It’s a Girl!

The newest member of the Dixon clan has arrived safe and sound. She has a full head of dark brown/black hair just like her big brother did. She was 8 pounds 6 ounces, 21 inches long, and had a 15-inch circumference head! A sure sign of her already dazzling intellect.

Both she and Mom are doing well. They had to induce, just like for her brother, but labor was not nearly as long. It was a little over 20 hours if you start counting from the first contraction (which was around noon on Sunday), but we didn’t even go to the hospital until 11 p.m. that night. It was a natural birth.

So far her big brother seems to be taking it in stride; he has been both very accepting, and a little indifferent. Though I’m sure that will change as they both get older. The dog, I’m sure, will be mortified with the prospect of another little person to harass him.

I will be home all this week with the wife and kids, feel free to give us a call if you want. I wouldn’t count on email; it may be a while before I have the opportunity to get back on the computer after today. You can reach either of us on our cell phones if you don’t get an answer at home.

In the meantime, I have uploaded a few of the first pictures. These were all taken within the first 12 hours of her birth. Click on the link below to see the pictures.

Newest Arrival

Countdown to the Vernal Equinox

I haven’t had much time to post lately because things have been gearing up for the upcoming arrival (see my previous post on that subject if you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about), which could literally be any day now.

Other then that there has only been a few minor occurrences and annoyances in my life as of late. Foremost on the annoyance list is the fact that some son of a bitch decided to shoot the back of our new mini-van with a pellet gun! Thank god they didn’t hit the read window but they did enough damage to the hatch that our first estimate for the repair job is 700 bucks! An adjuster is coming from my insurance company this week to take a look at it. Damn scallywags!

Foremost on the occurrence list is that I was giving serious consideration to applying for a promotion in South Dakota and shipping the whole family out there. It looks like I’m going to drop that plan however. It would have been a big raise and an awesome job, however it seems no one out there in the wife’s field can match what she is making here (they couldn’t even come close actually). Which means in the long run, we would have lost money by moving there. C’est la vie!

I fired up the grill for the first time this season yesterday. Thank god spring is finally here. I am itching to get out of the house and do something! It should be an eventful next few months with the newest Dixon making his or her debut. Stay tuned to this blog for updates and pictures and have a jim-dandy of a spring everyone.

Strange things happen in the woods…

Something very bizarre happened to me today.

I was walking through the woods when I suddenly saw a low flying bird coming towards me. It was only about 15 feet off the ground and I could tell immediately that it was a quail (for those of you who don’t know, they have a goofy way of flying that makes them easy to identify).

I thought that was really weird, because quail live in grassy areas, you never find them in the woods. I figured that maybe it was something else, so I kept watching it to get a closer look, because it’s flight path was going to take it right over top of me.

I was leaning against a tree while I watched it, and it kept coming, furiously beating its little wings as fast as it could until… THUNK!

The bird ran headfirst right into the tree I was leaning against, not more then 10 feet above me!

It never made a sound, not a single squeak, it just slammed into the tree and then fell to the ground right by my feet. It was dead. Oh, and it turns out it was a quail (I got a really close look at it after it killed itself).

I couldn’t see anything wrong with it, it appeared in good health, it wasn’t malnourished, it didn’t look sick or diseased (it was actually nice eating size), and it didn’t appear to be blind (it’s eyes looked normal).

I have no idea what the quail was doing in the woods or why it apparently decided to commit suicide in front of me. Weird.

On another less bizarre note, I know how everyone loves pictures so I took the time to upload some pictures of our trip to the Des Moines zoo and our visit to Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Museum of Science and Industry was awesome, that place is way too big to see in a day though!

The best part about the museum was when they fed the Rancor!