Keeping a Family Tradition Alive

My father was a magician. He used to entertain us with many magic tricks. I always loved it when he did. He taught my brother and me many of the tricks, and my brother got to be very good at it (I wasn't too shabby but he did a lot more). Max has decided he is very interested in magic tricks and Josh's sister got him a book of magic tricks for Christmas. He has been studying the book quite seriously and a couple of nights ago, treated us to a surprisingly good performance of a penny trick. It was a ton of fun for all of us.

Max's Baby Brother

I posted about this on the family blog, but wanted to include something here, too. On February 5th at 10:35PM, we welcomed James Philip Mazgelis. He is a real joy, and after 9 months of me feeling more in shock about expecting another child, I feel so lucky to have him. Max has been thrilled since day one to be getting a new sibling, especially a baby brother, and he has been so great with him. He is proud and happy and can't get enough of him, not even complaining when I have to bring James to snuggle bedtime with me. He is going to be a really great big brother to James, just as he is with Lauren, despite their bickering.

We did successfully bank the cord blood. I used a birthing stool when pushing him out and gravity caused the poor midwife some grief for the collection, but Cord Blood Registry confirmed that they got a large enough amount.