Ready or not...

Getting ready for the c-section...

The Unugly Duckling

(Unugly = Cute)


duck...


duck...


duck...


GOOSE!

Florida trip

Florida was nice, as you can see we enjoyed our trip to the beach where the wind was gusting and nobody was in the water. They didn't actually have the flags up saying you *couldn't* go in the water, but if nobody else was doing it we certainly weren't going to!

Eli slept like a... wait for it... baby for most of the flights there and back. We were so thankful that he was a good little traveler. This was taken when he was sleeping in my arms on the only flight that was so full we couldn't keep him in his infant seat, which had to be checked. The other three flights we had the car seat buckled in.

Here's a rather sad story, with which my friends from northern Virginia will possibly be able to sympathize. On our flight down to Orlando, we connected through Reagan National Airport. We took very early flights, so we got into DC around 8:something AM. We got to our gate with only about 20 minutes before boarding for the next flight. There, right beside our gate, taunting us, was a Five Guys restaurant. ugh. Why didn't I plan for this?!? I haven't had Five Guys since May when I went back to empty our house after it sold. Here we were, in sight of one of the foods I most miss from DC, with no time to get in line for a burger, and besides that no appetite to eat it seeing as how it was not even 9 o'clock in the morning.

Of course, on the flight home, we connected through Charlotte, NC, in the early afternoon and had a 2-hour layover. There is no Five Guys in the Charlotte Airport. Note to self: d'oh!

The last picture is Eli saying goodbye to his Florida-based cousins.

Fall Picture Post

Here we have the obligatory fall baby-in-the-pumpkin-patch photo.

Mommy and Grandma Judy took Eli to Irons Fruit Farm while Dad and Grandpa Howard worked on the house.

Eli examining some colorful leaves.

The leaves are fake. No real leaves were ever in any danger.

A New Achievement

Two Months Old

Family Picture
Originally uploaded by parseljc

Eli turned two months old on Sunday, so we took a family picture.

Later that evening we celebrated his milestone achievement with dinner at PF Chang's where we met up with our friends Rick and Becky and their 3-month-old son Howie.

Eli had so much fun, he slept through the whole experience! He did wake up at one point and make eye contact with a few people at the table, then went back to sleep. What a party animal.

Howie, on the other hand, was awake during the meal, and got phone numbers from some ladies at the next table when his parents weren't looking.

Later that evening, Eli laughed a little bit for the first time while Ann was talking to him before bedtime. I couldn't help giggling a little, too, when I saw the booger hanging from her nose. (j/k ;)

Eli's first (pre-season) Bengals game

Eli got to see his first Bengals game last night, an event he has been anticipating since last season, when his mother was always blocking his view of the television.

He had to go to bed before it was over, so this morning he was surprised and disappointed to learn that Cincinnati lost on a rare last-second Shayne Graham missed field goal. However, I explained to him that it's only the preseason, so it doesn't really count. If Carson had been running the 2-minute drill instead of our third-string QB, we probably would have scored a touchdown or two.

Enjoying some family time together. . .

Josh, Ann and Eli on the Green
Originally uploaded by parsellann

Josh and Ann on the Green
Originally uploaded by parsellann

Eli's First Play-Date

MOM! HOWIE'S TOUCHING MY BOPPY!

Actually he was just yawning. ;)

Eli's friend Howie Stevens, who is about 1 month older, stopped by today for a visit along with his mommy.

Eli and Howie had lots of fun together playing Halo2 and Dance Dance Revolution. Hmmm, I guess we should have taken pictures of that.

Rock-a-bye Baby

So in the last 24 hours, Eli has slept peacefully for a couple hours in Grandpa Howard's arms, then he spent all night fussing and keeping mommy and daddy from getting much (any) sleep, then he slept for a couple hours in Grandma Judy's arms when she showed up this morning.

Good timing, kid! He knows which side his bread is buttered on. Always be cute and loveable around the grandparents!

Click the picture below to go see a set of pictures at Flickr.

Welcome, Elijah!

Ann and I are proud to announce the arrival of our son! Elijah Joseph Parsell, 8 lbs. 11 oz., 22 in., born at 11:44PM, Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at Mercy Hospital in Fairfield, Ohio.

We spent 34 hours in labor, including 3 hours of pushing, but Eli was just too big to go the natural way. He was delivered by C-section. Everybody is tired, and Ann is starving. Good night!

mmmm... Ambar

No, I said, "Ambar" (see yesterday's post) not "Mom Bar."

???

It was good, just like I remembered. We only ordered a 2 (out of 6) when they asked how spicy we wanted it. 2 is just enough to have a kick without making your nose run. I would usually get a 3 but Ann and I were sharing. Maybe if we had gone for a 3 it would have gotten this kid moving...

Checkup

Ann saw the doctor today.  Everything is fine, things are just progressing very slowly.  If nothing has happened by Monday, June 18, then she will see the doctor again for another evaluation.
 
I hope Eli comes soon!  It's so hard to keep waiting, since we've been thinking all along he would already be here by now.  I guess Ann and I will take a long walk tonight and maybe go out for some really spicy food.  Hmmm... I haven't been to Ambar India in years... 

T plus one and waiting...

So here we are one day overdue and so far nothing.  I guess if nothing has happened by tonight Ann is supposed to make an appointment tomorrow.
 
It's nice he held off yesterday because I was still working on upgrading the wiring in the bedrooms until 11:30 last night, with help from my father-in-law, Howard.  We got some additional help at the end from Ann and Judy (my mother-in-law).  I think they just wanted to make sure we got things wrapped up quickly because it was getting so late. 
 
Stay tuned!

All systems go...

standby for launch sequence...

anytime you're ready, son...

(This has been a test of go.blogger.com. Had there been an actual launch/birth, there would have been pictures of a baby. :)

T minus 6 days and counting

Well, we are inside of one week for Elijah's due date. Of course, it could be any day now, or it could still be 3 weeks away. Ann is both excited and ready to not be so uncomfortable yet nervous about going through the actual labor. I'm also nervous about it. I hope it goes quickly and without any problems, and I hope I stay conscious throughout. :) Just kidding, I've only ever passed out in a hospital one time.

Anyway, I guess it's time for me to learn how to post video and how to do photo-blogging from my phone...

Elijah Joseph

Elijah - "My God is Jehovah" - my paternal grandfather's middle name
Joseph - "He will enlarge" - Ann's paternal grandfather's first name

We talked about waiting until the baby is born before sharing the name with anyone. I have heard other parents reason that people are less likely to make comments or express "opinions" about the name once the kid has actually arrived.

However, when you're at the stage of life where you and all your friends are all having babies at the same time, you have this nagging fear that someone else will "steal" the name you've chosen and then you won't be able to use it. Also, once we knew for sure it was a boy we really started wondering, "Why wait?"

Therefore, we are introducing our baby boy now as "Elijah Joseph Parsell" - "Eli" for short - so as to "lock it in."

Now we can rest easy for the next five months without worrying that we will receive that dreaded phone call in the middle of the night, "So-and-so just had a healthy baby boy and they named him Elijah!"

"Noooooooooo!"

Halfway to Parentdom

A picture of Ann showing off her belly. She is 20 weeks now, so we are rounding second and heading home! Or are we crossing the 50-yard line? Maybe we are just completing lap 250 (for the NASCAR fans) with no caution flags so far! Yee-haw!

As you can see, we still have some work to do with getting the cats not to blink during the red-eye-reduction pre-flash flash.

Son of an only son of an only son

We had another ultrasound today, at the beginning of Ann's 19th week. We are excited to announce that we are having a boy! Now I can rest easy, knowing I have assured my father and grandfather that the family name will live on for at least one more generation, and the empire will not fall into the hands of some distant second cousin. Errr, something...

I was thinking, the internet will probably be around forever. So my wife's Flickr page, with ultrasound pictures of our son's wee-wee, will probably still be publicly accessible in about 10 years or so when he is old enough to be embarrassed by such things. For that matter, so will this blog post.

I hope you can forgive us, son. I mean, it's such low resolution. You can barely tell what you're looking at. It's not like we posted a 3D movie of it on YouTube.

-Dad

Second visit

We had our second visit to the OB office just before Christmas. Ann's parents, Howard and Judy, were in town so they were able to come in and listen to the heartbeat. Ann has been tracking along with the NFL season so she is 17 weeks right now. Since the Bengals failed to make the playoffs it's going to be much harder for me to remember how far along she is in the coming weeks.

Our third appointment is scheduled for January 15th. We'll be having another ultrasound and should be able to find out if it's a boy or girl!