Leland is One Month Old!

Time sure does fly! Leland turned one month old on Sunday. The occasion was marked by mine and Stephens first time away from her. My parents babysat while I stood up in the wedding of one of my best friends and Stephen had to work. It's amazing to see how she has changed over the first 31 one days. It looks to me like somebody's eyes are getting blue and hair is getting red!

Leland and Linsey and Marian and Mary

We went for a walk Sunday morning. It was nice out. Linsey ripped her jeans when she fell on a curb. But she saved Leland from injury by twisting and falling onto her side. We had to take a couple minute break on this bench for Linsey to calm her nerves.

(Editors note: Stephen has a very strange sense of humor. I did not actually fall. Those jeans have a giant hole in them because they are really old and one of only two pairs of pants that I own that fit me. So no need to worry! I'm actually quite steady on my feet.)

When I came home from work, this is how I found the ladies. Leland woke up with a stuffy nose. I used a nasal aspirator to suck snot and slime from her ample nostrils. With the weather changing, I fear the stuff nose may only be the start of something worse.

It was the first medical procedure I've performed for her since cutting her cord.

This is Grandma Tait holding her 10th grandchild during a recent trip to Farwell. They both really seemed to like each other.

This is Great Grandma Wuepper holding her 5th great grandchild. They also got along swimmingly.

Two weeks

It's been two weeks. Kind of a blur! Today is my first day alone with the little bean. Right now she is sleeping. We spent most of this past week at my parents. It was awesome. We sat outside, ate good food, relaxed. Stephen got to golf, twice. (I'm a wee bit jealous) Plus, my parents have air, which was awesome. Yesterday my mom came over and we made a ton of soup to freeze and also froze a ton of tomatoes and other various veggies to use this winter. It was so ridiculously hot in our apartment! I can't wait for tomorrow when things are supposed to cool off a little bit.

This weekend we are going to Hank and Mary's. I can't wait. We haven't been there in forever and the weather is supposed to be perfect! I'm really really looking forward to it.

Leland with great grandma Furby

Taking a nap at grandma's.

Another nap :-)

I love her little grins :-)

One Week Update

So this time last week I was in the hospital waiting for my doc to come break my water. A quick 5 1/2 hours later Leland was here! It's weird seeing pictures of myself pregnant now that she's here.

This past week has been a good one. Our first night home from the hospital was a little scary. We were wondering why we didn't stay at the hospital a second night, but we were just two scared parents not really knowing what to do with this new little person. Anyway, we had the help of family all weekend, which was wonderful. Since Sunday night, Stephen and I have been on our own with the little bean and things are going great. We are trying to not just sit around the house. We take a walk everyday, and yesterday we even went to Meijer and Leland did great. She slept the entire time.

Tonight I think we might take a walk to "Rockin' the River" A free concert down along the river by city hall. The weather has been beautiful so that has been a blessing. It would have been a difficult week if it was 90 degrees and humid.

Anyway, here are some more pictures.

Some more Leland-related pics (if you can believe it)

Some of The Girl's family gathers 'round.

Leland with Grandpa Tait.

Linsey and Leland on the way to the Y, where Linsey turned in her time card. Under doctor's orders, Leland got some quality time with sun on her face; tomorrow we will walk to the farmers' market, which is actually in those white tents on the horizon, and buy some vegetables or fruit. Perhaps both.

Leland with cousins Alden and Cassie and Aunt Kim.

Leland asleep.

Leland asleep with Aunt Christina.

Leland asleep with Aunt Shelby

Leland Nora Tait

This is Leland Nora Tait, fairly fresh out of the womb. She weighed 8 pounds, 1 ounce and is 21 inches long. So far as we can tell, she has brown hair and indistinguishable colored eyes.

This is right after being delivered, laid underneath some sort of amazing heat source and welcomed to the world with a piece of cold metal stuck to her chest. Welcome!

This is Linsey and Leland feeding during her first morning at home. As expected, it was a somewhat rough night (why can't kids just speak English right away?) but eventually Linsey and I and Leland got the hang of it. (Right now, as of 6:55 a.m. Saturday, Mom and The Girl are in bed -- one with a stomach full of colostrum and fast asleep; the other eating up some of the relief.)

We got a little smirk from her, too. Which made us happy.

Cake and things

Linsey spent a part of the afternoon making a Texas Sheet Cake -- a chocolate treat she's been dying to make for days.

It may look quite plain, but I can assure you that this is a delicious, rich, artery-clogging dessert from which there are few equals. Pair it up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a cup of coffee, and I can think of almost nothing more enjoyable -- from Linsey's point of view anyway. For me, I can think of several things more pleasing: an ice cold beer, scotch on the rocks with a splash of soda water, a homemade taco or a handful of peanuts with the shells still on (unshelled?).