We were at the pediatricians this morning with Karen.  She’s grown a few inches, or straightened out, so she’s now at 21 inches, and she has surpassed her birth weight; she’s now 7 pounds 5 ounces.  According to the pediatrician, everything looks great!

In other news, Evan had his halloween party at preschool this morning, and within 5 minutes of arriving, he was out of his bear costume. “I’m not a bear, I’m Evan Manning!” he said tearily.  When the kids had a little parade through the halls of their school, he put on the head covering, so at least he had a fuzzy head and ears.

On Wednesday evening, October 22nd, at 6:25 pm, Karen Jeanne Knodle Manning made her debut into this world. She weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce and was 19 inches long. She was alert and happy immediately after birth. We have some pictures up on our flickr account of our new daughter.

We went home from the birthing center the next morning and since then we’ve been hanging around the house, resting and spending time together as a family.

Evan is enjoying his little sister, although I’m sure he wants her to do a little more.  He gives her kisses and sings her lullaby un-prompted throughout the day.

And Karen is doing wonderfully.  She’s eating well, when she’s not sleeping, and she is easily soothed when she cries.

I’m feeling better every day.  Jon has made me promise to relax and let him and our visitors take care of everything.  So I’ve been doing my best to take care of myself, although I look forward to resuming some of my most favorite activities.

Jon’s been super-dad, taking care of Evan, Karen AND me these last few days.  His food has been delicious and his willingness to swaddle Karen and play with Evan AND take the dog for walks has been endless.

So, we’re going to continue to get to know our new little angel and we’ll try to keep you updated along the way!

Yesterday brought us to day 7 past the due date.  We tried progesterone gel to induce labor at 11am, and by 3pm, I thought I was in early labor.  I called my mother and mother-in-law, and by 8:30pm, the house was full of parents (and a sister) eager to meet the new addition.  We left for the hospital at midnight, after the Red Sox victory, and arrived at the Birthing Center around 12:30am.  There was no progression by 3:45am, so we ended up going home to sleep in our own (warm and comfortable) bed.  I slept from 4am to 8am without feeling a single contraction, so it’s official: labor either stalled or never really started in the first place.

In other news, Evan went to the doctor’s on Thursday for his 3-year-old well-visit appointment.  He is measuring at 36.5 inches (27th percentile) and weighing in at 28 pounds (13th percentile).  He got a “big boy” appointment, complete with blood pressure measurements and the big boy scale.  He answered questions and obeyed requests.  When his blood was drawn, he watched with curiosity.  He did a great job. I’m proud of my big boy.

He also go a hair-cut on Friday… as you can tell, I was trying to get some appointments out of the way.  Unfortunately, there were no appointments for me to get my hair cut, so if the baby comes soon, you’ll have to endure the shaggy hair!

UPDATE: (Still no baby) Evan went to the Children’s Hospital in Salem to get blood drawn for an allergy test. The phlebotomist said that he was her best patient all day, among both kids AND adults. We have a professional patient on our hands.

We went to the Stone Zoo again on Monday. Evan and I met Maura and Matt there, and we enjoyed looking at the animals together. Evan especially liked the black bears and the cougar.

Stone Zoo is pretty small… we hope to make it out to the Franklin Park zoo sometime soon, too.

You can see some other photos from the day here.

Pictures from our springtime trip to Stone Zoo are here.

Evan and I met up with some friends at Connor’s Farm in Danvers, MA to pick out a pumpkin from their pumpkin patch. Evan loved romping around the farm– this late day play-date was perfect for tiring him out!

You can see more photos from this day at this photo set on Flickr: Pumpkin Patch October 2008.

We celebrated Evan’s birthday this weekend… thanks to Grandma Ann Marie for hosting the festivities.  I didn’t have to lift a finger, except to help around her house, and it was great.  The baby is due to come in a week, and I wanted Evan to have a fun birthday party.

The three of us, and the dog, packed into the car on Friday night and drive up to Grandma and Grandpa’s house up in New Hampshire.  After a great sleep, we got up pretty early and got ready for the party.  The best part was not having to rush around– it was very relaxing!  This is a picture of Evan lounging around, waiting for his friends to come.  I think I bought this sweater for Evan for either his two-year-old birthday or last Christmas.  It’s sized 2T; this boy is due for a growth spurt!

Pretty soon, Evan’s friends had arrived and family was trickling in the door.  We played inside with all of Grandma’s great old toys and had lunch.  Then we ran around outside, kicking footballs and playing with the Fisher-price baseball throwing toy that Great-Grandma and Grandpa Pep got for Evan.  Then it was time for cake!!  Grandma Ann Marie got Evan a train cake, which was very exciting for our little engineer.

Here is a picture of him telling me how much he liked his cake.  After loading up on the cake and ice cream, the kids all played for a little while before the little ones packed into their cars and left.  Some family and friends stayed around for a good part of the afternoon, and Evan had a blast playing with his new toys: remote control cars from Grandpa Steve, an inflatable car from Julian, Spencer the engine from Mommy and Daddy, Diego from Travis, and an AquaDoodle drawing pad from Carla…. and let’s not forget the video games: Super Mario Baseball for the Wii from Cousin Matt and a LeapFrog video game system from Aunt Maura.  Evan was really psyched about getting all the great presents.  Thank you everyone!!!

After chilling out at Grandma’s house all day on Saturday, I decided that I didn’t want to rush around and pack everything up, so we stayed another night!  We took our time on Sunday morning and made it back to our house around 1pm… giving us enough time to get our chores done before settling down to watch the New England Patriots and the Red Sox.

I’m really happy that this weekend worked out the way it did.  I’m relaxed and rested… Evan had his birthday party, and for all intents and purposes (on my part anyway) he is now three years old, even though his birthday is really on the 14th of October.  I’m not going to mention his birthday again, except perhaps to ask him if he wants to bring cupcakes into his preschool to celebrate one of these days.  Now that Evan has had his birthday, the baby can come anytime…. there’s nothing left to take care of.. so come on baby! We’re waiting!

I’ve posted a few other pictures up on our Flickr account.

Don’t you love the moustache?