Passy Update

4.5 nights later, things are getting rough. Jackson apparently feels very insecure in his crib now without the apparatus, but does not ask for it. Wed night he really kind of freaked, looked like he'd seen a ghost, and didn't sleep until midnight, after we'd read his entire library of books through twice.

It all feels like some sort of unethical 1960s psychology expirament, but we're at the point where we'd cave if ever asks for it by name.

I need to find out if I ever took one. Was horrified a few years ago to find out that I wasn't breast fed..

Addicted Babies

We are on 2.5 nights of passy-free sleep for Jackson. You want your kid to have that addictive personality? Just give 'em one of these the day they are born.

We are also now in the process of disarming other no-no's we've created such as ice cream, the Teletubbies website, and letting him watch me play counterstrike. I thought he wasn't paying attention, but when he started pulling me toward the computer saying, "cownerstike Daddy, cownerstike!" I realized we had a problem.

Our method on removing these bad habits: just act like they no longer exist. "Passy? I don't know that word, what's a 'passy?' Here, let's read a book.."

Photo Montage

You know those photo montage posters where you see Jesus or whoever and you look close and its a bunch of little pictures put together?

Well check this out:

Made this with AndreaMosaic which can be downloaded from http://www.andreaplanet.com/andreamosaic/ and help can be found here: http://www.engadget.com/entry/3868866008819632/

It also makes a really nifty webpage where you can click on the tiny pictures and it pull up the big version of that image. I'm resizing all of the images now with a photoshop batch, so check back soon.

Started all this as a test for a work projects where we were going to use the effect in a video, but have since scrapped the idea--and it looks so good!

OK, you click here now to see the closeup pics. No, they are not all Jackson.. but most are. Are YOU in there?

Pics online

Finally got those images working. Sorry for the delay..

Florida Pics

Here are some pics from our recent Florida trip:

Photo teaser

Just in case you check here oftern, don't give up, new photos of Jackson are on the way soon. Picture this, a very distinguished-looking toddler on the beach in his tuxedo addressing the ocean as though it were an orchestra. Hard to imagine? Stay tuned..

Don't have Photoshop to resize the images on this PC yet.

Still Thankful..

Well, turns out the fever was pretty serious. His fevers usually go up at night and on Turkey-Day night it went up to 105.4. While leaving for the hospital Jackson began to have a febrile seizure, from his temperature rising so rapidly. He stopped breathing for a minute and turned a horrible blue. We took him back in and called the ambulance. I pried his mouth open and he quickly began breathing again through his nose. His color slowly started coming back but he was lethargic and his skin still blazing hot. The ambulance came and took him to the ER.

They ran blood, urine, nasal swab for flu, and chest X-rays and found nothing. His throat was very sore. He had a flu shot on Tuesday and a lower fever Wednesday night, so our guess is a negative reaction to the flu shot. Last night his temp went up to 104 but we got it down by putting him in a lukewarm tub of water and kept alternating Motrin and Tylenol all day.

Tonight, THANK GOD!!, he seems OK, no fever whatsoever. He is currently throwing pizza on the floor and all seems well. THis was the scariest night/moment of our lives and all I can think is to try to help some others if this ever happens to your child. So here are some notes for new parents:

1. Stay calm. At least 1 of the parents needs to stay cool and methodical while the other freaks out.

2. Review CPR for infants. Luckily we only got to the clear the airways part of this, but I feel confident I could have taken the next step if needed--thanks to classes I took almost 20 years ago!

3. Febrile seizures are common in toddlers, especially boys. They usually have no residual effects.

4. Keep all your phone numbers handy. Doctor, Poison Control, neighbors with medical training, etc.

5. Flu shots??? Never again for our son unless he starts getting the flu every year.

6. Ear thermometers are crap. Even when you get a consistent reading, Jackson's was always higher rectally. Even as we left the hospital they said he was fine at 98.9 in the ear. After Kerry told them to do it the other way the found it was still 102.3.

Finally remember that every moment with those you love is a gift. I never prayed so much on Thanksgving and I guess we will probably have a lot more to pray about every year from now on.

PS - I'm not completely unsure that Kerry's side of the family may have Lycan (werewolf) blood. Every time he got the fever was at night during a full moon.

Being Thankful..

Being thankful is very important. We don't consider what we have because we are usually so focused on what we don't. Here are some things I am thankful for.

I'm thankful my son is relatively healthy--he has a fever today.. :(

I'm glad my wife and I love each other so much, despite our many apparent flaws.

I'm thankful I have friends of many different ages, races, beliefs, religions, and some who live all over the world.

I'm glad my son lives in this country, where its unlikely (though not impossible) that he will suffer like so many other children around the world suffer from hunger and abuse.

I'm thankful my God will make all things right and has a plan to save all mankind through His amazing love and Jesus' once-and-for-all sacrifice.

Jackson Loves Apples!

My son Jackson loves to eat apples...

Halloween Pics

On Saturday we went to Fall Creek Falls for Jackson's first time up there. Met up with Grams and Gran and had a big picnic.

Then Jackson had a big time playing in the leaves.

Granpa was pack-mule for a while but if made him really tired.

Last night we had Trunk-or-Treat at church. Jackson was a low-budget vampire.

His favorite trunk was Wanda's, since they had a crazy/scary face that he liked. Kind of like those talking Billy Bass fish.

Jackson is officially a toddler

That's right, no more crying like a baby. My kid cries like a toddler. But not all that often.

Here we are at a favorite spot, the elementary school. Jackson decided to walk the dog.

This is the playground there.

Another playground we like is over by the river.

Yesterday we looked at some pumpkins.

"I'll take this one."

At home we tried on one of the trial Halloween costumes, but decided to return for something more scary. This is "Lil' Stinker."

"One more thing!"

"I'm a happy kid!"

Jackson pics

"Drum roll please!"

Special thanks to Chuck Cantrell--or more specifically Kyle Cantrell for taking up guitar, for the new drum set. Basically, when Jackson was born or before, I told Kerry we would be getting a drum set, and the fact that its free is all the sweeter.

And with the new Ringo haircut, I think we're well on our way to a rock band.

forgotten foto

Here is one I almost deleted, then decided was worth keeping. What was I thinking?..
It is a little blurry..
Click for a closer look.

Vacation

Here are some pictures from our trip to Memphis and Dyersburg--the weekend we should have been in Florida basking in the sun, but hurricane Francis was pounding the coast.

This was actually Lake Winnie, the weekend before our trip.

Here is Jackson taking in some hay. HHHHEEEYYYY!!!!!

That hay was for the horses..

This is Jackson hanging out with his greatgrandmother, who is, well, pretty great!

After Dyersburg we went to Memphis and visited the zoo and Beale Street:

We had a nice room at Comfort Suites but Jackson had to do some work on the microwave:

We then visited our friends in Oxford, Mississippi, and visited the former home of William Faulkner.

This is Jackson happy as a clam, even though we came home two days early, didn't get to swim or see the ocean, and weren't even sunburned.

Cute?

Cute? Try cleaning this stuff off your floor and walls. Not too mention all the baby crevices.

Grandbabies

I used to think parents asking their married children when they were going to have children was selfish. Now I think about my son and how happy he makes me, and that's what I want for him later--to be happy.

Happy Birthday Jackson!!!

And now, as promised, the pictures you've long been waiting for: Jackson's 1st birthday party.. YAY!!!!!

First Jackson's grandpa was hogging the balloons:

Then Jackson set a good example by sharing his book with his friend Hayden. They're big buds.

Here's Jackson reluctantly pulling out his English/Spanish Elmo:

He also got some tools:

And a little teapot.

Then finally it was time for cake, after a year of waiting.

"Can I really eat it?"

"OK then, let's go!"

He kept eating and eating...

"Whoah, that's too much!"

Finally he was done:

And so was the day. It was an awesome weekend. I can't believe he's a year old. I think he knows it too, he has a certain year-old swagger in his walk now. It's gone by awful fast, and I hear it only goes faster from here. But every second with him is awesome, and I want to enjoy it while it lasts.

Here is a picture of the dog feeling totally neglected:

Lost photos

Here are some pics that haven't been posted due to my blogging hiatus:

Here is a shot of Jackson enjoying our new laundry sorter.

Jackson likes playing with pots and pans, boxes, plasticware, basically everything but his toys.

We went to the Creative Discovery Museum on July 5th. Here is Jackson enjoying the waterworks.

Here is the Lowe's Little Yellow House workshop.

Driving a car..

Digging up dino bones..

Then we went back to the water.

At home we played with the red wagon.

We went to Gainesboro and Jackson hung out with Kendall Washburn, his second cousin who ADORES him.

Kendall blew some bubbles for Jack and he liked it.

The next week we had VBS at church and Jackson helped lead singing.

They had a sad little petting zoo outside in the parking lot and Jackson rode a shetland pony and touched a llama.

After all that Jackson was pretty tuckered out and fell asleep on the way home.

Red Bank pool

Here is a look back at last Saturday's trip to the Red Bank pool.

I call this one, "Getting Ready."

These are two extremely white guys that no one else wants to swim around.

But we had a great time. What does tomorrow hold?

Jackson pics

This big smile came after several minutes of looking at his own pictures.
Having a baby isn't so bad...

Ours actually cleans up around the house some. As if swiffering the floor wasn't great enough, Jackson now shows a keen interest in the cleanliness of our toilets. Actually he is amazed at the whole plumbing operation, which can be pretty inconvenient when you are home alone with him and need to go.

Here are some pictures of a family art project gone horribly wrong:

Oh well, maybe next time.

I wish I had some pictures of Jackson at Riverbend last night, or of this morning's steps he took between me and mommy. I wouldn't say he was walking yet, but that was enough steps to be travelling in basketball.

A parent's skewed perception

I think it is very interesting how my wife and I, not being baby-people or people who have a natural affinity towards kids, give a pretty honest evaluation of other's people's babies when we see them. Privately and to ourselves of course, but sometimes it's like, that sure was some ugly baby, I mean, ughh!

But then with our own son, who we realize we are crazy about and completely biased toward--well, he's the cutest baby in the world! Not that there aren't other cute babies, there are, but I'm sure every parent thinks their baby is cute. Even the parent's of particularly ugly babies.

So how do we know? Is our baby cute or are we just crazy like everyone else who has kids? I feel like we are still somewhat objective because looking back at Jackson's old pictures, some of the ones we thought were cute now seem ugly, especially compared to the latest cute pics. Or maybe that's where we've lost it, our parent's perception is so totally out of control that we will never be able to understand when his principal calls and says, We had a problem at school today. Not my baby..

How is this going to affect him? How do we keep from being the nut-job parents you see on talk shows?

Somebody stop me!

This crazy ride just won't stop. Tonight Jackson just said "ma-ma" very distinctly as one word. He has been saying forms of mama and dada for a few weeks, but dada still sounds more like a string of unintelligible consonants, as in da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

Pics

Here are a few pics demonstrating Jackson's latest standing and walking abilities:


Here are a couple extra just for kicks.

I'm just sayin' that's all..

Yeah, we think Jackson looks a lot like Patton Oswalt, or Spence from TV's The King of Queens. This picture may not be the best example, but I think its the lack of a neck, the hair, and the child-like grin.

up too fast

Jackson has accomplished so much in the last few days. In two weeks he's gone from being a pretty stationary object on a blanket on the floor, to being a fairly swift creature who can pull up on and cruise around furniture, and also crawls at a fairly steady clip. In no time he'll be walking around bipedal, totally unassisted.

It's exactly like everyone told us, once they're off, you'll never know a moment's peace again. I hope he'll chill out some, I just want to lie around and be silly. Now he's just incredibly curious about everything, he can't stop until he sees whats around every corner.

Swingset: Courtesy Lowe's

Thanks to Lowe's and some leftover lumber from my parent's rental house, Jackson has a new playset. The seat Kerry is sitting in is only rated to 100 lbs. It may be a bit rigged, but I think I've successfully beaten the system again and kept from paying hundreds of $$ for a fancy, name-brand playset.





Kerry's Dad is going to love this pic. Notice the lack of shirt under the overalls. This was the day he made a big mess in our back seat..

Jackson's girlfriend

This is potentially Jackson's first girlfriend. He's always been the ladies man, but now I think he's found someone closer to his own age, and size.. She's actually a little older, but thats OK. They look strangely awkward, kind of like my first date in the seventh grade. I'm sure this will be the beginning of a healthy dating spree that will last about 23 years.

Coral Reef pic

Coral Reef Pic. I erased the original entry here. Something about lots of work and money for this image while the others were all crappy.

Bahamas pics

First off, there are three things I hate about the Bahamas: A. It's basically just like Florida with better water. 2. I had to work 3 of the 5 days, and even though it was just for a couple hours, it was enough to keep the pressure on. III. Spring breakers. With that said, here are the awesome family photos from the awesome part of our trip which was just being together as a family.

Kerry Pics

Looking at this blog you'd think Kerry never holds Jackson, when in fact she does most of the cuddling and Jack and I are more into rough-housing. I'll try to select some pictures that convey the truth..

Forgotten fotos

Here are some pictures of Jackson that for whatever reason I haven't shared yet.

Jackson is a big help with household chores, like doing the laundry.

Little preacher-man!

"I think I found Nemo.."

Look out Billy Idol!

I really could think of no modern day equivalent, so Billy Idol it is. Granny Willis achieved this saavy-chic look with only water. Go figure!

New baby pics

Here are some new images of Jackson. Kerry's idea to shoot the wagon, since his outfit says Radio Flyer. It's an American icon.

Congrats to Jeff and Bridget on the birth of Hayden Michael this morning!!!

Reflections

We've been reflecting today on how much has happened to us in the last 6 months, even though Jackson's 6 month half-birthday was 2 weeks ago. It's been an incredible ride, and it really seems like things are just starting to happen, at least from a Dad's perspective. In the last month Jackson has begun consistently sitting up, has proven roll-over capabilities, and has starting grabbing things to put into his mouth. He really seems like a human now..

Since neither of us were the typical, "We're definitely gonna have kids," types, it's hard sometimes to realize that just a year and a half ago we made the decision to start trying to have a baby. Now here we are, and when Jackson has gone to bed and we look at the toys on the floor, the baby food smeared all over his high chair tray, and the stinky clothes in the wash room, it the most fulfilling, happy, wonderful feeling we've ever had. I tell ya, all those obnoxious parents were exactly right, and I guess now I'm one of them. You just don't know what its like until you have one.

Baby outfits

Why are things in miniature just so cute?

We've been capturing his outfits every morning for a while. What are we going to do with all these clothes?

He's real smiley in the mornings..

A Woman's Place

I've been wanting to hear some young people's opinions about whether or not a woman should as a rule stay at home to raise a new baby, a viewpoint I consider to be a little old-fashioned, but not without obvious merits; vs. the more modern approach of two working parents and a daycare where you feel confident your child won't be molested.

Why do a lot of people think a woman's place is in the home? What does the Bible say about this? What if Daddy stayed home, is that wrong? Where do people get off expecting everyone to do things, particularly child-raising things, the way they did it?

Jackson Video

Here is a quick video of Jackson I threw together to demonstrate the capabilities of Final Cut Express to my class.

Baby Update

So it came to my attention today that I haven't blogged in a while (thanks Maryjane), so here's an update on Baby Jackson.

Jackson first started eating cereal in his bottle around the new year.
Around Martin Luther King day, he took the cereal from a spoon the first time.

That was pretty fun. It takes FOREVER, and I'm pretty sure he only swallowed about an eighth of what was poked into his mouth. But its great fun trying to get it in there, without letting him grab the spoon and poke himself in the eye or something.

Tonight he ate carrots for the first time. Mommy was so excited. Jackson was too. You could tell he was excited at having his first new flavor, since even the cereal was basically just milk-flavored. I can't wait to watch his face as we try all the other flavors.








In other baby news, we still love UTC Children's Center (he's in blue on the mattress by the mirror), Jackson rolled over about 2 months ago and hasn't since, and he enjoys sqealing now (not like Ned Beatty.) Things honestly could not be better, and even though Kerry and I are hating work and would rather be home with Jack more, everything is working out pretty well. We're a very happy family!!

Parental Compromises

One of the toughest parts of being new parents is knowing when to say when. I am pretty laid back about the baby. I pretty much assume he'll get sick, he'll eat gross things, he'll cause problems and one day wreck my car. Kerry on the other hand is more uptight, wanting to protect him from everything. I'm thinking now about where do we draw the line between letting Jackson run amock in filth and keeping him in a plastic bubble.

Here are some things you can't do as a parent:

Take a sick baby to the doctor. There are sick people there. Particularly nasting kids who don't cover their mouths when they cough.

Go anywhere without the baby. I mean anywhere. I had to carry the lil' dude into the post office the other day to buy stamps and I was scared to death I would ship him firstclass to China.

Enjoy Television. No more movies or adult-oriented cartoons. I actually caught myself covering his eyes during a violent scene in a movie the other day. No more movies that aren't rated G.

Dressing the baby to match your own outfit. He'll just spit up all over it, so unless your wearing something oatmeal-ly don't even worry about it.

I guess I'm coming around. I realize now that kids are walking germ-magnets that bring infection into the home. No more walking him in the cold air without being completely covered up by a blanket. No more letting just anybody say Hello to Jack without smacking their dirty hands away from his. No more letting the house get dirty and dusty, or letting Jackson do the Swiffer Baby thing on the hardwood.

I love being a Daddy to my son. Daddy Day Care this week has been awesome and I couldn't ask for a more wonderful kid. I can imagine being a househusband, Mr. Mom, staying home with the kid(s), it would be awesome. It's hard not knowing exactly what to do, never feeling like you've done enough, or can get everything done you need to, but it's an enjoyable stress with big ol' smiles as a payment for every attention paid to the boy.

My name is Jackson Willis and I'm a Footballaholic

Sadly we don't watch the foozeball in our family, but we do a lot of channel-surfing.

Big Smile!

After several attempts to capture Jackson's smile and ending up with that frog from WB, Kerry caught these pics today of the big cheez.

I'm supposed to be the creative photo/video guy..

Are Rainbows Gay?

We are trying to unify the theme in Jackson's room and one idea Kerry and I like is to run with the kites and paint some clouds on the wall with rainbows. But then there's the obvious question, Could it somehow turn him gay? Of course I don't believe this, but somewhere deep in the back of my open-mind is the homophobic vision of a long talk when he's 18 that ends with me saying to Kerry, You had to have the rainbows.. Why didn't you just keep him in a dress and buy him Barbies?

But, it is God's sign to Noah right? We don't want the Noah's Ark theme, but is it possible that rainbows aren't completely gay? And even if so, can't we (heteros) claim it back?

Please tell me your honest opinion, Is God's sign to Noah that He'll never again destroy us by water totally in the hands and on the bumpers of the Queer Eye guys, or can we heterosexuals still claim it?

Is this nerdy?

OK, I know it is. But in so many ways this is a long-term dream realized. What better father/son time than fraggin' away on SOF2 or Counterstrike?

The best things about being a parent..

I think the best thing about being a parent is being amazed at your own capacity for love. I had been worried about how I would be, how I would react to this new person. I heard people say, You'll never know how amazing it is til you have one of your own. I believed them, I knew they were right, I didn't know how much I would love this boy. I love Jackson so much, way more than my dog, whom I love immensely. I think it has to do with knowing that he will some day look something like me, he will run up and grab my neck hugging me, he will eventually think I'm a dork and be embarrassed of me, then hopefully after High School he'll come back around and we'll have an incredible relationship where we talk about great things and share whatever he wants to share of his life.

I also have to mention how incredibly in love with my wife I am now. I never stopped loving her, but seeing her with this kid has rekindled my affection for her in a way that I never suspected. She is incredible with him, she has taken on the challenge of Mommying so well, and I'm so incredibly proud of her and in love with her right now.

Finally, I am pleased with how close I have felt to God since Jackson has arrived. I don't ever want to forget in all the business of that morning, when we didn't know if she was in labor or not, grabbing everything we needed to go to the hospital, and stopping to pray before we left. Then that night as the three of us laid there on the hospital bed, praying together for the first time. It's a perfect time to rekindle our prayer life, and I certainly want to follow my parents example with raising me with nightly prayers and bible reading. It's so easy to take all this for granted, to say how lucky we are that delivery was relatively easy and our boy is healthy, but I give all praise, honor, and glory to God, and I hope we will all grow closer to Him as a family.

Life is over..

I've been thinking about life's accomplishments, how you graduate High Schoole, go to/graduate from college, get married, then have possibly have kids. Not everyone enjoys all these, but they are the average American things to do. Then for us parents, life is pretty much over, at least in terms of our accomplishing anything. We now just get to enjoy and live vicariously through our children's accomplishments, overemphasizing what they have done--turned over, said Dada, or taken first steps. It's all about them at this point, anything else you go on to do as a person, get a Ph. D. or write a novel, is just gravy but certainly not necessary.

I find it all very relaxing. No more pressure. Just keep the kid in school and off drugs and in about 30 years he should be coming to the same realization that I am that life's major accomplishments are over, at least in the personal success sense.

I feel bad about that last post.

Proverbs 12:15 - "The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice. "

Typical Reactions..

Here are some typical reactions to just about anything positive we say to people about our baby. For instance, we say, He sleeps most of the time, he's been great about that so far. They say, Oh, just wait 'til (teething, potty training, teenage years), he'll do (some horrible thing). If we say something negative about the kid, like, He kept us up all night last night, they say, Oh just wait, my kid projectile pooped, vomited, and passed gas, his head spun around and spit pea soup, or he ran away became a carney.

Why the one-upmanship about how terrible your kids is? I'm thinking, exactly, why my kid is better than yours. I mean, no offense, but you just said what stupid or annoying thing yours did. Why argue?

That's a pretty annoying thing that I hope to avoid in the coming years--the urge to share my wealth of knowledge. No offense to anyone whose given us advice, but when it comes down to it, we'll wreck this kid's life our own way.

Baby Inventions

Wouldn't baby monitors be more effective if they provided two-way communication? So I could be sleeping, working, or just being in another room and hear the baby crying, cut in and say, Hey boy, cut that out. Why should I get up and go in there?

J/k. I do believe in getting a lot of face-time with the baby. However, there are a few inventions I'd like to see to make life easier. The first would be a automatic diaper-changing machine. If Eli Whitney could invent a cotton gin in 1792, I'm pretty sure 211 years later we should be able to do something here. Also, how bout a baby washer styled after those nifty golf ball washers. Swish, swish, swish, and he's fresh as a daisy.

Any suggestions for useful baby inventions? I say useful, because here's a list of useless ones available at Target or Walmart:
Wipe warmers - takes all the fun out of slapping a cold wet rag on his butt
Electric or Microwave bottle sterilizers - guess what, you can do the same thing with a cooking pot
Boppy - some people love em, Kerry just sits on it
One-way baby monitors

Here are some products that I really like:
Diaper Champ - keeps poopy smell isolated and uses kitchen-sized garbage bags. I just want to see an X-Large version for families with octuplets.
Snugli - the only way a father can lay around and do whatever he wants while claiming to be watching the baby

Oh yeah, I want to invent Mom a way to drink while nursing without dribbling all over. I guess she could just use a beer hat or a Platypus backpack.

Screaming baby..?

OK, so, last night it started. Wouldn't go to sleep, woke up after 30 minutes screaming, then screamed for 3 hours. Dan Lyons was right, my lungs ARE tired. J/K, the baby was screaming. Was fed, changed, burped, but just kept on.
Any advice?

Sleepy Baby

Our baby is the sleepiest baby in the world! Hopefully he's not sick or anything, which the doctor should have told us, but he is great. Right now hes sleeping on my chest in his Snugli. If our digital camera were here I'd post that, but its off to Toshiba for replacement. I'll just post this videoclip instead.

You'll need Window Media Player.

Jaundice goes Bye, Bye. Light therapy successful!

Bilirubin level dropped from 16 to 12 since yesterday, so no more therapy or trips to the hospital for Jackson. Big relief, but I'm gonna miss that space-pod aura around the bassinet at night.

Globaby!

So we're having some drama now. Today we went to the Children's Hospital to check Jackson's Biliruben(?) level, to see if he has jaundice. Turns out he does the minimum level that requires treatment. Its apparently pretty common, with lots of babies having it recently.

Anyway, when I got home from work I found my boy hooked up to a pretty cool fiber optic machine called the Wallaby. It emits a cool blue light into a blanket that treats the condition. I was all excited but it has Kerry pretty freaked out. I call it his space suit.

So, now we go everyday to the hospital to get his levels checked and he wears the space suit until it goes down. I keep praying thanks for all this incredible technology.

Sleep?

So, I actually should be dead-tired right now, which I am, but asleep. I've had no caffeine in days and only slept in 2 hour intervals between feedings and diapers and I still can't sleep right now. I probably could have dropped off but Jack had some hiccups from space (like ALF).

Threw his feet up on the background image of this page and tried to manipulate Josiah's css a little bit. I really hate CSS.. Should take a class on it.

Will post some more pics soon.

This is easy!

Well, I had no idea, but this is pretty easy! Eat, poop, change, sleep. Mostly sleep though. What a great baby. I know I've always said babies are basically all the same, smelly and ugly, but I honestly have to say, ours is different. He's awesome. So far there's no unnecessary crying, he sleeps a ton, his poop doesn't stink, and he's so adorable. And on top of that, I feel completely confident as a parent. Where is all of this coming from? God-given paternal instinct? Well, Grandma's a big help too.

Pics

Here are some images:

Too tired to blog any more..

3... It's the magic number

Well, so much for September! Here's what's happened..

8-14-03

So it's 6:00am and Kerry woke me up saying "something" was happening. Apparently her water broke. I wanted to post to my blog before we left but its down, so I'll paste this later. Need to grab stuff and go to the hospital soon. Keep stopping to pray every couple minutes, like vain repetition will help. Helps me anyway.

8-15-03

Long night. Here's a rundown of basically what happened:
5:30 - Water broke. Just a trickle. Kerry was uncertain about labor.
9:30 - Arrival at Women's East. Minor contractions on way to hospital. Nurse checked fluid and confirmed baby. 2.5cm dilated.
1:30 - Contractions much stronger. Still stuck in exam room.
3:30 - Finally get into nice room. Last contractions before epidural were "rough."
3:45 - Epidural. 6cm.
3:46 - Relief.
4:00 - Dr. Brody arrived. 9cm. Almost time to push.
5:00 - Setup room. Start pushing.
6:00 - Jackson is crooked, needs to line up correctly, head is stuck above the pubic bone.
7:00 - Head is crowning, he's close!
7:15 - A few big pushes and Jackson Christopher comes bursting forth! Daddy cuts the cord, Moms gets a couple stitches (he had a big head) and the boy weighs in at 8lbs 1oz, measures 20in. long.
7:25 - Grandparents rush in, lots of pictures.

Lots of stuff we could include but that will do for now. Here's a few of the funnier details.

After pushing with the nurse and doc in the room, when it was delivery time about 5 more nurses caming tumbling in like clowns from a tiny car. Who were all these people?

Kerry can be quoted as saying, "He needs to come out!" "Get him out of me!" and "Oooh, Ooooh!"

Our main nurse for the day had to have been this lady from Strangers with Candy and somehow I think our doctor turned into Dr. Zoidberg.

After nursing him they wisked him away to the nursery and we could a few minutes sleep, then a couple hours in between feedings.

Pretty tired this morning but awake now.

Wish the hospital had Wi-Fi, or at least a network jack, but only dialup is available.

Oh yeah, out of three digital cameras, 1 malfunctioned, 1 batt died, and the other was a lifesaver. Now neither of the working models want to connect to my laptop.

So, you heard it here first. Tons pf pics (served off my UTC account) coming soon!

Baby Blog

So my primary purpose in creating this blog was the baby. Jackson Christopher Willis is due September 1st (Labor Day) and we are anxiously awaiting his joining us. We actually have some stuff now and are starting to feel somewhat ready. I am very, very sick of people telling us, Your life will never be the same, You don't know what you're in for, or You've never known how much you could love someone until you have kids.

First of all, I'm sure these are all true--they're just so obvious, like telling my wife how huge she is right now. We can usually just say, Yeah, well she's pregnant, what's your excuse?

So I have vowed not to be the kind of parent that goes on and on about their kid, who tells childless friends how meaningless their lives are, or who goes nuts about parenting books with timeout techniques and mumbo-jumbo. The way I see it, we're not on Springer, we are fairly intelligent and even-keeled, so we should be way ahead of the game from what I can tell.

Of course I'm setting myself up to eat humble pie later, when I renig on most of this, but thats sort of the point. I don't want to forget the way I feel about all this now in case I forget in the drudgery and joy of parenting.