New Serna Baby

An Eventful Wednesday!

We had quite an exciting Wednesday with family day (how fitting), the birth of our God Daughter and the birth of our nephew to top it off! Brian is now in his final 4 weeks of flight training, most commonly known as Gunnery. In this phase they bring all of the other skills they have learned together and get to go “blow stuff up” as they say.

To kick off this final round (pun intended) they host a Family Day. Family day is basically a day where family and friends finally get a chance to see what our aspiring pilots actually DO everyday at the flight line. Unfortunately this family day wasn’t quite what we were all expecting. One of the other wifes and I got together to coordinate the food. I mention this only because after everything was said and done, I think our array of Subway sandwiches, cookies and brownies were truly the highlight of the event. About an hour after arriving class finally got underway with the announcement that today was test day. So after a rousing 45 minutes of gun system gibberish we were able to grab one last sandwich before heading out to the flight line.

I should mention the temperature out on the flight line is easily about 115 degrees. Fortunately with the Apaches flying overhead coming in they created enough of a breeze to keep it tolerable.

We got to watch them preflight the aircraft as they check everything out, down to the nuts and bolts holding everything together. The gentleman with all the papers on the front of the aircraft is Brian’s Instructor Pilot (IP) and the flight commander for their entire class. He’s a pretty cool guy.

And of course I had to get the classic Brian cheeze grin shot before hitching a ride back down to the snack shop to cool off.

So after beating the heat, Brian and I raced down to the hospital to await the birth of our God Daughter, Kaitlynn Marie Russell! I was even lucky enough to be invited into the delivery room. I did my best to be of use anyway I could. For the most part, that meant I was on camera duty to document this blessed occasion for them.

So not only did I get to witness the whole birth experience first hand, but got to see their beautiful baby girl only moments old. I can only hope I manage to get through it with as much grace as Stephanie mustered!Dad got to be the first to hold her and since that moment he has had a hard time putting her down! Daddy’s girl FOR SURE.

We went to visit them the next day to see how everyone was recovering. Brian got to do a practice run. For those of you who know Brian, I am sure you realize just what a momentous event THIS was. It was a very happy moment, he’s going to be a great dad

We are very pleased to report the happy family seems to be doing wonderfully and adapting well to their new roles.

And last but certainly not least… Our night was made complete with the birth of our nephew Rogan James McKay Davidson at 10:56pm! Congratulations Ryan and Andrea! We couldn’t be happier for you both.

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-R

In the meantime…

Your older cousin was born. Rogan James McKay Davidson. I know, he’s got lot’s of cool names and you only have one so far, how horribly unfair is that. I don’t really think that it’s unfair at all, I just enjoy rubbing it in - but he does have a cool name. His name means “red-headed” from Irish and Gaelic origin, but the word on the street is his hair isn’t so red. But as I recall, Alex Rogan wasn’t a red-head either but he still managed to save the Earth (and Rylos, I suppose) from Xur and the Ko-dan Armada pretty much single-handedly.

So he’s got that going for him.

That and the fact that he has hair - which seems to be the in-thing these days. Roughly five hours before your cousin Rogan entered this less comfortable, bright and noisy new world, my goddaughter-to-be was also born. I know, babies are coming out of the woodwork here. Kaitlynn Marie (Kaitie to me) was born 6:20pm CDT (20.5in, 7lbs 5oz) to our friends Clif and Stephanie Russell - and also had hair… a fuzzy little head full of hair.

No, I don’t think there is such a thing as a god-cousin. Little Kaitie may, however, end up being your distant cousin umpteen times removed since Stephanie’s family tree does in fact have some Lucero branches in the northern New Mexico, southern Colorado area. The jury’s still out on that one.

But you’re changing the subject. I was talking hair, and from the last peek into your insulated little world, you’re sporting a real nice Kojak look right now. Hardly fair, I know. You’ve still got three and a half months to work on your little coiffe. And in all fairness, compared to your uncle Greg, I was pretty much bald when I was born too.

Oh, and for the record, you needn’t fear Clif, he doesn’t really eat babies. He’s on a diet.

Work with me here.

I do believe the quandary of this newly created blog lies in the fact that our son is on back order and our lives have not become ‘baby-centric’ as of yet. Which is to say… we’re kind of boring. I’m sure I could fill volumes with the joy of performing out-of-ground-effect hover power checks and with heart-wrenching tales of nap-of-the-earth flight under goggles. Renee, however, named this blog “New Serna Baby”, therefor focusing our creative literary energy on our expected child.

So, son (I’m speaking to him in the womb), we have certain needs and expectations regarding this blog that you need to step up to. We’re trying to document for all eternity the moment by moment prenatal development of YOU. YOU’RE THE STAR - and you’re giving us so little to work with. What have you given us so far? Let’s see… well, you kick during loud movies… or when Renee eats dried fruit… or when she mashes your little head to try to get a reaction - which she must do regularly since you seem to be so unbelievably contrary to doing anything interesting.

Seriously, do something cool like… oh, I don’t know… double in size this month and make Renee really fat (HAHA). How’s that? You were already gonna? Oh. You know you could have shared that with me before I went on that little tirade. Well I guess that’ll be pretty cool.

What else you got? Eardrums? Oh, so you can actually hear us talking about you, eh? Too bad you don’t know what nouns and verbs are or you might have gotten a clue before you get out of there. No matter, we can use those little eardrums to introduce you to some of my best friends: Ella Fitzgerald, Led Zeppelin, Beethoven, Ben Harper… Trust me, they will be your friends your whole life. You just got to get to know them. Don’t worry, at the volumes I listen you’ll be sure to hear.

See, now you’re starting to give me something to work with.

What?

You want a name?

You got a name. Serna. S-E-R-N-A. Serna.
Oh, you want more of a name. Well, if you want more of a name, you need to start giving me and your mother some more stuff to write about. ‘Bout right now you best start learning nothing in this life is gonna be free, kiddo. So you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours, and maybe we can see to a mutually beneficial end to our current situation.

We’re online!

Well after much frustration, I think we have an up and running baby blog. Now we will be able to share our news in a more reader friendly format for you all to enjoy. As I continue to figure this out I will try to add previous pictures and such. Wish me luck! - R