Announcing. . .

Lila Adele Bingham
Born May 18, 2009
Wt. 6 lbs. 11 oz.
Ht. 18 1/2 inches

Because Celeste asked....

If you have tuned in here for my political thoughts and musings, or to hear which shows I recommend you watch, I cannot help you. (Though for the record, did you see Glee? So fantastic!) For the next several posts, this blog will be nothing but pictures of my daughter. Deal with it.

Here is Lila in her "Aging Hollywood starlet" headband, and a shirt that says "I want lots of kisses," because well, she does. She doesn't have much going on in the hair department, so we like to make her wear bows and headbands whenever possible. She is extremely mellow and good natured, which is like raising an alien for Amy and I. We find ourselves asking "Why doesn't she scream for hours every night?" and "How come after she is done eating, she just drifts happily back to sleep without incessant rocking and bouncing?" I used to believe "good" babies were a myth, like the loch ness monster or Tyra Banks, but she is indeed a good baby.

Jonah and Noel actually seem to like her. Scratch that...Jonah likes her. Noel tolerates her. He is curious where she is most of the time, like she might be playing the Wii without his permission or something. But if she cries he leaves the room and closes the door. We don't judge, because who doesn't want to do that? But really, Jonah and Noel are old news. Back to Lila!!

She is super peanut-y. As in, she sleeps curled up in a scrunchy little ball, like a peanut. Don't believe me? Here she is again:
When you put her on your shoulder to burp here, it is like burping an roll of socks. C'mon! How cute is that peanut!

She is also long and skinny. Like this:
In this photo, she is trying to nurse my hand, which for the record, did not work. She was mad and hungry and naked, and we were busy taking pictures instead of dressing her and feeding her. It was for our "Parents of the Year" application. She was happier later in a soft cuddly gown.
And speaking of parents of the year, Jonah broke his elbow.
He fell off the trampoline. And cried a lot. And I told him to suck it up. And then he kept crying, so we took him to urgent care where they x-rayed him and said he was fine. And so I spent the whole next day trying to convince him to just move his arm because it would feel better if he moved it around and played with it, even though he insisted it still hurt. And then the urgent care called back later that day to say that they had re-looked at his films and his arm was broken and we needed to bring him in to get it splinted. And I felt bad for being such a Jerk Dad. But really - who are these doctors who go to years of medical school and then go to work in the urgent care? Are they real doctors? Or did they get their degree from that school Sally Struthers hocks on TV? ("You can major in business management, or in accounting.") So maybe I shouldn't blame me, but should blame the hack doctors.

That's all for tonight. Stay tuned...we went shopping today so we have some new outfits we need pictures of.

At Last

After much drama involving a group of Labor and Delivery Nurses holding our lives hostage in their hands and laughing maniacally (I'll spare you the gory details) we made it to the hospital and had ourselves a baby.

Lila arrived at 1:10am this morning weighing in 6lbs 11oz and stretching to an enormous 18in in height. She's a little peanut. She might actually wear size 3 months baby clothes for more than 6 days (which is what our boys did.)
Amy was a champ. Active labor lasted about 4 minutes. I however, almost fainted. Twice. (Once during the epidural, and once during delivery.) Seriously? Why did Amy getting an epidural almost make me faint? I wasn't even watching.
After being bright eyed and wide awake (but not at all fussy) until we gave her to the nurse at 4am, she came back to us this morning bundled up and sleepy. Yeah for those Labor and Delivery nurses, whom now we love.

PS. I hope you sang the title of this post like Etta James. At laaaaast.
PPS. Amy is not here to proofread, so if I used the wrong "there" or put an apostrophe where it shouldn't be, my apologies. Eric - can you help a brother out?

Standing by...

Only 8 more hours to go. Can't wait to meet you, Lila.

Books...and zombies

For those of you who have been following along with this blog for a while now, you probably found yourself wondering, "Isn't it almost time for Bingham Book Day?" Well, you are right. It is.

If you are wondering, Bingham Book Day is a holiday we invented as an excuse to buy new books. We celebrate on May 5th, because it is easy to remember (the first several years of your marriage we could never remember which day was BBD) and because we are not Mexican and we don't drink margaritas. (Or spell margaritas...is that possibly correct?) Every year, we go to the book store, everyone gets to get WHATEVER book they want (even if it is annoying) and then we go to lunch. Last year was a lovely adventure, riding Portland's light rail to Powell's Books downtown and eating in the city. This year, since we (read: Amy) are moments away from giving birth and we know the local geography a little better, we went to the Powell's books that is 10 min from our house, and next to a 5 Guys. Clever.

It was so PAINFUL for the children to have to stand on those posts for a picture. There was much whining and yelling.

After the shopping, however, there was much sitting on benches and reading...Nice.

Then off to 5 Guys. Have you been here? If you answered "No" then what is wrong with you? In and Out can suck it, if you ask me. Their fries taste like fried paper. 5 Guys fries are the stuff that dreams are made of.

The waiting is the toughest part...but it is so worth it.

Doesn't that look good? And mind you, that is about 2/3rds of the fries. They dump an extra scoop in your bag. And they are toasty and crispy and have lost of those little overcooked fry bits in the bag. They're delightful. Possibly even de-Randolph.

Here is what we scored:
Amy got

Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs. A little light hearted and trashy, perhaps, but are you really going to read Anna Karenina from your hospital bed?

For me:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, because I love me some Zombies. His next book is going to be called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer. I love this man. I fell like this will really flesh out (no pun intended) my zombie apocalypse survival skills.

For Jonah:

and

Some surprisingly literary choices. Every year so far Jonah has picked some picture dictionary about trucks or dinosaurs. So these choices I like. We can actually read these at bedtime, which you cannot do with a picture dictionary. If you come to my house around story time, you will likely hear me yelling across the house "No picture dictionaries!" as the kids run to their rooms to choose books.

Noel, on the other hand:

and

I thought we owned every I Spy book on God's green earth, but no. We do not yet have I Spy: Little Bunnies until today. Swing is one of those animated books that I have to restrain myself from cutting apart to see how it works. And yes, I did say that everyone gets one book, but when your kids are begging for two books, can you really say "No?"

And for little Lila

which we apparently do not own. Crazy, I know. And no, she is not born yet. But wouldn't you be mad if you were just born and you found you had missed the book buying holiday by a week? Not fair.

Here's all the loot together:

The strawberries are from the Beaverton Farmer's market and the bread is Caramel Apple Bread from Bungalow Bread, also at the Beaverton Farmer's market. They were not farmer's. Just bread makers, but they let them in anyway, and thank goodness that they did.

Happy Book Day!

Jealous?

In case you had forgotten that this blog is really me raving about how much I love Oregon, I thought today I would rave about how much I love Oregon.

A couple of Saturday's ago, we took a drive down to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm for the annual Tulip Festival. And this is what awaited us:
Are you kidding me? It was amazing. And it was one of those sunny and warm spring days that is perfect for traipsing through the tulips.

Allegedly, we grow tulips here as cash crops. And by "we" I mean "Oregonians" not my family. Much like we grow Christmas Trees and berries. So if you are eating berries and looking at the window at tulips in your garden, they may have come from my neck of the woods.

Just in case you missed it the first time:
Our kids were much more interested in climbing around on rusty antique farm equipment because they are boys.
We did force them to pose for a couple of shots for the Grandmas:And my personal fave:
Their favorite part was being dragged around in some rusty barrels painted to look like farm animals behind a tractor.
This thing went FAST and there were no seat belts and it did a lot of swerving and circling through the tulip fields. I refrained from commenting on the lack of safety of the whole enterprise, but mostly because I was trying not to draw attention to myself. Seriously...Fat guy in a little cow.

So after some tire-swinging
Duck racing:

And family tram riding,
we headed home. Jealous?

May Showers

I was going to post about the baby shower that Amy just had, hosted by our loverly friend, Chanel. Then I discovered in addition to hosting the shower, Chanel has already posted a lovely recap - with pictures.

Please do enjoy: here.