I took Alex today for his first haircut at real deal salon. Up until now Jen has been trimming his hair whenever it has gotten really long but it finally got to the point where we needed to have a profession do the job. I mean you have to figure we made it all the way until he turned three before we had to go do this. He did a really good job too, no crying or anything. He just sat up in the chair and she worked away on his hair. Right at the end when it came time to use the clippers she said, “If this hurts you just let me know” figuring that he would say anything but the very first time she got close with the clippers he said “Hey, that hurts!” (She hadn’t even touched his hair at that point.) The place we took him is specifically for kids and they play movies that they can watch which is a brilliant idea. Alex got to watch some of Monsters, Inc. which probably contributed to the fact he didn’t put up much of a fuss.

Took Andrew to the Doctor this afternoon to get a checkup for jaundice. Each day we were in the hospital his bilirubin levels just kept getting higher and higher and then they just sent us home. Jen was concerned because we could see it in his eyes and his skin is looking a little yellow and the Doctor at the hospital really didn’t given any indication that he was ok, you need to get it looked at, you don’t have to do anything, so we wanted our doctor to check him out. Turns out we are just worry wort parents and there isn’t anything wrong with him at all but better to get it checked out then to have problems later.

We had a better night last night too. We all turned in around 8:00 o’clock when Alex went to bed which I think helped but Andres wasn’t as fussy as he has been the previous nights. I feel like I’ve just jinxed us all by actually saying it out loud so knock on wood and lets hope the trend stays alive.

We have officially survived our first day home. Of course Andrew was sleeping pretty well at the hospital but our guess our luck couldn’t hold out forever. Last night was a pretty long night and he managed to keep Jen and I up for a good portion of the night. At one point in the early hours of the morning Alex decided to join us in the room so he didn’t sleep all that well either. This morning after waking Andrew up we put him in front of the window to get a little sun since he still looks a little bit jaunice. It really wasn’t that noticeable until you stuck him in the sun and then you could really see it. It was never bad enough that they had to put him under the lights at the hospital and I don’t think well have to worry. To get him maximum sun exposure we took him on a walk around the block and Alex rode his tricycle.

Yesterday I took Alex to the library to return some books and then pick out some new ones and this is the first time that he was ridden in the car since we moved his car seat. Up until now he was stilling in the middle seat in the back but to make room for Andrew we moved him to the passenger side. Jen wants Andrew to sit in the middle spot now and she figured that Alex needed to be on the passenger side so she could see what he’s up to. So he was sitting in seat looking out the window when he says to me, “Dad, can you lock the doors, I don’t want to go flying out.”

Anyway, I’ve posted a couple more pictures from the last day at the hospital and Andrew in the car seat. You can see those here.

I’m pretty sure that I have called most people by now and everyone should know the news. Andrew Connor was born May 1st, 8:12 in the morning. It was a day sooner then planed so we had to hunker down and pick a name. I was campaigning for Connor pretty hard but Jen really wasn’t too enthused with it for a first name. I figure I got Alex the first time around so Jen gets this one :-).

Yesterday I did manage to spend some down time and update the web site and post some pictures which you can see here. I was going to send out an email to everyone but after going through all my address books that I have with me at the hospital I realize that I don’t have anyones current email so hopefully everyone just checks out the website periodically.

Andrew and Jen are both doing really well though Jen is pretty tired which is to be expected, it was pretty major surgery. I was allowed into the O.R during the procedure but thank goodnes they had a screen up between Jen’s head, which is where I was sitting, and where the action was. (One of the doctors offered to take some pictures which I polietly declined.) As an aside, before the operation started the chief nurse was counting all the supplies they had set up. “One, two, three, four, five, gause strips. One forcepts.” I though “Wow, there doing a pretty thourgh job making sure they are all prepared and everything.” After they were done the nurse was doing the same thing again. It was then I realized that she counted them up the before and after to make sure that they didn’t leave anything inside. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they did the before and after count but my initial confidence level was slightly lower.

Alex comes up for a visit everyday and he I think he’s excited about having a little brother. We got him a T-Shirt that says “I’m the Big Brother” which he wore proudly the first day. A couple of weeks back Jen bought a Thomas the Train Engine that we wrapped up and gave to Alex the other day from Andrew as a gift. As Alex was opening it he saw the Thomas label on the box and said, “It’s a Thomas Train! Andrew knows I like Thomas” he told us.

It seems like thinigs are going a little easier then when we had Alex since Andrew is allowed to be in the room with us for feedings and naps. Alex was hooked up to all kinds of machines and wasn’t allowed to leave the nursery so every coule of hours we would have to make the trip down there. Now they just bring Andrew to the room whenever it is feeding time.

We should be heading home on Thursday so hopefully then I’ll be able to send out email to everyone.

We went out to eat at Fuddruckers tonight because Jen was craving a hamburger, we haven’t been in a couple of years so I figured what a treat. If your not familiar with Fuddruckers when you first walk in you put your food order in and then it’s every man for themselves in the dining room, you just sit wherever you want. When your food is ready they just call your name and you go back up and pick it up.

We got there ahead of the dinner crowd so the place was relatively empty so we picked a table off in the corner. As we were waiting for our food a family came and sat behind us in one of the booths. Not a couple of seconds after they sat down Jen said, “We have to move, they have bad BO.”

Now I put this to, how does one go about making this look graceful? The restaurant is empty, they have just sat down behind us, and we are about to stand up and move. There is no way to make this look good, it is going to be so obvious we are moving because of them.

So in a loud-ish voice (the idea being they are supposed to hear me) I say, “Oh, Alex, you want to go sit over there in that booth, OK, what a great idea!”. Alex is just staring at me like I’ve just lost my mind. Luckily he didn’t blow the whole thing and we made a clean escape from the BO family.

I’ve been falling behind on my pictures lately and I figured I had better get the birthday one’s done or you guys might never get to see them, so here they are.

When Jen and Alex got home from school yesterday afternoon Jen was grabbing all her stuff out of the trunk of the car when she dropped a hanger on the ground. Alex went and picked it up for Jen and starting waving it in the air and calling out

“Hey Mom, Here’s your hooker! Mom, here’s your hooker!”

The other day Jen told me, “We’re getting a cleaning lady.” It was just put out there as a statement really not meant to be debated, just more a statement of fact.

Now I don’t think that we’re really all that dirty that we needed to get someone in to clean our house but I wasn’t going to argue it. Well, I did kind of put up a little resistance but I figured it was best just to let it go. So, yesterday she came and cleaned the house and I’ve discovered that we must live like absolute pigs.

I was pretty skeptical that we would really be able to notice what was done but when I came home from work the whole house had this fresh piney smell. The floors were shiny, the counter tops were sparkling, it was totally incredible. There isn’t a spot in the house that I don’t think she didn’t clean, spots I didn’t even notice existed before just shine. I’m almost afraid of touching anything since I’m just going to make it dirty.

Last weekend we all went to a “Day out with Thomas” event. I’ve posted a couple pages of pictures from the outing which you can get to from the home page.

We got tickets for the event out four months ago, I think Jen discovered it on line when she was surfing the Thomas web site with Alex one afternoon and we got tickets. We didn’t tell Alex about it at the time so it was a big surprise when we told him a couple of days before we actually went. It’s a big outdoor carnival where they have trains set up for the kids to play with, entertainers singing Thomas songs, and of course the reason we are all there for is a ride on a real Thomas the Tank Engine. Of course it wouldn’t be complete without a gift shop stocked full with every imaginable Thomas train ever.

It turns out the Thomas really isn’t much more then a hollow rail car constructed to look exactly like the real Thomas. I don’t know what I was expecting but I thought it was going to be a genuine steam engine. It’s set up so that Thomas is at the front of the train followed by a couple of passenger cars, and on the end is an old fashion diesel engine which pushes the whole thing out and bank.

Even though I felt a little cheated Alex thought it was the greatest thing ever and we got to get a family picture in front of Thomas which he now has up on the bulletin board in his room.

When we were all done we had to drive over the train line that Thomas was parked at and Alex said that he wanted to see Thomas one last time.

“Well, we’ll be able to see him if he hasn’t left on another trip yet” I told him. We then rounded the corner and Thomas was still waiting as passengers were still getting on the train.

“See, Thomas wouldn’t leave me” Alex told us from the back seat.

Yes, we’re still here, I just haven’t made an update in ages.

We have finally got around to putting up shelves in the kitchen which pretty much completes the kitchen project. (Well, expect for some touch up paint that is.) These were shelves that we put in the old wet bar area which is now a desk. We couldn’t decide for the longest time what type of shelves to put up so Jen finally had enough of my indecision and went and bought some. I took a couple pics so you can see what they look like here.

Now, you see the thing is, the pictures you see here were taken right after the shelves went up. I like to think of myself as a handy kind of guy but for some reason hanging stuff on the walls seems to be beyond my skills. So about two days after they went up, one of the shelves came tumbling right back down.

Not only has my handy guy ego taken a whipping but it was the small shelf on the top left that came down which had our wedding plate on it. Someone gave us the plate as a wedding gift and it had our names on it with our wedding date. (You can see the plate in the pictures.) I really liked it so I was a little bummed out that it’s now in a paper bag on our counter in a million pieces. I think that we are going to get out the crazy glue and see if we can put it back together.

It’s been ages since I’ve managed to make any updates to this site, sorry folks. Things have been pretty busy at work and the computer has been on the fritz. Things are in a little better shape but it looks like I’m still going to need to get a new video card for this thing since it’s doing all kinds of odd stuff to the picture.

Anyway, I’ve added a couple of pages of recent pictures to the home page. One of Alex playing soccer in the park and another of Alex and Jen at the Arboretum.

I promise I’ll get to more updates soon..