Well, we are all over the moon with little James Louis Lende Dorn — all 7lbs. 12oz., 21 ” of him—and especially all that red hair! I hadn’t notice that before I left them to get some sleep Wednesday morning. It had been a long eventful night at the hospital, and he was still wet the way brand new babies are, and the new family– Justin, Eliza and James, were bonding with their shirts off, and I figured I didn’t need to take mine off to make the grandma connection. I had cut the cord and that was more than enough for me, and at the moment all of this is a bit overwhelming to sort out. Little James is named for his Juneau Grandpa Jim, and in addition to Aunt JJ he also has Aunt Betsy here in Juneau — and he is their family’s first grandchild, and well, we are all so HAPPY. Chip is coming today to meet him, but the other aunts and cousins have to wait, because there’s an icky virus called Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease galloping among the Haines pre-school set, and they don’t want James to catch it.
Here is a postcard from James’ birthday, all taken about noon (he was born at 4:55 am), with the family and Dr. Dorothy Hernandez. She also delivered Caroline, James’ oldest cousin here, four years ago– (And we celebrated JJ’s birthday last night– and she too was born at Bartlett hospital 24 years ago. My head is spinning, in a good way, and I should be able to make some thoughtful sense of all of this after I am back home. But for now, these pictures are worth at least 1,000 words.)
