Raya Elaine

Announcing our beautiful grandbaby--Raya Elaine was born March 4, 2011 into her Daddy's hands, at home. Quite the over-achiever already, she insisted on racing the Midwives--- And won by about 10 seconds.
1:27am 7 1/2 lbs.

 

 For those of you who didn't see this on FB--this is one of my favorite photos!

 

  I snapped this picture on Skype while I was still home.  It sure made us anxious to get on the road! 

 

 Our first view!

   I wasn't planning to come up until the 5th, so Baby arrived without me here, but lucky for her Mama, she came after a  very short hour and half labor.  I think the genes are being passed along! Leon got to switch his weekend off, and came up to ND with me, along with Ryan and Alishia.

Jessi was so excited to show us her new baby sister,  Raya Elaine, named for her Papa Leon (Ray) and her Memaw Ruth (Elaine)

 

 Flowers from Auntie Nish & family--It's hard to have new babies born so far away!

 Jessi is enjoying putting her new puzzle together--actually 4 puzzles, all scenes from Astrid Lindgrens books (Pippi Longstockings) that I found for her when I was in Sweden.

 Barrett ended up with Pnemonia, so was a sick and unhappy little boy for the first few days I was here.  He's on the mend now.

 Papa finally managed to hold him, Barrett really didn't want anyone but his daddy while he was sick.  Thankfully the meds seem to kick in pretty fast!

 Baby girl time--Raya is very content as long as she is in someone's arms.  Thank goodness for slings!  Even Grammie can get her stuff done holding a baby this way!

 Breakfast time with grammie--

 Barrett hasn't paid a whole lot of attention to his new baby sister--probably partly because he was sick.  I'm don't think he's  really aware yet how much he's going to have to share Mama!

 Diapers drying--A timeless thing--and yet so colorfully different than scenes of diapers drying on the line years ago!  I have to say, I love these cute and cuddly cloth diapers.  A far cry from the ones I occasionally used when my babies were little!

 And Miss Jessi--My sweet helper around here!  We're having a great time putting puzzles together, reading stories, baking bread & cinnamon rolls, and Jessi helps load and unload the dishwasher and set the table for me too.

All for now--hopefully we'll have some more to share soon!