Each of these expressions

directly inherited from dad

Huzzah!

Olympia can now shake hands with Mr. Turtle! Gosh. It wasn't so long ago that her arms were just immobile little sausage links.

Creation Myth

Some special things about babies Part I

They're filled with such concentration

and determination

even though their arms

can only reach the tops of their heads

Another 'Pendulous Cheeks' Picture

Olympia loves a rousing game of up up and away even though it usually ends with her loosing her lunch on mommy.

Sleep Begets More Sleep. Who Knew?

See that wide eyed look? To the untrained eye, it may seem that baby is really alert or merely curious. The truth is, OlyQ is fighting sleep with all of her might and on the verge of loosing it.

It was 5pm and we should have headed home for her 6pm bedtime but instead we opted for a stroll through the Prudential. Bad idea. Instead of napping in the stroller as we had hoped, she clamored to be amidst all the action and insisted we carry her throughout the mall. When we got home, it took over 2 hours to put her to bed and she continued to wake every 2 hours during the night.

We learned out lesson and I've pretty much been sequestered in the last week making sure she gets her naps. Not really complaining though because there really is not much more beautiful than a sleeping baby.

Family Ties

We get the keys to our new apartment tomorrow! Mark and I are beyond excited. This will be an easier move because I'm not 8 months pregnant and we have more than 24 hours to complete the task.

Plans to settle, decorate, and make it a home are in the works. We've already committed and purchased plants. Baby+plants=Settling. It'll be a huge change from the transient lifestyle I've led for the last five years but I look forward to it. More and more, my sense of family is deepening and it's such a beautiful feeling. More than I could ever have imagined.

Much to her surprise

Baby Olympia awoke to discover that her cheeks had overtaken her face!

My Little Baby Pudding Pop

Nothing quite so perfect (or tastey) as naked baby

Inherited From Dad

A smile you can't say no to

Sunday Brunch

Dear parents,
Although delicious, coffee, pancakes, and eggs could never compare to the tasty morsel that is my hand!

Hygiene, Husband, and Hats

First six weeks: 3 keys to my survival

*Hygiene
There are so many things that are chucked out the window when a newborn arrives. Priorities realign and there is a temporary shift into survival mode. The first and biggest thing to go was all sense of vanity. I refused to worry about how I looked or how the house looked. However, in order to stay sane I knew I couldn't forgo hygiene. The small act of making sure I brushed my teeth every morning separated the days from one another and prevented my turning into a muttering hermit with no sense of time or the outside world.

*Husband
What can I say? Glasses of water would miraculously appear, dishes were always done, and dinners made. This is a man who held my hand through every contraction and continues to split each night feeding shift with me. Really, I can't ever say enough.

*Hats
For the first month, I nursed through the night every hour on the hour. I was hanging on by a thread and needed sleep so much I could almost taste its sweetness. My sanity was going, so much so that I was absolutely convinced a ghost entered the bedroom every night between 3 and 4 o'clock. One cold night, I discovered my salvation. Tightly swaddle Olympia like a burrito and put on the silliest, strawberry shortcake, hat I could find. I couldn't help but laugh and kept an assortment of hideous hats in the crib from then on.


Yeah...it was all really hard but hell, what great thing in life isn't?