Merry Christmas and Happy New Baby!

Here's the highlight of December - the arrival of Lucie Suzanne! (it's one of her rare eyes open moments above) My "scheduled" induction turned out to be less of an appointment and more of a "we'll see" sort of situation - apparently, I wasn't the only pregnant lady in San Francisco trying to avoid going into labor on Christmas. Thanks to the tireless nagging of my doctor, the hospital admitted me around 9 pm, and I spent the night hooked up various tubes and wires. In the morning, I was serenaded by the sounds of a natural childbirth happening across the hall, followed by a visit from my doctor, who said I looked ready to have a baby. Lucie made a relatively speedy arrival after that, at 7:31 am on Dec. 22, weighing 7 lbs 13 oz. The delivery nurse measured her height at 22 inches, but her doctor didn't believe it and rechecked her that afternoon, so her official height was actually 20.5 inches.

Of course, there were lots of other great moments this month - like Brennan's first visit to Santa ("Senden" or "Senden Clothes" in Brennanese). We drove down to San Mateo so Daddy could come, too. We arrived just as Santa was leaving! Daddy asked the surly teenage elf where Santa went, and was told that Santa took his lunch break at that time. Daddy tried to point out that people with jobs come to visit Santa at the very same time, but it degenerated quickly, and ended with the words "clown show" and a walk down to the California Pizza Kitchen. We returned after lunch, and almost had to wait in line behind roughly 25 adults who had all been at some group outing to Build-a-Bear (I am making none of this up, by the way) who were kind enough to let Brennan go in front of them. He was very excited to see Santa, up until the moment he actually had to see Santa. Then he was scared. We tried to have Daddy sit with him, since Daddy had on nice work clothes, had showered that day, and wasn't 9 months pregnant, but NO. It had to be Mommy. So I got to have my picture taken with Santa, too.
There's been a lot of rain this month, so on rare dry days we try to get outside - one of the best places to go is our neighborhood playground. The swings and slides seem to dry quickly, and as long as you stay out of the soccer field, there's no mud. Bren's getting really good at climbing (with a spotter) and going down all the slides by himself, and his frog-driving skills have improved to the point that he can ride it to the playground without reducing his parents to profanity & despair.

Also he looks very handsome in his new navy blue sweater.
Here is Lucie on 12/23 in the hospital, looking a lot like her brother did as a brand new baby. I had a better room this time, overlooking the hospital entrance and California street, instead of the decaying parking garage. We even had sun that morning - I snapped a photo for Lucie, since she won't remember her first sunrise:
She sleeps a lot - not that I'm complaining, although I wish she would do more of it at night. But it's not too bad - the worst time generally is 9-11, while we try to catch up on TV shows on our Netflix stream. After 5 episodes of The Tudors, I can kind of sum up the experience:

8:35 Lucie sleeps, King Henry puts the moves on various women at court, Catherine of Aragorn prays & cries

8:40 Lucie's eyes flutter, Cardinal Woolsey schemes, King Henry removes shirt

8:45 Lucie looks around, stretches, and some foppish Eurotrash monarch arrives to sign a treaty that will dissolve by the end of the next episode

8:50 Can no longer watch due to baby cries

9:00 4 out of 5 "S's" from Happiest Baby on the Block prove ineffective, enter hair dryer on "HIGH"

9:01 Lucie's eyes close, face relaxes

9:02 Hair dryer on low, pretend we can hear dialogue, but basic gist seems to be "intrigue intrigue betrayal intrigue"

9:04 Hair dryer off, repeat above
Brennan seems to be handling this usurper pretty well - the worst tears were at our departure from the hospital, when we put her in the car seat and he insisted she was in "Brennan's seat". Which is completely not the case, as we had to toss his infant car seat due to unfortunate mold growth after we stored it in the garage at our old place. Lucie is using cousin Ian's old car seat, which Bren has never been in. Jeez.

One unexpected benefit of the near-xmas baby is that Bren has had plenty of distraction in the form of new toys - trucks, trains, helicopters, books, cars...

...and the aftermath:

Somehow in the last week, Bren has learned that his trains have names. He's not watching Thomas the Tank Engine at home - I'm hoping to avoid the show for as long as possible, given its off-putting combination of plotlessness and creepy-faced trains. While Bren is pushing "Thomas One" around, Lucie does things like cry through a bath and sleep on Mommy. I'd forgotten how nice it is to have a warm baby sleep on me. Like a cat, but a lot more work.

After a few days at home, we were ready to brave the outside world - the day after Christmas we went to see the Garden Railway at the Conservatory of Flowers.

For years I wondered why botanical gardens always set up trains for the holidays - and then I had a little boy.

I still don't really see the connection between toy trains and plants, but I have to admit it was kind of cool. They built all the miniature San Francisco landmarks out of recycled materials, like rulers for the windmill blades, and the seven sisters built from cereal boxes.

Brennan was pretty excited to see the trains:

We survived our first field trip - Lucie slept the entire time, Bren got to see trains and ride the carousel, Roux got to chase a ball and play with other dogs, and Mommy & Daddy got to split a soft pretzel.