More stuff

Http://twitter.com/benjmiller or check out erica's Facebook.

Thx for all the love!

Done!

Kenyon Rapha Miller is here!

Where's the body butter??

If you get the title of this post you are a spoiled little brat (like me). Erica has had to remind me that we're at Northside Hospital, not the W Buckhead.

...an interesting day. We went in for our 39 week OB appointment and the nurse thought the heartbeat was a bit low, so she wanted us to go get our stuff and head over to the hospital. Stuff is progressing, but slowly.

No real news. Everyone is in good spirits at the moment. I'm going to get off of here now and see if I can get one of the waitresses in here for another round of drinks.

We're back for round two!

Saturday morning...  plan is a birthday party, a gtech bball match and then Linkin's birthday party.  Ow yea...  but Erica measured 4cm yesterday at the OB. So we'll see.

I will post progress here (hopefully).

i'm not here

In case you some how stumble on this blog or are actually expecting me to update it I have some news for you... I'm not here. Probably won't be - unless I have some big and crazy deal that I need to let everyone know about in more than 140 character bursts.

You can find us on facebook:

• http://www.facebook.com/linkinmiller (okay it's really me)
• http://www.facebook.com/ericaannmiller

or on twitter: @benjmiller or @eyespeak

We'll also be updating the eyespeak blog much more frequently at: http://eyespeak.com/blog/

the hilarity of my day

My day started awesome, time with Erica, Linkin, check in with some teammates at the office, decorated a wall in the conference room and then it got interesting...

So here's the story. I've been wanting a dune buggy since I was about 2 years old. The deal was I wouldn't have 2 cars so it would have to be something that I could really use as a daily driver (hense the do it or don't do it question. Found one I really like and a friend and I had planned to go yesterday to look at it. It has been raining here for like a week (20" in last 3 days). We went down today on our lunch break. So we get to the guys house (down by six flags), ring the door bell and he says he'll open the garage to come in that way. So, I peaked around the corner at the garage and the door was open. So I duck my head (remember downpour like niagra), and the "non-electric-garage-door" decides it's time to just go back down. I hit the metal garage door, right on the hollow metal handle. I won the fight against the door (huge dent), but lost the battle with the handle (9 staples and 1 stitch). It totally closelined me by the head and knocked me on my butt.

So we tried to drive back to northside hospital... we had to drive about 30mph because we can only see 10' in front of us (rain). And finally traffic stops on 285 so we jump off and take backroads (now called minor rivers).

I normally am prone to car-sickness so the traffic, rain, fact that I had not eaten lunch and it's now 2:30 with blood streaming down my face is not helping my nausea. We finally get to the hospital and they treat mepretty well.

Big props to the truest of friends Mr. Statham!

So I get home, back to my computer (did I mention we're launching a huge site today)?????

10 minutes later Erica walks down stairs and I hear, "ow no."

Have I mentioned it's raining? Yea, not too bad, I know a lot of peeps in ATL are a lot worse off than we are, but still carried out about 30 gallons of water.

I might pass out now. Night all and thanks for your friendship, prayers, thoughts and humor.

Please excuse any typos or bad grammar, this was typed via my head wound.

storytime

I'm pretty excited about my latest idea/product/venture/partnership. It all started like this...

Having a baby makes me think about a lot of things that have never crossed my mind. I think the biggest is the overwhelming sense of responsibility for this little person's life. The single-most important role that I have as a father is to groom and shape him with what we have learned to call a "Biblical Worldview" (for more pickup this book).

In the book "Family Driven Faith", Voddie Baucham addresses that there are 5 key aspects that shape our worldview, including our perspective on; God, Man, Truth, Knowledge, and Wisdom. I am going to add a sixth, Love.

So, I was left dreaming of all the resources as my disposal to help me train up a man who had a solid Biblical Worldview on each of those topics. About three weeks ago this pondering ran straight into another hamster wheel in my head. I was dreaming of an iPhone application to develop for myself. I was creating some apps for clients... but I wanted to do something for myself.

On a Saturday morning, it hit me. Pick a story from the bible that somehow illustrates one of the five key aspects of the worldview. We make it a story on the iPhone. Instead of flipping pages, you could now FLICK through pages. Then, when your done reading actually go back and pick one of the pages and color them in (all on the iPhone/iPod Touch).

I was sold! And pumped! The next thought was that Heidi (my sister), is the PERFECT person to do the illustrations. I called her up and she was on board. That same week I had been talking with Kennedy Kok (K5 Software) about doing some apps together... he was on board.

We had our idea and the perfect team! We all got right to work. This week we launched a website that will showcase the stories. It is mostly just a framework with demos and screenshots forthcoming... but take a look and let us know any comments or ideas!

http://www.istorytime.net/

it's been a little over forever

hey all. so i'm pretty good at blogging through major life events... not so much on the day-to-day.

What's happened...

Link is growing and starting to interact. Our favorite time is in the evening. We have a family devotional during his feeding then it is off to bath time! He loves it. He loves to eat his fists in the bathtub. I'm not sure what that means, but it makes him happy.

I am working from home again. It was really weird moving the office back home, but MAN am I loving it.

Erica is adjusting to mommy-hood really well. She started training again last week and has added some non-baby life back into her world.

I'll keep it short... hopefully then I'll come back soon. Ow... if your checking this looking for Link picts. He has his own facebook account and updates stuff there ;-)

New (old) Picts

Here is a link to a bunch of picts my dad took when he was here a while back. Link was 2 weeks old in most of these.

Linkin Urijah

new work work

We updated our work website yesterday with some of our latest work... check it out.

the two week old

Our great friend Amelia started her own photography business (we think she's awesome). She was with us at the delivery (sorry - those picts are not being posted) and she came over this week and took some "2 week old picts".

Directions: goto http://www.amelianreasons.com/
on the bottom right click: client proofing and ordering
a password will box will appear in the middle of the screen enter: ourlink

ENJOY (and hire Amelia)

One Day at a Time

What an interesting process this is! Learning this little baby is quite an adventure. Between all the feedings and naps, there are these cool times when Link is actually awake. Sometimes his eyes are open so wide and he is just alert and staring. (Totally love those eyes!) Other times he is in and out of sleep or fussiness and we try different things to calm him down. Thank God that he likes to be swaddled and responds to the shhhshhing thing! It's such a strange feeling to want so much to help him be calm and happy and sometimes not know how to do it. As our friend Joy has said, so the journey of living with your heart outside your body begins!

Right now I am super grateful that B's parents are here to help us around the housenand to hold Link. After 45 minute feedings eight times a day, I am okay with other people snuggling with him for awhile. And, knowing that soon enough it will be just B and me here at the house, I am glad that he is getting loved on by people other than us!

e

Erica writes a million more words than Benj probably ever has on this blog!

Hi - It's Erica... Benj said it was my turn to let everyone know how we're doing - so here I am!

Must say that this little guy is totally amazing! Every single time I see him with those huge eyes open, I am overwhelmed by this new love I feel...and maybe some of it's emotion b/c of these hormone changes (and there is DEFINITELY a lot of emotion -- read "emotion" as crying & tears!) but it's also just me really experiencing God's love for me and this new little one. Anyway, crazy awesome!

Link and I are working on the breastfeeding thing, which obviously neither of us had a clue about before now. We are getting A LOT of practice as our little man can eat! Benj is such a great teammate in all of this and supporting me with whatever I need like taking two full two hours shifts in the night last night so I could sleep. As for sleep, I have had over 5 hours combined today, which is a record! My mom has been another HUGE support in this. She is cooking, cleaning, holding and rocking Link, going to the store, encouraging me to rest, just listening and talking with me. I cannot express how thankful and glad I am that she has been here all week. It will be hard for me to see her leave on Saturday but this has been such a gift. Finally, our little Luli...may sound silly but I am so proud of her. She is adjusting very well; actually, I think she is afraid of this new thing that is her size and makes all that noise. She keeps her distance from him but will sniff his head now and then...without licking him! And for those of you familiar with Luli, for her not to lick someone is HUGE! :-)

Well, thank you all for your interest in us and our new life with Linkin Urijah. Thank for you the many emails and texts and phone messages. Thanks for understanding when I don't reply or answer the phone...literally, my hands are pretty full and when I am not with the little guy, I am eating or resting. But, please know that I am so blessed by all of your kindness and prayers and encouragement. Please continue to pray that Link keeps figuring out how to eat well (and when to stop eating!), to sleep well (maybe even in for a few good hours straight in his crib), to calm down when fussing (and for us to know how to help him with that). Pray that Benj and I continue to connect to one another and God as beautifully as we have these past 5 days...how I ADORE my husband! (Crying again!) And that we are receiving and fullness of who God is and how huge He is to turn 45 minutes of sleep into enough energy to last many hours when it needs to...

Okay, so here are some pics, which I know is what you all really want!

Thanks! So much love -- Erica

picts from northside

http://picasaweb.google.com/eyespeak.benj/Baby01

I'll work on the video and some picts from home today!

BTW: the word that I have used 100 times in the last 48 hours.... AMAZING.

we're home!

Can you believe it. Link is was born 28 hours ago and we're chill'n at home.

Okay - so let me clear something up, when I posted earlier I did a type (no sleep can do things like that), Linkin's middle name is Urijah. It means "The Lord is my Light".

I know I'm not the best linguist when it comes to typing out events. Normally I can summarize a full day in three or four bullet points and so that's what you guys got. In addition it is a very personal experience that you want to share but there is definitely somewhere in there that you need to draw the line. So, let me take a moment to digress about 32 hours...

Erica was awesome. Labor started just before midnight on Friday with a "What was that?" contraction. It QUICKLY got more intense. Erica has a fusion in two of her vertebrae that has always caused her a lot of pain... it made the labor and deliver very painful. Even when she wasn't contracting the muscles and bones in her back never let up. I was able to get a few hours of sleep in the beginning - but then it was all about supporting Erica. I won't give all the details... but it was really hard. Erica had prepared like an Olympian. She kind of merged a few books she really liked (Ima May, Hypnobirthing, Active Birth stuff) into her version of what she wanted the delivery to look like.

Her philosophy was mostly hypnobirthing but she wanted it to be pretty active (reeeaaallllyyyy). Well her back pain pretty much took out the active part... but she KILLED the hypnobirthing part. I really don't know where she took herself for those 14 hours of labor - but she did. It was amazing to watch... A MAZE ING.

In the end we decided it was time to go to the hospital about 9:30. When she got checked upon arrival she was 7-8cm and fully effaced. It didn't go as quick as we expected from there. A bit after 1pm her water fully broke - from there it was VERY SHORT until PUSH TIME.

It took a minute to get a grasp on how to make her body work perfectly with the surges, but she did it - and before long we say a big head of hair and a second after that... a penis!

So - no... I didn't leave out the drugs part... she had nothing... not even a Tylenol. She knows she doesn't get a trophy for doing it that way - but she wanted to join the club of women from all areas of the globe and throughout time that have felt the pain of child birth. She did what she wanted and felt awesome afterwards - especially with such an awesome and alert new son.

I'd say more - but need to get back to tending to the family. Thanks again for all the support. I promise some picts and vids before long.

the first night of life

Okay - so Daddy's awesome streak of being right by mom's side pretty much shut down last night once my head hit a pillow.

Mom was awesome feeding every 2 hours. Link has pretty much aced Breastfeeding 101 - which of course is a great relief as it can be not easy.

I'll try to get some more picts or even a video online today... but it's really not my priority... sorry yaw.

Thanks for all your prayers, support, friendships and humor (in the comments).

pictures

8lbs 1 oz.
baby is in the transition nursery for another 1.5 hours - then hopefully back with mom. Everything checked out fine - he just had a lot of fluid and a faster heart beat.

Here's some picts... more to come I'm sure!

it is a boy!!!!

Linkin Urijah Miller
crying, wide-eyed, and a FULL head of hair!

--
Benj Miller

// all new: www.eye-SPEAK.com

no news yet.

1 pm.

I guess this thing doesn't listen to me already... I thought we agreed on noon!

grounded!!!

--
Benj Miller

// all new: www.eye-SPEAK.com

over 8cm...

still working... but I guess we may have a little visitor arounf lunch.

benj

--
Benj Miller

// all new: www.eye-SPEAK.com