Kai meets Santa

It might be bit early to blog this, but...


Kai's first photo with Santa!

As the Aussie's don't celebrate Thanksgiving (we do, both the Canadian Thanksgiving in October and the American Thanksgiving which we are celebrating tonight with Deb and Toby and Dash!), the Christmas decorations go up in their stores in mid-November. We thought we'd beat the crowds and get a photo with Santa this early. Kai couldn't manage to stay awake =)

Grandma's here!

My mom arrived this week to meet her grandson, her first grandchild, for the first time. It was an emotional reunion at the airport!


We've been having a nice time together. The weather has been gorgeous, and we've been hitting up the shops every day, and cooking yummy meals at home. Thanks for the help, mom!

More emotions at home, but this time of the laughing sort! My mom seriously almost peed her pants at the sight of Kai... reminded her of some comedy skit where people wear clothes way too big for them (???). This little outfit and shoes are too big on Kai, but my mom insisted on trying them on him so my dear Aunt Jean who gave the outfit to him could see him in it. I don't think Kai was quite as amused as my mother was.

You know, just doing dishes... with a sleeping baby over my arm...

I think she got what she wants for Christmas...


A few other shots. Me trying out a baby back(front!) pack for the first time.

Such a funny face he's pulling! What do you think he's thinking? Prize for the best line!

Lunchtime!

My 3-week old baby. Yikes, look at his size! Someone at the mall asked me today how old Kai was. There guess was 3 months!

That's all for now... off to bed!

More to the meaning...

We discovered the name Kai while in Hawaii on our honeymoon. Kai means "ocean" in Hawaiin. FYI, Kai's middle name, Maddox, was discovered by Leigh while out here in Australia for my birth. Maddox is of Welsh origin, and means "good," "generous," and "son of the benevolent one." I like that last meaning because it's a challenge for me to be "marked by or disposed to doing good, or organized for the purpose of doing good." Back to the name Kai...my good friend, Eric Meyer, has since enlightened me to additional meanings within the name, making me like the name even more...

First, the pronunciation of "Kai" is the same as the greek letter "chi" which is the first letter of "Christ" and often stands as a symbol for the whole word. The "chi" is the "x" in x-mas and the "ch" in "Ichthus".

Second, "Kai" means "and" in Greek (sorry for all the Greek). That makes me think of the Waterdeep song, which I've never totally understood, where they refer to Jesus as "and" throughout the whole song.

"And is the juice in the joints of emotional life,
and is the love that is between God and his beautiful wife,
and has two hands and two feet and a long lovely side,
and rose three days after he was crucified."

Pretty cool, eh?

More photos of Kai

Hello friends and family! We're all doing well. It's Saturday here. Mark has had the whole week off work to spend at home with me and the baby... it's gone by SO quickly! He's done a great job taking care of us, making sure I'm feeling loved and Kai has a clean nappy on. Leigh has also been a tremendous help, doing more than her fair share of nappy changes, and helping to keep the house clean and good food in our bellies. Our church and friends have also been caring, bringing meals around every evening. Thanks guys!

We're slowly adjusting to life as parents. It still doesn't quite seem real to either of us, but it's starting to sink in. I'm finally feeling better. I think the after-birth recovery has been more difficult than the pregnancy and the birth! I've just been sore and haven't been able to walk for prolonged periods of time, which is difficult for me who always likes to bounce back quickly and be active. I'm learning to put my feet up and rest. Night-times have been really good, I think. He wakes up about 3 times to feed, and in between he's pretty quiet so I can get a decent amount of sleep. I was running off less sleep at university, so this is fine. In the day-times he still sleeps a lot, but also has periods where he's very alert.

Thanks again for all of your thoughts, prayers, letters, emails, etc... Much appreciated!


The cats are getting used to Kai. Bella is giving him a little cuddle here!


Below: how NOT to do 'no nappy time'. You just can't have enough towels under you.


A better way to do it... (although he still managed to get the carpet a little wet- good aim!)


Kai's first bath at home with Auntie Leigh


All wrapped up in a froggie towel from Aunt Laura


Just being cute!


Notice the little smile on Kai's face! Is he dreaming about my breast, pooping, or farting? Or maybe he's just enjoying snuggling on daddy's lap?


The first book we read to him, "That's Not My Pirate."

I think he liked it =)

And last but not least, some more father/son photos. In the one right below, Mark was snoring very loudly, but Kai didn't seem to mind!

Both passed out...

Kai Maddox Colvin is home now...

Hi everyone! Mom and baby Kai are doing well. Mom is tired and sore, as would be expected, and Kai is keeping her busy with all the feeding he's doing, but she's happy and recovering. She is so pleased with how her labour and birth turned out. She is all too eager to show everyone the bare bottom photos (she gave birth leaning over the bed) and birth video! Let her know if you do want to see them ;) We're saying the labour was seven hours long, but Rachel was in denial the first four hours... thinking that her discomfort was perhaps gastro/diarrhea. By the time she figured it probably was labour, she didn't really have time to embrace that crazy wonderful thought... she was just going with the contractions... trying to focus... employing all she learned while a runner at her high school (many thanks to her coaches!). We just about had the baby at home, but made it to the hospital and had the baby within the hour! Her waters broke (with a LOUD pop, like a water balloon bursting) just as we got to the birthing suite, and the baby came out shortly after. She actually didn't realize when she had birthed the head, and was trying to figure out what Mark meant when he told her, "I can see his face!" His head dangled in mid-air for about 15 seconds, until Rachel's next contraction. The environment in the hospital was peaceful and quite with just a little bit of afternoon sunshine coming in through the curtains. Mark caught little Kai coming out. Rachel is so pleased that she was able to stay at home for so long and have a natural vaginal birth with no epidural and no tearing! She does have 'grazing' though, which has caused a lot of discomfort, but the pain is thankfully subsiding. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers during this time.

The happy family

Happy mum

Singing 'Happy Birthday' to baby Kai. Friend Kate brought the cake and the '0' candle =)

Kai's first bath! He seemed to really like it...

After the bath, getting all dried off and warmed up.

Mum and bub snoozing in bed

Proud Auntie Leigh!

Our friends had their baby girl, Kiani, the night before Kai was born. They were right across the hall from us. Kai is already putting his moves on here. First girlfriend perhaps??

Mum getting the hang of breastfeeding. It's been going amazingly well, too easy even. Kai attaches well and eats... all the time it seems.

At home, the cats first weren't sure what to think of the little guy. They seem to be taking a liking to him now. Bella even snuggled with him last night (photo soon to come)!

Proud daddy

BIG yawn!

Fast asleep...

Welcome Kai!

Shout for joy!!

Kai Maddox Colvin is here!!!

Born on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 at 1:08pm weighing 8lbs 6oz. Everyone is resting and doing fine!! Labour was about 7 hours long, pretty intense at times, but went beautifully well. Rachel didn't need any stitches, Kai was nursed on his own less than an hour after birth.
Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers.

Halloween Fun

People here don't really celebrate Halloween. I, on the other hand, got very excited about it... more for nostalgic reasons I think. And I just love any excuse for a party, something fun to do, candy, and a nice reminder of home. Leigh and I picked up these masks at the dollar store and wore them around town for the day. We got some very strange looks... and the masks aren't even crazy ones! One man even asked us why we were wearing the masks. "It's Halloween..." (duh!)

Our nice faces

Our mean faces

Leigh's finished product

And mine

And our front door. We had one set of trick-or-treaters. One.

OK, so today (Nov 1) we went mini-golfing. I'll spare you those exciting photos, and instead share these. It was an old-west sort of themed mini-golf place... Now, who looks most 'Mad-Dog' to you??? Please vote =)







Anyhow, so yesterday was my first due date. I think I'll now forget about that and go with the second due date of Nov. 9th so he can still come 'early' =) It's still strange to Mark and me that we'll be parents soon... that we'll have a little baby to take care of! It's only a matter of hours, or days, or weeks now... but not more than three weeks! Wow. Thankfully I've slept well the last two nights (but here I am typing this and it's almost 1am!). I am getting more achy and crampy and I continue to get bigger. My guess/hope is that he'll come this Monday to Wednesday. Overall I'm still doing really well though. Uncomfortable at times, but definitely coping and still enjoying life and my time with Leigh.

We'll keep you posted as soon as anything happens... Thanks for your prayers!