Punkin and Pumpkins

Walker is over 1 month old now! He's getting so long and almost outgrowing his newborn pj's. We're hopeful he will be tall and play basketball like his daddy.
One of my friend's moms is a great artist and she painted some adorable t-shirts, onesies and burp cloths for Walker with his name on them. So cute!
Here's our little punkin! He's wearing his festive Halloween pj's. Just wait until you see his Halloween costume...
Nothing like carving a pumpkin the day before Halloween. Matt's working on his big masterpiece right in the middle of the dining room table.
Here's the final product! Looks a little bit like our family except that I like to think I have more hair than that.

Meet the Grandparents

Walker is 1 month old this week! It's hard to believe it's already been one month since our precious little guy arrived. He is so blessed to have five grandparents and two great-grandparents who are all so proud and love to spoil him, of course!
Walker is the first grandchild on the Wilbanks' side, and Jamma is so excited to be a grandparent!
Papa John is also thrilled to be a new grandparent! We always tease that the pressure is off for carrying on the Wilbanks' name.
Granny loves to rock little Walker! Walker is grandchild number five. The youngest grandchild before Walker is almost seven years old.
Here's Grandma! Grandma has five other grandchildren and one great-granddaughter, so she definitely knows how to take good care of Walker.
And finally, here is Granddaddy, who is so proud that his latest grandchild is named Walker! Walker will learn some serious fishing skills from his Granddaddy one day. It's so special that he has my maiden name (Walker) plus his Daddy's middle name, which is also Matt's grandfather's name (Oliver).
Meet Great-Granny, Jamie's grandmother. Great-Granny came to Jacksonville from Ocala in early September and stayed until Walker was born on September 24 so she could meet him. Great-Granny has lots of experience in caring for little ones!
Here's Dot-Dot, Matt's grandmother. She and her hubby, Don (aka. "Pop"), came from Greer, South Carolina to meet Walker. Dot-Dot has a special touch that puts Walker to sleep every time!
Dot-Dot and Pop loved cuddling with Walker. Dot-Dot is also an expert rocker.

Our Little Sleeper

Every day is certainly new and fun having a new little guy in the house. We are having a blast getting to know him and watching him grow. There are days when he sleeps and sleeps (which we sometimes wish he would do at night!), and we can't help taking pictures of his adorable expressions.
We recently welcomed our dogs, Belle and Mei-mei, back home. So far, they love Walker. They have been very curious and yet very gentle with him. They mostly just stare at him and sniff him a lot when he's in his swing or bouncer. Belle gives him a crazy look when he cries (she doesn't like repetitive sounds).
Love the hand prop. Walker loves to have at least one hand near his face while he is sleeping.
And also when he's eating. Here he's apparently throwing up some kind of gang sign while Daddy's giving him a bottle.
Now he looks like he's holding on for dear life while sleeping and dreaming. He also makes the cutest and sweetest sounds while he is sleeping. While he sometimes sounds like a little gremlin, his sleeping sounds are just precious.
He often sleeps with his mouth open, which is just like mommy. Hopefully he won't pick up the trait of the drooling like a fountain while sleeping.
Here's Walker's first bath in the tub, which went much better than we expected. He didn't even cry until the very end. We think he feels much warmer in the real bath than he did with the sponge baths before. You can tell how strong he is here. He is already trying to hold his head up, especially when we try to burp him on our shoulders.
He looks like such an angel when he's sleeping! This picture shows off his cute little elf ear. His right ear is flat to his head (like Dad's) and his left ear sticks out just a little (like Mommy's).
Walker surprisingly sleeps really well in Daddy's lap while he is playing an intense game of Halo. I guess I'll have to deal with two Halo players in the house soon enough.

A Day in the Life

It's hard to believe it's been another week and that Walker is three weeks old. We fall more and more in love with him each day and constantly praise God for sending us this precious little gift. We are having so much fun being new parents!
We have to laugh because he basically already has a baby mullet. It's so cute! We still don't know where he got all that hair from. I (Jamie) was pretty much bald until I was 2 years old and Matt had a little hair, but neither of us had hair like Walker.
Here is a rare moment during bath time when Walker wasn't crying. He hates getting a bath!
Here's a much more common expression during bath time. Apparently, he doesn't enjoy being naked.
Yesterday we went on a walk and visited Aunt Julie and Aunt Ashley at their office. Walker falls asleep in about 30 seconds when we go on walks around the block. In case you are wondering about the wash cloths around his head, we keep them there so he doesn't bobble around too much.

Okay, so besides eating and pooping, Walker does spend a lot of his time sleeping. It's a hard life being Walker, Texas Ranger (one of our friends and the receptionist at our pediatrician's office call him "TR").
Sometimes after bath time, Daddy likes to give him a faux hawk. Oh, and he loves his passy.
Faux hawk close up.
We finally put together our bouncer (which really mostly vibrates and plays music), and so far he likes it a lot.
Note the large yawn. That's when you know the bouncer is working!
And he's out for a while so we can all take a nap as a family!

Happy Two Weeks!

Walker is officially two weeks old today! Yey! Today we decided to try on his "Habesha libs"--his traditional Ethiopian clothes. Good thing we did it today because it doesn't look like they will fit for very long. This is a cute little outfit that some dear friends in Ethiopia gave us when we visited in May. They are adorable!

We tried the outfit on right after bath time, which is not Walker's favorite time. Hopefully he will grow to like baths more over time.
It's strange how he is tiny and big at the same time. So maybe he is big compared to some other newborns, but he is still so little. He looks really long in some photos, so we're hopeful that he will be tall like daddy!
Somehow Walker has long hands and feet. We aren't sure where they came from since we both have smaller hands and feet (at least mine were before pregnancy!).
Here's his cute little profile. We are still trying to figure out who's different features he has. He definitely looks a lot like daddy's baby pics.
Walker loves to be swaddled. These swaddler blanket things come in quite handy! They make it so easy, especially at 2 a.m. when he is fussy and we are trying to get him to sleep. If you remember a popular toy in the 80's, you'll hopefully recognize that he looks like a Glow Worm in this lime green swaddler.

At Home with the Walk-man

We have been at home with Walker for a little over a week now. It's certainly nice to be home and to have such a great community of family and friends around us who bring us meals and always check in to give us encouragement. Being new parents is definitely a challenge at times as we are learning how to take care of Walker and meet all of his needs while operating on 2 hours of sleep. He hasn't formed a routine quite yet, but we are hopeful that we will eventually get into a rhythm as a family.

This is a typical pose that Walker makes while he is sleeping. He likes his hands up by his face, which is also how mommy sleeps.

We finally put Walker in his little swing. He actually liked it. Unfortunately, when he is really upset and fussy, it doesn't help to calm him down. But it works well when he is already calm and happy.
Here's our family. You can tell we are a little tired! But we are so happy and thrilled to have our new little man at home.
One of Walker's favorite positions is being curled up on mommy or daddy's chest. It sometimes helps put him to sleep.
Couldn't resist taking a pic of these adorable pjs with the "little dinos" feet. Plus you can see another one of his famous hand positions, keeping them crossed.
Here's daddy's little chunker! We went this week for a check-up at the pediatrician's office and Walker was already 9 lb. 1 oz. He has already gained a half pound. He's a healthy eater for sure!
You would think by these pics that he sleeps all the time, but really he's awake a lot too! We'll try to get some more pics of him when he is wide-eyed.

Heading Home

We had a long final day at the hospital waiting for Walker to be discharged, but we were so thankful and happy once we were finally able to bring him home! Papa John was there to help us get Walker and all of our stuff down to the car for his first car ride. We were also excited to get to go through Labor and Delivery to say thank you to the sweet nurses who took such good care of us on delivery day.


Here's our last day in the NICU. We couldn't wait to show Walker his new home!


Here's Papa John pulling Walker in the wagon.

This one is from Walker's "trial" in the carseat. His NICU nurse Michelle needed him to sit in his carseat for 90 minutes to make sure he could breath well. He mostly just slept the whole time.


Walker slept the whole way home (that's all of 5 minutes).
Here's dad taking him out of the car. You should have seen us trying to figure out how to put the carseat securely in the car for the first time. It was quite the ordeal!
Dad read him his first book soon after we arrived at home. Walker, of course, slept through it.
Dad and Walker like to take naps together. Being a new parent is fun and a whole lot of work too!