Cousins

Mary had her second baby! I'm excited for Mary and Ben, but I'm also excited cause Margaret (I better have spelled that correctly) and Dylan will be almost exactly the same age. I've really enjoyed my relationships with my cousins. I remember sleep overs at Nan's house, like 1 million cousins all asleep on the ground after a hard night of popcorn eating and coke drinking. Mac and I have been particularly close over the years and it's always been nothing but fun. Now that we're older it's hard to get together, but when we do it's always a good time. Not that they're guaranteed to be best friends or anything, but who knows. Anyway, welcome to the world little Maggie, all I can guarantee is that you'll be loved by us all.
I don't have any pictures of Margaret yet, so I'll just put Dylan's latest. Hope you enjoy.

My first mullet

Dylan is now 8 weeks old! She's started to nap on her stomach which seems to work well. Apparently it's best for them to sleep on they're backs, but we watch her closely. Oh yeah, and I would like to thank the scientific community for discovering SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Nothing like a syndrome for which there is no known cause but will suddenly kill you're baby. I really needed that one to help me sleep at night.
She's super cute even with her baby mullet. she had quite a bit of hair when she was born, but most of it fell out..... except the back. Now she has fuzz on top of her head and almost 2 inches of hair on the back of her melon. She also has a new favorite person. Is it her mother?..... nope. Yours truly?...... nope. Must be a grandparent then....not even close. It's a blue whale with an elephant on it's back. You might think that this elephant/whale abomination must have fed her or played with her to earn this love.... wrong again, they just sit over her changing table, they don't even swing on their own, I have to make them swing. And then she looks at them and smiles real big. I'm not saying that I never get smiles, but when you're changing a not so fresh diaper at 1am it would be nice to not be upstaged by an unrealistic stuffed water mammal. Anyway, here she is looking at her favorite dynamic animal duo.

Baby nails by Sarah.

So nobody told us that baby's have large talons for finger nails. they're thin and sharp and have to be cut just like anybodys. Sarah's found that the only way to do it is while she's sleeping. So that's her using one of those terrible file-like devices on Dylan. I'm not sure how she's sleeping through it, those things are like scraping your fingers over a chalk board. I'm also including a picture of Dylan all ready to go out on a chilly day.

Henry and Doda.

Mary sent me an e-mail with this outrageously cute picture of Henry holding the Yoda (Doda) plush I gave him. I mean come one, look at those dimples! I wish I got to hang out with Henry all the time. It's been hard to get together with a new baby and the usual winter illness going around. He's at such a fun age, talking funny and laughing about nothing. Just wanted to share the picture with all of you. Oh, Henry is my sister Mary and her husband Ben's son if you don't know them.

Too cute for words

I'm getting use to this whole dad thing. At first it was all sleep deprivation, screaming, and anxiety. I was often overcome with emotion and uneasiness at the same time. It's a lot of responsibility all of the sudden. But lately it's been much more fun. There is still plenty of screaming, but now there is the very rarest of smiles as well. They come when she wants them to, and they cannot be duplicated at will. I've tried funny faces, funny noises, tickling, games, and jokes but nothing works. And then this morning I wake up and wander over to the couch where Dylan is eating with Sarah. I sat down so I could see her little eyes and said "hey buddy".... she looked at me and then....smiled! So I said "hey buddy" and she smiled again, and then a third time. It was such a small thing, and will soon be common place throughout the day, but it was just such a joy to be recognized by someone that I love so very much.
I really love the strong parallels between our relationship with Christ and my new relationship with Dylan. Except in the former I'm the one crapping on myself and screaming for no good reason. I just know that the same way that I love my little girl, even though she just barely acknowledges my presence, that He also loves me. He loves me in ways I don't understand just like I love her in ways she will not understand until she has kids of her own. And just like I long for her to love me back, He longs for us to love Him. Not that He needs us, He just loves us.
Enjoy the pics!

6 Weeks old!

Dylan is 6 weeks old today. Amazing how much things have already changed. A couple nights ago she slept 6 hours straight! It was 1 am and I was unfortunately still doing homework, but Sarah was sleeping on the couch and when she woke up she said: "what time is it? Is she ok?" The books tell us that things should get a bit easier around this time, and I hope they're right. We're trying bottle feeding for the first time today. Seems to be working ok. Sarah has around 4 weeks left before she goes back to work, so we have to try and get Dylan use to the bottle. Other than that things have been going fairly well. School is challenging for me with a new baby and all. There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to do homework and study. Sarah's an awesome mom, she seems to have endless patience, though I'm sure it's tested plenty of times. We're looking forward to being able to get out more. Dylan does alright most of the time, but if she gets upset you have to walk her around for a while which makes outings a little complicated. So for now you'll all have to come visit us!
-charlie