Labor - verb. la-bor, To strive, as toward a goal; work hard (often fol. by for): to labor for peace.

Well, two weeks ago today (well, at 12:01 am on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010) it finally happened! We gave birth to our second and super perfect and beautiful son, Jonah David Clark, 6 lbs 14 ounces and 19 inches long. Tuesday, the 9th, was a long day, I had contractions all day pretty much, nothing painful, just feeling a little off and pretty tired. I got a bath and spend most of the afternoon/evening timing contractions and durations with my mom and Caleb and big brother Xander. Around 9 pm, just in time for Lost, ha, we decided it was best to head to the hospital, I had tried to eat a banana but it didn't take and I threw up in the sink, I'm sure you're glad I'm sharing. We sent Xander to Auntie Mimi's house and he was such a trooper, we gave him kisses and said goodbye (we hadn't spent a night away from him, ever!). We arrived at the hospital around 9:30 and were sent to triage, a place where they decide if you're really in labor, they made me sit around too long, about 45 minutes, while contractions got stronger, I knew I was in labor and told them if they waited too long I wasn't going to get an epidural, because once I hit a certain point I take off. Around 10:30 they sent us to labor and delivery to get us set up and my saline started, before the epidural. Our friend Kelly stopped by a bit before 11:30 to drop off some flowers and playing cards, in case we got bored. Right after the doctor tried to get an epidural going, and I say tried because by that time I was having contractions 4 and 5 on top of each other and things were moving along. By the time the doctor told me to roll on my back and start pushing the epidural hadn't kicked in, of course, and I was already fully dilated. Pushing was much easier than with Xander so the epidural must have kicked in, thankfully, for the last part. I pushed twice and this little man was out and I was feeling great, ha. It was so nice to have my mom and Caleb with me. Here are a couple pictures of the crazy night.
Waiting in triage, the calm before the storm.
Still waiting...missing Lost...ha.
And there he is...a tiny little nugget.
Stamping his little foot.
A proud Papa all over again.
This little one gave his Mama a hard time coming out, but I guess that's what babies do.
Caleb was my hero all over again when he ran to the hospital cafeteria for a post-labor snack; french fries and Barq's root beer, a couple of my favorite cravings, that cafeteria made the hospital stay for us! There's also a bowl of carrots, ha, they were really good too! I craved a lot and Caleb was always able to deliver.

Stir Crazy - adj. stir-cra-zym Restless or frantic because of confinement, routine, etc.: I was stir-crazy after just two months of keeping house.

I don't know how we fit everything into our weekends. Usually when I'm compiling pictures for blog posts I'm overwhelmed by the things we do, it's tiring just looking at them. This weekend was actually pretty slow, since Charlotte got hit by a snow/ice storm and most people, including us, we stuck with where we could walk, which really doesn't change our weekend much, since we usually stay around the 'hood anyway. It was nice to get a snowfall this year, I was starting to think we wouldn't get one and I was getting bummed, but here we are, two days later and it's still out there. I'm sure it will be gone in the next couple days but we'll enjoy it while it's here, especially Xander who's a big fan. By the way, I'm still pregnant. Baby has no choice but to come out this week, no matter how hospitable my womb is.

Keaton's first birthday was today, Sunday the 31st, and we celebrated for something close to 9 hours, which was a lot for me and nugget who are now both exhausted and hoping to sleep for a long time. Lots of friends showed up and we had a lot of fun being too loud.

Still having a great time at Dolce Vita's sushi night, Thursday nights, you must come, amazing food and better friends. Xander is always surprising at what he's learning, on his own even, we got our food this week and he said, 'Sushi!', then immediately asked for chop-sticks and sauce.

Here is our weekend-in-review.
Deb and Anna, hanging out at Keaton's birthday.
They totally love each other.
This little stud muffin just keeps getting cuter and cuter. His personality is starting to shine through and he continues to make us laugh and smile.
Not to mention the child is totally beautiful! Can't wait to meet his younger brother...
Lunch at Boudreaux's...
He couldn't spend enough time with the snow, even with frozen little fingers he cried when we had to go in. Luckily we have Auntie Anna who has about as much energy as he does.
Our little winter wonderland.
No more pictures.
Our little cultured man.
Having fun at Keaton's birthday...I just realized I didn't post any pictures of him...We didn't get the camera to the party until later in the evening. Keaton had an amazing time eating his first cake, those pictures must be posted soon.

Heartbroken - adj. heart-bro-ken, Crushed with sorrow or grief.

Another busy weekend in the Clark household, even with a baby coming, but not busy enough to encourage the little nugget to want to come out, we'll have to keep trying. We went to dinner with a bunch of neighbors at a new place called 'Soul', and man, it was good food. We will definitely go back, but possibly try going during the week, that place is SO busy. Luckily we had a friend get us a table reserved, which they usually don't do, so we didn't have to wait. Otherwise it would have been at least two hours with a group of 11, like us. On Saturday we headed to Dolce Vita, of course, to listen to some karaoke, which was entertaining but we didn't stay long, it started later than we thought and we weren't really into staying out too late. Sunday was a very big day for us and just as big of a disappointment. We were really looking forward to seeing the Vikings head to the Superbowl this year, with no luck, it was such a good game though and the Vikes did do really well, just a tough game all around. And of course I uploaded all the pictures backwards so Sunday first to Friday night...
Hanging out during the game.
Misha and Adam during the football game, and we wondered where Keaton got his scowl...not any longer!
Keaton's famous scowl, he's very good at it.
Nummy, I love this dessert at Dolce. Chocolate and Raspberry, what more do you need?
Yes, I'm almost 10 month pregnant and I'm eating brie, you can't stop me...totally my favorite thing to eat at Dolce Vita, a must have.
He's so lovely!
Anna and her boyfriend Sake.
Misha and Adam at Soul, and that's Anna's 'claw' about to get Adam right in the nose.
Trouble makers.
This was some kind of fantastic. I'm pretty sure there is sushi buried under there.
Meat and cheese plate, isn't it pretty?
This isn't from the weekend but I thought I'd share my lovely.

Pregnant - adj. preg-nant, Teeming or fertile; rich (often fol. by in): a mind pregnant in ideas.

Here are some of my favorites from this weekends photo shoot. 38 weeks and going strong, and by strong I mean we're ready to have this baby, we're both out of room and he's a little ninja. Laura Pegram (laurapegramphotography.com) did just a fantastic job on my pictures I can hardly express it. There are so many to choose from and I know Caleb will have fun editing them into something fantastic. Xander was a little firecracker so it was tricky to get good pictures out of him but Laura managed it perfectly. I love the pictures in the boys room, it shows the colors and the energy of the room that really should be shared, I just like sitting in the room while Xander plays around. NoDa has a couple great places for photography that I'm sure you'll recognize, we use the brick wall a lot because it's awesome and the broken down green shed is so great for aesthetics. Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures.
It was practically impossible to keep Xander from moving at warp speed, I'm so surprised she actually got a shot of him kissing the belly. He did what he was told and kissed it every time we asked, he just did it so fast we had to ask a bunch of times.
Caleb painted the suitcases on the wall. I had been collecting them and dragging them around the country with us for so long he finally figured out something useful to do with them. That's why were perfect together, I'm a pack-rat and he's a creative genius.
The henna was beautiful, we need to figure out how to make it darker in the future, it's still on my belly and I'm curious to see what it will look like when the little man comes out.
Outside of our lovely home. I realize our Christmas lights are still up, I should of had Caleb take them out on photoshop...or...I could have taken them down weeks ago, computer is just so much easier.
The only way to get him to sit still at this point in the shoot was to let him play cars on Mama's belly. We also had to bribe him with candy, a sucker to be exact, which is something I usually avoid because for being such a simple piece of candy that should be less messy, I mean, hold the stick and suck on the candy, Xander manages to make the biggest, stickiest mess humanly possible.