Wow. Where to begin. Joey, for as long as I can remember, I knew I wanted to be a Mom one day. I thought about names, and envisioned what my children would look like. I used to have dreams about babies that were mine and I would always wake up hoping these dreams would come true one day. Well, they finally have and I can't even begin to explain how wonderful it feels. It is truly overwhelming. You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, you make the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard and I can't believe you came from me. I am still having trouble wrapping my mind around this whole process. Mommy is feeling a million things all at once and it's amazing and scary at the same time. You are, by far, the most incredible thing that has happened to me and I can't wait to get to know you better and better. Here is my favorite picture of you and I:



I love you Joey. Welcome to the world.

Mommy

Hola Joey!!! You arrived at 5:35 yesterday afternoon!! You were great! You came into the world in a hurry and then were so calm. You are absolutely perfect!! We were all very excited and emotional!! Your mommy did a super job and is now a little lighter!! Haha. She had a tiny bit of champagne to celebrate!! She and your daddy were soooooo delighted!! They couldn't stop smiling. We all got to go into the little room one at a time to see you. You were all stretched out on your back and looked soooo relaxed. Grampa, Uncle Bobby and I came over at 4 and you were born so quickly. We went over to Centro Maya to get dinner and your daddy texted us that you were coming quickly so we ran back and voila!! We stayed until 7:30, came home and sat up til 11 talking about how wonderful it is to have you here!! Today, we are going to see you and your parents after lunch. You are coming home tonight!!!! Can't wait. Love you lots, Joey!!
Gramma

PS There is a hurricane coming fairly close to us - Hurricane Gustav. Will let you know what happens. It should start affecting us with rain and wind by Saturday!!

Well big guy, today is the big day, I am very excited to meet you, I am your auntie Carrie. I have been best friends with your mom for over 20 years now. Your mom is in the hospital right now and she is having regular contractions. I thought it would be kind of fun to keep track of all the text messages that I am receiving from your parents.

Also I have not written on here since it started, but here is a few tips. Your dad is going to try to give you delusions about HIS hockey team. But just so you know, the Canucks are really the tean to route for. Yes..they have not won a Stanley cup or done anything good in the last 14 years but that is really no reason to give up..it just means (our) team is getting ready to win the Cup!

Anyway, I will meet you in September when you get to Vancouver (where your parents are from) and I will give you gifts and love and cuddles!

Today's Text Messages:

7:33 AM
In Hospital!

9:16 AM
Regular Contractions!

Hours Later...

4:32 PM
Joey Simmonds was born @ 5:30 8 lbs!

Now obviously this message was sent by daddy, cause your real weight was 7 lbs 7 ounces ( Gramma told me).

Well thats it! Welcome to this crazy world and I will see you soon!

Love Auntie Carrie

Dear Joey,

This is just a starting point in case you decide to take an interest in sports. You can always look back and find out what was happening in sports when you were born. Right now the Olympics are on in Beijing. Two of the biggest winners are Adain Bolt from Jamaica as a sprinter as well as many other sprinters from Jamaica and Michael Phelps in swimming - he won 10 Gold medals. He is American.

Baseball
Leading teams: Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Angels. A few notable players are Derick Jeter, Kevin Youklais, Dustin Peoria, Manny Ramirez, Jason Bay from Nanaimo, Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz. The World Series is usually in October.

Football (American Gridiron)
Best teams: New York Giants, New England Patriots, San Diego Chargers, Seattle Seahawks, Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburg Steelers, Dallas Cowboys, and just maybe the Oakland Raiders (your Uncle Bobby's favorite) but not this year. The Super Bowl should be won by one of these teams. It in early February of every year.

Golf
The best golfer in the world in Tiger Woods but he is out recovering from knee surgery for the season.

Tennis
Federer and Nadal

Hockey
Ask your dad about hockey. It is a very popular game. I just never had an interest in it. Your uncle Bobby has but your daddy has the most interest and he knows a lot.

Fotbul (Soccer)
Mancester United and Chelsea. Best country: Spain. Worst country: Canada.

I will tell you who won the World Series and the Super Bowl when it happens. If you want we can hang out at EZ and watch the Super Bowl together. By the way Joey, I am your Grandpa Heard, your mommy's father and you have a Grampa Simmonds, your daddy's father. Hope to see you on Monday if not sooner! How excited I am!!!

Grandpa

Dear Joey,

Some of the notable world leaders are Stephen Harper, George Bush, a lady President in Germany, PM Brown in England, PM Rudd in Australia and so on. I don't remember names too well as they change all the time. Probably the biggest event in the world right now is the war in Iraq. The reason that the US invaded Iraq was to secure oil reserves for the 500 wealthiest people in the world, so that they can maintain their power and control of the world. North America is in the process of going through an economic recession because the politicians plan it that way to ensure the wealthy stay wealthy. But, recessions come and recessions go. There is also much controversy over the US election scheduled for November, when you are 3 months old. Hopefully, Barrack Obama will win and become a president of hope. He doesn't necessarily believe in war and he believes in helping people take care of themselves. The world has very big hopes for Obama. In the early part of your life time Joey, you may be seeing the disintegration of the American Empire. There are many details about this but instead I will suggest 2 books for you to read if you end up liking reading. They are The Seeds of Liberty: A Genesus of The American Mind" and "A People's History of the United States of America" respectively authored by Seville and Howard Zinn. Some of my favorite people are: Barrack Obama, Michael Moore, Ralph Nadar, Dick Cavett, George Carlin, Ghandi, Bobby Kennedy, Napoleon, and Tommy Douglas. I believe in revolution as it is really the only way to make a change. I deeply care for people and am a humanitarian. I love animals and sometimes I think that human beings are the only real predators on earth. I am against Global Warming and believe everyone should do their best to stop it. In the world right now the saddest part is Af so many children are starving to death because there is no food and the larger countries refuse to help them because of their almighty greed. Asia is the most populated part of the world and Australia, probably the least populated. A couple of movies you should watch sometime in your life are: The Corporation, On Golden Pond, and Good Morning Vietnam. Just a thought as you come into the world, when you wake up in the morning and you see a cloudy or rainy day, always picture the sun shining, because it is.

While we don't have all your furniture yet (your change table and crib were delivered today, the crib missing screws to put it together and the change table in pink!), we finally finished painting the Dr. Seuss illustrations on your walls. I drew them and Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa all helped me paint them. It took a long time and your poor Daddy has been suffering a stiff neck ever since (he did all the letters, so he was reaching up to paint the whole time), but we had lots of fun and I hope you like them! Although, I can't imagine you'll be much of an art critic yet. Here are some pictures:











Technorati Tags: baby, room, dr. seuss, cat in the hat, green eggs and ham

Hey Joey! This is Gramma! It is getting awfully exciting around here. You could arrive any day!!! Your mommy may have you next week! We all sat around talking about it last night for quite awhile. Your Grandpa and I were sitting on the beach yesterday in the HOT sun and we were saying how holding you is going to bring back such beautiful memories of when your mommy and Uncle Bobby were born. We cannot wait!!
About the beach and the weather - you are going to love this place!! The water is so turquoise and great to swim in. The weather here is always very warm and humid. We are in hurricane season (June to November) right now but so far it has not been too busy! It is supposed to be a very active season and August and September are supposed to be the busiest! We will see. There is nothing on the horizon right now.
Yesterday, I went to Angel Notion - it is a clinic for the poorer Mexicans. I helped take their blood pressure and weigh them. They have an herb garden there that I am hoping to be come a part of. I am very interested in herbs and their healing powers. I will let you know how it goes if and when I start at the garden.
Adios, my dear one! See you soon!
Love Gramma

And he said that Mommy's hips might not be big enough for your head (that's a mighty big head you have there, kiddo, Mommy's hips aren't necessarily tiny). I have to have an x-ray next Monday to find out if the hips can handle your cranium and if not, we will schedule a c-section. Which means you could be born next week! Although it's not the way I wanted it to happen, as long as you are safe, I am just overjoyed at the thought of possibly meeting you next week! Stay tuned...