Lots of new pictures October 5, 2009

Lots of people have been asking for new pictures. Sorry, guys! Things have gotten really busy at our house now that Darren is in the middle of the fall semester, so we haven’t had a lot of time to post. To make up for it, here are a bunch of pictures.

River got a nice box with new clothes from her Nanny and Poppa. She thought that the tissue paper was the actual present, though. She really enjoyed playing with it.

The clothes were very cute too!

She got big enough to wear the hoodie that Mimi and Grandpa Mike gave her before she was born. Offspring of Michigan alumni, represent!

The Moby Wrap is still one of her favorite places to nap:

She tries to chomp on everything and hasn’t yet figured out that not everything will fit in her mouth:

She’s been trying out her new high chair and sippy cup, as well as a very tasty teether:

And because some have requested pictures with a closeup of her face:

She pretty much just keeps getting cuter.

By popular request

So far, River’s laughs have been kind of like Bigfoot: rumored to exist, but difficult to capture on video. But now, I present to you, by popular request, actual video of this elusive phenomenon. (I hope she still thinks that helping Mama fold sheets is this fun when she’s older.)

Look what River just learned to do! September 17, 2009

And no, the Boppy isn’t propping her up. It’s just there to keep her from bonking her head when she tips over. 🙂

Yesterday she could only sit on her own for like three seconds. She somehow got a lot better at it overnight.

Pretty cool, huh?

Baby snuggles make everybody’s life better June 10, 2009

This is the kind of thing I get to see around our house all the time. Seriously, it makes my life so much sweeter that I get to walk back into my bedroom after my shower in the morning and see things like this.

I just love “baby snuggling with Daddy” pictures.

River likes to smile June 8, 2009

Just a quick post to share more pictures May 22, 2009

River LOVES going on hikes with her dad, and he LOVES taking her with him. When they go on hikes, I usually stay home and take the opportunity to get some much-needed sleep.

Our household is slowly adjusting to having a new member. The cats still aren’t huge fans of River, though. They’re totally jealous of her.

We took her to the Buddha’s Birthday celebration of our local Zen group. She was definitely the littlest kid there (except for the statue of the Baby Buddha).

She sleeps really well, as long as she’s within touching distance of Mom or Dad. She will roll onto her side so that she can face me while she sleeps. And in the morning, we get to have great family cuddle time.

I don’t know who these clothing manufacturers are or why they had such gigantic babies, but these pants are supposed to fit 0-3 month olds. On River (who now weighs over 10 pounds) they are pretty ridiculous.

We found out last week that River has hip dysplasia in her left hip, so she has to wear a harness for a couple months to reshape her hip socket. It turns out that for first-born girls who are breech and have a family history of hip dysplasia (which apparently there is in my extended family, although I don’t know the details of that) the risk is pretty high–1 in 30. Luckily her hip isn’t all that bad. The socket is just a little too shallow and the head of the femur is sitting a bit too loosely in the socket. River’s orthopedic doc, who fitted her for this harness on Monday, says to plan on having her wear the harness for three months, but it might be shorter than that, depending on what we find out at the monthly ultrasounds to check on the progress. River isn’t a huge fan of the harness, so we’ve had a tough week, but she’s gradually getting used to it and accepting that she has to wear it.

Also, in this picture note her awesome tie-dyed onesie that her mama made for her. 🙂

New pictures of the baby! February 1, 2009

At my appointment on Thursday, I had another ultrasound and got some really nice pictures of the baby. There’s also a video of the entire 20-minute ultrasound session, but apparently it’s impossible for me to post clips from it so everyone can see. (This is what I get for not living near Dmitri or Nicole anymore–I have no doubt that one of them could manage it, but I’m sadly incapable.)

Anyway, I do have some photos to share! I got very clear visual confirmation that she is indeed a girl, but it seems kind of inappropriate to post crotch shots of my kid on the internet, so y’all will have to take it on faith. I am, however, happy to share pictures of her non-private parts. 🙂 The kiddo kept her arm up by her face the entire time, but at least in this picture you can see almost all of her face:

We also got our first look at her “grumpy face,” which I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of in the years to come. It’s hard to tell exactly what she’s going to look like, but even the ultrasound tech said, “She sure doesn’t have your nose!” And yeah, I can’t deny that when she makes her grumpy face she looks just like her dad:

But check it out, it looks like she got my feet, complete with weirdly long toes and a second toe that’s longer than the big toe:

In other news, we’ve been working on decorating her room. I got some really cool pictures from the Etsy shop Elegant Snobbery to hang on the wall.There will be sock monkeys above the dresser to look at while we change diapers:

There are three more sock monkey pictures that will be hung on the opposite wall, but I haven’t decided exactly where yet. They’re pretty cute, though. I especially love the one where the sock monkey knight made friends with the dragon:

Next up: I need to buy some sock monkey fabric to make curtains and rocking-chair cushions.

It’s a girl! November 17, 2008

Yes folks, today we learned that we’re having a baby girl. The ultrasound tech swears this is the picture where you can tell:

And she has a tiny foot! Two of them, in fact, although you can only see one here:

Here’s a profile shot, with her skinny little knee up by her nose:

And check out her sweet little face:

Sorry for the slightly-out-of-focus pictures of pictures, but it’s the best our camera could do and we couldn’t wait to post these. 🙂

They measured her arms and legs, checked out the parts of her brain, made sure her heart looked right, and checked a bunch of other stuff that I can’t remember right now. Everything was completely normal, and our little girl looks very healthy.

We saw our baby! September 15, 2008

Last Thursday, we went for our second appointment with our midwife, Sharon. We had the first ultrasound, and now I proudly present the first picture of what Sharon promises us is our baby:

The baby is exactly in the center of the photo (at the bottom left of the big black circly-looking thing, which I’m told is the inside of my uterus). I know he/she doesn’t look like much, but come on! It’s hard to look impressive when you’re only as big as a dried apricot. We saw the heartbeat, and the entire baby wiggled a couple of times while we were peeking.

Also, let’s just stop and be blown away by the fact that this is a picture of INSIDE ME. Wow.