6:23 pm yesterday our new baby Ewan Santana entered the world! 8 lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long. We are all doing well and hoping to be home soon.

Our lovely second daughter, Cecilia Charlie (a.k.a. Celia), was born today October 17th, 2010 at 12:46am. Mom and baby are tired but both doing well. Jen, using the amazing strength I knew she had, succeeded at natural child birth. We haven’t been able to get much rest yet. Hospitals just aren’t designed for rest. Thanks for all the well wishes.

On the way home from a particularly stressful day during one of the more stressful times in my recent life I heard an essay on the radio that talked about an interesting skill in mountain climbing called the “rest step”, where you take a rest in between each step, making steady, quick progress without wearing yourself out. Like the author of that essay, pace is not something that comes naturally to me. At my typical rate, I can feel like a freight train, and the slightest bump on the tracks derails my plans, and stops progress altogether. It means that I tend to be thinking about what I need to be doing next rather than concentrating on the current moment.

As the seasons change here in Boston, and Josie nears her first birthday, I find myself thinking about pace again. It’s helped me enjoy the time as our life has adjusted, becoming parents. It’s taught me that even if work late into the night, I can pause to have a calm dinner with Jen and Josie and make sure to read Josie a bedtime story. And it’s made me a better rock climber.

You can listen to the essay here.

 

Flamingos and Snow at the Stone Zoo

Ummm…flamingos…and…snow?

Yes, we have cats. Lots of them. And we named our daughter Josie. Yup, we were definitely aware of the 1970s cartoon, Josie and the Pussycats. And, no we didn’t name her after that cartoon. We liked the name Josie. But of course we were aware of the cartoon. So maybe our subconscious minds have a sense of humor. I don’t think it’s the worst namesake to have though. The show’s original theme song is pretty good. But cartoon network’s remake of it is awesome. My favorite part is the 80s metal part!

(lyrics)

This is about a month old, but we got time to actually get the video online now. Listen for her ominous growling!

Our first post about Josie after she was born was titled, “Hello, Josephine”. That happens to be the title of one of my favorite of the songs with Josie’s name. Also often known as “My Girl Josephine”, I believe it was originally written and performed by Fats Domino and then covered by many people, including Jerry Lee Lewis and Van Morrison. This version below is by Jerry Jaye.

Everybody should watch this. I wonder if Neil Patrick Harris will actually bring back the movie musical.

No…High School Musical does not count.

I gotta get me some of that wonderflonium.

Before settling on a name for our daughter, I embarked on what I considered a necessary exercise. I searched for songs that mention her name. It turns out that there are some great songs written about girls named Josie and Josephine. This first song is Josie by Blink-182. When Jen and I started dating (over 10 years ago!), I made her a mix CD and this was one of the songs on it. Prophetic indeed.

More songs to come…

Josie now weighs more than two of the cats, Kaya (9 lbs) and Mio (10.5 lbs). She’s closing in on Ezzy who is usually in the range of 11-12 lbs and is pictured below. With the tail and the fur though, I think Ezzy still has a wider and longer body, although Josie definitely wins on head size. Once she’s past Ezzy she’ll have a long time to catch up to Fred and George’s size (16.5/17lbs).