BRIANandSTEPH.com

This past Saturday, Conner turned 8 months old. Over the last several weeks we have hit a couple of major milestones including:

High Chairs at Restaurants - No more sitting in the car seat/carrier when dining out.

Introduction of Solid Foods - Started with Cheerrios a couple of weeks ago at church, and at this point he is willing to taste most anything. If he sees you eating something he also feel that it is something that HE should be eating as well (also applies to beverages - he finds a Diet Coke or Red Bull can fascinating).

Mobility - He can scoot around if he’s sitting up and also crawls/pushes himself on the floor (but only in reverse at this point which means he rarely ends up where he intends to (which frustrates the heck out of him).

Teeth - Conner is continuing to teeth. Although he has a couple of bottom teeth and two on top on either side, the top two front teeth are taking their sweet time in descending. The cumulative effect is a distinct vampire like appearance when he opens all the way up… but hey, Vampires are cool right now, Right?

Sleeping through the Night - Not the norm, but a couple of consecutive occurrences last week.

Conner is VERY entertained by both of his big brothers and loves to be in the middle of their action at playtime. Josh and Logan are having to adjust to a baby brother who can now get “into their stuff” (something we’ve been talking about for months, but now is a reality). In fact, Conner actually introduced himself to a bowl of abandoned Goldfish crackers on Saturday. Time to start “baby proofing” the house.

Conner is incredibly laid back with a great demeanor and only becomes agitated when something is really wrong (or when he is hungry). Here are a couple of minutes of video that really capture his personality and disposition. Here’s the video –> Link

After spending the majority of the Labor Day weekend in MSP we came back home to NoVA on Sunday which allowed us a “free” day on Labor Day to unwind and prep for a shortened work week… and also a great day for a trip to the mall and quick portrait session.

We were a bit worried at first when the photographer seemed a bit harried and was confused about whether or not we even had an appointment. Once we got into the studio though everything changed, in less than 20 minutes he was done and had done an excellent jobs of capturing the personalities of Josh, Logan and Conner better than any single set of pictures taken thus far (take THAT Dad). And here are the results –> Link

So while our due date was April 18th and our scheduled C-Section was for April 11th our little over achiever decided that April 6th (under budget and ahead of schedule just like his Mommy likes it) sounded like a good Birthday for him.

While having brunch with our friends the Frusti’s Sunday morning, Stephanie notified us that “plans had changed” and following a couple of calls to the on-call Doctor, and some anxious moments, we were off to the hospital with John & Fern immediately reassuring us that they had Josh & Logan taken care of.

We arrived at the hospital at around 1 PM and were promptly scheduled for surgery at 3 PM. Conner Benjamin was born @ 3:25 PM EDT on 4/6/2008 and weighed in at a healthy 6 lbs. and 14.5 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. When we left for church Sunday morning we had no idea that we would be delivering a baby and neglected to bring any camera equipment - making the only initial photos we have - courtesy of the iPhone (proving that not only is the iPhone a fun product, but also a necessity).

Sunday night after visiting Mommy in the hospital, Joshua asked “When are Grammy & Grandpa going to get here?”… as if to REALLY say “It’s obvious Dad, that you are ill-equipped, to handle this situation, so when are the reinforcements arriving”. While it made for an interesting couple of days - we made it. Stephanie and Conner were discharged on Wednesday and back home that afternoon and are both doing incredible.

We are incredibly blest and look forward to spending the next couple of weeks at home getting everyone aquatinted with everyone in the household and learning to figure out “normal” is in a family where the parents are “out numbered”.

Here’s a link to our photos from Conner’s first couple of days –> Link

On Sunday night Josh and I picked up tickets through a broker (they called ‘em scalpers back before they had websites) for the Washington Nationals home opener against the Atlanta Braves. Not only was it the first official game of the season, but the official debut of the new Nationals Park just south of the Capitol. The ballpark is breathtaking with amazing sightlines and view of the Capitol to boot. We even ended up with some premium seating (about 20 rows straight back from home plate) since our “broker” was unable to secure the promised tickets and managed to have “upgraded” to compensate us for the mix-up.

The President was on hand to throw out the first pitch which also meant security was tight. Secret Service was everywhere and all attendees were required to be screened and run through magnetometers prior to entering the stadium. Most folks (including Colin Powell & Juan Williams who we saw standing inline at the 3rd base entrance along with the rest of us common folk) waited 45 to 90 minutes just to get into the park. Josh and I got to our seats just in time for three F-16’s to make their flyover of the stadium as part of the opening ceremonies.

Josh and I had a blast, we were wowed by the 4,500 square foot High Definition scoreboard (that can only be described as being better than “real vision”), we learned together that 20 ounces of fully leaded Coca-Cola at 9 PM on a school night will give a 4 year old a caffeine induced “second wind” that Starbuck’s could only dream of, and even though it was a bit on the cool side (upper 40’s which we wish could be bottled , saved, and unleashed during a day game in mid-July) we cheered on the Nats to their first win of the season with a walk off homer in the bottom of the 9th (which we listened to on the radio on the drive home since we only stayed until the 8th inning).

Hope you enjoy our photos from the night –> Link