…to say “Hi” before we head our tired little selves off to bed. It has been a busy day at Gentlewood Cottage, but now the day is done. It’s so peaceful, with Sophie sleeping in the basinett next to me, and Kinsley sleeping in my arms…

Goodnight!

I have been jostled out of my contented “recovery”. This resting up after a baby could probably go on forever!

The Sparrow’s Nest is having a procrastination challenge. Which is just what I need to nudge me to actually get off my rump and accomplish something.

So – my goals:

1. Fold and put away the mountain of laundry which has been steadily growing since Sophie’s birth 2 1/2 weeks ago.

2. Clean the bathroom.

3. Sweep and mop the kitchen floor.

4. Make appointment with doctor.

5. Survive the rest of the day with a newborn and a sixteen month old baby…

After around 17 hours of toil, and 15 minutes of pushing in the portable hot-tub in our bedroom, at 4:15PM, on January 6, 2007, a baby girl was born.

She was 7 pounds, 2 ounces, and 18 1/2 inches long.

Her name is Sophie Lucia Marie Jacobson, but all of you can just call her Sophie (or Lucy, if you’re so inclined).

Sophie means wisdom, signifying our hope that she will grow in true wisdom, and be a wise woman some day. Lucia (loo-CHI-ah) means light – we trust she will reflect the Light that is Jesus Christ, and be a light in a dark world. Her third name Marie is in honor of all of her many aunts and older cousins on both branches of her family tree with that name, and a great, great grandmother. Jacobson is her last name because that’s the way it turned out.

From the pictures (see links below), you can probably see that she has very ugly feet, with very long and large toes, enormous hands (like I’ve never seen on a baby), a prominent nose, inset eyes, and a dramatically dimpled chin. The description doesn’t sound very nice in words, but if you follow the links below to the pictures, you will probably see that she is beautiful with all of these features.

Sophie’s big sister is enamored by her, and has been very sweet to her. We hope that will continue through life.

We thank everyone for their prayers, and we thank our kind God for this new amazing gift.

Sophie Lucia Marie

Sophie’s First Photo Shoot

As I mentioned before, tiny aesthetic details are becoming more and more important to me as the birth looms nearer. I think the “birth room” is as perfect as I can get it. Exept for two things…

1. The view out the double window isn’t exactly cheery. Well, really neither window has a cheery view, but I can controll the one out the double window.

And

2. There’s a mysterious dirty sock smell in the bedroom, and I cannot seem to locate it’s source.

The birthroom has been an interiesting precess. First we bought a (used) hotub, which we were told worked, and it didn’t. So we spent a couple of months trying to get the problem fixed and hoping that hte baby would wait till it was ready. Finally, it was really up and running. So we moved it up to the bedroom and filled it.

Over the next day or two, we began to worry about the weight of the water on the floor boards etc. One workday, I thought I was hearing a lot of creaknig coming from the basement, so I called Dan and suggested that maybe he should figure out exactly how much the thing weighed. One he calculated it all up, we came to the conclusion that it was somewhere around 150# per sqaure foot. As far as we could learn, 35# per square foot is considered safe.

So Dan and Dad took an emergency break for work (I was there for lunch already, so I answered the phones for them) and went out to cut a tree or two to wedge under the floor joists in the basement.

Grandad (my dad) bringing the tree in with the tractor…

Dan and Jared (my brother) inspecting the top for Christmas Tree possibilities…

So, that is how we came by our Christmas Tree.

I admit that I was hesitant to decorate for Christmas at all this year. I thought that I wanted to focus all my energy on nesting and having a baby. Through an interesting series of events we ended up with a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. And, it’s grown on us!

The Christmas Mantle

Soft Trees

Candle

These pictures are of Kinsley’s new nightgown. She really hammed it up for the “photo shoot” – posing and fluttering her eyelids and wanting to see the pictures after each shot. She went from chair to chair and posed, then got a book and held it upside down and looked at me, not the book. She’s totally thrilled with her new gown and thinks herself the prettiest thing to ever walk the face of the earth.

As I get closer and closer to the birth of Baby Girl Number Two, tiny aesthetic details become more and more important to me. So, when something looks the way I want it to, I have become obsessed with grabbing the camera and photographing it. Who knows how long it’ll last?

The colors in my home are so cheery to me. Doesn’t this combination make you feel happy?

This particular scene is in my bedroom. On the shelf above my sewing table, to be exact. When Baby is born, I will labor in my hot tub and look around the room with satisfaction, knowing that almost every detail is as near to perfect as it could possibly be.