Tired Boys

They slept like this for hours:)

Home Now

Simeon came home with us this afternoon -still healthy, still thinks day is night and vice-versa. Ruth's rapid convalescence means that we're all ready to show off the little guy, so come on over! More pictures soon.

Announcing:

Simeon David Carroll
b. 11:11 p.m., November 8th, 2007.
(8lbs/12.5oz)

This second one is a very rare picture, as it is exceedingly difficult to catch this little fellow with his eyes open during his first couple days in the outer world:)

The labour passed very quickly, if not painlessly. Ruth did an AWESOME job on no meds and all the nurses were super impressed with how she handled it. We're still in the hospital, and will be until at least tomorrow (Saturday), for routine checkups and such. This means we may not post again until we're all home together, so hang in there - many more pictures to follow. As of now though, Simeon is a very healthy and strong little boy, scored an unusual perfect 10 on both his Apgar tests, and is catching on to breastfeeding just as brilliantly as we'd hoped. We welcome any visits you may wish to pay us!

Simeon's Favourite Things: sleeping, squawking, and the smell of his mommy's skin. (There may be more, but he's too tired to tell us).

See you soon!

Thursday Morning, 5 a.m.

We have awoken early this morning, with a sudden and urgent desire to go to the hospital.

;)

Aaand, we'll post more later!

Once a Tree

This was a surprise for Ruth. I kept lying about the time I was spending up at Mom and Dad's in the barn:)








We decided not to put any finish on it at all, mainly because it's all cherry and cherry darkens beautifully on its own (if you're patient enough:)

Still no occupant, though.

PS- Ruth here. I had no idea that this project was in the works. Sean's been working on this in short increments since the summer as an early birthday gift for me. I LOVE it and I'm very excited that it's not only functional but a keepsake that can be passed down to our children when they're starting their own families. Makes me wonder what other secrets he's keeping though ;)

D'oh!

Ok, well, more than four sleeps then. Ruth's overdue (do we get a fine for that?) but we'll let everyone know as soon as the little critter makes his/her debut.

4 More Sleeps! :D

All Hallows' Eve

Our Jack-o'-Lantern: House on the Hill

St Paul's Anglican Church, Hampton

Scheduled for demolition:(

Quote of the Day

"They act stupid but they're right smart."
~Grade twelve student on the little ghosts in Pac-Man.

Yep...

After the Rain

Kingston Peninsula, 10/13/07.

Messing About in Boats :)

Thanksgiving Monday: the great feast was preceded by a glorious afternoon on the water. Most of the extended family took to the Bay of Belleisle for a paddle across the water, portage across the marsh, and another paddle down the creek. Beautiful.

Rob, Simone, and Ruth with two classic canoes at the start of the portage.

Dad and Dustin in the pram.

And this is an eight-man search party for a cell phone in a marsh (portage gone wrong). A needle in a haystack? Maybe, but we found it. Eventually someone had to paddle back across the bay and call it from the house, which was also a long shot because there's no cell service in the area, but it rang and we found it:)

The Spoils of Apiculture

So I was up visiting mom and dad, and who should show up but my father-in-law. It was, apparently, time to take the honey from those bees that have been pollinating the property all summer. Here he is smoking the little critters down into the lower tiers so he can remove the honeycomb from the upper ones.

Et voila, the moment we've been waiting for:Let me tell you, that was some goooood honey.

Trio

No pun intended:)

Five weeks to go!

Hmm... which one's bigger? :D

Friends

Brandon getting a kiss from a young alpaca late this afternoon.

By the way

I have to say a word about this profile picture of ours. Some of you have voiced your concerns that we stole it from somewhere in cyberspace:) Well we didn't, beautifully composed as it is. Ruth took it. So there.

;)

~S. <><

Morning Glory

Spent Friday night/Saturday up at Mom and Dad's. I ate breakfast on the porch, watching the sun rise over a forest wrapped in fog, and thinking that everybody who does not live in the country must be, in some sense, kidding.

The day gradually evolved into a sailing trip, as all good days do. I think I found evidence of a stowaway.

This was Dustin, my little brother, who invariably makes straight for the cabin the moment you hoist his reluctant self onto a boat. Some vain hope he harbours, I think, that if he can ignore the water around him it will go away. The poor boy has yet to learn that, in the words of the very wise Ratty from Wind in the Willows, "There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

And so, since we haven't posted in over a month, I think you probably ought to know that we have less than six weeks remaining until the birth of our first child. Ruth is doing very well, in spite of the fact that the kid sleeps all day and moves around all night. Poor thing's gonna have jet lag when it's born.

The End.

So, I finished War and Peace. I read 8 other books between starting and finishing it. I feel exhausted. Props to Evelyn Downie for getting me started, although I missed the deadline (and missed it with pizzazz). Can I have an extension?

Ruth is halfway through her copy, but she's read about 20 other books since starting and she's also carrying a baby (go figure). If I could read half as fast as she can - well, I'd probably be a lot smarter.

...it was a good book.


**Spoiler Warning**

Napolean loses.

Belly on the Beach:)

Ruth @ 27 weeks. She's 29 now, and the little critter is kicking up a storm. On this day we were at New River Beach and the sea was calmer, I think, than I'd ever seen it before.

In other pregnancy news, we were recently at a seminar on cloth diapering. These have come a long way people! No more triangular piece of bedsheet sitting in a bucket. And we highly recommend it - if you're not sold on saving the environment, you should at least check out how many toxic chemicals are in "disposable" diapers and consequently on a baby's skin and in his lungs. Anyway, you can check out the groovy little company we've decided to go with for the diaper thing. It's the brainchild of two moms in Montreal.

What is the Sound of One Hand Typing?

So... my left hand is out of commission for a while, on account of being electrocuted this afternoon while working in Grand Bay. A boom truck hit some power lines while off-loading palettes of stone, and I was on the receiving end at the bottom of the boom's cable. It held me there for a few seconds while it put my insides through a blender, and then it threw me to the ground and blew a small hole through my right foot; the entry wounds are a series of small burns all over my left hand which have now blistered.

So, I lay on the ground shaking for a while before the ambulance carted me off and I spent the rest of the day in the hospital. Everything checks out though, so no worries. And I didn't really mind... it was too hot to be laying stone anyway:)

Bug II

I was working in Fredericton all day today. There was this massive oak tree on the property, full of caterpillars. Ever seen a caterpillar up close and personal? They look like this:)

Bug

Found this moth on my lawn chair when I went out on the deck this morning. At first glance I thought it was a piece of moss or bark from a tree. It flew away before I could get a better shot of it. Weird little critter though eh?

Ben & Christina, 07/07/07

This weekend Benjamin Porter married Christina McInerney; I attended high school and university with them both, and it was marvellous to see them hitched after all these years:)The happy couple at their outdoor reception, which was beautiful.

ABU Alumni with the bride and groom.

Berrypalooza!

Early this morning Ruth and I fell in with a troupe of migrant workers on a strawberry field in the countryside (otherwise known as a u-pick:). We gathered ten boxes and spent most of the day's remainder in various sundry berry-related activities. And this evening, while discussing Mere Christianity with some friends of ours (if you haven't read it, read it), we greatly enjoyed generous helpings of fresh strawberry shortcake.

The morning's haul in sink & colander.

Ruth hulls the haul:)

Fresh whipped cream in the mixer.