Valor Zurishaddai was born on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 3:58 AM at home in a birthing tub in my bedroom attended by my midwife, Shannon, Ben, my mother, and three close friends of mine, Jessica, Lisa, and Shelby. (The birth story will be a separate post.) Ben caught him as he was coming out. He was 8 pounds 11 ounces and 20.5 inches long … the biggest baby on either side of the family in recent memory. Here he is just a few minutes old. He has huge hands and feet. His feet are almost as long as his shins.

Valor, accent on the first syllable, is the English word meaning bravery, courage, boldness, especially in battle. (It has NOTHING to do with the fabric velour. People are calling him that already! It never occurred to me that might happen.) The Hebrew would be khah-yil but that sounds like you’re trying to hack up snot so we decided not to use it. Zurishaddai (ZUR-i-SHAD-dai) is Hebrew for “the Almighty is my rock.”

Rinah fell in love with him immediately. She slept through the labour and woke up an hour afterwards. Sister and brother meet and kiss for the first time.

The first couple days, he was so sleepy he didn’t nurse very much. See how the preemie size onesie is still a bit big on him the third day. Then his appetite kicked in and oh boy was he hungry ALL the time. He outgrew that onesie by Day 9. Look at how fat his cheeks are getting. *sniffle* He’s growing too fast … WAY too fast. Rinah wore preemie size for at least 2 months and didn’t grow out of 0-3 month size till she was 9 months old.

This kid has so much hair. It’s been over 2 weeks since he was born and I still can’t get over it. He has crazy cool hair with patches that grow in all different directions. It’s also pretty funny looking after it’s washed. LOL.

Rinah loves him to death. I must be careful he survives all the sisterly attacks of affection. So far she hasn’t been upset or jealous of him even once. For that I am so grateful. I’ve heard lots of stories of sibling rivalry especially when the second child comes along and the first one isn’t used to having to split parental attention. She asks to hold him a lot, but tires pretty quickly of it.

One thing she does not tire of is Mama’s cell phone. That’s probably why it’s been acting funny lately. She’s been loving the cell phone to death, too. What I don’t tire of is her eyes. I could look into them forever.

My mother is visiting from Tokyo to take care of me and the babies for a while. I had been craving her cooking the entire pregnancy and now I have it every day!

Ben took a week off work to stay at home and help out with things. It was great having him around taking care of stuff while I tried to deal with all the after pains and engorgement and various, ah, discomforts. He’s getting pretty good at juggling two babies.

I can’t believe that 3 years ago I was in Tokyo thinking I would be single and childless for the rest of my life and now I have a husband and TWO kids and I’m living in America. There’s no way I would have believed it if you had told me.

I wonder where we’ll all be 3 years from now. (This last professional looking picture was taken by my friend Shilowe.)

Here’s my little monkey after her third cup of milk today. I love that her hair has started to get wavy.

With how huge I’ve been getting in the last month or so (my stomach sticks out halfway across my thighs when I sit down *sigh*), I haven’t been able to hold her as much, which has made her more clingy than she used to be. She’s talking a LOT but I don’t understand everything she says, and when I don’t, it often ends up in screaming stomping fits. Being in heavy teething mode hasn’t helped either. To top it all off, we finally figured out she probably had pertussis last month, which explains those frightening coughing spells. This has been a pattern for our family since Ben and I got married (getting morning sickness and mono at the same time). When something bad happens, everything has to pile on at once.

But she still is my sweet little girl. A couple weeks ago, I was crying about something I probably shouldn’t have been crying about. She heard me and came running, climbed into my lap, and wiped my tears away while she kissed me. I wish I understood what she was jabbering away about. And when I look like I’m in pain from some of the contractions I’ve been having, she comes over, smiles, puts her arms around me, and hugs me till they go away.

The sweet little brat is also learning a lot. She loves her blocks and her books. I read and play with her almost every day. (If you are looking for a cheaper alternative to HABA, try getting Plan Toys. They make a lot of the same sort of toys for less than half the price. I’ve got her a few and they are great!)

My friend Shilowe, who’s an amazing photographer, took these pics of me and Jessica last week.

Despite the hugeness, I’m glad to have some pics for this pregnancy. I only have one pic from the last time.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and e-mails. The baby is still inside and every day shows signs of wanting to come out but it hasn’t happened yet. He’s in the safe zone now at 38 weeks and hanging out so low that I’m having trouble walking. It feels like he’ll be here any day now.

For all those who’ve asked … we haven’t picked a name yet. Ben and I have a few names we really like but they sound atrocious in Japanese. And as much as I love the name Zurishaddai (“the Almighty is my rock” in Hebrew) I’m guessing the kid will not enjoy spelling out his name for the rest of his life.

Got any ideas?