Now Where Is That Camera?

My second week back at work has passed relatively uneventfully. I didn't get to get out and play with the boys... I'm sequestered in the office until I get my new Captain and Engineer hired. I have the Engineer cert and a lot of great resumes from which to choose. Monday I'll see the Captain cert (I hope). The only other news at work is about my desk. The Thursday before Ada-Ruth was both I'd raised it up to become a standing desk. Since then there have apparently been complaints since I was looking over the cubicle walls and I was asked to return to ground level. Bah! Conventionalists!

Ada-Ruth news: no only is she smiling more, she's reacting to our actions more as well. I can almost make her smile at will, provided she's not being fussy. And she's increasingly fussy. Last night it took two hours to get her to fall asleep and during those two hours she didn't seem to have a position of comfort.

Speaking of position of comfort, our repertoire of soothing skills is increasing every day. One thing we've discovered is that she enjoying doing the twist. She also enjoys being lifted by her arms. And... I think she enjoys being fussy for the last couple of hours of the day.

Still More Snow

Today I realized that this weekend is our first stab at our new 'normal'. We have been admittedly fortunate in that both Kimberly and I have been able to take so much time off from work for Ada-Ruth, not to mention all the help we've enjoyed from friends and family. It's certainly helped us ease into our new life. And Kimberly will remain at home for another month and a half, so the easing does continue. But after working this week I'm struck by how much more there is to do on my weekends. Or perhaps, more accurately, how little free time I feel like I have. Knocking out a couple chores a day is no longer adequate.

But let me hasten to point out that things are still going swimmingly, relatively speaking. Granny Southern is still able to come up and help out around the house and I am currently working a 4-10 schedule at work, so the place hasn't fallen completely apart.

In other news, Ada-Ruth continues to be a joy. Our most recent scare occurred last night shortly after I re-arranged the entertainment area. With the couch relocated the light fell differently upon her head, highlighting her little fontanelle. Since it was the first time that Kimberly or I had seen it in such sharp relief, we were concerned that it might be sunken, a symptom of dehydration. Naturally when we went to change her diaper and check, she peed all over and giggled.

Finally, it has snowed again. I realized with chagrin that we have more sidewalk and driveway to shovel than we'd had in Chicago. Fortunately all of the snow to date has been powder and fairly easy to move. Even still, I think I want a snowblower, preferably a tractor mounted one....

5 Weeks Today

Sometime later this evening Ada-Ruth Lorraine will be 5 weeks of age. Where has the time gone? She's heavier, longer and ... fussier. Somewhat. She's still wonderful and seemingly happy. She's smiling more and her once seemingly random collection of facial expressions is more or less resolving into a discreet handful. There's the 'smile' (see either side here), the thousand yard stare of the merciless killer (see the pic with Granny Southern on left), the sassy, brassy, 'in your face' street-wise urchin (see on the right here), and then there's still the random collection which she whips out when she's having a movement in your lap. And if what we are reading is correct she's on the verge of 'talking', not with words of course, but "with increasing goos, gurgles, and grunts". For the record, her 'word' of choice is the grunt.

In other news I went back to work this week. It's admittedly been nice to be able to get out of the house and spend some time out burning the world down. It has raised a couple problems, however. The first and foremost being sleep. If Ada-Ruth gets up three times during the night and stays awake for an hour each time it was a no big deal when I didn't have to get up at any particular time. But when the alarm goes off at 5 and my total sleep for the evening amounts to roughly 2 hours, it makes for a relatively long day. Fortunately Ada-Ruth is fully prepared to nap when I get home each night. And so is Tycho.

The Daily?

Okay, so now I'm no where near being daily with the Ada-Ruth Lorraine postings. Please forgive me. The past two weeks have been so fun-filled I haven't had the time.

First and foremost, Ada-Ruth continues to grow and change. This past week we took her in for her first pediatrician visit (with Dr. Fabio). She weighed 9 pounds 2 ounces and was at 21 inches in length. This puts her at the top end of the normal range of growth which is a relief. Going into the visit we already knew she wasn't in the same sort of low-growth danger our lactation consultant had expressed some concern about a couple weeks ago, so Fabio's info was reassuring more-so than surprising.

Other Ada-Ruth developments aren't as definitive. It seems as though she's becoming more expressive, but as with her earlier facial expressions nothing is particularly lasting or predictable. The other remarkable change since the last post has been her desire to move, thus creating a third reason for her to cry. The first two were hunger and dirty diaper. Now she'll start to fuss, refuse to eat and have a clean diaper. So I'll lift her upright and bounce her gently up and down, seemingly the only act which will calm her. And so I have become a Johnny Jump Up.

The other big news here has been the Thanksgiving week. As mentioned in an earlier post, Gramma and Grampa Weber came to visit for the whole week, joined later by the Grandparents Southern, David and Melissa, Paul and Anita, Jeffrey, Jeannie and Becky and ... well, that was it. At this time all the reports are in and all are favorable. Everyone managed to get home without incident in spite of some weather in the Midwest. We even got a few inches of snow a few days later. Somehow Judy even managed to get all of the leftovers into our refrigerator.

David, Melissa, Paul and Anita all spent their last night (in the area) at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park of which Anita got some excellent pictures.