A New Kind of Normal

Gavin at 1 Month Old!
He's growing so quickly. Can you tell he's already a Seahawks fan? (As if he ever really had a choice in the matter.)

Gavin is 5 weeks and 1 day today and we're finally settling in to a rhythm. Careful, I didn't say routine. That is something we are hopeful for in the future. For now, though, rhythm is nice. We've passed up the first couple weeks where we were always wondering "Why is he crying?" and "Is it really time to eat again?" or "How are we ever supposed to leave the house or get the dishes done?"

Now, we've settled into what you might call "normal" life. Here are a few highlights of "normal" life:
1. Carrying Gavin in the front pack and doing just about any household task while trying not to spill food on his head or bump his back into the kitchen sink. (Tony has also found it useful for his multitasking-- hanging out with baby and playing computer games.)
2. Singing the same silly song over and over again in hopes that Gavin will not scream his head off during the car ride into town. (Little guy hasn't really taken to his car seat.)
3. Devouring my favorite fiction books while Gavin is nursing (because my sister-in-law said that was God's gift to mothers who are readers :).
4. Constantly swaying and rocking any big "vehicle"-- car seat, stroller, shopping cart-- even when Gavin is not in sight. Too bad swaying probably doesn't burn too many calories-- otherwise I'd be set.
5. Cherishing his newfound smiles and cooing and doing anything we can to make him do it again. It just makes me melt (and I think that Tony would agree).

All in all, motherhood is a great gift. And I am so thankful to be able to stay home with Gavin.

Here are some other pictures from the last couple of weeks:


Aunt Tonia (Tony's sister) came to visit.

One of my baby carriers. This one I'm particularly proud of. This is my $3 WalMart version of the Moby Wrap.

Gavin has finally taken to the bath, although I think he probably still favors showers with his Papa. In fact, they often put him to sleep.

We can feel fall coming on-- especiall in the evenings.


First walk-- Gramme Windham was here for the experience.

Had to hit the Oak Table while Gramme was visiting.

An example of the wonders of multitasking with the baby carrier.

They say to sleep when he's sleeping. I'd say I'm boing a pretty good job.

Gavin's Room

While I'm working on photos for Gavin's one month birthday (that's today, can you believe it?!) I thought I'd give you something new to look at in the meantime.

I promised photos of "Baby Bear's" Room a while ago, but I was waiting for all of our furniture to arrive. The changing table finally arrived a week after Gavin was born. Someday we might add a thing or two to the walls, but for now, here's the "finished" nursery.

And, with the transition from guest room to nursery, we had to find a place for our guests. We now have an office/guest room. It's a little bit "cozy" but we think it works. I suppose you'll have to come test it out for yourself to let us know for sure. Many thanks to Andrew and Connie Toth for their gift of the daybed/trundle. It works perfectly!

Tony's (and a few of Claire's) DVD and CDs. Can you tell what Tony likes to collect? (To be fair, you could look at my closet and dresser drawers to see what I like to collect.)

A First Time for Everything

Thank goodness for digital cameras. We've been busy capturing all of Gavin's "firsts" and have celebrated his first week of life. Actually, today marks two weeks of life, but it will be a little while yet before we add those photos.

Here are some photos for your enjoyment. (Note: It may seem like we're taking a lot of photos, but believe me, this is just a sampling. We're new and proud parents, afterall, and don't have to worry about "wasting" valuable film.)

Gavin's first trip to the pediatrician (also his first trip out since leaving the hospital). And yes, we were on time to his appointment. So far leaving the house an extra 15 minutes early has worked out for us. But I am very aware that promptness will probably not be a regular occurence.

Gavin on his 1 week birthday and with his still recovering parents at week 1.

Gavin's first sunglasses, which will come in handy in a year or two. We also ventured out for something other than a doctor's appointment-- this time, a picnic. It was so nice to get outside and enjoy the sunshine.

Our cutie pie.

Some of Gavin's first sunsets have been phenomenal. This one was particularly stunning. God's great handiwork!

Introducing Gavin Amadeus Toth

Dearest friends and family--
We are overflowing with joy and awe over our new son. God has richly blessed us with this wonderful creation. Gavin Amadeus Toth arrived Wednesday, August 13th at 6:46 am. A not-so-"Tiny Toth," Gavin weighed in at 9lbs. 5oz. and 20 in. long. Yes, his father is very strong in stature, but I don't think we ever imagined our first child would be so big.
Needless to say, we had a lot of work to do to help Gavin make his big debut (50 hours of labor to be exact). We are glad to have that over with. In fact, if you had told us everything that we would go through to meet Gavin, we might have been a little bit traumatized. But, by the grace of God, we were able to take each thing one step at a time and were abundantly blessed by the great care we received from our midwife, OB and nursing staff at the hospital. Our faith during the adventure was definitely a huge part of our survival.
Gavin had a little extra fluid in his lungs after birth (they tell us it's a somewhat normal newborn condition) and needed some help with breathing for the first 30 hours. The good news is that once he was taken off oxygen on Thursday afternoon, he showed no other signs of stress. And he received a glowing report from the pediatrician on Monday. We are so thankful for his great health after a startling beginning.
Here is a selection of photos from the beginning of Gavin's life. We have many more to download and will work on posting those soon. Many thanks to all of you for your prayers, support, enthusiasm and encouragement. We are so blessed by our community of family and friends and thrilled to share this joy with you.







After our third visit to the clinic (and 36 hours labor at home) we were finally ready to be admitted. Proof that Gavin really was over 9 lbs. The happy (and beyond exhausted) family.




Gavin's proud papa and holding Papa's finger for the first time.



Tony's parents-- Mimi and Bapa-- who thankfully arrived the day we went into labor.



Lots of friends that came to visit-- Miranda, Caitlin with Laila, Joel with Jeremiah, Erik with Lauren, Kelsey and Mickey.

Gavin finally joined us in our room and we welcomed more visitors-- Jennifer and Sarah, Tony's brother David, Kei, Elitza, Ivan and Cyrus (not pictured), visiting from California and Mike and Alison Thomas.



And finally, our first ride home. They took such good care of us at the hospital it was hard to go home. But it's nice to be home. As a family for the first time.

To Do Lists and Missing Socks

As of today, we have less than two weeks left until Baby Bear's official due date. Hard to believe.

Here we are at 36 weeks and a couple of days. Tony says we've gotten even bigger since then.


The last few weeks have been a bit eventful for us. Tony spent two separate weeks in Olympia for camps and the week in between we had two of our newphews, Zach and Mikael, visiting with us. We had a great visit with the boys-- they are so easy going and enjoyed a little relaxation.


For those of you that don't know, Olympia is 2.5 hours away. We put in our requests with baby to ask that he/she wouldn't come while papa was gone, but were prepared for the possibility in case baby was really early. But now Tony is back and will not be leaving town anytime soon.


So, in addition to finishing up most of my accounts with work, I've been working on the to do lists while Tony was gone. One of the big items I had to tackle was baby's laundry. This may sound a simple task, but with clothes, sheets and the abundance of blankets we've been given, I think it totalled 5 loads of laundry. I had a moment when reality set in--taking some of the clothes out of the dryer. Yep, those little onesies and socks transformed from cute doll-like toys to my child's clothes.


I'm sure I'll be taking them out of the dryer many times over, but hopefully I won't be losing too many more socks. That's right-- I've already lost a sock. Either that or the dryer has chosen to take a deposit in exchange for all of the work it will be doing for the addition to our family. Those socks are so small, I don't know how I'll ever keep track of them all.


Less than two weeks until the big day, and I'm mostly ready. My energy is decreasing by the day, but besides that, my body is holding up fairly well. In fact, haven't had much of the swollen ankles lately, just swollen hands. It's amazing how your whole body is affected. I think I can hold out (mentally) until the 15th, but after that, it will be hard to be patient.


Nursery is mostly ready-- just waiting for the changing table that was on back order and then I'll post some pictures. I have a few more things I'd like to get done, but I've also picked up a new fiction book, anticipating the need for some down time as my energy and motivation wanes.

Tony, Mikael and Zach assembling the bookcase for baby's room.

We're soon to be parents and that becomes more exciting (and a bit terrifying) by the day. We're still working on names for baby. The boy names have been easy for us, but the girl names are harder to agree upon. We may be wavering up until the last minute (as in the time to sign the birth certificate). We'll see.


More in a week or two. Oh, and if any of you feel inclined to pray for labor and delivery and the health of our newborn, we would be so appreciative. Lots of unknowns in our future.

Catching Up and Counting Down

Well, today is July 8th and we're exactly 5 weeks and 2 days from our official due date (whatever that means, right?). We're officially on the count down.

It's been a month since my last posting, so it's time to catch up. Here are a few photos from the latest activities and some of our "lasts" before baby.

This is mom and baby bear at 34 weeks (last week). We missed taking our 32 weeks photo because we were scrambling to get packed and out of town for vacation.
While I was in California at the beginning of June, Tony and Erik (one of our graduating seniors) put a two-toned, gender neutral green coat of paint on the nursery walls.
Then a few weeks later Tony added the border. We've made even further progress since then, but I'll wait to post photos until we get our furniture... hopefully soon. I will confess though that since we put up our new wood blinds, I go in every morning and open the blinds and say good morning to baby (or at least baby's room). The decorating makes it more and more real and very exciting.
We celebrated Tony's first Father's Day a few weeks ago. I know, some may say he's only a dad-to-be, but we're celebrating these firsts. Life is already changing because of our coming little one. Tony graciously agreed to wear the shirt to church on Father's Day... According to this photo I'd say he's pretty proud to be a dad (or dad-to-be, whichever you prefer). I turned 30! That's right. On June 21st I closed the chapter on my 20s. Don't worry, no mourning here. As far as I'm concerned, life gets better and better each year. But it still is a little bit weird to call myself 30. This photo we took at the Twisp River Pub in Twisp, Washington. (The beginning of our vacation, see below.)

My 30th birthday fell at the beginning of our week of vacation-- our last vacation before baby! We headed over to Wenatchee (Eastern Washington) to meet up with Tony's brother and family and then headed a bit further North to their cabin in Mazama. Cabin--yes. Roughin' it--no. They have a beautiful house amidst lots of pine trees and adjacent to an irrigation canal, far from the hustle and bustle of normal life. The weather was great-- sunshine and high 70s. We enjoyed family time --with Andrew, Connie, Ethan, Ellie, Alex and Connie's parents-- and then relaxed a couple of days by ourselves.

The week flew by and then we were back home to normal life. Well, mostly. Tony is on his summer schedule, preaching two weeks in a row and camps scheduled for two different weeks this month. I am slowly peeling myself away from work and it's wonderful. I don't have to report to work at any given time, but I'm following up on a few orders and proposals to make sure things go smoothly. Two more weeks or so and I hope to be pretty well done.

Many people ask if I'm "ready" to have the baby. At this point, I see that the 9 month (40 week) gestation is a great design on God's part. With each passing week I feel more and more ready, but not anxious or in a hurry. I have several things left on my to do list and I'm fairly sure that as I cross each item off I'll be that much closer to ready. Not to mention that since Tony will be out of town for two separate weeks this month I'm hoping and praying that baby will wait until he returns.

That's all for now. Happy Summer to each of you.