Sunday, December 30, 2007

Little by Little

Daddy B's going to try to catch us up to speed today while watching the Browns beat up on the 49ers. We're at Grandpa Rex's house in Yellow Springs; the dogs are mauling Uncle Kevin with kisses and Nora's asleep in Grandpa's lap. Naomi's nursing a cold with tea and a vitamin C drink and Uncle Steve's on his way down from Columbus.

So, last week before we left for YS, we got some good snow that melted by the middle of the week:

We went to a couple holiday parties, including one at our midwife Kim's house. There were 2 couples there that have 9 children, 1 couple with 5 and another with 4. We stopped asking after a while because our 1 child was obviously not as impressive at this party as in some of our other friend circles!

On Saturday, before leaving for YS, Nora took a bath and put on one of her favorite new onesies, which our friend Leslie made for her:

She was getting dressed up because she had lots of visitors coming over!

Chris's cousin and her boyfriend stopped by:

Nora slept through most of their visit, but she was up and at 'em when Alyson and Joyce stopped by a little while later:

That night, we tried giving Nora a bottle for the first time. Naomi's been pumping a little bit here and there and we figure that if Chris & Nora are ever going to be independent (don't worry mama, not truly independent!), they'll need to master their bottle feeding skills. It started well (see below) and then it went south in a hurry. We're going to regroup and try again when we get back to Cleveland!

Off to YS!

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Monday, December 17, 2007

Taseff baby shower and Taseff baby!

Well, I didn't get around to posting these pictures from Damon & Ashley's local friends shower until after the baby had been born! Whoops. They had baby girl Alta Clara on Tuesday. So, here are some pics from the shower and one of Alta and Ashley from this afternoon when I went to meet the new addition. Welcome to the world, Alta!

Damon & Ashley opening a gift

Melissa & Nora

Nora modeling "The Donald" wig

Little baby, big couch

Our group of preggos and mamas...Ashley was 39 weeks, Molly is due is late Jan (holding Will), Norma is due in mid March (holding Sofia), and Emma is due in May (holding Edie). Nora and I moved to the end. And, get this, all of us are having (or have had) girls! Crazy!

Baby Alta with her mommy

And here's one of my favorites from the past week...Chris makes a pretty hot pregnant man, if I do say so myself! What a good babywearing daddy...

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Busy week!

We've had lots of visitors since last weekend, and we've got the pictures to prove it. I'll keep it short and just get right to the pics...

Great Grandma & Grandpa Sikes and Aunt Debby met Nora for the first time:





After they left, Hilary came for a few days to fill the void:



And right after Hilary left Cassandra brought baby Ani to meet Nora for the first time! Cassandra and her husband Jason were in our Birthworks class and were due the day before us. Apparently, Nora was in a hurry and Ani took her time - Nora's 7 weeks and Ani's almost 5 weeks. Cute!



Can you believe those cute little babies were once inside us? Crazy...


Stay tuned for pictures from Ashley and Damon's baby shower (baby Taseff is due any day now and we can't wait to meet him/her!)...

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Daddy's Sunday Update

Daddy B's been standing quietly by, watching sweet Nora grow and letting Mommy B do all the posting. I've been awestruck by Nora's recent and growing propensity for big toothless smiles. Her poop still doesn't stink, so there's not even a tradeoff yet! We get big smiles and still relatively benign diaper duty (that one's for you pun lovers).

I was thrilled at the news that Nora and Naomi would be picking me up at work on Friday, en route to the Food Co-op. The office was somewhat empty, but there was still a handful of good work folk in the big house to meet Nora for the first (or second) time. We showed her around, all bundled up in her oversized parka. I think everyone agreed that she's a keeper!

The Co-op was fun. I mostly just wandered around with Nora, trying to keep her asleep. Her furry hood was pulled over her head the whole time, so the chance of her remembering her first grocery trip is very unlikely. Naomi tried to get me to put her on the scale, but I was reluctant. Many of you know that I'm not the type of guy to go doing anything CRAZY like that. But after waiting for the coast to clear, I snuck her on, parka and all. As Naomi posted yesterday, she rounded out at about 11 pounds. We're knocking off a pound or so for the clothing and whatever leftover granola might have been on the scale. Bottom line, the girl's growing up! All that mommy milk does a body good!

Also this week, I made another trip down to City Hall to try to finish up the paper work that certifies Nora's birth. Yes, it's true. We still have no birth certificate! So, I signed the document saying that I attended a live birth and the thing should be official early next week. I know you've all been anxiously waiting, so rest assured that you can go down and pick up a copy after Wednesday. Don't forget to bring $19 cash money. The ATM in the lobby will ring you up a $2 service fee, so save yourself a couple bucks and arrive prepared!

In other news, the weather was beautiful today, so we walked to brunch. It was Nora's longest walk to date, measuring in at precisely 1 mile! We didn't take any pictures of the walk or the party, which was downright silly, but we'll make up for it another time.

Here are a few of my faves from the past week that haven't made it up here yet:

Fun with mirrors:
I discovered that she enjoyed a nice breeze on her cheeks:
Pensive in her sleep:

More fun with mirrors... look at those baby blues!Don't miss the other two posts from yesterday that follow!

And, a video

The previous post was pretty full, so I'm posting this video separately. Nothing like some live action smiling and head bobbing. :)

Happy Holidays!

The holidays have started to heat up in Cleveland, and luckily Nora seems to love parties. We went to a pancake brunch/lunch this morning at Chris and Ann's (full of babies and preggos!) in Ohio City and have brunches and parties planned for every weekend day from now until Christmas. We also just got our first snow - Sadie was thrilled!

We took a trip to the Food Co-op yesterday and weighed Nora on the bulk foods scale - taking away about 1 lb for all her cold weather gear she weighed in at almost 11 lbs! Big girl! We'll visit the Dr. in a week or so and see how accurate that is.

Here's our backyard on Thursday...and Sadie warming up in front of the vent after some fun outside:



Max also tried to stay warm, by sleeping in the fireplace! Oops!


Justin and Dan stopped by to meet Nora (and brought her an adorable fish/bird toy!):


And, of course, Nora just keeps getting cuter (those chunky cheeks make for one killer dimple!)...




Tuesday, December 4, 2007

6 weeks!

Miss Nora is 6 weeks old today...I can't believe how quickly it's gone. She's smiling and cooing and is awake and alert a lot more these days. She also just got through her first fight w/ baby eczema (at least, I think it's eczema) and I've discovered that a) Eucerin cream or anything made w/ a petroleum base is bad for her skin (we're using Weleda Calendula cream and Burt's Bees on her face) and b) her rash gets worse when I eat dairy. So, it's now a no/low dairy diet for me. Nothing says love like passing by the cheese tray...just in time for the holidays!

Anyway, on to the good stuff...

Here are some more shots from Thanksgiving weekend. Is it me or is that her middle finger that's raised? Naughty Nora...

With her uncles:



Tracey stopped by to meet Nora:

And, Grandma Linda popped by for a visit this past weekend:


Cutest little Nora faces: