Just add baby and stir.....

It has been a labor of pure love, and one that Jaynah and I have really enjoyed doing together. I don't like to think of myself as a girly man, but I guess if there is a little girl on the way, I'd better find some in there quick. Honestly it has been fun working together with Jaynah to design, shop, install and arrange all of the things needed to properly welcome a baby into our home.

I realize, even if Jaynah doesn't, that by the time the blessed child is old enough to realize how awesome her room is, she is going to want to plaster the walls with purple sequined feather boas of 'Hello Kitty' or something of the sort. This is for us more than for the baby, and for the past several weeks if we can't find one another, or Daisy, for that matter, we just take a stroll back to the nursery.

Daisy is either lying on the new, soft, rug, or under the crib. Jaynah can usually be found opening and rearranging drawers incessantly until she gets them just so. I prefer to just go, stand, twirl, smirk, and nod in approval and excitement.

The last piece finally arrived and the nursery is officially complete. The chair and ottoman will certainly be a favorite place for us at all hours over the next several months.

Daisy, not sure if she is allowed on the new furniture. She is. Until baby arrives.

Also new is artwork on the walls, all made as gifts. We told my mom of our monkey ambitions and she said, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

These turned out awesome.

My mom had been planning to paint this picture for years for a grandchild. She was like a kid in a candy store with her painting studio all set up.

This was a total surprise for Jaynah, my mom made this name sign as well. I got to help with this one, cutting to size and routing the edges of the white board. Cool thing is the monkeys and trees are removable when the little one wants to be a bit more sophisticated.

Clothes hamper. For completeness' sake.

I definitely saw this at the store and threw it in the buggy while Jaynah wasn't looking. She didn't put up much of a fight but made some smart comment about being wrapped already or something.

I hate to admit publicly, but I wore a dress home from the hospital. And it's hanging on that door-knob in the picture. The bib was a gift from Jaynah's mom and has Peyton's initials on it.

The pMa picture over the dresser was painted for us by an old high school classmate of mine who works with Jaynah's mom.

Almost here. If you are reading this, then we are probably at the hospital, maybe pushing, because I am speaking to you from the past. I had to give you something to read while we are busy.

Work Hard, Play Hard. PUSH HARD!

Ready for the Little Lady

We just got here and got all checked in, answered a million questions and saw the Dr. Started the cervical softening meds tonight and will start contraction induction meds tomorrow about 5:30 a.m. and so hopefully tomorrow will be the big day. (Depending on how much of the Hamby 'stubborn' genes she gets.) ;)

Updates will be posted to FB and Twitter and will hopefully post some pictures here pretty quickly after.

Thank you everyone for all your love, support and well wishes. Keep Jaynah and the wee bairn in your prayers over the next few days.

Andrew
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

I Heart Faces

So this is my first entry into the I Heart Faces weekly challenge.  I was introduced to the site by my friend Becca at The Stanley Clan and am excited by all the fine work there.  With a new little one nearly here, a new lens in the mail today, I'm sure that I'll be enjoying the site a lot more.  

This week's challenge is for participants to submit their best/favorite face shot EVER for a book that the website founders are putting together.  I don't know if this is the best face shot I've ever taken, but when I read the challenge today, this one immediately popped into my head.

A family member has the two cutest little girls and at a recent family gathering asked me if I'd take some pictures of the two of them together.  They were perfect little ladies, and enjoyed being in front of the camera.  We had a great time, and as sometimes happens, one of my favorite shots ended up being this test shot of the youngest, Emily.

I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb book photo contest. If chosen, I grant I ♥Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.

Work Hard, Play Hard.

Andrew

Take two, and call me in the mornin'

Last week I had the pleasure of sharing a momentous occasion with my extended family. It was graduation week for me from Medical School and Jaynah and I had a fantastic time hosting family and friends during the festivities.

In preparation, I was psyched that I actually had some time to get to many of those projects that the farmboy in me had been pleading me to find time for. So after some gardening, landscaping, pressure washing, painting and some carpentry work it was great to welcome everyone for a visit.

After we passed on the baseball game due to tornadoes and hail, we had a great time catching up with classmates at our graduation reception and banquet. Open bar = classmates that were only a legend showed up. Great time, food and company.

The hooding ceremony is a separate event only for the School of Medicine graduates and their families where awards voted on by the class are given to outstanding students and faculty. It is held the day before graduation and is a lot more intimate than the full graduation ceremony with the entire MCG crop of graduates from nursing, denistry, physical therapy, etc. At the hooding ceremony we receive our doctoral "hoods" which aren't really hoods but a funny looking sash time thing.

Before I left, my brother wanted to take some pictures of me. He's gotten into photography recently and has had Excalibur on loan. I really liked his idea for this shot.

Before Hooding, we had our official class picture, in front of the perfect Old Medical College which you might recognize from my previous post.

After the class picture it was time to line up in ABC order. Despite a class of 180, it took almost no time because it was easy to find our first year Gross anatomy lab groups and then get in between the groups that were at cadavers on either side of us in the lab way back in '05

My man Tim above, recently married, and bound for the Wake Forest Pediatric program and I have been through a lot since the depths of UGA biochemistry hell in the '03, physics lab, genetics, and oh yeah the entire Medical school application process, and the medical school after that. It was fantastic that we both ended up at MCG, and with the name Moore, we started out in the trenches in the anatomy lab together. Big day for both of us.

I recognized a few people on the way into the auditorium.

Mom and her boys, ready for some baby back ribs.

The Morgan Men, blue eyes for the lot of us.

Lining up before graduation with my brothers in arms. R to L : Dr. Vanags (Duke Neurology), Dr. Green (Wake Forest Radiology), Dr. Moore (Wake Forest Pediatrics)

Almost 1000 graduates, every name was called to get their diploma which was great. Medicine was last so there was lots of time to kill. I wish I'd had my Blackberry a few days sooner.

My Dad found me as we were walking in and waved, then he lost me. It was hilarious to watch him try and get the attention of a random Dental student for about 10 minutes. He took lots of pictures of this Dentist as well. Finally my brother called me, we had a chuckle and he walked across the arena and turned my Dad 45 degrees to the left. Hilarious.

Grabbing the diploma before they changed their mind. I've never been on the big screen before.

3 Generations: (c/o '84, '09, '44)

We had to repeat the cross-handed shake:

White coat ceremony 10/05

Fishing buddies.

Glowing

I love these Hambys.

Another thumbs up to my brother, Ben

All that for a piece of paper. It was worth it.

Work Hard, Play hard.

Hayes Maternity Shoot

Greetings.  

I've briefly mentioned before that one of my New Year's resolutions was to start shooting my pictures RAW and dive into post-processing.  Considering how long I've loved photography, I have no idea why it took this long.  Needless to say, like any new skill starting out was a challenge. Oh yeah, that is why it took this long; whenever I got inspiration to convert, I quickly got frustrated and immediately went back to my JPEG loving ways.

My lovely wife bought me a great RAW processing program (Adobe Lightroom) that sat almost untouched for a year.  Sorry honey, but med school might have contributed to that as well. 

So this was the year, since Jan 1 I've gradually been increasing my reliance on RAW and really delving into Lightroom.  The learning curve has been steep, but finally, I'm getting to the point where I feel comfortable, nay, enjoy working with RAW photos and finally see what all the hububb (sp?) is about.  Literally a whole new world of photography has opened up.

This new found excitement, and free time coincided well with an email I got from an old friend who lives locally in Augusta.  Coincidentally she is pregnant, and had wanted to have some pictures taken to remember this special time.  I was happy for the opportunity and we had a great time with Jennifer and Barrett shooting in downtown Augusta.

Barrett is a lifelong Augustan, and Jennifer a true Southern Belle from none other than Thomaston, GA.  We met one weekday afternoon after everyone got off work and had a beautiful Spring afternoon for Jaynah and Jennifer to compare notes on pregnancy, and Barrett and I to commisserate about how we know there is no way we, mere males, have a clue what is coming.

In front of the Old Medical College, home of MCG starting in the 1820's.

This was some type of bell tower that had once been on top of a building somewhere, but was now planted in front of a museum.

I'm a sucker for old growth trees, you can ask Jaynah.

There's a baby in there.

The Presbyterian Church has some beautiful grounds that we really enjoyed exploring.

We found this fantastic brick wall downtown right after we got some pictures with the King of Soul, James Brown (bronzed)

The Riverwalk seemed like a perfect place to end with our last bit of light.  When Andrew has to start cranking up the ISO, it is time to call it a wrap!

You can look at  the rest of the images and slideshow of these two glowing parents-to-be by clicking the link below.  

Hayes Maternity

Thank you so much, Jennifer and Barrett, for letting me be a part of this milestone.  Jaynah and I had a fantastic time.

More posts coming....I graduated, Jaynah is 38 weeks, the lost Savannah adventure, and next Tuesday we are scheduled for induction.

Living the dream.

Andrew E. Morgan M.D.