A new way of getting around

As with all our children, our little Matthew Alasdair has to have his own way of doing things. Instead of traditional crawling, he prefers to scoot. Many of you will recall our Peter's method of scooting before he could walk. This is a little different as you can see. His brothers like to call him "monkey boy."

Matthew Alasdair is Crawling

It's official: Matthew can crawl.


He assumed the new skill three days ago, on December 4, 2008. He crawls like Andy did -- the Army crawl (with one arm and one leg only). It's been a long while since we have seen the crawling stage (since Peter went to scootching instead). We're very thankful for this big development.


(Those are pre-planted Cheerios, if you're concerned about what he's eating off our floor.)

Matthew Alasdair at Six Months

Fresh from tonight:

Pajama Party

Tonight we had a pajama party between bathtime and betime. The boys were in good spirits.



Matthew Alasdair is getting quite big these days! He's as long as Peter is from knee to head.

Ludovicos Visit, Meet Matthew Alasdair

Carrie and her family were able to come up for a quick trip this weekend to meet Matthew Alasdair Brown. They brought supper with them for everyone, so we enjoyed a good meal around the table. After supper Dad and Tom played some bagpipes, and Andy demonstrated his [usual routine] on the piano.

The children played for an impressively long time on the porch without any, um, disturbances or need for supervision. After that we tuned in for some baseball and Star Wars, while Dad called out the Red Sox play-by-play off his computer.


Carrie and Mom enjoyed conversation in the living room:


Elizabeth seemed especially taken with her newest cousin, and did an excellent job holding him:

Week One

One week ago this evening, Jessica was admitted to the hospital to deliver Matthew Alasdair. Here he is one week on.


And while I'm at it, here's a cute close-up of Ian and the world's most heavily colonized blanket (colonized, that is, with microscopic organisms):

Matthew Alasdair Comes Home

Jessica and Matthew were discharged from the hospital this morning. We are all very happy to have them home, and the older boys are especially glad to have life head back to normalcy.

When we set Matthew down, his novelty kept their attention for at least 60 seconds.


Here are my four sons.


Each time we bring a new one home, we are struck with a sudden realization of how much older the others have gotten to be. They all seem happy to have a new brother.

Meeting Matthew Alasdair

Here are some photos of Matthew being met by some "folks" (as Grandfather Barker would say). This will be it for hospital photos.

Andy meets his new brother:


Ian meets his new brother:


Peter meets his new brother:


Ian and Andy pretend to sleep on Mommy's neat electric hospital bed:


Gram (Tom's mom) meets Matthew Alasdair:


Grania (Jessica's mom) meets Matthew Alasdair:

Matthew Alasdair Brown

I'll post a few photos now, and then get some sleep!

Matthew Alasdair Brown was born this morning, April 2nd, 2008 at 2:06 am. He and his mother are doing very well. He weighed 7 lbs, 6.8 ozs, and was 21.5 inches long.

Matthew certainly is a "gift of God" (which is his name's meaning).