Welcome James Calvin

pre-baby birth

My niece Leslie had a baby yesterday - James Calvin Lopez, 6 lbs 11oz, 21 inches. This carries the Bullock genes into one more generation. I'm happy, and think that Mom and Dad - somewhere, somehow are happy too.

James - day 1. Isn't he adorable!?!

I think back about seeing Leslie for the first time - she was just a few weeks old when Cindo and Bolder got married August 18, 1984. She was so tiny!

And now she and husband Jordan have their own tiny little guy. Can't wait to meet him in person.

Susi is a grandma!

We welcome Jonah David Alvillar, son of David and Ashley Alvillar, into the Bullock family. David has been a part of the fam for 30 years (yikes!). That's how long Susi and Jim have been married.

That's David on the left in the Superman shirt - in Estes Park with the fam

Paul and I remember well the trip to Grand Junction for their wedding. We were engaged to be married in August that year, 1982. Paul had just hurt his knee playing golf - a flair up of a high school football injury. I think he was on crutches, forced to hobble down the airplane steps after we flew into the small Grand Junction airport. Soon after landing, we met our new instant family members. Jim and David Alvillar.

Jim was an intense athletic, swarthy handsome guy. David was a 3-year old cutie pie. He was smart as a whip and Susi already loved him I could tell. David's Mom Betty also lives in Grand Junction, so David spent time with each parent - as many children of divorce do. While he didn't attend all of our family get-togethers, we have been lucky enough to see David quite a bit through the years. Plus Susi kept us up on what he was up to - after High School graduation, Clermont College followed by a career on Wall Street. We got to meet Ashley, by then David's fiance at my niece (his sister Leslie's) wedding in LA in 2010. She seems like a great gal and all the A's love her.

The Alvillars surround Ashley last Thanksgiving when she and David announced baby would be forthcoming

Priceless!

 I'm sure I'll get to meet Jonah someday at a fam get-together. Can't wait! In the meantime there are important questions to be answered. What the hell is Baby going to call the new grandparents? Gran and Gramps? We called our grandparents Momo and Bubba. On Mom's side they were Pops and Grandma. Hmm somehow I don't picture Jim as any of those.

You're on your own Jonah. I'm sure you'll be adorable enough to get away with calling them something cute. I can't wait to see Jim melt into a puddle.

La Bambina

Kylie and Becky - leaving the hospital.


I got to see my friend Becky yesterday and her beautiful baby girl Kylie Faith who was born April 10th - a mere 1 day after my guesstimate of April 9. (I picked that date because it's sister Cindo's bday)

A few of us from work met Becky at Fazoli's on SE 14th for lunch. And there she was with her new little tiny person. I say tiny because gee - at 3 weeks she's still not as big as Amy and Jud were at birth.

And believe it or not, I held her for like 15 minutes! I don't usually hold babies who aren't related to me by blood. They don't fit into my arms right. But Kylie fit fine. She did sleep the whole time. She's got tiny feminine little features, and every once in a while she twitched. Finally, my arm gave out and I had to turn her back over to her proud mama.

Seeing Becky made me miss having her at work. But I can live with giving her up for a good cause - her being a stay at home mommy for a few weeks. As long as she lets me hold the baby a few more times!

Taking baby home

So after Amy was finally born, I spent three glorious days in the hospital. They catered to me and I loved it - and needed it, because my little 9 lb 7 oz. caused quite a ruckus with my body. The day after Amy was born, every square inch of my body was sore. I felt like a truck had hit me! A little red-headed one.

The day after Amy was born, Mercy Hospital in Mason City served us (Paul and me the happy parents) a nice steak dinner with a little bottle of champagne to celebrate. That was sweet. Paul was so anxious to get back down to the hospital to see his little pride and joy. And me too!

Amy was born on Monday October 14, 1985 and my Mom came on Wednesday, prior to our going home on Thursday. She stopped at the hospital on her way to Osage, and I happened to be walking through the hall with Amy in my arms as she walked up the hall. I naturally walked towards her to show her the lil bundle when a nurse shrieked "no". Evidently Mom was "unclean" and not supposed to touch the baby. So she had to be content to look at her through the nursery window.

On Thursday we wedged Amy into the car seat and headed off towards home - some 30 minutes away. She was in the back seat, and at one point she cried - one of those tiny baby cries where they sound like a cat or something. Argh! Did I mention I don't no nothing about birthin' babies - or taking care of them afterwards?

Good thing my buddy Vic had her baby girl in February, so I'd gotten advice from her and my sis Susi who popped out niece Leslie in July of 1984. But that was the extent of my baby knowledge. Man I spent a lot of time studying the books - Dr. Spock and the little magazine the hospital sent me home with. Kind of a baby instruction manual.

Amy was pretty easy to take care of - but harder than a cat or a dog - things I was used to dealing with. She was big and quickly began to eat more than my poor breastes (as Donnie calls them) could supply. And at first she frequently would spit up - not just a bit down her shirt. All over the wall!

Mom was quite helpful with food, laundry etc. But she was also pretty worthless with baby - when it came to what to do, when anyway. It'd been a while since 'ol Pat had infants around. At least she didn't urge me to "feed the baby some solids" like Vic's In-Laws did constantly! I quickly learned that once baby ate, she usually got busy in the diaper department - if you know what I mean. Paul and I called it "Mu Goo Guy Pan" like the Chinese dish. It sucked when I'd feed her during the night, and she would get all relaxed and sleepy, and then - oops, time to change the diaper and she'd be all awake again. And when she was sitting on my lap and would begin to make very unladylike noises, which sounded like they were coming from me!

Amy loved her pacifier - or Binky as we called it. It relaxed her. We didn't put her in bed with it, and were lucky when a few months later our daycare provider broke her of it all together so she wasn't one of those 3 year olds taking out the Binky to call out orders to the parents.

That first year was one of constant change. Once we would get used to something, she would grow up some more. We were lucky Amy slept through the night at age 5 weeks. We would put her to bed at 7 PM and eat supper. Sure, she got up at 5 a.m., but I could live with that! I got to watch that religion show with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker (before the divorce), cuz it was on right before Looney Tunes - my fave cartoon. Aw I was (and am still) a kid myself!