Thursday, November 5, 2009
5 Weeks Old and Climbing
$1 = 7.018 SEK
Now that the little guy has passed the five week mark we thought we'd post some new pictures for you. Actually we just posted an update of the album from the last post. And to make up for the fact that the slide show in the last post has been down for a few days I have taken the opportunity to post a video of him there instead.
Since our last post we have had Ragen's folks stay with us and Ryan and Kim as well. My parents are hitting the road from the West Coast in a week to come out and help us and for Thanksgiving. Everyone has been a great help and right now we are going it alone, a scary thought but it seems to be working out ok. I think we have survived the flu and have included bottle feeding and working on a nap schedule so that things run smoothly when mom goes back to work and Ciaran is left with Jax and Mr. Mom. He's definitely getting bigger as you'll see in the pictures and starting to develop his personality. He loves to look at ceiling fans and if you stand under one and walk around it he'll follow it. He's got the kung fu grip on your fingers, lips, whatever he can grab really, and is starting to move his hands with some purpose it seems. All very exciting stuff for new parents. Ciaran's up over nine pounds now and about 23 inches long and is already too big, well long really, for a lot of his newborn clothes. Fortunately we have a large supply of clothes for all different age ranges thanks to everyone sending them to him.
Without further adieu, here is the updated photo album:
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Here He Comes!!
$1 = 7.0486 SEK
Well I know that I have not been keeping everyone updated with everything going on with us so I'll get right to the point and let you know that the day has come and the little guy is now here. Ciaran Adam Edward McGowan was born at 9:19 on Tuesday (9/29/09), hmm sensing a theme here. He weighed in at a health 7 lbs 15 oz. and 22 inches long. Other than being a long delivery day (15 hours) and a false alarm the night before the birth went off without any complications and Mom and baby are doing fine. Okay, enough talking here he is:
He is a good looking kid I know.
Also for fun here are some pictures from his nursery.
And for those concerned, Jax has been acting as a good nanny and shows concern whenever the little guy starts to cry.
Bye-bye for now.
Monday, June 22, 2009
BIG NEWS
Friday, May 8, 2009
The Kindness of Strangers
$1 = 7.6549 SEK
On Wednesday we went down to Kansas City to watch the Mariners play the Royals. It was a beautiful day and made for a nice night at the ballpark. The fountains (pictured above) are pretty cool. We were going to buy tickets ahead of time at the Hy-Vee (Midwestern grocery chain) in St. Joe but their computer was down so we figured we would buy tickets at the gate.
We arrived at game time and crossed the giant parking lot full of drunk college kids tailgating (it was College Happy Hour Night at the K -for Kaufman Stadium). There were still some long lines at the main ticket window and there was ushers urging people to walk down to the ticket window in right field. We were walking that way when this guy walked buy and said he had two free tickets. We didn't think much of it and kept walking, then thought free tickets would be nice so we tracked him down and asked if they were really free. He said that he had bought four tickets and couldn't use two of them and offered them to us instead of letting them go to waste. They were really good seats so we asked if he was sure we couldn't give him anything and he said we could buy him a beer since we would be sitting together.
You can kind of tell from the above picture that we were about 15 rows behind the Royals dugout along the first base line. It was pretty sweet. Much like babies wearing noise cancelling headphones. They had recently completed (or maybe half completed) major renovation of the stadium. It's pretty nice. We'll try to go back for some other games later this summer. There are new seats near the fountains in left field that run $7 and you get a free hat. An ugly hat but a free hat. Good times.
The new/updated video board in center field is absolutely huge and is definitely the focal point. Like I said before it was a beautiful night for a game. It was in the high 70's that day and stayed warm during the game (which didn't take that long because the Mariners swung at everything and got it over quickly - 9-1 Royals, UGH). There was some rain that morning but it burned off which was nice. Better than some of the other weather we've had in the last couple weeks. We've had the tornado sirens go off about a week and a half ago and we hung out in our basement until the sirens turned off. Now we have to figure out what room in the house will be good for hanging out during the storm and to pack an emergency kit. We had another tornado watch issued last night but luckily the storm missed us by a couple counties to the east where a couple tornadoes touched down. We did have a big thunderstorm during the night and woke up to some BIG THUNDER around 6:00 this morning. Always something I guess.
It was great to see this guy back in Seattle. He is definitely not as fast as he was and he's a bit heavier (like the rest of us) but he still has the sweetest swing in baseball (doubled and a couple walks).
In other sporting news the 86ers played their first game of the new season last Sunday in Göteborg on the west coast of Sweden. The guys had to leave Uppsala at 5 am to get there to play a team that moved down from the upper division during the offseason. My guys won 61-12 in dominating game. A good way to get the year started.
Now for what everyone has been waiting for, pictures of the house now that the previous owners have everything out. You'll notice the painting we've done in the dining and living rooms. Really the only rooms we have set up yet. Enjoy.