A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

I was told there aren't many pictures of Beth on my blog. Here she is visiting some of the people she use to work with in Grand Rapids.

Matthew beating a baby

It was caught on camera. Libby's cousin Matthew was hitting her. Is he that jealous of Libby? How sad.

The meeting of the Danielles

Libby finally got to meet her middle name sake; her Uncle Dan. When we originally found out that Beth was going to have to have a c-section, we thought the date would be August 25th, my brother Dan's birthday. So I figured that it would be a nice tribute to my older brother to give Libby his name as a middle name (but make it feminine). When the date changed to the 26th, we were going to use either Michelle or Catherine. But while Beth was being prepped for surgery, we changed our minds and went with Danielle. Its extra special because in Dan's will he has removed all his children and made Libby the sole beneficiary of his estate.

The missing rocking chair

Beth's greatuncle Bill made this rocking chair for Beth when she was just a baby. Her grandma had been holding on to it for her until we had a child of our own. A few weeks ago it went missing. We were at Laura's place today to introduce her Aunts to Libby and what did we find? The missing rocking chair. Libby's cousin Elise was sitting in it like she was the cock of the walk. Luckily Stretch jumped to Libby's defense and pushed Elise out of the chair. Thank you Stretch.

The Trip Begins

We left on Thursday night at about 9:30 p.m CST for our jouney to Michigan. We figured that Libby usually sleeps most of the night, so it would be an ideal time for us to drive. She did great. We stopped three times for feedings, changes, and stretches. We had so much stuff packed in the Sportcross that we barely had room to yawn. We brought the Parrot Pot home for Beth's mom, all the maternity clothes Beth had worn to give to her sister Laura (who we expect to be expecting next), and Pottery Barn camping lights for my sister-in-law Kris. Our dogs Stretch and Zoe were good as gold the entire trip, they slept on their fur blanket in the backseat next to Libby. We arrived at my parents house about 1 p.m. EST. My mother went up to Rellis Sports Bar to get me my favorite pizza for lunch. They make the most amazing Mexican pizza I have ever had. We went to Beth's parents for dinner and so that Libby could meet her Grandpa. They got along swimmingly.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

Gabe and Allie got to meet Libby today at Grandma and Pappas' house. Allie did such a great job of holding her.

Annoying Email Addresses

E-mail Addresses It Would Be Really Annoying to Give Out Over the Phone.
BY MICHAEL WARD
• MikeUnderscore2004@yahoo.com
• MikeAtYahooDotCom@hotmail.com
• Mike_WardAllOneWord@yahoo.com
• AAAAAThatsSixAs@yahoo.com
• One1TheFirstJustTheNumberTheSecondSpelledOut@hotmail.com

Linen Libby

Here are some pictures of Libby in a cute little linen outfit that her Aunt Laurel had gotten for her. She made it about an hour in it before she peed on it during a diaper change. If you were betting on how long she could go without pooping, 47 1/2 hours is the winning time. To say that she loaded her pants is an understatement. We burned the diaper and outfit she was wearing and gave her a bath. All is right in her world now.

Hula Libby

Libby is having more and more awake time as the days go by. Our friends Amy and Rich from MN got this cute little Hawaiian outfit for her. If you would like to see more of the pictures click here.

Jesus Loves Me this I Know

For special occasions growing up my Mother would allow us to use her most prized possessions, crystal cordial glasses with pictures of Greek gods on them, to drink our orange juice or soda out of. Of course we didn't know they were Greek gods and assumed they were pictures of Jesus and his disciples. So we called them "Jesus Loves Me" glasses or "G-Love Me" for short. Because I am by far my Mom's favorite child she gave them to me when I got a house of my own (and yes, I do allow Beth to use them on special occasions, but she only drinks hard liquor out of them). Well I should have known that my sister Susan (Boom) wasn't flying down just to meet Libby, her main goal was to steal one of the precious glasses. She took it right out from under my nose and then sent me these pictures of her children, Gabe and Baby Allie, to taunt me. Well I still have the last laugh because my Dad gave me his most cherished possession, his Maxwell House coffee container change jar. Whenever we needed our 12 cent weekly allowence or change for a quarter, my Dad would let us go into his top dresser drawer and get it out of the jar. I'm glad I hid the jar during her visit.

Dutch hound accessories

Everyone loves a weiner dog. My sister-in-law's friend Anne sent my dachsunds Stretch and Zoe this catalog, What on Earth, that has all sorts of fun things you can buy with dachsunds on them. Anne is the person who Beth went to see the movie Anchorman with. Everyone who knows me knows that I love all Will Farrell movies and I hate to see a movie by myself. Needless to say, Anne owes me a movie. If you think dogs sniffing each others butts is funny, you need this tee shirt.

We brought our baby...to a bar

My brother Dave's favorite movie is Sweet Home Alabama starring Reese Witherspoon. His favorite line from the movie is "You have a baby..in a bar". During our foray to the art festival, we stopped at the Celtic Crossing, an Irish Pub, for lunch. The bartender was nice enough to allow us to take Libby behind the bar for the picture.

Cooper Young Art Festival

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

We took Beth's mom down to the Cooper Young Art Festival today, it is the largest art festival in TN in the largest historical district in TN. It was a perfect day for it, we got there around 10 a.m. and the weather couldn't have been nicer. We left around 2 p.m. when it started to get kinda hot. Beth ended up buying some clay pieces for our walls and her mom bought a parrot pot. I can't count the number of people who came up to us to comment on how cute Libby is and how small she is. Everyone down here says "Awww look at the bitty baby". Southern hospitality is still alive down here. We ducked down a side street to get into the shade to change Libby's diaper when a lady comes out of her house across the street and asks us if we need anything for the baby or if we just need to come inside to cool the baby down. We declined, but it was very nice of her to offer.

Beth's sisters Errin and Laura thought we should paint the entire bathroom chocolate brown (almost poo colored), but luckily their Mom came to the rescue and created a nice skirt to hide the ugly cabinet.

Weight Check

Libby went in for a weight check today and is up to 6 lbs 6 ozs, Doctor Geiger was very impressed. Libby has been being nice to her Dad and hasn't pooped since Tuesday night. So Dr. Geiger did the ole' finger in the butt trick to make sure she wasn't impacted (Libby's butt). Everything was fine, so fine that Libby pooped a little when the finger came out. Beth's mom flew in last night (and boy were her arms tired) and she came with us to the Doctor's.

Great book

It is a well known fact that I do not think many things are "Great" or "the best thing ever" or even like to recommend things to others. So when you see that I am endorsing something, please take note.

I am almost done reading Private Sector by Brian Haig. It is an amazing book so far and I highly recommend it to those of you who like Lee Child or Nelson DeMille books. It has the same character, Sean Drummond who is a JAG Officer, as his other books, all of them great also.

It doesn't get much better then this. My daughter in one arm and my dog in another. 

Four Eyes

While my sister was growing up she couldn't wait to have glasses. So it's no wonder her 3 1/2 month old son, Bender already has them.

Aunt Boom holding little Libby 

Aunt Cathie holding Lulu

Aunt Fish holding Libby Danielle

Getting ready to go out on the town

What a huge difference 3 1/2 months makes.

First Bath

Aunt Kris, Cathie, and Susan all came up to visit on Thursday, and each one of them said that Libby smelled bad. So on Friday we decided to give her her first real bath. As you can see she LOVED it.

Best friends already

For some reason Cathie wanted me to mention to everyone that she is a smelly pig. It was so embarrassing, Bender and Libby came out of their rooms today wearing exactly the same outfits. They are already best friends and love hanging out together. Libby is already a typical female and is talking Bender's ear off.

Elvis and Little Elvis

Beth, Kris, Cathie, Susan, Bender, Libby and I all went downtown Memphis today to tool around the Peabody Place Mall and hit Beale Street. Bender and I decided to try on Elvis costumes while we were there. Someone actually came up and mentioned how much Bender looked like Elvis when he was a baby. It has been way to long since I got a haircut and the Elvis mask/wig actually improved my look. I am starting to look like a hippy. I am trying to wait two more weeks until we head to Michigan so I can get a haircut at the Okemos Barbershop where I have been going for almost 20 years.

Two-week Well Child Check-Up

Libby went in for her 2 week well child check-up today. I was not able to go because the alarm company was at our house trying to get the alarm to sync up with the telephone. Aunt Laura and cousin Elise were nice enough to drive Beth and Libby, because Beth isn't allowed to drive a car for 2 weeks. Libby weighed 5 lbs 14 oz or about 3 oz less then she should, that puts her in the 5th percentile for her weight. She is 18 1/2 inches long, shrinking about an inch, putting her in the 10th percentile for height. Soon she will start measuring herself against her Great-Grandma Smith as all grandchildren and great-grandchildren do. Dr. Geiger was impressed that she could already lift her head off the table and thought she was very strong. Her umbilical cord fell off two days ago and Beth ate part of it as per an ancient Bonner custom.

My dog ate your homework

My sister in law Errin had her first day of school on Tuesday, it is her fourth year of teaching. I called her today to see how it had gone, and as we were talking her dog Obie went into her briefcase and started tearing apart some of the kids homework assignments. This brings up two questions: How do you explain to the students that your dog ate THEIR homework and what kind of teacher assigns homework the first day of school?

Hey Cuz....

We took a bunch of pictures of Libby today to use for her Birth Announcement and her cousin Elise decided she wanted to get in on the fun.

There is a first time for everything

On Thursday night, Rudi, Errin, Paul and I played Euchre. Paul and I got our butts handed to us the first game, and lost 8 to 10 the second. During the first game Rudi was trying to show off and called "I'm going alone" and not only did he not win all 5 tricks thus winning 4 points, nor take 3 or 4 getting 1 point, he lost 3 tricks and was Euchred. I am pretty sure that this is the first time in Euchre history that this has happened to someone.

Pretty flowers

Hollywood Video (where I use to be employed) was kind enough to send over this beautiful flower arrangement celebrating the birth of Libby Danielle.

A Halloween fashion show

Here is my neice Elise trying on a chicken and a monkey Halloween costume.

A new diddy

Milk, milk, lemonade...around the corner fudge is made.

That is a famous nursery rhyme my mom taught me when I was growing up. I in turn taught it to my sister in law Laura this week while she has been staying with us. What I didn't know is for the past few days Laura has been working on a version for Libby. Here it is:

Milk, milk, lemonade....the more she eats, the more is made. The more thats made, the better she feels, so drink Beth's milk for every meal.

Happy Birthday Libby

It seems like just a week ago that Libby Danielle was born and to celebrate we, along with her Aunts Errin and Laura, Uncles Paul and Rudi and cousin Elise, took her to Corky's BBQ. It has been rated best BBQ in Memphis 20 years running, it was also featured on "Best Of" from the Food Network.

Milk, milk, lemonade......

Libby had her weight check today and she gained 2 oz to move her weight up to 5 lbs 9 1/2 oz, the doctor was very pleased. Also it seems that Beth's milk has come in and she is able to feed the baby and start pumping milk to freeze from when she goes back to work. Laura is letting Beth use her breast pump which is the Cadillac of breast pumps.

Beth's youngest sister Errin and her husband Rudi flew in from St Paul, MN today. I picked them up at the airport on my bike because of the rising gas prices, about $3.19 a gallon now. More and more gas stations are running out of gas down here.

Libby had her first prolonged crying fit tonight, before this she had been a near perfect baby. Rudi, Paul, Errin and I were on our way out to Dan McGuiness Irish pub when we got a call from Laura that we needed to stop at Walgreen's and get some children's Tylenol and some gas drops (they take away gas...not give it to you). By the time I got back she had settled down for the most part and actually had a good night sleep.