Tuesday, July 26

Gymboree-aholic

A cautionary tale

It could happen to you...

You could become addicted to Gymboree-ahol.

Monday, July 25

Carry Out

Nora had an appointment today to get weighed. The nurse stripped off her diaper, and on cue, she pooped on the paper-covered table. This is not unusual or surprising.

But they put the diaper and the paper in a bag, and made us take it home. Like a pet.

"Crying A Little Bit"

That's what Nora's cousin Owen (about 22 months old) said about her the other day. He says the most interesting, complex sentences.

We're all a little bit tired around here, but Nora is a good sleeper. Not an all-night sleeper, but pretty painless. Could be worse. I've decided that calculating how many hours of sleep you get only compounds the problem by making one feel sorry for oneself, so I'm not sure what our hours are looking like, but they're sufficient.


It's been ridiculously hot this week, so we've all been wearing minimal clothes to beat the heat. Last night, it finally rained, and the heat has broken today.



I'll leave you with this picture of Nora's fuzzy back. I took another one that made it look positively apelike, but thought better of posting it. Don't want to attract the attention of tabloids or the circus, what with the toes and now this.




By the way, Nora's bilirubin is down to appropriate levels , so there is no more need for the futuristic blue bed anymore.

Friday, July 22

One Week



We got some donuts this morning to celebrate Nora's one week birthday. Thanks to everyone who sent messages of congratulations and offers of help. It was a great, memorable week. I'm really glad I was able to stay home. The pace has been slow, and I've been a little stir-crazy at times, especially after I finished reading every magazine and newspaper twice. Got some good yardwork done too.



But the slow pace has been great; being able to just play with Pete or hold Nora for hours is a beautiful luxury that I don't usually get.

Krispy Kreme donuts are one of the great guilty pleasures of this household. That and the music of the original American Idol, Kelly Clarkson.

Wednesday, July 20

Pardon Me...

You will excuse me for some fatherly adoration of a few little things.





Do those seem like bizarrely long toes to anyone?

Gettin' Down for the Supremes




This picture was just irresistible. It's John Roberts and family, during the official White House press conference to announce Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court. His son, apparently couldn't resist the cameras, and broke into dance. You can see his mom's face reddening from a distance. In the second picture, she looks like she might be praying.

Tuesday, July 19

In the Future...

Maybe we'll all sleep on cool future beds like this, and during the night, the bed will heal cellular damage, or make us super-intelligent, or coordinate communication between the swarms of nanobots in our bloodstreams.



For now, blue light tables are only useful for jaundiced babies. Nora has too much bilirubin in her bloodstream, and her liver isn't up to the challenge of disposing of all of it. So, she needs help getting it out of her body. Some genius figured out that blue-wavelength light photoisomerizes (couldn't miss what might be my only lifelong opportunity to use that word) bilirubin, allowing her body to get rid of it. She should need the light table for a couple of days, and then be fine.

Things are good, everyone is fine. Nights are long, but hopefully Nora will learn the concepts of night and day sometime soon. I got into a little tussle with a mountain lion in the backyard yesterday. Luckily, I was able to overcome him, and protect my family, as any good father of two would. It was awesome, you totally should have seen it.

(substitute "my weedwacker" for "a mountain lion" in that last sentence for a strictly accurate account)

Sunday, July 17

My Celebration

So, as you can see, I’m really not much of a cigar smoker. You can see how far I got on my cigar last night. Still, it was a memorable experience, sitting on the front porch, listening to the college kids have a party across the street. I talked with my brother on the phone about babies, kids, and adults. We talked about how newborns are like little animals, but that doesn’t stop us from staring at them all day long, thinking about what they’re going to be like someday. Troy’s first question was the color of her eyes (blue so far)

Last night, I was punished for my arrogance in being so quick to assume that Nora would be a good sleeper on so little evidence. It turns out that she is a good sleeper by day and insatiably hungry by night. Sleep last night was measured in the minutes, rather than hours.

Saturday, July 16

Pictures and Tidbits



The first bath.

This facial expression is more representative of the first bath.

Pete's first meeting.

At one point during labor, Heather was told that she could start pushing, because the baby was going to come, and she responded by saying, "cha-ching!"

Nora slept for 6 straight hours last night, and had to be awakened at that point.
Do we have a sleeper?

Friday, July 15

Eleanor Pearl Briggs


8 pounds 5 ounces
21 inches
Born at 12:05pm today.
We're going to call her Nora.

Everything went great. Heather did an unbelievably impressive job, and we have a cute, hungry little girl. Nora's face is bruised pretty good from the quick trip out, but it's nothing serious.

Sorry to get the news out so late in the day, but a long day like this has a way of getting behind you.

Pete is interested in checking out the baby, and is visibly excited. He especially likes the new toys he's been getting. Heather feels good enough that she wishes she could come home tonight. I'm dazed after an emotional day, and looking forward to smoking a cigar later.

Thursday, July 14

Clouds


I'm a fan of interesting looking clouds. We get clouds like this occasionally in Colorado Springs, but not this extreme.

Wednesday, July 13

I have a plan...

Just received word that the plan is for induction on Friday morning.

Spot


Still no baby. So... I suppose I'll tell another charming anecdote about Pete to fill the time. Let me know if this gets boring. Parents tend to think everything their kid does is impossibly cute and unique. Surely telling stories about our kids over and over again will be interesting and entertaining to whoever will listen, right? I know that's not true, and kid stories end up being pretty repetitive, but I can't help it. So, tune it out if you're not interested.

After spending the day pretending to be Owen, Pete decided that he was going to pretend to be a dog. He was playing around with my belt, and you could see the light bulb blink on above his head. "This thing's like a leash, and I'm gonna be a puppy!". So, for the past 3 days, he's wanted to wear the belt around his waist, and he likes Heather to hold on to the free end. He enjoys going for walks. He likes to strain against the leash like he's seen puppies do. He'll come if you call, and even sit down if you ask him to. He insists that we refer to him as Spot, rather than Pete.

He has a whole world going on in there, and it's interesting that even though he's a late talker, and can't express much of his imagination with words, he is still very intent on sharing it however he can.

Tuesday, July 5

Imagination

Pete spent the afternoon pretending he was his younger cousin Owen. He only referred to himself as Owey and only referred to Heather as "Owey Mommy". Also, he insisted that his stuffed giraffe made pig sounds, like Owen's stuffed pig. Maybe Pete's just getting started, or maybe he esteems Owen more than I thought possible, but don't kids usually pretend to be superheroes or firefighters?

By the way, still waiting on the baby, whose name is yet to be revealed. Every day she stays in is one day closer to sleeping through the night. That's the new optimistic view.