Henry comes home - and is greeted by Pecos and Elizabeth

To much fanfare from both Elizabeth and Pecos, Henry arrived at home today at about 4 p.m. Sorry that the video is a little dark.

All is well with our little family. Henry got medical clearance today to leave the hospital. His heart is A-OK and his kidneys are still a little dilated, so he has an appointment later this week to find out how serious the situation is (no one seems to think it's very serious, but it's worth looking into).

Henry comes into the world

At 7:47 a.m. on Jan. 22, 2011, Henry Aizcorbe Ward came into the world at 6 lbs, 15 oz. Happy Birthday, little man!

Henry - The name comes from my Opa, Heinz. We figured Henry was more palatable in the US of A than Heinz ... although they do make good ketchup.

Aizcorbe (roughly: eyes-CORE-bay) - Kate's paternal grandmother's maiden name. It's Basque meaning from the town of Aizkorbe in northern Spain.

Ward - Boring truncation of Warshavsky (or Wartofsky or Wardefsky) ... a Lithuanian Jewish last name meaning "From Warsaw, with love"

Henry's arrival into the world was tame compared to Elizabeth's. Well, tame is not the right word. Easier, simpler, smoother, less worrisome ... those would all be better terms. Although I'm sure Kate will be glad to give you all a first-hand account of every detail, here's my side-by-side comparison:

Warning signs:

Elizabeth - none. Kate just went into spontaneous labor the night before Elizabeth came.

Henry - a bunch. Kate was having contractions (not intense, just little rumbles) since Wednesday night.

The Labor:
Elizabeth - 16 hours, with the last three or so particularly painful because the doctors were telling Kate to NOT push, as Elizabeth wasn't aligned correctly.

Henry - About 4.

The Delivery:

Elizabeth - Horrible. Emergency C-Section after three hours of NOT pushing, which, I'm told, is extraordinarily difficult for laboring moms. Plus, obviously, drugs.

Henry - Complication free. Kate pushed for about 35 minutes and, shamwow!, Henry popped out. No drugs.

Immediate Recovery:

Elizabeth - The C-Section was pretty traumatic for Kate, with lots of pain and limited movement. A language barrier also prevented her from getting pain meds. And the nurses were as unhelpful as nurses could be, providing little to no help in the middle of the first night for Kate, who was trying desperately to nurse.

Henry - Less pain, more movement, and helpful nurses.

Early Nursing:

Elizabeth - Try as she might, Kate and Elizabeth couldn't figure this one out for a few days, resulting in a lot of baby tea and formula consumption for Elizabeth. Lots of tears were had by both parties.

Henry - He latched successfully within the first few minutes. And then every time again he tried. Bingo, bango, booby!

So far, Henry seems to be in good health. He had a pediatrician check him out shortly after birth and we haven't heard any negative reviews yet. The baby cardiologist is coming tomorrow morning (1/23) to give his heart a better listen, but we're pretty hopeful.

More later. Time for bed!

A Brooklyn Wonderland

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We hope you all had a good Winter Solstice celebration and maybe even took the time to don your most festive apparel. We certainly did.

No baby news yet, although everyone here (including Elizabeth) thinks it'll happen soon. Here's Elizabeth's reaction to us telling her about all the attention we'll have to give Henry after he's born.

And here's us trying to make a snowmama and baby in an attempt to explain the mama-baby connection (the baby is breastfeeding on the post-partum mama).

This picture isn't as weird as it looks. Elizabeth is watching her daddy slide backwards down a hill on her snowtube while Pecos is growling at some new enemy (probably a mylar balloon stuck in a tree. Mylar balloons always give him creepy stares). That's Staten Island in the background.

I started a new New Year's Day tradition: Donuts! This is Elizabeth's "don't steal my donut" face.

Elizabeth's friend Ethan came over for donuts on New Year's Day but filled up on the much healthier clementines. Rookie mistake.

Words can't explain.

Uh, this one is a little easier. She's a mummy.

And here she's helping daddy find screws that he keeps dropping while trying to raise the crib for a newborn.

Kate put on more Christmas weight this year than most. And now Elizabeth thinks that all photoshoots include a few belly shots.

Hence this shot.

This was Elizabeth's first snowman of the season, which graced our front steps for a few days.

And this is our Elizabeth getting ready to play in a parking spot.

And here are a smattering of photos from our Winter Solstice celebration, including Elizabeth's first gingerbread house of the season (as well as her first bite of one) and her first time seeing Santa this season. Enjoy:

And here are a few shots of the NYC Transit museum.

Kate was worried about having to listen to Henry eventually complain about how his "Oh the places you'll go ... in utero" book pale in comparison to Elizabeth's. So she's been thinking of interesting places to visit ... like this museum. Just as great as the Dolomites, right?

Thanksgiving and Christmas prep

Hello and welcome back for another edition of PICTURES OF ELIZABETH ... starring Elizabeth, daddy, mama and a few other special guests.

This time on PICTURES OF ELIZABETH, we start with a file photo of super cuteness a few days after Halloween, when daddy and Elizabeth made a mini Jack-O-Lantern with a pumpkin she got at the Haunted Halloween Walk at Owl's Head Park. Which is cuter, E or the pumpkin?

We also have a somewhat dark and blurry picture of Elizabeth and daddy at the New York Aquarium. For readers out there, we have free parking and a free guest pass to this aquarium, which is located on Coney Island. So if you visit during beach season, let's hit the beach. If you visit during the off-season, let's hit the glass at the shark tank!

In bittersweet news, we traded all of Elizabeth's adorable girl's clothes (three big boxes) for adorable boy's clothes. It was sad to see such cute and barely worn apparel go away but now we have baby boy clothes for Henry. Sniffle sniffle, hooray.
Good thing Perez Hilton doesn't read this blog or he'd lambast the hell out of this starlet's picture.
One of the guest stars on PICTURES OF ELIZABETH today is Pecos (pronounced "DOH-dohsh") in his new bed with blanket attached. I think they should invent this for humans.

In keeping with our love of all things free, here we are at the National Zoo, where Elizabeth saw an anteater and then rode a very cold metal version of one.

Elizabeth likes to stare when she kisses. Let's hope she drops this tendency by high school.

Thanksgiving dinner was a little less formal this year. Go ahead, wear a Nationals T-shirt and eat with your hands. It's family.

A cute photo starring Elizabeth's Pittsburgh-based namesake who stopped by for a visit.

The rice gobbler missed her mouth a few times but managed to get one grain to stay on each cheek.
Festive photos in Elizabeth's Christmas dress...and hat. Here she's trying to curtsy.
Here Elizabeth is actually furiously shaking her bell ... but because of the magic of a fast shutter and a flash, it looks like she's posing.
There are some nutty people out there ... and most of the Christmas nuts move to our neighboring neighborhood, Dyker Heights.

Pictures from the last month or so

As the title implies, here are a smattering of pictures from the last month, many of which make it seem like Elizabeth eats nothing but junk, which is mostly true.

Our new apartment (pre-furniture):
Elizabeth copying daddy shaving (with a comb):
E and daddy in Central Park (she's getting very good at the fake smile):
Enjoying a blueberry puff:
E on a bouncer at the Third Ave. Festival:

E on her 2nd birthday. This was the the first of two celebrations:

E a few days after her 2nd birthday, during the second celebration. Yes, that's a panda cake and it was delicious:

E and mama at the Bronx Zoo for "Boo at the Zoo" ... she was dressed as the Itsy Bitsy Spider and was trying to engage the other spiders there in conversation:

Boo at the Zoo part II ... the hay maze:
The spider finds her web at Boo at the Zoo:
Waiting for the bus on Halloween. We went to a Haunted Halloween Walk at a nearby park:
Free pumpkins at the Haunted Halloween Walk:
Chocolate-coated candied apples at the Haunted Halloween Walk:
Hot (warm) apple cider:

Jack-O-Lantern carving. Normally her hands weren't as close to the blade as this:

The result:
E's first Trick-or-Treating experience. They weren't home (or they were so scared by the massive spider on their stoop that they didn't answer the door):

Trick-or-Treating success!:
Elizabeth would have rang door bells all night. We stopped at six or seven:

E had a dull glaze to her eyes after her fourth tootsie roll: