One week...with a one week delay :)

carson turned one week old on the 6th of july. to see how he measures up over time, we got a picture of him next to his good buddies, paddington bear and rar rar the south african lion!  i think torso wise, he's got both beat, but his legs are a little short. :)

 after these pics, we decided to introduce carson to himself.

it's gotta be pretty terrifying seeing yourself for the first time in a mirror.  at least that's how i feel every morning :)

July 4th - Wimbledon

this year, july 4th started a little earlier than normal.  for starters, carson was only 5 days old and on top of that, it was the last day to queue for wimbledon tickets.  after getting the clearance from a-k, i decided to go get tickets.  mimi really wanted to come too, but felt bad leaving a-k home alone, so she made the resolution not to go. 

so, at 4:45 i got up, hailed a cab around 5:00 and was at the wimbledon grounds by 5:30.  it took me a little while to find the queue (i'm not the brightest) but by 5:45 i was in line and number 1083...there was a chance for the show courts.  ak called just before 6 saying her mum was coming and asked why i'd left without her...ooops (see "she made the resolution not to go" above).  nonetheless, i asked the queue lady if i could have another ticket (or put it on hold) and she said she could hold it for no more than 30 minutes...lucky us!  ak sent her mum out and lo and behold, at 6:29 arrived at the queue.  we were #1083 and 1084. 

wouldn't be england without a brolly



i may look like i just woke up....because i did...hopefully i'll get a bit more tan this summer!


after waiting 2 hours in the wet weather, being filmed as part of a newscaster's story of the queue (and on the 7pm evening news), and a few calls home to make sure ak was up to feed carson, they started handing out wristbands and the line started moving!  it was the men's quarterfinals so we could see federer (v. doesn't matter...not going to win) and murray (v. ferrer) or djokovac (v. mayer) and tsonga (v. kohlschreiber) play against lesser opponents.  around 10am, we say people come by saying "who wants to see the djok!".  i felt like donkey in shrek jumping up and down saying "oh pick me pick me"...and they did! 

the newscaster doing his thing. 

about to get our wristbands!  the excitment builds

off we were to see the world #1 and #5 play.  we got to the turnstalls and got our tickets...row c!  boomshakalaka.  since it was only 11 and play didn't start until 1, we headed over to the hsbc premier tent (because i have "potential") for some free coffee, snacks, and fruit.

i love the british enthusiasm for big events.  it really is unrivalled.  the olympics are going to be great. 

 

at the hsbc 'tent' getting pastries and a cappuccino...delish

just before one, we headed back into the grounds, watched a few small courts and then took our seats 3 rows up from the court.  not bad for day of tickets.  what an experience.   mrs. e and i took photos on photos just in awe of how close we were.

row c...tough life

mama e in front of centre court...almost as good as court 1

we'll get some of you later!

court 1 row c...bring it on!

the players entry...the djok!

rain delay efficiency

focus

i just liked this photo...got it by luck.

the djok

proper wimbledon usher.

ball boy standing at attention while the ball girl replaces

i thought this was a funny photo with the two young ladies stepping out with two grandmas steppin out...the circle of life.

this guy was my favourite line judge.  i think the reason is obvious, but it was also because when the ball was out, he would yell "ooooooooooooooouuuuttt"

 after djokovac dispatched mayer, we got to watch tsonga take on kohlschreibber.  it was france v germany

alle jo!  he was the heavy crowd favourite

after every point the ball girls/boys would run out with the towel.  i tried to get a pic of the towel pulled out saying wimbledon, but i'm not that good of a photographer. 

it was "crunch" time for kohlschreiber.  hehe.

the ball boys and girls were also very impressive, always on point and quick with the delivery.  it was really neat to see the line judges and how intense they focused on the calls.  about 95% of the time they were right when the players challenged...that's just impressive given how fast the ball moves. 

jo diving to get a point

kohlschreiber trying to replicate jo's dive...with little success

alle jo!  on to the match vs murray in the semi's

women's doubles after the tsonga match...they were loud and grunty, so we left

it was a lovely day (a few rain delays) and a very very memorable 4th of july.  we missed out on our free strawberries and cream from hsbc, but we stopped by sainsbury on the way home and picked up the fixings for burgers, and our own homemade strawberries and cream. 

getting off at the west brom tube, we were so thankful that ak let the two of us enjoy a wonderful day.  when we got home, ak was resting, so we "grilled" the burgers on our stove and found out she had an awesome day with carson.  what a blessing!

even though there were no fireworks to celebrate american independence, it was a brilliant 4th of july for the besancon/evensen clan. 

Coming Home!

today (backdated to July 2nd) is the day that we are set to go home from the hospital.  it is such a big day for our family.  A-K has been recovering very well and we have become fairly confident as parents, albeit in the ever watchful, ever helping presence of the midwives of great portland hospital.  we are about to embark on the journey that all new parents fear...being alone without professional help with your newborn child.  all sorts of issues came flooding to our minds:  will we be able to get feeding down, what happens if he gets hurt, what if he gets sick, what if, what if, what if...

the truth of it all is that carson was completely unphased by it all.  he just gave us a big grin of excitement and voila, we were ready to go.

before leaving the hospital, we of course had to join the portly panda club since carson (and his mum) were part of the prestigious members who had been born/given birth at the portland hospital.  portly himself made an appearance to see carson off (and come home with us).  here is portly panda making a rare appearance :)

as we prepared to leave, we were told that carson had low blood sugar and needed to be monitored a bit more and also topped up with some formula feeding.  not exactly what we wanted to hear before we set-off to take care of him all by ourselves...the what ifs flooding back to our minds.  anyways, it gave us a little bit more time to take care of the other things we needed to do, like, carson's hearing test.  the audiologist was in the building across the street, so we had to get ready for our first family trip out into the real world.  since we couldn't very well take carson across the street just in his diaper, we got him ready in our dress rehearsal for going home. 

ak only brought one outfit though...which happened to be my going home outfit.  keep in mind i was 11 lbs 2 oz. as compared to carson weighing in at 7 lbs 3 oz.  ergo, the outfit was never going to quite fit our less than obese son. needless to say, it was good fun though trying to figure out how to put it on him.  at least he got some swimming practice ;)

notice the pants rolled up...at least 3 times

we decided to ditch the "bonnet" for a real hat.

here we are...leaving the hospital for the first time in our new wheels...or maybe not.  we actually just walked across the street, but a man can dream that he drives a BMW 7 series right :)  for ak it was fresh air at last after 3 days of being cooped up. 

it was such a fun experience, even paddington bear made an appearance to cheer carson on at his audiologist test.

crossing the street with carson, our new little boy.  i was well confident, as was ak, but mimi was a bit terrified we didn't opt for the crosswalk...but that's not the london way!  ak just seems proud of me in this picture.  or maybe it was she was just proud of herself for helping create such a studly boy (hidden in this pic).

carson geared up to take his hearing test (basically testing to see if he was responsive to noises and that his eardrums/hammers, etc, developed as they should).  of course he passed with flying colours.  xo good in fact, they gave him a certificate.  carson is a pretty humble guy, so he asked me to take the glamour shot of accepting his award.

i couldn't take all the glory though, as it was really this little guy that did the hard work (actually it was god who ensured carson was fearfully and perfectly made in his own image), so we got a picture of paddington handing carson his award.  as they say, the proof is in the pudding. 

after a successful trip to the audiologist, we headed back to the nursery to check on the results of carson's blood sugar tests.  this gave us an opportunity for one more chance at a supervised diaper change!

 after the diaper change, of course carson needed to get some grub in his little tummy, so mum gave him a good feeding. here is the little guy, happy as a lark with a milk "moustache".  i just love this picture.

 after a good nappy change and a feed, the results came back and carson was ready to go out into the big world!  we got him changed back into his going home outfit (still swimming in it), put on his little hat, and of course, took the obligatory leaving photos :)

father son combo...already more tan than me (although doesn't take much)

three generations!



the happy family (yes, carson is just crying with delight!)

so, how were we going to get carson to our house?  we are in london after all, so the best option is the tube!

 yea, right...taxi!  now came the tricky bit, figuring out how the car seat works.  it's not rocket science, but with the paparazzi all trying to snap photos of the main man, the pressure was on. luckily, i got a phd in buckling up. 

 one last family photo before getting into the addi lee cab.  paddington even made a cameo appearance to see carson off.

 the little guy was all bundled up in his blanket, hat and car seat...i don't blame him for napping.

the addi lee cab dropped us off right in front of our house.  we unloaded everything to make way for the grand entrance. 

 one more family photo.  i promise carson is happy (but he might be making a poo, who knows).

 we gave carson a little tour around the flat and asked him what he thought about it all afterwards...

needless to say from the picture above, he was a bit confused and intimidated by it all as it is about 1000 times bigger than his previous home, but i think he'll acclimate just fine :)  just look at him already getting inquisitive about the wide open space known as the living room/dining room/kitchen/family room (okay so maybe not wide open space, but it'll do)

ak's mum made a smorgasbord of goodness for ak upon arrival to our house, including two things she couldn't eat during pregnancy, soft cheese and turkey deli meat.  holla!

 even with the excitement of soft cheese, she was a bit preoccupied by something a bit better than that ;)

 our first family photo in finborough road.  carson was already saying "awwww yeah"

 after the family photo, carson grabbed hold of our hands.  the little guy has a pretty strong grip...obviously gets that from ak.

 carson loves his mom.  just wouldn't let go of her finger, but i must say, i don't think ak was trying too hard to make him release his hold.

just admiring our newest member - carson david besancon

 because carson had low blood sugar upon leaving the hospital, we had to top up with formula for 24 hours.  that gave me my first chance to feed him. 

i don't want to say i'm a natural or anything, but, well, i'm not... last time i checked, the food was supposed to stay in his mouth. oh well...i tried.

all in all it was a fantastic day and now we get to start the magnificent responsibility of raising a child to be a man of character.  let the fun begin!