Welcome to the world, Baby Gloria!

Please help me to welcome the newest addition to our extended family: Gloria Jennifer Buesink!

This angel belongs to Wayne's younger sister Kelly and her husband Geordie (for anyone not familiar with the family tree, though most of you need no introduction). 

Kelly's due date was April 24th which also happened to be Judah, her first son's, 4th birthday. That would have been exciting too but, instead, little Gloria waited to be born on her OWN birthday and arrived April 25th! She was 8 lbs 9 oz's and Kelly had a 2 hour labor!!! (Though she's been having Braxton Hick's contractions for 2 1/2 straight weeks, so you might say she's been in pre-labor for several weeks and "active" labor for 2 hours) :) 

I'm so impressed and amazed by her (she has never had an epidural in 3 childbirths either). I always tell people, with Malachi (her second), she had him in the morning and was back home by dinner that evening! She is incredibly healthy and strong and I'm so proud of her.

Anyway, they called right after her birth and asked my permission (come on..) if they could "borrow my name for awhile". I started crying and could barely answer (I was on speakerphone and they were all crying too). I've never felt an emotion like this - it's a mixture of overwhelming honor, joy, pride and love. I was named after my Grandmother, Gloria, and I always loved that. I also found great satisfaction in always being the only Gloria at each school I attended. I hope she'll like that too (or maybe the name will become more popular). Her middle name, Jennifer, is after Geordie's sister so she'll always know at least 2 people with her name. :)

I already went out and bought her a little stuffed lamb AND a pink stuffed bunny.
A very happy day for so many reasons! Kelly and Geordie already have two beautiful, sweet boys, Judah (4) and Malachi (nearly 2 1/2) and I cannot stress how great these two boys will be as big brothers. I have no doubt she'll be a special little girl with these two brothers to look up to and who will always being looking after her. She'll follow them around, want to do everything they do and I think that will make her a tough little thing!

We are so happy for Geordie and Kelly - to see their family grow, so seamlessly, from four, to five. Welcome baby Gloria.

We now have a total of FIVE nieces and nephews, and Gloria is the first girl! We are so proud that Gloria is added to the list with Marko (6), Judah (4), Malachi (2), and baby Simon (6 months).  

Dublin Bubbles

Bubble time on a seriously gray Spring Day. The day before was so gorgeous it was hard to believe and just so we didn't get used to that, Dublin brought us back down to size. :)

He is seriously good at blowing bubbles.

And Norah found a bubble-popper

Her facial expression! Reeeaaaach!

 

A Couple Weekends

Our 82 year old friend, Golding, from our church. He's so lovely. He reminds me of my Dad in a lot of ways - very sharp, very outgoing and very political. Ask this man about any political 'goings-on' and he'll give you the scoop (whether Irish, Canadian or American). Golding was a free-mason back in the day as well.

At People's Park that weekend. There was a DJ at the Farmer's Market so Norah was dancing away.

 Later on I found her on the balcony holding 5 or 6 of her stuffed animals and whispering to them.

 

 The next weekend, we made our way into the city to take Norah to the Natural History Museum. I've mentioned this before, but one great thing about Dublin is that all museums are free (and they're all within 1/2 a mile of each other).

 You'll notice this poor Rhinos' horns are missing. Now, you might think they were stolen. Well, they were, but not from here. They removed the horns from the Rhino because they felt they were in danger of being stolen. They then took them to the National Archives...where...they were stolen. Hm, sounds like an inside job to me but then again, I can lean toward conspiracy theories.

 Norah talked about this poor Rhino all day. She couldn't understand how his horns were "lost".

 On the first real sunny Spring Day, Grafton Street is PACKED.

 This band of hipsters was great but they looked like they hadn't showered in at least 6 weeks. They must be from Seattle... in 1994. "No, my beard is longer", "No I haven't showered in longer than you!"

 Norah took her nap in the buggy so we sat in the square at Trinity College. There happened to be a Master's graduation going on so it was lovely to see everyone in their gowns on such a gorgeous Dublin day.

We took Norah to several parks and just generally explored areas of the city we hadn't seen. By dinnertime, we had clocked 7 miles of walking around Dublin.

One of the oldest city blocks in Dublin - (Georgian Dublin) around Merrion Square

I don't know why but these two houses remind me of two siblings who can't get along on a car-trip. "Your bricks are touching me", "No they're not". "There is a force-field right here! Don't cross it!"

 On Sunday we were invited to a barbeque at Wayne's professor, and friend's, home in Ranelagh (a beautiful, old-style, Dublin neighborhood).

 So, on the way we took Norah to a park we'd never seen, Herbert Park. We walked in and felt like we hit the mother-load of playgrounds!

The slides had some serious speed.

Ten minutes before the rain came.

 This is Wayne's friend and professor at UCD - Ernesto. Their house is so beautiful! And look at this feast they prepared for everyone. They made beef stroganoff, plates and plates of veggies, cous cous, Peruvian rice, three different homemade desserts, and home-baked bread.  

 Alan, sitting with Norah, is a diplomat for Ireland and they'll soon move to Washington D.C. where he'll represent Ireland.

Here he's probably telling Norah some diplomatic secrets which were clearly lost on her as she's ignoring him completely. :)

We met the most amazing couples! First, they all hold Ph.D.'s in various fields and nearly all of them are professors. One couple (parents of the boy in blue) are both professors of Geography at UCD. She is from Uruguay, but was raised in Nebraska and has been in Ireland for 7 years. Her husband is from Scotland, but received his Ph.D. in the U.S and now they're all moving to Mexico City to teach at a University there. Yeah. Then another couple (parents of the boy in green); he is from Peru but teaches in Ireland. She is from Belgium and next month they're moving back to Brussels. And then the third couple - she is from Colombia and he is from Italy. You should have heard the number of languages being spoken at this barbeque! We left feeling very uninteresting compared to them all :) but so happy to have spent the day in their company.

The little boy in green, Emil, only speaks French (though he knows Spanish and English). Such a little sweetie.

 Emil's father had a birthday so after he blew out his candles, they re-lit them so Norah and Emiliano could blow them out again.

 Ernesto with Emiliano and Veronica (the one from Uraguay, who grew up in Nebraska).

Norah and Emiliano were pretending they had a produce store and sold fruit to all of us.

 

Now that Spring is here when we can get out to do some of these adventures in Dublin we're so thankful to be here. When the sun is shining in Dublin, living here is incredible.