Finally able to hold her head up fairly well, it was time for the Bumpo so I started snapping away. Aside from the blurred arm I thought this was a cute one :)
"Today there was a slight breeze":) Maggie picked the title for this picture even before the shutter opened. It wasn't that cold out to be honest but first time parents will always err on the cautious side.
help build her immune system, I've noted that it appears building up her immune is going to cost a mint. That wasn't included in the books. Also not included is that while a $20 copay at the pediatrician doesn't sound like much, when you have to go a hundred times it adds up. She hasn't even started asking for toys yet.
So here's the situation...we had planned everything perfectly. Whenever you hear parents start a story like that you can be assured that things are not going to end well. You can't plan anything. I'm convinced a child could do the same routine for two months and the one day you need to count on that routine it will change. So we had Sydney on a great feeding schedule, timed perfectly so she would eat when we got the church and then need to eat after the service. We'd put off putting her perfect white dress on until she gone through a few diapers that morning. We got her changed, we all looked great, and it was five minutes to show time. Then she pooped. Not a small poop but one that decided to leave the immediate vicinity of the diaper. I watched Maggie as the horror of that moment slowly unveiled itself on her face. First she saw the diaper, then a little bit on the nice white dress, then the real disaster all down the front of her skirt. Five minutes to go and things had unraveled. Diapers were flying. Wipes thrown in every direction. Suggestions offered from everyone. Maggie finally looked up, laughed and said, "This was the worst case scenario." And we survived. We survived the two hour ceremony, forty five minutes longer than normal. We survived her starving cries as we drove home as fast as we could. We survived the chaos that ensued at our house. We survived the pictures. In the end, we somehow survived our perfect plannning.
Last night I spent a few precious moments trying to convey to my four month old daughter the momentous occasion that was the beginning of her first NFL season. I assured her there would be moments of joy and years of misery, but these could be tempered to a degree by ensuring your success in fantasy football by making the right starting picks each week. So we sat down in front of the computer and although it sounded mostly like cooing, I'm pretty sure she was giving me the pro's and con's of starting one of the Saints wide receivers. Her advice of course profferred in the hopes of helping me to live up to the immortal words on her bib, "Daddy is #1". So the season has started and my search continues for a tiny little foam finger I can put on her hand. That would look so cute.
I remember so many times friends or co-workers came to the end of a day and said "I have to go pick up my kid from daycare" and I never thought much of it until today. It was only a test run, a few hours of agony, but I dropped our little angel off at day care for the first time and left her there. Alone. Without us. How could they know the precise angle she must be held after feeding so she doesn't spit up? How will they know she likes the head, shoulders, knees and toes song sung while pointing at her head, shoulders and so on? So I left...and drove far away...across the parking lot to the Starbucks where I could see the daycare and I got a table near the window so I could watch. Oh I did some work and took a conference call but I had my eyes pegged across the parking lot. Two seemingly endless hours later I told a co-worker I had to get off the phone. "I have to go pick up my kid up from day care" I said proudly. And to my surprise she was happy and fed and changed and seemed quite content her first time away from family. It's still going to take some time, so in addition to the checks I'll be depositing in the slot of the day care lobby desk, I'll be depositing a few checks at that Starbucks too ::)
With all the high powered cameras we have I used to think that a low grade phone camera that is barely printable was a ridiculous idea. Then I got one and realized that sometimes capturing the moment is indeed more important than capturing the moment at 10 megapixels. So I've started to snap here and there when I don't have my camera handy and I've caught a few of these moments, such as Sydney's first rainbow from the car, or a cute picture of her. As it's a phone, I can surreptitiously look at this picture when I'm having a long meeting or day and how could that face and those eyes not get you through.
After a short hiatus for our South Carolina swing, we're now only 6 days from Sydney's 3 month milestone. With all the babies around we now realize that in fact every baby is different and they're all making strides at their own pace. We've basically thrown away the week by week development book and relieved ourselves of the stress involved when she doesn't do something on command after week such and such. Plus, I was spending too much time reading forward for the week when I could expect her do her own laundry. Perhaps a longer term book at this point would help with our planning. 
Week 676: Your now teenage daughter will begin to terrorize you. Week 780: Your daughter will ask if she can go out on a date with a boy. Your response will be a short courteous, no. Week 832: Your child should be driven to the DMV to get her license. Week 832: Your child will ask you to buy her a car. Week 832: Your daughter will drive off and you will realize that Week 676 looked pretty good.
Betting on horses based on their name; staring directly into the sun; driving 11 hours with a baby. Three things you should never do...but I once bet on a horse's name I liked and it came in second; I stared at an eclipse for a few seconds and didn't burn my eyes out, and this weekend we drove to South Carolina with our 10 week old and she slept almost the entire way. Like many a parent we've met have said, babies at this age do actually seem to be portable. The problem comes when you've ported them somewhere completely foreign. They realize that the nice walls you painted aren't there. That nice glider you've been rocking them in for months is no longer. That one picture on the wall they stare at has mysteriously disappeared, and in it's place? Forty people she's never seen, passing her back and forth, here and there. It's enough to make her cry, which is exactly what she did. But each day South Carolina becomes a little more familiar, the palmetto's sway more comfortably, and grandma and grandpa's seem that much more like home.
22 hours...3 hours...
the time of my business meeting.
1 minute...
the amount of time it took me in the cab to start deeply missing my little girl.
Luckily I made it back to see her holding her head up strong as she attempted the ever complex vault over the Boppy. Fortunately her legs and desire have yet to conspire.
I refuse to use the term "they grow up so fast". Every parent says it. It's sort of like saying peanut butter sticks to roof of your mouth or little babies farting is cute. So of course upon walking into the doctor's office for Sydney's two month appointment we were greeted with, "Can you believe your back so soon...don't they seem to grow up so fast?" It's been close to nine weeks now which has allowed enough time for bonding such that Maggie couldn't bear to watch our little girl getting her first set of shots at this appointment. I remember as a kid the prospect of getting one shot was terrifying but this little girl had to get four shots! And so began a life long hatred of doctors offices, her cries for help repeatedly dwarfing the shreiks of a 4 year old in the next room as mom looked away. One moment the funny man in the white lab coat, the next a thouroughly unfunny man. She seemed so much more alert though and aware of what was happening. It was a different cry and more her voice but unfortunately, unlike the 4 year old, no amount of Elmo stickers from the lobby was going to help ease this pain. It seems like just yesterday she was getting worked up in the hospital and here she was at her two month appointment. Gosh, they grow up so fast. Damn.
Now that she's reached a reasonable weight and height so as not to be completely swallowed by this contraption, we broke out the Baby Bjorn. In honor of having my hands back I thought it only fitting that I take a self portrait of my new found happiness and the sleeping beauty...and no, the white cloth is not part of the purchase. That accessory was in hopes of saving the second shirt of the day from regurgitated milk.
When I first got out of college, a friend of mine was married in a large Catholic wedding in Baltimore. This was the first of many weddings I would attend and I ached after an hour and a half of sit, stand, kneel, sit, stand, kneel. Then at my own wedding we remained standing perfectly still during the entire 40 minute sermon while the congregation sat blissfully relaxed behind us. Then there was the wedding in Mexico that lasted nearly 24 hours. Weddings are tiring in themselves but I never even gave much thought to the shadow like photographers running around behind us. Then on Saturday I helped out my friend Steph photograph a wedding and realized that no matter how much standing and dancing I had done at weddings, photographing a wedding and running around with lights, extension cords and camera bags will have me forever appreciate any amount of standing I do at a wedding again. I sat down that night and my legs literally throbbed for three hours. (It was good to see she felt the same way on her fivezees blog :) ) So the lessons I learned on Saturday are twofold. First, wedding photography is very stressful and debilitatingly tiring. Second, as soon as I walk out that front door I might as well be relaxing on a beach as far as Maggie is concerned and when I return, no matter how exhausted and almost before I can put my bag down I'll be greeted with Sydney planted in my arms, a quick peck on the cheek and a gleeful wave goodbye.
Sometimes I think the most interesting part of a photograph or anything creative is hearing each persons unique point of view. If you've been to a place in a picture, all those memories come rushing back. If you've ever had a little one, you would appreciate how worried a photographer could be about the resonating click of a shutter over a sleeping baby. Then there are the small things we each notice like a facial expression, or a pattern or something misplaced. So when I first uploaded this photograph, with a love of sports and a father in law who would shoot baseball every day if he could, all I could see was my little girl dreaming of the sign from the catcher and positioning her hands for a southpaw two seam fastball. And although I snapped a few pictures in time, the shutter was indeed my downfall. I'll leave it to the imagination what a waking baby does when she yawns, opens her eyes, sees no mommy or daddy and only a brightly colored flower four inches away that is bigger than her head.
Everyone tells us how young children just want to do the same thing over and over again and we better prepare. Try peek-a-boo once, you better hold on because you're going to have to do it seventy five times. It was yesterday I started wondering if we create these little monsters by getting them used to repetition early. The book says you're supposed to talk to them and say words so they get used to language but I've run out of things to say. I've told her that too, repeating "I have nothing more to say" over and over again trying to make her understand. So then I started pointing out objects in the house...a table, a chair, the lamp. I've pointed out the same placemat about thirty times now. No wonder they want to do things over and over again when they're toddlers. I could stop but it's probably already too late and in a short time I'll be playing "Where's the placemat?" a hundred times over.
Sydney marked by moving up a size in diapers to contain her own fireworks!
When I walked by the key board in the front hall a few weeks ago my Dad and I had a good laugh at this picture. It makes me think of the Goldilocks and the Three Bears story. I had remembered other people saying this, but Maggie and I were sitting around last night laughing that it's becoming harder to remember what it was like without this little girl around the house. The littelest bear around here has stolen more than just our last spot to put keys :)
We continue to search for the right balance of sleep and awake time during the day hoping that we can forecast how she'll sleep at night. The mythical "4 hour stretch" is what we're aiming for where she's content enough to sleep an entire four hours in a row. I know...the bar on sleeping has been severely lowered. We had one such night last night thanks to the help of the automatic swing, an incredible device that rocks your baby to sleep for you and the only payment is that it makes a really loud clicking noise that makes it almost as hard to go to sleep. A true case of picking your poison. So we had her nice and snug and rocking and we somehow drifted off with the tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock of the swing motor ratcheting away. And do you know that for eight hours last night (I can't feed her :) ) I dreamed I was playing ping pong...I'm not kidding...all I can remember is playing ping pong in different settings with different people, having conversations while playing ping pong, driving to a ping pong hall, visiting little Natalie Johnston and playing ping pong. We'll give it another night but if I dream about ping pong all night we're going to have to mix things up here and there :)
pressing if you look closely) which worked perfectly. The snapping camera even inspired some lovable shots of grandpa Tom. With this many grandparents and greatgrandparents around we haven't seen our kid in three days ;)
Just thought this was a funny picture and something we wanted to remember. Not a one time occurrence, Sydney sleeps like this all the time and looks like she ready to give someone a high five. What's a dad to do but oblige so most times I walk by her I lean down and give her a tiny high five and congratulate her on another satisfying nap.
That's right, no L. It's become "seepy time" already. Why do we start talking to our baby this way so early? Maybe it's that whole cycle of life thing where we start to regress. Maybe this is where it starts...a college educated adult working toward a Master's degree referring to a nap as "seepy time". It just sounds so cute though.
I think the picture at left sums up what can only be described as the purest joy of a great grandmother holding her great granddaughter for the first time. Not only a moment special in itself, but with one son and two grandsons this was her first time welcoming a Ms. Ivey to the family. (ok, she has two pretty good granddaughter-in-laws as well) While taking this picture I really thought of the incredible nature of what each of these two have and will experience. One grew up in London and experienced air raids nightly during WWII. One will graduate college around the year 2028. One was born around the inception of commercial air flight while the other is born on the verge of commercial space flight. Such a special treat to watch these two great women meet one another.
I've realized that bestowed upon parents of a young infant, among many other tasks, is the pleasure of providing them each morning with that days personality. Unable to smile or truly react to us at this age, as parents we use the power of the onesie to describe how the little one feels each day. Just last week she was a "little princess", while yesterday she felt "too cute" for words. Once in a while she lets everyone know that "daddy does my hair" or that she was truly "worth the wait". Then there are those days where she's feeling rebellious and must tell everyone that "chicks rule". But with uncanny regularity and to daddy's surprise each time he unwraps her from her blanket around mid-morning she proclaims that indeed, she is "more like mommy every day".
We think we're still young dogs and we are definitely learning lots of new tricks. Have you ever opened a jar with one hand? It's hard enough with two. Ridden an exercise bike while holding an infant for 30 minutes because she's fussing? I can do that now. Typing with one hand? I'm an expert. The simple act of getting coffee ready in the morning has become a feat I am proud to accomplish. But perhaps all our new skills will be put on hold for a while as Maggie discovered the wonders of an 8 foot long piece of cloth that some moms have branded and sell as a "baby wrap". Ingenious. I am constantly amazed at the marketing (and cost) that accompanies baby items. The wrap is $35 while I'm sure an 8 foot piece of cloth is much less. "Baby bags" for wrapping up that smelly diaper on the road? $3 for one roll. The same bags found on the doggie doo doo aisle? $3 for 10 rolls. Though being the good capitalist MBA student that I am, I have to appreciate the simplicity with which these companies snare new parents walking down that aisle in Target for the first time proclaiming "I must have the Eddie Bauer poop bags!"...nothing but the best for our children.
Syndey enjoyed her three week birthday yesterday by taking a quick trip to the doctor for a weight check which revealed she's regained her full birth weight of 7lbs 12oz. and a second chin (maybe third). One of the few times she won't mind us all cheering that she gained a pound.Here are some pictures from the week below including Maggie with our new BOB stroller that is all I thought it would be. As we were walking down the street a flashy new BMW passed by and I verbally drooled over it to Maggie, resigning myself to the fact that the costs of a new baby and a new BMW don't mix well. "At least", I proclaimed, "we have the BMW of strollers!" :) Ahh, how things change.
