Pretty good sleeper

Unfazed

Yesterday afternoon I accidentally forgot to flip the hand lock on our security door. I was walking down the stairs with Landon in my arms right as the mailman was coming up to the house. The dogs were barking and jumping up on the door and Bowen (the big guy) managed to hit the handle and much to his surprise the door opened. Needless to say the mailman was also surprised but somewhat less enthusiastic than Bowen about the turn of events. The dogs went out the door, mail went into the air, and the mailman took of the other direction. Without really thinking I charged out the door, jumped over our little planter, tackled the big dog and pinned him to the ground. Amazingly I did all this with Landon in one arm (the football hold works pretty well). Perhaps even more amazing is that Landon wasn't the slightest bit upset by all of this and he even seemed a little amused by it all.

Back to the office

I'm back in the office today. It's hard being away from the little guy but I can take solace knowing he is in the best of hands. We are very lucky to be able to have Kari stay home with LT (and that she wants to).

One more from (Grand)Father's Day

First Father's Day

Crashed

Lucky

I'd say we've been very lucky with little Landon so far because the moment caught in this picture is pretty rare. He is just a really easy going guy and doesn't fuss or cry very much.

Someone else drank the water

Eric, Sarah and little Jossilyn came over to visit yesterday. Not even two weeks old and LT has girls coming to visit him. Not sure where he gets that from - certainly not from his dad!

Just a few more pictures

The Next Generation

Helen Boyd and my mom came to visit Landon today. For the first few years of my life Helen was our next door neighbor and her first son Brewster was born just a few months after me. The air was thick with nostalgia as the two of them held LT and told stories of my early childhood. Now thirty years later Brewster and his wife Ali are expecting a baby just a few months after Landon. If we could just get them to move back to Denver as our neighbor and we would have come full circle in a generation.

Cafe Caliente

I'm working from home this week so I can spend some extra time with the new guy. Today we walked (we didn't even make it a block on our walk before LT needed to take a break and get a little snack - the kid can eat) down to Cafe Caliente and I worked while Kari and Landon enjoyed the cafe scene and Grandpa Bill even joined us for a while.

First Bath!

Mead St.

We took LT in his bucket to Mead St. last night with Becca and Kari's parents. He slept thought the whole thing.

After dinner Becca hung out with Landon for over an hour and she showed no signs of giving him up. However, after he peed all over her she did finally give him back!

Becca, LT says he's really sorry.

There must be somthing in the water

Today we all drove out to Sky Ridge hospital to visit little Zach who was born only a few days after Landon.

Sitting next to Zachary was the first time in Landon's life that he didn't look so tiny to me.


Albert is also a geek so he has baby info on the web too.

Our Three Kids

We are all still adjusting to our new situation.

Teflon Tape

The water hookup for our evaporative cooler had been leaking since I de-winterized it this year. It’s kind of a pain to get the ladder out and get up on the roof so I had been procrastinating on trying to fix it. When I got home from work on Monday Kari said she had starting having mild contractions and for some reason I decided that I needed to fix the leak right that moment – chalk it up to nesting I guess. I thought I had a minimum of several hours before things got serious and maybe as much as a few days. I also thought that I could get up on the roof and tighten the connection to fix the leak in just a few minutes.

I was wrong, really really wrong. We would be on the way to the hospital in less than two hours and my *quick* fix turned into a soaking wet ordeal that went on for 45 minutes before my lovely wife kindly suggested, between contractions, that it really wasn’t a good time for my little house project.

Once down from the roof I did what any man would do - I tried to explain the rational for abandoning my wife to do some dumb chore as she began to seriously labor with our first child. It turns out this was also the wrong thing to do…

Fast forward a bit – we got past the little incident and we now can laugh about my leaving her in her very important time of need. After the fact, Kari even says I was a wonderful, supportive and attentive husband during the delivery (once I got off the roof that is).

While telling the story to my father a few days later he did what any man would do – he laughed at my manly insensitivity and offered a solution to my leak problem. “Did you try Teflon tape?” he asked. I had never heard of the stuff but I sure do know about it now. The leak is fixed and we now have a nice cool house for our new baby and we aren’t leaking untold gallons of water all over the place.

Thanks for the advice, Dad. Hope I can do the same for my son some day.

And thanks for being an understanding and forgiving wife, Kari.

Baby Book

Working on the baby book with the baby.

First Full Day at Home

The look

Home!

Home from the hospital today and everyone is doing great.

The dogs are still trying to figure out what exactly this thing is - it smells and makes these funny noises and mom and dad won't let them get too close to it. But they already seem to be adjusting pretty well... I am cautiously optimistic.

Look at that face

Ramblings of a sleep deprived and love struck new father

Although our experience at the hospital has been absolutely wonderful the food here leaves a bit to be desired so I went to Chipotle to pick up lunch for my wife and me. The manager noticed the baby bracelet on my wrist and, after congratulating me, he insisted that my wife’s lunch was on the house. This seemingly small gesture really touched me – maybe because I really love me some free food - but I think that more than anything it touched me because the overwhelming volume of kindness I’ve recently been exposed to finally sort of sunk in.

Everyone has been so nice. Nearly from the moment he was born friends and family have been calling, emailing, visiting and bringing flowers and food. The hospital staff has been great (sure it's their job but they go above and beyond) and even total strangers are just plain friendly.

I think people are basically good at their core. All too often, however, the daily grind of life interferes with that goodness and we can be less than courteous to one another (I know I've been there). But a new baby seems to bring out the best in people and remind them of the simple goodness within themselves and in others. For me, being in the middle of it is a powerful and touching experience. We'd all do well to let down our guard and try to allow that goodness to spill out into the rest of our lives the way we do when a new little baby is around.

Grandparents!

He's here! LT is here!

I am thrilled to announce that Landon Tanner Campbell was born a little before 9 on Tuesday morning June 5th in Denver, Colorado at Rose Hospital. He weighed 6lbs 14oz at birth. Mom and baby are happy, healthy and are doing great (but like dad are all a little bit sleepy).

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Kari any happier than she is right now – she is absolutely glowing. I guess I better get used to my new lower status in the household. But for Landon, I’m more than happy to be number two in the family (okay, okay, and number four after the dogs!).

Little Landon Picts