Emmie has a tendency to make weird faces when she sleeps. I caught a few of them on tape for your viewing pleasure...


Her favorite thing to do when she sleeps is to "pop" open one eye for a minute, peer around with it, and then close it again. I'm not sure if she's trying to imitate Popeye, or just making sure we're not getting any sleep...

A Trio of Pictures

Emmie continues to amuse us every day, and we've been trying to get her outside so she can experience new things. Her sleeping has become a little bit better; she's less fussy at night, but she still wants to eat every hour or so. I've gotten pretty good at sleeping through some of her monkey noises, so Melissa's had some long nights. Here are a few cute picture of Emmie from the last couple of days:





I think the T-shirt says it all here... No, I don't know why her head looks so huge compared to her body here; she's like a bobble-head, hehe...











Here Emmie was taking part in a philosophical debate with me, maintaining that while Descarte's skepticism may have had its virtues, from a pragmatic standpoint it fails to provide any real world observations that can be applied in today's world. I think she got me on that.

Emmie's first pair of sunglasses... I think their almost as big on her as Mommy's glasses are on Mommy, hehe... I think she'd fit right in on the O.C.

Caution: Slippery when wet!

Emmie had her two-week doctor's appointment, and everything looks good. She's quite healthy, and she weighs 7 pounds 2 ounces now! She's been sleeping pretty well the last couple of nights, so hopefully she keeps it up.

Now that Emmie has lost her umbilical cord, she's allowed to get all wet... Yesterday she had her first shower, and she seemed to like it quite a bit. I'm guessing she got that from her Mom, whom I'm convinced is half-fish. As you can see from the picture, she's pretty small in Mommy's arm ;)

I think she's trying to say something...

It would appear Emmie has decided to skip the whole "childhood" thing and go straight to being a teenager...

The Monster, I mean "Little Angel" sleeps...

Somebody still thinks it's fun to party all night, and sleep all day... But at least it looks like she's made a new friend!

Outfit: Courtesy of Keith and Isabel
Bunny: Courtesy of Moving Company (go figure...)

Two Weeks Old

Day 14: I continue to watch the new creature as she asserts her dominance within the house. Her ability to stay awake at odd hours of the night is only rivalled by her ability to mass-produce pumpkin soup. While I originally wondered how such a creature might survive in this harsh world, I soon discovered her greatest strength - she's adorable when she sleeps ;)

Emmie's outfit: Courtesy of Ryan and Jenny!

It's a small world...

I know it's been a few days since I last wrote something on here, so I suppose a bit of a recap is in order. Emmie still doesn't understand the difference between night and day, other than that night is the time you fuss a lot and refuse to sleep. We've noticed that Emmie's lost some of her hair, but she's still got plenty to go around, so everything's good.


So, today we received a package from Melissa's dad and stepmom from the Vermont Teddy Bear Company, with an adorable teddy bear for Emmie. This wouldn't be so weird, except that shortly thereafter we started to watch the Simpsons. Sure enough, they took a trip to Vermont, and Homer stopped at the Vermont Teddy Bear Company! What are the odds?

Also, today Emmie experienced her first earthquake... this brings the number of potentially dangerous weather phenomena she hasn't experienced down to three: tsunami, volcano eruption, and meteor crash. I offered to take Emmie storm chasing this summer, but apparently Melissa is against it :(

Dear TV Programmers

I know that I haven't always been the biggest TV watcher, but since the birth of Emmie I find myself unable to do much other than turn on the ol' boob tube. I just wanted to say a few things about your programming:

• Why must Sunday morning television suck? I mean, really, if I'm not sleeping in or at church, what else am I going to be doing? Seems like a real missed opportunity to me...
• HGTV - if you haven't watched this channel before, don't start now. It's not that it has bad shows, it's just that they're all really the same show, but with slightly different hosts. The bigger problem is that if you see even a minute or so at the start, you're sucked in and then you want to see what happens. Will the kitchen counters get redone? How will the poured concrete plant holder turn out? Did the guy manage to sell his home after he rearranged the furniture? You see the problem.
• Best Week Ever - Why does my TiVo constantly record this, even if it's just a repeat? I mean, really, do I need 35 copies of the same program? And even with all these copies, why does it always cut out the last 3 minutes of the show... that's only the part where they say who's having the best week!

Just a few things I thought I should share with you...

Outfit: Courtesy of Becky, Chris, and Jacob

Do's and Don'ts of Diaper Changing

Just thought I'd share a few lessons I've learned from the limited time I've been changing diapers. Feel free to comment with any that I've missed:

Do - Make sure you have a diaper handy... It's really hard to juggle a poopy baby while trying to open a new bag of diapers. It's also frustrating to go through all that work and then find out there was another bag already open, hehe...

Don't - Eat butternut squash soup prior to changing the baby's diaper. I haven't actually compared the two in person, but I'm pretty confident that they look identical.

Do - Use as many baby wipes as necessary. Half the time I found I was merely pushing the mess around, rather than picking it up. I use at least 3 wipes per diaper change just to be safe.

Don't - Think that the baby you've been cuddling for half an hour is merely sweaty from being held. There's an awfully good chance that there was a diaper malfunction down below.

Do - Pay attention to which way the baby's facing once the diaper has come off. At least with my little lady she doesn't pee very far, but I'm sure it's a real danger with boys.

Don't - Drop the bottle of rubbing alcohol on the floor; I don't think it stains, but now the whole office smells like you're about to get a shot. Not exactly pleasant.

Do - Marvel at the lack of modesty your little one has when it comes to passing gas. At least I get a fake smile out of it, so that's something.

Don't - Expect your baby to sit still for a diaper change. No matter how tired or sleepy Emmie is prior to the diaper coming off, she invariably becomes a kung-fu master once she was naked. And naturally, her instincts are to try and rub the rest of her (previously clean) legs and feet all over the disaster area. Socks are particularly susceptible to becoming victims.

<------Who, me? I'm innocent, I assure you!

Outfit: Courtesy of G-Pa Bryan and G-Ma Nan

Night on the Town

Jeff's Moot Court banquet was tonight, so we thought it would be a good night to let Emmie
loose on the streets. She behaved herself quite nicely during the banquet, and didn't spit up on anyone.


Class of '33----------->

Mommy and Daddy: Cramping my style since 2008
---------->

<------------------Pooped out after a late night partying it up!

Outfit: Courtesy of Peggy

Origins of the Monkey Child

A recent archeological discovery has provided a clue into the possible source of Emerson's wild monkey hair: a picture of Jeff's mom holding him when he was a newborn.

It would appear that Emmie's father was similarly hairy when he was born, suggesting some sort of inheritance at work.

Reports from the field suggest that the mother may have also been hairy at birth, but photographic evidence remains elusive (and non-digital) for now!

First trip in the stroller

Since the weather was actually nice today, we decided to let Emmie take a little trip in her stroller. She reacted better to the car seat than she did the other day, so there's still hope for taking her on longer car trips.

She enjoyed the stroller ride for about 15 minutes or so, and then actually slept in the car seat for about half-an-hour after coming back inside, so we may have to try that tomorrow too...

Home at last...

Yay - we finally got the OK to ditch the bland hospital food and head home! The car ride home was fun, as we found out Emmie is not a big fan of driving. She took to the house ok, but we've determined that she's a bit small for the crib, as you can see here:

But I figured that instead of this being a negative, it just means we have room for plenty more babies. I've done the math, and I think we can fit at least 4 more Emmies in there:

Sure, it would take some creative positioning, but I think this crib ought to last us for quite a while ;)

Almost Free!

Well, Emmie's doing fine, and Melissa is recovering nicely, so they're going to let us leave the hospital this afternoon. Today Emmie's been lazy, just sleeping and snacking...

<---- We only wish she'd be this quiet ALL the time ;)

Hello World!

Little Emmie was born at 1:43 a.m. on Friday, April 4th. She weighed 6 pounds, 3 ounces and is 21 inches long. As you can see, she's a bit of a monkey in the hair department!

Outfit: Courtesy of Bloomington Hospital