Already 4 Weeks!

It's crazy to think that Skip will be four weeks old tomorrow. You can see from these photos (I think) that he's really starting to fill out. Hooray! I'm excited to plump him up and to watch him grow big and strong (although not too quickly).

No offense to anyone with a bald-headed baby, but I've always thought babies with hair are much cuter and so far we've been 2-for-2 in that category. Skip has a great head of hair, although I suppose he'll probably be losing it soon, or at least getting weird bald spots. What's interesting now is that you can see that the roots of his hair are actually pretty light. Tori thinks he's going to be blonde, but I'm not sure yet.

Yesterday we went to the beach with a bunch of USC friends and Skip pretty much slept through the whole day. Then more people came over to our house to watch a movie projected in our backyard and he slept through all of that, too. All of our friends were making fun of us saying that we had it so easy. I told them they should spend the night and wake up with him during the night. But the truth is, I know that -- relatively speaking! -- we have it very easy and we're lucky to have such a calm and content baby. Again, we're 2-for-2 on that front! Well, Zadie was really calm when she was a baby, but nowadays it's a whole different matter.

In a few days I'm going to take Skip and Zadie to San Diego to hang out with the grandparents for a long weekend. This will be a good time for my parents to get more quality time with Skip since they only got to hold him for about two hours the last time (and only other time) they saw him. And of course Zadie will be delighted to see her grandparents and go swimming! I need to decide if I'm going to take Skip for his first swim.

Zadie Meets Skip

Here's the video of Zadie meeting Skip for the first time. We had just driven Skip home from the hospital in Pasadena and Zadie was returning from a walk with Uncle Hank. She was obviously very curious about him and then gave him a nice little kiss!

Zadie has been really good to Skip this whole time. She likes to come over and pat him or bring him a pacifier. When Deshon was here, he could steal her toys and she did NOT like that at all -- she'd secretly elbow or give him a little kick here and there. But even Zadie can see that Skip is totally vulnerable and helpless and so she treats him with kindness.

At certain points, I've wondered if Zadie thinks Skip is a dog. When she sees him she gets really excited and barks at him. Maybe she thinks we brought home a little chihuahua. Either way, she likes him!

Two Weeks

Skip turned two weeks old yesterday, so I thought I would enter his info from his two-week checkup. He weighed 7 lbs 6 oz (15th percentile) and measured 20.5 inches (50th percentile). His head circumference was 13.5 somethings, which is the 10th percentile. So quite a bit smaller than Zadie was at this age, but we look forward to fattening him up!

And I guess I actually haven't written down all his birth stats. Skip weighed 6 lbs 6 oz and was carried to term. He measured 19.5 inches.

We're thankful to have such a happy and healthy baby boy!

To Skip From Granddaddy

Skip is sleeping on my chest right now -- much like he was in this photo. There have been several things I've been meaning to blog about because later I'll print this out and this will be his baby book, but it's been a little rough finding the time lately.

For now I just want to copy and paste this sweet email I received on your behalf after I set out a message announcing your name.

Dear Skip,

This is the first time I’ve ever addressed anyone named Skip. I like your name. As soon as you are old enough you should get down on your knees and say prayers of thanksgiving for your name. Believe it or not, your parents almost named you Oliver. Of course I would have loved you even if they had named you Icabod – but Skip is much better. Three days ago Denise and I drove 250 miles round trip to meet you for the first time. It was a short visit – only two hours. Your parents, Grandma Linda, Aunt Katie and Uncle Leo, and Uncle Hank were all gathered at the high water mark on the beach in Manhattan Beach, just south of the pier. Your sister Zadie was there, wet and sandy. It was 80 degrees and a beautiful day at the beach. I expect you will spend many days at the beach and other places outdoors. Denise and I were both able to hold you, feed you a bottle, and Denise changed your diaper. I wish I had known your name then so I could have practiced it while holding you. But your parents hadn’t picked your name yet. They wanted to make sure they picked a name that fit you perfectly. The perfect name for you is Skip.

This morning Grandma Denise and I are flying from San Diego to San Antonio to attend a Kuykendall family reunion in the Hill Country of Texas. We will make sure you and Zadie spend lots of time in Texas. It’s God’s country and you have lots of kinfolk there that are great people. I can’t wait to take you to the Kuykendall ranch. Speaking of names, your last name is a tough one to spell and pronounce. It’s a bit of a burden. You’ll be thankful that your first name is one syllable and easy for everyone to understand.

I love you and can’t wait to hold you soon and call you Skip.

Granddaddy Hal

Introducing...Skip!

After MUCH deliberation and input, we have a name for our little baby boy. Drumroll please...it's SKIP! You weren't expecting that, were you? We literally must have discussed hundreds and hundreds of names in the last week and we wanted a name that was masculine, easy to say and spell, and unique. I also wanted a one-syllable name since his middle and last names are so long.

We received a great deal of input over the past week and, in the end, we didn't listen to any of it. We happened upon the name Skip because we were actually talking about the name Kip. When we came up with it, we exchanged an excited look and did a little jig in the kitchen with you held between us. We like Skip because it's boyish and fun and easy and a bit unusual. And it's also an old name and we like old names (earlier we had been trolling the list of top names from 1920!).

So, dear Skip, you have no idea how much effort we put into your name and we hope you will always like it. We think it suits you and we've already practiced it with these ideas from your Grandma Linda: (1) "Skip K. is running down the court, he shoots, he scores! Way to go, Skip!" or (2) And the winner of the spelling bee is Skip K. (I don't like to use our last name on the blog). I think it works.

Baby Boy Meets The Family

Dear Baby Boy,

You wouldn't believe how many people ALREADY love you! On the day we brought you home from the hospital, Grandma Linda arrived for a visit from Washington. She took wonderful care of you and whispered lots of encouragement for strength and a wonderful life in your ear.

A few days later, your aunt and uncle, Katie and Leo, came to visit from Las Vegas. All of us went to the beach -- you went to the beach a total of four times in your first 9 days of life. Not bad! Everyone enjoyed holding you and was very impressed about what a calm baby you are. You don't like to have your diaper changed, but other than that you're pretty chill. Oh, another thing people always notice about you is your big feet. I wonder if that means you're going to be really tall.

Your grandma Denise and granddaddy Hal really wanted to see you, but they were going out of town and decided they had to wait until they got back. But then they couldn't stand it anymore and so they drove 2 hours to meet us at the beach and hold you for two hours -- and then they had to turn around and drive back home. I promised them I would tell you about that and you'd appreciate it some day.

Here's a nice photo with you and Grandma Linda. She left this morning and I'm sure she already misses you. I don't know if you can tell, but Zadie is lovingly patting you in this photo. She likes you and thinks you're quite the curiosity! I wish I had a photo of your other grandparents visiting with you at the beach, but we'll make up for it later.

A Baby Boy!

Everybody keeps acting like this foster-adopt process is emotionally brutal and wondering how we can do it. It's definitely an emotional roller-coaster, but I also find some comfort in these kinds of situations where things are completely beyond your control. It's like you just let go and try to have faith that the right thing will happen -- there's really no ability to try and control the outcome.

Case in point: we felt a great deal of sadness about losing Deshon, but we also understood why it happened. Then today we received a call about a 4-day-old baby boy. We heard a few basics and we had five minutes to call the social worker back with an answer. It only took me two minutes to track Tori down and call the guy back with a big "yes." Then we drove to Pasadena and picked him up, which was really fun. He still doesn't have a name yet, but we're working on it!

This time we feel pretty confident that we'll get to keep him. Of course, being a foster parent means you never know until you work your way to the point of adoption, but we hope and think this is going to work out.

Baby Boy Kuykendall, we are very happy to have you in our home. We have been holding you non-stop since we got you and at this very moment Tori is holding you and you are doing some cute little half-asleep grins. I know everyone says babies don't smile until six weeks and it's just gas, but it sure seems like smiles. You have a big shock full of black hair, rosy cheeks, and perfect little red lips. You also have enormous feet! Best of all, you have a great temperament and have only cried when you really needed to tell us something (thank you for that!). But check back with me after our first night together -- we'll find out what kind of sleeper you are!

We feel very privileged to have you here and, in a stroke of good fortune, it just so happens that Grandma Linda was arriving tonight. She totally hogged you all night and loved holding you and talking to you.

Here's a video from when we went to pick you up at the hospital. Tori was actually the first person to hold you and rock you, but my camerawork on that video was pretty bad so I'm going to post this one. The nurse kept wanting us to handle paperwork and all we wanted to do was snuggle with you.