All quiet on the Aiden front

The dust has settled.  

After a difficult first night at home things have become significantly more peaceful here at the Jones Abode.  We were told today that it is very normal for babies in their first weeks of life to sleep soundly all day, only to go all Jekyll and Hyde at night.  Who knew? (Not us.)  There was very little sleep to be had last night, but we're doing our best to make up for it today and this sunny saturday afternoon is proving to be quite conducive to lazy napping.

The more subdued pace also gives me a chance to put up some new pictures from yesterday and today.  After a 3 night hospital stay Jen,  Aiden and I returned home yesterday, and were joined shortly after by our fuzzy friend Bailey.  It has been amusing to observe the first tentative interactions between dog and child.  Bailey is interested, but with some reservations (although none so serious to prevent the occasional exploratory lick to the face.)  Aiden seems somewhat oblivious of course, as he is more or less oblivious to the world in general.  It does seem though that Bailey takes somewhat of a protective attitude in his approach to the baby.  When Aiden is laying on the bed, or curled up on our laps Bailey likes to lay close by- keeping a watchful eye on his new friend. 

I was able to take a few pictures of the both of them together.  Look carefully and notice Bailey's feigned indifference carefully concealing the unabashed love and devotion that he is most assuredly feeling.  The other pictures are of Aiden on his (not so long) journey home.  At the hospital we realized that his "going home outfit" was a tad on the baggy side, the sacrifices we make for fashion... 

Overall, it is just great to be home.  It's so fun to be here with Aiden, and I love thinking about the fact that this house is were he will make his first childhood memories.  

Welcome home Mr. A.

Breaking News...

.....It's 2 am, and this just in from the Jones household.....

            Apparently taking care of a baby is not the            cake-walk that one might expect upon initial

assessment of said baby's angelic eyes and innocent demeanor.  Our correspondent on location has described a grim scene.  

           It seems as though the beleaguered parents have had to pull out every last stop in their cooing, cuddling, and calming arsenal, but to no avail.  The small baby's wails continue to pierce the night air, wreaking havoc upon the residents of this humble abode.  We were able to obtain the following quote from the haggard father:

"Thank goodness for late night showings of 'Amy Winehouse: The E-True Hollywood Story'..."

Not a pretty picture.

We will continue to follow this breaking news story.  Stay tuned for updates as they become available about these courageous parents struggling against enormous odds...

Happy Valentines Day Aiden!

Its February 14th- Aiden's first Valentines day.  It is hard to imagine a better gift then the one that Jen and I got 2 days ago.  Aiden and Jen are both doing great.  Its actually been nice to have these last few days at the hospital- resting, recovering, spending time together as a family... However, we are looking ahead now to tomorrow, and anticipating our return home.  It has been so fun to get to know Aiden here these last few days, but we are eagerly anticipating the time when we will all be together at home.  It feels like once all 3 of us are under our own roof we will really be a family.

We really want to thank all of our friends and family so much for all of the support that we have gotten.  Receiving so many calls, messages and visits has been a great blessing to both of us (and Aiden as well.)  Happy Valentines Day to everyone.  We love you very much!

Aiden Arrives!

Aiden was born on February 12th at 8:44 am. He was 7lbs 12 ounces, and 21 inches long.  Mother and baby are doing great!  Here are some picures of Aiden's first 2 days of life...

The Waiting Game

With the due date literally being less than 2 weeks away, I feel like I am just waiting around to go into labor.  I stopped working last week and I am glad I didn't stop sooner-there just hasn't been too much to do.  We have everything ready to go, including the car seat and the bags in the car.  About a month ago I honestly did not think that I was going to have ANYTHING ready for this baby.  Rob reminds me of that and says that I always think that way and things always work out.  I have realized I need to work on this. :-)  Well, we will keep you updated and hopefully it won't be too much longer until there are pictures of little Aiden on here!  

The Nursery

We just put most of the finishing touches on Aiden's room in the last few days. After Jen's baby shower we had so much new stuff for him that we really had to finish the room just to have a place to put it all.  Jen did a great job finding really neat stuff for this room. The dresser that we have is a child's dresser that she had in her bedroom growing up.  The crib is from this cool kid store in Wayne called Genes. The chair in the corner is from the as-is room at Ikea. And I was able to piece together the changing table with basic lumber from Home Depot.  I framed these great pictures overAiden's crib. They are pages from Maurice Sendak's book Where the Wild the Things Are, my favorite children's book of all time.

The room seems ready, now were just waiting for one more thing...

Before

Here is a picture of the nursery as it looked when we moved into the house six months ago. It has already gone through several incarnations in the time that we've been here, including: Robs painting studio (short lived), general stuff storage area, baby stuff storage area, and finally, the nursery.

This room has seen a lot of activity over the last few weeks as we've scrambled to make sure that everything is completed before that imminent arrival. It's just about done, and we're excited about how it turned out. We'll take some new pictures of the now completed room to show how far it has come.