Happy Birthday, Elyse!

Our newest little daughter, Elyse Bethany Burdett, was born today at 3:58 p.m. We were expecting her exactly a week later, but Anna started having high blood pressure on Sunday, and two days of bedrest didn't help, so they decided to go in after her early.

Mother and Daughter and Father are all doing well, but Mother and Father are very, very tired.

We'll post pictures soon.

--Chris

UPDATE: Two days later, we've come home, and I really should be in bed, but I wanted to post some pictures first. Here's a chronological but very incomplete view of our last three days, starting with Anna in the Labor & Delivery room getting ready to go back for the C-section:

"Guess what, Molly? We're having a baby today!"

Ready for the surgery.

Ten minutes later, we've got a baby!

Daddy is even tireder than he looks on the second day.

Elyse is tired, too.

Ready to go home!

Christmas!

We had a very nice Christmas day, much of it spent at Granny and Pa's house. Here are a couple of pictures of Jessica and Mommy admiring Granny's tree:

Of course, Jessica opened lots of presents:

One of Jessica's presents from Granny was a princess dress-up trunk, which includes multiple princess dresses:

Portraits with Granny and Pa

On Christmas Eve, we set up our home studio and Granny and Pa came over to take some pictures. Here are three pictures Jessica took, one of Granny and Pa, one of Granny and Pa with props (Jessica said they needed to hold the puppy and the baby), and one of Mommy and Daddy:

Here, Jessica shares a secret with Pa:

And here, she poses with Granny:

Here she plays with Mommy in a picture with the three girls:

And finally, posing very briefly (and seriously) with Granny and Pa:

Playing with Lucye

On Thursday, Audrey and Lucye Loverin came for a visit. Jessica was very excited about their impending arrival; she started asking at about 7:30, "Is Lucye here yet?" For almost three hours she asked this, until finally the answer was, "Yes! They're here!"

Once Lucye had a little time to warm up to the new surroundings, the girls had a good time chasing the kitties (Lucye was especially interested in this), looking at Jessica's toys, and eating Ritz crackers and Triscuits.

Here's a picture of Lucye in our kitchen:

And three pictures of Jessica showing Lucye her camera:

Thirty-Three Weeks

We went in for a thirty-three week ultrasound today. Apparently, the baby is doing very well; they estimate her to be almost five pounds, which is about two weeks ahead of schedule, and a full pound more than Jessica weighed when she was born at thirty-seven weeks.

We also scheduled her delivery via C-section. If everything goes as planned, she'll be born on January 26, 2010, around 3:00 in the afternoon.

We can't wait to meet her!

Snipping!

One of Jessica's many artistic interests is snipping, the artful use of scissors for the shear pleasure (pun intended) of using scissors. Here are some pictures of her in action:

Airborne!

Jessica loves bouncing on the crib mattress (which, until we get the crib back together sometime prior to her little sister's arrival, is sitting safely on the floor). Here are a few pictures of her gymnastic endeavors:

Portraits

On Thanksgiving day, after we got home from Granny and Pa's, took a nice nap, had a light supper, and did a little playing, we set up our living room photo studio and took some nice Christmas portraits. Here are three of the best:

(There aren't any good pictures of the whole family from that day, by the way, because as soon as Daddy steps away from the camera, Jessica wants to take over as the photographer. We have a few pictures she took of Mommy and Daddy--which we won't be posting here!--under her art direction: "Stick out your tongues! Take off your glasses. Now put them back on." She could give Joyce Tenneson a run for her money.)

Making Cookies with Mommy: A Photo Essay

This afternoon, Jessica and Mommy made gingerbread cookies. Mommy rolled out the dough and cut out the cookies, Jessica decorated them with miniature M&Ms and chocolate chips and raisins:

It's Snowing Styrofoam!

This morning Jessica amused herself by picking apart a Styrofoam block and throwing the fragments into the air to make snow. Yes, it did require quite a bit of cleanup afterwards, but she really enjoyed herself, so it was worth it.

Sandy Fingers

On our second and last day in Columbus, we went to Columbus State University's Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center--which turned out to be a bust because their trails were all closed due to the recent flooding, and, because they were preparing to move to a new building, all of the animals (except for one snake) were off exhibit.

But they did have a sandy and rocky area just outside of their education building, and that was all Jessica needed to have half an hour of fun--digging in the sand, tossing it up and getting it in her hair (two days later it's not all out), and drawing in it with various sticks.

Here she took a brief pause from her activities to show Daddy her dirty sand-holding hands:

Columbus

We're in Columbus, GA, for a couple of days while Mommy attends a conference. Thursday afternoon, after supper at the Columbus CiCi's (actually, one of three CiCi's in Columbus), we went for a short walk by the Chattahoochee River. Here are three pictures of Jessica from this visit: