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at home with baby van

my best big friend cope didn't care much one way or the other about that new little baby, other than to say "sweeet baby" and pet him a little.

cope was also not so into mom's request for taking pics with that baby... but he did manage to take some pics with his own camera..

nana and cope were chumming it up at home and she also loved it when she finally got some baby van time.

nana gave van his first sponge bath.. except the diaper area!! she was too afraid to take a peek at his circumcision site so she left that up to mama.

i think my new pal is settling in just fine!!

welcome to the world baby van!!

Thursday we went to the hospital at around 6 am to bring baby van into the world..

much like his brother, he has a flare for drama and didn't come into the world in a well-behaved manor. he chose to come in blue and breathless, actually needing to be breathed for with a bag until he decided he was done messing with us.. right when the pediatrician came in to intervene, he cried and pinked up! fortunately for us, we had seen this trick by his older brother so we were pretty calm about it, relatively speaking.

daddy was thrilled with our new fat addition! 8 lbs 11 oz at 11:54 AM.. he was 20 1/2 inches long.

after a good scrub over my pal looked much more handsome.

van's first girl catcher hair-do!!

nana thought her new pal was pretty sweet too..

and cope was pretty indifferent!









but did manage to borrow mom's camera and do some photography of his own.

we had to give cope mom's camera game to get him in the bed so we could take a picture together.. let's just say he was NOT interested in family photos..

my sweet pal was quite a snuzzler and we got to take him home the next day after his circumcision..

what a great early christmas gift! we are so lucky and blessed to have this healthy, sweet baby.

thanksgiving!

thanksgiving was fun at the madray house. we missed being with family since mama can't fly, but spent the day with our friends the burys. cope got to play with his good pal joe, which he enjoyed, and of course we ate too much!! cope did bring home a nifty hat from ms. tara's house that he wore to the grocery store to the tune of many compliments from the shoppers..

he also got to play with daddy's deer that he killed and thought that was pretty cool
when it came time to do the christmas decorating, my pal was NOT a very useful engine. he kept tearing off my fake candy canes and trying to eat them, relocating the rest of the ornaments, "mommy put it on the top" and breaking the ones we left on the bottom. he also kept collecting a deck of cards and throwing them at the tree.. i guess that is his creative contribution... and of course he had to get down and see what dad was doing when he added the water.. what a helper!!

my sweet pal is growing up too quickly!! it is so fun to watch him experiment and learn, though.. he really is the the love of my life.. they say your heart grows big enough for a second but i have to wait to see that before i believe it. i guess we'll find out soon enough.. we have so many things to be thankful for!