Sunday Afternoon Nap

And of course, Grandpa is one of the best instructors…


Genetically, Elias has no chance of having the ability to avoid Sunday afternoon naps (with the exception of football season).

Baby: T- 8 days

We are down to the last final week before our new addition joins the family. We are scheduled to go to the hospital on Tuesday morning at 5:30 AM with the C-Section scheduled for 7:00 AM. I am in the process of checking with the hospital to see if they have open wireless. I’m hoping so. I plan to upload pictures right away if possible.

More to come… stay tuned.

Dirt, dirt and more dirt

After the house project had seemingly come to a close, I realized that while most of the work was done, I still had no yard.

When we bought the land for our new house we didn’t realize the ground was so low. Not a big deal, says the excavator, we just don’t dig the hole as deep and you raise the elevation of the house by 4 ½ ft. All in all it wasn’t a big deal until it came time to fill in the area surrounding the house. I’ve had 42 tandem loads of dirt weighing in at approximately 14 tons each hauled in for a grand total of 588 tons. The excavating company has done most of the heavy lifting in the rough grade process, but I told myself to save money I would do the finish grade. This includes filling in around the concrete, flowerbeds, leveling problem areas in the yard, etc… I started that process this weekend. With a borrowed tractor the job seemed to start very easy. Drive up to a pile of dirt, use the loader, dump the dirt and spread it. Not difficult. After about 7 hours of work, I decided I had done as much as I could with the tractor and the rest would have to be done by hand. On any normal day, this would be a big job, but it happened to be 95 and humid today. So after scooping for about an hour and a half, I decided the best route would be to just clean off the driveway and sidewalk. So, I’m making progress, but slow progress. I will post pictures this week.

Kids

The kids are definitely enjoying themselves with Elias.

Good Mornin’

Elias as he just woke up…



We ended up switching from breast feeding to bottle feeding as he had lost an additional 2 oz after leaving the hospital. Since the switch he has been eating much more and has been sleeping like a champ.

What you say fool?

This is Saige’s typical response when we give any excuse to her wanting to hold Elias that doesn’t equal “Sure, you can hold him…” She has not quite grasped the concept of a newborn needing to eat, sleep and poop. All of which can be done while being held, but sometimes Saige needs to sleep too

Apparently, subtle hints are being given by my new son that he is no longer interested in having his retinas burned by camera flashes.

Proud Sisters

Sydnee and Saige are both very proud and can’t get enough of their new brother (yet…)

We're Home!

We made it home yesterday afternoon with Elias. All has been well. He is eating like a horse (big surprise…) and sleeping well. Last night, he slept for 5 hours straight, which we enjoyed.

The girls came home today along with Maize, our yellow lab. The girls are excited to be home with baby brother and Maize is still re-adjusting to being home from the kennel.

I will be uploading new pics tonight of the girls and Elias.

Elias Benjamin is here!!

Elias Benjamin joined us today at 7:33 AM weighing in at 9 lbs. and 4 oz. Apparently he picked up his eating habits from his father. Unfortunately, due to the rules of genetics, he received his father’s proportions as well measuring 20″ long. So, while following the footsteps of his Dad he, entered the world short and overweight.

Mom and baby are doing just fine. The procedure went very well and recovery is proceeding as expected. We will be leaving the hospital on Friday.

Sydnee and Saige are very excited about their new baby brother. Saige started out having a little trouble pronoucning his name, coming up with “Wise-Ass” instead of Elias. After a couple of practice runs with no one else within ear shot, it is now being pronounced EEEWyas. While not perfect, it is much better than the first attempt.

His photo album can be found by clicking here.

[for my geek friends]

Fortunately, because this is son v1 (build 3000) he is secure by default as seen here.

Baby Update

The baby will arrive tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM +/-. You can expect pictures on the web no later than noon. I’ve been able to figure out how to use my Windows Mobile 5 device to utilize the EVDO service that has recently been turned on in Bloomington. With the other hospital in town, this wouldn’t be a problem as they provide high-speed wireless. But, for some reason, this was not taken into consideration when choosing hospitals… somthing about better care for my wife and baby… I really wasn’t paying attention….

Just kidding. The hospital we are going to is supposed to have the best care in town, which is obviously the most important. Anyway, more tomorrow.