andy's blog

For his first birthday, Grant visited Mimi, Jimbeaux, Uncle Jame, Aunt Jessica, Mira, and Holt in South Carolina and went to the South Carolina Zoo. Grant is changing daily before our eyes. He is learning new ways to be entertaining. He can point out lions, dogs, elephants, and other animals. He knows what ball, floor, chair, truck, car, cup, spoon, etc. mean. He can make the sounds for a lion, monkey, and dog. He likes for me to crawl and chase him around, all while growling. We recently started taking him to swim classes, and he seems very much at ease in the water. Christine has had to take over all duties almost exclusively because I sprained my wrist a couple of weeks ago. He has also been attending his friends' first birthday parties. Next up: walking.

Well, it has actually been here for a while. We currently have 80 pictures in the July album. Grant hit the 8-week mark on 7/18 (2 months is officially 7/23) and is starting to wear some 3-month outfits. He is big and healthy. Most importantly of all, Grant had a normal EEG on Tuesday, 7/17. No more seizures and no more medicine (after 30 days of tapering). We are ecstatic to be past that little episode. Uncle Nick (Christine's brother) and Aunt Amanda are visiting for the first time this weekend (7/20-7/22), so we will have lots of new pictures to fill out the month in the coming days.

I just added 29 new pictures from the last week or so. Grant is getting bigger, especially longer. He is making better eye contact and seems more aware of his surroundings. He started drinking from a bottle once a day, which allows Mom to get out of the house a little bit and allows Dad the pleasure of getting to feed him. Grant had his first real outing on his one-month birthday, going to the Blue Ribbon picnic at New Hope Camp to see Joyce. Although he did not eat much fried chicken and cherry pie, he nonetheless enjoyed the opportunity to see the outside world and breathe real, fresh air.

Grant Philip Lathren was born Wednesday, May 23, 2007, at 1:12 am at UNC hospital. He weighed 7 pounds, 5.3 ounces and was 20 inches long. He is a handsome lil' Devil, with a head full of dark hair.

Mom and baby are both doing extremely well, especially considering Christine was in labor 24 hours.

My students have offered some suggestions for the name of our baby, per my request. I will only list the boy names (and gender-neutral), as they were allowed to submit ideas before the gender was known. See any winners?

Ablerto
Adrian
Alvaro
Andrew
Andrew White, Jr.
Antonio
Arwin
Austin
Bill
Billy
Bob
Brad
Brandon
Brett
Brian
C. J.
Chris
Christopher James
Cody
Connor
Conrad
Daniels
Devis
Drain Pipe
Eric
Esteban
Harry
Jack
Jackson
Jaelin
Jake
James
Jason
Jeo
Jesse Mitchell
John
Johnah
John-Michael
Jonathan
Jordan
Jose
Joseph
Juan
Julio
Justin