7 Weeks old today

So we went and had pictures taken of Declan at Sears Portrait Studio. It was Jen's idea. I argued endlessly that I could get just as good of pics for a lot cheaper and figured we wouldn't actually buy anything... I hate being wrong... they got some great pics, one was so good the photographer is putting it up a huge version of it on the wall of the store... so we had to buy a big version of that one, and then there were a bunch of other good ones that I just couldn't pass up. Perhaps it's just fatherly pride.

Declan took his first road trip last weekend. We went to a cousins wedding in Southwest Missouri. I'm continually impressed by how pretty Missouri is, particularly in Spring and Fall... Declan pretty much slept the whole time, uncharacteristic for him, but better than having him scream from his car seat. On the way home, we went by the place where my father spent many of his childhood weekends in the 40s, a cabin on the Bourbouis river and scouted for good barns to take pics of for my mom's new painting career.

On the homefront, we've started trying to get Declan into regular eating and napping routines to give Jen a little more downtime and to avoid, overtired Declan crankiness... not much luck yet but hopefully we'll have it mostly established in a week or two.

And of course, there are some new pics up at photos.oledave.com.