Avery, King of the Elves

A Morning of Yoga and Americanos

Today was Avery's first public debut. He was very entranced by the oms of Brennan's yoga class. He then fell asleep in time for breakfast at Pizzaiolo's.





Pumpkin spice donuts.

Uncle Peter

In honor of Uncle Peter's 22nd birthday, Avery wanted to play a game of hide-and-seek on Peter's bookshelf. "I love my new shelf," yawned a content little Avery.

Avery at One Week

Avery Has Become a Celebrity!

In his five short days here on earth, Avery Hanson has been facilitating important meetings,


conducting dream therapy,


hosting formal breakfasts,


testing his stand-up comedy routine,


giving tours of Redwood Heights,


consulting with village elders (here he is with his namesake, Vincent Barbaria),


and just being an all-around gentleman.

Days 2 and 3 with Avery

Sweet kisses on day two while Mama enjoys the peaceful breath of sleeping Avery



Papa and Avery sleep into the morn



Pre-dinner entertainment followed by a romantic dinner

Avery Vincent Hanson!

A healthy baby boy was born yesterday at 1:23pm!
He is 8 pounds, 1 ounce and about 20 inches long.

It was a long labor but the family is doing really well. We were blessed by two amazing midwives who stayed with us for 48 hours. Christine's mom and sister are here with us holding Avery and taking care of the house as we adjust to life as a family of 3.

Thank you all for your warm wishes. It has meant a lot to all of us to hear from you these past few days.

Love,
C, C, & Avery

Heads Up & Head First

When we have our baby, we will post pictures here soon after his/her birth.





We spent a day in Bolinas before New Years and found a community shrine for blessings and prayers. We made one for the baby.

Curing Olives

We heard a knock on our door on Saturday from our new neighbors. They have olive trees and brought us a huge container of harvested olives.



We looked online and found the simplest brine recipe: 1/4 cup salt to one quart of water. We had to refresh our memory of what a quart was. Turns out it's 4 cups, for those of you who want to try this at home.

The recipe said that we needed to cut a slit in each olive to let the brine in. But that sounded too labor intensive, so we just crushed them between two cutting boards in small batches.





Every week for the next 6 or so, we need to refresh the brine. After week 3, we can taste the olives for readiness.

We also fed our gingerbread house to the chickens yesterday. And we got TWO eggs in exchange for the gift. (That's a little more than usual these winter days.)