Thanks so much for the updates!! I'm following this right along with the A's.
love,
Monty

You are all so handsome!

I am not sure i have gotten my old blogs in there. SO lets see how I did today! love you all and miss you. We wish we could be there right now. But we are happy to be able to come soon. he looks great! mom/mina

Hey guys. Don't forget the Mozart!! (Note: originally posted by Monty)

Time to fend for ourselves!

Nana and Papi are returning to Tucson tomorrow, leaving the four of us to fend for ourselves for the first time since Ranier was born. Thank you for all the great help! Bon voyage!

We managed to get Dahrius to sit still long enough to snap a pretty good picture of all of us....

Sharing the parents for one week and no major revolts yet....

Dahrius and daddy have been trying to get over a shared cold, so we've both been a bit fussier than usual. Good thing Megan's parents are around to take care of us.

:)

Dahrius so far has seemed to quite enjoy this whole business of being a big brother. We're starting to set aside some "mommy time" as we can in the evening, which should get easier as Ranier gets more alert, but otherwise he is remaining his usual independent self.

Here he is having fun with Ranier, with whom he is graciously sharing his precious blankie...


Of course, most of the time Dahrius is off doing his own thing, like experimenting with the laws of flotation at the lake in Duke Gardens.


Or climbing on top of the giant turtle sculpture along the walk to the farmer's market.


It's almost May! Happy mid-Spring ya'll.

It's been a week!

Daddy and Dahrius have been nursing colds this past week, which means we have been less than useless to Megan and Ranier. Fortunately, Ranier seems to be a champion eater and has already rocketed past his birth weight and is probably going to surpass 10 pounds today or tomorrow. His first visit to the pediatrician gave him high marks on all categories, which is always a nice thing to hear. Megan has been settling in to the routine, her parents have been helping out, and other than a general lack of high-quality sleep, things seem to be going well. Thank you for the well-wishes and other nice notes to all who have sent them!

Here is Megan looking quite stunning as she takes care of Ranier in the Duke Gardens...


Here is the rest of us....


Ranier is getting more alert by the day.... sleeping is still activity number one, but he's already showing some interest in tracking objects, especially black and white faces.


Papi is in town too. Ranier is getting used to being shared.

Filling out a bit...

Ranier, as expected, has been mostly eating and sleeping, but he's doing a great job with both tasks. He's quickly shedding the "really new" newborn look, and he passed his 3-day checkup with flying colors.
The weather is fabulous, Megan is recovering speedily, and we're all doing great. Thanks for the wonderful calls and email responses. By the way, if you didn't already figure this out, you can click on any photo and see a full-sized version. Much better that way!

Dahrius is now a big brother!

After months of anticipation, Dahrius is now officially a big brother. Baby Ranier was born yesterday (check out Ranier's blog for details: ranierdays.blogspot.com) and Dahrius was there at home to welcome him to the family that morning. He was quite excited about this whole big-brother thing all day, according to news reports. So far, he seems to be taking the events in stride. Nana is in town to help out, and she and Dahrius celebrated by eating a really big strawberry.

Welcome, Ranier Samand Hall Bissell !!

Ah, the pace of technology. Not yet a day old and already with his own blog! The world will never be the same. But mostly, this is just dad's way of making photo-sharing and updates substantially easier for everyone. If ever one of you wants to make actual posts to the blog (as opposed to comments, which anyone can do), feel free to email me and I will make it so. A chocolate bar or two in the mail to our house will expedite the process....

Vital stats:
Ranier Samand Hall Bissell
Born at 3AM on his actual due date: April 19, 2007 in Chapel Hill, NC.
Weight: 9 lbs, 6 oz.
Length: 21 inches

Ranier: our preferred spelling for the name, pronounced "Rah-neer", inspired partially by "just sounding and feeling right" and partially by the awesome mountain in the Northwest that bears the same name (but spelled, "Rainier"). Dahrius' middle name (Kalo) was inspired by a loved natural object (a flower), and this is a loved natural object of a different sort.

Samand: a Persian name meaning "arrow" or "a noble steed". It is in keeping with the Persian-name theme, like Dahrius, except that we liked Ranier more as a first name, so we switched the order this time.

Some first pics....

Home from the birth center:
Meeting big brother Dahrius that morning:With Nana:2nd day... filling out a bit!
More pics to be posted regularly.

Love, Ahrash, Megan, Dahrius, and Ranier

New camera! New post!

Hi all,

We had a bit of a hiatus due to lack of a camera, and then due to lack of time, so there's some time to make up here. First, here is a recent pic of all of us.... with Megan looking about ready for this baby to arrive!


Next came Dahrius' birthday! It turned out to be unusually cold the few days around the birthday, but it was warm enough to do some playing outside and also have a birthday Easter egg hunt in the yard. Lots of fun was had by all.
Hayden (on the left side of the above photo) turns out to be an expert candle blower, so he made sure Dahrius got his birthday wishes... As for presents, Dahrius ended up with not one, not two, but three new Thomas trains! And not just any Thomas trains. They were all Thomas Thomas trains! Needless to say, a happier boy could not be found anywhere.

Maman then moved on to the next big thing, but not before we managed to take a quick picture in the Spring yard...
In the meantime, Nana had arrived, hoping for an early birth so that she could maximize the time she has with us in NC. But first, more parties at daycare...


All of the kids greatly appreciated the cupcakes with frosting and wished that there were a few more birthdays to be had more often.

We are all doing well. Megan seems to have settled down a bit and is looking quite a bit less anxious about the upcoming birth than a week or two ago. Ahrash has basically wrapped all of the crucial things up at work and is definitely ready for the family addition. And Dahrius still insists that the new sibling better be a sister.

More news as we can!

Love,

Ahrash