A random collection of the last couple days.

We got Lucy a cow stuffed animal because my mom LOVES cows and has a huge collection of cow-themed stuff. And I mean H-U-G-E! So, anyway, this has become one of Lucy's favorite toys to stare at when she's awake, and today she even fell asleep right next to it and kept reaching out to touch it in her sleep - so soft!





I love the combination of "Power to the Baby People!" arm movement, and old man jeans pulled up to the chest. My kid is not only stylish, she's an activist!!


I just thought this was so cute. The other day Lucy was taking a nap and her pacifier fell out of her slack-jawed little mouth. It's so funny because Brian sleeps just like this, with his mouth open just a little bit (and I'm so sorry for telling people that Brian - please forgive me!).

Aunt Caroline ROCKS!

Lucy is very lucky to have her Aunt Caroline. Caroline is Brian's sister-in-law, and she is a fabulously creative and talented person who makes, among other things, really cool stuffed animals and playmats. Lucy received the stuffed animal below, Lucy the Lion, along with a playmat, in honor of...well...being born. The mat is so soft, and Lucy the Lion is so fun and colorful, that Lucy loves playing with/on/around both of them.

The evolution of a headband.

I've been wanting to put a little headband or a barrette or something on Lucy since she has so much hair and she's just so cute and girly...so, today I bought some little cloth headbands at the store and decided to try one out when we got home. Here's a series of pictures depicting how it went.

Step 1: Headband? What's that? Hey...what are you putting on my head?


Step 2: I'm not sure if I like this. I will think about it and get back to you as soon as possible. In the meantime, please go make me a bottle and make it snappy!

Step 3: To laugh or to cry...that is the question.


Step 4: Cry!! Question answered! I hate headbands and I hate Mommy for forcing me to wear one on my sweet little head!


Step 5: Oh wait...nevermind. It's not that bad. I forgive you for doing this to me - but I'm still waiting for that bottle.

A video that only a grandparent could love.

Here is 3 minutes of Lucy playing on the mat her Aunt Caroline made for her, and me torturing her with the stuffed matching lion (Lucy the Lion), also handcrafted by Aunt Caroline. Poor kid - she just wants to chill out and Mommy won't drop the camcorder for even a second. As always, I apologize for my video taking skills, which are sketchy at best. The last five seconds are probably the best - Lucy really knows how to say goodbye.

Watching the fishies go by...

Lucy loves LOVES LOOOOOOOOVES her swing. Here's a short video of her watching the fishies that swim around the top of the swing above her head.

Lucy can sleep anywhere!

The pediatrician told us we need to put Lucy on her tummy at least 3 times a day for 10 minutes each time. This is supposed to serve the dual purpose of strengthening her neck and keeping the back of her head from getting flat because she's on her back all the time. As you can see, Lucy is quite thrilled by tummy time. Yeah.


Brian has been rocking the Baby Bjorn when we take Lucy out to local parks for walks and whatnot. She seems to like it - or at least she doesn't actively and vocally dislike it.


Who says you need to be awake to have your diaper changed? What's funny is that three seconds before I took this she was SCREAMING to have her diaper changed, so I laid her down on the changing table and...boom...instant sleep. So funny.

Baby Mythbuster

Baby Lucy has the hiccups ALL THE TIME! I mean, she gets them like five times a day. Everyone that comes to visit comments on her propensity for loud, vigorous, insane hiccups. All of these visitors has taken time to recount their favorite hiccup remedy - everything from eating honey in an upside down spoon to drinking water from a glass covered with a washcloth. When Brian lived in Chile, all the little kids would walk around with wet pieces of newspaper stuck to their heads to cure their hiccups. The newspaper is required to be white with no words in order to work - so he thought a paper towel would be a reasonable substitute. Poor Lucy...I tried to advocate on her behalf for how silly this was, but then...it worked! Two minutes after the wet paper towel was stuck to her head, she quit. Crazy.


Lucy loves to sleep with her hand up in the air. Every time she does it - Brian yells "Power to the Baby People!" or "Si se puede", which means "Yes we can!" I have to admit - it's actually kind of hilarious.


Brian has discovered that while Lucy is sleeping he can put things on her and take pictures. Poor thing - there's going to be a million pictures of her with socks on her head by the time she's old enough to swat them off.

Lucy is a lady of leisure.

I keep trying to get some good pictures of Lucy being awake and perky, but the truth is, she sleeps most of the day and is usually only "awake" when she's screaming her head off at 1am, at which point I'm unable to gather the mental acuity to take a picture and record what is surely a very precious moment.

We have started taking her out about once a day for a walk around the block in her stroller. Here you can see that she's VERY excited about her trip outside...


Lucy is so relaxed she can even sleep through Daddy's famous sideways aerial burping session. Nothing gets in between Lucy and her nap! NOTHING!


Lucy likes to fall asleep while she's eating. I can hardly blame her as it is a very chill activity. Sometimes she puts her little hand up by her face as if to say "DO NOT try to take this bottle away - I might be sleeping, but I still see you!"


Here's Lucy is a rare moment of awakening. She had visitors the other day and put on her fun pink frilly onesie for the occasion. She loves to look girly!


After a long day of eating and napping, a girl needs to put her feet up and relax for a minute.


Don't let the open eyes fool you - 10 seconds after this picture was taken, Lucy fell fast asleep. She LOVES this new swing, a gift from The Polaris Group in Anchorage, and so far she promptly falls asleep each time we put her in it. In baby land, that's a sure sign of true love.

Lucy - the "B" sides

Lucy didn't have a very exciting day today, so I thought I would go back through the millions of pictures we've already taken and put up a few of the ones that got skipped over the first time. We are getting used to our new routine here at home, which is, of course, completely dictated by little Lucy. She has us fairly well-trained though and we very quickly fell into being at her beck and call...it's pretty obvious who runs the house at this point!

This is Lucy at the hospital in her little pink hat. There is a retirement home near the hospital, and the ladies there hand knit a cap for each and every baby born at the hospital. We thought she looked like a cute little garden gnome in her hat.



The hospital has a photographer come down and do an official photo shoot with the baby shortly after they are born. We dressed Lucy up in a fun outfit given to her by her "Aunt" Joanie, and I think she radiated star power! We haven't gotten the proofs back for the pictures yet - but I'm sure they'll be positively adorable, because how could they not be?


One of the first tests they do on the baby is a hearing test. Lucy of course passed with flying colors, which just proves she takes after me and not Brian! She looks especially cute with the little ear muffs on.

One of the best things the wonderful nurse taught us was how to sleep safely with Lucy in the bed. Brian had a futon type bed in my room, and here he is getting some much needed sleep snuggled up to Lucy and her pink hat. Before we knew how to put her in the bed, she was in a bassinet, which was awful. We both just sat up awake, staring in to the bassinet to make sure she was OK...the only person getting any sleep at all was Lucy.


Here's Brian the proud daddy shortly after Lucy was born. He looks a little tired, huh?


This is our doctor handing Brian the baby for the very first time. I think it's safe to say this is the first time Brian ever held a newborn infant in his entire life. He did great and now he's her favorite person for snuggles and sideways aerial burping efforts.


They put Lucy right on my chest as soon as she was born. In a typical bout of sentimentality, the first thing I said was "Oh my gosh, her feet are HUGE!". But, shortly thereafter I was able to observe that she is definitely the cutest baby on the entire planet.

Lucy is well-groomed

We gave Lucy her first bath last night - as you can tell from the picture, she totally loved it! I will say this - wet babies are very slippery! I'm sure Lucy got a kick out of us trying to juggle her slippery little body, the camcorder, a camera, a towel and various grooming implements all at the same time. The good news is that she survived the whole experience. The better news is that the doctor says she only needs two baths a week - so I have three days to recover before I have to try again.

Once Lucy was clean, Brian decided that she could use a manicure and set about trimming her nails. This is another terrifying baby grooming activity that no one tells you about until you already have the baby and there's no one left but you to provide the service. We waited until Lucy was totally zonked out, and then Brian got to it. Lucy never even woke up...I watched the whole thing with a mixture of fear and fascination.

First - the nail file. Every girl knows that ragged edges are a total bummer!

Next, the trimming. Please note the lights on the nail clippers - these are specially designed to be used by nervous parents of squirmy babies, and possibly by anyone who lives deep inside a coal mine.

More light-up nail grooming action.


And, finally...a little touch-up of the very fashionable baby hairdo. Again, you can see that Lucy was slightly dissatisfied with her spa experience, but since she went right back to sleep after the hair combing was finished, I guess she has forgiven us. For now.

Right before we push....

This is my first attempt to put up a video...no worries, there is nothing gory going on, I promise. This is just a little clip of Brian trying to talk to me right before it's time to start pushing...I thought it was kind of amusing. We promise to start taking videos of Lucy and putting them up very soon since I know she's the star of the show around here!!

Lucy goes to the doctor.

Lucy got out of the house today and went to see her pediatrician. She is totally perfect and is doing great. Her vital stats are:

Weight - 40th percentile
Length - 60th percentile
Head Size - 75th percentile

Our big-headed baby! The best part was the doctor turning around and going, "Well, you have a big head too, right?" And I go "No, Brian does...haha". The doctor then said, "Yeah, but yours is big too!". Uh thanks Doc!

So, here's some pictures from Lucy's morning adventures:

Relaxing after her stressful morning with a nap in the Boppy.






























On the exam table - what a good baby!















On the way to the doctor - this is before the temperature taking method was fully explained, which is why she looks so relaxed.

Hi Grandma and Grandpa!!

Grandma and Grandpa Dietz are down in Oregon and are going to meet Lucy sometime around Labor Day when Brian and I take her down there for a week or so. They are so excited about Lucy, and we cannot wait to get down there and introduce them. I told my mom when I talked to her this morning that I would put up a bunch more pictures of Ms. Lucy for her - so here they are.

Brian has the magic touch when it comes to burping Lucy. She really seems to dig his patented sideways airborne technique and almost always complies with a drunken sailor quality belch. For me - nothing. I guess she'll be looking to Daddy for the finer points of belching technique!
















We took Lucy outside to check the status of her jaundice. She has a bit of jaundice - but nothing too bad. The pediatrician told us to check her eyes and skin in the sun, because the yellow cast would be more obvious...plus Lucy gets to take a trip outside to see the yard that turned brown and yellow during the heat wave while we were in the hospital. So much for cool, wet, dark Seattle - it's been like the Sahara desert around here lately!















Daddy and Lucy trying to avoid the direct sunlight - Lucy has a newborn size sun bonnet, which, as you can see, is about six sizes too big.
















This is Lucy sleeping in her Boppy - she really does love to get all swaddled up and hit the Boppy for a much deserved nap! She's wearing the fabulous swaddling blanket that was a gift from my friend Rebecca - it's the exact perfect size and weight for swaddling and so soft, Lucy loves it.
















Lucy loves her Winnie the Pooh hat. It's sort of floppy in the back and I think she looks like a train conductor. The ears really make the outfit I think!















This is the "Should I cry or should I just go back to sleep?" face. Thankfully, so far, going to sleep seems to win out most of the time.
















Lucy is wearing the polka dot onesie Grandma Linda bought her. And look at those long legs!!! And the feet...oh man, the feet. Brian says she's going to be a barefoot water-skier when she grows up, and I believe him. When she came out, the doctor put her on my stomach and the VERY FIRST thing I said was "Oh my gosh, look at her feet - they're huge!". Seriously.