Grace Elizabeth Wolfe was born at 10:31am on January 26, 2012.  She weighed 6 lbs, 6 oz and was 19 inches long.  She has a little bit of blonde peach fuzz and blue eyes and very pink skin which turns bright red when she’s crying.  She looks a lot like Andy did when he was born.  She is doing all of the things that she is supposed to do, although we would like her to sleep more at night.  Grace made a very fast appearance, just two hours after the doctor broke my water and with a quick few pushes.  She did end up with a fractured clavicle, but the pediatrician told us that is fairly common and they don’t really do anything to treat it, and it should heal itself in a couple of months.

Andy is very interested in Gracie and gets very upset every time that she cries.  He loves to hold her and then refuses to give her up to anyone else.  Eden doesn’t seem all that interested in Grace, but she really likes to be the helper and does a great job getting diapers and blankets and paci’s when we need them.

We’ve been blessed by people bringing meals and helping with the kids and are now trying to get into a routine.  We’ve had a lot of changes recently and the big kids have done a great job, although we occasionally see the effects.  Ben and I are hanging in there and running on not much sleep.  It makes us really appreciate having my parents willing hands around because these days we need all the help we can get!  🙂  There are a few pictures of Grace below and some others on the ‘photos’ tab.  There’s also a video coming soon!

We’ve been back together for over a week and we’re loving it!  Eden and Andy are so happy to be together and follow each other around playing and hugging each other.  We haven’t settled into a routine, but are certainly happy and adjusting.  Eden is still doing a lot of processing.  She talks about riding on the plane and leaving Eldoret saying “Now I live in the US!”.  Andy gets very concerned if Eden and Ben aren’t near by and then needs to know where they are. Ben was able to squeeze in two days of work this week and now he is off for the next couple of weeks to help us all recover from the arrival of Grace (see next post).

We’re all enjoying being a family of 5 and getting into a new “normal”.  We will post more pictures soon, but here are a few from our reunion at the airport.

I am now 36 weeks.  It’s very exciting to be getting so close to my due date and my nesting instincts have set in.  I’ve been very busy washing newborn clothes, rearranging furniture in our bedroom to make room for the cradle and a changing area and buying lots of necessities for Grace and me.  I bought a pack of those itty-bitty newborn diapers and was shocked that they are about the size of my hand.  I really think things have shrunk since Andy was born.  There’s no way he was ever that small!  🙂

I still feel great, although by dinnertime most days my back hurts from carrying Andy around and most days I find I need to catch a nap while Andy sleeps in order to stay awake until bedtime.  We had an ultrasound at my appointment on Monday and it was so much fun to see Grace!  They estimated she weighed 5 lbs 4 oz and all of her organs looked good.  We saw her spiky hair and she was sucking her thumb.  We could see her face pretty clearly and we watched her yawn, which was really cute!

Eden and I flew to Nairobi today to pick up her Humanitarian Visa at the embassy. We were in and out within 15 minutes! They don’t normally do appointments on Fridays, and so I was the only one they were expecting. At each security checkpoint along the way I was asked: “Are you Mr. Wolfe?” It feels nice being a VIP…

Eden on the Fly540 flight. She LOVED flying “up up up in the air” “like a birdy” and going “up and down up and down” (turbulence). She had a lot of trouble with the concept of the us being above the clouds:
What are those white things Daddy?
Those are clouds Eden.
But they’re down low.
Because we’re flying above the clouds, we’re way up high.
But I’m lookin down, they’re down low.

Eden was a great traveler and I lucked out with her being hyper during the should-be-nap-time instead of a terror. She fell asleep 5 minutes into our car ride home at 4:45.

She started being a three year old while we were laying over in Kisumu. She was trying to figure out why we couldn’t fly straight to Eldoret and every response from me was rebutted with the same statement except “Why…” affixed to it!

Our flights back to the U.S. are scheduled for the 18th of January. That was the only day Delta had available for both my ticket (paid) and Eden’s ticket (mileage award seat) on the same flight in the same class. She did give me the option of the 9th…with Eden riding up in Business Class but me in Coach!

January 18th is a lot later than we wanted to be reunited, but it does allow me time to get things sorted out with the house, van, packing, work, and all of our stuff. Its amazing how many things a woman can collect in a short 8 months in Kenya. You heard me right, none of this is mine. 😉

Andy is now 22 months old and becoming more like a 2 year old every day.  He is talking more and asserting himself more.  He is coming up with his own ideas and makes us laugh with the things he remembers.  The other day I was driving to Indy and he started talking about Javan’s car being hot and smokey which was from our trip to Nairobi in October when the van broke down.

Today Andy counted to 10 which shocked me and he has even started singing a couple of songs.  He loves to finish our sentences, such as “Home again, home again….”  Andy has been very happy this week while Uncle Colin is home and the Smiley clan was around.  He’s had lots of attention and lots of boys to rough house with.

Andy LOVED opening presents at Christmas and I have to keep an eye on him because he would really like to open Eden and Ben’s presents which are under the tree.  He was fun to watch because he gets so excited when he starts to open the gift and then gasps when he finally can see what’s inside.  Then he just wants to sit and play with that gift for a while and he needs encouraged to open the next one.  Andy also had fun playing in the snow, as you can see below!