Pictures of our little "prince"

I've found a few minutes to upload some pix of our new son, Luke. Julia still refuses to call him by his real name but insists on calling him Baby Prince Phillip (from Sleeping Beauty fame). To me, he might as well be called Julia Jr. since he looks so much like his big sister when she was born.

We are headed back to the hospital today and the plan is to have the entire family back home tonight. Needless to say, things get rough when it's time for JJ to leave mom at night but oh well. Things will soon return to normal.

Can't wait to come back to CA and show Luke off to his Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends. With any luck he will be on an airplane headed home as soon as his passport arrives in late March. Until that time, our little German boy can't leave the "Fatherland".

Luke is a completely healthy boy. We couldn't be happier about our little gummi bear.

Last but not least, Jen is doing really well. While she was initially anxious to leave the hospital, she said she is really getting used to having people cook her meals, call on her, and clean up after her. Jen's quote "It's like being a celebrity". Anyhow, more pix to come soon.

Baby Luke is Here!

Quick note: Our son Luke was born this morning at 0130 local time at Saint Johannes Hospital in Landstuhl. He weighed in at 7 lbs and is really healthy. Jen is also doing well and is staying with our son until around Friday or Saturday at the hospital. It was quite an experience but it is one I will have to write about later. More to come including pictures when I can catch up on some sleep :)

Baby Update/What's up with that on the door?

What's that writing on our front door? It's epiphany chalk. Read about it at this link: http://www.german-way.com/christmas.html In short, it is a really cool German tradition where little German kids get dressed up as the three kings and go from door to door collecting "gifts" for the newly born Jesus (the money ultimately goes to charities sponsored by the Catholic Church) and write a blessing on your door.

For us, the knock on the door came on 5 Jan and I took Julia with me to answer the door. Keep in mind we had no idea what was coming and we were shocked to see the kids dressed up like that. Even better, Julia was wearing one of her many princess outfits so she fit right in with the "Three Kings". They said some stuff in German and then wrote the phrase 20+C+M+B+08 on our door which is said to bless everyone entering the door for the rest of the year. Really cool stuff.

Different subject: No baby yet. Any day now. We are looking forward to seeing our son Luke! We had an appt with the OB doc yesterday and everything is looking good. Unlike his sister, Luke is in no hurry to come out. Can't blame him. It's cold outside!

Here's a pic of a very pregnant Jen standing on the ice of Lake Gelterswoog down the road in Hohenecken. I believe we took the picture on Christmas day so as you can imagine, her belly is even bigger now.