Turner is 1 month old!

I’ve received several threatening text messages, emails and phone calls from friends and family (you know who you are) asking me to post more pictures of Turner.  In an effort to keep everyone happy, I’m dedicating this post to just pictures of Turner. Enjoy!

The following are from one of his late night dance parties!

  

My first blow out a.k.a. My son is gross

Warning, this post is not for those with weak stomachs!!

That being said, one fine day, Tori left me home alone with Turner for some father-son bonding.  Everything was going well until I smelled something.  Turner needed to be changed.  Not a problem because I am a pro when it comes to changing diapers.   I opened the diaper and jumped back, “What is that?!!” I yelled.   My son LOADED his diaper.  I regained composure and threw some wipes on his lower region and started to clean up.  As I placed the new diaper down and started with the change.

All of a sudden MORE started coming out. It stopped and more started to come out.  Then he pee’d, then more started to come out!!!  What the heck?!?!   I panic and start throwing wipes all over my son.  I think I used about 20 with a combination of 4 diapers.  

Fast forward to 10 or 15 minutes later.  I changed his clothes and tried to block that experience out of my mind.  After it was over, I couldn’t help but wonder, “How did all of that come out of something so little?”   He had smile on his face as though he was proud of what he had done or perhaps he felt 100% better after getting it all out.   

After recanting this story to some friends, I learned that this is a common occurrence in babies known as a 'blow out'.  Luckily I started to change him early before all of my son's 'wonder' leaked out on top his legs, back and clothing. Well played son – well played.  You may have won the battle that day but I will win the war of diaper changing!  

Reading with Turner

I think everyone knows how important it is to read to a child at an early age and often. Tori informed me it also helps establish a bedtime routine. I personally just think it is fun to read to Turner. The routine is a bonus. We’ve received some great books as gifts for Turner. I thought I’d share some of Turner’s [my] favorites here. These are mostly simple stories, nothing too crazy for him at this age. When he’s older, we’ll start working our way through some classics (Shakespeare, Where the Wild Things Are, and The Odyssey). 

One that leads the pack for me is by Ezra Jack Keats, The Snowy Day. I don’t want to spoil it for you but it’s about a little boy in a city who has a fun filled day playing in the snow. It’s cool for several reasons – mostly because Turner and I can relate to it. I also started reading, “Guess how much I love you” and “The Going to Bed Book”.

We have several others but these three are leading the way for bedtime. Two more fun books for daytime reading are by Eric Carle. The first is titles, “The Very Quiet Cricket” and the second book is titled, “The Very Lonely Firefly”. In the Firefly book, The firefly buzzes off in search of companionship, but keeps following other lights by mistake [spoiler alert] ultimately ending up at a fireworks display. Don’t worry thought, at the very end, he finds friends.

All of these books are available on Amazon.com. If you’re looking for a gift for a child, you can’t go wrong with a book. Of course you won’t earn any cool points in the beginning but when that child grows up and becomes the Global Knowledge Manager for Deloitte Analytics* or a Principal Consultant for SAP eSourcing* – they will thank you! J


*Note: For those that didn’t know, Turner’s parents are nerds.

A visit from Aunt Khira

Turner is loved.  He has several aunts all eager to come see him.   First was his Aunt Ondrea and next was Tori’s sister, Aunt Khira.   Here’s a fun fact about Aunt Khira, she was the first relative to purchase a gift for Turner.  I think he was either 3 or 4 months along in Tori and she was already buying him clothing. 

Khira arrived and immediately start help in every way possible.  She was changing Turner, preparing bottles for him and she even game him a bath.  She took several photos of him and spent hours helping him with ‘Tummy Time’. 

Khira was only in town for a week but her kindness didn’t stop with Turner.  She also helped Tori and I cleaning up around the house and watching Turner while we were both out of the house.  She also ran errands and helped get Tori out of the house for some fresh air.  Turner misses his Aunt and is looking forward to visiting her this summer and spending future summer vacations with her and Uncle Julian in Nashville, TN

Thank you for coming up to visit Aunt Khira! Your help was both greatly needed and appreciated.   As I mentioned while you were here, it’s not a competition to see who does the most for Turner but if it was, you might be in the lead now.

A visit from Kelly and Adrian

Two of our close friends, Kelly and Adrian stopped by one day to visit Turner, Tori and I.  They brought some gifts too.  Turner received an 'All Blacks' rugby onesie.  Tori and I received some wine from their recent trip to New Zealand.   
Clearly, they know us well.  Before coming over, Kelly prepared some vegetarian lasagna and some chicken pot pies.  Both dishes were delicious!  I think Tori wants the recipe.  Kelly and Adrian also stopped off at the super market before coming over and picked up a few other items to help us out. 

Thanks for everything Kelly and Adrian!  We’re lucky to have good friends like you.  I’ll post some pictures of Turner in his onesie as soon as he grows into it.

Family bonding at BestBuy

Today was a good day.  Tori and I thought that it would be a good idea for us to go on a family road trip for a change of scenery.  We bundled up Turner, packed his diaper bag and hopped in the car. We also brought the stroller with us so that we could try that out.  Good news, folding and unfolding the stroller was easy and our car seat drops in very easily.  First stop was McDonalds because we were starving.  No happy meal for Turner today.  We then drove to BestBuy.  We were only there for a short while.  We looked at video cameras.  We checked out some 3D LED TV’s because Turner really wants one.  He told me so.  He wants one with 240hz, built in wifi and widgets so that he can watch some classic TV such as the A-Team on Netflix.  

After BestBuy, we drove over to Michael’s to get one of the newspapers from the day he was born framed.  We have both the NY Times (thank you Aunt Kerrissa!) and Philadelphia Inquirer from December 28^th.  Turner and Tori stayed in the car while I placed the order.  While it is a little pricey, we think it’ll be nice for him to look back on the world when he’s older to see how things have changed.   Side note, there were some great headlines from December 28^th.   

We left Michael’s and drove home to feed and change Turner.  We’re going to have to do a practice drill or two on feeding him and changing him in public / out of the house before taking longer trips out to the mall or to my office so my coworkers can meet Turner.

Visit from the Grandparents

 Both of our families are excited to have a new addition.  Several family members are planning to come to Philadelphia to visit us and by us I mean Turner.  Tori’s cousin, Ondrea was the first family member to come see Turner.   The next family members to visit were Tori’s parents.  I’m going to go ahead and say they are more excited than most because this is their first grandchild.  While my dad is excited, this is his 16^th grandchild.  #15 was born a month before Turner (Alakai).

When not playing with Turner, Tori’s parents were busy helping us around the house.  Her dad prepared breakfast every morning and her mom prepared dinner every night.  We had enough portions of food left over (frozen) that we were able to eat for a week after they left.   Tori’s dad also did some work weather proofing our backdoor.  They also took turns getting Tori out of the house for some fresh air.

Turner was happy to have his grandparents visit and he’s looking forward to having the other grandparents and family visit soon. Turner’s aunt Khira is next to visit.  She’ll be here next week.

Bella Baby Photography: Turner’s first photo shoot!

While at the hospital, we were visited by Bella Baby Photography.  They provide photography services to new parents.  They took some very nice and creative photos of Turner.   We knew that that they were going to come take some photos so we made sure we had one of our blankets ready to use in his photos.  Tori had some great ideas about poses with Turner in my hands.  You can view the photos below.  The pictures are great and we’ve already printed out a few for Turner’s baby book.