Being a Big Brother

Dommy's been doing amazingly well with little Patrick. Not sure if it's sunk in or not that it's another human being, but he's definitely intrigued by the whole deal. He likes to mimic Patrick's cries, and always gives him kisses when he can. The separation from Mommy and Daddy is pretty tough, but he's done fantastic with Grandpa and Grandma Cassingham. Uncle Dave and Aunt Jenni noted that Dommy sometimes looks like Tom on Tom and Jerry, where he looks at baby Patrick and envisions a turkey and stuffing! ; ) The boy does eat a lot!

Patrick's Homecoming

We came home from the hospital on Friday afternoon, after filling out all the papers and doing all the tests. We walked the 1.5 blocks to the house to meet Dominic, Grandpa, and Grandma who were out in the yard with balloons and a banner. Dommy actually ate a "picnic lunch" on the steps with Grandma as he waited for us to come. It was really a special time to see Dommy come running up to greet us as we approached the house, and an especially sunny and nice day to remember for a long time.

Patrick and Mommy spending some quality time together shortly after coming home.

Welcome, Patrick James Tighe!

It took us awhile to finally come up with his name, but Baby X became Patrick James today. Patrick is a family name for Mike, and James is in honor of Kirsten's Uncle Jim who passed away in March. He's a big rascal, and everyone's very excited to see him!

The video below appears black, but just click on the arrow and it will come up.

Baby X is born today!

Today was the day. When we woke up we didn't know it, but it was! Everything went exactly as we had hoped, and we are now parents to a bouncing baby boy! Kirsten ended up having a C-section as we expected, but here 1.5 blocks from our house. Her water broke naturally, and we walked down and had our new baby boy at 4:45pm PST. He is 9lbs, 12.5oz, and 21.5" long. Grandpa and Grandma Cassingham are watching Dominic at home as we speak, and already brought him down to see his baby brother. No names yet, but we're thinking of a few like:

• Michael Knight Tighe
• Perignon Champagne Tighe (to match his brother Dom--thanks, Aunt Jenny!)
• Walker TexasRanger Tighe
• Chad Nuevedoce Tighe

More news soon!

Waiting for Baby

On Saturday we went down to Hunter's Resort here in town to feed the ducks and geese, a favorite stop for Dominic and Daddy. They have ponds there, warmed by hot springs, that are open year round and on the Pacific Flyway for bird migration. This means they get lots of waterfowl moving through, and also have a resident bunch of mallards, etc. to feed whenever we go. Dommy really enjoys the place, and on Saturday he showed it off to the Cassinghams.

Over Tuesday night we got about 3" of new snow. Dominic got to play outside in it Wed. morning with Grandma Cass and Mommy and his new blue watering can. Looks like we won't need to water the garden outside for awhile yet, even though Daddy started the seeds this week indoors!

Dominic is spending lots of time reading with Grandpa Cass, and is loving every minute. We got some new books from the local library that they both enjoy!

Nuthin' yet! Preggo pics from today

Here we are on the due date, April 15th, but no baby yet. Kirsten is doing super well, and down to weekly/twice-a-week appointments. As with Dominic, we expected to probably go over the date (Dommy was 13 days over and HUGE), so this isn't a real shocker. The doctor said he probably wouldn't let Kirst go past 41 weeks (next Thursday), so hopefully the little one will want to come out before then naturally. The idea is that labor will start naturally (i.e. the baby will be ready to come out on its own accord), then we will have a C-section. This is the only real option since Kirst ended up with a C-section with Dominic last time and they prefer not to chance stressing those rehealed areas with another birth. Some places do it, but we're more interested in a healthy baby and Mom after a healthy birth at the local hospital than driving 3 hrs in labor to the big hospital to risk the natural birth there. Really tough decision, but take one look at the little bird below and it makes you believe everything will turn out alright!

Guesses, anyone?

Felices Pascuas

It was a snowy and cold Easter in Lakeview this year, but still full of fun! Although we tried to do it several times earlier in the week, we ended up dyeing eggs on Saturday. Dommy tried to help, but mostly watched and played with the wire tool as we dyed. They turned out pretty well, though, and we even got a few "Fidor" eggs (spider--or cracked--as kids would say it) after a few egg fumbles. Note the MSU and WVU eggs in the bunch--Daddy thought he'd be clever and predict the winners of the Final Four games this weekend, but it turns out he laid an egg--make that two eggs!

On Sunday we went to the fairgrounds for the much-hyped Easter Egg Hunt put on by the Lakeview Lions. It started at 1pm, but Dommy was sleeping until about 12:45, so we hurried to get there in case they started the littler kids first. We got to the fairgrounds at 1:05 and met oncoming traffic coming out of the parking lot--finished! Turns out it was all over already! They segregated areas by age, then let all the kids go at the same time, at exactly 1pm. All the eggs were gone and everyone was leaving 5 minutes later! Really? Some friends were nice enough to share some eggs with us and we staged a private egg hunt for Dommy anyways. We had practiced all week in the house, so wanted to show off his egghunting skills!

For Easter dinner we had some friends (Bri and Wade) over for dinner. We made a couple of courses from the Taste of Home recipe, which turned out pretty well. The ideas were great, but the execution was average on Dad's part. The best part was the Jell-o eggs made in the molds we got from Grandma and Grandpa Cassingham. They turned out great, and were a compliment to the blueberry-flavored edible grass we served them with!

While we were eating, Dommy was busy picking up chicks!

Here's what we woke up to today in Lakeview--about 2" of new snow.