The Atkinson Family
Here it is, after two long months, an actual photograph of the three of us together! This is just before church this morning and you can tell how excited Isaiah was about the picture. Fortunately we got some cuter ones of him later in the day. (By "we" I mean my brother Rick. I gave him the baby and said "take some good pictures" and then left. Ivy and Lisie helped him too & they got some darling shots that I'll post later on.)
This is Jerel's sister's son Isaac. He asked Karee, "I thought the baby's name was going to be Charlie?" and Karee told him that Charlie is Isaiah's middle name. So Isaac says "I . . . sai . . . ah . . . I don't hear 'Charlie' anywhere in that name." So just to clarify, his name is Isaiah. He has two middle names--Charles (Mandy's paternal grandfather) and Bernard (Jerel's paternal grandfather & also Jerel's middle name). We each have a great deal of love and respect for our grandfathers and hope that as Isaiah gets older he will learn about them and have a desire to develop the strength of character they both had. Also, just to give everyone fair warning, Jerel is strictly anti-nickname so if you want to stay on his good side you'll call the baby Isaiah. Although when I agreed to name him Isaiah instead of Charles it was with the stipulation that I could occasionally call him Charlie and my grandma can call him Charlie all she wants. All that said, I currently call him Burrito . . . 
Thanks to Bambi for capturing one of Isaiah's favorite tricks. He loves to raise his hand in his sleep. I'm not really sure why he does it but it cracks me up. It becomes even more hilarious when I add my own commentary "Raise your hand if you love mommy the best" or "raise your hand if you think mommy's the most beautifulest girl ever" etc. What can I say? It turns out daytime TV is lame so Isaiah and I have to entertain ourselves!
It was a big day for visitors at our house yesterday. Rick came down from Bremerton with two of his boys. Cooper is the little one and he is still afraid of me, but he did agree to sit down and hold the baby (with me close by to catch him just in case). Asher is the older one and in case you're wondering why he looks so dazed it's because he has TV Disease. It's herditary--he got it from his mom--and basically if the TV is on he is completely unaware of anything going on around him. You can ask him anything and he'll just say "Uh huh." Anyway, they came down and we met Bambi & Donathan for lunch, so that was fun. Asher came in my car and held Isaiah's pacifier in his mouth which made for a much quieter-than-usual ride. After that we came home and spent a few minutes with Jerel's aunts before running a few errands and then the boys headed back home. (By the way Isaiah stayed home with Jerel while we ran errands so it was my first time out without him...he reluctantly takes a bottle when necessary now so I have a whole new sense of freedom.)
Yesterday two of Jerel's aunts came through town on their way to the coast. Aunt Kay and Aunt Betty both got to hold the little guy and he was fairly cooperative. Betty was here just a few days before Isaiah was born so we were lucky to get to see her again so soon! They are Jerel's dad's sisters and we are hoping Grandpa Atkinson won't be too jealous that his sisters got to see the baby before he did...It's pretty much a first-come, first-serve deal around here!
