Best. Son. Ever.

Here's how it went down:

Bennett: More
Me: More what?
Bennett: Cow bell

No joke!

Update

We have some recent pregnancy news. To start off, here is what I read in my preggo journal today (hopefully this is not too boring):

"If your baby is born now, it will not only be able to make an efficient transition from the womb to the outside, but it will also be able to resist disease...This day marks the end of eight months (34 weeks) of pregnancy."

So, here we are at month nine. Woh. We have had some stress with moving and finding a doctor; there were only so many options with our insurance, naturally, and when I called around, a bunch of them basically responded by saying, "you're how many weeks?!? Not gonna happen." Then there is this other -not so small- issue of the limited number of doctors and hospitals around here that will allow VBACs. Anyway, yesterday we got some great news, and I am so excited that I needed to blog about it. We had an appointment to meet with one last doctor yesterday afternoon. If things went well, we would be happy and move forward with the new guy. If things did not go well, we would have had to stick with a doctor that neither of us felt very comfortable with (we met him and it was a strange experience), and I would have had no chance of trying a VBAC. So, as you may have guessed, yesterday's appointment went great! We are very excited about the new doctor. His office was cozy but still professional, and his staff was SO friendly. The ladies met Bennett, and loved him, and of course we love anyone who loves Bennett. They even offered to watch him during some appointments since we are new to the area and Rob may not be able to leave work to help me out. Also, I will deliver (naturally or by caesarean-we will see) at a hospital in Berkeley called Alta Bates. It has an outstanding reputation, and we are told that they are really well equipped for complications. And bonus: the labor rooms are private! My doctor will be the guy to bring Elodie into the world (as opposed to another on-call doctor), and that makes me really happy. So, ya, just good, good news all around for the Markleys. We are feeling incredibly grateful to God for taking such care with every detail (as always) of this move. I knew all along that He would make it all good for this baby-after all, He already knows her and loves her. Knowing and trusting are two very different things, though, and I will admit that I was becoming worried. My doubts were put to rest by a God who is much bigger than us.

In Bennett news...I finally cut his hair. I actually really liked it a little longer, but it kept getting super shaggy really fast. Here are the before and afters:

A Little Bit of Christmas

Hello all,
For starters, we made it up to the Bay Area! We are alive and well. It has seemed incredibly fast and blurry, and I really know nothing about this town besides the street we live on and-God Bless them-the Trader Joe's, a half of a block away. The truth is, I don't even know what is up our street and around the bend, and I wonder where all those cars are headed... but we are here. We LOVE our new house-it completely feels like a home, even with packed and unpacked boxes still laying around. I will blog about all of it later, but I wanted to show a glimpse into our Christmas before it got away from me.

This picture captures my memory of
Christmas perfectly. Smiles, laughter, sweet cousins,
and squishy puppies.

My favorite present

I am so much bigger than I look here (think "gargantuan")!

Grammy and Santa Bennett sharing a hug

We had a great visit with the Brennans.
Bennett just loves his SLO county cousins-and
doesn't he look like part of their pack?

O.k., I have to say it...how lucky am I?

And I couldn't resist (or choose between) the following videos. The first is Bennett figuring out his new Elmo toy, the second is Tommy and Bennett playing light sabers. The light saber game was the first time we had seen little B. role play like a big kid!

I hope you enjoyed. Happy new year everyone!

Terry Fator

Last week I was able serve as Technical Director for a show featuring Terry Fartor. The dude's amazing! See below for a sample.

(This is Rob, by the way, not Bennett)

Holiday Pics

Here are some holiday photos a little late to be posted:

Wrestling Grandpa

Playing guitar with Uncle Kevin
(I am his biggest fan)

After my bath

Whoops! It's cool, I'm not shy.

Hide n seek with Dad

The family (Uncle Tom is not in the shot-he took it)

Mom, Dad, and Me

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Fa La La La La

Bennett is our little Christmas elf. I say this because he loves all the "stuff" of Christmas this year, now that he is a big two year old. He is excited about Christmas lights, Christmas trees, giving Christmas gifts...the list goes on. However, nothing exceeds his love for-you guessed it- Christmas music. His all time favorite is one he calls the "hee-hee-hee" song, a quirky little ditty by Nat King Cole. It is a happy, silly song sung in the voice of "the happiest Christmas tree... ho-ho-ho, hee-hee-hee." Rob and I are torturing ourselves day after day by putting the song on repeat, because Bennett's reaction to it is so priceless. It involves smiling, laughing, dancing, and singing. I wish I could get him on video, but the second the camera makes a click or a ding he charges me like a tiny bull demanding to "see it, see it." This is why I don't post more videos.

His runner-up favorite is Jingle Bells (pronounced "ginko buzz"). He requests this one frequently, but we don't own it, so we turn on the radio and wait. The other day we walked into Starbucks, and Bennett stopped in the middle of the doorway to start dancing before I realized what song was playing. It was Ella Fitzgerald singing Jingle Bells. Gotta love that kid. He also likes Angels We Have Heard on High because he can sing the chorus: "glo-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh..."

Anyway, that's why he is our little Christmas elf. He gets it from his Dad, who-and this may surprise you- gets SO excited about all of the Christmas stuff. I am no scrooge, don't get me wrong, I love Christmas too. But my boys have me beat on the excitement and anticipation of all of it, making it that much more wonderful for me!

I found a video of Bennett dancing (sort of), and even though it's not to Christmas music playing, it is pretty cute. I can't believe he actually let me take it!

Movin' On Up

So, here's our big news...
Rob accepted a new job up in San Francisco, and we are moving up north on December 29th. It feels really anticlimactic to blog about, because it seems that everyone who actually reads our blog is family, and you all know. But anyway, we are really excited for another adventure, and we hope that this is it for us. I mean, moving every few months is fun and all (I have actually discovered that I love this type of change and get antsy after staying put any place for some length of time), but it is time to put down some roots.

Rob will be doing the same work he does now (corporate/hotel audio visual work), only this is a regional position. He has a large territory, including 14 hotels located in and between Monterey and Tahoe, but will be mainly working out of The Fairmont Hotel and The Ritz Carlton in the city.


We actually have a house already (pictured above)! We will be living in Castro Valley, in the East Bay. Rob's sister and brother in-law-to-be will only be about 15 minutes away in Pleasanton, so that will be really great. Also, my parents will be 2 hours south of us now (verses our current 6 hour trek)-yay! God really blessed us through the home search, and actually used that process to give me (and I think Rob too, but I will speak for myself) a huge peace about the move. I am so incredibly grateful for how smooth all of the details are going, especially considering that it will be just 6ish weeks from "baby time" when we get there!

More details to follow...

O.k, I have blogged about it, so it must be official.