Go Saints!

I don’t watch a lot of football on TV; my dad didn’t watch much either, if he did it would be teams we had a connection with, such as the Falcons, Arizona State or Tulane. Last night, in perhaps a true guy bonding moment, I sat and watched the New Orleans Saints win the NFC Championship game with my newborn son in my arms. If sports can be good for community’s spirit, then New Orleans has been given that gift and Jack and I were a part of that spirit.

Jack Witte arrives 1/20/2010

Jack Christian Witte was born January 20, 2010 at 1:03 PM at Northtside Hospital in Atlanta, GA. He was 7 pounds and 9 ounces and was 20 ½ inches in length.

Jack came home to our house from the hospital on Friday, January 22, 2010. Our daughter Amelia, now two years old, is adjusting to her sudden new world with a brother to contend with. On Saturday Amelia feed her brother a bottle briefly and she was very pleased with herself. We not have gotten much sleep which is of course expected; I should be asleep now in fact. Anna’s mother, Ann Gillis, is assisting us with the transition to a larger family life.

When Amelia was born in August of 2007, this blog was a valuable resource to friends and family who wanted to follow our life with a new born. Over time the postings to he blog became less, there was only one posting in all of 2009, however with the birth of Jack Witte new postings will resume here. On this page there is a link to our flickr.com photo site. While our Facebook pages will occasionally have photos of our life with Amelia and Jack, there will be more photos posted at the flickr site. While it seems the entire world is involved in social networking nowadays, such as Facebook or Twitter, many people are not on such media sites and this blog will be accessible to those individuals.

The link to photos will always be on the right side of the blog page, but meanwhile here is the link.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/switte

Enjoy!

Amelia takes on the holidays

Amelia entered into the New Year of 2009 in good sprites, but with some teething pains. Her holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, were spread out between Chicago, Waycross, GA, Jacksonville, FL, and Atlanta. Check out the Flickr.com site here to see pictures of the month’s past events.

While in the Chicago area for Thanksgiving, she received excellent care from her Mimi and two sets of aunts and uncles over a couple of days, thus allowing her parents some time to shop and explore in downtown Chicago. She got to see her cousins who enjoyed playing with her. Amelia is certainly a social creature and loves a crowd.

Christmastime included a trip to see Santa at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta. On Santa’s lap, she enjoyed pointing to the lights, cameraman and the sights of the mall. The cameraman had Santa distract her just long enough to get her arm down for the annual photo.

On the 20th of December, her grandmother Mimi flew in to join us for Christmas. Mimi and she spent time looking at books and going to the park to swing. On Christmas Eve we all left for Waycross, GA. Once in Waycross, Amelia spent time seeing relatives and opening gifts. She had fun walking up and down the halls of the Pond View Inn in downtown Waycross where we stayed. The day after Christmas, Amelia with her parents, Mimi, Big Mamma and Big Daddy, went an hour or so southeast of Waycross to Jacksonville, FL. She lunched with everyone in the San Marco area before heading to take a nap in her Uncle Tot’s new hip loft space. She stayed up late for dinner at the Chart House Restaurant in Jacksonville before mostly giggling her way back to Waycross. The next day, she wasn’t keen on sleeping during the 250 plus mile trip home until about a mile from the house when she finally couldn’t resist sleep, but she returned to her happy toddler life in Atlanta.

Amelia at fourteen months

Amelia is walking now. So far we can keep up with her. She babbles and she points at everything. Many objects are known as "bee" or "baa". She must be southern because she sometimes likes to say "Bubba". This month she traveled to Amelia Island in Flordia once again. Next month she takes her second plane trip,this time north to Chicago. Please see the new photos on flickr.com website.

New portraits

We had photogapher Shannon Holden come to our home and take new profesional photos of Amelia at age one. Shannon has put up a slide show of the session on her site. Please see them here.

www.shannonholden.com/clients/2008-08witte


I am not sure how long these photos will be up on her site, but please have look.

Amelia Turns One

August 6th Amelia turned age one. The common description of having a baby around is that they grow up fast. We were warned that a year goes by fast and so it is true. I invite everyone who has paid attention to the blog here, or even if you have not, to take a look back in the next month at our year with Amelia. I plan on deleting some past online stories soon after I make some copies. I need space for more adventures. We have grown as parents since the first few days she came to us in during hot dry days of August 2006. We know that ahead there is more to learn and experience.

Amelia for a one year old has covered a lot of ground in one year. Sometimes it was like I wanted her do everything in one year of her tiny life, all with hovering hands and parental supervision of course. So far she has been to five states, flown on a plane, had a brief ride on ferry boat, rode a New Orleans streetcar, been to an art museum, aquarium, farms, church services, islands and beaches. All this and I remembered the other day, she hasn’t ridden on a Marta train here in Atlanta yet, oh well. There is so much time ahead. I know time will zoom by with Amelia because I’ve been warned. I’ll try to snap the pictures fast.

Be sure so the pictures of Amelia’s first birthday party on the flickr site.

Amelia at eleven months

Amelia is now less than a month from her first birthday. She is crawling, sometimes at rapid speeds, around the house. Amelia can now stand and cruise around the edge of a low table. At times she has found herself standing without any nearby support showing us that walking can’t be too far off. Recently in June she spent time on Amelia Island in Florida. New pictures are now loaded on the picture site. See the photos here.