Lots of Visitors!

This is Eric: I thought it might be fun to chronicle all of the visitors we've had who have come through to see Grant. So, here are some photos of our well-wishers, so far.

Kayla did an update below this one, so please take a look at it as well.

Here is my mother with Regan and Grant. My parents came out Sunday evening after church and had to leave on Tuesday.

My dad with a slumbering Grant.
Extolling the virtues of using a Mac.
Kayla's friends from Elkhart: the Weavers. Kayla used to baby-sit the girls when they were much younger.
Kayla's dad, Brad.

Kayla's mom, Bobbi.
Amanda and Katie Lynn stop by before a night of painting the town red.
Our neighbors, the Lutyens. Mrs. Lutyens was nice enough to bring over a belated Valentine's Day card for Regan.
Travis was a little worried that he might not handle Grant properly. It's been six days since your visit, Travis, and Grant is no longer showing signs of being handled improperly...
Another shot of my mother with Grant.

I wasn't able to get everyone's picture, so I apologize if you stopped by and we didn't mention you in the blog. This will give you a reason to make a second visit!

Adjusting....

We are slowly but surely adjusting to a new life in the Rath household! Grant is such a good baby. He doesn't ever really cry; he just eats, sleeps and poops! :) Regan is doing great with him -- she likes to look at him in his bassinet and say "hi Baby Gant!" (there's no 'r' when she says it; it's SO cute!).

This is before we left the hospital. Grant is such a pretty baby. He has the same skin color as Regan did when she was born; unfortunately that probably means he'll turn white like she did when he's a couple months old!
A decent family picture from before we left the hospital.

Dad had to go back to Elkhart last Friday. After he loaded up his suitcase in his car, we told Regan to give him kisses bye bye. She ran into her room and came out with her own "suitcase" which was a leap frog toy that had a handle like Dad's suitcase. :) She kept telling us bye bye because she wanted to go home with Papa!

Grant with his eyes open. I love when he stares into my face; I just know he's thinking, "Wow, you're the coolest mom ever! I should've come out to meet you a looong time ago!" :)

We had a one week checkup with the doctor last week. She said that Grant has a tiny hint of jaundice, so she told us to put him in the sunlight for 20 minutes, 3 times a day. Here he is sunbathing the other night. Look how sweet and tiny he is!!!

The hardest adjustment to make has been that Mom left on Wednesday. After being here for 2 weeks, I know she was ready to be back home with Dad, but it sure was hard letting her go. I have the most amazing mother in the world and we are so blessed that she was willing and able to stay with us for so long. Regan definitely loved all the extra attention that Nana gave her. After she had been gone for about 30 minutes, Regan went to the front door and stood there saying, "Nana.... Na-a-a-na." It about broke my heart because it was the first time she'd ever gotten sad like that because someone had left. :(

And here's baby Grant getting in some tummy time!

Going Home With Lots of Hair!

Yesterday we got to come home! We had to sit around for a while and wait for a specific operation to be made on our male son (if you get my drift), but about 2 p.m. we loaded up the car and showed Grant a tour of the house. Here's his little outfit replete with toy trucks and other manly features.

Waiting for the car to be brought around:


What a full head of hair!
No doctoring was made to this photo (or to his head for that matter). He has a lot of hair, and at least in this picture, it looks perfectly styled.

Regan meets Grant

I almost titled this blog entry "Regan versus Grant" but that wouldn't be all that truthful. Regan got to meet our little guy this morning and was pretty enamored. She was quiet through much of their meeting; I'm not sure that she knew what to think about all of this...


With a little help, she could hold Baby Grant and did not want to let go. Regan held him for a considerable amount of time.

I love the look on her face here. Between myself and Papa Brad, we must have snapped dozens of pictures! I think this is her, "Paparazzi, quit taking my picture!" look!

With some prompting, Regan would give Grant a kiss. Given the relatively low-tech camera I have, I had a really hard time getting a shot of Regan's lips touching Grant's forehead. But this is pretty close:

I always forget that my camera has a movie capture function on it. There's no audio when you record like this, but I still think it's fun to see video instead of quick snapshots. And now that Blogger will allow you to upload videos, I can show you what I shot:

and another one:

Then about the time Regan got used to Grant's presence, the Sharp Family showed up. Really, the timing was perfect. Regan got to hold Grant for a while, the the Sharps were able to come and hold Grant and visit without it taking any time away from Regan.

Here are some photos from James, Kristen, and Hudson's visit:

Quote of the day: "Hudson! Quit hitting Grant with Dog!"

And here's the burrito that Regan, Hudson and I shared. It's all about the tortilla...

Our new addition!

Tonight we added our son to our family! His name is Grant Thomas (Grant is in keeping with our Presidential Names-theme, and Thomas is a family name on my - Eric's - side).

He's 7 pounds, 10.5 ounces and 20 inches long. And he was born at 7:15 p.m.

We have Kayla's parents, Brad and Bobbi, here. And at this moment, Kayla's grandparents, Sammie and Leone are watching Regan at our house. Regan will be here in the morning to see who is going to challenge her supremacy!

Kayla did great! She is in really good spirits and Grant is busy eating. After 42 weeks of pregnancy, he has worked up QUITE an appetite.

Enough of the talk; on to the pictures!

Still waiting...

Well we're still waiting for the baby to decide to make his or her appearance. In the meantime, here are a few pictures of Regan from the past couple of days.

Here she is continuing her fetish with the baby's things. I had the car seat out so that Eric could put it in the car and Regan decided she needed to check it out. Ever since we put it in the car, she always wants to take her baby doll with us whenever we go anywhere and she puts the baby in the car seat. I'm not sure what she's going to think when a real baby is in there!
Here she is being a total goofball. She put her sunglasses on upside down and then kept making this face to keep them on! It was pretty hilarious.
This is yesterday after her nap. I love when she first wakes up because it's the only time that she'll cuddle with me anymore. And she always has really rosy cheeks and bright eyes.... she's so stinking cute!
Hopefully next time we post, we'll have a new brother or sister to show pictures of!!

No more cast!!!

Last week we took Regan to the doctor and got some very good news -- no more cast!!!! The new x-ray showed new bone growing in, so the doctor said that he didn't think he needed to put a new one on. We were very excited, especially because that thing stunk so bad and it was really hard to give Regan a bath with it on! :) We go back in 3 weeks for a follow-up x-ray and if everything looks good then, then this whole ordeal should be just another memo for the baby book! Here's a picture of one of the sores Regan's cast rubbed on her hand...
On Saturday I took Regan to get her hair cut before the baby comes. Unfortunately the place that I took her to before had closed down, so we didn't get her hair cut, but this is a cute picture of her putting on her jewelry before we left the house (I was trying to get a good picture of her hair).
Regan loves to play outside on her swingset... especially on the slide! Doesn't she look like such a big girl sitting up there!?
This morning I was in a major nesting mode and as I was dusting the ceiling fan in the baby's room, I heard Regan asking for "help". I looked over and she had somehow climbed into the bouncy seat and was stuck. At first I thought I should get on to her for climbing in there, but I decided to take her picture instead... great parenting skills, huh!? :)

Lazy weekend

My sisters informed me that I haven't been a very good blogger lately, but I promise, it wasn't my fault! Eric went to San Antonio last week for TMEA and he took the camera before I was able to download pictures so I could update the blog. So there, Brandi and Sarah!

Anyway, the weekend before last, we had an unusual Saturday with nothing to do all day. Eric had a concert that evening, but nothing during the day, so we took advantage of it and had a great time just being a family. Regan and I made Eric breakfast in bed. We had french toast and coffee and milk. It was really fun and Regan thought it was way cool that she got to eat on our bed.

After breakfast, we took Regan to feed the ducks. It was a lot of fun and she really liked hearing them chirp, or whatever it is ducks do! Here are a few pictures from that excursion.

Greedy little birds...
At the end, 2 of the ducks got real brave and actually climbed out of the water to come get bread. Regan thought that was very cool. As we were leaving, she kept saying, "Bye ducks! Bye! I love you! Bye ducks!"
When we got home, Eric decided to rinse off our cars because mine was an embarrassment! Regan wanted to play in the water, so Eric kept splashing her. She was hilarious to watch; she kept laughing and saying, "Daddy, it's coooold! Brr!"
Here's Regan and Daddy in his tux before he left for the symphony.
And Momma and Regan the next day after church.