Clara is Here!

Clara Louise Farr was born this evening at 5:58 pm. She weighs 8 pound 6 ounces and measures 20.5 inches. We are so grateful for the miracle of a healthy baby. Congrats!!




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What?

What? We're not dead? I know, crazy.

Anyway...

An essay of pictures:

In March, we celebrated Sophie's third birthday. These two are so cute together!

OK, so maybe they don't know how to take pictures. But they are great cousins!

In April, I had the brilliant idea of driving across the country with a three year old. From PA to CA. Luckily, my mother came along and kept us sane. This is how Caleb entertained himself in the car.

This is how he was entertained in CA.

Just like Lightening McQueen. Route 66.

At the end of April, I went to NYC to attend a taping of the Nate Berkus Show, where my friend Anne (Third from Left) had a make-over! It was awesome, and like all good things, is because Kay made it happen :)

The very next day (great timing, ehh?) a moving van came to our house. Some nice people put all of our belongings in boxes, placed the boxes in the van and drove it across the country. Caleb was disappointed this was not going to be his method of transportation. Maybe next time.

My sister, Shayla, and her son Dean (age 3). The next week, we headed down to the Outer Banks to have a good ol family vacation with my siblings.

Dean and Caleb (both 3). The cousins had a great time!

We didn't leave him there for long...

Charlotte remained unimpressed, as she does with most things we try to introduce her to.

The siblings. From left to right: Katie (21), Amanda (25), Tracy (28), Shayla (30), Aaron (32) Aren't we cute?

We celebrated my birthday while we were there.

My grandparents were able to come as well. Papa and I share a birthday, and he is enjoying his new iPad2. Seriously. What's better than an Apple product and a nap?

Caleb learned to swim with swimmies.

Caleb has asked to see Bala and Papa every.single.day. since we've been home. We sure love these people! Bala will kill me once she knows I put up a picture of her, so it's been nice knowing all of you.

ahhh... relaxation

Phew. Caught up. Yes.

Peter is in California moving us all into our new place and doing his last rotation of medical school!! He flies home Sunday, May 29 and is here until June 5.

Of course, the best part is June 5th is his GRADUATION!

Charlotte and I fly out via medivac sometime later that week (we don't have anything definite yet, and won't until after June 6th). Caleb and my father will fly out together around June 10.

And that's how the Knickerbocker's move to California. As difficult and disjointed as possible :)

She Says It All

I have a friend from Pittsburgh who is in law school in Utah. She blogged about how hard it is to justify being a sports fan while still holding to feminist ideals. I think she sums it up pretty well.

Residency

In December, Peter matched in San Diego for his residency in pediatrics. For the 9 months between February 2010 and October 2010, Peter was gone for 4 of them. He was in Norfolk {twice}, Bethesda, and San Diego doing "audition rotations" at the Naval hospitals. Despite the chaos in our personal lives, Peter did such a great job at these rotations.

In fact, he's going to hate me for posting this, but I have to, he just got an email from his residency mentor, a third year resident. She said, "I just wanted to let you know that you were very well liked when you rotated through here.  I got ready to put my bid in for you and give this long spill on why I thought you should come here and as soon as your name was said everyone had glowing praise for you." For a bit of context of what this month was like, Charlotte came home from the NICU and five days later, Peter left for San Diego. The same day Peter left, Charlotte was re-admitted to CHOP for the entire month. She was incredibly sick, and Peter was two thousand miles away. Not only was he on an intense rotation away from home, his own child was in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit with aspiration pneumonia and sepsis, went back on the vent, and had g-tube surgery. Not to mention how crazy I was during all of this. So for him to make such a great impression during such a hectic time, is just, wow. I'm just in awe of him.

Phew. Glad that's over.

Now we just have to figure out how to move our family 2800 miles, which would be awesome in a 'normal' family of four, but is just phenomenal when you add in a special needs child.

Caleb is pretty convinced that Grandma and Grandpa (Knickerbocker) are coming with us and I'm certain that this boy will be devastated when he realizes that both sets of grandparents won't be just a car ride away. I'm hoping that the calming ocean breeze will distract him, and that grandparents come visit often. Very often.

That goes for all of you as well. We move out June 2011. I expect y'all to make plans to visit asap.

Mars Needs Moms

My father (Grandpere) got this book for Caleb about a year ago. We read it all the time, and I'm hoping that the movie will be OK for Caleb to go see. It would be Caleb's first theater experience, minus the times I took him as a baby. I'm crossing my fingers that Disney didn't ruin the book!

What Number Am I?

Caleb asks us all the time what number he is. We'll say, "Umm, I think you are ten," and he'll crack up and say, "Nooo, I'm number three!"

With his birthday (yeah. back in December), came a visit to the pediatrician. We see her a lot, but not usually for Caleb. I promised him that he wouldn't need to have any shots at this appointment, which, of course, turned out to be a lie. He weighed 30 pounds (32nd percentile) and measured 36 inches tall (10th percentile).

He complained about the medicine in his arm (the vaccine for pneumonia which we needed him to have for Charlotte's sake, poor kid) for a few days, but shortly there after our entire family (minus Charlotte, thank goodness) came down with the stomach bug, so we all forgot about the pain inflicted by the vaccine.

At the appointment his pediatrician gave us the green light to start him in a preschool program, despite our concerns about the germs that it would expose Charlotte to. His cognitive scores were much higher than a typical three year old (that sounds like bragging, but believe you me, we have nothing to do with it) and she was concerned that if he wasn't being challenged in different situations, ie socially, academically, etc that he might end up getting bored and/or have attention issues. He has been attending a preschool two days a week now for a week or two and loves it. We've been really blessed to have a situation come up that allowed him to attend.

If you ask him to spell his name, he says "C-L-B" which confirms that he is indeed part of the texting generation. He lives off of peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and if Mommy isn't looking, cookies (like he's eating right this moment). He also loves green beans, corn, and peas. He asks for ham by name, which kinda makes me sick, but oh well. He does not like turkey, but will down a hot dog in 10 seconds flat.

He loves Thomas the Tank Engine and the movie Cars. He also likes the shows Backyardigans, Dora, and Go! Diego! Go! (the punctuation in that title should have warned me against it, but alas, now we are stuck watching it). He is beginning to learn about dinosaurs and loves naming them and telling you if they were plant eaters or not.

He is in Sunbeams now at church and loves his teacher. We're so grateful that he enjoys his class on Sunday. It's pretty funny talking to him on the way home from church, as his explanations about what happened in class are hysterical. One Sunday he told me that they learned about the Holy Ghost and his was in his belly. Awesome.

All in all this kid is a joy. He has his days, believe you me, but mostly he's a great kid who's just trying to figure out where he fits in and how this crazy world works.

We love him so much.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, 2011