William "Liam" Lazenby Boyer

William "Liam" Lazenby Boyer was born Thursday, October 14th at 11:47 PM (he couldn't wait 13 more mins to share a birthday with me).  He was 19", 7lbs 13oz -- healthy and sound.
Lazenby is a family name from my mother's mother's maiden name.  Now all three boys have "inherited" middle names.
Lisa's good.  It was another precipitous delivery (I had full confidence he was going to be born hours past midnight) but everyone's good.  She didn't get an epidural because of the timeline so while it was painful, the end stage was brief and hopefully her recovery will be smoother.
The boys are thrilled with him, especially Clay who has held him in his lap a few times and told me tonight, "I'm holding him because he's my baby brother, I love him and I want to take care of him."  We're very blessed.
I've been uploading lower res photos from my phone at the hospital and we'll put up more when we're home (likely on Sunday).  Photos can be seen at photos.scottboyer.com.
Thanks for all the prayers and the facebook feedback has been incredible.  It's an unbelievable occasion to get well-wishes from so many wonderful friends spanning 30+ years.  Thank you!  It's been a great joy to hear my phone chirp and see another name from way back.
Scott

Brennan the Tycoon

In five years we'll all either be working for him . . . or be dead by his hand.

Practicing Casting

We had an amazingly beautiful, late-Spring evening and Clay was finally allowed to get out his birthday fishing rod and give it a spin. After about five minutes of practice, he was casting like a pro.

Old Hat

A couple of days after my last post, we found out that we were expecting yet again. This afternoon, we had a quick checkup that turned into a full ultrasound (everyone is healthy and fine). The boys were with us and so they got to see the entire session and found out right along with us that we were having another son!

As the technician was conducting the ultrasound and we were pointing out all the various features (eyes, ears, spine, feet, etc), Clay leaned over to me and whispered, "God made that baby!" He's right, and we can't wait to see what His plans are!

The results of the ultrasound pushed the due date up a little from 10/25 to 10/18, so we'll have to see what the OB has to say. I do have very pricey tickets to an October 10th show in D.C., so hopefully this boy will cut Dad some slack.

Unrequited Love (Or Was It Simply Covetousness?)

I (Scott) took Clay and Brennan to the gym and dropped them off at the "Kid's Zone" while I worked out. When picking them up afterwards, Clay immediately mentioned that he had made a new friend. I asked, "Was it a boy or a girl, Clay?" to which Clay replied that it was a girl but that No, he did not get her name -- but he really liked her coat. Erm -- ok, so the mystery girl had a nice coat. Check.

Clay makes friends all the time so I didn't give it much more thought other than his curious fashion fascination. Later, as were playing in the pool, however, Clay began telling me about a little girl at the Kid's Zone that wasn't very nice. I said that I was sorry to hear that she wasn't nice -- but I hoped that Clay was polite when she wasn't nice. Clay proceeded to tell me that he was polite, but she kept saying that she didn't want to play with him. When pressed on this, Clay admitted that his response to her request for space was to . . . (wait for it) . . . follow her more closely. At that point, I explained to Clay that perhaps she was a perfectly nice little girl and that Clay was the one who wasn't being very nice by ignoring her repeated requests to bug off. Clay put that in his pipe and went off to smoke it.

Even later, as we were driving away from the gym, Clay began once again to discuss the little girl at the Kid's Zone who didn't appreciate Clay's reprisal of Seinfeld's "close-talker". I asked him why he was so interested in this little girl and he said, "Dad, I already told you. She had a really nice coat!" As he continued to describe her technicolor dreamcoat in increasing detail, the pieces all fell into place: His new "friend" was actually the object of a little preschool stalking -- apparently brought on by winter garment-envy.

Is it too early to begin explaining to him the finer points of a restraining order?

Small World

I was visiting a friend of ours, Kenny, when he introduced me to his brother, Scott, who thought my name sounded very familiar. He had graduated from Chancellor the same year I graduated from King George. Well, when I heard that I was pretty sure I could figure out how he knew me: some folks are famous as football captain or homecoming king. I'm that guy with the horrific accident at Track & Field districts in '92.

Well, I was half right. When I told him about my accident, he lit up and began telling me all the details of my accident. Details that time and trauma had stolen. You see, Scott was at the event. Done with his events, he was helping work the pole vaulting event. In addition, he was a member of the rescue squad. So when I came down and my leg snapped, he jumped on the mat to hold me down while a trainer stabilized my leg -- preventing far worse damage.

What providence that he was there at the time with that background! How awesome to run into him again nearly twenty years later!

The Reason for the Season

The Reason for the Season
Originally uploaded by Scott Boyer

We were passed along this kitschy plastic nativity scene. When you press a little button, it lights up and walks you through the Christmas Story from the birth to the proclamation. Well, the kids love it -- and I'm growing to love it too.

After playing with it for a couple of weeks, Clay pretty much has the entire thing memorized. It turned out to be a great way to keep him preoccupied with the root reason for our celebration.