Happy First Halloween Bubba Claxton aka "Joe the Redneck"

Ok so I can't sew to save my life except maybe for a button, but can you all give me a point for a touch of creativity? It was this or a picture of him in an orange store bought onesie with "my first halloween" on it. Maybe I'm just a cruel mama bear, but i had to laugh taking the pictures and once again Finn thinking what the hell is my mom going to do to me today. The only thing missing from this picture of course is a gun.... DON"T GET ANY BRIGHT IDEAS DADDY RAY. I told you we'd start discussing it at age 7.

5 weeks old tomorrow!

Here are a few up to date pictures of baby Finn. His "almost smiling" picture and then of course of Finn and Dr Kong - my wonderful doctor that got me through the pregnancy without freaking out - well at least too much anyway - and of course was the first to hold Finn. She unfortunately is resigning from Parkway Health to go work at a competitor hospital in town. The stupid (cheap) administration does not want to pay her what they pay the internationally trained doctors (She was trained in China) but then they can't seem to understand why she would want to leave. She feels bad but Patty and I told her don't feel too bad Parkway is doing it to themselves! Anyway - she has a couple more weeks left (after my follow up appointment of course) so we had a nice lunch today and exchanged our personal emails so we can stay in touch! She is an amazing doctor and an even more wonderful person.

Mama Mia 24-7

Will left for Japan early Monday morning and it is now Tuesday evening and all is going well even with a few hiccups along the way. Not that mama bear is not always on-call 24-7 for the next 18, uh 25, uh 50 years of Finn's life, but it is definitely tougher with papa bear not here to take over when I need a mini-break.

Today we took a nice long stroll downtown and stopped off at the clinic where I delivered just over a month ago! The crowds went wild when the saw Mr Finn and as we were all guessing how much he weighs now we went over to the scales and Finn is now 5.4 kg or just under 12 pounds! Yes, just under 12 lbs. Everyone congratulated me since he has only had breast milk. Got Milk? I guess I do! No wonder my arms are starting to look like Madonna's - this kid gives me a good workout every time I pick him up.

Only about 2 more weeks until Grandma and Grandpa Lebel arrive in Shanghai to meet the little one. They are very excited as are we to show him off....sorry he won't be quite as little as he was just a few short weeks ago, but I don't think they will care once they get their hands on him!

To Purell or not to Purell

Will has invested in several travel size bottles of purell to hand off to unsuspecting friends, relatives and anyone that even considers wanting to touch Finn. Up until last week he hasn't really had the opportunity to do this and now that this is public and Will will no doubt be reading this, I will now get in trouble for admitting that I haven't been enforcing this purell rule on my friends. Finn seems healthy and he's also getting mamma juice so hey I figure he needs to build up a little immunity.

Well last Saturday night Finn was the main attraction when the two big bosses (uh, the owners of the company for which my husband is gainfully employeed - at least for now) were in town and invited us to fancy dinner along with Will's boss and wife (Jerry and Patty). These two guys who carried at least an extra suitcase full of diapers and wipes from the US and whatever else we had wanted shipped. This company rocks but anyway...

As we were saying our hellos, the hands started waving to hand over the baby...as I start to pass Finn to John (THE OWNER), Will clears his throat and pulls out the purell from his breast pocket. I'm dying inside as he (albeit politely) asks John to please use a little purell first. My husband sure has some big cojones that is for sure. Thank goodness everyone let out a roar of laughter and then shook their heads ... "yup, first time parents - you'll get over that Will now give me the kid!" Ah, they took it all in stride and Finn seemed to enjoy being passed around - it only took about an hour and a half of mama bear not holding her child to say gimme back ... and that I know I'll get over soon as well! :)

This Saturday he'll be 4 weeks! Amazing! Despite his grumpy bear time sometime between 5-8p he's definitely a keeper and mama bear is slowly figuring out some new tips and tricks to keep him happy. I haven't gotten as far as having a bow in my hair and dinner on the table when Will gets home from work, but I'm working on it. :) ha ha

A few of Finn's professional photos

Here are a few of the professional photos we had taken of Finn. Of course we think he is adorable! It is too bad our photographer didn't get the picture where Finn is dangling and then pooped on Will's arm. Our boy definitely can pass gas!

Baby-cation

Well we all have vacations and more recently stay-cations and now Will is in his final 2 days of "baby-cation" - it has been a great 2 weeks to have him around and helping; although I may regret saying this, I also think it is time that he goes back to work. After discussing Finn's future academic endeavors, we purchased two Suzuki method books and actually went looking for violins for a 3 year old today (Kelly - do you still have "adam" :) ). Not to mention talking about whether when we get back to the US we should sign him up for Japanese vs. Chinese lessons. Will had too much research time on his hands! Finn is doomed already!

Anyway - hopefully his parents will figure out they (we) have plenty of time for all of the above and for now let him enjoy his mini-manicures and tummy time (see pictures!) - because now all I can envision is 3 year old Finn taking a magic marker to his violin or throwing it down during a temper tantrum!

On a side note: Will gave me a great baby-cation gift! By me working a little bit this year, Will was able to put more money aside and today we paid off my big Wells Fargo nursing school loan!! So Dad you are off the hook as the cosignee of the loan! All we have now is one of my small loans but since the interest rate is so low we will just keep that one and pay it off slowly!! Yippee!!