{ Baby Chain }

We love traditions at our house, and one of our favorite ones has revolved around welcoming a new baby into our home. About a month before baby is due, we make a paper chain counting down the days until their arrival. We each make a guess of what day the baby will be born, what time, how big, how long, what baby will look like… The kids love to take off a chain each day, and I love to see the chain get shorter and shorter as the big day gets closer and closer. We make a special present for the kids from the baby that has some sort of surprise in it. Whoever had the closest guess gets to open the present for all to enjoy.
With baby Ryan we made our chain, made our guesses, and waited. The night before he was due, we were itching for something to do, so we decided to open our “present” a little early. This time it was a special treat for everyone and tickets to go see the movie, “Nanny McPhee Returns”. We celebrated a day early, and it was just the thing to lure our little Ryan out-he just couldn’t wait to have fun with the rest of us.
It was interesting to see the kids thoughts on who this little person would be. Abby came up with her own name we hadn’t even considered, and a couple kids had to be reminded about how big a baby “normally” is-no 19 pounders in this family please.
Here are our guesses:
Abby
Name: Noah Jacob
Date: October 21, 2010
Weight: 7lbs. 15oz.
Length: 18 inches
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown curly hair

Erika
Name: Ryan Thomas
Date: October 24, 2010 (on her birthday)
Weight: 9 lbs. 14 oz.
Length: 22 inches
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black straight hair

Brooke
Name: Riley Thomas
Date: October 25, 2010
Weight: 8lbs. 12 oz.
Length: 20 inches
Eyes: Green
Hair: Brown hair, straight when dry and curly when wet

Austin
Name: Ryan Thomas
Date: October 24, 2010
Weight: 7lbs. 8 oz.
Length: 19 inches
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black curly hair

Brianna
Name: Ryan Thomas
Date: October 24, 2010
Weight: 7lbs. 10 oz.
Length: 19 inches
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black curly hair

Mommy
Name: Ryan Thomas
Date: October 23, 2010 (I am the only one who guessed for him to come on his due date. I was being hopeful I wouldn’t go over like I did with Scott)
Weight: 8lbs. 1 oz.
Length: 19 1/2 inches
Eyes: Green
Hair: Black curly hair

Daddy
The kids brought the rest of the chain to the hospital, and we can’t seem to find Aaron’s guesses, but he’s pretty sure they were:
Ryan Thomas born October 23, 2010 at 12:28pm, weighing 8lbs 11 oz and having black curly hair and green eyes. Wow, pretty good guess!
I think his REAL guess had him being born on the 26th and all the other things were all across the board. Brooke had the closest guesses on almost all of the things. She was only one ounce off on weight, one inch off on length, had his eye color right, and his hair right too-curly when wet, straight when dry. We are glad our little Ryan is finally here healthy and safe.