Baby has arrived!

Here he is aged just a few hours.

Deena did a wonderful job.

Mother and baby are happy and healthy.

Full Term! Waiting Game!

                                                            Officially Full Term!!

We are all very excited for the new addition to our family!
When Izzy is asked if she is excited for the new arrival her first response is that she is excited to miss school! She can just be too smart.

We are trying to keep busy this weekend in preperation and anticipation.
So Izzy and I decided to put  her Valentines Day tins  together a littlle early this year!

                                I know that I am very bias but she is just the cutest thing ever.

Posted by Deena and Izzy!

Snow and minus 25 centigrade

For those of you who don't live in these parts (my friends from the drizzly UK, for example), it is bloody cold here. You have no real conception of how cold it is until you have experienced it! On Friday, I had a very long day at work and then came home to an outside temperature of minus 25 centigrade (without the added wind chill factor). I was looking forward to a nice warm evening inside, but my lovely wife told me that Izzy had been looking forward to me taking her to the HUGE pile of snow opposite our house. Evenetually, I said that I would take her as long as I didn't have to get out of the car......

The pile of snow was immense and Izzy loved it. I have no idea how she stayed warm but I was glad that it wasn't me - she must have some form of in-built central heating.

In this second picture the snow mound looks even larger. She should probably have stuck a flag on the top.

I celebrated getting warm again by having a beer and introducing Deena and Izzy to Twin Peaks.

Can't wait for spring.......

The “Grat Poop” story

Brookings is a small university town and lacks quite a few things that we would like to have (more than two grocery stores for example). However, in the fall we celebrated the opening of The Children’s Museum. This was quite a big thing and quite a feather in the cap for Brookings. Izzy loves it there and I enjoy it as well. I was a little surprised when I first saw it as I was expecting more of a museum whereas actually it is more like a huge play area where the kids can play in their own café, store, farm, garage and so on. The biggest attraction is a huge T Rex that moves and roars and that also has a baby with feathers.

Anyway, a few months ago I took Izzy there for a couple of hours and realized how different having a boy will be from having Izzy……..

On the wall next to the play supermarket is a magnetic board where Izzy happily spelled out “I am a cat” (bless her). I looked round at the little boy next to her who had proudly written “Grat poop.”

Actually, I’m with him on this. That is exactly what you should write on magnetic boards like that, especially in a public place!

Why the blog is called The WRKY Family

Hello Everyone!

Well, after such wonderful posts by the female members of the family, I thought that it was definitely my turn. I am currently roasting a nice piece of beef and have some time, even though the football is on – so here goes.

First up, I thought that I had better explain the title of the blog itself. We chose “the WRKY family” because I have worked with the WRKY family of transcription factors for the past 15 years. Science-wise, it is my little obsession. Back in 1996, I was working at the Max-Planck-Institut fuer Zuechtungsforschung in Cologne, Germany and together with my old boss Imre Somssich, I named the transcription factors. For those of you who aren’t biologists, a transcription factor is something that turns genes off or on.

Me from that time period having a beer.

Anyway, so much for the boring bit. Our friend Michael always complains when the word WRKY comes up…. So here is a picture of him.....he is the one on the left with the silly hair style.

I have to go and finish cooking now but my next post will be the story of “The Grate Poop.”

Posted by Paul

I am back

I am going to this blog everyday. I promise. i am writng right now. Are you reading?

Bye

Posted by Izzy

Meet Izzy!

Hi my name is Izzy!  I am very shy. We had a bouncy castle at the rehearsal dinner.  I had very fun on bouncy castle.  I am excited to meet the new baby.

Posted by Izzy

The Nursery a Work in Progress!

Designing the nursery has been one of the best experiences of my pregnancy. I searched through hundreds of blogs and decorating websites coming up with thousands of ideas for our nursery.

The room that we decided to make the nursery was an odd shaped former office, so I knew that I would have to be creative with my placement of the furniture to maximize the space and functionality of the room. I am also a believer in sleeping with my children, so it was very important for me to keep the full size bed in the room. My main objective with this room was to stay within a strict budget because I know how fast it can all add up.

Other than the size and angles of the room itself my second dilemma was the floors. We know that we have hardwood floors under the hard office carpet which I fully intend on sanding at some point. However we did not get to it this past summer when we refinished the living room floors, so I do not know when this huge project will take place. I needed a quick, creative and cost effective way to cover up the carpet that would be easy to install and remove when the time comes to sand and refinish the floors. So after pricing out the various options, instead of re-carpeting the room, I decided on using seedsprout play mats to cover all of the visible carpet. I really loved this option because it also added much needed padding to the room as well as a fun modern design to the floor. To add to the texture of the room, as well as providing a stimulating play mat for baby, we topped off the floors with a wool shag rug (purchased on GILT- which is my sneaky obsession).

Once the floor was installed I had to decide on a plan for the furniture placement. This was a very tricky task, since the room is quite small and quirky. After driving Paul crazy with all of the various options, we decided to take the doors off of the walk-in closet and utilize this space for the crib. I wanted to do something interesting with the walls in this new nook aka the old closet.

After viewing numerous blogs, I found the perfect solution - scrapbook paper!! I know what you are thinking -  scrapbook paper? But it turned out simply amazing! Paul and I went to the local scrapbook store and for less than a hundred dollars we bought piles of stimulating and unique scrapbook paper. I did some research and decided to use spray adhesive glue to paste the papers directly on the walls. Paul had to do this task because the glue was very strong smelling and after an afternoon of putting up the paper it was obvious that Paul had obtained a contact high from all these fumes!

I loved the way this turned out so much that I had Paul do it to the walls down in Izzy's toy room to cover up the old wood paneling. We did the playroom walls for next to nothing because I bought large packages of scrapbook paper from Walmart.

Once the walls and the floors were complete, we needed to put the crib and changer together, we meaning Paul! Paul became a pro at putting the crib together, since he first assembled it in the dining room and then discovered it wouldn't fit through the nursery door so he had to take it apart and reassemble it in the nursery.  I must say he was a very good sport about the whole thing!

I choose to go with a slightly modern furniture scheme which ended up looking amazing. We liked the idea of modern furniture because it is gender neutral. This is important because we have already started talking about the next one………

The crib also has a drawer underneath it which is ideal for storing all of baby’s blankets.  I love the drawer so much because it allows me to not have to mess around with a crib skirt which I find un-modern as well as simply another item to be washed all of the time. (Which Paul truly loves as well because in all honesty, he does all of the washing- Love you babe ;)!!!)

Holidays 2010

I figure that I will be using this blog mainly for pictures of the family, so it is only necessary that my first post be mostly  photos! So here are a few pictures of our first family Christmas together!



Before Christmas Party



Christmas Eve Belly!