Pics from this week

So how times have changed. On Friday afternoon, Jenny & Ireland as well Tami &Riley came over and brought lunch for Amy. The 6 (yes, 6!) of them were able to hang out and watch the kids together. I took a few shots in between conference calls while they were playing in the living room. For those of you asking, Ireland is on the left and Riley in on the right.
Then somehow we managed to get everyone looking in the same direction at the same time (since Toby's eyes are closed I have to assume he was looking at the camera)!

Then yesterday afternoon was Toby's "fashion shoot." Our friend Erin Cady from Glenwood Springs was in town and she offered to come over and take pictures of Toby. Erin owns and operates her own studio in Glenwood called Art & Soul. She took a ton of amazing pictures and showed me a trick or three on how to use my new camera. We'll post links to her shots when she posts them but for now you'll have to do with a pic I took (while trying to stay out of her way).

I hope everyone is having a great weekend --

Ian

Dinner with Friends

Tuesday night newly engaged Kathy and Frank (aka. Frathy) brought a delicious Lasagna dinner over. Aunt Sas also came over to join in on the fun, food and for some quality Toby time! He's now three weeks old and weighs in at a big 8.6 lbs!! Sleeping still isn't his best attribute, we're lucky to get 3 hours in a row. So Ian and I are pretty much living in a perpetual zombie state, it's fun! Thanks to Nani who comes over almost daily while Ian's at work so that I can get in a much needed nap.Toby's step-sister, Addie, is hanging in there and fighting off the boredom by barking at the neighbors, kids out front, cars, squirrels, trees, birds, flying leaves, Ian, the postman, the FedEx guy, the UPS guy, etc etc etc. However, she has reached a nice state of idle curiosity in regards to Toby.

Disclaimer: I'd like to apologize to all my friends who I owe phone calls to. Thanks you notes are still to come as well. I know everyone says to, "nap when they nap" but he doesn't really nap during the day so neither do I!

LIttle Feet

So we have a few pics to post today, but I thought I'd first share of shot that we took on Thursday this week while celebrating Amy and Sarah's 31st birthday of me holding Toby's foot.

I've also really enjoyed photographing Elliott and Willa because they will sit still for me while I push the camera into their face! ;-)

We also got a nice shot of Nanni and Papa with the grandkids.

Some fun pics

So I was playing around today with the camera after feeding Toby and took a few shots that made me laugh. He'll definitely kill me when he gets older and sees some of these pics.






Although, I did try to make it up to him and took another shot while he was sleeping.






Anyway, today was his 2 week Dr appointment. Everything that is supposed to be healing is doing great. He now weighs in at a whopping 7lb 10oz! Apparently, the Dr expects newborns to get back to their original birth weight by their 2 week appointment but we have an over-achiever(!) He added another 6oz on top of his birth weight for good measure!

--Amy

First Week Home

So we've successfully completed our first week at home! Hoo-rah!

For those of you who want to "get to the good stuff" here are the pics from this week: http://picasaweb.google.com/ian.barnett/TKB1808

There was a lot going on this week. As I mentioned previously:

• My mom stayed with us Mon-Thur this week (and was a tremendous help)
  
• We had our first pediatrician appointment on Monday
• I went to the office on Wednesday for our annual kickoff/all hands meeting
• My brother Ned, his wife Stephanie and their son Jackson showed up on Friday and stayed with us until noon today.
• Gavin/Susan/Zoe and Todd/Natalie came over on Friday night with pizza and beer (mmm...beer).

Toby is doing what babies do. He sleeps and eats during the day and is either wide awake mostly sleeping at night. Although, when he does sleep, it's hard to wake him.

We also had a lot of fun with cousin Jackson this weekend. We gave him a bathtub toy that is a basketball set that can stick on the wall. Not only did Jackson like it but Addie liked it as well.



Anyway, I'll sign-off for today with two shots of myself with Toby and Ned with Jackson.





--Ian, Amy & Toby

Ooops

Hey all --

Sorry for the long delay in updating. Not sure where the time goes! We'll hopefully have a large update with pics later today.

--Ian

Living 3 hours at a time

So Amy and I were commenting today on how the 48hrs we've been home are now completely marked by 3 hour increments. Our friends all told us how challenging it is to feed and care for a newborn the first few weeks but until you actually experience it...well...forgetaboutit!

For example, on Sunday afternoon, while trying to put a shirt on Toby for the first time I got my butt handed to me by a 7lb alien. No joke. When he decides to go into his cannonball impersonation:

1. It's hard not to laugh, and
   
2. It's amazing how well the tactic works!

We're not sure why it works so well. I guess it must be because you do not know how much pressure to apply to get his little arms/legs to bend without hurting him.

Anyway, as I was saying, the past two days have been an adventure. On Sunday, we bundled up Toby in the hopes of bringing him home in his shiny new suit that GC gave him - but it didn't work out the way we thought it would. All I can think about is Maggie Simpson in her snowsuit.

After debating what we should do, we talk to our hospital room neighbor (who happened to be an EMT and child seat "checkout" certified as well as in a new baby class we took at the hospital in November), we managed to get Toby safely into the car and I drove home at 7mph.





Then, over the last two days, Amy and I managed to tag team Toby for his first sponge bath (which went OK for us but he wasn't too thrilled),
we slept for 3 1/2hrs last night and took him to his first pediatrician appointment. Last night, Grandma Claire (GC) and Nanni Joan were both over at our hosue last night for some grandson lovin' for a few hours as well.

All in all we've had a blast. We'll try to keep posting updates to the site but I'd be interested in knowing who is actually checking this out on a regular basis. So, if whether you're family or not, post a message and let us know!

--Ian

It's GHS!

It's Go Home Sunday! So, when I was consulting and traveling every week, I would fly out on Sunday night or Monday morning and then fly back on Thursday night. Each Thursday is know in the consulting world as "Go Home Thursday" when everyone would get to go home and see their family.

Well today is Go Home Sunday!


Well, it's a dreary, overcast day with snow showers this morning. If it was snowing harder or had any plans to accumulate, it might be prettier outside.




Ultimately, I think Toby has the right idea for today. Unfortunately, I think this is a temporary state brought on by hitting the buffet table hard this morning.

We've got a few more Dr visits this morning, lunch then we are headed home!

Toby checking in

Hey all -- I'm not sure what all the fuss is about but so far things are great! After a quick trip "towards the light" the trip was definitely worth the wait.

So far, it's all champagne and caviar! I'm carried everywhere I go and food is always delivered to me where ever I am every 2-4hrs. I made a few friends the other night while mom and dad were sleeping, chilling out with the nurses.

The only part that sucks is that I've been poked, prodded and primped since I was born. If it not one thing it's another.

My parents have been great so far but they tend to worry to much about me on occasion. They seem obsessed or something. Oh well. I took this snapshot the other day of them and thought I'd post it up on my blog.


--The Tob-ster

A good day

So today ended up being a pretty good day. After getting almost no sleep last night, handling a barrage of visits from nurses, Ob Dr, Pied's Dr, lactation specialists, NAP and a few more I've forgotten we managed to have exactly 1.5hrs to ourselves during the entire day today to hang out and catch our breath.

Amy, living on about 3hrs of sleep, has her "second wind" tonight and is truly a champ. I was somehow a bit luckier last night and managed 5-6hrs of broken sleep. Toby has mastered the art of sleeping through the day and awakening only for food.

We didn't take many pictures today due to the sheer volume of stuff we had going on. However, we did get one shot last night of Toby and Dad hanging out together.

Um...yeah.

That would be "A.M." not "P.M." as you would guess.

Ahhhh....nap time!

So today has been a good day for sleep! While Toby hasn't exactly been sleeping all day, when he does sleep, he sleeps WELL!

He's had a number of tests today that he wasn't exactly exited about (hearing, "heel prick" blood test, PT).

Anyway, here is the link to some pictures from today. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/ian.barnett/TKB1408

Playing "who do you look like?"

So, we received a really funny card from our friends last night. I think the card speaks for itself!

What a day

Well -- we survived our first full day as parents. We were lucky enough to wake up yesterday (ahem -- 5:30am) to a beautiful sunrise (see pic). I managed to snap a shot through our hospital window before the clouds completely covered up the blue sky.

This morning we were lucky enough to see a pair of bald eagles fly across this same meadow just about at eye level. Pretty impressive to be that close.

Toby is getting the hang of the whole concept of eating while pretty much mastering the phase II of the process.

We're pretty darn excited about parenting right now and can't wait to go home either tomorrow or Sunday.