Father's Day Photo Shoot

Clara's life thus far has been very well photo-documented.  If you lined all the pictures up in chronological order you could basically make a flip book of her existence.  I'm not generally a huge picture taker, but my family lives far away and I want them to be a part of this whole baby experience, so I text them a photo-of-the-day .  For Father's Day I wanted to send my dad a framed picture of Clara, but I didn't want it to be a picture that my family had already seen, so my supercute friend Summer came over to help me with a little Father's Day photo shoot.

How do you feel about modeling, Clara?

The princess was not feeling it.  We got some darling shots, like these:

However the  majority of our shoot went more like this:

My personal favorite

When I was pregnant I read in one of my baby books that it is important to establish the parent-child hierarchy from the very beginning.  It said that my baby needs to know that she is an important part of our family, but does not call the shots.

I think Erik and I may have missed the boat on that one.

Our First Month

Little Miss turned one month old on Saturday.  We celebrated by going to the doctor because she had a cold and thrush.  Poor baby!  She is doing much better now, but it was about the most stressful night of my life staying up listening to her wheez.  It was terrible.

We have had a wonderful first month home!  I feel like Baby and I are finally starting to get each other.  I am starting to be able to tell why she is crying and she is giving me fewer "my mom is such an idiot" looks.

C Bear at 1 Month

---Weighs 8 lbs 6 oz-- a full two pounds heavier than her birth weight.  Way to chunk up, missy

----Loves taking baths as long as the water is really warm, particularly loves having her head scrubbed.  ---Hates having lotion rubbed on her after

This picture cracks me up because I think she looks like my dad in this one.  He also likes to lay on the floor with his arms behind his head. 

---Still wearing her newborn clothes, not quite big enough for her 0-3 clothes yet

Any tips for getting blow-out poop out of those cute white bloomers?

---Enjoys the sound of the vacuum, the blow dryer,the radio on static, and the les mis soundtrack

Erik's mom threw me a little graduation party to celebrate finishing my Master's degree.  C-bear was underwhelmed by my accomplishment

---Starts her fussy time right about 6:00, right when Erik gets home and I want to be cooking dinner

---Likes to suck on my pinkie and has recently discovered she has fingers that can serve the same purpose

---Loves riding in the car and tolerates walks

Isn't that dress cute?  It's from my brother and sister-in-law.  Also I make Little Miss wear headbands so much that I think she thinks they are an extension of her head.  It is unnecessarily important to me that she is not mistaken for a boy despite her gender-neutral hair cut.

---Slept for 5 hours straight one night.  It was amazing.  More frequently sleeps in 2.5 to 3 hour chunks at night time

First time at church.  She snoozed the whole time.

---Watches Sports Center and snuggles every night with Erik

I love this picture so much I want to die.  If this shot doesn't melt your heart then you are a robot.

---Cries way more at home than she does when we are running errands or at a friend's house.  Girlfriend likes to be out and about

---Spits up about 1/3 of what she's eating.  I was really worried until she started beefing up like a baby sumo wrestler.  Clearly something is staying down.

My friend Aubrie pointed out that she looks like she's about ready to take flight in this picture.  Super Baby!

---Sleeps best if I swaddle the crap out of her

While we were in the hospital Erik pointed out that an added benefit of having a baby is that he would get better at wrapping burritos.  It makes the whole nine months of puking (including once mid-pedicure in the foot bath) seem worth it.

Having a baby is awesome.  Insert every mother cliche about your heart walking around outside your body here.  We love her so much, and watching Erik as a dad makes me love and appreciate him in a whole new light.  I don't have a huge frame of reference, but she seems to be a pretty good baby.  She's a decent sleeper, not terribly fussy, she'll take a bottle and a pacifier just fine, and she'll let anyone hold her.  I may be biased, but I think she is above-average cute as well.  To test this, I asked my mom, who replied "well of course she is".  Looking back, I should have perhaps asked a more neutral source....