Baby Pics

 Since nobody seemed satisfied with only one picture, I suppose I should throw a bunch out there for Madeline's adoring fans.  Don't be fooled by the calm, sedate poses in most of these pictures, there is more than enough screaming, pooping, and fussing to keep us on our toes.

Madeline made her entrance at just after 6 am, which might have been a problem for her non-morning person parents if they had actually slept at some point the night before.  Luckily Nicole is young enough and I'm stubborn enough that we pushed through (no pun intended).  Having everything happen on a holiday weekend meant things were a little quiet at Sitka Community Hospital, but going into labor on Labor Day weekend seemed ironically appropriate.  Everyone else in Sitka was busy hunting, fishing, picnicking, or being attacked by bears, but we decided to buck the trend of outdoor activities and do this inside where it was warm and dry.

After the birth, we had a couple nice days in the hospital, showering without needing a hand full of quarters and catching up on our sit-coms.  In reality, it was nice to have nurses and doctors with functioning brains looking out for us during our first few days as parents.  There seems to be a bit more to the parenting thing than deciding which toy is best in the happy meal.
Lots of helpful staff and good information to help alleviate our fears and concerns.  While we were busy learning how to be perfect role models (Ha!) Madeline was doing a great job with subtle life challenges like breathing, eating, and body temperature regulation.  The doctors and nurses all commented on how well she was doing learning to feed, how alert and responsive she was, how cute she is....I'm not sure if they say that to all new parents but I'll take the compliments as they come.

My friend Tor pointed out that once his boys were born he started worrying, about pretty much everything, and that has just continued as their childhood progresses.  If that's the role of a father, I seem to be right on track.  I thought maybe if I could find one of those nifty sealed habitats like from the boy in a bubble, but it looks like that's one product Amazon.com has not started carrying, yet.  I am signed up for an email reminder from them as soon as it becomes available.

Now that we are back on the boat I can finally relax.  I mean, what is there to worry about while living in a house that floats on the ocean in the Gulf of Alaska.  With no current earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or tsunamis there seems to be no looming weather catastrophe, so we can concentrate more on keeping warm and dry.
I'm still not much for the whole "dress up baby" thing, but I will admit that a couple of my recent purchases are starting to creep in that direction. I thought that the hat with ears was pretty cute, and the tiny Smartwool socks are fricken adorable.  I'm trying very hard to break the pink is for baby girls trend and go for more gender neutral colors when possible, but I think between Nicole and my mom I'm fighting a losing battle.

And lastly, in case anyone is wondering, the cat is still offering little to no help, claiming a lack of thumbs is sufficient reason for not helping with diaper changes and other child care duties.