Videos of Meredith

Don't worry, they're not 'those' kind of videos. strictly G rated stuff here folks.

mike

Meredith Violet Axtell

Meredith Violet Axtell was born at 2:51PM today at Mt Nittany Medical Center. She weighed 8lbs., 10oz. and is very vigorous. Gwen and Meredith are doing great. Gwen felt really good when I left, and Meredith was very active -- such a strong crier! I'm a little tired right now after a long day, but there is a really good story ...

Gwen was feeling a little funny in the early morning hours today, and when we got out of bed she told me this might be the day. She had a doctor's appt. for 9AM anyway, so I went with her to that just in case I was needed. The doctor told Gwen that she wasn't in labor, but could start anytime. So, we went home, and went for a walk before we had to pick Jeffrey up at pre-school at noon. We decided to go out to lunch together to the waffle shop -- Jeffrey just loves the waffle shop and it was the last time for a while that we could all go together. Grandma Laurie was there too. Well, we got to the restaurant, sat down, and were looking at our menus when Gwen said that 'it was time to go'. Man, I was hungry for a reuben! But we had to go. Jeffrey was not very pleased either. Grammy Laurie promised to make him pancakes at home instead.

When we got home, Gwen called her doctor, and they wanted her to come in to their office, and not go to the hospital yet. By this time it was really clear to us that she DEFINITELY was in labor, but we went to the office anyway. She barely was able to hobble in. They hooked her up to the machine which tracks fetal heartrate and contractions. The doctor then used his superpowers, after seeing only two contractions which were less than one minute apart, to say, "OK, go to the hospital now". By about 1 or 1:15 we were at the hospital, and Meredith was born at 2:51. So, things moved amazingly fast.

You can see the first batch of pictures at this picassa gallery. Thanks to everyone for your support. -- mike

sacks of crabapples

Hi everyone. First off, no real baby news. Gwen is feeling fine and going out for a dessert night with some of her friends. Laurie is still here and helping out. I'm getting through the last week of the semester and starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Last spring we had a great flower display from our crapapple tree out front, which led to a whole year where the tree had a really impressive set of crapapples. They looked great all year, especially in the bare branch months. But, in the early spring, they all fall off to make way for the new season's growth. Since we've lived here I've never seen so many crabapples on the lawn! In years past, I would just mow them when I mowed the lawn, and they would disappear, more or less. But this year there were just too many, so I was forced to rake them all up. I "filled" three of those heavy-duty contractor's trash bags. I put "filled" in quotes, because the bags weren't really full -- about 1/3 full and they get too heavy to lift anymore. But, that's still a lot of darn crapapples. Here's a pic. Hope everyone's well.

Gardening

While I have the time this morning (it is raining, and Jeffrey is occupied with Grandma Laurie), I can show you our garden plans and progress this year. For obvious reasons, Gwen is less able to garden this year, so I'm in charge. It's pretty sad for someone who's career is in plant genetics and molecular biology, but I've never really done any meaningful gardening. That's changing this year though. This spring I'm growing a bunch of cool season crops: radishes and spinach went in on April 3. They are both doing well. Radishes will probably be ready as early as the first week of May. Some different lettuces carrots also were planted, in two waves. One on April 11, the other was yesterday (April 24). All of these should have some frost resistance - the radishes and spinach certainly haven't minded the numerous light frosts we've been having down here over the last few weeks. Lastly, for now, we planted some bush-type green beans and some snow peas yesterday. These have some frost tolerance, but I'm hoping that our frosts have mostly passed by now. The forecast for the next few days is cool and rainy, but no nights with frost. Statistically, April 23rd is the 50% day in State College .. based on past years there's a 50% chance that the last frost has occurred by then. The 90% mark (which I think is typically, but incorrectly, referred to as the last frost date) is May 11.

Jeffrey helped yesterday dig some rows and plant some seeds. You can see pictures at this Picassa Gallery


Because I'm a type A personality, I drew out the garden plan on graph paper. .. here it is!



I'm looking forward to getting the first salads out of the garden in late May or early June. Later on, Jeffrey and I will also plant some more giant sunflowers. We had fun with those last year.

all for now.. mike

Earth Day

Spring is rolling on down here in Pennsylvania. Today is Earth Day and we made Jeffrey wear his 'earth ball' t-shirt, which has a picture of the earth on it. Early this morning, BEFORE I had any coffee, Gwen asked me to put on the Earth ball shirt and shorts on Jeffrey. I thought it was a weird day to wear shorts; there was a light frost on the ground. But, I did as I was told. Jeffrey hates to wear shorts for some reason, and pitched a pretty big fit. But, I got the shorts on him and got him downstairs for breakfast. Turns out, Gwen had really said "put on the short sleeve earth ball shirt", NOT shorts. So, I had the pleasure of taking them back off again. I did manage to get a quick picture of Jeffrey with his shorts and all, looking a little sullen:



Gwen is getting to the point where she doesn't know whether she wants the baby now (to be done with the pains of being so pregnant) or to hold on longer (to delay the pains of not sleeping with a newborn being up all night). She had a doctor's appointment today, and everything is still fine. The doc said she could have the baby 'anytime now'. The official due date is still April 30th, but that's only 8 days away, so it really could be anytime. I'm really hoping that she holds on until late in the day on April 30th, for selfish reasons. April 30th is the last day of classes, and waiting until then would save me the stress of having to scramble to get someone to cover my lectures at work. Actually, April 28th is the target date. The last day of class, April 30, is scheduled for a 'review session' because there's just no point in covering new material on the last day of classes. I made arrangements to have someone cover that review session in case I'm not there. Since it is a co-taught course, the instructor from the first portion of the class will just review his material that day if need be.

that's it for now. hope everyone's well. next post I'll try to show you what's up with our garden... mike

The Smiths, and biennial apples

Today Jeffrey and I did some work around the house in the morning, while Gwen went out to help out with a bakesale at Jeffrey's preschool. We started by fixing a light switch in bedroom. Jeffrey 'helped' by holding the pliers and monkeying around with some wire nuts. Don't worry, I made him stay downstairs when the power was on. The wiring in the switch was weird -- I finally figured out what was going on when I realized that the light switch I was working on was also controlling the bottom set of receptacles in the bedroom .. three wires instead of two for a single-pole switch. But, got it done in the end. After that, Jeffrey helped me put in a curtain rod in his baby sisters room -- this time he held the screws.

After that, Jeffrey and I went to the stores. First we went to Target -- mommy needed a new cell phone. Just a cheap prepaid one. The big thing for Jeffrey was that we also got him his first baseball glove! Got one for me too -- I haven't had a glove for a while. Jeffrey was really excited and we played some catch with a rubber baseball outside when we got home. But, it was just too cold and windy to stay outside that long today.

In the afternoon, Emily, Scott, and their 3 yr old Wren came over for dinner. We grilled some hot dogs out in the cold and the boys had a good time. Wren is just about the same age as Jeffrey, but even taller. They squealed a lot, chased other, and had few tantrums each about sharing toys. Here's a short clip of the two of them playing in Jeffrey's stool:



Last little bit for today: Anyone ever heard of an apple tree that flowers only every other year? Of the three apple trees in our backyard, the one on the left has flowered only every other year since we've lived here. In the spring of 07 when we moved in, it was flowering, but then it didn't in 08. Gwen thought it might have been because that year we had the trees trimmed back quite a bit, and there were a lot of gypsy moths that year. So, last year it flowered, but this spring it's not. Here's a picture (the apple that is not flowering is on the left):



It's fine with me that that apple takes a year off. In the years that it has flowered, it has been by far the biggest apple producer. Since I spend my time in August and September picking up all those apples, the year off is fine with me.

hope everyone's good tonight. Mom, have a good trip and a safe driving.

First Post! - Jeffrey's nonsense words

OK, here's the deal. This blog is to share what we're up to with friends and family, and any random internet weirdos out there. We (Gwen and I) will try and keep this up to date. It's about time -- we have the technology and such. And writing what we are up from day to day is sure more useful than just sitting on the sofa.

So, what's up with the url (scaxtells.blogspot.com)? 'scaxtells' just means State College Axtells. i.e., we're the Axtell family that lives in State College, PA. If there are other Axtells in State College, sorry, we got the URL first :-)

Tonight Jeffrey was on a real streak with nonsense words .. check out the videos. On camera, he would only do it for about 20 seconds before he wanted to watch the video. It's too bad I couldn't film him while he watching the video -- he was laughing hysterically at himself!





I actually have a lot more of these type of videos, but you get the idea.

I spent the rest of the night after Jeffrey went to bed putting together the car seat for the new baby and putting together a new glider rocker for Gwen. Furniture assembly is never fun, but this glider wasn't so bad -- only eight screws and minimal swearing. From the car seat, a new stroller, the glider, and other baby stuff there's a pretty big pile of cardboard in the garage. But, I think we're mostly all done with the 'assembly of stuff' phase of getting ready for the new baby.

Last little bit - last weekend Grandma Axtell came down for an overnight visit. The weather was good and a lot of flowers were out. Check out this great picture of Gwen and Jeffrey in front of our cherry tree.



We did some lawn work too, and everyone pitched in.