We ain't braggin' but...

in 3 out of the last 5 nights, Little Ev has slept from 8:30pm to 7:00am.
Not waking once.
Praise. the. Lord.

Oh, and did we mention she goes to sleep on her own, in her own crib, in her own room with NO fussing? I s'pose that's old news though, since she's been doing that for almost 2 months now. ;-)

((Hopefully you'll forgive us our smugness. Some of you may recall [or may have even directly experienced- all the Grandparents, Katy, Carole, Kirsten...] how very little sleep we got for the first 12 weeks, not to mention the nearly constant screaming and insistence for us to bounce with her on the bouncy ball at nearly all times of the day and night. She's got a different demeanor now, for sure, and we are SO thankful for it!))

100 degrees is good for something.

We arrived in Nashville in the hottest summer, so far, in 53 years.
We also arrived in Nashville without a washer and dryer.

6 months!

Well, almost. She's 6 months on August 8th, but we had her 6 month appointment this morning. So, we're in a new town so that means a new clinic. And a new pediatrician. I heard through the grapevine that Vanderbilt University Pediatrics was the place to go, but also heard there was a waiting list... I called anyways once we moved here and Wa-lah! There was a new pediatrician starting in July and actively taking patients. (Plus, the clinic is 5 mins from our house!)

6 month stats:
Height: 24 inches (born at 21 inches)
Weight: 12lbs, 13oz (born at 8 lbs, 11oz)
...as we've said all along... she's a tiny one, folks!

So, the good news from the appointment:
-We LOVE our new pediatrician and the Vanderbilt University Pediatrics facility.
-Meeting our developmental milestones! (Rolling, sitting with assistance, grabbing, eye contact, laughing/talking)
-We get to start learning how to eat solids!

The bummer news from the appointment:
-Ev didn't even gain a whole pound over the last 2 months (last weight: 11lbs, 15 oz)
-Because Ev's height and weight are barely registering on the growth charts, and, due to the sharp and continual decline since birth, we've got another appointment in 4 weeks to see if she puts on any weight with extra food between now and then.
-6 month shots! Booo! No fun for anyone!

Isn't she cute in her little baby-sized patient gown??


After the shots... snuggling Daddy for comfort!

We think you'd call this sitting up on our own!

Tripod!

Grasping and "playing" with giraffe.

Well maybe "playing" is loosely interpreted.

Our new favorite friend: Giraffe.

Trying out some video... Ev as Coffee-dar.

Trying out some video... Ev at 1 month

Nashville- 38 days here and counting.

Well... we switched blogs. Again.

Using MobileMe on the Mac was nice, but ultimately horribly user UNfriendly and thus so few postings since we started it. So back to blogger. (And now you can leave us comments if you want!)

The Powells in Nashville update...

Life is great here. We really love it!

What's it like? Mix the hipster things we loved about Portland with many of the down-home people we were used to finding in places we loved to go- like Central Oregon, Minnesota or Montana. Oh, add the occasional Southern accent and the ever-present Southern charm. The only thing missing is all of our family and friends... who we do miss desperately. So hurry up and join us, won't you?

Of course, we've found our favorite coffee shop and stop by there a few times a week... and, for those that are aware, you may be shocked to find out that it's NOT a Starbucks!

Also- we were here for the hottest June in 53 years, so of course, we've found our favorite ice cream spot... well, it's make-your-own frozen yogurt parfait of sorts, and it's delicious!

Brendon continues making his Saturday morning "dad" breakfasts, as well as baking bread.

He's got the garage nearly "dialed-in" and he and Ev keep busy everyday doing everything that needs to be done. Also, he's working very hard in the yard and our cars have never been so clean.... man, it's really nice to have him able to do all of that!

My job is going well... starting to get quite a bit busier, which is good. I am really liking the lab I joined. :-)

Lastly- update on Evelyn... we have her 6 month appointment this Friday, so we'll be sure to update everyone with the stats, but here's a couple of pics to hold you over until then. (Oh, she rolls over now. Not sure if we shared that. We are working on sitting up on our own and she's definitely got the hang of pushing up off her belly... hopefully this leads to crawling soon!)

Welcome to Tennessee!

Hi ya’ll from Nashville!

The family Powell headed out from Portland a couple of weeks ago and have now become settled in Nashville, TN. For Brendon, it was a long trip across the country with our dog, his brothers Brian and Brent and his brother in law, Patrick. The four boys drove a 27’ Penske truck pulling our Audi wagon with our Toyota Landcruiser following. They left on a Friday night at 10pm and rolled into Nashville on the nextTuesday morning.

Evelyn and I were supposed to fly out from Portland on Tuesday morning and get in Tuesday afternoon flying via LA... BUT through the marvels of modern [poor] plane engineering, arrived on Wednesday afternoon after flying via LA, and Boston... and DC. Flying solo and staying awake for 31 hours straight through 5 airports with a 4 month old has traumatized me for quite a while, I think. BUT... we finally made it.

The good news is that we love our home here.
B is getting us settled in each day and he, Khaya and Evelyn are enjoying our huge new backyard.
I started at Vanderbilt last week and I really like it so far. My first experiment even worked. 5.5 years of the Ph.D. is actually paying off. :-)

We’ve explored the city quite a bit in our short time here and, despite the fact that it’s pretty different, we are finding an amazing number of similarities with Portland, which makes us feel at home. Brendon and I have both found time to make a short 3.2 mile running route around our neighborhood, however, we’ve learned that it must be completed by 8am- after that, the temperature reaches 80 and the humidity reaches 1,000%- and you may not, in fact, make it back home!!


If any of you find yourself in the South, please stop by- we would love to show you around our new home.

Happy mother's day!

May 9th, 2010 was our first mothers day and what a wonderful day. We celebrated the day along with my mother Susan up at their place in Dufur. We were fortunate to have my younger brother Brent and his wife Jess with us.

Annie glowed all day, basking in the significance of the day and in the new role of motherhood. Evelyn and I are so blessed to have Annie!

Congratulations, Annie!

On Friday, April 2nd Annie defended her thesis. By Friday afternoon, Annie had her PhD. It sounds like it happened so quick, like she wrote out a thesis the week before and then talked about it, convinced 7 people that it was legit and walked away with a few letters to put behind her name....if only.

6 years ago, Annie started her graduate program at OHSU. 6 years is a long time and for all of it, Annie worked tirelessly to make gains in her research. She has been studying some peculiar aspects of colon cancer and its relation to bone marrow transplants. Her research has been on the edge of science and she has convinced many established researchers that her science speaks truth. This alone proves that Annie has an ability to not only perform research science but change research science. This has been a long and hard road, Annie makes it looks easy and Annie has shown more grit and determination than I have ever seen someone display. Graduate school leads to an anticlimactic end. A random Friday with a talk and a defense and a PhD doesn’t seem to sum up all the effort, frustration, long hours, thankless mediocre tasks, asking questions that none can answer, acquiring data that none have ever interpreted, writing it all down in hopes that some will “deem” it novel, and mental investment. Maybe the best reward is that graduate school is over and she can move on.

With her great effort at OHSU, Annie now has a research opportunity at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She is going to continue working on colon cancer although a different aspect. There will be new challenges, but the years of grinding out her PhD are behind her and we are all glad for that, especially Annie.

Congratulations Annie, I love you!

Growing up!

Evelyn had her 2 month well-baby check-up yesterday.

Here’s the stats...

Height: 23 inches (21 inches at birth)

Weight: 10lbs, 11oz (8lbs, 11oz at birth)

Head circumference: 15.16 inches (13.75 inches at birth)

Ev averages in the 65th percentile for everything for her age. When you look at her weight for her height, however, she’s barely in the 25th percentile. So, so far she’s long and lean and Brendon and I can’t figure out where that came from!

-a

Where does the time go?

6 weeks has flown by! Here’s the update on Ev!

Evelyn was born at 8 lbs, 11 oz... lost 4 oz in the hospital and was 8lbs 10oz at her 2 day well-baby checkup. At her 2 week checkup, she was already 9lbs, 6 oz and had grown 1/4 of an inch. Her 2 month checkup is this Friday and our prediction is that she’s approaching 11lbs and over 22 inches, but we’ll let you know. She definitely looks SO much like Brendon and has a ton of my attitude. Miss Evelyn knows what she wants and is happy to tell you about it. :-) Developmentally, she’s right on track... she coos and makes various noises- her eyes are starting to focus on objects that move near them. She actually came into the world holding her head up, so we don’t have that milestone to pass. She also has been holding her weight on her legs since week 2, so she’s really strong! I think we have a future runner on our hands!

As far as Brendon and I go... things are, well, very busy. Brendon is working like crazy trying to finish up installing a basement bathroom and finish trim in the bedroom and office down there, so that we can get our house on the market ASAP. Cross your fingers that it sells fast! (If you know anyone that wants to buy a small bungalow in SE Portland, let us know! ) He is also shutting down the door business when we move to Nashville, so right now he is trying to predict how much work to take on before we go... a tough decision when the phone keeps ringing, even in this economy.

I’m less than 2 weeks from defending my PhD... and yes, at that point, you CAN call me Doctor. I won’t mind one bit. :) Finishing up my PhD, after the oral defense, involves revisions written dissertation, as well as cleaning out and organizing things in my lab. I have also been able to get back out and start running again, a few miles a few times a week. Its been feeling great and I think I’ll run my last race here in Portland in April, just to have one last jaunt around the city.

We promise to make these postings much more frequent! We can’t believe 6 weeks has gone by since Evelyn was born. Time flies. Since she’s been born, she’s been to the Oregon coast, hung out with Grandma Lucas for a month, comes to work with mom fairly frequently, traveled to Scappoose for an afternoon visit, and of course, explored all around our neighborhood in the front-pack.

-a

The Newest Powell

Here is the first of many blogs that will be about our little girl. This entry is brief but we are tired and mainly we wanted to get the pictures to you of the last few days. Thank you for all the support and generosity, we truly and deeply appreciate it.

-B