Family Visits

Visits from family usually mean one thing; a trip to the carousel. It's starting to have a Pavlovian affect on Izzie. Oh well. She has fun. Here she is with Grandma Shirley while Grandma was here.


They also went to the park for a bit of exercise on one of those barely warm enough days in October.


Bathing Iv has kind of become a family event. Here we are watching mommy do the work.


While Grandma Shirley was here, Grandpa Chuck was able to join us. Here he is holding his newest grandson and admiring is "mini-me" good looks. (I think Iv looks a lot like Chuck.)


Here's Grandpa pushing Izzie around Costco for some shopping.


And here they are reading a book. Grandpa Chuck and Izzie are quite good pals, and Izzie loves hanging out with him.


Lynnell tried to give Iv a bottle a week or so after he was born to see how it would go, but the poor guy didn't like it one bit. We haven't tried since.


Grandpa & Grandma making us dinner.


Lynnell's sister, Shasta, husband Joe, son Austin & daughter Bailee came for a visit while Grandma & Grandpa were still here. Here they are admiring our new addition.


It was fun having everyone over, but there was one thing that made it even more fun. The carousel! Here's Grandma with Izzie and Bailee


Here's a good shot of our little guy taking a nap in mom and dads bed.


Then Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Shirley left just in time for Grannie to get into town to visit us. Here she is holding little Iv guy for the first time.


The cousins were still in town, so we stopped the all for a picture. Notice how Bailee and Austin are smiling for the picture, and Izzie's expression says "not another picture."


Grannie, Uncle D and Izzie hanging out.


Grannie, Uncle D and we four went out to lunch one day. Here's Uncle D and Izzie building a dice tower while we waited for our food.


How could it get better you ask. Well, the carousel of course. Duh!



To finish it off, here's a good picture of Grannie glowing with pride over her new grandson.


Thanks everyone for visiting us. We had a lot of fun, and you're all welcome back whenever you want.

Iv's First Doctor Visit

Iv had his first checkup on the 8th. A mere four days after entering the world. A few weeks earlier Izzie had an ear infections, so we found a pediatrician near by (one block from the house) to take her to. Turns out he was also the pediatrician on call when we had Iv, and he did the circumcision. Lynnell and I both liked him, so it was a logical choice to stick with him. Besides that, the commute is easy. We walked over to the office to check in and wait. Izzie enjoyed it because there was a movie on and the Nemo fish was swimming like crazy in the fish tank.


As expected it was all business after we got back to the exam room. Here's Iv on the scale/measuring table. 8 pounds 13 ounces of man just four days after being born. That's a weight gain of 3 ounces or 2.2% in four days. Think about it.


Proud daddy holding his son.


Here's Doctor Frizt poking and proding Iv. Notice Izzie standing there. Everytime Doc Fritz would poke Iv and Iv would make a squeak or squawk in objection Izzie would push the doc away and say something like "Heyyyyyy, don't hurt my baby brother." It was dang cute. She'll be a good big sister.



And that was it. All systems normal.

Here's Lynnell, Izzie and Iv as we walked home from the pediatricians office.

Day 2 for Iv

Well, we spent an uncomfortable night in the hospital with our new baby boy. It probably would have been ok for me if the nurses had stayed out. The only thing they were missing when they came in the room was a 12 piece band. It was noisy. Hospital rooms need locks. Weird that they don't have them. Just weird. Anyway, here's Iv sleeping on the bed while Lynnell was up stretch her legs in the middle of the night.


Lynnell took this one of me while I was dreaming of sugar plums and what not. I was sleeping on the most ridiculously uncomfortable fold-into-a-bed chair ever. You would think that with the money that the hospital was saving on door locks that they could afford better guest beds for dads.


First thing in the morning was the hearing test. It wasn't enough that he had ears on the side of his head, and that he would flinch when you clapped. They wanted to cram headphones in his ear, play some Rob Zombie and then watch his reaction. Not really. Being the nerdy engineer I am, I asked many questions about this intriguing device, but the nurse only knew how to push the buttons and make the lights blink. She did tell me that the device works by sensing the reverberating pressure from the ear drum when a sound is heard.




Here's a cute picture of the guy.


Mmmmmmm... Hospital breakfast. Free for Lynnell; not free for me. Free... HA! It's like one of those stupid TV commercials where you buy one and get one free. I buy a baby from my wife's womb and get a complimentary breakfast. Deal! I'll take two.


After breakfast it was off for a quick circumcision before brunch. Poor fella. They strap him down to a tray with giant Velcro straps and then pull out a tray of sterilized stainless steel tools and get to slicing. It's quite sad, but I found it interesting. I'll spare you the details, but here's a picture of the poor dude strapped to the table.


Later that afternoon we finally convinced Izzie to kiss her new baby brother. This is a picture of her first kiss for her new brother. It's kind of fuzzy, but that's because it was like the first time you kissed the opposite sex. It was a quick peck on the cheek followed by a shy retreat.


It was cute, and from then on she was hooked. Her next step was asking to hold him. Here's Iz holding Iv for the first time.


And that lead to more kissing and more holding (hopefully I don't write that line again for years).



Here's Izzie's favorite hang out spot in the hospital.


Here's Uncle D holding his new nephew.


Here's Grandpa Joe #2 holding his new grandson Joe #4 (hence the nickname Iv... get it... the roman numerals IV=4).


And Grandma Shirley (Lynnell's mom). This makes six grandkids for her and Grandpa Chuck.


Izzie and her Aunt Alex found a little nook in the hospital room cabinets that was just right for the two of them.


Monday evening we were officially released from the hospital. Here I am buckling Iv into his car seat for the first time.



Here's Lynnell being pushed by her (our) very good friend Theresa who happens to be a nurse in the baby district of the hospital.



Iv's first elevator ride. Weeeeeee...


Buckling the kids into the Awesome Uplander. See, this is why we spent money on a nice family vehicle three years ago. I'm so glad Lynnell talked me into a sensible purchase back then. It's so beneficial now.



Here he is. Safe and sound at home.


A random picture.


Izzie needed some attention, so she was running around showing everyone her sun glasses.



Here's good picture of Joe #2, #3 and #4. Hopefully at Thanksgiving we'll add #1 to the picture.


Here's Izzie already plotting how to get rid of the new competition.


Here's Grandma Tonia holding the little guy before going home. They only came over for a couple of days, but it was good to see them.


Here's Mike, kids pastor at Narrate, stopping by to say hi to our new addition.


Shortly after introducing the little guy to the swing Izzie felt it necessary to push. Here she is acting innocent and pretending that nothing happened.


Then Grandma Shirley gave Izzie a bath.



Here's Lynnell doing the unfortunate duty of changing a diaper. Turns out that changing a boy diaper is possibly more difficult than changing a girls diaper. It's definitely more tedious, and some things happen that people should mentally prepare you for (I'm not talking about pee).


That was day two, and it was a busy day.

I think I forgot to mention that Grandma Shirley miraculously showed up two days earlier than planned. Turns out it was perfect because she got here on Saturday, and we went to the hospital a few hours later to have Iv. It was more than a blessing to have her around. Thanks Grandma Shirley for being there for us. We love you.