12 May 06

Le Petit Prince

A couple of days ago, my wife gave birth to our first child, a son, Elyas. Below are three photos taken within his first hour on the scene.

It’s discouraging to admit but I am a terrible photographer, in every respect. For every 100 photos I shoot, only about 5 are worth a damn. All I can say is thank God for digital cameras; don’t like a photo…delete it and take it again.

However, when we’re talking about action shots or shots of once-only moments in time, taking repeat photographs is not something you can really afford to do; getting white balance and focus correct is critical the first time around. Unfortunately, lighting and focus are the two things I constantly have trouble with.

Most of the first round of photos (day of birth) are not suitable for world distribution, as they are a bit personal, but below are three everyone should feel comfortable with. A lot of the photos turned out OK, some good, and many poor.

Photo 1: Here young Mr. Wion is demonstrating his best move. (Photo has been slightly censored.)

Elyas having a snack.

Photo 2: The CLAW! I mentioned before that this kid has huge hands, and at the moment they are also a bit wrinkly, like old-man hands. I get the feeling the skin is simply making room for the tremendous growth. You can see his hands are still a bit bluish. When he first arrived, he was actually quite purple, head to toe. He has since gained a healthier looking color; however, when the teet is taken away, he starts to cry and turns beet red…so it promptly gets put back again.

EDIT: I have since been told by the professionals (women with children of their own) that Elyas’ hands are not overly big, in fact they are quite normal. OK, fine, but he does have something that’s big, and that’s my story, I’m sticking to it.

Elyas sticking tongue out.

Photo 3: And finally, here we have the young prince freshly changed, just after having his first poop.

Elyas freshly changed.

I have more photos coming, but rather than ad hoc them in this manner (which takes forever to process them down), I’ll be getting the gallery put together instead. I’ll even be getting to our long past due wedding ceremony photos, Hanane’s henna ceremony, and other themes as they come along.

Also, I think the time has come that I confiscate my wife’s digital camcorder, which for reasons I don’t understand is always kept at her parents house. Now that we have a prize worth capturing, it’s time to change things.

Floral Pattern

  1. Nathalie :: 12 May 06 :: #

    Very nice to see the little prince on internet before to see him in live very soon,inch’allah.
    A très bientôt.
    Nathalie.

  2. isabelle :: 12 May 06 :: #

    Super mignon ! encore félicitations = vous avez bien travaillé !!!!
    Isabelle (from VB).

  3. Monique Heinrich :: 12 May 06 :: #

    Bonjour,
    Je suis une amie de Nathalie Salih, et elle m’a beaucoup parlé de vous. Sans vous connaître, j’ai suivi toutes les bonnes choses de votre vie, votre mariage, votre grossesse et maintenant, la joie extrême de la venue de votre fils. Bienvenue à cette petite merveille ! Que ce petit prince vous apporte joie et bonheur et beaucoup de satisfaction. Toutes mes félicitations aux heureux parents.
    Amicalement Monique

  4. Destry :: 13 May 06 :: #

    Merci à tous, nous apprecions vos sentiments, vraiment.

    À propo le français: Il y a beaucoup de monde qui lisent cet Weblog mais ils ne parlent pas la langue d’amour, ma famille, par exemple. Peut-être, dans le futur, Insh’Allah, je voudrai crée un autre place dans mon weblog pour français seulement. Pas immediatement, bien sur.

  5. Nathalie :: 13 May 06 :: #

    French comments… (oh, sorry for your family and friends, but you can translate?)...no doubt it’s the price of your fame after having the honours of french tv!!!

  6. Shona Long :: 14 May 06 :: #

    Awww!!! How precious Elyas is. Congratulations to both of you!!!
    So now the question is…when are you both coming to the States so the rest of the family can see all of you?

  7. Ken Wion (Dad) :: 21 May 06 :: #

    Hanane and Destry,

    I must say congratulations on the fine baby boy. He looks like you did when you were born, Destry. I bet the first thing you did was to check to see if all fingers and toes were there. I have bad news, I won’t be comming to France. Matt and Shona are trying to buy a house, so I told Shona to use the money she had saved for my plane ticket, as I thought it would be better that they had a home of their own. There will most likely be other times to make a trip. I know that you were looking forward to seeing me. Sorry! Again congratulations on a fine looking grandson. Love to you both, Dad

  8. Nathalie :: 24 May 06 :: #

    What about the camrecorder?
    Precious moments to catch now…
    Nathalie.

  9. Destry :: 24 May 06 :: #

    @Shona: Yes, that is the question, and there is no answer, but probably not anytime soon, unfortunately. I need to get established a bit before we can afford any travelling on that scale.

    @Pop: Hey Pop, thanks for the words. I’ll touch base with you soon, in email. Buy yourself a big cigar, on me. Heh.

    @Nat: Camcorder is in affect. Hanane is putting it to use. We probably won’t be putting much video online though, not in the public domain anyway, and certainly not anytime soon. I still have photos to deal with. ;)