Great Granny Nori

How could you not fall in love with this face?

Simple Lesson

Ladies and gentlemen, if you don't familiarize yourselves with these



Then you'll surely become more familiar with these





Just for fun:

More Journey Pictures

Family Portrait

Sweetness

Time, time, time, see what’s become of me

Baby J is currently sleeping but it’s about time for her to wake up and eat so I don’t dare try to go to sleep myself. If I try to put her down in her bassinette, she’ll simply wake up and then Kelli’s shift will start. That wouldn’t be fair since she was up the bulk of last night with baby duty. So I'll wait and feed her and see if she'll fall asleep again, thereby reseting the clock.

So I sit here and try to write a blog entry while listening to an audiobook “Terrorism on American Soil” by Joseph T. McCann, keeping an eye on Baby J who is peacefully sleeping on the couch, and occasionally looking at the television which is showing me an infomercial about some blender called “the Ninja.”

Oh and playing frapping Mafia Wars on the Facebook.

I’m not even a big fan of Facebook but Mafia Wars seems a harmless time-waster. Except that I keep looking over at the laptop to see if I have enough energy/stamina/whatever to move forward, so it’s not entirely non-addictive. Perhaps it’s a gateway drug which inevitably leads to simulated farming, I don’t know. I imagine that when I go back to work, that will be the end of the Mafia for me.

Uh oh, she’s becoming more restless and I think she’s “dropped a bag of squid*.”

Time to make the donuts.

* we have taken to calling baby bowel movement “dropping a bag of squid” due to the sound it makes when the poop fills the diaper. There’s an element of “cappuccino machine” but that phrase isn’t quite as picturesque as the squid dropping.

This is what you want, This is what you get

Yeah, I Know

I said that I'd try to teach my daughter that girls who sit on strange men's laps and ask for gifts are dirty hoo-ers.

Good thing I'm not really in charge, since this is pretty darn cute.

Thankful That All Dogs Go To Heaven

Sugarbaby Anderson
1997-2009

If you have a pet, give them a few extra scritches today.

More Pictures

Home from the hospital

Actually we went home from the hospital Monday afternoon but this is my first chance to sit down at the computer and post more pictures.

As first time parents, this is all new and mysterious and sometimes worrisome.

For instance, she's been a little jaundiced but we've been told it's no big deal. It's more apparent to me when I start editing pictures. She's pinking up and either way she's so gorgeous it doesn't matter. And I know, everyone thinks their kid is the most beautiful baby in the world and they are right to think that way; it's some sort of instinctive bonding thing. But mine is the prettiest, really!

At first we were a bit concerned because she didn't cry. She cooed and made noise but no crying like the babies next door. Her routine hearing test proved she could hear just fine so that wasn't an issue but it still nagged at us.

Not to worry. She's doing her own nagging now and can throw a tantrum like the best of them. Thankfully they are infrequent and short.

I've read and heard from nearly every mom that the best practice is to read and talk to your baby right away, all the time. For me this means to narrate ever part of our time together (at least when I'm holding her and she's awake. I'm giving play by play on what's on TV while I rock her or I'm telling her every step of the diaper changing process as I do it, with little tangents and personal observations along the way.

It's like I'm her FTO but there are no daily evaluations. Although she can fall asleep to escape the blabbity blab while my recruits were discouraged from such things.

For the most part.

daddy and baby

by popular demand, though I'm the least photogenic of the bunch

Journey is Here!

Born at 12:50 alaska standard time weighing in at 6 lbs 7 oz and measuring 17.5 inches.

Toys !!

I'm looking forward to buying toys for my little girl.

Okay, so I'm looking forward to buying toys that I can test drive for the little girl.

Let us consider a ride on the Playmobil:

Take a simple "Baby's Room Set"and add some "Jewel Thieves"



and you have yourself a perfect afternoon game of

Who kidnapped the Lindbergh baby?

Fun, fun, fun! (and teaches history too)


There are a lot of cops and robbers in the Playmobil world, which is cool, although it seems the Playmobil municipal lock-up facility has some serious security flaws.


But there are some vast pieces of history too.

Journey, would you like to play Roman Stadium?

We can feed Christians to the lions - where is that Nativity set anyway? Oh wait, those are Jews. Although are the wise men Christians at that point? Surely Mary and Joseph were not Christians during the dark manger days. See, we're asking questions and learning together!

Let's find ourselves a Playmobil fiery oven in which to stuff little plastic Shadrach, Meshach, and the Indigo Girls. Woo-hoo!


And the granddaddy of them all, in my opinion, has to be the Playmobil Pyramid.


It includes a skeleton, a sarcophagus, some Canopic jars for organs. It even has scorpions climbing up the outside of the pyramid walls.

And the gigantic Eye of Horus at the top - this is exactly the sort of toys we need for our little one.

You can't teach them symbols of divine protection early enough.

In 6 days, Everything is Possible Again

With a baby fast approaching I find that I am looking forward to the newness of everything.

It’s all back on the table:

Santa

The Easter Bunny

The Tooth Fairy

Jesus

All the things I take for granted as a jaded adult will be new and wondrous to a child.

Every joke is a new joke. Magic tricks are magical and not just trickery.

She can grow up to be whatever she wants to be.

I can’t wait.

Mark Your Calendars

Unless things change in the next week, little miss Journey Reese will be born:

Friday the 13th of November, 2009