What I Missed in 2008 - Part 3 (Final)

The biggest event that happened in our lives was the arrival of Ben. I was with-it enough to document his arrival blog-wise, but I didn't do much of the actual pregnancy portion, which took up most of '08.

Annie and I see our photos as assets, to be used at a later day. Here we staged a guilt photo that we can pull out when Ben gets older. "Look at your mother! Here she is, driven to her knees while her womb is wracked with a contraction! And you want to sass her? How can you treat her like this?! HOW DARE YOU!" It's going to be beautiful.


Here I am performing my husbandly duty by holding up her burgeoning belly (she's just a couple weeks away from delivering Ben at this point). Further proof that I am a fantastic husband, father, and man.










I finally let Annie take a break from the photo shoot, and she retired to the shade and the comfort of the wicker chair. I thought the hibiscus here made for a nice compliment to her shirt. I'm also a fantastic photographer.

















Actually, here's proof that I still have a lot to learn about photography. One of the maxims of taking a good photo is to pay attention to the background. For instance, when taking a sweet picture of your pregnant wife at the pumpkin patch, try to make sure that a red-headed child isn't trying to climb inside her head.







I still didn't catch onto the fact that children were climbing inside Annie's skull and kept on taking photos. You can see her expression begin to sour as another group of boys join the red head for a romp inside Annie's brain pan. So much to learn, little photographer.

There was one more addition to the clan that I need to mention. And here he is: Jack the Russian Desert Tortoise (just 'Jack' for short). He's been with us for only a few weeks longer than Ben. Jack is four years old, eats spring mix and dandelions, enjoys basking in the sun, and doesn't require diaper changes or being house broken. His shell and scales make him resilient to damage. He isn't capable of misbehaving, and he requires little interaction with his human overlords. We're trying to teach the children to be more like Jack.