Meeting Uncle Eric...

Eric came up to visit this week as well. It's his reading break so he flew up Monday evening and is going home tonight. We've enjoyed visiting him and have driven in to see him a few times --- as who knows when he'll make his way back from Ontario again.
So here's Eric bonding with his newest nephew. He was quite taken by him, I think, as he kept saying how beautiful he was. Of course, he also kept calling Alex "Rascal" so I wonder what that means... I drove into town with both of the boys on Thursday and met Mom and Eric at Bubba Balloo's. I wanted to take Alex somewhere fun and give him some one-on-one attention, but I think he might have found Uncle Eric to be just a little bit more fun, and energetic than me. Regardless, Alex had a blast and is already asking me to take him back there again.And of course, what good is an Uncle if he doesn't come bearing gifts! :) This is the Christmas gift from Eric and Michael --- meant for Alex and Connor, but who are we kidding... Eric had just as much fun with it as Alex did, maybe more. It's called "Super Fort" and it's a box full of foam tubs, plastic clamps, and vinyl sheets to assemble forts with. Here's one of their creations... a treehouse! It also was a Fort and most recently is sitting in the living room as a castle or rocket ship, or something in between. Pretty cool, hey?

Cousins...

Connor is meeting Aunty Victoria for the first time. She hasn't been back to Prince George since right before New Year's... so Connor just missed meeting her on his birthday. She was up visiting this week with Brandon so we got together on Monday to do the introductions. I think he liked her... she was so cozy he fell asleep! :)
Here are the cousins... Alex is 2.5 years old, Brandon is 6 months old, and Connor is 7 weeks old. What a handsome group of boys, hey?

Ten tiny fingers, ten tiny toes...

Just for comparison sake, I wanted some pictures of Cory's hands next to Connor's. Right now he has the tiniest little fingers and toes. Even in comparison to Alex, Connor is so petite. It's hard to remember Alex being so tiny... and yet I know he was because I have the photos to prove it.

First Smiles...

First smiles are always so sweet! We've seen a few from Connor now, but they're hard to catch on film. Here are a few we've managed to save. More smiles will follow over the months and years, but the toothless ones are priceless as they are so fleeting, aren't they?


I took this one. It's a little dark. I'm still learning how to use this camera. You get the gist of it though.
This one he has a little help smiling. I'm trying to tickle his chin to get him to smile for the camera.
Totally unprompted... I got these ones for free!!! :)

BABY PICTURES...

We did Alex's first portraits when he was one month old, so it seems only fitting to have Connor's first portraits at the same age. I'm looking forward to having both my boys staring down at us from our wall... I remember all of our baby pictures in the living room wall at Mom's house. She took them down a couple of years ago and it still seems weird to look at the wall and not see them there. These are the proofs that I scanned. Probably illegal, but who's going to know! :) Plus, the quality is too poor to try to develop them, so I don't think there is any copyright infringement going on.

I've done Alex's portraits frequently... 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 18 months and 24 months... so we figured 2.5 years was a good time to get another one. Alex really enjoyed the rocking horse and the cowboy hat at the studio... so here's my little cowboy!!!
And... then of course I needed photos of both of them together. These were the hardest to take, Alex was quite eager but had a hard time sitting still... Connor of course, just can't sit! I think they turned out pretty well. I was very happy with how the photo session went. I told Cory "There were no tears!!! Not even by you!" as he tends to find the sessions a big chore. Like he says... the photos are my thing, not his. I tell him that when we're old and on our own again, he'll appreciate them!

One month old today!

I can't believe how fast the time goes. My baby is one month old and my other baby is 2.5 years old!!! So, just a few more baby photos before I leave January completely behind. I'm bravely posting my last belly photo. It was taken on New Year's Eve, about 12 hours before Connor was born. At the time I didn't intend for this to be my 40 week photo (it's actually 39 weeks, 7 days) but since we forgot to take our cameras to the hospital, it'll have to do. (Yes, believe it or not I forgot my camera, so the first two hours of Connor's life are captured on 6 polaroids that the nurse nicely took for us!)

And now, for your entertainment... here are the polaroids. I hope Connor forgives me for the lousy photos.... and the fact that I forgot our video camera too --- but since we didn't have it when Alex was born, I guess it's fair that we didn't have it with us for his birth either.

So, here's Connor's first photo immediately after he was born at 6:20am. I swear, I was smiling in the photo... not sure why I look like that. Oh yeah... now I remember, because I'd just given birth to my linebacker! :)Here he is cleaned up a little bit, just before getting weighed and checked out. Isn't he a cutie?Looking a little bit more human here... I think this was about 15 minutes old.Wow, does Cory look like he was up all night to you too??? That's some 5 o'clock shadow, huh?

Finally, we've both had some sleep and are feeling a little more normal.... and I have my cameras again! Yay!

And one last photo of brotherly love. Connor is wearing the outfit that Alex wore in his one-month professional portrait. I'm not going to put Connor in it for his portraits this weekend --- I bought him an outfit of his own --- but I thought I'd get a photo of him in it for comparison sake. Alex, however, had other plans and wouldn't stay out of the photo so my photo shoot turned into another brother session. Here they are looking very intently at our ceiling!On a completely different topic, this has been the view from my kitchen every night this week.

Happy groundhog day... let's hope he sees his shadow... or doesn't see it, which is better? I can never remember!