Baby Pavel

So, this last Wednesday was Karis's first day of preschool. Can you believe it? Karis was waaay ready for it, too - she's such a social little girl that she is bursting to get out to "people!" (One of her favorite exclamations. To put this in a bit of a bigger picture, during the week when she goes to the church, she'll walk into the worship center and ask, "Where did people go? People, where are you!" On Sundays, she walks in, smiles, and says, "People!")

We already have a duck with pasted-on feathers on the fridge (stay tuned to pictures of the day!), we already washed said paste out of her hair, we witnessed macaroni explosions on the floor, we hear about the songs and the kids - and all from just one day! This morning when I pulled into the parking lot, she recognized the building and said in a very excited voice, "Preschool! Happy!!!" Some kids we see crying as their parents work to get them in there... Karis runs right past them to get started on the day's activities. It's a new era!

Posted by Josh at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

What a great night. We were putting our daughter to bed, and read a new book to her, "Good Morning, Good Night!", a gift from the Boyers, when we hit this line:

Good morning, little one!
What fun this day will bring!
Butterflies and flowers
And a place for you to swing.

As *soon* as I read the word "butterflies", our little scholar looked up, pointed straight at her butterfly mobile, and said "buh!"

There was something so awe inspiring about the connection - a word in a book connected to something that has been in her room since before she was born. She's always listening and learning, and it is a thrill to not only be a part of it, but to see the world through her eyes.

Posted by Josh at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One year old! And what a year. Karis continues to amaze us - at her first birthday party, she was taking a few wobbly steps between grand parents, aunts and uncles. This year has absolutely flown by, but on the other hand, she has filled our lives in such a way that we can't imagine the time before her. One year ago today we were gathered in the hospital, eagerly awaiting to meet this little girl that was at the time more of an idea than a reality.

Now, it is so wonderful to see her personality, more and more every day. To hear her laugh makes the day complete. Nothing melts our hearts more than the moments at the end of the day, tuckered out from the day's excitement, when she clasps her arms on mommy or daddy's shoulders for a long hug. She is a bundle of energy, and amazingly brave to a largely unknown world. Quick to laugh, and quick to make friends with anyone she meets.

Saturday was her birthday party, and today at church we dedicated her to the Lord. Karis, there is no deeper love we can show you than the promises we made there before friends and family.

We cannot wait for another year of love, smiles, laughters, and all of the new "firsts" that we see you reaching for! We love you! Happy birthday!

Posted by Josh at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The new stats are out. Topps ® is busy printing out the new cards - look for them in stores soon. Don't chew the gum. Remember to keep the corners straight.

(drum roll)
Weighing in at 21 lbs., 11 oz., and towering over the competition at 29 3/4 inches, Karis Bell Pavel is officially "healthy" and - dare I say it - "bouncing". She still has a bit of the "long and lean" look, but she is much more proportional than in days of yore.

She makes a mom and dad so proud.

Posted by Josh at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From time to time I'll talk to someone who checks the site but hasn't had a chance to spend a good bit of time with Karis recently... that always lets me get a fresh glimpse at what people remember and what they don't know about her! Here's some fun facts to get everyone up to speed:

• Karis sleeps about 12 hours a night - has been for a few months now. Amazing how quickly we can get used to it...
  
• The little bean sprout shot her way up to 12 month clothes a bit before the 8th month mark. They still fit, but I couldn't tell you for how long.
  
• A second tooth snuck in, seemingly overnight again. Though we haven't been able to capture it on film, standby - our Snaggletooth now has a cute two teeth'ed smile!
  
• She's always been quick to smile, but she is exceptionally happy when you clap your hands and cheer, "Yay!" She's been clapping and smiling for about a week now.
  
• While we've heard both "Mama" and "Dada" used for each of us, clearly and specifically, she seems to save those for moments of extreme desperation. I must say, as a trump card, it never fails - if she wants us to scoop her up and cover her with kisses.
  
• My favorite development - she has taken to mimicking daddy's dancing (which consists primarily of a head bop, unfortunately similar to the slick moves in "Night At The Roxbury"). It's morphed into a "gimme an eskimo kiss" as well, but she has been regularly bringing this move out to share her good moods.
  

Posted by Josh at 9:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

cvf mebc gertvcA c cty r jllkkkkkkk// hm , yh bbbbb'
\\\\ i9

No kidding - she did the above herself! In fact, she had a good bit more, but selected everything and deleted it... I guess a little self-conscious about her debut. Maybe next time I'll introduce her to a few basic HTML tags.

Posted by Josh at 6:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

WOOOOOHOOOOOO! (Please imagine the Hallelujah Chorus playing in the background as you read this.) We have highly anticipated this day for 8 weeks now. We put her to bed last night at 11:15pm right after her last feeding, she fell asleep instantly, and then we didn't hear from her again until 6am! I didn't have that scary "oh my gosh, why haven't I heard from her, is she okay?" moment because she still woke up before us. But when I looked at the clock and realized that I hadn't gotten up to feed her since the night before, I was shocked.

Josh and I are so happy we can't stand it. Now, we are not so foolish as to think this wonderful event will happen two nights in a row, or even twice in the same week, but we now have hope of long missed consecutive hours of sleep. There is now light at the end of the tunnel, and possibly sleep at the end of the day.

Posted by Leah at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

At 9:41 PM, July 28, 2006, Karis Bell Pavel came into the world. She was 7 lbs. and 11 oz., and 21 inches long! It was a long labor and delivery, and we will both have much more to say later, but I wanted to share the good news with the world. Thank you God for this wonderful gift!

Posted by Josh at 9:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

We had our first baby shower today! We are truly overwhelmed at everybody's generosity. Thankfully, we are surrounded by people who have done this before, so we got so many things that we KNOW we need, so many things we DIDN'T know we needed, and - the best gift of all - to spend time with so many loving people. Not to be too cheesy, but the best gift given - and the best gift we could give to Baby Pavel - is to surround her with people like those we were with today.

Bev Sarver was in charge of the shindig today. For anyone who doesn't know, she and her entire family welcomed us into their family shortly after we moved up here, a precursor to the wonderful family we now have at TVCF. It would be hard to consider North Carolina our home if it weren't for her and the rest of our surrogate family we've been given.

My dad once explained something to me; in terms of gratitude, you reach a point where all you can do is say "thank you" and attempt to somehow "carry on". I know, it sounds cheesy again, but recently, I so often find myself at this point. So, to everyone, thank you. And I hope one day we'll be able to show you just how grateful we are.

On a different note... I couldn't resist pulling a modest, short lived April Fool's joke today. To a small group at the shower, after we had received a number of pink items, I tried my best to get an "umm... yeah..." face on and tell 'em, "Oh, geez, didn't we tell everyone? We found out it's a boy!"

Of course, on the not-so-funny side of the house, if Tom and Kristy had their way, we would've been leaving with armfulls of Georgia Tech paraphernalia for Baby Pavel. Thank God it isn't as easy to come by in North Carolina. But that does remind me... we'll be needing to get one of those UGA cheerleading outfits I remember from the campus bookstore... Go Dawgs!

Posted by Josh at 9:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Leah was right! Chalk another one up to mother's intuition. We had the ultrasound appointment today, and the tech checked the baby from the top of HER head to the bottom of HER toes. Wow, what a relief to not mess with any more s/he stuff! And take a look at her beautiful profile... I'm so excited.

For anyone who did not know, part of the reason why this was not as much of a surprise is that Baby Pavel was actually prophesied about at church - before we even knew we were pregnant. A woman in our kinship group had a vision of Leah holding a baby girl that looked a lot like her. I believe at the time, we were actually one or two weeks pregnant, so I just filed this in the "something to think about" drawer. :-) Of course I remembered it when we DID learn that we were pregnant... and now that we know it is a girl, all of the pieces have come together!

We are strongly leaning towards "Karis Ashlyn" (Karis Ashlynn?). "Karis" is Greek for "grace", a name Leah actually loved when she was doing some personal Bible study a while back. The Greek is normally transliterated "Charis", but to prevent the "Ch" sound, we figured we'd spell it with a "K".

So yes, there are more ultrasounds on the right (4-1 through 4-6). Since this appointment was to thoroughly check out Baby Pavel, these were more practical than aesthetic, with her measuring the baby's head, feet, length, heart, blood flow, everything. It was amazing to see our fully-formed baby girl today... from a medical standpoint, the technology is amazing. You could clearly see (among other things) the 4 chambers of her heart. She is doing great in her development.

That is all for now! I wanted to make sure we got something up since we did have BIG news today!

Posted by Josh at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)