restaurant sent a boat taxi to our anchorage by Petite St. Vincent.
Carriacou, 2 nights-Hillsborough
Sandy Island, 1 (rolly wavy)night

Grenada, 3 nights- Prickly Bay

We had a great trip to the West Indies. This is part 1 because Michael will be posting some of his photos once he gets them scanned. He had a great time shooting with his medium format camera and got some neat black and whites. I on the other hand had my little digital which suits me just fine. We discover (thankfully) that neither of us seems too prone to sea sickness, and that sailing puts James to sleep. One of the highlights was the Tabago Cays where Alissa got to go snorkeling with Sea Turtles, and we saw Iguanas on one of the islands! On the island of Carriacou we went on a tour with a guide who was very knowledgeable about the plants and animals on the island. He told us their native cure for Asthma: Pour coconut milk into a glass. Catch a lizard from a tree (not the ground, as they will be too small) Drop the lizard into the cup and let it struggle for its life for about 10 minutes. Remove the lizard and let it go. Drink the Coconut milk. He says the lizard releases adrenaline into the milk. We dubbed this the lizard torture cure. On Grenada the people were friendly and we got to see a waterfall, a crater lake, and a rum distillery where they rum is made much the same way it was made 300 years ago- very neat.

PHOTOS Here are a few, if you'd like to see more click here.

James dries off with his aunt Zo Zo after his first time going swimming in his life jacket. This is Admiralty Bay off of Bequia- we could swim to the beach from our boat.

Mark and Karin in the Double Down's cockpit. This catamaran's owners live in Nevada, so on the back of the boat they had painted their home port as Las Vegas, NV- not sure how the Cat sailed here from the sandy deserts.

James and Michael on Jamesby Island in the Tabago Cays. The island you see in the background is the one where they filmed the deserted island scene in Pirates of the Carribean. We got to go explore it too, and found a ton of hermit crabs feasting on coconuts.

Alissa on Jamesby island- this was just a tiny island that we took our dinghy to from the boat. We saw Iguanas lounging in the rocks here, and hiked to the top for a great view of the surrounding islands and reefs. On our tour of Canouan we visited the Hospital for this view. The cannons were put there in the '40s simply for decoration, though there was at one point a fort on a different part of the island. The Hospital is way up here because it was originally built during a Malaria out break and this way the patients could be easily quaratined.

Beach bum bum!

Going home- I think we were all as tired as James, just didn't have laps to crash on.

Papa-wave

This picture's a bit late, but here's how our house looked for the holidays. We were pleased with it!

We've been getting snow and cold weather. Thankfully, our woodstove is working great to keep us warm in this relatively uninsulated house. Today was finally warmer and James and I went for a walk down town, and got new books at the library.

The reason for this post title-

Today I told James I was going to put some food in the micro-wave. He looked at me hopefully and said, "Michael-wave?" Then he changed it to, "Papa-wave, Papa-wave!"