Secret Life of the McEachern Family

I hope everyone had a good Canada Day and July 4th weekend. We a had a good time but somehow I managed to eat way too many hot dogs. It seemed like every meal I sat down to I was eating another hot dog. On the weekend we Bar-B-Q’ed hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken so I had to sample at least one of each. Then the next day for lunch we still had hot dogs left over so of course I had a couple more. Then on July 4th we went out to the Ballpark to watch the Rangers play and I had way too many hot dogs there. By the end of the weekend I was feeling pretty sick, no more hot dogs for a while.

Alex had fun over the weekend. Jen’s family came into town so he always had someone to play with and he managed to get to the pool a couple of times for some swimming. He’s really doing pretty good in the pool and his swimming is starting to come along and the last couple of times he’s even gone off the diving board. That’s a pretty big step because we aren’t allowed to help him swim to the edge of the pool after he goes off the diving board. He has to jump off and then swim to the edge of the pool by himself.

This year I decided to make an effort to really fix up the yard. In the front we didn’t have any real grass it was all clover that has taken over the whole area. I got some weed killer to kill all the clover, lots of dirt to lay a new foundation, and then planted some grass. The only real problem that I’ve had to deal with is the fact that we have two massive maple trees in the front yard so the grass doesn’t get any sun. I’m pretty sure that’s why the original grass lost the battle to the clover in the first place but I found some shade resistant grass and that has done really well.

The grass when in a couple of months back so it’s starting to look pretty good after a couple of mowing so I figured why not go all out and get some plants to put in the front to go along with the grass. I only got about six plants to put in the front around one of the trees.

So the other day I look out there to see how they are growing and what do I see, none of the plants have any flowers. Others don’t have any leaves, and some are just green stalks coming out of the ground. Hmm…. Turns out the neighbourhood rabbits have discovered my little flower collection and have decided to use it as the mid-afternoon snack.

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.

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.

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.