Bathtime fun!

London really enjoys his baths. Chillin' in his special baby mini-bath, London enjoys playing with his special water toys -- the coolest of which is a wind-up turtle -- and splashing around.

We took a few minutes during our bath tonight to show you how much he loves to splash around. Mommy tries to play tug-of-war with him -- which usually makes him explode with giggles -- but the game goes totally awry.

At one point, when London is asked to wave to everybody, he says, "I did."

Enjoy the video!

(Oh, and of course, we're still waiting for Liberty. We're 39 weeks today! I would be saying "C'mon already" if not for the fact that I've come down with the cold. I can wait a few days to get better before she comes!)

Three minutes with London (and Liberty update)

Yep, still waiting!

Went to the doctor Monday afternoon, only to discover that Liberty is bobbing up and down in the womb, making predicting her birth extremely difficult. (Apparently this is normal for second-borns.) Since Savannah's prelabor episode Saturday morning, all's been pretty quiet, except for some unusual back pain.

So, we're just waiting!

Of course, around here, waiting doesn't mean inactivity. Oh no... not with London Josiah! If you ever wanted to see what just three minutes of entertaining our cute little gremlin is like, check out this video we shot tonight.

It's (almost) TIME!

We had a close call early this morning.

After a night of joining the coupon cult, Savannah peacefully went to bed -- only to wake up in the 2 o'clock hour with horrendous tummy pains.

She woke me (Marcus) up and I kept track of how far apart the contractions were. I was amazed (and excited) to find that they lasted two to three minutes long, and were about five minutes apart. (For those of you who don't know, you're supposed to call the hospital when they're just ONE minute long and five minutes apart.)

We hadn't even loaded the car yet, so I did that while Savannah talked to the doctor and just tried to relax. We were finally ready, and as Savannah was about to get in the car, she ... well, got sick. Poor baby.

But immediately, the contractions stopped, a sign that labor is near, but not quite here. We were advised by the hospital to take London to my parents' house and then see if labor symptoms came back. They didn't, so somewhere around 4 in the morning, we all tried to get to sleep (although London was up and at 'em).

Now, we just wait. This tummy's like a ticking time bomb of loveliness!

We'll keep you posted...

Liberty: Any day now!

Well, Liberty is on her way!

See the countdown clock in the upper right hand corner? It says how long until Liberty's due date, Feb. 7.

Well, she's probably not going to wait that long. Doc says Savannah's probably going to go early, and by the looks of things, I'm guessing that our girl's going to be here within a WEEK!

Check out these signs of imminent labor. Savannah's got all of these but the water breaking.

Even as I type this Wednesday night, Savannah's having some short contractions within a decent amount of time. We're really excited, but not 100 percent prepared (as in, totally packed with a complete birth plan...)!

London, still, is unaware that his fancy-free days of only-childdom are coming to an end. Today he blew me a kiss when I asked him to over the phone. He's been playing with an old stethoscope (Dr. London) and is learning new words every day. On this video below, he even says "I don't know" for the first time.

Enjoy!

What happens at Grandma's, stays at Grandma's, apparently.

Well, our first night away without London went off without a hitch. Savannah and I (Marcus) enjoyed a fantastic time at McMenamins Edgefield, watching "Madagascar 2" in the theater pub, playing rousing games of UNO and table shuffleboard, and listening to the wild wind whip through the trees.

Meanwhile, London, Grandma Nomi and Grandpa Steve played games, ran around and chowed down. London also went to sleep without a problem and visited Great-Grandma and Grandpa Hurt at their house.

That's about all we know.

Grandma Nomi and London repeatedly said, "What happens at Grandma's STAYS at Grandma's..." and from the looks of this video, London is keeping pretty tight-lipped! :-)

Come on Best Friend, let's go!!!

So, 2 years ago at Christmas, Marcus' parents very sweetly gave us a gave us a gift card to the McMENAMINS to stay at one of their hotels. Whether it was misplaced or we just didn't have time, we never used it.

We were going to use it at the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove tonight -- that is, until the management told us the room was going to be in the basement, next to the bar that is hoppin' until 2:30 a.m. So instead, we're going to use it Sunday night at Edgefield -- much closer to home.

I (Savannah) am extremely excited and a little nervous to leave young London (not because it's with his Grandparents, just because it is scary the first time ). At this location they have soaking pools in heated gardens, a movie theater and much more. We will have to take full advantage of this and try everything!

Marcus is so fun during new adventures. He is willing to drop the bags at the room and explore all our options. He considers what would be nice for the prego, which is so considerate. Since our honeymoon, we have an ongoing motto of NO REGRETS! So even if we barely sleep (which is pretty standard for me these days) we will have BLAST no matter what.

~ Now Liberty just needs to chill until we get home!

For your viewing enjoyment, here is a video of when London took some of his very first steps at Grandma and Grandpa Dunn's house in Vancouver during Thanksgiving:

London is STEAMED!

You don't want to get our little beasty MAD! He growls!

Three weeks to go!

We had our 36/37-week appointment for Liberty today, and all's looking well. The doc (a midwife, really) says she weighs about 6 lbs, 12 ounces (and maybe as heavy as 7 lbs)! Now, keep in mind, London weighed 7 lbs, 10.8 ounces! Savannah's body is getting ready, too, although not as fast as it was first time around. But it's all good -- the doc says her body will catch up easily once labor starts -- which really could be ANY day! Holy cow!

London was a happy handful at the clinic today, and daddy had to take him into the lobby to play with an inflated rubber glove that made a nice makeshift balloon/soccer ball. It was hilarious to watch the little man run after the glove, fall on it, grab it, and lose it -- only to repeat the process indefinitely.

He also has been quite the flirt this week. He tends to single out ladies who work in the food service industry. The quickest way to a man's heart must be through his stomach indeed, because London makes eyebrows at these ladies and screams at them until they pay attention to him. Then he grins and coos and pours on the charm. Where did he learn this!?

Mom and Dad are going to have a night alone this weekend, which also gives Grandma Nomi a test drive for when they watch London during Liberty's birth. It should be a fun, learning experience for all.

That's it for now! Love ya!

The many faces of London

Here... check out this fun video we made with our new webcam. Lots of fun features!

Clatskanie, ho!

Well, we made it back from the Coast in one piece. We bypassed the treachery of Highway 26 and instead took the longer, safer route via Highway 30 from Astoria to Longview, Wash. It was a fairly uneventful drive, that is until we stopped at the tourist HUB known as Clatskanie! I've taken the liberty of giving you a link to hotels in the area.

Man, if you haven't been, you're missing out. We couldn't help but stop at this amazing store. It was a combination Mini-Mart, video (as in cassettes!) rental store, and Radio Shack! We saw a woman browsing the digital answering machines right new to the cooler full of "tall boy" beer cans! Ha ha, Fred Meyer! You're not the one-stop shopping leader AFTER ALL!

That was about the highlight of the trip back. London did get a toy of a little punk rocker kid in a McDonald's happy meal (that Savannah ate, not London). You push the toy's mohawk and it makes a bizarre noise that sounds like an electric guitar shorting out.

Only the most appropriate vacation spot!

Hello, friends! Well, in honor of the fact that our daughter, Miss Liberty Haven Hathcock, is due to enter this world in a short 5 weeks, we did a Google search for her name. And, in doing so, we found a place to vacation one of these days: Liberty Haven Ranch in Morristown, AZ!

Home, home on the range! We can stay there for just under $100 a night (if we're there during the off-season, May through September). There's a lot of outdoorsy stuff to do, but most astoundingly of all, it's close to -- get this -- the London Bridge in Lake Havasu!

London and Liberty in one place? You've got to be kidding! Giddyup!

A house, a mouse and the New Year

Happy New Year!

We had quite the New Year! We didn't have any plans for the holiday until Dec. 26, when Marcus asked his friend from Manzanita if his beach house was available for New Year's. It was, and so we planned to bring a few friends and have a relaxing weekend at the house. Yay!

Well, just hours before we were to leave New Year's Eve our friends started dropping like flies. It was bizarre, really, but we were determined to have fun regardless!

New Year's Eve was fun. We snacked on horrifically unhealthy foods, toasted with Martinelli's and cranberry wine and watched the glowing ball... no really, there was some kind of glowing ball thingy hanging up here that looked a bit like the Times Square ball. (see picture)

London missed midnight (thankfully), but Mar and Sav celebrated with Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest and a whole bunch of other Hollywood types. That was great! We also played Uno and Last Word (if you haven't heard of that game, check it out).

Well, we quickly discovered that we weren't alone in the home, after all. Savannah discovered little mousey poops scattered around the house. That was gross enough, but we had no idea when or how long the mouse had been at the house.

The weather was insane! The New Year's festivities on TV were interrupted by a weather bulletin informing us that the Coast was bracing for a big storm, accompanied by hurricane-force winds and flooding! Yippee! New Year's night brought some exciting wind and rain, that's for sure!

But waking up on Jan. 2 was the most exciting of all! Savannah had gotten out of bed in the early morning hours and was watching TV on the couch, when something caught her eye in her peripheral vision. She quickly discovered a little mousey friend, who had leaped from the couch (where she was laying) onto the coffee table in front of her. Somehow she didn't SCREAM, but quickly got Marcus, who was sleeping in the bedroom.

Marcus then tiptoed around like a ballerina, with a bat in his hand and feeling like the scene from "Ratatouille" could happen at any moment, where the roof comes crashing down and a thousand little mice run around. Gross!

We had decided we were going to leave a little early, but then that crappy weather we had seen on TV seemed to keep that from happening. Multiple highways were closed, and others were snow- and ice-covered. It would have been OK, except we only had one tire chain, since it was a casualty in the big "Arctic Blast" of 08.

Now, at 7:17 p.m. Jan. 2, we're sitting at the computer, checking our Facebooks and email, and hoping we can catch that mouse before he cooks us a souffle.