Happy 1-month Birthday!

Today Evan is one month old. I took him to his one-month pediatrician appointment, and he is 11.7 pounds now, and has grown 3 cm in length. He is as healthy and as strong as can be. Hooray!

I was doing pretty well with my picture-a-day goal, but then things got busy (appointments galore this week). We managed to capture a few moments, though...

Mark's colleagues gave us a surprise baby shower this week! Evan was quite colicky at the time when we were going to go, so we ended up staying home. Later, when Mark came home with all the gifts, I couldn't believe we had missed it. Awful! :( This is a play mat that was given to us that day.

He immediately fell asleep as soon as I placed him on the mat. Good sign!

A moment from yesterday afternoon...

Zzzzzz... Last night and today have been hard. Evan was up until 3am last night with a tummy ache, and he hasn't slept much today either. Around 6pm, we both finally succumbed to our tiredness, and Mark snapped this photo of our exhausted little duo.

Random photos of cuteness (by Ruth)!

This is Evan (unlike yesterday's passport photo). The look on his face is one we see all the time and is a major part of his personality!

Ruth snapped this scene on a walk by the Rhone. The cat inhabits this house boat, and the duck with her ducklings were just passing by. Poor frustrated kitty (lucky ducks)!!

No exceptions, not even for extremely cute babies...

Today I took Evan to have official photos taken for his passport application. The usual rule with any official photo is that it must fit specific measurements and also be a bad representation of the person (am I right, or am I right?). Who doesn't have a collection of awful offical photos, whether for passports, drivers licenses, etc.? Well, apparently the rule holds for babies as well, and Evan got his first today!

Our handsome little guy, minutes before leaving for the photographer...

It took me 20 minutes to wake Evan up once we arrived at the photographer's, and it was a huge piece of luck that a photo was taken where his eyes were open. Neither Mark nor I think this photo looks like Evan at all! He never makes this expression, and yet this is how the U.S. government will know him. No exceptions to the rule!

On another note... we enjoyed dinner with our friend Xavier tonight. He and Mark have spoken a lot of French and English over the last few months, but now he's moving to Paris and then to Houston to continue his studies in medicine. We'll miss you, Xavier!

Xavier and le bébé orange

This is Mark and Evan, just moments ago. Evan often eats too much for his little stomach to handle, and he gets stomach aches at night. Mark always takes him until he falls asleep (Evan has an awesome dad). This position, on the exercise ball, is the newest we have found to help give Evan some relief, and it is the result of many nights of improvising. Evan likes the combination of pressure on his belly, sitting upright, bouncing, and sucking on Mark's pinkie finger, while hearing French TV in the background. Compliqué!

3-week stats...

Well..... we took Evan to be weighed today, and...

...here's what a 3-week, 5 kilo 70 gram (11lbs 3 oz) Evan looks like!!!

Yes, our son gained 1.5 pounds in the last 9 days. I think I have enough milk to feed triplets! We're looking into donating to the local "lactarium" to help feed premature infants.

And a few of photos taken by Ruth (we miss you, Ruth!!):

A family portrait...

Mark impersonating a face Evan makes a lot

My favorite...

A picture a day...

In a perfect world, I would post a photo of Evan every single day. I can't make any promises, since he always seems to wake up hungry just when I am sitting down to the computer. Here's my best try for today (sure enough, he's beginning to make those sweet little sounds that let me know...):

Evan in his super-cute baseball All Star outfit (thanks, Sara!), about to strike a home run.

Mark trying a new position to help soothe Evan's tummy during a late-night (wee morning, actually) crying session. This way of holding him calmed him down for awhile and seemed to give him some relief!

Tomorrow we go to have him weighed again. I predict over 10 pounds! We'll see...

Evan has a belly button!

Just moments ago, during a routine diaper change, I saw that Evan's umbilical cord had fully separated from his little belly. Being the proud mother that I am, of course I think that his little belly button underneath is the cutest in the world! Hooray for Evan!!

Evan is now 18 days old. We can't believe how fast he is growing up already. Soon he'll be 3 weeks, and I know 3 years is just around the corner, then 30... Just like everyone has been saying would happen, life is indeed accelerating.

A few photos...

little feet...big foot (well, not that big)...entertaining myself late at night at the hospital...

This was taken just a few hours before we left the hospital...

Still getting used to bath time...so far, 3 baths down, and he only cried during one of them

Evan tries to decide if he likes the swing his parents got for him

Naptime (look at his cute little fingers!)

Relaxing with Awnt Ruth, who is visiting this week. They love each other!!!

Dancing with Awnt Ruth...

And this photo taken just this morning, modeling the hat that was made for him by his cousin Jenna (thanks, Jenna, we LOVE the little hat!!! He's the only baby in France with a hat so cool!!)

More photos to come...Ruth took some of the best photos yet...so excited to share!

Nighty-night...

Introducing Evan Marc Butler

Evan Marc Butler was born at 4:47 pm on March 30. Here he is, almost three days after his birth:


Kendra and Evan were just waking up from a nap on the second morning after the birth, and I'd been watching Evan gaze outward like that for a two or three minutes when I realized with a start that this was the image that I wanted to use to introduce Evan to our friends and family.

Another shot that shows the personality expressed through his eyes:


This photo was taken when he was about 20 hours old. I saw that expression many times in his eyes during the couple of days after his birth. Since the end of his second day, I've more often seen in his eyes an activity, energy, and interest in the world. This photo shows him just trying to deal with the overwhelming experience of being bathed for the first time. (In this picture, I'm holding Evan, and a sage-femme, or trained midwife who delivers babies in hospitals, is teaching me how to bathe him.)

Another step back in time, to a moment just after we have moved from the birthing room into the room where Kendra and Evan stayed for four days (the standard length of time for a mother to stay in the hospital after a delivery in France):


What an accomplishment for the two of them!

A picture of Evan that was taken just a few minutes after we arrived home from the hospital on April 3:


I got to spend a fair amount of time doing my best to comfort Evan during the first couple of days after his birth, and it seemed that he never stayed asleep for long. Once Kendra's milk arrived, things changed a lot, and now it sometimes seems impossible to wake him up fully during the day. Here's a picture in which he is sucking hard on my index finger just a few hours after his birth, trying to comfort himself:


and here he is about 12 hours later, during a short nap:


And here he is two days after the birth, finally sleeping deeply with a full stomach:


What a relief it was to see him sleep like that!

Here's one last photo, which captures a very characteristic expression in which Evan is waving his arms and looking around energetically:



Kendra is recovering well and expects to get back to blogging soon. In the meantime, you can look at Evan's personal blog, created by our friend Kari Masson:

http://evan-marc.blogspot.com/