Lev's first day

Lev was born at home, in Aptos, California at around three in the morning. Our midwife was Roxanne, and she looked just like Bonnie Rait. Our good friend Bronwyn was helping out, as she was in training to be a doula. It was a textbook birth. Roxanne got there around midnight.

Grandpa Ted was visiting, and I had started in labor late afternoon. We decided it would be best for Jaal to stay at the hotel a couple miles away with Ted, but at three in the morning Jaal woke up demanding juice. Ted didn't know what to do, the vending machine had no juice, and Ted was rather curious what was going on back at the house, So, he took Jaal back for some juice. As they pulled in, Lev was being born. By the time they got up the stairs to our house, I had stopped screaming, and Lev was born. They came in the bedroom, before Lev was even swaddled. Ted asked if it was a boy or girl, and we hadn't even checked yet. I was so sure it was a girl, it didn't occur to us to check. He was definitely a boy!

Jaal got to cut the umbilical cord, and never showed any jealousy toward Lev. It wasn't until Lev started to crawl and knock over his legos that he began to realize that little brothers can be annoying.

In this photo Lev is about twenty minutes old. He was perfect.

He was a great baby, and would entertain himself with just about anything. He didn't start to get a little difficult until age four, which was a precursor to how he would be as a teenager when once again kids realize that their parents are not all powerful.

In December of 2008 we visited Aptos, and Lev was really proud of the house in which he was born, and proud of being born in California, for some reason.