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!