Well, it's been a busy couple of months. We had the kids in gymnastics and they both seemed to enjoy it (.mov|.mpg). The teacher does an excellent job and I was able to get out of work early enough to watch them on a couple of occasions. I had been keeping my eyes out for tickets to a kids' venue called "The Wiggles" and scored big on that one. The kids had a great time. We had the tickets for months, but didn't tell them we were going to see the show. We were seated in one of the middle sections, right at the end of the row. Coincedentally, that is where they would walk, when going up into the crowd.

Dad & Anne came down for a visit and to help out with the kids when Ella was born. It was great having them down here and the kids enjoyed playing with "Grandpa and Grannie Annie."

Ella was born at 37 or 38 weeks of age, dependant up which doctor's date you go by. Unlike the with the first two kids, this time Jodi opted for an epidural. She had had quite a bit of back labor with the first two and I watched her go from pain to comfort in about two minutes with the procedure. You could hear Ella's heartbeat through the monitor, just fine. When she was born, the cord was wrapped around her neck, so they took care of that, but it still took her about 10 seconds to start crying; that was scary. She had to stay under the billi-lights for an day and then we had a portable unit at home for a week, to take care of some jaundice associated with some bruising during the birthing process.

Austin had his first soccer practice and had a blast. His favorite part is a game they play called "shark and minnows." They've practiced kicking goals, running, and dribbling around cones (.mov|.mpg). They set up a square of cones and have all the players except one dribble around soccer balls in the middle of the square, while the shark jogs around the outside square. Then, the coach would yell, "shark attack" and the shark would run in and attempt to knock the balls out of the square. Of course, I snagged a movie (.mov|.mpg) of that.