The big tenth. And the girl.

Today is our 10th anniversary. Our gift was a nice relaxing day at home. Yeah, lame huh. Okay, the real gift arrived last week. The stork dropped off our dear Lily last Friday, very early in the morning.

Though two days past due, she still came sooner than we expected, and only on doctor's orders due to mom's suddenly high blood pressure.

Scrawny limbs flailing, some hollering and blubbering, but I eventually got myself in check and waited to be a dad. Then Lily was born!

She was a mere 5 lbs 9 oz; one ounce above the threshold where she would have been hospital-ridden for quite some time. When she left two days later she had lost close to half a pound already, but she's already gaining weight. Of course none of her clothes fit well, but she'll grow into them soon enough. I've hidden all the fashion magazines so she doesn't get self-conscious about her soon-to-be-chunky appearance. May she have her father's genes and never have that problem in the first place!

A few minutes old. Can Dutch babies really be this little?


Awww...


Awwwwww......


Is it just me, or does she look really big and non-newborn in this picture?


We didn't know we were having a girl; it meant buying only neutral-coloured clothes. It also meant needing to have a boy name and a girl name picked out. Girl name picking went okay and we had a short list of three names by the time she was about to be born. Our boy name short list wasn't very short at all. If we'd had a boy he'd probably still be nameless; fortunately that problem didn't materialize.

Lily, like her old man, has no middle name. However, like her mom, she will have one yet; we just haven't decided on one and have a couple of weeks to do so. My druthers were for no middle name, but I lost that battle. (Or... I've won until she actually officially has one.)

Her umbilical cord fell off yesterday already (and no, we're not keeping it... eww!). I didn't really notice it missing at first while I was changing her, but then I found it in the toe of her sleeper; now she's finally portrait-friendly, so we're getting some pictures taken on Saturday. Real pictures, rather than my point-and-shoot fuzzy off-colour failures. Hopefully they'll be worth the money.

One unhappy camper. She has a very cute little bleating cry. Buuuut... talk to me in a week.


As I type this with my left hand, my very hungry baby is sucking my pinky finger as I'm too cheap to use up the free formula we got, and mom is getting some much-needed sleep. Any future behavioural issues on Lily's part may henceforth be attributed to this episode.

Our girl seems to like water as much I do; at any rate, the reaction is exactly the same.


Daisy is very much in love. We knew she loved babies, and this one's no exception. Her tail has never wagged so much. She always wants to smell Lily, and she's taken to whining when they're not in the same room. It's gotten so we're putting the dog crate in the basement overnight so we don't hear her whining.

"Lemme at that delicious creature!"


Overweight dog, underweight kid. Daisy is at least twice as heavy. I made the dog relax for this next shot; it wasn't easy.


Oh, and I've already called my daughter Daisy a few times. Sigh... it starts already...