This week, Kristina's mom came to visit. We were hoping that she might bring a little of the sunshine from the "Sunshine Coast", but no luck.



Indy is showing greater interest in Katie lately. She never touches her, but her ears are alway perked up and she will have a sniff now and then. Many friends have asked how the dogs are with her, and they are just great. They look and smell, but always hold their distance. It's very cute to see.





Ever notice how it's difficult to tell the sex of a newborn baby? Well, Craig sent us a little gift to help us combat that problem. Now no one will suffer the embarassment of labelling our daughter a boy again.

Squamish: Year 8

In 2000, Kristina introduced herself to me in a Whistler nightclub during an annual soccer tournament in Squamish. In 2004, I proposed to her there. And this year, Katelyn was due to be born the same special weekend. But thanks to her well known impatience, we were able to visit Squamish once again -- this year our 8th together. Squamish is a very special place for us and we are always happy to go back and play soccer every year. Here are a few photos to commorate Katie's first trip there.


Sunday, April 22, 2007: One of Kate's few moments of conciousness.


Sunday, April 22, 2007: A happy mother...


Sunday, April 22, 2007: ... a proud father...


Sunday, April 22, 2007: ... and their awesome car.

Now That's Dog Handling!

And Catherine thinks she's a good dog trainer when she can control 6 or 7 dogs at once. Let's see you have this kind of control Catherine!

WOW!

BC Ferries: Ach Du Lieber!

So I'm watching the news last night and there was a report from Germany that showed BC Ferries' latest C-Class ship as it entered the water. But as it slid successfully into the ocean there was a odd addition to it's paint job. Whether it is the ship builder's logo or some other insignia, it looked awfully familiar and yet strangely inappropriate.

Since then, the BC Ferries Corporation has said that it's the international symbol for propellers. I didn't even know there was one. So, today I visited the ship builder's website and snagged some pictures.

Hmmmmm.

Yet Another Dressel Addition

Another addition to our extended family arrived during the past weeks' hub-bub. Last weekend, Rob, Shannon, Jodie & Adam all said "Welcome!" to their new dog Harley.

Harley is a 6 month old Yellow Lab from Maple Ridge. Since meeting him on Sunday, Kristina and I can only say he's a great little boy -- full of energy and eager to be near people. Indy & Harley are getting along great and we look forward to arranging as many play dates as possible.

Welcome, Harley!

Naked & Famous

“We had a busy weekend,” would be the understatement of the year.

This year’s Easter Weekend was full of excitement, but the biggest of all was Katelyn’s newly discovered celebrity status. First, she was featured in a two-page article on the front page of The Coquitlam Now newspaper which was then picked up by The New Westminster Record on Saturday.

And if that wasn’t enough, Shannon Patterson of CTV News read about us at her mother’s Port Coquitlam home and called to ask if she could do a story on Katelyn for Sunday night’s 6-o’clock news.

So after a two-hour interview for a two-minute story, we anxiously awaited for the televised result. We were a bit worried about what would come of it, since neither one of us felt immediately comfortable in front of the camera and we thought there must have been so much unusable material.

A special thanks has to go to Chris for making all of these memorable scrapbooking moments possible by informing The Coquitlam Now in the first place.

Packing Up & Heading Home

Everything was looking good throughout the night and into the morning. Katelyn was feeding on a regular, 3-hour schedule, so Dr. Crakner discharged us first thing Thursday morning.

So on the third day after a setting out on a whirlwind adventure for life, the newest edition of The Dressel Family made way for home to get settled and to relax.

We spent our day tidying up, visiting with our neighbours, the Jiwa Family, and quietly getting accustomed to our new way of living. But most importantly, we had a good opportunity to sit down together and read through all of the emails and listen to all of the phone messages that had collected over the previous 48 hours.

All of your wishes and blessings have been extremely uplifting to read and hear. Your words of encouragement and congratulations will be carefully filed away for future enjoyment of these precious memories. Kristina & I would like to thank you all for taking the time to write to us.

And I, of course, will continue to write to you here...

New Baby, New Blog

It'd be hard to imagine anyone hasn't heard yet, but our baby -- Katelyn Maria Dressel -- arrived the morning of April 3rd in the most spectacular and frightening of fashions. Since then, I've put together a new blog on our own site. It may or may not take over this site as our primary communication blog. But in the meantime I suggest to you just bookmark both and check on them from time to time.

Go here for Katelyn's Blog.

She'll melt your heart instantly.


Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Making A Splash in the World

At 4:30 a.m., Kristina woke with pain. Two hours and two phone calls to the hospital later, we decided that it was time to go to the hospital and get checked out. But as I went downstairs to put the dogs away, Kristina suffered one final contraction and called me back upstairs.

Once back in the bathroom, I found Kristina sitting on the toilet trying to last through the pain. I did my best to help her through it, and suddenly there was a rush of splashing water falling into the toilet.

I was so happy thinking that her water had finally broke and that we’d be soon on our way to the hospital to deliver the baby. But as Kristina stood up in relief, I looked in the toilet and saw our helpless baby reclined in the toilet water. Eyes wide open, making soft noise, and moving her hands and arms.

From there it was “just” a matter of picking her up, giving her to Kristina to hold (who soon went into shock), as I rushed to call 911 and tie off the cord.

The paramedics and firefighters arrived soon after, who proceeded to soak every shred of linen and towel we own in blood.

Did I mention there was a lot of blood?

Anyways, everything -- EVERYTHING -- turned up aces. Katelyn is in perfect shape despite her unconventional entry (exit?) and Kristina is 100% healthy and happy.

We hope you can visit Katelyn soon.