Friends-by-Default

We have come up with a new term that describes the situation that the new boys on campus are in -  Friends-by-default.  In our small community having 4 little boys born so close together, and with the parents who are already friends, it seems inevitable that they will just have to "get along".  Of course at the moment that may just mean that they can co-exist in the same room for a couple of hours without it turning into a crying fiasco, but soon they'll be big enough to actually acknowledge each other's presence!
The following pictures are from two separate visits from Otto - both times no matter how hard we tried, he seemed to completely gloss over Liam.  Of course Liam being as small as he is pretty much slept through both visits, but we give him a pass based on age.

Here's Liam at 4 days and Otto at 3 months 1 or 2 weeks

Well this looks like a promising friendship!

Just about 2 weeks later (Liam at 2 and a half weeks) we tried again with slightly better results - they simply ignored each other

Or perhaps it went better than we thought - at least someone's smiling!

And this is what it could be like trying to juggle two young ones!  Charlene manages to hang on to both guys at the same time.

We also had a lovely visit at Charlene's last week with Drake there too, but unfortunately I didn't have my camera to record the occasion.  It was highly amusing to me was seeing the two giants, Drake and Otto, and then Liam who had to lean on Otto's shoulder just to stay seated upright, along side them.

Mini Manicure

Liam was born with long nails and both James and I were too terrified to use nail clippers on him in the first few days so...we ended up filing them down.  These pictures may be the only proof of this little guy ever having a manicure, because just a few days later, after scratching up his face yet again I finally was convinced I had to bite the bullet and clip his nails properly.  In just 3 weeks, we've had to trim nails 3 times.  These clearly are not my nails!  So for posterity's sake, and my amusement:

A Weekend of Firsts

It's hard to stay caught up on everything new and changing in Liam's life.  Time seems to pass by even more quickly, and we are already heading into his third week.  In an effort to catch up on photos, here are some of Liam's first moments the weekend he came home from the hospital.

Liam came home Friday lunch time and already on Saturday we took our first mini adventure out - well fine, maybe it was just a visit to the supermarket, but believe me when I say it was a small production to get us all ready and out the door.  Being a normally super organized and punctual person I will have to do some serious adjusting to get myself places in a timely fashion with a small one in tow!

Here's Liam in his snow suit and car seat

Our first use of our fancy quinny stroller - heading to the super coop.

We had a chance to video chat with a few people on Skype - Liam's first live viewing with his overseas family!

After several diaper failures and some projectile vomit down Liam and my front, we decided it was time for his first at-home bath.  Liam didn't seem as pleased about it as we were and managed to cry and turn bright pink throughout.  I am pleased to say that we are now bathing him almost every day, and it only took him three times to start to like hanging out in the water.  Now he gets really wide eyed and kicks his little legs around in the water, making small pleased grunts and squeaks.

Liam and dad - he has so many amusing faces it's hard to believe they aren't intentional.  This one definitely looks like a post-bath greasy aimed at dad for putting him through the whole ordeal!

Home Coming

View from my hospital window Friday January 8th

Our first few days at home as a family were pretty special.  With Karen still here as our live-in photographer, baby info giver and helping hand, I think we had a pretty good initial transition into parenthood.  Still, in just a matter of hours we realized the steep learning curve that is involved in being new parents.  We had multiple costume changes within a few hours due to enthusiastic elimination on Liam's part and partial incompetence on his parents!  At least we are already getting a good laugh out of all this, and we are grateful to not have to pay water and electricity bills as our washer and dryer seem to run constantly.

Just arriving home from the hospital

Liam in his snow suit (size 0-1mth) - maybe it's a tad big still!

James returned home from grocery shopping with tulips to celebrate

Our gorgeous bean-sprout

Liam's First Visitors

Despite the snow falling outside and the fact that most people were just returning to Lugano from their Christmas breaks, we still had some special visitors come to the hospital on Liam's first day.  We were happy to share some of those first moments with Charlene, Keith and Otto, Daniel and Jen and Kat, Eric and Drake.  Liam has already met two of his friends-by-default, as we like to call them.  Both Drake and Otto were born just 3 months ahead of him in the same place, and for Drake, he was even in the same room!  After seeing the other two these past few months and thinking how tiny they were, it was amazing to see them in comparison to little Liam.  He really just feels like a little package that you can tuck into your body.

Kat and Eric get a first look at Liam

Char, Keith and Dan introduce Otto to Liam

Jen and Liam

Char and Liam

Can Dan get any more excited?

Liam's Grand Arrival

Though in the last 2 weeks it seemed like our little guy would never arrive, he finally made his grand appearance this last Thursday in the wee hours of the morning, exactly one week after his due date.  His official arrival time was 2:35am on Thursday January 7th, 2010.

I guess he took the extra week to prepare himself because all were surprised at his healthy size of 4020g, or 8 lbs 14 ounces.  His arrival was quick - 2 hours 35 mins in total - and he was born naturally in Clinica Santa Anna, here in Lugano.  The birth was as perfect as can be hoped for, and I am filled with gratitude to have had the support and love of James and Karen through the process.

These first two photos are within the first hour of his arrival:

These are from later Thursday evening.  I stayed in the hospital till Friday morning - just over 24 hours: