Eli Meets Jordan's Grandparents

We are very behind on our posts considering this event happened a month ago. However, I am on a mission to get caught up, so here goes...At the end of June, Jordan's grandparents made a visit from South Carolina to Tennessee to meet Eli. We all had a good time visiting and passing Eli around.

The first look

Eli and Nonny

Eli and Memaw

Eli and Papa


The Boys

Eli's Favorite Pics

Thank you Caitlin for the personalized onsie!

Momma did not know that Dad was allowing this to happen, but no worries momma, Toby loves me...so much that he even gave me a kiss, but dad told me not to post that one.

Dad asked me to "Look Terrified" for my 1 month old pic. Pretty good huh?

Hugs to all! Check ya later.

Hello

Hey out there!!! I have been quite the absentee blogger...Jordan has really stepped up to the plate and kept us current for the most part. I thought that I would surface today and tell those who venture by "Hello".

All is well in the Hester house accept that my sweet angel has been quite the fussy fella lately, leaving me to type with one hand while constantly bouncing him with the other. We are in the midst of trying to decode his various vocal cues. Now, it is true that I have been known to purchase a good logic book with all those crazy, brain exercising, problem solving, puzzles just for fun. I find much joy in figuring those things out and doing everything in my power to not peek at the back of the book with all the answers. However, I will say when it comes to Eli's puzzle, I would pay big bucks for a glance at all the right answers. But, I guess, just like those books it would not be near the ride if all the answers were simply given to me before I even had a chance to try and figure them out.

So, in the mean time when "the going gets fussy...the fussy goes dancing". Eli loves him some dance and music, which works out well because his mother does too. He has especially taken heart to one of our friend's songs. So, it has been played probably over 20 times in the last few days. Also, lucky for me, I love the song as well and have been known to play many other songs over and over myself (much to Jordan's dismay). Therefore it is definitely a win win situation because it makes Eli so very happy and keeps his momma's head from spinning around and her spirits up. All this, so very important. :-)

Experiencing joy in the midst of challenging situations...a gift from God. I am thankful.

fyi. you can buy our friend, Andy's cd at your local Barnes and Noble. It is called "Let The Woman" by Andy Davis and Eli's favorite is track number 2. You should check it out. Eli knows good music. :-)

Thanks for stopping by,

Ryan

Bath Time

So we gave Eli his first "real" bath. He was pretty cool and content for the first few minutes, until.....

Overall, we think he did pretty well and seemed to enjoy it (reference the above picture for evidence).

Eli meets his Peeps- Week 2

Two weeks into parenthood and all is well. Eli is giving us more personality everyday- eyes are open more often, smiles are more defined, and his cries even have a little "voice" to them. Aunt Jamie was away for the week and when she returned Friday, she noticed how much he has already grown.

Highlights of the week: We made our first family outing- ice cream at Cold Stone and a walk in the park. Perfect. We also gave Eli is first full-on naked bath- it was going well until he peed on the sugar container on our kitchen sink. Nice.

Eli has been introduced to a lot of important people in his life- more surrogate aunts and uncles than he can imagine. We think he is going to have trouble knowing his blood relatives from his community-family, which we are cool with. Here are some pics of these first meetings and interactions.

*Note: To date, grandparents have not been officially renamed. The ( ) after their names below are what we have been using so far, mostly for our own entertainment.
*Note 2: Actual aunts and uncles have been indicated with a "*" after their name.

Grandpa Duke (aka Mr.Duke)

Grandma Hester (aka Grandma) and Uncle Justin's* Foot

Grandma Duke (aka DeDe) and Aunt Jamie*Aunt Sara BethGrandpa Hester (aka Jimmy)Aunt Teryn & Uncle ChadAunt Inga*

Uncle Mathew (and Laurianne's elbow)

Uncle Justin*
(Eli always looks much smaller when Justin holds him)Uncle Loffi
(I feel very passionate about my responsibility as a father
to make sure Eli never knows Loffi's first name- J)

Aunt Jessie
(Ryan's childhood friend and knowledgeable delivery nurse)Uncle Andy

Week One Highlights

So Eli is officially one week old now.
Here are a few of our favorite pictures of his life so far...

Eli is here!

On Tuesday, June 3 at 4:22 pm, Eli Adam Hester entered this world.

He weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. Even just a few minutes after he was born, he was very alert and was scanning the room checking out his surroundings.




Here he is with just a small piece of our entourage that waited patiently, and some impatiently, for his arrival.
Eli with Aunt Jamie and De De (Alva).

Eli and Ryan just before we left the hospital. All the nurses at Williamson were amazing and it was hard to leave these nice people that played such an important role in the first few days of Eli's life.

We will add more pictures later to properly tell the story of Eli's arrival.

Thanks for all the support and prayers from our wonderful group of family and friends. We appreciate everyone's excitement and willingness to help in any way.
Eli is blessed to have so many people in his life who already care so much about him.