End of October Photo Dump

First the general update, then the photos

As of this writing...

• Tesla is 3 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days old.
• She weighs a little over 17lbs, which is about double her birth weight.
• She goes to bed at 7pm and generally wakes around 7am, with 1-2 wakings in the night for 20min feedings.
• After struggling with daytime naps, a coworker told us that she had success getting her kids down a scant hour after waking in the morning. It's worked pretty well for the last week!
• We got a white-noise maker after finding that she would sometimes wake up from naps if she heard our voices downstairs (even through closed doors!). What I like about WNMs is that the most popular design is still the same as it's been since the 70s: a frustum of a cone with perforated, nested, industrial beige powder-coated steel whoosies that turn to vary the pitch of the WN (no, can't be the pitch, because WN has got to be all over the spectrum, pitch-wise, right? The apparent pitch? The range of pitches?). I feel like the first one I ever saw was in Trudi's office in her apartment. If not, perhaps it was in Pearl-Ellen Gordon's office?
• It's 53°F in Sedona at 11pm. The heat doesn't get turned on at the VVS campus until after Field Trips. Luckily, while Jeremy is off in Los Angeles with unruly teens, Sue will be here to keep Bridget and Tesla warm. If anyone can talk Graham into turning the heat on early, it's Hurricane Sue!
• Speaking of hurricanes, Sandy is still rated a hurricane. Our thoughts are with everyone on the East Coast. Stay good and hunkered until it blows over, kay?
• In other news, Amanda (and her friend Sarah) will be driving to Arizona for Thanksgiving! We're looking forward to a restful week to recharge before the students return, and we're excited to introduce Tesla to her Aunt Amanda.
• Aunt Amanda!
• We think Tesla might be teething, as she's drooling like crazy and gnawing on her fingers to the point that sometimes her entire hand seems to disappear into her mouth. We live in fear of the day she yanks out her liver and drops it casually to the floor.
• We'd like to thank everyone who gave us all the baby stuff that we rely on every day. We would have a naked baby without you. Thank you so, so much.

We love you all! Here are the pictures!

Oct 9:

 Oct 10:

 Oct 12:

 Oct 22:

 Oct 23:

Tesla Making Noises

Tesla is starting to make gurgling sounds. Love the gurgles!

Some Tesla Pix for your Tesla Fix

Just some pix we snapped during "tummy time" this week.

Did anyone spot the Channing Tatum cameo?

Babies are Cute

Here's a song I just wrote for Tesla while changing her:

You love to be up on the changing table
You really love to hang out right up here
We didn't name you Agatha or Mabel
Cuz Tesla is the best name of the year

And here are some pictures:

Powerful Tesla

The Intergalactic Gangster (thanks Clay!)

Sally Cumberland

Okay let me say something about Sally. Sally is the most amazing friend, houseguest, person in the world. She is wearing Tesla about 80% of her (Sally's) waking hours. She's been here since mid-August and we are dreading our transition to normal unassisted parenting. We love you Sally!

The picture above is from yesterday. Tesla goes in for some shots on Monday. We finally have her official birth certificate from Maine, complete with the correct spelling of her first name! Next we have to fix the Social Security misspelling.

Love to all!

We've been delinquent

So here is a single image to tide you over until more time to blog appears:

August 25, 2012

Leaving Maine: Photo Dump

This coming Saturday we will leave our rental on 13 Hildreth Rd in Harpswell, ME, for a weeklong Heersink Family reunion (albeit a limited edition version featuring only the Ben & Sue Heersink branch) in Newburyport. So it's time for a photo dump!

Since I last posted, we received a new camera from my aunt Andrea: the totally awesome Sony RX100. Thanks Andrea! Here's the last picture taken with the Nikon Coolpix:

Clockwise from left: Fiona, Jeremy, Deirdre, Bridget, Sue, Tesla

Not terrible, by any means, though in order to take the picture without the flash, the shutter slowed to the point that I look like a blur. There's a foggy haze over Fiona's face, and the rafters seem warped and curved by the distortion of the lens.

From now on, not all the pictures will be museum quality, but here's one of the first I took with the new camera:

I just love this picture!

Here's one of our last strolls with the Rosemary's Baby carriage:

Here's the pic we'll probably use for the birth announcement (and I will probably try to make a painting from it too):

O hai!

In other news, I got a molar extracted yesterday after a valiant week-long struggle with intense maxillofacial pain:

Whatever! Moving on....

At long last, here are two adorable pictures of Tesla wearing the adorable bunny hat knitted by her aunt Amanda:

Here are some Tesla toes:

We had a visit today from some dear friends:

Eliza, Nathan, Rachel

And finally, here are two adorable pictures of our nuclear family:

Yay!

Stop Hitting Yourself!

Tesla can get very violent with her own self when she gets fussy. Usually this takes the form of raking her teeny tiny fingernails across her tiny fragile face. The doctor said it's normal and not to worry too much — baby faces heal fast.

Today while I was changing her, she started screaming like I've never heard her scream — like I had put her down on some thumbtacks or something. As I tried to figure out what was wrong, I looked at her head. No fingers in her eyes, and all eyes still intact and in their sockets.

She was pulling her own hair.

While reaching out, routinely, for something to grab, she had gotten a teeny tiny fistful of hair and started pulling. The pain made her tighten every muscle in her body, including the relevant fist-making muscles in the hand. I took me a few seconds to figure out how to get her to let go without damaging either her head or her hand. When I did, she drifted instantly into a contented slumber.

Babies, am I right?