See Kai Run casting call

I apologize to all our faithful readers, (Grandma Wong that is you!), but we have been busy adjusting our family life from 3 to 4 people. Auntie Jaime is making me write more posts now that she is in town. It has become mountain of backlogged posts that will someday make it. Here is a fun one for now!

Garrett and I saw the casting call on our facebook and both decided we should enter Gideon into it. We love their shoes and we know that Gideon is cute on camera. The tough part was choosing which pictures to send to the casting call director. Here are the photos that we chose.







And of course this video!

Gideon's Gangnam Style from Gar on Vimeo.

We received an email for a callback. Woohoo! Garrett's mom watched Seona at home while I took Gideon. I wanted Gideon to feel comfortable in his clothes. So I dressed him in a T-shirt and khakis. He wore his velcro Stride Rite shoes. When we arrived, there were many kids waiting to be measured and photographed. They were dressed much more dressier than Gideon: fancy dresses, fancy shoes, button up shirts, polos and hats.

We checked in with the friendly lady. She noticed right away that Gideon was the dancer in the cool video. She liked it too! I thought that was a good sign. The children (some Gideon's age and some who were older) were sitting with their parental units waiting to be called. Gideon was not that child. He wanted to play with all the kids. He would come up to them and say hi. He would try to hug the girls. He also ran around in circles while waiting. Gideon was making himself known to the crowd. In true Gideon style, he was also trying to scavenge some goldfishes and fruity snacks from other kids by staring at them.

When we were called, Gideon was very excited to go behind the tables that he ran to the lady who was taking photographs. Unfortunately, Gideon was photo bombing another child's photo. I had to corral him back to the lady who was finding a shoe for his big feet. "Wow, a size 8 foot!" she said. Gideon tried on the right shoe and loved walking in it. He did not want to take it off. He started to cry, so the lady said he can wear it until we leave. Gideon was the only one who was upset by the shoe.

Then it was our turn to talk to the lady. She had bean bag balls to play with which Gideon loved. She asked him to hold the ball and throw it to her. In true Gideon style, he threw the ball away from her, probably thinking it was the Billy game. Then she wanted to take a picture of Gideon. He did not stand still for the photo. He decided to run away to the nearest wall and lean on it to pose for the picture.

Example but Gideon was not smiling. He was "smizing." (smiling with your eyes, term by Tyra Banks.)



I had to hold Gideon while she took a picture. He was compliant but wanted to run around the room more with the balls. We said goodbye to the lady. As we were walking away, she wrote something down in one second and turned her page. Any thoughts on what she was writing down? At least it was a fun experience. We will probably still buy See Kai Run shoes. We will find out on October 15th if Gideon is called back for the photoshoot in November.

Seona's birth story from Siobhan's perspective

Well, the baby name bracket was not finished before Seona's arrival. Many thanks to those who voted and gave their opinions. Again, we had to decide on a name at the hospital. We had our top five but narrowing them down was harder.

Back to the birth story, this pregnancy was similar to Gideon's pregnancy. I thought for sure she would be early like her brother. After the 37th week, we were in uncharted waters. I continued my weekly OB appointments hoping to hear, she is coming soon. My OB was on vacation on my 37th and 38th weeks. She said there would be a chance I would deliver when she was away. Seona's arrived on her first day back from vacation.

I was four centimeters dilated at my 37th week appointment. The OB said she should arrive soon. No baby and I saw the OB the following week. Now I was five centimeters dilated. Since I had the strep bacteria cultures, I needed to take an antibiotic before giving birth. Since my first pregnancy came so quickly, the OB was worried I wouldn't make it to the hospital in time to take the antibiotic. She scheduled me for an induction for Monday July 23rd, basically break my water. I knew that once my water broke, the contractions would begin.

On Sunday evening, I was starting to feel contractions. By midnight, they were more frequent about 9 minutes apart and more intense. I called the on call OB. She said to wait to see if the frequency increased and it did. We left for the hospital at 2am. At the hospital, the contractions lessened in intensity and they were not frequent anymore. I was prepared to be sent back home. The on call OB was the one who predicted an early arrival for our baby. She recognized me right away. She checked my cervix and admitted me into the hospital. I was put on the antibiotics and garrett and I waited. We talked about our top 4 name choices. We knew we had to have a couple of names before her arrival.

My OB came at 8am to check in with me. She would break my water and then wait and see how my body reacts. She broke my water at 815am and left until the nurse would call her. The contractions started right away and getting more intense by the minute. The nurse asked if I would like an epidural. I said I would wait a little while. Five minutes later, I could not wait. I asked Garrett to call the nurse to call for an epidural. I am not a light weight when it comes to pain. The contractions were coming faster and more frequent as each minute passed by. I knew she would arrive at any moment. The epidural was placed and it was now the waiting game. Within an hour, my body was ready. The nurse called for my OB. She arrived and coached me on my pushes with every contraction. Four pushes later, baby girl arrived. Yup, four pushes! I couldn't believe it. She was crying like crazy. Garrett and I knew that we were in for a ride.