someone new to love...

Introducing...

Jude William Frank Bryant

November 25th, 2008

8 lbs. 11 oz.

21 inches

All went well with bringing him into the world.

We're home now and doing great... just trying to savor every moment.

xo

Ralonda

gettin' ready...

A few weeks ago I was waking up during the night panicking about socks...


I didn't think we had enough socks for our lil' bundle of joy

due to arrive in eleven days or sooner.

So, I went shopping...

And now I have twenty-plus pairs of socks just waiting to keep his lil' piggies nice and toasty.

After the socks, the obsessive, cleaning, craziness set in...

I love our pets, but their hairs are driving me nutty.

We also had our baby shower.

A huge THANK YOU-YOU'RE AMAZING
to my best friend, Amy
and mother-in-law, Ma B
for throwing JB and I a fun filled, gift laden couples shower!


The petit four's were absolutely delightful.


This is where I got stuck...
I had every intention of taking a lot more pictures of our shower,
but after I ate one of these little scrumptious darlings,
I set my camera down to greet some guests and never picked it back up.
Although, I did manage to pick up few more of these delights
and cram them in my mouth... oy!


And now with those lil' delights gone from my reach, I finally got around to taking some photos of some of the gifts we received.

With a few gift cards we received to buy some things

we still needed or wanted,

we treated ourselves to "his & hers" diaper bags.

And now the packing begins...

Yes, that's right... JB bought me those sock monkey slippers to wear at the hospital.

He's funny like that.

And I made sure I have a selection of my favorite lotions and body wash... just in case I have the energy after giving birth to care.

And of course, something special to bring the lil' guy home in.

The white blanket in the back is the same one I brought my other son, Theron, home in over fifteen years ago. It has little blue birds on it and was sent to me from my grandmother several years before she passed away.

So, this may very well be my last blog entry until after baby "J's" birthday.
I'll try to update again, but I can't make any promises.
I hope everyone is well and I'll be back soon...

Lots of love,
Ralonda

my personal escort...

Meet Buddy...

He's a good dog.

He's a mix between a German Shorthaired Pointer and a Brittney Spaniel.
Buddy is about 7 years old.
Buddy would never harm a thing... not even a fly.
Well, actually one of his favorite past times is catching bugs.
In fact, his name was almost Bugs when JB adopted him at about 4 months of age... but my step-son, Jackson, insisted on "Buddy".
But other than that gross little hobby, he's all bark.

He too is a tad overweight... it's my fault.
I just have a weakness for feeding the people... errr, I mean, the things I love good food.
Ok, enough about Buddy's weight... he's happy and that's all that matters, right? I mean, I have a good friend who calls a little extra weight, "happy pounds"... and I'm sure we all have 'em. There's nothing wrong with a few extra "happy pounds" on anyone!

Now, back to my point here...

Buddy has become my personal escort and bodyguard since we found out we were expecting back in March.

At first, I didn't think anything of it. I just thought that for some strange reason he, all of a sudden, wanted to sleep and hang out under our bed. His barking at anything and everything... and sometimes nothing also became excessive. I still didn't catch on.

It was only after I realized that every time I got up to move around the house he was up and in front of me. He would even race ahead to catch up to be the "leader" and look back to make sure I was still following. And then it hit me... he's escorting me to the kitchen, to the bathroom, and to put laundry away. If for a moment he gets distracted and looses sight of me, he'll come searching and pick up where he left off.

It's the weirdest thing.

It's also sometimes a bit annoying.

I did actually look it up and yes, it's a fact that although dogs might not know exactly what is going on, they can sense and even smell a change in a woman when she becomes pregnant. They can become extra clingy and cuddly. They can become obsessed with smelling you (he sometimes will do this too) and they can become extra protective and want to escort you around everywhere.

And although it's a bit annoying at times, I've never had a personal escort... So, for the last remaining 3 weeks (more or less), I'll try to enjoy it... even cherish it.

After all, in his mind he's doing his job... and he's doing a good job at that!

Good boy, Buddy!

xo

Ralonda