A walk awalk awalka

We went for a long walk Sunday and it was really great. If you ask Finn how it was he'll say "Pretty good." That is his answer for just about any question you ask him. He says it in such a nonchalant way too. We wandered through the fields of the sports complex across the way. Stopping to watch some Little league baseball, women's soccer, and the skater boys watched over by a line of parents in their S.U.V.s. We cut across the street to the Nike World Campus and meandered the bark trails. We walked up to Costco and had a lunch of pizza and frozen yogurt. We made our way back home through side trails of ducks and play grounds. Finn was in and out of the stroller a number of times on our 3 hour walk and played on 3 different playgrounds. Henry slept in the swaying hammock oblivious to the many rain showers and even hail. It was nice Portland day, and a great long walk around our new world.

Thank God for Skype

When your feeling disconnected from family and friends spread out across the country it is nice to know that relief is a high speed internet connection away. We have been talking with most of Kate's family including Heather in Korea via web cam enabled Skype. We can have dinner with Granma and Ta Ta in Indiana, or play video games with uncle Mark. I guess I see the connections through Finn's vocab since he is the one that initiates most of the chats. He knows that he can show his new truck to granma through the computer. He climbs up to the laptop and asks "Talk granma on dis" while pointing forcefully at the screen until we try the connection. He knows the little Skype tune that plays when your trying to connect and grabs his trucks like Pavlov's dog. We have chatted with Scott, Mandy, and Baby Jake in Hawaii; Meg and Mike in Minnesota; Mark and Kendra in Arizona; Tom and Kris in Indiana; and last night with our Pleasant Street friends in Indiana over cocktails. We used to get together every so often to sit around and talk over effeminate drinks, and it is one of the things I miss most about being in Portland. Last night through the magic of the internets we got the chance to renew our fruity bull sessions. We chatted for 2 hours with none of the "on the spot" awkwardness that comes from being on camera. It was really great, really really great.

Just your standard Family of four

It's like getting waxed, only not at all

We have had two sick kids for the last couple of days but that sounds a lot tougher then it actually was. Finn seems to be fairly cheerful when he is sick and Henry just wants to breath. Kate and I were up late last night trying to make sense of our future, silly I know, and Henry was up early. I got up with him and went downstairs to hold him and try to get hi back to sleep. The problem was he was all stuffed up and he hasn't learned to breath through he mouth at all it seems. I had him on my chest face down and he was moving his head back and forth like mad. He really has great neck muscles for kid his age, like a young Arnold Schwarzenegger. After a couple minutes of his thrashing we got up and looked for the great nose plunger to help him out. The thing was, during all his back and forth over my chest he had coated me and his face in baby snot. It was sad and gross and funny and sad but mostly gross. I got a towel and wiped my chest off and then cleaned up Henry's face. I then got the infant sized turkey baster and cleaned out his nose which he took great exception to. He was super angry but breathing well and I wrapped him back up and placed him in the swing, a little snot shy from our last snuggle, and he was asleep in no time at all. I went back to sleep as well and dreamed of snot, I wonder what Henry dreamt of?

Henry Saying Hi

Mixtape, internet style

Well is seems all the cool kids on the internets have a mixtape up so of course I need to get one too. Here is my first effort, it's not right yet but it's a starting point. I was feeling a little down when I created it this morning so that was the lens that colored the choices. If you make a muxtape then share it with me in the comments, I would love to hear what your listening too lately and try to guess at your frame of mind.

Henry Does Not Moose Around!

Henry has this outfit that says "I do not Moose Around" on the front and for some reason this kills me. I can't help but comment on it every time I pick him up. I have conversations with him about it where I of course voice all the parts. "Henry I heard some where that you like to moose around, is that true?" "No daddy I do not moose around!" or "Was that you moosing around in here?" "Daddy I don't know if you can read or not but it clearly states that I do not moose around, so it wasn't me." Beautiful rolls her eyes at me and calls me a dork and she is right. There is just something about that outfit that makes me smile. So who ever gave us that jumper thank you. You have brought joy to my life repeatedly as it has been cold out and it's a nice warm ensemble. I'm sorry I don't know who gave it to us, Beautiful keeps track of those things.

• Update: Thank you Grandma Kris for getting that outfit, it has kept Henry warm, me entertained and Kate rolling her eyes.
• Update 2: Beautiful was mistaken it was actually Aunt Meg that bought the Moose around outfit. makes sense that the Minnesota Native would pass along the Moose. Thanks Aunt Meg we love the outfit.
  

Camo Jacket, Motorcycle shirt, and a Headband

The song of the keyboard

Right around this time of day 2:30-3:00 I get really sleepy. There is a lull in the phone calls and the rhythmic tapping of keys that fills the office, calling out to me to crash my face on the keyboard, that tap tap tap like the sirens of Ulysses luring the ships to the rocks. I get up and walk around, grab a cup of tea, get the blood flowing but I know that the last two hours of work are going to be a fight for conscienceless.

He's holding our hearts too

Good luck Aunt Linsey

Doing Well

Nearly two weeks of being a family of four and so far so good. Henry slept for 6 hours straight last night giving Kate and I some much needed consecutive sleep. He’s a giver like that. We both woke up on our own to check on him though, it seems we can’t just enjoy the sleep; we have to check that he is still alive. Finn is doing pretty well so far sharing his parents. He is very popular with family so he is still getting his fair share of attention and having his Ta Ta and Aunt Meg here was a great for him. We have also purchased a webcam to have some Skype sessions with Grandma, Ta Ta, and Uncle Mark and Aunt Nena. Finn rubs his nose against the monitor to give butter fly kisses or ugga muggas with Uncle Mark and he asks to hold Grandma when ever we chat with her. Not sure if he gets the technology but he knows that his fans are just a few clicks away.

Kate is recovering well and looking beautiful as usual. She has connected really quickly with Henry and the two of them have been out and about a bunch. We went to my uncle Beaver’s surprise 50th birthday party and got to see a bunch of my uncles. As I have written about before it is tough to track them down but we got to see Beaver, Maverick, Pablo, Steve, and Papa. It was pretty great introducing Finn to my Papa while he held on for dear life to his own Papa. It was a classic Rohl party with a good deal of drinking and good food and Kate took it all in stride. It is a bit different world for her but you would never know it to see her interact.

I am back to work full-time today and the day seems really long. Just one week of Half days and I feel like that is the norm. Work and I have a tenuous relationship at best but this job is really great and if I have to work then this is a good place for it. My one friend at work just turned in his notice to move to California. I guess I will have to get back on the friend dating circuit to find a replacement, plenty of fish in the sea but this office doesn’t seem to be connected with that sea.

More pictures coming soon, batteries keep running out to quick so I can’t get them loaded. Thank you to everyone that sent wishes and congratulations. We got messages through the blog, gmail, facebook, myspace, text messages, phone calls, greeting cards, and flowers delivered to the door. Not sure why there wasn’t a carrier pigeon in there somewhere but there might be more kids soon

Oh Man!

Video taken by Meg.

Henry Ellis Rohl

9 lbs. 4 oz. 21 inches long born at 6:45 after 10 minutes of pushing. Welcome to the world my boy!

This is the day your life will surely change

We are at the hospital and Kate is hooked up to the I.V., monitors, and Pitocin. She is beautiful and happy and so far pain free. Unfortunately Flickr is a blocked site so I can't upload the other pictures but I will later. Thanks for the prayers and good thought, we really appreciate it.