Announcing the arrival of

Zoe Diana Kathleen Jones!!

Born January 17th, 2006. Weighing in at 8.2 and streching out to 20 1/2 inches. From start to finish labor and delivery was 3 1/2 hours (!!) but nevertheless it was intense and rocked my world!! I wouldn't have made it without NathanPJones by my side!! Sorry about the teeth marks honey.

We arrived at the hospital fully dilated (10!) and about 30 minutes later or so with the accompaniment of a most feral roar (by me) she emerged. Whew! DesmondPJones (w. 9.13 l. 22in) certainly paved the way for her speedy delivery.

Her hair is black and silky -- more in the back than in front. But she's lightly dusted all over her body with downy black hair -- arms, the backs of her ears, shoulders, back. My mom said that I came hairy as well.

DesmondJones visited us while in hospital and brought her a present, though it was a hanger his parents thrilled at his instinct to give and to love. He was already calling her baby Zoe and declairing, "I hold it". He kissed her and loved her and patted her little head. So sweet. We love that he loves her.

Grammy Simkins and Auntie Heidi paid a visit as well. We were all crammed into our tiny little section of the room, oooohhhing and ahhhhing over our new baby girl and trying to contain a very enthusiastic 2 year old!

Grammy is very experienced with girls (x4) and is thrilledthrilledthrilled to have another to love. Zoe is named after both of her maternal grandmothers, Diana Ree Simkins and Kathleen Allred Jones. We wanted to endow her with her heritage of strong, wonderful women.

Zoe has been home now for two weeks and we're still trying to sort it all out. Two babes is everything those experienced with two babes said it would be... hard!! The intensity of the new dynamic has yet to be fully felt, however, as Grammy is still with us lending her invaluable support.

Here's a series of pics

Yesterday morning we had to wake early to bring Zoe downtown to see a doctor. DesJones was outoutout and our attempts to wake him were not working. Zoe was awake and fussing off and on so Nate thought maybe she could help wake her brother and placed her in the crib next to him. He laid there for some minutes without stirring then finally he opened his eyes and saw her lying there. His face slowly lit up with delight and he observed, "babyZoe in the crib with Desi!"

Then he sat up, reached for a blanket and covered her up! He lay back down and they each looked at one another happily. Nate and I nearly cried with delight!! They love each other -- and though Des exhibits a variety of experimental behavior that has unfortunately brought on the tears of his friends, etc., he does indeed have a nurturing instinct. His love toward Zoe still lacks a certain finesse (we're often running interference) but we're determined to cultivatecultivatecultivate their bond. :)

Here's the pictures -- in complete sequence.