DoDa and Grandpa Morris

Niko really wanted to be in the photo so here he is... photo bombing.
 

Grandpa Morris, DoDa and Baby Ryker.
 

Had to take this photo.... Grandpa is not a fan of holding newborns....  :)

DoDa Time!

DoDa (my mom) came for a visit after Ryker was born to help us out.  Niko REALLY liked tormenting her with board game after board game.  Thanks so much to DoDa for helping us out on the first week of our new family!  :)

More Ryker

 Minutes after birth.

 Getting weighed.

 Proud pappa.

 Peek a boo.

 First meetings.  Brothers!!!

 Tia Maria.

 Scoreboard shot.

 Updated Nakahodo family photo.

Introducing the new and improved Team Nakahodo!  :)

Ryker is here!

Neil and I are proud to introduce our second son, Ryker Kaito! His middle name is a traditional Japanese name that means "ocean." He was born at 7:13 p.m. on Saturday, August 25. He was 6 pounds, 7.6 ounces and 18 inches long.

My water broke at 5:30 a.m. and Neil and I were shocked!  I was two weeks early and even earlier when you figure I had to be induced two weeks late with Niko.  We had our bags prepacked, but we really weren't prepared for this.  To make things a bit more complex, now we had to wake up the soon-to-be big brother and get him in the car too!

We got to the hospital around 6:30 a.m. and so our day began.  I was still only dilated to 1 cm and I walked the halls like you see on TV.  After 4 hours of walking with little results, I was again put on pitocin.  Ugh.  After 4 hours of 'active' (pitocin) labor I was in a lot of pain and broke down and had another epidural at 5 p.m.  This time was not as easy as the first time and I had to have two people try to put the epidural in and got poked several times... not fun.  I was in much better shape by 5:30 p.m. and within an hour went from 5 cm to full dilation.  Woot!  Go epidural!

The doctor arrived around 7 p.m. and after I was prepped, little man was delivered after a push and a half!  It was CRAZY!!!!  We had a much different experience for Ryker's birth than Niko's birth. It really is easier the second time around like they said!

We were thinking of naming him Kaito as his first name and calling him Kai, but he looks a bit more like my side of the family than Niko so we wound up naming him Ryker Kaito instead.  :)

Lego Tower

I picked up this Lego storage tower from Craigslist today.  It's practically brand new and I paid less than half of what Toys R Us sells it for.  Niko is getting several Lego sets for his birthday and this will help us organize them.

First Day of School!

Walking to school!

 

 Following Daddy up the stairs.

Yay!

 

Niko at his desk.  And yes... when we ride in the car we still use a sippy cup.

 

We love Mrs. Elisha!  Let's get this school year started!

Ethnic Enrichment Fest!

 It was a beautiful day here in KC so we decided to go to the Ethnic Enrichment Festival.

 Here is our little sumo wrestler. They have had this cutout at the Fest for as long as I can remember. 

 Annnndddd.... Here is our second sumo wrestler.

 Here is a quick side-by-side of my two bumps.  Niko is on the left and baby #2 on the right. Same weekend - 4 years apart!

 And the daughter we never had.  :)

 This was a fun little game in the China area of the festival - it's a race to see who can pump up the balloon faster.  Niko won, but it wasn't really fair... the girl was half his age!

 My two dads.

 Hanging with Godfather Mark.

The Godparents!  :)