Still more photos

Gammy:




Poppa:




The serious business of being a big brother:




Luke appears to be doing a fist-pump over his excitement to go home.




Getting sprung from the hospital on Friday:

Welcome Luke!

The newest Markley arrived 11:30 pm Monday. Lucas Finch Markley weighed 7lbs 12oz and stretched 20 in. Mom and Luke are doing well, discharge will be Friday, pictures to follow. Bye

We're off...

We are headed to the hospital. I am not sure I am in labor, but have been having some continuous pains every 10 minutes or so all afternoon so we are going to find out whether or not it is labor. Perhaps they will send us home, but I am not supposed to labor at home (since I am trying a VBAC) so we need to go find out. In the event this is my last post while pregnant, here is a final picture of me and my basketball belly. As you can see, I am quite large, and well deserving of a delivery!


Cross your fingers for me and hope this is it, and think good healthy thoughts for Lucas.
We'll post more news when we have it!

Riddle Me This

What's 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide?
Me!
I was convinced I am now as round as I am tall, so I measured myself yesterday. I am 4 feet around. I am a weeble wobble. It is time for this baby to come out!

Tattoo You

Here Josh is showing off his two mean new tattoos--a "Mom" heart and a "Dad" heart--on his arms, along with his rolled up sleeves. He was sauntering around class without his shirt while changing from wet to dry clothes after some exciting times playing in the sink, and inspired his teachers to tattoo him to go along with the 'tude he was sporting. He was so very proud of his tattoos. They also complemented his black eye nicely.

Haircuts in the fast lane

Josh gets his hair cut at this cute kids' place in the suburbs. The barber's chairs are all converted toys, so Josh has chosen from the jeep, rocket, race car, and other choices I don't remember. (Observe the Barbie jeep in the background of the photo below, for example.) They have toys, movies, and a play area for before and after, and we love taking him there. He still doesn't really enjoy the actual hair cutting part of the visit, but the staff is great at being very quick, so we manage to make it through. And I love seeing him in his little barber's cape.


Here he is modeling his new shorter 'do, as well as his impressive new shiner (which looked even worse in real life, but is somewhat whited out by the flash from the camera).

Fort Daddy

Josh has also recently discovered the joys of building forts. Here he has found some structural support in Daddy, whose legs he covered with his blanket to make sides, and then brought out pillows to make doors. He has made some similar constructions using other "beams," with the same blanket and pillows. Then he crawls in and hides, and asks us (from his hiding place), "Do you see Josh anywhere?" The fact that he is asking the question, and is a mere inch below John's body, does not make him any less hidden from us, in Josh's opinion. It's pretty freaking cute. This picture is of one of the "peekaboo" moments after we failed to locate Josh.

Recent Goings-On

Josh has discovered a love for washing his cars. Here he is using the sink, but I have also found him in other sources of water, including Sammy's water dish. This orange car is getting a thorough sponge treatment. You can see in Josh's face how earnest he is about this.


This wasn't the right angle, but here is Josh eating rice with his chopsticks. He is better at it than I am. A true Markley. This was breakfast, by the way (which is why he is in pajamas). That kid really loves rice.


Kids playing in boxes--a staple of childhood.


Another example of my size. Unfortunately, my doctor informs me that my hope and optimism that I am progressing toward labor is a little too optimistic. Baby is still pretty high (but head down at least) at 36 weeks. So it seems there will be no new arrival for at least another two weeks, at which time he will be officially full-term (38 weeks) and I will officially start sending him signals to come on out.


We stopped by the playground yesterday evening. It was cool but nice out, blue sky, and we were the only people there for about half an hour. It was weird, I couldn't believe the place wasn't packed now that it is dry out. Josh happily went round and round and round clearing dirt off the sand pit walls with the trucks.

Earth Day

We didn't do much this weekend. John had class all day yesterday and Josh and I both felt a little sick, so we didn't even get out of our pajamas yesterday, just laid low and watched Cars.

Today we got outside for some soccer kicks. Our trees are blooming beautiful pink flowers but also unfortunately shedding them all over the sidewalk, and we haven't swept them away this weekend, so we have some pink petals in these photos.

Josh running down for a big kick:


Practicing his footwork:


Fierce face = big hard kick coming, probably accompanied by a grunt or a victory cheer (he yells out "goal," "score," or "I win" when he feels he kicked a really good one. I have no idea where he learned those things. I suspect John.


He was very proud of this picture:

He loved that he was wearing his Brazil soccer shirt from Gammy and Poppa while playing soccer.


We also want to send some birthday love to our niece (Josh's cousin) Sela, who turned 2 today!
Happy Birthday Sela!
We love you. Hope you had a fantastic birthday!

Also, a second shout-out to Uncle Bud, in case you're checking. It was nice to talk with you yesterday, and we do love you!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's 60th birthday! Happy Birthday Mom!

Here she and Mrs. Tai are checking out the flowers and stuffed strawberries she received Friday at work. By all accounts, the stuffed berries are delicious! Wish I were there!

Columbia River Gorge Waterfalls

While John was at a Saturday practicum for school, Josh and I headed out to the Gorge to see the waterfalls.

This was our first stop, Wahkeena falls.


This is the picture Josh took all by himself:


From the trail up to the higher parts of the falls, we could see the Columbia River and, equally important to Josh, the train tracks. He was very excited and loved the hike. At 8 mos pregnant, I had a tough time keeping up!


It was very green and the air smelled so fresh.


At the bridge across one of the upper falls:

We took turns being scared: Josh of the water and wind blowing out strongly from the falls, me of Josh peeking through the openings of the bridge to see what was below (answer: a giant drop!).

More waterfalls

Here we are at Multnomah Falls. Josh decided it was "cold" here (from the wind and water coming off the waterfall, again) and had a tough time smiling for a picture, he just wanted to goof around. But this one turned out good enough.


He liked Ponytail Falls more, even though we got wetter here.


Josh decided to climb the hill that rises from the pool at the foot of the falls to the road. It was slippery from water spraying out from the falls, but he did a pretty good job.


Hi Mom.

Reading is fundamental

Josh has a couple of books he will "read" to us, because he has memorized the story and can tell it to us by reference to the pictures. Here he is reading us a book about Diego, an armadillo, and a jungle race:


(This was first thing in the morning, so I had to edit out our morning bed-heads. Trust me, the big white space is prettier!)

Happy Easter!

Easter presents

Actual caption: "ooooohhh"


The dinosaurs, camera book, and flute were the biggest hits. I only got pictures of him playing with the flute for now:


All great jazz musicians must learn to play in shades.


Here he is putting on his fierce face.


Just being happy:

Pregnancy girth

People keep asking how big I am. I am huge. This picture is really unflattering and will be replaced as soon as I take a better one, but for now you can see my size here. I look like a pinhead because my chest and belly are so large they dwarf the rest of me.

Only 7 weeks to go!

Family Vacation -- Long Beach, WA

We took a family vacation to Long Beach, Washington to enjoy the ocean and whatever else we could find. The town actually has a small "boardwalk" of sorts, with go-carts, miniature golf, fun center, bumper boats, etc, so there was plenty to entertain our very active son. Sammy enjoyed getting away too, although I got the feeling he spent the first day or so wondering whether we were trying to leave him somewhere. He was noticeably calmer the second day.

Our hotel was oceanside, with sand dunes separating us from the ocean itself. Upon arrival the first day, I volunteered to finish unpacking our things while John walked out to the ocean with Sammy and Josh. By the time I started out to meet them, I could see John walking back with Josh on his shoulders, wearing John's sweatshirt. At first I thought, it must be colder over the dune, with the wind coming off the ocean. Then, as we got closer to each other, I could see that Josh's legs were bare under the sweatshirt. Then I saw Josh's clothes in John's hands. Sure enough, he ran straight into the ocean upon arrival. He is fearless, and like his father he always has to get in the water.

This picture is from Saturday, as we head out to the ocean to (try to) fly our kite.
I look huge in this picture, but as I am 7 months pregnant I will let it go and publish this picture anyway.
Beautiful blue sky and sunny day.


I made everyone stop at this bench on the walk over the dunes for a photo. Josh is visibly unhappy with me for impeding his progress.


The kite flying attempt was a disaster. We had a general-store kite from Nags Head, and as we arrived on the beach I noticed that all other kite fliers had nice, constructed kites with sturdy frames. I knew right away we were in trouble, but I didn't realize how much, and Josh would not have allowed us to abandon the kite flying anyway. So we got it up in the air, and the wind just literally shredded it. The construction was not up to the challenge of the Pacific wind!
Here we are enjoying the beach itself, at least:


After the kite failure, Josh moved on to "soccer kicks." He is getting quite good, despite John's early attempts to discourage it (in jest). He can kick well with both feet, slide into blocks, and adjust his stride to dribble.

Go Carts!

Or "race cars," as Josh refers to it. "I drove race cars with Daddy!"

This seems to have been the high point of Josh's trip. He talks fondly of the "ocean" and "kites," but it was driving race cars with Daddy that he remembers best.


Coming through turn two:


Josh looks so tiny in the go-cart!


Josh did actually wave to me as John is suggesting here, but between the shutter speed of the camera and the speed they were driving, my shots were not very accurate and I never captured one of him waving, so here's John waving.


Tuckered out on the drive back to the hotel:

Random Josh pictures

Josh biking to the kitchen, with Sammy in tow.

Dante, he is wearing his new shirt from you, if you can see it. He is never too young to promote good beer!




Josh can put on his own shoes and socks now.


Just a cute picture of his smile.


This is how he eats now: with at least one (and sometimes two) race cars on each side of him. He is obsessed with race cars.

It's a Boy!

We had to delay our ultrasound by four days to avoid paying a deductible on the last day of the year, so on January 2 we finally found out:

IT'S A BOY!

Brothers! I wish I could say we are getting our rest now, but we aren't. At least we can hope that in a few years they will keep each other busy and I will finally catch my breath!

Here are the first pics of the baby. These are actually from the 12 week ultrasound for genetic testing, because they weren't able to get any good photos at the 19 week ultrasound (other than of the penis, and I'm not posting those!).

If you squint, or are a pro at reading these things, this is baby in profile, face looking up, sucking his thumb:

The middle lump is his belly. The top lump (on the right) is his head. The top most curve is his forehead, and you can make out a little nose and a little mouth, with the fingers but not the rest of his hand visible where he is sucking his thumb.

Here is a close up of the same shot, with Skeletor feature for his jaw: