Happy 2 Month Birthday, Sydney!

We let Syd relax with a nice cigar to celebrate.

Syd's Attempt at Saying Good Morning

Sydney's First Great Book

I understand that it's important to read to your child, so tonight I've begun reading a great work to Sydney. I know it will take me a while to complete this particular book, but we have begun... "Wordsworth Classics presents, War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy - Complete and Unabridged."

We decided to skip the Introduction, General Introduction, Bibliography, and and Notes on the Translation and go straight to the Names of the Principal Characters, then on to the Dates of Principal Events and, finally, Chapter 1 of Volume 1.

Sydney seemed interested in the story at first - spitting out her pacifier in (I guess) surprise at the way Anna spoke to Prince Vasili, and falling asleep when the drama peaked at the end of the first chapter.

Grammy & Sydney

Last month I posted a gallery of photos of Sydney with various friends and family... somehow, and I have no idea how, I committed one of the worst offenses to family possible: I did not include a photo of Sydney with her Grammy, my mother-in-law.

While in days past, a man in my position would have found himself on the unfriendly end of a sharp spear or the contents of an otherwise vegetarian giant pot of soup, the point was simply brought up several times in gentle ribbing... and finally I am righting my wrong. Here are five wonderful shots of the ultra-photogenic Susette holding Sydney.

I promise it won't happen again ;)

A Serious Conversation

Sydney Up Close

While I spend plenty of time with Sydney with no camera in hand, she has already grown accustomed to the camera's presence. I try to take most video and photos with the camera next to my head, so that she doesn't see the camera's lens in place of her daddy's eyes. The photo above is an exception - but the resulting photo was worth it. Here's a gallery of some shots of Sydney up close.

That New Dad Smell

Sydney is seven weeks old today. (49 days... I guess memorizing those times-tables was good for something.)

I've had a hard time expressing the feelings that go along with new parenthood, but I think I'm gonna take a stab at it right now. This is part one...

The Dead Clown
I was on the early shift a couple of weeks ago. This meant that I was giving Dana some time to sleep while I gave Syd a bottle, changed her, got her to sleep, etc. (Dana is doing this most hours of most night and all hours of most days.) It's something I enjoy, and I had a moment of enlightenment this one particular night. After putting Sydney back in the bassinet, I endeavored to fold up the play mat spread out in the middle of the living room floor. Syd loves this thing - it's full of crinkly patches and bells and squeaky squeezing things, but folding it up is not so easy. After a battle that lasted a few minutes, I finally balled it up and dragged it to the corner. It sounded (I imagine) like I had beaten a clown into submission and hauled into a secret hiding place. At this point I looked around our apartment and took in the new furniturial decorations: a swing, a "bouncy" seat," a rubber chewy giraffe on the entertainment center... and I loved it all. And Sydney loves The Dead Clown more each day.