Viste?

One of my friends is an amazing photographer and one of my other friends has a pretty cute baby...

What do ya know?

This Is Halloween.

This costume cracked me up. When we tried it on I couldn't stop laughing. I dunno. the idea of a baldish baby wearing hair was too amusing.

Anyway. We had a Halloween Party in honor of Uschi's baby blessing on Sunday.

We had lots of neat friends and family come out to consume fatty goodness and beat monster piñatas to a pulp.



It was good and necessary.

Radar liked it. Especially since he got to dress up as a banana.

The End.

Cutest Baby Ever

Sorry world. I know you're jealous.

She likes to mimmick lately. Here she is looking at me and cooing.

Her favorite thing to do is stick her tongue out.


Uschi's also been smiling a whole lot lately. Sooo cute.

Halloween for Weenies (Guest Post by Aunty Adri)

Yesterday we had a fabulous Halloween party at the Gimbel abode, filled with Wookies, Leah's and Obi Wan's with sneakers. I won't bore you with all the details. No body wants to read about those anyways... I'll just let all the pictures speak speak for us. Sufficient to say, we all had a glorious time and ate far more candy than a human stomach can handle.

But I must tell you the best part of the festivities (or at least the most memorable) had to do with Bobbing for Donuts. Strung across the large, low hanging branch/trunk of the Gimbel's tree in the front yard were a dozen or so donuts at various mouth heights. When the judge yelled go, all the children, and a few adults attacked the circular nuggets of sugary joy. It was quite hilarious and a bit awkward to watch. The result of the competition? David finished first. Rachel got donut stuck in her braces. And Edward ate 2 donuts.

Pictograms from Babyland!

So my sister and her husband and her professional cutie Nora were all in San Franciso last week. We visited.



This was the very first time that Uschi got to meet a Gimbel/McKean relative so it was a pretty big deal. Look how excited she is!



Meridth and I picked out an obligatory gift for my neice -- she super loved it. Anything involving wooden hammers and I'm on-board.


Anyway, more pics!





In this pic, Nora is showing off her HUGE biceps while Uschi looks on, well impressed.




The start of a real smash-up hug. Too bad Uschi's not quite ready for prime-time.




One of these things is not like the other...





These are from this morning before church. I caught her mid-yawn, but I was thinking it looked more punkrawk.




Uschi's not a big fan of my non-shaving long weekends by about day three.




Finally, what with the baby's colic-y temperament, we're always looking for new ways to hold her -- ways that will either minimize or maximize pressure on her gas-filled innards.

Cheers! Go ahead! Leave a comment! Tell us how cute our baby is! I DARE you!

Exhibit A

One of my friends noticed that when I get excited I always seem to talk about wetting myself. Well, I have to say that it is pant wetting time. As Natalie mentioned below, yesterday little Uschi was working hard on her tummy time. For awhile now (2.5 weeks) Uschi's been able to lay on her tummy and push off my hand and basically scoot her body across the floor away from my hand. She usually just drives her head into the ground, however yesterday and today she has officially done what's called in the military a high crawl. That is, she can scoot along the floor (using my hand to propel herself) and she just started to chicken wing her arm forward to keep her body in balance and to continue moving forward. This typically starts anywhere from 6 to 10 months.

So how cool is Uschi you ask?

Answer: Very.

Happy One Month Uschi!

PS. The evidence is at the end of this video, around 53 seconds in if you want to skip me "speaking baby."

Special Guest Post

This is not Edward.

This is Natalie!

For those of you who don't know me, I've been friends with Meridth since we were freshmen in the dorm together at BYU. I'm visiting right now from the beautiful, buggy, muggy state of Maryland, and I came to meet li'l Uschi.


This is her.

And, I have to tell you, Uschi is one busy lady. She is always working on something, which shows hilariously in her face. I've never seen a newborn with so many facial expressions, although sometimes it's tricky to figure out what all her little faces mean. She has one that looks politely horrified that keeps making me giggle.

This morning, Mer called me excitedly into the room, because Uschi had done a remarkable thing. We tried to recreate it, and (amazingly) it worked. Uschi was on her front, having "tummy time," and Mer put her hands under Uschi's feet to that she could push herself forward. That itself shows an impressive amount of strength, but after pushing herself up, little Uschi was off balance, and she threw her arm up in front of her body to catch herself. It sounds like a fluke, but she actually did it a second time as well. This shows an extraordinary amount of coordination for a lady who is one month old tomorrow.

(We tried to do it a third time when Edward came home, but Uschi firmly pointed out that she is not a performing monkey puppet to do tricks on command, and politely declined.)

She also managed to stick her thumb in her mouth this afternoon. Tasty.


I've known Meridth and Edward for quite awhile, so when I was trying to come up with a gift to crochet for her, I decided to personalize it to what I would imagine their spawn would be like.

So, naturally, I made a pirate teddy bear.


It is named Cap'n Ursa, the Pirate Teddy. It's kind of dominating Uschi in this picture.

But she likes it. you can tell because she's smiling at me. 'Cause we're friends.



Bless.

Natalie

Squeeker squeek squeekin.

So Ursa minor has been pretty congested of late. I'm sure as newborn this would be frustrating and quite confusing. Anyway, being the terrible parents we are, we have been delighting in the squeeky noises she makes. It almost sounds like somebody jumping around in a vinyl suit.

Anyway, I obsessively have to post more pics of Uschi.

Hee haw.

Alas, alak.

I'm not so sure about this bath thing.

Nevermind.

She's Elora Danan, the future empress of Tir Asleen, and the last thing she's going to want is a hairy chest!

Edward's been pretty great at keeping you all posted on what's going down in Uschi-town. I just wanted to say a big fat thanks for everybody's support, comments, delicious food, and of course the presents :) I think most likely that Edward's going to be the main blogger for the time being that I'm pretty occupied being a vending machine.

...but I just thought you might want to see my obsessive mommy perspective on how cool we are now that Uschi's here.

Here's little Uschi's first sponge bath experience. (She's so mellow).

First off, Uschi, since about day 2 has been able to pic up her head and turn it from side to side, in a wobbly way, of course. Edward also put her on her tummy a few days ago and put his hands against her feet and she about kicked herself off the bed, which really freaked me out. But this makes me want to confront all the other moms out there and say something like, "My baby can kick your baby's butt." Cos she can, let's face it.
Anyway, before our little star was born we had concerns about how Radar was going to react. He had always been a little too enthusiastic about kids, jumping all over them and stuff. Well fortunately Radar seems to have the deepest respect for Uschi. Evidence to be seen below.



Uschi has inherited her daddy's really long fingers and big feet. In fact, Uschi doesn't fit into socks too well either her feet are too big or her ankles are too small. We currently have to just wrap her feet in a blanket.



She also smiles in her sleep. It's obviously not an emotional smile, but it totally makes me feel all squishy when I see it.
Unfortunately we haven't been able to take a picture of her when she does this pirate stare. One eye is puffier than the other and when she get's frustrated she squints one eye at you.

Anyway, enough blabbing... back to feeding I go.

Uschi Day + 3!

I'm turning into one of those new parents who posts every single picture ever taken of their child. Yuk! But since a lot of people have asked about the grim and gritty details of the labor and all that, I thought I'd chime in to correct any of the inaccuracies Meridth has perpetrated in phone conversation. It's not that Meridth is dishonest, just forgetful. The story is correct in broad strokes but I think I can improve on the sequence of events.



So on Tuesday night I had to conduct at the local cub scout pack meeting. It was a good time and I brought Meridth along because of her advanced state of pregnancy. Meridth had been feeling random contractions throughout the day and we thought that it might happen that day. We did go in Sunday night because Meridth was leaking some fluid that we thought might be amniotic in nature, so we wanted to be cautious. After the scout meeting on the way home I bought Meridth a frozen delectable from the 31 Flavors (which she ended up throwing up two hours later) and we started writing down the contraction times. 8:17, 8:22, 8:27, 8:31 they were getting to be exactly five minutes apart. By 9pm we called the Birthing Center at the hospital and they asked Meridth about her birth plan. Meridth was non-ideologically interested in having a natural birth (just to see what that was all about) so they told us it would be best to wait until she couldn't stand it anymore before coming in.

It was exactly at 10:54 that Meridth decided she couldn't stand it anymore. I called the Birthing Center and grabbed the last bits and bobs we needed and by 11:06 we were on our way. Now I wasn't entirely sure we were going to have Uschi that night because we were still about two weeks out from the due date so I called my work and let the know I probably wouldn't be in the next day.



At the hospital we were taken to one of the birthing rooms and Meridth sat on the bed and had everything checked. And I put Tim Burton's Beetlejuice in the DVD player. Tuesday morning Meridth had seen the doc and he had said she was only dilated to a 1.5 so she still had some distance left to go before 10. Since Meridth had been suffering since 8pm, we figured she'd be up to at least a four. No dice, the nurse said she was only dilated to a two. Boo to that. Fortunately Dr. Walker was coming by for another patient at about half-past eleven so he peeked his head in, noticed Meridth's very regular contractions (like you could set your watch by them) and said we probably shouldn't go back home tonight. Just to speed things along he also decided to break Meridth's water.

And speed things along it did. We had 8cm to go until 10 dilation was reached and the doctor estimated that would take until 8am Wednesday morning, about a centimeter an hour. In fact, Meridth was fully dilated by 4am! But to go along with that speed, Meridth had to endure pretty intense contractions. By maybe 12:35 she asked for her first 'hit' and the nurses gave her a med designed to relax the mother and treat the anxiety more holistically. This was not even close to enough. By one in the morning, Meridth graduated to local injected anesthesia but only a single contraction went by before Meridth said "Y'know? I'm ready for an epidural." That wife of mine doesn't mess about.



So the anesthesiologist rolls in and we sign the forms saying that it's okay if Meridth dies from it and Meridth is sitting up and I'm in front of her and all I can think about is how much I want to see this huge needly-thing injected into my wife's spine, but I don't want to get in the way. I'm very interested in the dirty details of medical procedures, but in this case I had to settle with the salad-plate sized blood stain when the doc was finished taping all the kit down onto Meridth's back.

Anyway the epidural made my wife as happy as a clam who suffers from uncomfortable numbness and manageable pain (the sort of clam with a decent HMO) and she was able to doze for about an hour before the pushing started. Me and Meridth were ready and refreshed for round two. 5am! Fully dilated! Ready to push! We went at it for a half-hour then the nurse gave us permission to rest again. And by 5:45 the Dr. Walker showed up for the main event. Pushing pushing pushing pushing pushing pushing pushing! Curl up toward the fetus! Push were my fingers are! PUSH!

And just like that I started seeing a tennis-ball sized hairy lump appear from points unknown. Hmmmmm... I thought to myself, that's a real small head for a full-term baby. And suddenly Ka-boom! There was her head! I'd only seen the point of her little cone-head, so it looked smaller coming out that way. It was pretty out-there.

So the shoulders. And the rest. And the placenta. And there it all was.



When the doc was stitching up Meridth she started saying, "Uhhh...should I be feeling that?" Turns out that the tip of the epidural had worked itself out despite all the tape and what-not. So the doc tore it off and left it on the floor and treated the stitchy-region locally. Dr. Walker's pretty sure that it came out before the major pushing started so you could say that Uschi was born naturally. If you were so inclined.

Now you might be wondering why Uschi was in the hospital for two whole nights. I guess she had a poo on her way out that morning and had swallowed some of it, which wasn't good for her digestion. So throughout that first Wednesday she was burping up black bile. Late that night she had her innards suctioned out and the next day we just checked her diapers for the right colored poo. Friday at about noon the stars aligned and the poo-colors were spot on and we went home.



RADAR has been so good with the baby, it's pretty amazing. He's been mellow but curious about his new sister and has gained an undisclosed amount of weight while he was hanging out with the neighbors. What a great dog!

And that is that great friends! Thanks for all the millions of metric tons of support you have given us in the last ten months and we wouldn't dare have a baby in a world without people like you. Pat yerselves on the back!

Uschi Day + 1!

More pic? Yes please.




We're both pretty tired here.

My chin is HUGE!

Mommy's tired. We wanna go home.

I'm too cool to poop.

Being a dad is cooler by the day.

Happy Uschi Day!

And so Meridth gave birth to Ursa Adriana Gimbel this morning at 6:46 am after about twelve hours of labour and about two hours of pushing. She's 7 lbs. 13 oz. and is 20.5 inches long.


Whatta team!



That's Dr. Stephen Walker. He apparently has a beard.



Warm...



...and cold.


More pics to follow. See 'em here first.

Adventures in Babyhaving

(Me at about 36 weeks aka the beginning of the 9th month.)

So I have some family and friends that are currently obsessed with my anatomy. Mostly the size of my tummy, hence the recurrent "here I am with a large belly" pic. There are those that are also interested in the nitty gritty details, that to be honest make me a little queasy. I'm beyond excited about the having a baby, but the physical baby having... well, let's just say it's gooey and painful and hopefully it will be over sooner than later.

Anyway, this last weekend my mom flew out from Australia to visit us in San Francisco. Edward and I have a thing for cities. I hope that we get to live in one of them. I love love love all the architectural goodies that you can find in San Fran.



I don't remember the name of this cool store, but please do note the stormtrooper, Vader, and Boba Fett on the wallpaper.


My mom went on her honeymoon 36 years ago to San Francisco so we decided to take a commemorative photo with dad there in spirit.

Here's me, mom and belly under the classic Transamerica Pyramid.

Needless to say, it was a nice weekend. I can't wait to do things like that with Ursa Minor.The End.

Tagged by Red Star Mama...

Is it that time again? I remember doing these via email in the lab of the Reading/Writing Center at BYU Hawaii back in 1999. Plus ça change I guess.

- What is your current obsession?

Edward: Well, my studies but not by choice. Uschi of course who is due to be born anytime in the next four weeks.

These are all bland but not-untrue answers, but here's the true truth: I'm fascinated with conspiracy theorists. More accurately, I'm interested in the psychology of the pursuit of esoteric knowledge. I think that the hunt for secret knowledge is a deeply seeded driver for a lot of the human condition and conspiracy theorists more than any other group believe that 'they' have discovered the true secret about 'how the world works.' But like I said, there are strong impulses toward this in other facets. (e.g. Everyone has that friend, or had that friend in the 90's, who had to be the first to be into an obscure band/writer/artist/trend. They wanted to have something that no one else had.)

Meridth: It would be easy for me to say Uschi and Art. Both of which are true. But I've also really been enjoying being a blog spy lately. I am super voyeuristic by nature. I love waiting for hours at the airport. I get to stare at people and listen into conversations and there's nothing they can do about it. Bwa ha ha ha! I definitely find it interesting what people choose to reveal about themselves or their lives. What can I say? I'm nosy.

- What do you hate the most that everybody else seems to love?

Edward: I donno. That's kind of a dumb question. I might come back when I'm done and replace this with my question. If not, and until then, I'll just say...dry heat. Give be humidity and stop that blasted sun from roasting my pate.

Meridth: The Twilight Series. Sorry world. First off, I have never really liked girly girl stuff. I didn't like these types of books when I was growing up. I have to say that they were compelling enough for me to read the series. I was compelled by two reasons. First, I am a sucker for fantasy. How dreadful is that? But really, who doesn't want to love a story about modern vampires? Second I'm a bit OCD about having to finish what I start. (Talk about ridiculous dedication). So being that I have read the books I feel like I can comfortably say... they suck. The writing feels so amateurish. Stephanie Meyer is always using cliches like "Bella turned on her heel" or "her heart broke into a million pieces." Also, for some reason whenever someone in the book is feeling lusty or full of gooey love, their eyes always have to "smolder." Blech.


- What are you wearing today?
Edward: Like right now? A pair of shorts. Sorry, but that's all. I get warm doing my homework. I had a friend whose dad was all hirsute and he always hung around sans shirt and I never got it. I'm gonna be that guy. Thanks Ken.

Meridth: PJs. When you are blimpish or rotund in nature... it really is important to be comfortable. That is until you take your dog for a walk and you don't want the neighbors to see your stinky, bra-less self.


- What's for dinner?

Meridth needed (NEEDED) a whopper and I opted for chinese noodles and garbanzo salad with vinegar and mint. Quick, full of fiber, sodium and monosodium glutamate. (That's bad.)

Meridth: Yum.

- What would you eat for your last meal?

Edward: Honestly, I think I'd skip it if I knew I was gonna die. I mean your body releases your bowels after you expire and I don't want to hinder the clean-up any more than necessary. Plus I wouldn't want to die with a full stomach, all heavy and burpy. I wanna go without thinking about my GI tract.

Meridth: That's what he said.

- What's the last thing you bought?

Edward: The aforementioned Whopper hamburger value meal. (I remember when I discovered the word 'aforementioned.' 10th grade maybe? It was a popular one in my papers for Mrs. Strickler's 11th grade English. I just couldn't believe all those words got mashed together like that.)



- What are you listening to right now?

Edward: Okay Stereogum, one of those hipster music websites, commissioned a number of obscure indie-type musicians to do covers from the 1995 classic Björk's Post. (It's a free download available here.) But caveat emptor ladies and gentlemen: this compilation is dreadful and I'm only dutifully listening to it out of a quixotic sense of obligation. I wish Meridth were here to make me turn it off. I'm totally deleting it, nothing 'possibly maybe' about it, as soon as I'm done.

Also: they did another covering OK Computer. I'm pretty sure it's awful too but, one man's trash...

Meridth: I heard the tail-end of that so-called music. It really was that awful.

- What do you think of the person that tagged you?

I think Jenn and Justin both are pillars of the community, real salt a'the earth people with the sort of gumption and commanding dignity and personal hygiene that are the hallmarks of great men like Napoleon, Mustafa Ataturk and Grimace. Indeed, what IS not to like?

Meridth: Often Edward and I have friends that are much cooler, way more interesting, and much more higher in the social status of life. We cling to these people like leaches. Thanks Jenn and Justin. You make us look good.


- If you could have a house, fully paid for, and totally furnished anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Edward: Meridth would say London and I am inclined to agree, but I was thinking about Khartoum, the capital of the Sudan. I mean alright, there may or may not be a genocide taking place in the south of the country, and a handful of US diplomats were murdered there by Black September in the seventies and it was an early HQ for al-Qa'ida, but if you can get past all that, a spacious dacha maybe on a vineyard overlooking the Blue Nile, we'd live like colonial raj. It'd be awesome. Plus the Sudanese are really cool people.

Meridth: I have a hard time getting past all that. Let's stick with London.


Edward: That or Fort Wayne.

Meridth: Fort Wayne's right out.


- What is one of your hobbies?

Edward: I voraciously read. I like rucking. (i.e. carrying a heavy pack some dreadful distance.) It's a kind of self-flagellation

Meridth: Wikipedia is a hobby of yours. Let's be honest.


Edward: True. I'll look something up and then just follow the links until the necessary amount of time has effectively been wasted, hopping from topic to topic like Frogger.

Meridth: My hobbies are my obsessions. Uschi, Art, I would have to include reading as well, and unfortunately the Internet.

What are your favorite smells?

Meridth: Fruity smells. Smells definitely have been a big issue during this pregnancy. They are the main reason why I projectile vomited the first 6.5 months. The smells I mainly hated were Edward's gym clothes sitting in our car and chicken.

Edward: Um. I donno...dumb question again. Favorite smells? Like to smell in exclusion of other smells? I like the smells athat are associated with what I'm doing. Like cooking. Great smells! But If I'm working out, hiking or in the shower, me no like-y.

What is your favorite color?

Meridth: "Red no blue!" Actually I like all colors as long as they're complimented nicely with other colors. But I have a pretty serious aversion to pink. Ironically for those familiar with my art... I do use pink. Sometimes it's a necessary evil.

Edward: I gravitate toward earth tones in dress. I like different colors in art. Again, like smells, I like color where I find it.

What is your favorite piece of clothing in your wardrobe?

Edward: There's a grey tee I've had since 2002. Good stuff.

Meridth: The chaco sandals that my puffy feet barely squeeze into. Thank goodness for adjustable straps.

What is your dream job?

Edward: Donno. Ice cream man, but I'd only end up eating my own wares.

Meridth: I've been doing okay as a freelance illustrator (magazine work, portraits, logos)... but I would like to publish some Picture Books or Middlegrade novels AND get payed lots of money for it.

Describe your personal style.

Meridth: I use to take this very seriously. My style was very very important. I guess the important rule to me is minimal effort plus interesting colors and retro clothing. Minimal effort I've got down... but Edward and I haven't had the ducats to upgrade our wardrobe for awhile now. We're currently a step up from hobos (thanks to the laundry machine).

Edward: I used to have a real thing against any shirt that had words or stripes. It was all solid colors for me. I still have an allergic reaction against tee shirts with witty slogans.

What are you going to do after this?

Meridth: Walk the dog and get back to that one illustration I'm illustrating. :)

Edward: Well, now that a day and a half has passed and it's now 5:53 on the morning of the 7th, I'll be taking a shower getting dressed and going to work.

What inspires you?

Meridth: Pretty broad question. I cried in Coraline because the design was so phenomenal. Whenever I see something beautiful I always have a longing that I could have been part of that project or desires to create something equally awe-inspiring.

Edward: Inspires me to do what? Go on a three-state killing spree? You can't wait for inspiration, sometimes you just have to grind through a block. At least that's how I've had to approach writing.

Who was the last person you kissed?

Meridth: My boyfriend.


Edward: 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky/this guy.


What delighted you most today?

Edward: RADAR.

Meridth: Toast.

What is something you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t done yet?

Edward: Do gravy shots.

Meridth: Visit all the National Parks.

New Question: Which was your favorite Beatle? George, Paul, John or Ringo? And, of course, why?

Meridth: I used to be a big fan of John, mainly because I love all of the odd songs that he writes like, I am the Walrus and Mean Mr. Mustard. That is until I found out what a big a-hole he was to his oldest son and first wife and many others in general. If the song Run For Your Life doesn't give you a window in his soul I don't know what is. ("Run for your life if you can, little girl, Hide your head in the sand, little girl, catch ya with another man, that's the end, little girl.") So needless to say post High School I switched over to Paul. He's written some really beautiful songs like Yesterday, Hey Jude that he wrote for John's older son, Julian, in sympathy because of his parent's nasty divorce and lack of John's presence in his life.

Edward: I always liked the apocryphal 'fifth Beatle', who may or may not have actually existed in a tangible way. Fame always attracts hangers-on. But seriously, I loved Paul's work with MJ in the 1980's. The girl is mine.


We tag: Tim. Our fantastically blogless friend. Whatcha gonna do about it, huh, Tim?

Liquid Luck

So as luck would have it I have a certain anonymous friend who has a certain anonymous brother who is a film projectionist. Which is why it is 3:43 AM and I just got back from seeing Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I have been impatient to see this movie ever since I thought it was going to be released 8 months ago. So I just about wet myself when I found out that I was going to see the movie 3 days early.

I guess what I would have to say that I was impressed against my will, as this is my favorite of the Harry Potter books and I was expecting to be thoroughly disappointed. Anyway, brace yourself for my half delusional review (mild spoilers included). The overall tone of the film was perfectly creepy. There was a point where I felt like I might have nightmares. (Hopefully that doesn't come to fruition). The acting was superb and the cast has always been a perfect fit, except for the fact that Richard Harris from the first two movies understood how to play Dumbledore much better than Michael Gambon ever did. But I have to say that he (Dumbledore #2) didn't bother me at all in this movie. Quidditch was kept to a minimum that didn't affect the pacing of the film and was a nice break from all the heavy stuff. The special effects were wonderful and the look of the film was delightfully dark. Draco Malfoy haunted the screen and gave great pacing to the film and brought an appropriate sense of uneasiness. The altered death scene with Harry perfectly capable of physically responding whilst Draco confronted Dumbledore was an excellent change of pace. The audience could visually see his trust in Snape being destroyed and I thought this added to the emotional climax of Dumbledore's death. Really, as of now in the wee hours of the morning, my only complaints are Harry's heavy make-up job when McGonagall addresses the three after the cursing of Katie Bell (Harry has on some pretty luscious lipstick and darkened eyebrows), and the scene with Ginny and Harry in the Room of Requirement was unnecessarily awkward with Ginny. (Blech).

Anyway, overall a success. I can't wait to see it again. (I hope it holds up in the re-watching.)

Good night all... or should I say good morning ;)