1st Bath at Home

Samuel had his first bath at home today. And since big sister Taylor wasn't feeling 100% this morning and stayed home from school, she got to be part of the action! Enjoy the pics.

Samuel loved the water!

Nice and cozy!

How in the world did I get such beautiful children?!

Our future all-star, dressed and ready for action!

Samuel John

Seeing as how it's now 4 days later, I suppose this is now "old news" for most of you, but Samuel John Walsh made his entrance into the world on June 24th at 5:03pm, weighing in at a "whopping" 5 lbs. 12 oz., 20 inches long!

I have so much to say, I don't even know where to begin! Everything with the birth went so smoothly with no complications, thank the Lord. The doctor even advised at the end of the surgery (after seeing how my previous scar healed) that the repeat C-section was a good choice (in other words, doing a VBAC could have been a bad one). I was pleased to hear we made a good decisoin on that one! My stay at the hospital was great. The maternity wing is completely new construction, so the facilities were bright and clean and quite pleasant, and (most of) the nurses were fantatic.

We came home from the hospital yesterday and have been settling back into life at home. Aaron has been absolutely amazing, taking care of all the details of life and housework so I can focus on resting and recovering and being a mom. Taylor is an adoring big sister who is nothing but full of love and affection for her little brother. She's been a huge help around the house already. I've actually found myself wondering what I did last time without a 5 year old around the house to help me! And Samuel is doing really well. Although he does have his (brief) moments, for the most part he's quite laid-back, calm, and easy-going. He's feeding great, sleeping good (most of the time), and overall doing just fantastic!

The Lord has been faithful to answer all my prayers related to his birth ~ many of them in ways over and above and beyond what I ever could have imagined. My heart has been so full these last few days as I've felt the heart of God towards me in such real ways. Not to mention the fact that I am loving getting to know our little guy and (as challenging as it can be sometimes), I'm thoroughly enjoying the newborn phase, knowing it will be gone in all but a few short weeks.

A Brief Explanation of New Zealand School

For the sake of my North American readers, I'll give a brief explanation of the way they do school here in New Zealand ~ it is way different than America.

The school year starts in February (late summer here). I guess you could say it's "year-round" school; the school year consists of 4 terms, with a 2 week break in between each term, and a 6 week break over summer (i.e. Christmas).

The confusing part is when kids start school. Rather than having one intake per year as we do in the States (i.e. all 5 yr. olds starting kindergarten in Aug/Sep), most children here start school on the day they turn 5! Hence the reason Taylor started school immediately after finishing pre-school. Now the really confusing part is that depending on when a child's birthday falls during the year, he/she will either attend anywhere from 1-3 terms of "kindergarten" (called "year 0" here), or, they'll skip year 0 and go straight into year 1. Yes, very strange. (Now the really, really confusing part is that often at a school, they will begin a new class every term. So where they get teachers from and what those teachers are doing in the other terms of school when they don't have a class to teach, and what schools do with a classroom sitting empty for half the year waiting for a new class to begin.....it all still remains a mystery to me.) Anyways, fortunately Taylor has a birthday at the right time of year so she will get almost 3 full terms of year 0 before moving onto year 1 next year, which puts her at a big advantage.

So there you have it; a completely different way of doing things when it comes to school. But all that aside, Taylor has continued to do very well and is settling in just fine. This past Friday her teacher had an open house for parents to come just before lunch to see what their children have been learning, and then join them for lunch. It was so fun to go and visit Taylor during the day at school. And her teacher is planning on making it a regular thing; I'm looking forward to the opportunity to have consistent insight into Taylor's education and the world she's in for so many hours of the day now. I love her teacher's "open door" policy in which she welcomes parents into the classroom at any time. She's great at what she does (for many reasons), and I'm so thankful that Taylor got such a wonderful teacher for her first year at school!