I took Analise to her first day of school yesterday. It was her
first time at school, so it was an exciting day for her. We hiked
over through the woods together to Lakeside Baptist Church. When
we made it to her classroom, Analise looked inside, saw all the toys,
and ran over and started playing. I think she did way better about
being left than most of the other kids.

Her first day went really well, and when she got home she was warming
up even more to Josiah. I think this picture shows the ultimate sign
of acceptance: “the Analise rub”. When Analise gets tired, she likes
to rub any patch of available skin she can find. Here she has found
Josiah and is rubbing his hand and arm while sucking her thumb.

And here Analise is sharing all of her stuffed animals with Josiah. I
can’t believe he stayed asleep the whole time she was piling animals
around him!

Finally, I’ve been taking Analise downstairs and playing with her
in my office area. Here Analise has created a “choo-train” and is
riding in it with some of her stuffed animals. Choo-choo!

My brother, Matthew, celebrated his birthday yesterday (June 13)
by coming over to our house for dinner and cake. Yummy! Here he
is holding Josiah, who was born just 4 days ago (June 9). Happy
Birthday, Matthew!

June seems to be the month of choice for significant events
in the Toone family:

• June 8 – My parents’ wedding anniversary
• June 9 – Josiah’s birthday
• June 13 – Matthew’s birthday
• June 28 – Our wedding anniversary
• June 28 – Grandma Locke’s birthday
• June 29 – Analise’s birthday

I snagged this cute picture picture of Josiah with his eyes open this morning. They haven’t been open very much! He’s been a quiet baby, keeping busy eating and sleeping. We’re adjusting pretty well. Returning to the land of interrupted sleep is difficult, but last night we had a couple hours of solid sleep that felt good. Analise is being a great big sister. She wants to keep checking on him when he’s asleep in our room. But she seems ok with “baby ‘siah” being here to stay.

Ok, I’ve got all kinds of thoughts I was going to post, but I’m being pulled away to read with Analise. Later!

We made it home from the hospital today, and I was able to go for a bike ride around town while everyone was napping. It was extremely hot today, so I picked a shady route that wound through Mountain Brook and then on over to Red Mountain and then back up Shades Mountain. I was inspired to take pictures of Brookwood Medical Center, where we had just taken Josiah home from the hospital. Then I realized that I would also be able to take pictures of Montclair Hospital, where I was born almost 30 years ago, Mount Royals Towers, where my grandmother currently lives, and Samford University, where I currently work. It was a wonderful ride even with the heat!

Note the 102 degree temp and 19 mph current speed.	This is the view of Samford from standing in the same spot where I took the picture above of Montclair and Brookwood.
Here is a picture of Mount Royal Towers (foreground), where grandma lives, and Montclair Hospital (background), where I was born.	While still standing in the same spot as the picture to the left, I took this picture of Brookwood and Samford. So from this one spot on Shades Mountain I can see four very signifcant places in my life: 1. where I was born 2. where grandma lives 3. where Josiah was born 4. where I work

Finally, here’s Josiah’s first picture from home. Grandma “Bwaka” sure looks happy to be holding her grandson!

It looks like we’ll be here at the hospital until tomorrow. They like to keep
you here for 48 hours after the birth. So please stop by and visit if you’d like.
Try to give us a call on our cell phone first to let us know you are coming.
If you are too far away to visit, please give us a call on our cell phone.
We’d love to talk to you! If you need our cell phone number, send me an
email: kartoone76 at yahoo dot com. Change the “at” to “@” and the
“dot” to “.”

We made it through the first night. Josiah started out with us, but when they
came in to weigh him at midnight, they just kept him in the nursery which was
great for Kristine and I to get some much needed sleep. Josiah came in to
nurse once at 3:15, and then it was back to the nursery. I got him out of the
nursery this morning at 7:15am, and he was still very sleepy.

There were so many babies in the nursery this morning! It must have been close
to twenty babies. When I went in, only one was crying but by the time I had
left about five minutes later they had all managed to start to wake each other
up and there was a lot of crying going on! Josiah though stirred a bit but was
mostly asleep even as his diaper was being changed and he was being
re-burritoed.

Here is the latest of the newest Toone!

Kristine is 7-8 cm dialated. She’s resting now and doing really well. Thanks for checking in with us and keeping us in your prayers.

I’m on a mandatory “leave-the-room” while Kristine gets an epidural. She’s
progressing well and is doing pretty well. I thought I would post the video
of Analise on her first bike ride to help pass the time. Here ya go!

(Click here for mpg version if the above link doesn’t work.)

And here’s some pictures from where I was waiting outside … beautiful
day here in Alabama!