Xander Michael Paul Maynard

Well, this started out as Pam's personal blog, Halfway Around the World.  She used this blog and I had my own personal one called Out Here in Pinon.  We decided to start a family blog together.  It's only fitting therefore that our first blog together is about our first son, Xander.

Pam and I don't waste much time in life, a friend once said that we had crammed five years of life into a few months - that was back in 2010 before we were even married.  So you can imagine then how many years of life we've been living since then.  We were married on April 23rd 2011 and we have been living very happily together as man and wife.  Xander was born exactly nine months from our wedding date.

A lot has been going on in our lives.  We had a fantastic wedding and an incredible honeymoon.  Work as always has been a large part of our lives and perhaps the biggest stress factor in our lives.  Here are some snapshots of our family pre Xander.

On January 23rd at 5:15 pm Xander was born weighing in at 7 pounds 9 ounces and laying a whole 19 inches long.  His mother Pamela Maynard was induced that morning.  Things were progressing quickly.  So quickly that she was only in labor for four hours and wasn't given any pain meds, she did the birth completely naturally.  Pam has made it very clear that she will never ever do that again.  Everything happened so quickly that as far as I'm concerned they should just do the shot at the same time that they are inducing.

 Here he is only minutes after birth.  Not sure how he feels about the nurse quite yet from the look on his face.

 This is one of the first pictures of Pam's Mom holding dear Xander.  The two of them bonded instantly thanks to Xander's raspberries.  Xander has inherited his mother's tongue, much to Grandma Jane's delight.

 Emma Siddall was able to come and help out with the birth and was very good to have in our corner in our moment of need.  Thanks Emma.

 This picture is not of the first time I held Xander.  While people were helping Pam I was helping the Nurse with Xander.  This is however the first or one of the first pictures of me holding Xander.  This picture wasn't taken until a little later on the 23rd when things had calmed down a bit.

 Xander likes to be held but really isn't very picky of how.  He rested his head on my stomach while I read and played music for him on the kindle fire.  He was content.  I was content to be with my son and Pam got to sleep for awhile!

 Xander is a wonderful baby boy who likes to stick out his tongue and wiggle his fists.  He was extremely alert for most of the first few hours after being born.  He loves music.  Whenever Pam's classes were bad he would kick in the womb.  Now we play music for him and he makes it clear to us what he does and does not like.

Our burrito baby.  Because of his size and the way we've been wrapping him up that has become his nickname - Burrito Baby.  We love you Burrito Baby aka Xander.