The Steussy Ranch

We’re home now. Settling in with our family of five (!) now. Sleeping, napping, expecting visitors. Tunde is coming today. Chris and family are coming on Sunday. It should be fun.

Camilla has picked up a cold—very bad timing!

Will post occasional photos, and eventually a short video.

Ed is back home in Temecula with Dan-dan and Camilla. Mom and Aaron will spend the night in the hospital. The Temecula group will drive to Riverside tomorrow to pick up Mom and the new baby.

Dan-dan (who is now wide awake well past his bedtime) says he had a great time at Evan’s house. He loves the pictures of Baby Aaron.

Aaron Dietrich Steussy was born today at 5:13pm in Riverside, California. Mom and Baby are doing fine.

Aaron is 19 inches long (48.5cm)

Aaron weighs 6 lbs. 6 oz. (2.855 kg)

Gabi is all set!

Thanks to Natalie for helping with the kids!

Gabi is in Labor and Delivery. All is fine. Contractions are coming at a stable rate. Dad is eating lunch.

More news soon.

Gabi’s having contractions.

No big news today. The kitchen sink got refinished this morning by Juan. We need to wait 24 hours before having the plumber re-install everything. And that solves the last of our initial house problems. We still need some paint and touch-up in places, the grass needs to come back in a couple of spots, but otherwise the house is ready to put up for rent.

Gabi came back from the doctors’ today. Everything is fine. She is due in four days, so anytime now. Ed is still busy at work. Reading Alan Greenspan’s book now; it’s even better than reading the Economist.

Camilla went to her first movie today—Ratatouille. It was Dan-dan’s second movie (after Pixar’s Cars). It was quite a family outing. Camilla loved the Diet Coke and popcorn, Dan-dan did too. We also had hot dogs and nachos, but the kids ignored those. It was a fun little movie. We love Pixar.

The biggest problem with taking the kids to the movies is that we can’t pre-screen the ads. A lot of the movies have previews that are too violent or scary for our kids. We trust Pixar and Disney, but no one else who makes G rated movies. We’d prefer our kids not to even see the ads. When waiting for Cars, Dan-dan sat through the intro to a movie about a house that ate people … not something I would choose for him.

It’s been almost a week since our good TV broke downstairs. As a non-TV addict, it is funny how much this changed family life. The kids normally watch their shows in the morning over a cup of cocoa while Dad works and Mom sleeps. Over the last few days, they’ve invaded Mom and Dad’s room to watch TV, since the only functioning set is there. Less sleep for Gabi. Not good.

I called Costco today to find out the current status of their warranty repair. No good. They’ve tried to sign up two shops in town, but neither answers their phone. The original manufacturer is close by, but refused Costco’s conditions. I asked about options.

“Why don’t you take it in for an exchange?”

What a good idea! I walked into Costco with the two year old, broken TV. They credited me with a full refund. Hmm. Flat screen technology has improved over the last few years. Prices are down. Good deal!

More modern technology, larger screen (32 inches—>42 inches). Wow! What a great deal.