Krees goes Dutch!

First Days

Has it been almost a week already? Time flies!

We're doing well, especially with Charles still home and the kraamzorg help during the day. Tuesday may be an adventure when she's gone and Charles (I assume) will be back at work.

Regardless, we've had a great week with Torsten at home with us. I think he sleeps more and cries less than Aldus did. Score! Most importantly, he eats well and is healthy and strong. And beautiful. And sweet. Yeah, I like him.

Aldus likes Torsten, too. He very much wants to touch him and give hugs and kisses. But he's also having a rough time because of all these new rules like not touching the baby when I'm nursing, not pulling on the carrycot of the stroller when Torsten is in it, etc. It's not easy to be two with a new baby in the house.

Yesterday I was feeing great, both pysically and emotionally. The engorgement started to subside, I had energy, etc. This morning I'm a physical wreck. Fortunately, my emotions are still good. Coffee helps. But I'm going to spend the day trying to do almost nothing physical so that I can rest up. I know how susceptible I am emotionally to my physical well-being.

Here are a few pics from our first few days:

Me in labor. Thank goodness Charles took this photo right away because I was like this for less than 10 minutes before I needed to start pushing!

Some people thought Charles didn't look so good in the photo we emailed to everyone. Ha ha! Stress will do that to you. But have you every seen a more proud father?

Aldus likes to see Torsten first thing when he (Aldus) first gets up in the morning and whenever he comes home from the babysitter's or peuterclub.

Torsten's first outing to the playground behind our house. (And a coffee for me!)

Ahhhh....lekker slapen!

Introducing Torsten Jinsup Yun

Just to spite me for saying that I didn't think he would come on his due date, Baby #2 made a valiant last ditch effort Sunday. Sporadic, mild contractions in the afternoon and evening were followed by my water breaking around 10:40pm. Nothing for a half-hour, then quicker, stronger contractions over the next hour, and we rushed off to the babysitter's and the hospital.

After 15 minutes of evaluation by the midwives and 5 minutes of pushing, we were blessed with another boy!

Torsten Jinsup Yun
Born 1:33am on Monday 22 June
3.81 kg / 8 lbs 6 oz
Lots of black hair and a Yun nose!

Torsten was my grandfather Palmquist's name (changed to Thomas when he immigrated from Sweden). Jinsup is made up of "Jin" (진/眞) meaning truth, faithfulness or real, and "Sup" (섭/燮), the generational family name he shares with his brother and cousins, meaning harmony or flame.

We're all doing great, Aldus and Maui included. More photos and updates to come.

Editor's note: Bad Umma! I got my Chinese characters mixed up in the original post. They've been updated to reflect the correct syllables. I will blame sleep deprivation.

Due Date 2009!

It's 21 June, my estimated due date, and the baby's not here. This is no surprise. Aldus was five days later than his estimated due date, and when we met with the doctor last week he thought that this baby would also be late. Apparently I make too good of a host for the baby to be in much of a hurry to come out.

That's okay with me. Aside from being more and more tired every day, I feel fine.

So with pretty much all of the cleaning done and a couple meals already prepped, we're spending a relatively lazy Father's Day weekend around the house. Charles takes Aldus outside for bike rides and playing on the playground between frequent rainbursts, and I'm pretty much trying to do as little possible. We'll just keep on waiting.

p.s. Charles must love me. He downloaded Top Gun to play on my iPod when we go to the hospital. Nothing like a little mindless entertainment to pass the time!

Four months in the making (for the one nine months in the making)

I finished the blanket before the baby arrived!

For the curious knitters, the pattern is the Garter Stitch Blanket from Baby Knits for Beginners by Debbie Bliss. I used Rowan Handknit DK Cotton yarn in 203 (pink), 239 (blue), 253 (taupe), 301 (green) and 334 (purple). Some of those colors have been discontinued but may still be available on yarn store shelves or online. The 72 squares, all in garter stitch, knit up super fast on a pair of size 8 Addy Turbos, but the piecing together took a while.

I hope the baby takes to this better than Aldus took to the Big Bad Baby Blanket.

Playing catch-up

Grandma P. is complaining that I haven't updated the blog lately. This may satiate her for about five minutes. (Who am I kidding? She's going to look at these pics every day if she doesn't print them out. And, with the exception of the last, they really are cute enough to print. And of course neither of us are biased.)

Charles and I took Aldus to the Amsterdamse Bos (Amsterdam Forest) last weekend. The weather was gorgeous, and Aldus tried on my sunglasses. Turns out they fit! His head is just about as wide as my own. Yup, he's a Yun. :)

The grocery store actually got some tasty, ripe nectarines this week! Aldus hasn't had nectarines since last year and he seems to like them as much as I do.

I don't think he likes nectarines as much as he likes the playground slide, though.

But he is quite a fan of the skelter pedal kart that he calls a tractor.

And last but not least, our new (used) car! This car is so much nicer than our last one: power windows in front and back, remote keyless entry, A/C, fan speeds other than off and full-blast, cruise control and a back-up camera! It seems so nice that we might actually have to act like adult car owners and wash it, vacuum it and give it oil changes more often than twice a year.

I'm still itching to mount the hula girl on the dash, though.