Brightwood Lights

March’s insanely mild weather allowed us to get outdoors quite a bit. Maria took her first trips to anywhere besides Peachtree City.

Early in the month, we did a family “hiking” day at Fort Yargo State Park. It was really fun and refreshing, and about the level of “hiking” we can manage at this point in our family life. Which essentially consisted of about 2.5 hours of walking, playing, picnicking, and walking some more.

Simona was mostly interested in going UP. . .

. . . while Andreas was interested in what was DOWN on the ground. (Pine straw was especially fascinating.)

After that, we headed to nearby Athens, home of the University of Georgia, to stroll around the town and even eat at a restaurant- a rare and risky experience for our little family! Fortunately, everyone (mostly) behaved themselves.

Maria also traveled out of state for the first time in March. . . more on that to come!

While some of you may have heard bits and pieces of this story already, please consider those tidbits to be pure speculation, conjecture, and rumor.  Here is the official account of the events leading up to Maria Joy’s arrival (times are exact unless otherwise noted) …

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

8.25 pm (approximately): Caleb and Simona call Grandpa Brenneman so Simona can sing her rendition of “Happy Birthday.”  After catching up for a bit, Caleb and Grandpa have a good chuckle about how quickly the baby would need to come in order to still arrive on his birthday.  If they only knew  …

Thursday, December 9

1.30 pm: Nancy attends a routine weekly appointment with the OBGYN as she approaches the end of her 40th week of pregnancy.  After waiting the obligatory hour and fifteen minutes for her 10-minute appointment, she is seen by the doctor.  The doctor insists that she schedule next week’s appointment for Tuesday so we can discuss an induction if the baby has not yet arrived.

This strikes Nancy as a bit over-eager, since her due date is Saturday, December 11, and Tuesday will only be 72 hours “overdue”, so to speak.

3.05 pm: Nancy arrives home just as Caleb presses “Send” to submit his last final of the semester.  Caleb is glad the baby has held off this long.

11.00 pm (approximately): Nancy and Caleb turn the lights out for the night.  Nancy mentally wills the baby to come so that she will not have to face an induction next week.  We’ve always known Nancy is “strong-willed” …

Friday, December 10

3.37 am: Nancy wakes up with a mild contraction.  She gets out of bed, walks around the apartment for a few minutes, and packs some cookies baked earlier last night into a tupperware container.  No more contractions seem to be coming.

3.47 am: Nancy returns to bed.

4.23 am: Nancy wakes again with a contraction that is somewhat painful.  She gets up and walks around the apartment for a few more minutes and starts to get the final things together for the hospital.  Contractions now seem to be coming regularly and with increasing intensity, so she decides to wake Caleb.

4.34 am: Nancy wakes Caleb and says it is time.  Asked how far apart the contractions are, Nancy says, “About four minutes,” without really knowing for sure.  Four minutes freaks Caleb out a bit.  Think about how much more he would have been freaked out if he had known the real answer was “two minutes.”

4.36 am: Caleb calls the doctor and is on hold for two minutes before the answering service picks up.  Oh those precious two minutes …  The answering service says the on-call doctor will call us back soon.  I guess that depends on your definition of soon …

4.40 am: Caleb speaks with Nancy’s mom, Pat, and tells her we are going to the hospital.  Pat is coming to be home with Simona and Andreas.  She says she will be out the door in 10 minutes (with a 40 minute drive ahead of her).

4.41 am: Next, Caleb calls Laryn, a good friend from DC.  Laryn and Janel moved to Atlanta from DC this summer and live across the courtyard in the same apartment complex.  They’ve agreed to be on-call to watch the kids if we need a stop-gap before one of Nancy’s parents can be here.  Something in Caleb’s voice tells Laryn that they need him ASAP, so he doesn’t even bother to change out of his PJ’s.

4.47 am: Caleb and Nancy pass Laryn on the stairs on their way out of the building, and Laryn wishes them good luck.  Nancy has a major contraction in the courtyard while Caleb puts the things in the car, gets it started, and pulls it around.

4.51 am: The mad-dash drive to Atlanta Medical Center begins.  There are eight stoplights between our apartment and the hospital.  All eight are red.  Caleb runs every one of them.  Nancy is yelling (to herself), “Don’t push!  Don’t push!”  Caleb drives faster.

4.56 am: After going around to the wrong side of the building for the off-hours entrance, we park right in front of the Emergency Room doors.  Caleb overhears the security guard radioing for another security officer to bring a wheelchair.

4.57 am: The wheelchair is arriving as Caleb and Nancy enter the emergency waiting area.  The guard from the door asks Caleb if he can move the car over to the lane farthest from the entrance.  Caleb drops the things in the waiting area and waves to Nancy to go ahead.

4.58 am: Caleb dashes back inside, retrieves the bag from the waiting room floor and heads for the elevator.  Nancy and her security guard escort have already made their way to the 7th floor.  The elevator seems to take forEVER.

5.00 am: Nancy, being wheeled down the corridor by the security guard, has an incredibly hard contraction.  She cannot resist the urge to push any longer, and decides it will be OK to just give one push since they are almost there.  Then she feels something coming.  She reaches down, lowers her McIntosh cross country sweat pants, and cradles her newborn baby.  The security guard stops in his tracks, not sure of what to do, and the nurses from the nearby nurse’s station jump up to assist.

5.00 am: Caleb arrives on the 7th floor, reads the directional sign, and heads left for Labor and Delivery.  He hears a baby crying, and thinks it strange to hear that sound before being inside the L&D double-doors.  Then he sees some blood on the floor and a lot of commotion at the nurses’ station ahead.

Caleb comes around the corner to see Nancy sitting in a wheelchair, holding a baby.  With a slightly bewildered look, Nancy says, “Our baby is here!”  Caleb does not remember what he said (if anything) … he does remember the security guard saying only “Congratulations …” as he excused himself as quickly as possible.

Epilogue: after a few more minutes, we were escorted to an actual labor and delivery room.  The midwife on duty showed up shortly and checked everyone over.  Everyone was well – stunned, but well.  Caleb and Nancy found it a bit ironic that one of the forms they were asked to sign about an hour later was a “Consent for Vaginal Birth”.  Fantastic.

So, in summary, a few key stats:

26: Minutes between Caleb waking up and Maria being born

At least 3: Security guards who got a good laugh at their colleague’s expense

8: Red lights run on the way to the hospital

1: Times Nancy pushed

Still counting: Minutes until the doctor called back

27: Minutes between birth and being offered a smashed PBJ sandwich and a bag of Lay’s chips (yum)

Either 85 or 400: Interstate where Maria would have been born if we were going to Northside Hospital, where Nancy was initially scheduled to deliver.

5: Times Nancy has been asked “So YOU’RE the one who delivered in the wheelchair?”

1: Precious addition to our family with a great story to go along

KK, the youngest of the sisters, and Mike were the last to be married in the “great year of weddings.” Their wedding took place in the Finger Lakes region of New York on September 25, 2010.

Festivities to celebrate KK’s big day officially began on home turf, though: Her bridal shower and bachelorette weekend took place here in Georgia. Since I’m currently back to being a Georgia Peach, I was the lucky one who didn’t have to travel this time!

The shower was down in Peachtree City, so the night before, we had an old-school family dinner- Mom, Dad, and 3 of the 4 sisters! I don’t know when the last time was we all sat in our “assigned seats” and ate mom’s cooking without any spouses/friends/kids/others at the table. It was just too bad Janice couldn’t be there. . . then again, Oregon is a long way from Georgia. . .

. . . Little did KK know, though, that Janice actually WAS en route to surprise her and attend the festivities. She arrived on Saturday morning while KK was “out and about” with bridesmaid Anamanda.

The surprise!

The shower was beautiful, and KK opened great gifts, including one that was bound to please Mike:

Next, the party pared down to the “bachelorette” crew, who completed a fun video scavenger hunt before heading up to Atlanta for a night of good food and fun.

Matron of honor Linda had arranged for a great dinner, dessert, and night in a beautiful hotel with a rooftop pool in Midtown.

The next three weeks flew by, and before we knew it, we were all in Ithaca, NY for the big day! We stayed at the same house in Brooktondale we had rented for KK’s graduation, so it was fun to have the family mostly together. Simona and Andreas enjoyed some down time with Uromi.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the rehearsal dinner or Polterabend, which took place at Mike’s parents’ house. It was a great evening, including delicious roasted pig, a bonfire, ice cream, and, of course, the requisite plate breaking and sweeping.

The next morning, we headed up to the beautiful Aurora Inn, located on the shores of Cayuga Lake. Though the day was windy and cool with occasional raindrops, it was anything but drab. (And actually, that’s exactly my favorite kind of weather- like a good fall day along the Elbe River in Schleswig Holstein!)

The bride was beautiful, and the bright colors she had chosen contrasted beautifully with the gray sky.

The ceremony took place at a church a few doors down and was followed by a salute from KK & Mike’s crew friends. (I should also note that the groom himself rowed in a race (with his bride watching) THAT MORNING!)

(I should note that the flower girl was QUITE practiced for the event and performed marvelously, once again. She will be available as a consultant-for-hire to train any upcoming flowergirls for a reasonable fee. Please contact us if you are interested in her services!)

After that, it was back to the Aurora Inn for a night of dancing and fun.

The newlyweds honeymooned in Hawaii before settling down in their current home in Nashua, NH. We’re so happy for you, Mike & KK! Congratulations!

If you’ve kept up with the out-of-order accounts of our summer of weddings, you are surely eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series.

Wedding #3 for us was that of my older (but not bigger!) sister, Janice. She and her (now husband) Gus met in Eugene, Oregon as grad students at the University of Oregon in 2005. Gus has been an unofficial member of the family since about 2007, and we all welcomed the chance to formally induct him to the clan. Whether Gus, an only child used to small, calm family gatherings, was equally eager to join our crazy, busy family. . . well, let’s just say that he loves Janice an awful lot! We have tried to go easy on him, but you know how it can be with the ever-changing, ever-dramatic dynamics of four sisters. Especially in a year in which each of them is experiencing major life transitions. (As my uncle famously says, “Our family puts the FUN in dysfunctional!”)

In seriousness, though, we looked forward to our trip to Eugene for many reasons, not least of which was seeing Janice marry the man she loves. Linda flew to Oregon with S, A, and me, and the kids did really well on the long flight. KK had possibly the craziest schedule, graduating from her nutrition program at Vanderbilt only to fly directly to Oregon. But we enjoyed the final pre-wedding festivities, which included decorating Janice and Gus’s backyard for the “Polterabend” and having an impromptu bachelorette party in Eugene.

The Polterabend was a casual barbecue in their backyard, which was great fun. Between jet lag and tired children, our family couldn’t stay for the bonfire and late-night festivities but still enjoyed the time to catch up with friends and family.

Next, the party moved to the Eagle Rock Lodge, located on the banks of the McKenzie River in the beautiful Cascade Mountain range. Caleb and I thought we had the best room in the bed and breakfast, but so did most everyone else- that’s how beautiful the entire lodge was! In addition to fabulous rooms and gorgeous scenery, the hosts served the most amazing breakfast spread. If you ever find yourself vacationing in Oregon, we highly recommend this place! Our only regret is that we didn’t have enough time to take in the natural beauty and explore the area more.

The wedding ceremony and reception were very “Janice and Gus.”

Flamingos and gnomes have taken on special significance in their relationship and were ubiquitous, lending a very personalized touch to the festivities.

The rest of the decor was simple but beautiful.

Despite the rain, the ceremony went off without a hitch.

After family pictures, we headed to the tents for an evening of celebration.

As the matron of honor, I had to give a toast. Though public speaking is not my favorite activity, it was an honor to be able to say a few words to mark the occasion. Janice is only 14 months older than me, and we shared nearly every moment of an eventful childhood. Even though I’m the “bigger” sister, she’ll always be the older, wiser, wittier one!

More toasts, good food, and dancing rounded out the night.

The flower girl got to dance to “her” song- “Mony Mony.” She hammed it up and loved every second of it!

We’re happy for you two- welcome to the insanity family, Gus!

*Credit for most of these photos goes to my cousin Kai- Danke!

If you ever want the full-blown, all-American Halloween experience, come to Atlanta! More specifically, come to the Virginia Highlands.

For weeks, we have been hearing from other parents that the Highlands is a great place to trick-or-treat. I’d say that’s an understatement! I’ve never been to a neighborhood that puts this much effort (or money!) into the decorations, costumes, and candy. People handing out candy seemed so enthusiastic about it that I felt almost guilty if our kids skipped a few houses here or there. Folks were waiting on their porches, many of them dressed up themselves. Jack-o-lanterns were far more than a simple carved face. We literally could have spent 3-4 hours and come home with bags and bags of candy. As it was, we spent about an hour at one-year-old pace and nearly filled up two entire plastic pumpkins with goodies. . . more than enough for our little trick-or-treaters!

For our family, Halloween festivities this month included visiting a pumpkin patch with Oma and Opa a few weekends ago, complete with hayride, inflatable haunted house, petting zoo, face painting, crazy maze, and a pumpkin patch. (Most of our pictures of this were taken with a different camera and aren’t available to me right now.)

Simona and I also did a little festive arts-and-crafts project of making ghosts to hang up in the kids’ room. I’m NOT usually the crafty, creative type, so this was a bit of me trying to stretch myself. We kept it simple and both had fun.

Grandma came to town for several days last week, so we made it to a local “fall festival,” which, though not necessarily Halloween-themed, was still fun. We also carved our pumpkin while she was here.

Simona’s class had a Halloween party on Friday, but tonight was the BIG night. We ate an early dinner and got all dressed up for trick-or-treating fun. The kids wore the costumes Grandma made for them last year, with Simona dressed as an orange and white horse and Andreas dressed as a jack-o-lantern. Simona requested that Caleb dress up as a cowboy to go along with her horse, and he graciously obliged.

As you can see, there were MOBS of families going door to door.

The decorations were intense.

Some houses even handed out “treats” for the (non-pregnant) grown-ups.

Andreas got into the spirit, learning a robust vocabulary of Happy Haween!, Good Light!, Thanks!, Trick-treat, and, at one house, even, “Got it!” after he grabbed a piece of candy. The most fascinating part to him was looking at all of the candles glowing inside the jack-o-lanterns. Simona liked the variety of decorations but was surprisingly shy in her interactions with the adults.

The kids have plenty of “loot” to keep them candy-saturated for some time to come. And Caleb and I have been given strict orders from Simona NOT to eat any of her candy, but to help ourselves to Andreas’s.

Definitely a Halloween to remember.