As mentioned in my previous post, I’m generally loving life. I really like my classes, my work, and my wife and my baby. But I could easily paint a little too rosy a picture. While Wake Forest, North Carolina beats Norman, Oklahoma for scenery 7 out of 7 days in a week, and while I’m incredibly glad to be here, life is still life.

One of the things I’ve been learning recently is that, while I love Ellie, I don’t particularly love taking care of babies. Jaimie does. She spent 8 months or so working as a nanny just because she enjoys working with babies. (There are plenty of other things she’s qualified to do; she wanted to do that.) And at the end of a long day, when Ellie loses it being incredibly fussy—as she has done repeatedly the last few days—even Jaimie doesn’t love taking care of her anymore. Unsurprisingly, neither do I.

This is not, to be very clear, a complaint. Rather, it’s an observation on my own sinfulness. Read on, intrepid explorer →

Ellie’s latest developmental transition seems to include a much more active recognition of Jaimie’s and my presence in a room with her – or lack thereof! Our sweet-tempered little girl is no less sweet-tempered, but suddenly she is much needier of our physical presence to be happy. (It also means she’s starting to find peek-a-boo funny. Her reactions are priceless.)

Read on, intrepid explorer →

Elayne has apparently made it one of her early life goals to spit up on my nicer shirts. Whenever I’m holding her, patting her back, post feeding, she strains toward the edge of the burp cloth, tugs on it to pull the sides together, and generally makes every possible effort to guarantee that when she does finally get out a big burp (and some spit-up with it), my polo will be the recipient rather than the wonderful tie-dyed cloth.

This, of course, isn’t quite accurate: she’s not doing it on purpose. Indeed, at 8 weeks old, Ellie really isn’t doing much “on purpose” yet; her mental capacities have not developed to the point of complex intentions. She is, at three days shy of two months old, showing more and more signs of active engagement and interactivity with the world and with us. It’s remarkable and fun to see her intelligence flowering, her emotional palette broadening, and her physical capabilities increasing – from interacting with objects to making a wider variety of noises.

I’d be lying if I said it was all fun and games, though. Read on, intrepid explorer →

Tonight, Elayne (whom we have taken to calling "Ellie Kay") decided she was going to be fussy. Unless I was "dancing" with her. I had The Piano Guys playing, and if I held her in my lap or the crook of my arm, she fussed... but if I held her up in front of me, gently bouncing her back and forth in time to the music, she quieted down and got the closest thing to a smile a 3-week old can do.

She looked as happy as can be, and my heart melted. Jaimie, through a closed door and with the shower running, could nonetheless hear me exclaiming about how cute our little girl is. It's hard not to exclaim, when she just looks perfectly content and happy as long as I'm dancing with her.

Let's keep dancing together, Ellie Kay.