Introducing Audrey Beatrice Goodsell

Just before 5:00pm on February 15, 2010, we welcomed a little girl to our family. An over-achiever from the start (like her mother), Audrey has already mastered the art of sleeping and eating (like her father).


The vitals
Weight: 8 pounds, 3 ounces
Length: 19 ½ inches
Hair: lots


The birth
Both mother and daughter are recovering smoothly from the delivery, which came by c-section after 16 hours of labor.

Those looking for more graphic descriptions of the birth filled with phrases no man wants to discuss (let alone type in an email) can appeal directly to the mother for all the details.

The reception

We’re happy to report that Joseph loves holding his baby sister, helping change her diapers, and sharing toys with her (his favorite object to share, unfortunately, has been a wooden hammer).


The name
We named her Audrey for no other reason than we like the name.

During most of Erin’s pregnancy, we called our daughter “Pinkie”—a name that Joseph insisted on after it was suggested to us by a 4 year-old with no sisters of his own. Joseph has agreed to alternate between “Audrey” and “Pinkie,” and we sometimes catch ourselves slipping too.


We’ve decided to stick with our family tradition of giving our children middle names from great characters in good books. Although we did enjoy Beverly Cleary books as children, we did not name our daughter for Ramona Quimby’s older sister Beezus.

When Erin and I were dating, we discovered that one of the many things we share in common is a love for the works of the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri (and people wondered why it took us a long time to ever find a spouse). Beatrice plays a significant role in Dante’s writings, and entire books have been written about what Beatrice represents, but one of the traits we hope our Audrey shares with Dante’s Beatrice is that she will lift those around her and make them want to become better people.


The thanks
Many people have helped us during this exciting time. Everyone at Scripps Hospital did a top-notch job in caring for all of us.

Meals brought by caring friends have helped us tremendously.

Special thanks go to the Skousen family who took Joseph into their home at 2 am and comforted him until he fell asleep at an even later hour.

We also appreciate Nana and Grandpa Goodsell and other friends who made sure Joseph didn’t want his parents to come back home from the hospital stay.

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers throughout the pregnancy.

With love,

Todd, Erin, Joseph, and baby Audrey