Congratulations to my brother, Shoe, and his wife, Girl Friday, on the birth of their first born daughter, Babs!

Scheduled for near Christmas, baby Babs kicked her water out and her way into the world on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. How cool is that?

Born in the wee hours of the morning, she clocks in near 7.5 lbs and 19.5 inches, with long narrow feet and a head full of dark hair.

From all reports, Girl Friday and Babs are recovering well and it’s love at first sight. A sleep-deprived Shoe was reported as saying, “Um, yeah.”

Babs joins an extended family of Nods — she is the first Nodling at Outpost 4, but the 7th girl and 10th Nodling overall.

As they say over at Outpost 2, “We’re just doing our part for Western civilization.”

Ain’t it the truth? “Hello, Nurse!”

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SO … I’ve been off the grid for a few weeks now. I hadn’t realized how much blogging is a force of habit, that once broken, is really hard to start up again.

I feel rusty. Or maybe that’s tired. Maybe it’s the baby waking us up every couple of hours (feels like minutes) in the night. He’s a cutie and make no mistake (said the proud papa).

What have I been doing all this time? Not much that would interest you: changing diapers, snickering at the mustard yellow color, practicing the burrito baby wrap to make him all snug and cozy, getting that cramp back in my arm that can hold a young ‘un for hours on end, looking for the binky (pacifier) when Momma isn’t available, re-discovering my patented “Daddy pat” that can put any baby to sleep, and just holding and marveling and laughing at this awesome baby boy, that’s what.

Like I said, nothing to you, but music to me.

We had some really great Name the Nodling entries that made it harder and harder to pick his cybernym. Must I pick just one? Awwwright. That’s my prerogative. First I leaned this way, then that. But after due consideration the winning selection is (drumroll) ….

… Dab.

Reminds me of the old Brylcreem jingle “a little dab’ll do ya”.

Bryl-creem, a little dab’ll do ya,

Use more, only if you dare,

But watch out,

The gals will all pursue ya,–

They’ll love to put their fingers through your hair.

Bryl-creem, a little dab’ll do ya,

Bryl-creem, you’ll look so debonair.

Bryl-creem, the gals will all pursue ya,

They’ll love to RUN their fingers through your hair.

Say hello, handsome!

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Sophia.  6 lbs. 20 inches.

I wanted to name her after her mom.  But my wife decided to choose a name that has a profound meaning in my life instead.

Cfr.  http://divine-ripples.blogspot.com/2009/09/our-lady-wore-blue-jeans.html

She’s our fifth and of course I see the costs associated with preparing them for life.  But God who has began this will see it to completion.  I’ll just have to keep asking for our daily bread.

I thank God for her safe delivery.

Here are 3 of her siblings awaiting her arrival.

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Congratulations to Steven McEvoy, long term Catholic Dad on the birth of his daughter Zoey on November 30!

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Charles Joseph came to us on March 19 (feast of St. Joseph); he is named in honor of St. Joseph, and his great-grandmother Josephine, with whom he shares a birthday.

His brother Liam is 1 1/2 years old, but developmentally around half that, because of his Down syndrome.  Liam and Charles are not sophisticated enough to notice each other much yet. Mother, baby (and big brother) are doing fine.  Liam doesn’t seem to have been distressed at all to spend his time with Grandma and Grandpa instead of me and Marisa. Although he was happy to see us.

And we are happy to have both of them.  Welcome, Charles!

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I have never posted before on the site itself; mostly because I my first child wasn’t born yet

So I proudly announce the birth of my first daughter Lucy

 Born: 21 Jan, 2010 @ 5:20am AKT; 7lbs 5.5oz, 20.5 inches

We had several names picked out but when she was born, she had her eyes WIDE open! (St. Lucy is the patron saint of eyes.) But the meaning is a little more than that. You see, Lucy comes from the Latin word for ‘light’ or ‘daylight.’ She was born in the dark of an Alaskan winter morning. The morning after my father passed away. He had been sick for sometime and my mom called me the morning of the 20th to let me know things did not look good. Obviously we could not fly home. Later that evening, I was about to pick up the phone to call my parents to let them know that my wife had started having contractions and gone into full labor. As I went to grab my phone, it rang. My mom informed me that my dad had died. It hit me like a ton of bricks obviously, but when I looked at the clock I realized that it was around 11:00pm down in Michigan. He knew… he didn’t wan’t to “ruin” our special day. That is just how he was. So I cried for a bit, my sister and my wife’s sister were here, and we took an hour to just grieve. But then as I know he would have wanted, I focused on my wife. 10 hours later our daughter was born.

So you see, Lucy is our lightness in the dark. They say the darkest part of a night is the time just before the dawn, and since that is when Lucy was born, we realized that even in such heartache God gave us something to soothe our pain, and focus our love. Marian is my moms middle name, and I know that my dad would have appreciated that gesture. We knew we wanted a Marian name due to our families devotion to Our Blessed Mother so the name fit all too nicely.

So I guess that I can now more properly post on here… as I am now fully in the “Dad’s Club.”

Original post:

Life: @ Defend Us In Battle

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Elizabeth Christina Price was born last night.  Dale Price, fellow Catholic Dad, is the proud father.

Head on over to Dale’s blog to wish congratulations.

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I have good news! Our fourth child, Clare Michelle Kaiser was born today. I have pictures here.

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Folks, head on over to fellow Catholic Dad Dom Betinelli’s blog and congratulate him on the birth of his new son, Benedict Joseph.

Congrats, Dom!

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