canon heysen gardner
born 1230 am, 28 july, 2010 in adelaide, south australia!
5 lbs 14 oz
baby boy gardner came in to the world after a blazing fast hour and a half labor, only thirty minutes of which we were at the hospital... in australia, if all goes well and you've had a natural birth, you can go home 4 hrs post-delivery. so we did. we left the house at 1145 pm, had a baby by 1230 am and were back home in bed by 6 am! we keep calling it the drive by delivery. nova never knew we were gone (though we were thankful that bill and chris were at the house just in case...) nova went to sleep as an only child and woke up as a big sister. and she LOVES her baby brother!
nova, it turns out, is a bit of a mother hen. she reminds me to walk behind her (you get behind me!) when going to change canon's diaper; she (very sweetly) hushes him when he's crying and reminds him to "use your words"; she is a champion helper with diaper changes and will fetch wipes, diapers and hand sanitizer (and uses it!) as well as toss dirty nappies in the bin and carry dirty clothes to the laundry; she also tries to hold canon's feet during diaper changes - which mostly inhibits our movements (quick, get the nappy on before he pees!) and puts her in the line of fire; and canon's field of vision is usually filled with nova's round, lovely face as she talks to him from distance of two millimeters and gently (sort of) wrangles/hugs his head - i think he's going to know her face better than mine...we are extremely lucky to have such a sweet, nurturing, generous daughter. still, with our rookie year behind us, i never took in to account the challenge of having to manage one child with one hand while holding off the first child with the other hand
payton gets four weeks of paternity leave, so we are enjoying being a stay-at-home family of four for the time being...
'course, that said, we will soon be taking a family trip to melbourne, victoria. it turns out that canon does not qualify for australian citizenship (and therefore, will not have dual citizenship) because payton and i are not permanent residents/immigrating to australia; although canon does get a very cool birth certificate with kangaroos, emus, kookaburras and other australian fauna on it. so! canon needs an american passport (to go to the US for a december visit), but is there an american consulate in adelaide (a capital city, mind you)?! no!! does the american consulate in melbourne have reasonable hours?! no!! do they require canon to be there in person?! yes!! does anybody care....?! well, no. and now we have a great excuse to visit melbourne. i'm sure that adventure can be a whole other post... anyway, here are some pics of us at home:
a few days old... not too badly beaten up and looking better all the time
i don't think this will ever happen again...
just a couple pics of nova - who loves her umbrella and poncho... and is wearing a dress her aunt lolo wore as a girl...
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