Welcome to our blog ...

The days do fly by! And precious they are. We have now officially been parents for 9 weeks. Graham Thomas was born June 17 at 1:13 am. He weighed 8 lbs 13 oz, and was 21 inches long. He was born in the water - an incredible experience for both him and us, I'm sure.

He has visited or been visited by many people, including both sets of grandparents and his Uncle Andrew from Seattle. He has met his Great Uncle & Aunt Ric and Jeri Lu - and twoof his first-cousins-once-removed, Laura, and Greg from Boise. More like Aunts and Uncles than cousins! We've been to Iowa where Graham met some of his Rank Aunts & Uncles, and some Bettger Great Aunts & Uncles and first-cousins-once-removed (we'll call those FCORs)- as well as a very special visit with Great Grandma Esther Bettger. Soon pictures will be posted at our Shutterfly site ... www.warankphotos.shutterfly.com.



Thoughts, observations, and comments on parenting thus far:

• Graham sure looks a lot like Pat. He may take on some of my features as he gets older, but right now it looks like he's very much Pat, with a little bit of Andy thrown in there for good measure (which means he might have a little of my Grandad's good looks).
• It's incredible watching Pat interact with Graham. Graham will just gaze at his daddy for long minutes at a time. Pat is a natural father - he just glows when Graham is watching him ... it's a new phase for me in an already wonderful relationship - watching my husband falling in love with our son and reveling in the excitement for both of them.
• Things other than his daddy that Graham loves to gaze at: light, corners of the room, contrasting colors ... his mommy (yes me too!)
• In his first few weeks, Graham suffered from Male Pattern Baldness. He lost the hair on top of his head and only had a few more hairs on the right side of his head, the top of his head, and the back of his head. We used to give him a cute little "faux-hawk" where we spiked all of his hair culminating in a cute little Alfalfa hair cowlick in the back - until I realized the hair was coming out in my fingers. Now he just has the Alfalfa spike - no more faux-hawk.
• He's a good little tooter (I'm including this one because I can hear him right now over the baby monitor). It's fun to watch him make incredible facial expressions, which always make us wonder what he's thinking ... only to find out he's been trying to work out a little (or lound) toot. Definitely all "boy" there!
• We can't tell what color the new hair is (yes it is coming back!). It might be blond or light brown.
• We can't tell what color his eyes will be, but Aunt Cheryl and Aunt Pam think they definitely have some brown in them. I'd love for them to be brown ... Bettger brown, like Grandpa Tom!
• He loves to have his hands by his face. While sleeping (if he's not swaddled), while nursing, while hanging out, he enjoys his hands ... but he hasn't started sucking any fingers yet!
• He's starting to smile! Yes, finally, our boy is giving us generous huge smiles with his gaping toothless mough, with bright eyes and sweet little coos. We can't help but just beam right back at him.

Well, it's been a while since I started this blog post. About 2 weeks in fact. I've thought a lot about how blogging is read by so many people, and felt a bit of pressure to make sure my comments are insightful, clever, fun to read. Then I realized that if I delay in capturing thoughts and sharing pictures, I will never get anything posted, and the days, thoughts, and memories will fly by without being recorded. So here goes ... enjoy our blog!

I look forward to sharing thoughts with all of you ... and hearing your comments in return. Please use the comments feature and share your thoughts back with us! You can also view our pictures at www.warankphotos.shutterfly.com, and share comments there as well.

Cheers,

M for all