Grandpa's comin to town

On Boxing Day, Dad came to visit and see Joel for the first time and it was, as they say, love at first sight. Talking to him the day before he said that the rule for visiting was that Joel would be in his hands unless he needed a change or to be feed and that was pretty much how it turned out.

Joel took to Grandpa like no tomorrow and bonded with him in a very special way. Joel would cozy into him in a way he hasn't for anyone else and as soon as Dad left for the night Joel would be wide awake with eyes wide open even if he was fast asleep the moment before.

Joel even got visits from him in the hospital every day and would cry when Grandpa left.

Survivorman: Hospital Edition

4 days in Pediatrics
1 infected finger on a newborn baby
Surviving off arrowroot crackers, individually packaged cheese slices and 100ml cups of 2% milk

Joel's first hospital visit came 15 days after his birth (which happened at home). He was given IV antibiotics to fight a staph infection that he probably contracted after we cut his fingernails.

The Pediatric nurses loved him! Joel would flirt with the nurses every morning, with a squirt from his rear end and a smirk. We informed him that the ladies don't really enjoy that behavior. But he continued with it anyway. Needless to say, the nurses still loved him. They always commented on how calm he was, even when they stuck him with the IV. Often, he would barely cry as they changed his dressings or he would cry and then give up with a sigh.

His visit was complicated by the fact that he is sensitive to the adhesive in tape that was used to hold his IV in place. We finally figured out how to cover his hand without tape, but his foot was another story. They kept the tape on until we were released on New Years Day. His foot still is a bit red and swollen. But other than that, he is doing well. His finger is a bit red, and he's still on antibiotics till the end of the week. Hopefully the infection will be cleared up soon.

Joel's First Bath

Here's the pictures from Joel's first bath. As is all to obvious neither of us really have any clue as to what to do and so poor Joel was subjected to a very long and cold bath.

Here is Amanda trying her hand at washing him. Observe the overwhelming confidence that she exudes, a true professional at work.

Here's Dan's attempt, notice the extreme concentration... aren't baths supposed to be easy?!?


And finally: the aftermath.

He's Here!!!!!!!

Last night Amanda and I welcomed our little baby boy into this world. Joel Eric McCrimmon was born at 8:02 p.m. and came out wieghing 7lbs 9.5 oz and 21 inches long.

The Ultimate Commuter Bicycle

For all of us that commute by bike, there is a long list of things that make cycling annoying or dangerous. This is the answer to many of those problems.
Enjoy!!

Anticipation

Nearly 10 months ago, during the season of Lent, we were anticipating the news that we were pregnant. On the morning of Easter Sunday, we found out that we were indeed expecting a baby.
Here we are all these months later, during the season of Advent, anticipating the birth of our first born child. (We do hope its born before Christmas though...)
Both of these two seasons have been my favorite times of year. I love the anticipation of things to come, although I'm not nearly as patient for them to occur as I would hope. Its amazing to me, how these two major events (Easter and Christmas) have weeks of anticipation and preparation in their lead up. Its similar to preparing yourself for a baby. You spend time getting the room ready and preparing your body for childbirth.
This year at Church they are talking about time and what you do to prepare yourself for the big event. This Christmas will be a special time for us, as our lives are somewhat parallel to that of Mary and Joseph's. I can just imagine Mary's desire to meet her child and her need for a donkey to carry her around. You can sense Joseph's anticipation, fear and excitement as he looks for a place to safely welcome his son into the world. And you can feel the joy and celebration of shepherds and wise men as they rejoice over the birth, much like our friends and family will rejoice over our baby's safe arrival.
As we anticipate the arrival of our baby, we also anticipate the celebration of the birth of Jesus. We have much to look forward to this year!

The mobile...of the military persuasion

At last I've been able to put my hobby to good use. Amanda suggested to me months ago, that I create a mobile using some of my scale models that I had kicking around. I finally finished the mobile this week! It contains 3 planes and 2 tanks. Keep in mind folks, that we don't know the gender of our child. So regardless of its gender, it will have this mobile hanging over its head. (Yes, if its a girl she will need to learn to love planes and tanks!)

Our Ode to Christmas

The cookies have been baked,
The appys frozen for a later date,
The nutcrackers have invaded,
The nativity has been recreated,
The tree has been set up,
The pregnant woman is fed up.
And now we wait for the baby Jesus (ahem, we mean our baby) to show up.

Pssst...baby. There's no more room at the Inn. Come out to the stable so we can put you in a manger (and by that we mean dresser drawer!) And hurry! Christmas comes tomorrow! (at least to the Dutch community!)

4th Annual Christmas Tree Caper

For four years, it has been our tradition to carry our Christmas tree home over our shoulders. And just because Amanda is nine months pregnant, it does not change this tradition. (yes, she did carry it home over her shoulders hoping that it would induce labour) Nor, did the fact that it was pouring rain change our plans. The only thing that changed was that we got our tree at the end of November instead of the beginning of December.

For the past two years, we've added a trip to Starbucks for a hot drink to our tradition. It was there that two customers gave us the looks that we've come to look forward to. The "are you two crazy?" look. It makes us giggle every time. Our baristas were good natured about it. They've come to understand our craziness and congratulated us on our creativity.
Needless to say, the tree has been in our possession for five days and all that we have accomplished is putting up the lights, the tree topper and three decorations. Amanda has this strange dream of decorating the tree between contractions. Dan isn't too thrilled with this idea, but we've been too busy or tired or not in the mood to put anything on the tree. Hopefully we get it decorated before Christmas!

Jacob Moon

Last weekend, we went to see Jacob Moon (from Ontario) play at House of James. We are avid fans of him and try our hardest to see him every time he comes to BC. He is singer/songwriter who plays folk music. He plays a live looping machine which allows him to add depth to his music using only a single guitar. He has recently played for Rush at their induction in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. We've gotten to know Jacob over the past years (thanks Matt for the introduction and house party). Whenever he sees us at a concert, he makes an effort to come over and say hello to us. This concert, we sat in the front row and during his first song, he looked over and realized who we were. Then, he realized that we were 9 months pregnant and gave us this "congratulatory" look.
Our baby has grown to love Jacob Moon. In fact, while at the concert, our baby was dancing away to his songs. When Jacob played his two new songs, the baby stopped moving as if to protest, "I don't know who this is!!!!" But as soon as Jacob played songs from his Cd's the baby would start dancing again. Then Jacob Moon decided to play some Christmas songs from his Christmas CD which is currently being played continuously at our house. The baby went nuts, as if to say, "Christmas, Christmas, CHRISTMAS!!!" like any excited child exclaims. Needless to say, our baby LOVES Jacob Moon Christmas!
Jacob came to talk with us during intermission and congratulated us on our soon-to-be arrival. He said that anyone who would attend his show two weeks before delivering a baby should be inducted into the Jacob Moon fan club as devote members. The reality is that unless we were in labour or had just delivered, we probably would have been there. (yes, we like him that much!)