Charlotte Mila's Birth Day - November 21, 2007

She's here! Charlotte Mila (middle name pronounced "Mee-la" after her maternal grandmother) arrived Wednesday, November 21st at 7:52 AM. She came out with "the keys already in the ignition", as the pediatrician said, with a hearty cry. She weighed 8lbs8oz, is 21.5" long, and is the sweetest little girl.


Lots of dark hair and big brown eyes




Not done on purpose, S wore the same sweatshirt and cap for our quick rush to the hospital for the births of A and C. We've named it his "lucky birthing outfit". Steve is a great birthing coach.


Pam, the awesome midwife who delivered C, and M postpartum


Vital stats


A came to the hospital later that morning.


A gets a closer look at his baby sister.


Grandmom Jean, A and C. C is Jean's 21st grandchild.




The Kretzing Four




Those cheeks!


Thanksgiving lunch in the hospital - yet another reason we asked to be discharged early. :)

Me like cookies!

Andrew's Cookie Monster imitation

Team Work

All the child development books say that young toddlers engage in "parallel play", but we found two who actually work together to get a job done: Andrew and his friend from down the street Sophie. Together they managed to bring in this toy bike from another room and entertain each other with a game of bumper cars with the radiator.

"Shodden"-freude

In an effort to do away with the soft-soled shoes and get his feet ready for winter snow boot sturdiness, we bought Andrew his first pair of hard-soled shoes. We couldn't tell if Andrew was marveling at the "clomp, clomp" sound of them or if he was questioning why we shackled him with such heavy new shoes. While it's not nice to laugh at his apparent confusion or curiosity, Steve and I did get a great laugh out of Andrew's Frankenstein-in-training gait.

Halloween 2007

This year, Andrew dressed as a spider for Halloween and was initiated into the ritual of trick-or-treating . He quickly got the hang of it, esp. when he realized people were giving him stuff, and that that stuff was candy.


Waiting for the festivities to begin


Trick-or-Treating with his ladybug friend Sophie


We ran into some neighborhood friends while out and about


We headed back home to hand out our own candy. Andrew was a great Halloween Helper placing the candy, albeit s-l-o-w-l-y, into the trick-or-treaters' bags.


On the stoop with his favorite pooch


Dancing around the pumpkins from Steve's garden