We have a new cousin! (updated)

Great news from Massachusetts that Owen and Maya's first ever cousin arrived safely after nearly 42 hours of labor (!). Esmé Foster Dankmeyer Aalberts arrived at 6:45 pm on June 30, weighing in at a patient 7 lbs, 14 oz and doing fine. Congratulations Daniel and Erica!

Uncle Joel is all ready with a pocket full of gum and silver dollars.

We've been very busy, as usual. It was another outdoor concert weekend at the BCPA. This week was Family Fest, featuring perhaps my favorite children's artist, Ralph's World. I was at work most of the day, and Amy and Auntie Pam brought Owen and Maya down for the afternoon.

Owen had fun meeting Ronald McDonald, getting a snazzy temporary dolphin tattoo, and enjoying both a green river and his first frozen chocolate covered banana. Maya was mostly into the music (she loves to dance) and working her charm on all of the volunteers and staff at the theater.

We had lots of other stuff going on this weekend, too. We had a fun visit to the pool on Saturday, and on Friday Amy and I brought Owen to Champaign to meet with Dr. Hatch, his pediatric gastroenterologist, who checked Owen out to see how his stomach was doing and make sure he was getting all the nutrition he needed with his gluten-free diet.

The only downer of the past few days is that we had a sick day at home with Maya on Monday. There's a summer cold making its rounds through the area, and Maya was pretty drippy and gloomy at the start of the week.

The real bad news about her sick day, though, was that it kept her away from day care on her last full week in the infant room. Her teachers have all been a bit teary around her the past few days as they soak up their time with her. She's a favorite.

Lastly, some pictures from the past week, including a water balloon fight with the Merrill kids across the street (regrettably, no pictures of when I got soaked after the squirt guns came out), and Maya covered in sour cream.

We could have used the squirt guns again then ...