Locked and Loaded

Alexia's sister Carina is currently living and working in NYC for the summer. She took a week off to come and see her new nephew Sr. Benny. The bulk of her visit was comprised of eating lots of good food and just hanging out and catching up. Cari is now a professional diaper changer and is a natural baby pacifier. I taught her the art of swaddling and the silence that it provides. Baby Ben baptized her by pooping on her stomach as well as this seems to be his trademark move.

Upon Cari's arrival we visited NC's capital and walked around the city for a while. We also stopped in Chapel Hill to eat at Top of the Hill brewery and restaurant where Ben thankfully slept through the entire meal on the terrace. Cari got to do some shopping in the second hand stores per her taste and took in the NC culture along with some beautiful weather.

On our way to drop Cari off we all decided that we should stop in for a bit to eat before we sent her on her way back to NYC. The last time we did this, we had some really bad Indian food and all lived to regret it... but I digress; We stopped in at a cozy little restaurant apparently converted from a drive through style food joint. Alexia said "Hey guys there's a place- Manny turn around" and so I did. We quickly noted the smell of stale cigarettes and beer but oh no...we had committed. "Locked and Loaded" was the name of this fine establishment and despite the raging double bass hard metal soundtrack that Ben awestruck O.O, we had a good time. Even some of the bikers and waitresses cracked a smile when they saw Ben.

Our time with Cari was short but sweet and we are all looking forward to our time in Spain next year. Cari, thanks for putting up with the zoo and all of the noise and even more for enduring the construction residue. We love you.

Manny, Alexia, Benny, Chorizo, El DoucheCat and Skid (from outside)

So there we were, lex was 2 days away from her 40 week due date and it all started. Alexia spent the next 34.5 hours (12 of which were at home) in back labor at Pitt County Memorial's labor and delivery center. Baby Ben was whisked away by the NICU team as soon as he jumped out of the jacuzzi. We learned that swallowing meconium (baby mustard) is bad for babies! To our relief Little Ben was returned to the bedside after about 30 minutes.

We spent the next 2 nights in the hospital and our nurse Becky made our stay awesome. As a nurse I hold high standards of care and realize that I am somewhat difficult to please. All of our questions (there were many) were answered and everything I had learned in school about neonates suddenly became very real. "We're parents!" a sobering thought.

Of course when we got home the family was waiting for us with all the excitement one can imagine. Mom, Dad, Jim, Carla, Cass and of course Eden and Thomas were all taking turns passing little Ben around like a hot potato.

Everyone worked so hard to ensure that Alexia and I had a smooth transition home. Sarah and Laurynas were totally helpful (and thoughtful) throughout the entire stay- thank you guys so much.

My family decided that some home improvement needed to be done and so they spackled, painted, sanded, stained and polyurethaned until they dropped. We now have a living room ceiling that is just about ready to be painted too. No more water damage! 50% of the floors were sanded too so all we have to do is decide when we are going to finish them. Even the kids got into it.

The baby room is essentially complete too. We still have to hang all of the Beatrix Potter frames that Alexia bought. It's so awesome to see this place starting to come together... We will be sure to post pictures of the nursery soon. Lex wants to make sure and have the frames up before we call it done.

A quick thanks again to friends and family for making sure that they were there to answer all of the paranoid questions that new parents have and even more for all of your hard work. I know it wasn't exactly a vacation for you all but the paint fights and all of the awesome food made it all worth it.

I hope you all enjoy the photos... as you know (for those of you who do), little Ben will be extremely photographed- so updates will be frequent. Thank you al for your well wishes and anticipation for the little man to arrive... announcements to follow.

Manny, Alexia & Benicio!