September update

The wee one is 6-1/2 weeks old now and hasn't decided to stop growing (she's 8lb 10oz now, 3.5lbs up from her low point). She's certainly changed a lot in that time; it feels like it's all slipping away from us. Any day now I expect her front teeth to appear, and then for her to ask me for college money.

Her baptism occurred just after the 5-week mark. We were fortunate to have both her sets of grandparents in town for the occasion. It's not so easy to host people any more, but we managed to stow one set of grandparents in the top floor penthouse suite, and the other set we farmed out to friends in the suburbs.

Babies are supposed to hang out unattended atop sideless furniture, right?


 Burpin' with pappy.
 

The days of swaddling are mostly over; this one loves to flail her arms about when awake, and just stretch them when asleep. It's a common sight to see her napping while doing her "prissy hands overhead" pose. What's surprising is that she can do this not just when lying down but also while sleeping upright! Those arms can defy gravity for hours.


Carrie did buy one of those wraps though, which she does enjoy on occasion. So while Lily does like to flail, she's not opposed to snuggling with her ol' ma and pa.


We've moved on to cloth diapers now, which means she's all bum. Looks like a big pear; whatever size we're at now is a little big for her yet, but we make do.

She's been cracking smiles from the very start, but in the last few weeks I've been able to elicit them at will. Sadly they're incredibly hard to photograph (indoors) because the various bright lights on the camera turn her smile into a squint/scowl before you can say "cheese". But we'll keep trying.

We went for a walk around Pink Lake (nearby in Quebec) recently. (I'm gonna go ahead and say it's not named for its colour.)


We were warned that it may not be too stroller-friendly a walk. While that was mostly true, the stroller does wonderfully down stairs; up, on the other hand, is a direction best tackled with a helper.

Rewind

Let's go back a few weeks...



Three weeks ago, we had a newborn photo shoot done, so these pictures are from way back when Lily was li'l. I'm sure you'll suffer through them without too many complaints.

AHH! Get this prickly guy off me!


Mmmm... so much better.


Ten little blessings.


Heavyweight.

A li'l more of Lily

Lily? Again? Seriously? I know, she's all I ever blog about. But perhaps this, too, shall pass.

In the meantime, a big fat update. Well, maybe not fat yet, but yesterday she weighed in at 6 lbs 14 oz. That's a net gain of 28 oz in the 16 days since leaving the hospital, so evidently we're doing something right.

She seems to be a lazy feeder at times, but evidently not to her detriment. To ours, certainly, in terms of sleep, but she doesn't seem the least bit guilty about that.

We passed a wonderful milestone yesterday. We were busy making tomato sauce and preserving peaches, and Lily decided to holler heartily. We weathered it for a good hour without picking her up; eventually her mother caved, but it did prove our ability to let her yell without feeling the need to coddle her. Bring on the next few years!

Li'l monkey.


She's cute when she's quiet.



Lily got her first three-wheeler! While we are loathe to spend any big money on our girl, we decided we wanted a nice BOB stroller to chauffeur our princess around. We found a great used one with all the accessories at a good price.


She loves her stroller... except when it's not in motion.


"K fine, I'll be quiet for the photo, but I don't have to like it."


Oh, and by the way, Lily has a middle name now, although I must say she did very well without one. It's Joanna, in honour of her mother and her great-grandmother.

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...