Pink

You know how you have that one picture of your dad holding you from 20 or 30 years ago (or more)? The corners are bent, it's a little tattered and it's just an individual picture--not part of a set or anything. When I saw this picture, I thought it might be one of those for Selah some day. ...Can you tell I like her a lot?

Travel Destinations

Here is a map of everywhere Laura and/or I have traveled outside the US to date. To be fair, I only included places that we stayed overnight (no airport transit cities noted). Click the map to see a list of the cities.

Thoughts of a new mom

Before I get started on my thoughts on motherhood, I'd like to say...only in Marin does a majorly politically liberal community get to say "no" to Habitat for Humanity homes. I could get into quite a heated discussion with some of my professors at San Francisco State University over that one.

It has been a long time coming, but I'm finally finding a few minutes to blog about the past 5 weeks. I am still overwhelmed with joy and excitement every time I look or think about our precious little girl. As we went into this family stage, I thought I could handle the adjustment pretty easily because my life experiences and knowledge have served me well as adjusting to new things in the past. Suffice it to say, I was mistaken. I don't know that anything could have prepared me for the change.

I found myself crying almost incessantly at about 5 Am on the second day in the hospital as my friend and Selah's nursery nurse, Jenni Doebele, said good-bye because her shift was ending. Since I am nursing, Jenni told me I should expect my milk to come in 2 or 3 days. Through one episode of tears, I commented that "my milk is going to come in tomorrow but my emotions came in today." My emotions evened out after about two weeks.

We've learned so much in this short time that God has blessed us with Selah's life. One of the first things we learned is that we have what I describe as a passionate daughter. We learned this through her cry; it is what call an "extreme cry." She was deemed the 2nd loudest crier in the nursery in no time at all.

I have quickly become severely attached to this sweet girl and look forward to every minute I get to spend with her!

Only in Marin!

This news story is about the people of Marin county trying to block a project for 4 homes to be built by Habitat for Humanity. The location of the houses is in the same town where Laura and I lived for 2 1/2 years just north of San Francisco. This kind of thing happened a lot. Many (though not all) of the residents of Marin are mostly older folk who are concerned with 2 things.

1) Keeping their property values up
2) Keeping the rif-raf out.

Any new building is very heavily regulated, if allowed, and the public transportation system is the worst and most expensive in the Bay Area. Several years ago, Marin voted not to allow BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to include train and bus routes into Marin. Thus, if anyone wanted to go in and out of Marin, they pretty much had to drive and pay the toll on the bridge ($5 inbound).

Though we loved living in Marin and miss the amazing beauty and quirky people, we did find ourselves saying, "Only in Marin!" regularly. Crazy folks.

Smile!

I know it's blurry, but it looks like a smile to me! Selah is doing well. She is still getting a little fussy in the evening, but she is really good during most of the day and sleeps pretty well at night. Also, our cloth diaper regiment is going well. Laura sent off to exchange for the next size up because the ones she has been wearing are already getting too small. She is growing out of the newborn clothes as well. Most notably her feet are too long for the feet in the footed sleepers. Laura thinks Selah is going to me lanky like me. Fair enough. This body type has served me well lo these many years.

Parenthood

Wow. The last 3 weeks have gone by so fast, but so much has happened. I've gone back to work and Laura and Selah have worked into a pretty good routine. She is a really good baby. As long as she has enough sleep, she only cries if she's hungry or poopy, and we can fix both of those. She's starting to sleep in a little bit longer stretches at night. (up to five hours!) I would have to say that parenthood has been about what I expected. Selah has brought much more joy than inconvenience. Though I must mention that Laura does the bulk of the work! I usually don't even wake up in the middle of the night when she feeds her. I feel OK about that since I can't really provide what Selah needs right then! Laura feeds her about every three hours.

My parents, "Ama" and "Grandaddy," have been stopping by often to get their Selah time in. Laura's mom, "Grammy" was supposed to fly in this weekend, but all the flights were cancelled in Amarillo due to ice on the runways. Grammy and Ron keep up with Selah though Video Skype. We have also been spending some time with our friends the Leathermans (here's your update, Russ) and the Monneys who have also recently had some munchkins (Tye and Caleb, respectively). Life is good.

Skyping with Grammy














Selah's Suitors (Tye and Caleb)















Her first bottle feeding