Kieren Hits the Road

The other day Kieren told us he was already getting the itch to bust out of town and hit the road for a bit of traveling (he must take after his mom and dad). We thought it might be too much work to get him a passport this early in life, so instead, we headed over the Valley to visit some friends and relatives.

We hit the snowy road at 6AM for Salem after an early rise. I had a a meeting for a few hours so Juli and Kieren hung out in the local Safeway cafe and got to meet some locals. Around noon, we headed to Great Grandpa and Grandma Labhart's house in Keizer for lunch. I think they thoroughly enjoyed meeting their fifth great grandchild and we snapped a few photos to remember the occasion.

Our next stop was a visit to Beaverton, so Kieren could meet his Great Aunt Jan. It was a informal visit, since we were at the Columbia Sportswear Employee Store (Juli needed a a new coat). Auntie Jan carried Kieren around the store shedding a few tears of happiness while we shopped. We were also followed by a few store employees who wanted to pinch Kieren's enormous, but very cute cheeks. Thanks to Jan for escaping work for a bit to come hang with us, although I don't think it took too much convincing.

Our final stop was in NE Portland where we visited Juli's cousin, Annie and her husband, David. Kieren also wanted to meet one of his new best buddies, Aden, who is Annie and David's nine month old son. How cute is he? Kieren told Aden he would have to take a rain check on playing with the little ceramic wizard that Aden so loved, but he promised it wouldn't be long before they would be building forts and playing hide and seek.

We returned back to Bend around 10 PM, all a bit tired, but Kieren was a trooper. I think Juli only wishes she could sleep as well as Kieren in the car. We'll give Kieren a few more years before we throw a backpack on him for a more worldly adventure, but I do hear they have backpacks at REI for two year olds :-)

G&G Labhart Meet Baby Kieren

Grandpa and Grandma Labhart made their first visit over the hill last weekend to meet their new grandson. They arrived late in the evening and Kieren was already sleeping upstairs in his cradle. We all snuck into his room to take a peek for the first time. Needless to say, it was a special moment to watch my parents meet their new grandson for the very first time.

Their visit was low key and relaxing and although they didn't get to experience a diaper change they got lots of lovin' in.

Chunky Monkey

This is my new favorite term of endearment for Kieren. It joins the ranks of baby barracuda, fluff head, little man, peanut, sweat pea, squawk box... but Chunky Monkey seems to fit best these days. At his 2 week check up Kieren weighed in at 9 pounds, 5 ounces (2 pounds more than at birth) and 22 inches (2 inches longer than his initial measurement.) He's also managed to grow a legitimate double chin. We're so proud! So the "chunky" part we've been working on, but the "monkey" component he didn't have a fighting chance with us as parents. He has long arms & legs as well as fingers & toes. If you've seen Jeff or my toes you'll understand... sorry Kieren. :)

Out & About

Well, it's official. Kieren has a lot of his daddy in him.

Over the last week he's starting to be awake more and when he is, he wants to be on the move... none of this "sitting around" thing. I can't say that I didn't have fair warning. In utero he was the most active little being. The movement tracking that they have you do late in the pregnancy was a joke. He'd have his kicks, turns & punches met for the hour in sometimes less than a minute. Now that he's on the outside he's still getting his kicks & punches in but has broadened his favorite activities to include rides in the car, walks around the neighborhood (even if it IS to the doctor's office), dancing to "Say Hey" by Michael Franti (what can I say, the little man likes to groove), and on the occasion that I can get him to sit still while awake we bond over a good book or two.


The better I feel, the more we get out and about which Kieren loves and is great for my sanity, but more importantly it allows me to put Kieren in his white bear suit. :) I'm sure that at some point when he's grown I'll be forced to explain why I thought this was a good idea and convince him that it is not the root cause of any neurosis. I'll deal with that when it comes up. For now I'm going to use any excuse to put him in it because he's just so darn cute I can hardly stand it!

The First Two Weeks

Our first two weeks at home have been relatively good considering we are all new at this thing. Sure, we have both been pooped and peed on, our eardrums have nearly burst several times due to Velociraptor screams and at this point bath time is more like a scary movie than rub-a-tub-tub. But it's all been fun.

Juli doesn't plan to go back to work anytime soon and I am lucky enough to be home with both of them for the entire month of January. So far, it's been great being able to bond with my new little buddy and helping Juli out around the house. Gord & Marilyn, Juli's parents have been visiting since December 23rd, assisting where they can. Marilyn and I tagged teamed Kieren's first meconium diaper (for those of you that don't know what meconium is...it's a black, sticky, tar like substance that newborn babies expel in the first week). Trust me, you need all the help you can get. Gord seems to be Kieren's new best friend because every time he holds him we are all treated to a big ole' baby smile. All I can think of is that Gord must smell real good. :-)

My sister, Megan who lives in Florida was able to pay us a visit while she was here over the holidays. We were so thankful she was able to meet her new nephew, because she was scheduled to fly back on January 3rd and Kieren's due date wasn't actually until the 6th. We have also been visited by Juli's brothers, my Grandpa and Grandma Elder, and Juli's best friend Kendra from Brazil. We have also very much enjoyed the other friends and family that have been able to meet our little guy.

Unfortunately, my parents have not been able to meet their new grandson yet. Trust me, it's not because they haven't wanted to! The day they were to come over to Bend my father went into emergency appendectomy surgery. The good news is that everything went well and we are expecting them to pay a visit sometime next week.

Oh, did I mention that Kieren is the first grandchild on either side. Yeah, he will be spoiled!

The Best Christmas Present Ever

Juli began false labor on Monday, December 22nd with contractions ranging between 7 and 15 minutes apart. Little did we know it wouldn't be until four days later that baby Kieren would be born. Christmas dinner was an up and down affair for Juli, as she was getting more and more uncomfortable, but the contractions weren't really getting any closer.

On the 26th, myself, Juli's Dad, Gordon and her bother Jason all went up to Mt. Bachelor for some skiing. It was extremely windy and cold, so we decided to call it day at noon. Good thing we did, because by the time I had arrived home, Juli's contractions had begun to become more regular (five minutes apart) and she had been on the phone trying to call the doctor's office. However, being the day after Christmas the closed doctor's office had neglected to change their phones over to the answering service, so she was stuck in computer phone message land.

We decided to play it safe and drove to the hospital, bags packed. After we arrived they did a quick triage and told us that our baby would be delivered before midnight! We both broke into tears with the excitement that we would both be parents. At 10:43 baby Kieren was born.

Pregnancy

Juli was blessed with a relative good pregnancy, despite a bit of nausea in the beginning. We wanted to have a photo documentary of the whole pregnancy, so every four weeks or so we took a photo of her and the baby growing inside. It made for a nice photo sequence. However, in December the weather turned nasty and we were forced to move inside. We set up a basic photo studio in our freezing garage as the snowflakes floated outside. The lighting was less than desirable, so we pulled lamps from inside the house and even tried using white Christmas lights hung from the ceiling to add a bit more. Our tripod was our garbage can and Juli had major goosebumps in many of the photos, but in in the end we think they turned out pretty dang good for a whiskey tango photo shoot.