Happy Easter

Since the town's Easter Egg Hunt was rained out on Saturday, after church on Sunday we decided to stage our own at the house. It didn't take Jocelyn long to figure out the object of the game - as soon as she saw a few pieces of candy lying around near the corners of furniture she figured there might be more for her to find.

Showing off one of her prizes to Momma (and for the camera - she's such a ham).

Scouring every nook and cranny...for someone who had just gotten their first taste of Easter candy earlier that morning she was on a mission!

We had an Easter basket for her to gather her "eggs"...

...which she later proudly paraded around the living room (see ham reference above.)

The little man decided to sit this one out...

...for him, the Easter Egg Hunt was a spectator sport. Maybe that will change next year!

Jocelyn Getting Speedy

Here is a video of Jocelyn and her latest attempts at walking. She has been cruising since Christmas and has just really started becoming more daring over the past couple of weeks...She seems to be taking more attempts at walking since Ian has arrived, which is her way to get the attention she needs. She is obviously having a blast getting the encouragement:)

Poppa Created a Noggin Monster:)

Ian hanging out with Momma.

And Grammy, who is finally getting some time with the Little Man.
Ian modeling his new hand-knit cap from Aunty Jenn ~ Thank-you!!
You may be wondering where Jocelyn was during our mini-photo shoot with Ian...

Watching Noggin on Poppa's computer...

And loving it!

Ian's First Week at Home

Coming home from MGH...

Grammy and Jocelyn's treat for us when we arrived home...

Modeling his new outfit from Aunty Cathy, Caitlin and Mike...and loving it:)

Snoozing in his crib while Grammy and big sister are at reading hour...

Ian's arrival!

Ian James Gesner was born at 9:15 am on Tuesday, March 24, 2009. He weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and was 20 inches long. He was delivered via C-section. After the procedure, the doctors said it was very straightforward with no complications whatsoever, and neither he nor Julie show any ill effects. He is eating up a storm, and Julie is already up and about taking him for strolls around the nursery floor of the hospital.

Here are some shots from the first couple of days:

Here he is having a nap after filling his belly. You can't see it here because of the cap, but he has dark hair, and we think dark eyes like Julie (he hasn't opened them very many times yet). The shape of his facial features remind me a lot of Jocelyn, but Julie and her Mom both think he and Jocelyn look very different.

Here's a shot the anesthesiologist took in the OR after Ian was born but before they had finished stitching Julie back up. I was there during the entire procedure, but they wouldn't let me actually watch too much of what was going on behind the sheet. The nurse told us they had an incident where a husband passed out and took out one of the doctors when he fell. Pretty funny.

Ian seems to be much more aware of what is going on with his hands than Jocelyn was at this stage. He sometimes uses them to hold the bink in place, as shown here, and today when he took a nap he had them folded over his belly, fingers interleaved. Pretty graceful pose for a little guy, which I guess you would expect given that Tuesday's child is supposed to be full of grace. (Jocelyn was born on a Monday, and is definitely fair of face, in my humble opinion :).

Here is a shot of Ian's dark hair. Looks like he was telling us he was hungry when this was taken - when that happens, he opens his mouth and lets out this high-pitched cry. Sounds like a little baby pterodactyl. It's pretty funny.

Here he is with most of his harem. As you can see, Julie looks great for just having had major abdominal surgery, and Grammy is very proud. As for Jocelyn...

...she didn't take too kindly to Ian on her first visit the day he was born. When she came in the first thing she saw was Julie holding him, and she started crying, which woke him up and started him crying, which upset her even more. We had bought her some presents in anticipation of her visit, and eventually we were able to calm her down after a bit enough to play with them (above). The second visit the next day went much better - Ian slept for much of the time in Pepere's arms so Julie was able to give her some extra attention. I think this will be a work in progress for a while.

A little redecorating

We changed the layout and color scheme in anticipation of the little man's arrival...mainly to have something a bit more gender-neutral. Hope you like it!

The I-Man Cometh

We had an ultrasound this past Wednesday. Other than to check in on the little man's well-being, the reason was to get a sense for how big he is. Given the problems that Julie had during Jocelyn's delivery, if we learned that he would likely be as big on his due date as she was on hers (i.e., 8 pounds 9 ounces), then the plan was to schedule a C-section so that Julie didn't have to endure a similar experience this time. Well, as it turns out, he is already that size with a week left to go. In fact, given that there is a pretty big margin of error with the projection, he may already be well over 9 pounds. So, we went ahead and scheduled the C-section for next Wednesday (the 25th), and put ourselves on the wait list in case there is a cancellation the day before.

We learned from the ultrasound technician that Ian is doing great. He is very active, his heart is going like gangbusters, and apparently he is doing something called "practice breathing" in preparation for his grand entrance. All great signs, she told us.

We were amazed at the level of detail on his facial features that some of the shots showed. Looks like he will have Jocelyn's chubby cheeks. The technician also thought he will probably be as bald as she was when she was born! Here are a few shots...

This one probably shows the greatest amount of detail. To me, he looks a lot like Jocelyn, chubby cheeks, lack of hair and all.

You can make out his little hands right under his face if you look closely.

Just hanging out waiting for the big day to arrive! We are very excited to meet him.