Newborn Portraits

And on down the line! In keeping with yesterday and the day before...here's a little focus on Nib day. (Yes, I've decided on an online nickname for the little one.) He is already a month old and I'm working on his one month shots but, before I get those all ready to share and do so....I have to make sure to give the brand new stage its due.

And for the record, I still cannot believe, even sort of that this baby is ours. I say that at least once a day out loud. A may think I'm nuts. He's the sweetest, most happy, and easy-going baby. I still wonder if maybe the stork somehow switched packages on us. I'm sure not taking him back to correct the error!

Anywho....here you go. Our latest addition, in all his sweet, sweet glory!

Happy Weekend All! 

We're off to blueberry pick, bright and early tomorrow morning with friends!

Busy Lizzy

 Cherries ripened so fast that we missed the picking season window! Oops! On to blueberries and peaches!

Here I am late at night, finally blogging for the first time this week. We've had a real doozy of a week beginning so far. Nothing terrible. In fact, nothing bad at all...just a whirlwind of activity. We've had home inspections, I had a visit from a friend, I've been painting with my Tuesday art group, the boys have been to the park and every night when we drive A home from work he's on a constant stream of phone calls. "Hello, this is A calling, I'm: looking for a stone mason, checking on the results of the radon test, wondering what paperwork you still need form us, wondering if we can arrange a walk-through, returning your call, trying to see if we can get a reference, hoping you can meet at 4, wondering why the document never showed up, and leaving you my fax number." Etc.

Whew.

Yeah. And that's pretty much what it feels like around here. Panic, rush, run, dash...and yet somehow, things are remarkably cheery. We all wish that Dee would take notes from the baby on sleep habits and work through this latest round of nightmares he's cultivated but, otherwise, life is pretty great. A bit over manic but great.

The boys, unimpressed with the endless stream of phone calls in the car

on the way home.

Today the landlord did that walk-through of our apartment with his realtor that I was stressing about and the house is frighteningly clean and orderly. Mostly orderly, don't look too closely at the mirrors or the cupboard doors and please don't inspect under any of the beds but, hey...it looks a whole lot better than it did. We haven't heard anything from him so we're hoping we passed muster and that things continue to move on well. The home inspection on our prospective white colonial went very well so from our end of things we're chugging right along on the moving process. Just before I let the landlord into our place he told A on the phone that he wants to start setting up showings with hopeful residents so, that means he's planning on our August move being real too. And I am saying over and over to myself..."I can keep this house orderly enough for impromptu showings non-stop from now until the end of August. I can." (Tell me you all believe in me...even if you know me well enough to know better.)

Our prospective home!

Planning big urns of annuals on those from steps in front of the pillars, a flag in the 

flag holder and a big excavation of those tired crew-cut yews!

But yes, life ticks on. The baby is one month old already...two days ago. I can't believe it. I am planning to take his one month portraits tomorrow...acne or no, my conscience wouldn't let me rest if I didn't give him his photographic due. And um...I'm getting some of the birth announcements all addressed and am hoping to mail them right soon. After I take said one month portraits I will share with you all the newborn portraits that I never did get around to posting because I was hoping to get the birth announcements (on which a few are featured) out first so as not to spoil the effect but, we're about to get quite behind if I don't just share. So, yes...I will.

Smiling for Daddy at his Father's Day meal

 

And also...the baby is smiling. Really, responsively, gurglingly smiling...(first daddy-grins were on Father's Day, no less!) And he's grown out of newborn clothes and I really, really need to figure out what I'm going to call him here. Need inspiration.

Listening to the rain dribbling blackly outside my bedroom window and feeling very cozy and as it is now the very late hour of 9:38 in the evening, I think I will retire. "The early bird....etc!"

The Newborn Line-up

I own very few photos of myself as a baby. Two I think? (Note to self: Scan childhood photos when home visiting) And also not a whole lot of A as a tiny infant but, one was all I needed for this little project that I've been wanting to do for some time.

Today we get a side-by-side comparison of A, myself and our three boys at the same age. We'll settle that whole "who looks like whom" bit once and for all. What do you think? Do we look related to you?

Here's me.

Now a very serene Baby A.

And then our boys....

Ru, first.

Dee....number two.

And our latest Baby Bird.

I think Ru looks amazingly like his father except his head seems like it has a less square and broad shape. Taller somehow. Our new little one looks lots more like me than like A to me and I'm surprised how much I think Dee looks like me too. And who knew I had dark fuzzy hair when I was born! I actually was stunned to see that. Our boys get it from both sides and all this time I'd been telling people that I was born shiny bald.

Tell me what you see....I'd love to hear it.

In A Baby State of Mind

 The view from here lately. (fyi, have a pink shirt on...am not naked)

Am starting to feel a massing whirl of pressing baby To Do's whirling in my mind around the clock. I sat down yesterday and wrote a list of all the things I want to get done before the new one arrives and have started hacking into them.

The boys helped me haul and dump all the kid and baby clothes and supplies out of their closet and pile them on the floor in their room. Then we organized it all within an inch of its life. Two big bags of Goodwill supplies and several neatly labeled cubical boxes later, I feel a lot better. All the clothes are organized by size and tagged on all four sides to that effect.

The boys share a dresser and I was starting to wonder where in the world I was going to put the baby's things when it came to me in a dream. (Really!) I love it when my brain works overtime...all I had to do was consolidate the storybooks onto one bottom shelf and then do a little more shifting and two spare shelves would appear...then I saw in my mind the perfect arrangement of wicker baskets in rows.

Thankfully, Michael's had just what I had envisioned so it took one trip to the store and they were all plopped in a place. Huzzah! Feels great to be accomplishing. I have just started to fill one of the boxes with tiny socks and have a bin next to the bookcase all stocked with the baby blankets and the tiniest of the cloth diapers. I was surprised after putting my newborn clothes collection through two boys how small it had become. After a few rounds of diaper blowouts and spit-up stains its amazing how briskly things are culled right down. I'll need to go out and hunt up some more onesies for sure. One nice thing about a May baby is that I won't worry nearly so much about leggings and socks, and tiny shoes and sleepers...it will be warm so fast that all those things will just get in the way. Onesies may just do the job....and a few little pants to throw on for cool evenings. Sounds pretty idyllic.

I ordered myself a maternity bathing suit so that I have one pretty thing to wear for our trip to California next month and I made notes of all the supplies I would like to stock up on from birthing snacks to nursing tank tops and even found a cute nursing friendly bathing suit that might be worth investing in for the hot weather to come.

I am feeling less panicky and more on top of things, just getting a little bit done and getting all that stuff out of my head helps a lot. Did ever tell you all that I sleep with a blank note pad next to my pillow so that I can jot down the frantic lists whizzing through my brain and allow myself clean sleep? I'm just that tied up by my own worries. Its good to let go.

Am thinking tomorrow might be a good day to sit in the sunshine with the baby booties I started at Christmas and finish them up...another quick hit of accomplishment.