My Son, Dr. Evil

Olivia finally trimmed Nathan's fingernails for the first time the other day, so he's been allowed to go without socks on his hands a bit more. I've started to notice another odd habit of his. He extends his pinkie fingers a lot. Either his mother is already schooling him in etiquette when I'm not around, or he's Dr. Evil. He doesn't bring the pinkie up to the corner of his mouth very often, so I'm leaning toward etiquette lessons right now. He moves around a lot, so it was tough to catch on camera. This shot's pretty good though...
On a totally separate note, today was the little dude's first real bath. Up until now, we've been giving him sponge baths. Today he went in the drink. He only fussed a little, so I guess he enjoyed it. Now, Olivia made me promise not to post any indecent pictures of the boy. So after a few minutes of photo editing and some help from Margaret Thatcher... presto! Thanks for the assist, Maggie! Notice the tub he's in. It's baby size and has a little hammock to hold him in. Is that cool or what? I would take more baths if I had a hammock in there to sit in. All in all, the bath went pretty well. He didn't really start fussing until we took him out and he got cold. Mom's hooded towels to the rescue... I have no idea what kind of creature that is on his head, but hey, it's cute.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Back to Work I Go... DOH!

Well, the 3 week vacation that was my paternity leave came to an end this morning at 7am. I was really enjoying the stay at home dad thing, even though Olivia still did most of the parenting over those 3 weeks. Hmm, maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much. Either way, I still had to go back today. I felt like an escaped con who was finally reeled in by John Law once again. But no one wants to listen to me complain about work, so I'll get straight to what you really came here for... more pictures of the Teeny Little Super Guy.

Why do kids sleep like this? I've never known an adult to sleep with their butt up in the air, but it seems a lot of kids do. What is it that makes them do it and at what point do we get too old to want to relax this way anymore. I'm not saying I want to sleep this way, I'm just curious. After all the exploitive pictures of Nathan I've posted, I believe that today's bib may be a bit prophetic of him... I'm guessing his revenge will be in about 16 years when he's eating enough food to feed a family of six. He'll stick it to his old man with food bills roughly equal to the gross domestic product of Albania.

My Boy Smells Like a Girl

Today marks my 3rd week as a parent. In that time I've discovered all sorts of new things about kids and fatherhood. Important things, like how to hold a baby in one arm and cook with the other or how to duck and cover while changing a diaper. The one thing that is still a mystery to me is babies' smell. Not the rear end smell, I understand that. It's the "baby smell" that doesn't make sense. Let me explain. After my son's baths, his mother always slathers him in lotion like she's glazing a Christmas ham. I don't begrudge her for doing it, his skin is dry and he needs it. But the lotion we have is milk and honey or some such scented. It doesn't smell bad, but it doesn't smell very manly either. I'm not trying to be picky here, I just want to defend the defenseless. My boy can't vocalize what scent he wants to wear, so I try to put myself in his shoes. I mean, does Old Spice make a baby lotion? Does Aqua Velva make butt butter? I haven't seen any. Let me know if you have. I think they should, because I really feel bad for all the little boys who are forced to smell like flowers and can't do anything about it.

And now today's bib. It's funny, whenever we put this one on him he feels compelled to live up to it almost immediately...

My Son, Darth Maul

We took a trip to Great-Grandma Dudley's house today. We spent some quality time with Grandma and Nathan finally got to meet Aunt Sheryl and Uncle Roger. He was pretty much out of it the whole time and woke up when we got home. He was wearing a new bib, so I got the camera to take a picture for posting. Well, I got lucky and just happened to be clicking pictures at the exact right time. While I was taking pictures, Nathan decided to fill his diaper again. I was able to capture his transformation from an innocent 2 week old into a dark lord of the Sith. Here's the progression. First he starts out as cute, innocent little Nathan just chilling in his car seat.
Once the pushing starts, his forehead starts to redden ever so slightly.
Next, he gets what I call his racing stripes. Two beat red stripes right down the middle of the forehead. The eyes start to redden just a bit and the lips begin to purse together as well.
Finally, the racing stripes reach their darkest as the whole head turns a deep shade of red. Under the eyes is also dark red and the lips are still clenched, holding his breath. All he lacks is a few little horns and a double-bladed light saber and presto... Darth Maul.
Disturbing, no? What's even more disturbing is the rumble and stench that follows this sequence. I didn't even realize I captured all the phases of his transformation until I loaded the pictures on my computer. I was really just trying to get a good shot of the racing stripes and got lucky. Rest assured, Nate quickly returns to his relaxed self soon after his Incredible Hulk-like metamorphosis. If Bruce Banner's catch phrase is "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry", I guess Nate's would be "You wouldn't like me when I'm gassy." I'll end this disturbing post with a much nicer picture of mom's boys ready for bed.

My Son the Arab

What do you do when you don't want your kid to dirty yet another set of clothes before bath time? Simple, just wrap him up in a couple blankets and shove him in his car seat for a while...

Maybe Schedules Are a Good Idea

Last night, we went to Todd and Hannah Anhalt's wedding reception and took Nathan with us. BIG MISTAKE. Everything was going fine starting out. He slept the whole way into town and through the first couple hours of the reception. Then, he decided to use some chemical warfare. He released the biggest bomb he has to date. After it escaped the diaper, it left a large mess in his clothes and some even escaped that onto his blanket. Not a pretty sight.

Thank God we had friends there, because Olivia needed backup and I wasn't too sure they'd welcome me in the ladies room. Our friend Sarah volunteered and away they went. They were gone like 15 or 20 minutes. Luckily we packed a change of clothes for the little rascal or we'd have really been in deep doo doo... literally. Upon their return, Sarah informed me that my son had lost 2 lbs. To make matters worse, there was no changing table in the bathroom and they had to change him on the counter top between sinks. Wow.

After all that, Nathan was a bit more lively and luckily was in a pretty good mood too. He was very interested in all the new scenery that he had woken up into.

Judging by the size of his eyeballs, he was having a tough time taking it all in. All in all, the reception was great and we wish Todd and Hannah all the best. The real problem started after we left.

We left the reception around 9:30, which wasn't very late up until a couple weeks ago. At one point on the way home, all 3 of us yawned in unison. It was 11 before we got home and got everyone to bed. Here's where the trouble started. We don't really have Nathan on "a schedule" yet, but he usually is able to keep his nights and days sorta straight. Not last night. Whatever framework of a "schedule" that we had went right out the window. He was crying at least every 2 hours all night. I think his mother was about to go out the window as well. Needless to say, I think we'll be a bit more conservative next time we decide to socialize outside the home.

So, today has been guy's day so far. I thawed out some of Olivia's frozen milk and we boys are hanging out downstairs while mom catches up on some sleep. I've managed one feeding and one diaper change all by myself so far and I'm feeling rather proud of myself. I've got enough milk for one more meal and football will be starting shortly, so hopefully we'll both be content for a bit longer. After feeding the boy his lunch, I was able to fix my own and also snap a shot of today's bib...

Do You Wake Up Grumpy in the Morning?

No, we usually try to let him sleep. But on those occasions that we do try to wake up Grumpy, it usually looks like this...
This video is a pretty accurate account of all the yawning, stretching, frowning, flopping, and whining that we see every time we have to wake Nathan up...

During this photo shoot, we also managed to capture more photo evidence of "the Touchdown Pose" (see "My Son the Alien", Jan. 13, 2008).After yesterday's bib posting, Nathan's aunt to be, Megan, commented that she'd better see the bib she gave him on here soon. She sounded like she meant business, so I made a special effort to find it for today. Unfortunately, it fit him more like a poncho than a bib. So we'll probably put that one back into the drawer until he grows into it a bit more. I went ahead and snapped a picture first, though. The bib is one of my favorites!

Got Milk?

Nathan has started using a bottle on a limited basis. His vitamins smell like cough syrup and he dislikes them so much that we mix them in with a little breast milk and bottle feed him the coctail. So, since he's now on the bottle and he's a messy eater like his father, he's also started wearing his vast array of bibs. He must have dozens of them, each cuter than the next. So I thought he could start modeling them for his loyal fans on Kermitt. I'll post them periodically as he goes through them. Here's today's entry...

My Son the Firehose

Within a 30 minute span yesterday, my son managed to pee on his changing table, his clothes, his mother, his father, his own face, an "on-deck" diaper, the washer and dryer, the bathroom floor, and into our closet. As you can tell, I'm very impressed with my son's... um... talent. I am learning though. Just today he went in for his 2 week checkup at the Dr's. The nurse had me strip him down to his diaper and put him on the scale. Then she instructs me to remove his diaper so she can weigh him. I noticed that she was in "the kill zone" so I suggested that she might want to take a step or two to my left. Five seconds later "the kill zone", the scale, and my hands were drenched. The nurse was quite impressed and thankful for my in depth knowledge of Nathan's... um... range. He even managed to get himself in the face again too. Serves him right. He is up to 8lb 4oz due to his voracious appetite. That doesn't sound like much, but he's increased his body weight by almost 12% since leaving the hospital. That's good because he needs to fill in all the loose skin he's got hanging everywhere. Thankfully he hasn't grown any taller yet. The doc says he's doing really good so everything seems rosy for him right now. Everything except for the fact that his father is poised with camera at the ready for any opportunity to embarrass him in his teens.

And the Winner Is...

Nathan's cord finally fell off Sunday. As you may recall, we had a pool going here on Kermitt to guess Nate's arrival date and dimensions and the prize for the winner was his shriveled up piece of cord after it fell off (see "Nathan the Giant", Dec. 13th 2007). Well, now that it's detached it's time to declare a winner. We had 2 correct guesses for the date, Dad and Nicole Blakeman. Dad guessed 3' 4" long, but Nicole was much closer at 21-1/2" and 7 lb 10 oz. Congratulations Nicole! We'll have that packaged up and make sure you get it next time we see you!

Nate had another busy day making the rounds on Sunday. His Aunt Rachel came over to see him. We didn't get a picture of him with Rachel in the hospital, so we had to snap a few Sunday.I believe they were discussing the upcoming presidential election when I took this one. After Aunt Rachel left we headed North to Menard County for dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Dudley's and to visit Nathan's adoptive Aunt Gloria and Uncle Norm Claussen. As you'll recall, Gloria is the family friend/maternity nurse that helped us during the birth and also snapped all of the pictures from Nate's first half hour in the world (see "We're Home", Jan. 5th, 2008). We didn't manage to get any pictures of Gloria with the little guy while in the hospital, so we made sure to take the camera with us for our visit Sunday.Gloria is the sweetest person you'll ever meet and she has an amazing ability to sooth babies. Notice how relaxed Nathan is. Uncle Norm also got a chance to hold the little tyke. He looked a little out of practice when he picked Nathan up, but I think he was having a good time... We enjoyed seeing Norm and Gloria and I want to say thanks again to Gloria for all her help in the hospital. Next, it was on to G & G Dudley's for dinner and mom and dad's baby fix. We were all curious what Claire's (mom's dog) reaction would be to the little critter. Mom said she perks up when she hears a baby cry on TV. Initially she was un-impressed. Dad was holding Nate, eating ice cream and brownies and watching football... again. Nate was quiet so Claire just kinda sniffed his feet and moved on. Later, when he got hungry and started squawking, Claire was on high alert. She got as close as she possibly could without getting in trouble. She couldn't be distracted at all. I laid down on the floor next to her, which usually means she will be perched on my chest within 1.3 seconds. She just walked over to me, thought about it for a second, and returned to guard duty. It was all pretty cute. Later on in the evening, we also managed to get Nathan to kinda do the touchdown pose too (see "My Son the Alien", Jan. 13, 2008). He was really more or less laying down this time, so it wasn't as amazing as the first go around. Still funny though!

My Son the Alien

Yesterday afternoon was a busy one for Nate as he had lots of visitors again. First, Great-Grandma and Grandad Dudley stopped by for a few minutes with a gift for the little guy...
The picture isn't the greatest since the statue is so shiny. It's a sailboat with Jeremiah 29:11 inscribed on the main sail. The base plate says "Nathan Wyatt Dudley, 1-3-08, from Great Grandma and Grandad Dudley." It's really nice and it's the kind of gesture that's typical of Nathan's super Great Grandparents. I know he won't really appreciate it for a few years, but this is the kind of thing that he will hold onto forever. Thanks again, G & G Dudley!

Soon after the grandparents left, Olivia's Aunt Laura and Uncle Rob showed up with their 3 kids. They brought us dinner (thanks!) and posed for some pictures with Nate. Here's their 2 girls, Morgan and Kelly, with him...The 2 girls really love kids and they both seemed really happy to get a chance to cuddle the little guy. Nathan seemed a bit more unsure about the whole situation as he tried to box Morgan's nose...Later in the evening as we were getting ready for bed, I was sitting in bed with Nate in my lap. Liv told me to wake him up because he needed to eat again before sleepy time. This is where we learned another of his cute little oddities that almost made us roll out of the bed with laughter. I was reclining against a pile of pillows with my legs up at about a 45 degree angle. Nathan was about 2/3 asleep, laying on his back on my inclined legs. When Olivia tells me to wake him up, I usually just look for some way to agitate him because that's about the only way to get a response. I guess I was inspired by the football game I just turned off, because I grabbed his arms and raised them both in the "touchdown" position. The funny thing was, when I let go he held them there! Eyes closed and arms outstretched, he held the pose for about 5 seconds before letting his arms down. This was so humorous to me that I did it again and got the same result. I guess the funny thing was that he wasn't resting them on anything. He was asleep and holding them up there. I couldn't stop myself and repeated this sequence 4 or 5 times before his mother rescued him from my clutches. By then we were both beet red with laughter and I believe she called us bad parents too.

Fast forward to this morning. Due to an extraordinarily poopy diaper, we were forced to give Nathan his bath a day early. He has these neat little towels that have a noggin sized pocket on one corner to keep his little melon warm while you dry him off. After his bath, Liv had him wrapped up in one of his towels and it struck me... My son looks like E.T. !Apparently E.T. was hungry too because he was also attempting to eat a kleenex that his mother was using to wipe his chin with. I was lucky enough to catch it on video..

One Week In

We rounded out Nathan's first week out the womb yesterday with his one week Dr visit. It was a rough day for the little guy. He's still a little yellow, so they wanted to take some blood to make sure everything was still ok. For some unknown reason, they decided to take it with a needle from his arm, rather than just sticking him in the foot as has been previously done. I got the job of basically laying on top of him to keep him from moving while they fished around for a vein in his little arm. Of course, he was screaming at the top of his lungs and his mother and I were almost in tears. That was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do and I'm sure Liv would agree. I was kinda shell shocked for about 15 or 20 minutes after that. I couldn't get us out of that office fast enough. Anyway, everything turned out fine. His test came back ok, we just have to make sure he eats every 3 hours to try and flush his system.

Another highlight since my last post was a trip to Great-Grandma and Grandad Dudley's house on Wednesday. I was going to Ashland for a haircut, so I dropped Liv and Nate off for some quality time with the Great-Grandparents. When I left, Great-Grandma Dudley was holding Nathan. When I returned about an hour later, she was still clutching him. She said that she hadn't let him go the whole time I was gone. Judging from his picture, he seemed to be enjoying it...

We also managed to get a few pictures of Olivia with the little man as well... finally.
I made this one black and white and it turned out really nice...I really like that picture. Anyway, after a whole week of fatherhood, I've picked up on a few things. I'm certainly not an expert yet, but I am a fast learner. So, here's my top 5 list of things I've learned after a week of being called Dad.

5. Everything babies do is cute. I don't know why or how, but it is. Somehow burping, spitting up, pooping, flailing around for no reason, or even just sleeping takes on a whole new level of excitement that doesn't make any sense. I doubt anyone would enjoy watching me do any of those things, but I think I could sell tickets when Nathan does any of that.

4. Whoever invented the pacifier (the soothing tool, not the Vin Diesel movie) should receive a Nobel Peace Prize. I guarantee that whoever invented that clever little tool has brought more peace to the world than Al Gore's stupid global warming movie ever will.

3. With a baby resting on your belly, a Marfan syndrome-like chest indentation is the perfect place to rest his head to keep it from rolling off to one side. (Aunt Shauna may be the only one to get that reference.)

2. Only about 50% of a baby's pee actually winds up in the diaper. The other 50% winds up on the changing table, the clean diaper, the adjacent baby care products, and the baby changing personnel when the baby cuts loose in the middle of a diaper change. Nathan may actually get less than 50% in his diaper because I think he saves most of his for changing time. Just ask Great-Grandma Dudley. Sorry Grandma! Anymore I just crack open the diaper, blow a cool breeze in there, and close it back up for a second. Once he loses the "pure relaxation" face, it's usually safe to proceed.

1. A few weeks back, I was talking with Dave Anderson at church about fatherhood. Nathan still hadn't been born yet and Dave was preparing me for what to expect. I don't remember exactly what he said, but he made the point that if a grizzly bear was threatening your baby you'd rush in to protect it. You'd know it wouldn't really do any good, but you'd get in there and have a go with Smokey all the same. Luckily there haven't been any grizzlies spotted in New Berlin recently, but I now know how right Dave was.

More Nathan

I call this one the flying squirrel. I guess his mother bought him some fat kid clothes...

My Son the Boxer

Well it's only taken 4 days, and I've discovered what line of work my darling son will enter into. Apparently, he's looking into becoming a boxer. Ever since he was born, he's always had his mitts up on either side of his face and I snapped this shot of him doing it today in his swing...I did not pose him like this. He does this on his own. Check out his pictures in my January 5 post. He's kinda doing it in some of those too. I think he's defending against a right hook or something. I need to talk to him about getting them up just a bit higher for proper technique. Not only does he practice his defense like this, he also works on his punches. He likes to throw punches in his sleep, which doesn't surprise me much after all the grief he caused his mother before he was born. He was notorious for using her bladder for a punching bag. Then this evening, he got his first sparring practice. He was asleep on the couch next to his mother who was on the phone. As usual, his mitts were up. I leaned over the cute little guy and nuzzled his left hand gently with my nose. WHAM! He laid into his old man with a solid uppercut right on the old sniffer. I fell over backwards on the couch, partly from the force and pinpoint accuracy of this surgical strike and partly from sheer disbelief and shock. It almost hurt a little. Liv and I were immediately rolling with laughter, but Nate stayed asleep dreaming about his big title fight at Ceasar's Palace in 2030.

We're Home

We finally escaped the hospital around 3:30 or 4:00 this afternoon. Once home, Liv and Nate rested a little while I started putting things away and getting his things arranged where they needed to be. Mom and dad brought a smashing steak dinner over around 6. I feel I need to make an aside here to give props to my wonderful mother. She managed to feed the whole family last week over the holidays and has pretty much covered every dinner for Olivia and I since Saturday when they put Liv on bed rest. She really stepped up to the plate. On top of that, she keeps buying things for the baby. She's really shining as a mother and a grandmother and Olivia and I are VERY grateful for the help. So, kudos to ma Dudley! Also I think dad's digging the grandpa thing too. He seemed rather happy as he sat in the old brown la-z-boy watching the football game with Nate resting in one arm and a bowl of ice cream and brownies resting in the other.

Anyway, after dinner Logan and Megan stopped by for dessert and their daily Nathan fix. As expected, Megan was more than happy to lend a hand with the little fella. What has surprised me thus far, is Logan's comfort level around him. I expected Logan to be kinda hand's off and maybe a little intimidated. To my surprise, he seems pretty jazzed about the whole deal. He doesn't shy away from Nate and actually looks fairly comfortable holding him. He may be ready to be an uncle after all. Around 8:30 everyone cleared out and now I finally have a chance to post some pictures. My progress will be slowed a bit as Olivia is taking a well-deserved shower and my left arm is occupied by a 2-day-old with hiccups. As I finished typing that last sentence, he also filled his britches. That may require both hands. I shall return...

Ok, crisis averted. On with the pictures. We had almost 80 pictures on the camera when we got home, so here's some of the highlights...

For Olivia's sake, I'm not posting any pics of her in the delivery room. Nate, however, is not so lucky.

Here he is, America! He's been cleaned up in this pic, but I could have embarrassed him with some of those "fresh out the womb" pics that I have a ton of. Here again I need to make another aside. Liv and I both want to send a shout out to Gloria Claussen. She's a friend of the family and also a maternity nurse at the hospital. She took her day off to be with us during the delivery. She pretty much single-handedly got Olivia through the whole ordeal. After Nate was out and I was occupied, Gloria grabbed my camera and started taking pictures of everything. She preserved a bunch of shots that would have otherwise been lost forever. On top of all that, she sewed Nate a cute, hand-made comforter. I'm ashamed to say that we never managed to get a picture of Gloria the whole time we were there. So, I apologize for that. Gloria, you're the best! Thanks a bundle!

Here's another of Gloria's wonderful pics...No explanation needed really. I thought about starting a college fund for the boy, but instead I decided to put the money into a fund for special order shoes.

Here's one final early shot that I thought was good.I can't wait until he starts dating and I can break out the picture of him in the Babytherm 8000 to show his girlfriend. Ah, the rewards of fatherhood!

Once the delivery circus settled down, it was time to start having visitors. Two of the first were my Grandma and Grandad Dudley. My cousin had a little boy just over a year ago, but he's a Slater. Nathan is the first great-grandchild to carry on the Dudley name. To honor Grandad Dudley, we gave Nathan the middle name Wyatt. That's granddad's first name. Grandad and grandma are truly awesome grandparents. They are the kindest, gentlest people you could ever meet and we are truly blessed to be part of their family. They have been the best role models of faith, family, love, compassion, generosity, and joy. I am tickled that I was able to honor them while naming my son. I only pray that Nathan gets a chance know them before they are gone and that he is able to uphold the standards they have set for the Dudley name. Here's a good picture of Grandma Dudley with her 2 Wyatt's.

Next in the parade of visitors were my brother Logan and his fiance', Megan.
They're getting married in June and they'll both still have 2 years of school left. But judging by her cheshire grin, she's already got plans beyond that.

Let's not forget the new grandparents...Dad has already bought the boy a camouflage onesie, John Deere boots, and a John Deere vibrating ear of corn teething toy. If this level of spoilage continues, grandma and grandpa will soon be Nate's most favorite people in the whole world. Olivia's sister, Rachel, stopped in for a visit Thursday night as well, but we somehow managed to not get a picture of her either. Sorry Rachel!

Day 2 - After a mostly sleepless night for Olivia and a so-so night of sleep for me, we entered Friday tired but happy. Nothing too eventful happened. Friday's visitors included Gloria and her husband Norm, Olivia's Aunt Pat, Jason and Sadie Jones (friends from work), Marshall Metcalf (another friend from work), Wade and Nicole Blakeman (more friends of ours), and ma and pa Dudley again. If I left anyone else out, sorry. I was tired. Here's a good one from Friday's visit...
Nate was looking much cuter and less alien-like by Friday.

Day 3 - After another night in the hospital, we began to get ready to go home on Saturday. After a seemingly endless series of checkups, shots, procedures, Dr visits, more checkups, and more shots we finally made it out and back home. That's where I started this whole blog entry. So that's Nate's life this far, but I have a couple more pictures from this evening that need to be on here as well. First is Nathan trying on the Elmer Fudd hat that his Aunt Shauna made him for Christmas. Unfortunately, Nate didn't arrive during the week that she and my brother-in-law, Tom, were here for the holidays. They live in Iowa, but they'll get to meet Nate in the coming months. Until then, he'll just have to work on growing into his awesome new hat.
She says she used the extra small toddler pattern to make the hat. If that's an extra small, I'd hate to meet the toddler who fits in the extra large. Whoa. A cool hat nonetheless, and you have to love the state-worker-orange as well.

And finally here's me and Nate deciding which pictures to post on here tonight... I'm sure you've noticed there's no pictures of Olivia on here. There are pictures of her and she looks beautiful in every one of them. However, I think she only got about 4 hours of sleep over the past 3 days, so she didn't feel too beautiful. She didn't tell me not to post her pictures, but I held back for her sake. We'll get her all rested up and I'll get some pictures of her with the boy that she can be proud of. I'm super proud of her for all she's gone through and what a great mother she's shaping up to be already. I love you, honey!

So that's things so far. I'm still getting used to this whole fatherhood thing, so I'm sure I will have many posts dealing with that over the coming days and weeks. Plus, I'm sure Nate will only get cuter as he grows up. So check in here often for updates and new pictures. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts, prayers, gifts, time, and love. Olivia and I are both very grateful for the family and friends we have been blessed with. You all make a great environment to bring our precious baby up in. Thanks again!

Mom's Birthday Present

The Teeny Little Super Guy has arrived! Nathan Wyatt arrived at about 4pm today (Jan 3). Today just happened to be mom's birthday as well. Mom was here for the delivery and her birthday present was to cut the cord. I didn't even look at it, but mom seemed to like her present. To each their own I guess. He was 7 lb 14 oz and 22-1/4" long. He has long arms and legs and huge hands and feet. No surprises there. Olivia only had to push for 10 minutes, so she was pretty happy about that. I'm still getting adjusted to fatherhood, so my brain is kinda swirling around at the moment. I was going to post a few pictures of the little tyke tonight, but this hospital computer won't let me upload them. So look for them here in the coming days. We should be able to go home Saturday, so I will hopefully get some posted by Saturday night. Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers. Come back soon to see Nate!

Happy Birthday Nathan

This was my present for Nathan on his first birthday. I thought he might eventually appreciate it more than some plastic toy that he will outgrow in 6 months. It was fun for me to put it together too. He has been a real blessing to everyone he's met and we're very lucky to have him. We love you, buddy! Crank up the volume and enjoy...

Mom's Christmas Present

Lumber - $2.80

Sandpaper - $4.46

Mousetraps - $1.49

Giving your mom an exploding piggy bank for Christmas - Priceless....