Aotis the party animal

The joys of newborn life...come 10/11pm, Aotis finally decides it's time to wake and check out the world. At least he's content to snuggle with dad. :)

"Today I'm a weed-pulling guy!"

Rock on little man. You be weed-pulling man and you go pull those weeds!! 

(Doesn't hurt that he gets to use one of dad's tools I suppose)

All grown up

Definitely no baby here anymore. He recently mastered the self manicure, and has now decided to move on to a pedi. I gotta say, he did a decent job too!

Costume party!!

Arjen has been asking for a few days now if he can wear his Luigi costume. Then Gus wanted his, so of course Arjen  then said Aotis needed his costume too! 

"What costume?" I asked. 

"The dinosaur one!" he replied enthusiastically. Of course I'd already forgotten about this particular outfit, but Arjen clearly had not forgotten from 2 days ago when he was helping me put baby clothes away. 

So costume party it was. :)

2 of 3 looking at the camera...I'll take it!

Happy birth day Aotis!!

In true West coast Anderson form, this baby did not want to wait til it's due date! After having consistent contractions all morning, by early afternoon they said we could head to the hospital (John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek). Baba and Dave fortunately were able to come stay with the big boys, and Andrew and I settled in to our new room for the next few hours. 

He was able to settle into rest a little better than I was:

After waiting a few more hours, things finally started to progress, and by 7:41pm on Feb 5, this little bundle of love was in our arms and outta my belly! He weighed in at a healthy 8lbs 7oz, 20" long. 

In keeping with tradition, we had to find a name starting with A. We both liked the sound of Evan, and there's an Irish spelling that made it possible: Aoibheann. The big brothers however, had different opinions. Apparently Evan, is one of the bad guys in their fave transformer show, so they said that was no good. They'd also heard us throw around the name Otis during the past few weeks, and when they came to meet their brother for the first time, they decided his name should be Otis. After some deliberation, we decided we could throw a silent 'A' in front of it, and thus the big brothers got to name their little bro. And they okay'd "Evan" for  the middle name. So we introduce to you:

Aotis Aoibheann Anderson.  Easier said than spelled. Yes, we're aware. It'll help him build character!

See any family resemblance? (Arjen top, Gus middle, Aotis bottom)

One of the "perks" at John Muir was having a newborn photographer come in to take pictures. She set up some great shots of all three boys, and some cute ones of just Aotis. 

Big Brother love!

Getting his hearing tested (while being held by GGma Clarice. He passed with flying colors! 

Getting some daddy love

And some mommy love

Lots of love for this little peanut! It's still soaking in that we're now a family of five, but anything less just wasn't complete!

A Super Sunday

Another Super Bowl and another fun afternoon evening spent with friends and fam. I could lie and tell you this shot was taken during the game, but I'm not that kinda gal. The only thing that got everyone's full attention was Katy Perry's halftime show. Adults and kids alike were fully sucked in!

Even the outdoor viewing crew was watching. 

After some delicious ribs for dinner, the kids were entertained with some cupcake decorating fun. I'm still amazed at how well this whole crew of kids, from the babies to the oldest one at age 9, got along and had ZERO issues the whole night! 

Gus was working his Hugh Hefner vibe with the older ladies...

...while Arjen put on the suave with his younger counterpart. 

Good thing they're all just happy little kids right now and I don't have to worry about brothers fighting over the same girl! Miss Sophie sure did catch their attention all night though! 

At some point we realized that this annual tradition has become as much about this group of kiddos as it is the football. I mean this is how awesome they all are...all looking up at the paparazzi!

Top row: Eva - 7, Sophie - 3, Rosie - 9

Bottom Row: Gus - a month shy of 3, Charlie - a few days shy of 2, Avia - 7 mos, Arjen - 4, Sloane - 4.5 mos. 

Can't wait to do it again next year (and with one more kid)!!

Let it Go!

Shortly after Christmas, we discovered that Gus had been paying closer attention than we realized to "Frozen."  He shocked us with his knowledge of the lyrics…to pretty much the whole song.  It began with this Karaoke version (sorry for all the background noise):



Since this night, he no longer needs the youtube sing-a-long, he just belts out the words on his own.  He falls asleep singing "Let it Go," he wakes up singing it, and he has now wowed us with various concerts at home, as well as out in public (i.e. grocery store, Costco, etc).  He even shared his expanded repertoire, which includes pretty much the whole "Frozen" soundtrack.  Even I don't know the words to the opening song, but he does!  Of course I botched my one shot at a more pure video and recorded the whole thing in slow motion, so we're stuck with just the video above, with all it's background noise and glory.  Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.  :)