What Auntie Needs

What Auntie Beth needs

is a few more kids swarming around her while she reads a book.

Hat Track

 A hat

made from car track,

for Tikvah

from Xandra.

Lightweight

Most nights since Xandra was just a tiny baby, Joe has done push ups.  Not traditional push ups with his nose to the floor, but Pull push ups where he lifts a child up, bench press style, twelve times and counts aloud with each up.  What started with just one child and twelve easy push ups five and a half years ago, has turned into 5 kids, some of them quite heavy, and 60 push ups.  Here's a glance at Tikvah's first go at Pull push ups.   

I believe that was a yawn in the previous picture.  Apparently, this is boring stuff for a big five day old.

For now, she's a lightweight.  Unfortunately for Joe they don't stay that way for long.

Construction Zone

Cousin Cora

An Unlikely Place

At four days old,

Tikvah had the privilege of meeting cousins

Cora and Evie for the first time,

in a rather unlikely place:

atop Grandma Mary's kitchen counters.

Three Firsts

Tikvah's first

sink bath.

Tikvah's first

bath at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Tikvah's first bath.

Nothing Like It

There's nothing like a good book at bedtime

and a Grandma to go with it.

An Upward Glance

At the Tim Pull house, if you happen to be lying under the coffee table in the living room and glance up, you'll find a record of moments from recent years, forever recorded in black marker on the underside of the table.  It might be hard to imagine what kind of moments one would record on the underside of a coffee table, so I've collected a sampling of photos to serve as inspiration for others looking to scrapbook on their living room furniture.

There are first visits from important people,

family quarrels,

engagements on the property,

boasting for the purposes of rubbing salt in a wound,

and big announcements at the holidays, to name a few.

It was no surprise then, when Tikvah's first visit to the Pull place

found Tim and Tikvah under the table,

recording the date and time of her visit.

She didn't seem too excited,

but in year's to come, she'll be reminded of her first visit to Grandpa Tim's place, direct from the hospital,

 whenever she has cause to lay under the coffee table and glance upward.

Business as Usual

It didn't take long for the kids to get used to having Tikvah around. 

After just a few hours it was business as usual,

plus one.

The Fifth Shelf Down

It's getting more complicated these days to get a bookshelf picture: 

1. We need lots of shelf space. 

2.  We have no easily accessible bookshelves, as they're all stashed away in a storage unit in South Fargo.  

Thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa came to our rescue with their bookshelves.  The only difficulty that remained then, was that Grandma and Grandpa have LOTS of books. 

It took Joe awhile to clear the shelves

and make this big mess.

It also required moving a couch, coffee table, lamp, and basket.  But eventually, his efforts were rewarded and the bookshelves were ready.

Five kids

on five fine shelves.

Welcome to the family, Tikvah.

We're glad you're here.

You look just perfect on the fifth shelf down.

Settling In

After leaving the hospital, we stopped by Little Caesars to pick up our celebration pizza.  Much less fancy than our Celebration Dinner, but more suited for the fine pallates of our little ones.

After everyone, except Tikvah, enjoyed the pizza,

we took some time to get Tikvah setlted in and all set up in the customary Pull newborn bed:

a nice comfy laundry basket.

She seemed to enjoy it right away.

Joey found her immediately

and took the opportunity to try to poke her eyeballs out,

which he has kindly tried to do many times since then, never on purpose, of course, just out of a great inability to understand how his power and might dangerously transfers to a newborn.

These two, enjoyed her too,

and even managed to be gentle without too much effort.