Hanging with My Homies

We spent the Fourth of July with our friends Tobin and Krissy and their two girls, Kaelyn (2) and Elliana (11mos). It was a quiet evening for our families and we were even joined by our cousin Jason's wife, Kara, as he has been pitching for the baseball team in Tijuana. Kara is expecting Kai's new little cousin in December.

When Nanita Dev and Grandpa Clay returned from visiting friends in central California, we got some pictures done with Brendt's brother's one-year old daughter, Maya. It was tough to get them both pinned down and smiling, but we got a few good shots. Maya will definitely show Kai the ropes in this great big world. She seems to be getting it all figured out with new words and party tricks on a weekly basis.

Even dad and Kai got a shot in their matching duds.

On July 9, our friends Brian and Karina had their twin boys. Karina is a neo-natal nurse at the hospital in which she delivered, so they let the rules about babies in the recovery room slide. Kai got to meet his new buds a couple of days after they were born.

With all of the new editions for our friends and family, Kai will have plenty of homies to play with, and at least a few more on the way. It's awesome to watch the circle get bigger and bigger.

East Side

Last week found us in Weirton, West Virginia, my dad's hometown about 30 minutes outside of Pittsburgh, PA. Kai took his first plane ride and did wonderfully. He behaved just as he does on solid ground, only fusses when he is tired or hungry, so we kept him well fed and snuggled him and he slept most of the way there.

In addition to lots of Papou (my dad) time, my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Jim hosted a little gathering of family who came from in town, Baltimore, and across Ohio to meet little Kai. It was great to catch up with all the family. As you can see from the photo below, catching up involved a little bit o' Ouzo. Sheesh!My cousin Marcie has a little boy Stelliano (yes, very Greek) who is six months old. The boys will no doubt find themselves running around family reunions together like Marcie and I once did. For now they slept side by side.

We've also started taking photos once a month of Kai to document all the changes in his first year. This month we added Papou to the mix too. Notice the family resemblance? No hair and blue eyes. :-)

It's hard to believe he's already 10 weeks old! We're back home for the 4th and enjoying all the beauty and wonderful weather that this town has to offer. Sigh, it was a good trip, but it is good to be home.

Back home, for now

We got back to San Diego late on Sunday night and we'll be in town for about 10 days before heading back east to visit my dad and catch up with the Karno clan.

Nanita Devrah came back to San Diego to spend a few weeks here with Kai and Maya. We went to the beach a few times and enjoyed a very warm SD week. Here is Kai with Nanita in a little beach outfit that cousins Jason & Kara bought for him.

He is growing so much that I don't know that he'll be able to wear it again (note the budda belly sticking out)! Our boy is now a 12 pounder! I need to do some training to continue carrying him around. ;-)

This week Kai's cousin Maya turned 1 year old! Looking at Maya, it is hard to believe how quickly a year has passed. Maya is a vibrant and hysterical little girl with boundless smiles and energy. Here is a photo from her birthday party this week. I think the cake was more fun to squish than to eat.

I'm sure that before we know it, we'll have photos of Kai's first birthday too! Sigh. . .

At Maya's birthday party Kai took his first swim too. Much like bathtime, he is really relaxed in the water.

And the Wilsons too!

On the 2nd half of our trip to AZ, we popped into Tucson to visit the Gideon side of the family and to go to the wedding of our family friends David & Jennifer Martin. We got some fun photos of the clan this weekend.

Here is a photo of 4 generations on the Wilson side of the family at the Martin wedding. . .

Kai was well prepared for his time at the Oro Valley Country Club with his "tea par-tay" outfit . . .

A video of Brendt, his Nana and Mom, Monica shankin' thier groove thing at the end of the take you even get a glimpse of the bride and groom. . .

Nana and three of her great grand children, Kaylee, Maya & Kai. I like to call this Kai's "fight the power photo". . .

Off to AZ!

This week we've traveled to Arizona to enjoy the balmy sunshine of the Sonoran desert. UG! :-) No, we're really here to introduce Kai around and go to a wedding in Tucson.

We got the Mesa clan together to celebrate Brendt's birthday (and Uncle Dave and Cousin Johnny's too). Amid the rucus of our tiny group of 19 or so, we were able to capture a photo of 4 generations of Altendorf's.

Kai, meet Kai

This week we went to the beach with Kai for the first time. As we came down, over the hill towards La Jolla Shores I thought, Kai (Hawaiian for Ocean) meet Kai. The first of many meetings, I'm sure.

My mom was in town and we met up with a few other friends Toby (with daughters Kaelyn and Elliana) and Richard (with son Matteo) at La Jolla Shores. It was a cool day at the beach, but we were able to enjoy a walk and Brendt was able to take his surfboard out for the first time in a year or so. We're hoping to make it a weekly gathering!

Smiles all around!

Grandma Carol returned on Thursday, welcomed by Kai's ever appearing smiles. It has been fun to see Kai's personality emerge. Brendt's last day of school was yesterday and we are looking forward to the next 5.5 weeks of Gidepakis family fun before I head back to work

Here are a few of the little man's smiles. . .

My Life Among Clones

So, I just had to include this photo of Kai and his daddy. They just look so much alike! I tease Brendt that when he coos, "He's so hansome! He's so beautiful!," over Kai that he is really being vain and referring to his own good looks as they really look like twins. I guess I was just the host to this clone. It doesn't look like I really had any genetic contribution to little Kai's appearance. Maybe he'll inherit my long attention span instead. ;-)




Ok! I've been much delinquent at blogging of late. Kai has kept me busy, but we've also had visitors and have traveled too! I've had a little breather this week so I'll be catching up on new photos.
I just love this funny face. . .




































We took a quick weekend trip to Tucson to celebrate cousin Cade's birthday and his fiance Shauna's graduation from pharmacy school. It was a wonderful celebration (as usual, the Wilson's throw great parties!) and we got to meet Shauna's family for a little preview for thier wedding next year. Here is a photo from the party of Brendt, Kai, and uber Nana Teresa (Kai's Great Grandma).



My dad traveled across the country to meet our little man, and my sister joined him here for the week. We got out every day and saw the sites of San Diego including the zoo, Birch Aquarium and the Natural History Museum.

Katie was a huge help, loving up on Kai and taking a midnight shift. I would feed Kai just before going to bed and she would let me sleep an unprecedented 4 hours! Oh for joy! I was even feeling human after a few days.

It was a fun week. I really enjoyed watching Papou (Greek for Grandpa) get to know Kai. He'll get more time with him when we go back East in a few weeks.

We'll be doing a bit of traveling after Brendt is done with school. First we'll be going to Mesa for a few days to show off Kai to my Mom's side of the family and then we go to Tucson for a family wedding. Then a week later we'll be heading to my dad's home town of Wierton, W. Va. (30 min. from Pittsburgh) to introduce Kai to the Greek Clan. It's going to be a fun summer.

Oh, and Kai is now up to 10 pounds and smiled for the first time yesterday! Hooray!

A 7 Pounder!

Today Kai weighed in at 7lbs! He's still a little guy, but we're happy that he is putting on weight and just in time for his due date (May 9).

On Sunday we had some photos taken of Kai by Susie Sincock. She provided us a sneak peak of some of the photos we'll be getting in 2 weeks. Here are a couple of shots, there are 5 photos of Kai on Susie's blog too http://www.susiesincock.typepad.com/catchlight_news/

Still want more photos?

We're uploading photos to our shutterfly site. If you want 100 photos of Kai or so, you can find them at www.kaigideon.shutterfly.com I'm sure that the photos will be multiplying like bunnies! :-)

Our birth story

I can't believe it's been almost(only?) 2 weeks since Kai joined our lives! It's take me a while to resurface on email and blogging, but hopefully we'll find time to get photos and messages out to you all. Here is a new photo of our family, one of many to come

Here is Kai's Birth Story. . .

My water broke shortly after 1am on Monday morning. I wasn't really having strong contractions, but as I was Strep B positive and needed to get some antibiotics into my system, we got showered and made our way to the hospital. My mom and sister has left San Diego to return to Arizona at 1pm on Sunday, only to have to turn around and drive back only 7 hours later. Kai's funny sense of humor was already showing itself.
Becky, our doula, joined us at the hospital around 2:30a.m. and we started working through some contractions. Brendt and I had been preparing for the childbirth using a meditation technique called Hypnobabies. The goal of Hypnobabies is to prepare all involved in the birth with positive birth images and help manage pain through meditation, visualization and breathing. When the contractions started coming, I focused inward and started to use the meditation CDs to get through each wave.
Mom and Katie arrived at the hospital at about 6am and Devrah arrived at 9am.
I made it to about 6 cm. dilated by 9am, using the meditation tracks that we had prepared with, but when it came time to go into transition, the meditation tracks just didn't serve me in the moment that I needed it. I tossed my iPod aside and Becky and Brendt started to coach me through each contraction. Kai's head was very low (-3) so I really had the urge to push. The nurse sent in the doctor to check me and he said that he would come back again to check me in an hour. At that moment I started feeling pretty exhausted and didn't feel like I could get to the end without an epidural. After some talking with Brendt and Becky we decided to push through the next 1/2 hour and see how far it got me. Becky provided me the verbal focus I needed while Katie rubbed my back and Brendt helped me to focus my breathing. It really was a team effort. I had two great nurses, both named Tara, that were very encouraging. When Tara checked me again I had dilated to 9 cm. At that point I knew that I could make it through to the end. I stood up and said, "Ok, lets do this,". We got through the last cm in about a 1/2 an hour and then it came time to push. Because of Kai's low position, I only had to push for 20 minutes. Judging from the sore throat I had later that day, I must have really been screaming, but after 9 hours of labor, our child born at 6 lbs. 3 oz. measuring 18.5 inches. We had been waiting to find out the gender, so Brendt said, almost in a whisper, "It's a boy,". After about an hour of bonding time with our son, we decided to name him Kai Victor Gideon. Kai was a name I read in "Eat, Pray, Love" and we later came to find out that it means Ocean in Hawaiian, Keeper of the Keys/Earth in Welch and Scandinavian, and Unbreakable in Burmese. Victor is my dad's name.
We stayed in the hospital for two days, though neither Kai or I really had any pain or complications. It was more a precautionary measure per the pediatrician to assure that Kai wasn't affected by the Strep B. Thankfully Kai has been a great eater and is already packing on the O-Zs. He was back up to his birth weight a week after he was born and is already up 4 oz. at 9 days old!
We're getting to know Kai, his beautiful face and sweet eyes. He has been keeping us up every few hours or so, through the night, but we're getting into a groove and we'll all be getting more sleep soon. Brendt goes back to work on Monday for 5 weeks before summer vacation. I have 3 months off, so we're looking forward to having June and July to spend together.

Kai Victor Gideon Has Arrived

It has been a wild ride since my water broke at 1a.m. on Monday, but the long and short of it is that Kai Victor Gideon was born on Monday, April 21 at 10:56 a.m. after 9 hours of labor, at 18 1/2 inches long and 6 lbs. 3 oz. Labor went really well with our family and team in suport. It was a very focused time, but truely a joy.

Brendt is getting over a little stomach bug, but other than that everyone is doing well. Kai and I will be heading home from the hospital tomorrow.

Here are a few of our favorite phots of him. You can imagine that there are quite a few already. Family photo and more detail of the fun event to follow.

Here is a photo of our birthtime team within the hour after Kai is Born. From L to R, our Doula Becky, Auntie Katie, Kai's Mom, The Super Star- Kai, Grandma Carol, Nanita Devrah and, Big Daddy GideonBrendt (a.k.a. SuperDad) and KaiMom (wow! that's me!) and Kai

Things to do while waiting

Mom & Katie took a spontaneous trip to San Diego with the hopes that the little start would make an appearance this weekend. We did some walking and I went to yoga. Mainly we just hung out around the house. Here are a few videos of things that you can do to pass the time while waiting for a child's birth. . .

Ok, so my exercise/birthing ball was being abused, but everyone was having a good laugh out of it. :-)


Mom and Katie went home this afternoon without any interesting developments. They are fully ready to turn right back around and come back if things start moving again. Brendt's mom is also packed and ready to depart Tucson on a moment's notice. I, in the mean time, am making plans this week. Sitting and waiting might just make me go insane!

Full Term!

Hooray! Today the baby is considered to be full term. That means that although every day to 40 (or 41) makes life easier on baby in the first months, this little one is considered fully baked and ready to take on life in the outside world. Yesterday I went to the doctor and I've dilated to 2cm. and am 50% effaced. This could mean that I could deliver in 2 days or 2 weeks.

Total uncertainty is still the name of the game, and likely will be for some time. In the mean time, I'm feeling like the major tasks are done and things are in place. Today I got to hang out with my friend Tobin and his girls Kaelyn and Eliana. It was another beautiful day in San Diego, so Kaelyn played in her sandbox and we all enjoyed the weather. This weekend Brendt and I are going to keep the plans to a minimum to let Brendt prepare his lesson plans and grade papers just in case this little one shows up.

My mom and sister have their bags packed and are ready to hit the road to San Diego whenever I call. :-) In other words, the stage is set, the actors are prepared, we're all just awaiting the star's arrival.

Tick tock. . . any time now.

The Home Life

I'm on maternity leave, now through baby's birthday and then 3 months after. I've been adjusting to a different pace, trying to rest and relax. :-) As most of you know, I don't sit still very well, but I'm trying not to push it.


I finished my "seated" to do list just in time for my mom to come and visit for a few days. Luckily she, her boundless energy, almost finished my "other" to do list in the first night she was here. More than anything it was nice just to have her around and to have someone to help the workday hours pass by a little more pleasingly. Not that the Westie's aren't grand company, but their conversation skills are a little lacking.


This week my "to do" list has expanded to items a little lower on the priority list including submitting insurance receipts and cleaning out the junk drawer. :-) Who knows what I'll be doing (alphabetizing the spice cabinet) by the time May 9th rolls around.



Here is a photo of me a few days ago at 36 weeks.

Friday I'll be 37 weeks, which is considered a full term pregnancy. The doctor said that after that I'm all clear to comence jumping jacks. Ok, my words, not his, but I can pretty much do whatever as baby will be in good shape to join us on the outside. I was folding wee little baby socks today and just thinking about how great it is going to be to actually get my hands on those tiny toes.

Parenthood put to the test

This weekend our friends threw us a grand coed shower, complete with Greek & Mexican food (appropriate for the Gidepakis), a keg, a dozen kids under 7, and the ultimate test of parenthood. Katie put together a relay race that tested the team's ability to diaper, feed, entertain and transport children. Enjoy the spectacle. This was hysterical. I give extra points to Lee who upon his win of the relay race, spiked the baby (used as a baton). :-)

We managed to keep it pretty coed friendly but when it came time to open the gifts, the men filed out of the room one by one, driven by the ever present cooing. Poor guys. Who can blame them. Brendt rallied though and managed to find a stellar use for the "My Breast Friend" breastfeeding pillow, and now beer carrier.

Here is a photo of our niece Maya with her party duds on. She was helping us child proof our living room and looking especially cute while doing so. I don't understand who pays adults to child proof their homes. I mean, just invite 12 of your friends kids over and you'll learn quite quickly what needs to be moved or locked away.

Almost done!

Friday and Saturday this weekend was busy with meeting up with friends and family. We got to see our friend Nicole Takesono who drove down from San Francisco for the weekend (crazy!). Friday also marked our goddaughter Kaelyn's 2nd birthday. It's hard to believe that she's only been here for 2 years. It feels like she's been part of the family for much longer. Her birthday was a lot of fun with a crazy bubble machine and seeing her run around the house with her bike(trike) helmet. Too cute.

Luckily Sunday was free and clear of any plans so Brendt and I attended to some household organizing and cleaning that we had neglected until the last day of Brendt's spring break. We pretty much have the baby's room together now. Brendt put together our new glider (thanks Nanita Gideon!) with minimal cursing. It is soooo very comfy. Good thing, as I imagine we'll be spending a lot of time in it soon. Here are a few photos of the baby's room. We still have some things to put up on the wall, but it will all come together soon enough.

Easter Weekend Trifecta!

This weekend brought the Mom & Pop Gideon to San Diego and then we all trekked up to L.A. to join in a larger Gideon clan in a good ole fashioned Catholic Trifecta. Brendt's cousin Kerry got baptized, 1st communion and confirmed in a 3 hour long Easter Vigil mass. All of the ceremonies were very nice and the priest had a good sense of humor that kept us focused and in good spirits.

Most of the Gideons were there (Joyce, Jim, Carol, Clayton, Devrah, Ryan, Monica, Maya, Brendt and I) and we were hosted by Kerry's in-laws the Morales'. Elaine's family are tremendous hosts and amazing cooks! They had us over on Saturday night following the trifecta for a Filipino feast. On Sunday they had a more formal party for extended family and friends that Elaine's brother arranged for a spread of Italian food that was awe inspiring. The entire family worked together to turn out Tuscan spare ribs, shrimp diablo, rigatoni with braised oxtail, rosemary lemon cod, almond cream pear tart, tiramisu, and a whole host of dishes I don't remember the name to or didn't get a chance to taste. Needless to say, I could probally live for a week off of all the goodies we had last night! It was a beautiful weekend to get together with family and catch up. The weather was wonderful and it was nice to have a little time away with family we don't get to see very often.

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! We're headed home now. Looking forward to getting back into a groove, with no travel, before baby arrives.

Don't let Spring Break end!

My Spring Breaks are now totally unofficial, but I love them none the less. Brendt gets 2 weeks off and it really feels like a week to get away and a week to catch up at home. This year we headed up to Paso Robles in the central California coast with Katie and Josh. We rented a restored farmhouse on a working vineyard. Here are a few scenes of the property. The photo on the left is of the house that was origionally built in 1912. The photo on the right is of the sun setting behind one of the majestic oak (a.k.a. robles) trees that dot the vineyard.

The house and the grounds were beautiful. As much as we loved roaming around the local vineyards, Paso Robles town square, and driving the coast near Cambria and Hearst Castle, we really wanted to hold up at the house and wander around the stunning acres surrounding it. We spotted deer and wild turkey and were awakened in the morning to the cows that pastured in the fields across the valley. I think it is fair to say that we all want this to become an annual event.

Arizona Shower

Last Friday, Brendt and I headed out to Arizona. It was a quick trip for my family baby shower that went by so fast it was a blur! The shower was expertly orchestrated by my sister Katie (with much help from cousins, aunts and friends) and hosted by my cousin Jill. Here are the three of us together on the day of the shower.

It was great to be able to have a little time with all the friends, aunts, grandmas and cousins. We had a great showing with a gang of people coming up from Tucson and Aunt Angie coming out from L.A. It was so heartwarming to see everyone. My photos are very limited, but hopefully the photos from everyone else will start rolling in. Here are a few.

Thanks to everyone who trekked out to see us. I wish we had more time, but we're looking forward to spending a bit more time with Fifi/Filbert in AZ this summer (for the company, not the weather:-)). The thoughtful shower gifts were a lot of fun and honestly a little overwhelming. There is no doubt that this child is already showered with love.