Happy Father's Day!

The kids and I were lucky enough to celebrate Father's Day with two of the best.  We spent at week at Pine Grove Furnace State Park -- swimming, biking, hiking, climbing, campfire-ing.



For Father's Day, the kids and I gave these two a few hours to read books in the shade.

Gregory and James

My cousin Gregory and James enjoying a family birthday party.  (Why do I love photos of crying babies so much?  They are just too cute!)

My Brother Brian

 Found these cute pictures of my brother and me.  I may be stretching things a bit but I think Alma looks like my brother and James looks like me. 

The Chisholm Scowl

We recently got a great email from Joshua's mother referencing the strong brow of Joshua and our children:

Hi Josh and Laura,
As you can tell, Josh, these are some very old photos of your Dad. I thought you'd appreciate seeing the first recorded evidence I have of that famous Chisholm scowl. 
Love,
Mom

Grandma Chisholm and a Baptism

 Grandma Chisholm came from Oregon to meet James and attend his baptism.  Here they are meeting for the first time. 

 James getting dressed for his baptism in the same gown that Joshua wore when he was a baby.

 James's godparents are my cousin Peter and my best friend Kate.  A criminal defense attorney and a pediatrician, this kid is set!

 Alma with her godparents, Christine and Scott.

We are so blessed to be able to spend time with family and friends ... and especially our week with Grandma Chisholm!

Happy New Year

So excited and blessed to be heading in to the new year as a family of four.

A Christmas to Remember: James's Birth Day

I woke up at 3:30 a.m. with a contraction.  After monitoring the contractions for over an hour, which were coming every five minutes and were intense but manageable, I got up and packed last minute supplies in my hospital bag, ate a bowl of cereal and called the doctor.  Around 5:30, after only three hours of sleeping in bed (he fell asleep in front of the tv), Joshua popped out of bed and packed up his things while I woke my parents to tell them that we were heading off to the hospital.  I may have inundated them with a bunch of information (i.e. which presents Alma could open from Santa) that I had been mulling over.  It was exciting but we were a little unsure if we really were in labor or not.  With Alma, my water broke at 4 a.m. and there was no denying that labor had started.

We got to the hospital at 6am and had to enter through the ER because the main doors were locked.  Not wanting to be separated from Joshua, we parked in the garage and walked around the hospital to the ER, which was refreshing in the cold air.  Joshua thought it was hilarious that I would pause (both walking and talking) for a contraction and then once it was over quickly return to my chatter again.  He teased that they wouldn't need to put a contraction monitor on me, they could simply listen to when I paused my endless banter.

Once we got  to the ER at 6 a.m., we were told that someone from the Labor and Delivery floor would be there shortly to escort us up.   After a half an hour of steadily increasing contractions and a very nervous looking front desk attendant who was constantly calling up to L&D to see when the escort would get there, we walked through the winding hospital up to the L&D floor.  In the triage room, I was found to be between 5-6 cm dilated and was official admitted to the hospital.  

 

One last photo of the baby bump while in the ER watching It's A Wonderful Life

We were moved to a labor room around 8 a.m. were we hung out -- I was mostly on a yoga ball and Joshua was by my side massaging my neck -- for a relatively painless laboring process until 9:30 a.m. when the doctor arrived.  She checked me and found that I was 9cm dilated.  With her guidance, I broke my own water with a push around 9:45 a.m. and began pushing the baby shortly after.  Pushing this baby was a bit more intense than with Alma and lasted a little longer.  He decided to twist on the way out, which ... well, wasn't the most pleasant.


As soon as James came into the world at 10:22 a.m., they handed him to me bum-first so that I could see that he was a boy -- yeah, a little weird, I would have been okay with them just telling me -- before I got to hug him and snuggle with him.  I couldn't stop repeating "Hello, Baby."  I will always remember the excited look on Joshua's face as he kissed me and congratulated me on doing a good job.  It was a very happy moment.

An hour later, my parents brought Alma to meet her little brother.  Joshua went to the lobby to bring her back to the labor room and we had some time together as the new family of four. She was excited not only to meet James but also because she had been given a "Big Sister" sticker by the hospital staff.

Comically, when we asked Alma if Santa came that morning she said, "No."  While we were confused at first, we realized that when we explained that Santa was going to come at night while she was sleeping, we forgot to mention that he would also leave at night before she woke up.  She had been expecting to see him in the morning.  Sure, he ate the cookies, drank the milk and left presents, but he didn't officially visit because she didn't see him herself!

Then my parents joined us and we had a nice visit while Alma snacked on pretzels.  We were so blessed that my parents were visiting and they could watch Alma and celebrate Christmas with her while we were in the hospital.  It was nice to not have to worry about her or juggle her around between friends while my parents drove out to Bethlehem from their house, as they were planning to do if we went into labor before their visit.  Also, my brother's family, who were already planning on joining us at our house on Christmas for a feast, still came so Alma got to enjoy the holiday with her cousins. 

Twas the Night Before Christmas

 In telling the birth story of both our children, it seems that starting the day before seems best.  We spent Christmas Eve in a flurry of baking (Joshua), cleaning (Joshua again) and resting (Laura).  Along with cleaning the entire house, Joshua baked all the holiday cookies (anise, biscotti, orange shortbread) and an amazing povitisia well into the night on Christmas Eve's Eve and Christmas Eve.  He was an animal of productivity ... and probably a little sleep deprived.

Late in the afternoon of Christmas Eve, my parents arrived much to all our delight.  We attended the 4pm Christmas Mass and luckily someone gave up their seat for me because I don't think I could have endured the crowded standing-room only section along the pews.  After Mass we came home to a fantastic meal of Omaha steaks and all the fixings.  Before Alma went to bed, we put out cookies, milk and carrots for Santa and his reindeer.  The adults spent the evening watching the Sound of Music.  It was ideal.

 We also spent some time dressing Alma up in her Halloween costume and taking silly photos of "Mary" (Laura) riding her "donkey" (Alma).

All of this was just a set up for the 3:30am-Christmas-morning-dream-ending contraction that started James's labor process.

The rest of the birth story will follow tomorrow...

Lupus Loop

Once again, at the end of October we will be walking in the Lupus Loop to raise awareness and funds to fight lupus. If you would like to support us, please visit the fundraising page of our team, The Queen's Team by clicking here. Thanks!

Newest Thompson

My brother and his family welcomed their third child at the beginning of June, so we celebrated the baby's baptism this past weekend.

Alma enjoyed playing in the baptismal font with Grandpa, who she lovingly calls "Baw-paw".

Vacation Wrap Up

We were lucky enough to have three straight weeks of vacation this summer.  Well, one week of "workcation" followed by one week of "memorialization" before a week of actual vacation.

Our first week was spent in Applegate, CA (near Sacramento) for Joshua's work conference.  The overarching organization that Joshua, through CUNA, works with, People Improving Communities through Organizing (PICO), is an international non-profit that encourages the employees to bring their families to the yearly week-long work conference.  I've been wanting to attend for years but this is the first time that the trip didn't interfere with my own employment.  Alma and I spent our days playing with the other 40+ kids in attendance and enjoying the beautiful Jesuit retreat center where the conference was held.  And, at night, Joshua and I would hang out on the patio overlooking the pond and share a crossword puzzle.

Sadly, Joshua's grandmother passed at the beginning of June, so we spent the next week with his family celebrating her life.  While it was a sad event, it was so nice to have some time with the Chisholm clan when we had not been planning a visit with them for this summer.  We were able to spend a day at Santa Monica beach (photo of Alma and me was snapped by Hayden!), some time in the backyard shooting cans with a BB gun, and Alma had plenty of time idolizing her cousin Hayden.

After a wild trip home -- three days of delayed flights, car rides interrupted with me getting sick on the side of the road (yes, that happened more than once), an eventual red-eye flight home with an overly tired toddler -- we were home for 20 hours before leaving for a trip up to the Adirondacks for a week of relaxing with Kate, Neal (a.k.a. Uncle Fun), their pup Rio and our dog Simon.  It was a week composed of all the greatest things: best friends (even Simon had his best friend), delicious food, and an amazing house right on Lake Paradox.  We spent days hiking, napping, watching the dogs swim until near-drowning fatigue and our nights were long games of Kate beating us at Settlers of Catan.