Pictures and More Pictures

Sweet girl.

Emma, like any newborn, has about ten totally involuntary facial expressions per second. I've named some of these expressions. Above is "Disapproving Little Old Lady."

A Papa Joke.

How's Jack doing with this life change? Great! He's fully embraced his new role of Big Brother. A couple of nights ago, Jim, Jack, and I were all in the kitchen. Emma cried out from her bassinet in the livingroom and Jack instantly called out, "I've got it! I've got it!" He gently plugged her pacifier in her mouth and all was well in Emma's world. Jack is a pro.

Our two.

Five More Minutes, Ma...

Emma likes her daytime sleep, it's clear. The fact that she likes her sleep so much makes several tasks a bit of a challenge. Feeding the girl becomes impossible, and showing her sweet little eyes to visitors is obviously difficult if she's bound and determined to snooze. In the first few days of life outside the womb the hospital workers casually say, "Now you need to be waking her every 2-3 hours to eat." I love this piece of advice. It's so much easier said than done. The nurses offer you all the tricks they have up their sleeves when it comes to waking a dreaming infant, but inevitably, you have a baby on which the ordinary waking tricks don't work. Here's a sequence of pictures that show the clumsy and totally ineffective process of trying to rouse Miss Emma.

Emma sleeping.

And thus begin the initial attempts at waking...tickling/brushing the side of a baby's cheek proves to have no effect.

Older brother can't resist a challenge. He chimes in with vocal proddings. "Wake up, Emma!" No dice.

Oh, wait!!! She might be coming around. There's a yawn.

uhhh... no. Emma sleeping.

One Week Old

Emma is officially one week old, and we are getting acquainted with this new little personality... and boy, does she have personality!

Little Emma all the time LOVES to be held, especially by her daddy who is particularly warm and comfortable. If Daddy is not around, she settles by nuzzling a very fuzzy pastel colored blanket that used to be her brother's. I'm sure if she has anything to say about it, it will not be his anymore. Such a little sister already.

Emma sometimes enjoys eating. The "sometimes" is required because this is a puzzle that mom still hasn't quite figured out. Sometimes she eats readily and cooperatively... an angel of a child... peaceful... easy... birds chirp in the background. But it's not these times that are really noteworthy. It's the OTHER times. In order to adequately describe these "other" times, I first must ask if you've seen The Incredibles. If you have, you are familiar with the little baby of the family. Jack-Jack is his name, I think? Anyway he seems, at first, just your average, happy, ordinary, sweet baby. But then... at the climax of the movie he reveals his unique superpower-- a superpower that involves turning into the crazy monster idget child who spontaneously burst into flames, right? It's quite unnerving, really. Well... in connection to Emma's "other" feeding behaviors, I sometimes wonder if she'll burst into flames right in my lap. Pig noises, occasional screaming, and a frantically waving head are involved. Yeah, try to feed that. It's quite unnerving.

Emma never enjoys bathing or getting her diaper changed. Never.

Yes, we are enjoying her little idiosyncracies that make our new little one special. We are in love with Emma.

The standard Emma "burping face." Gotta love that.

Emma Wynne Hoodenpyle

Emma is here, everyone. Here are the fun facts about her:

Birthday: November 30th (We just squeaked in with that November birthday...)

Time of birth: 10:59 p.m. (No kidding... We really just squeaked in!)

Weight: 6 lbs. 9 oz.

Length: 19 in.

Baby girl, Momma, Daddy, and new and official "big brother" are doing just fine. Here are a few pictures that we've collected so far:

Mom and Dad waiting for Emma's big arrival at the hospital

A beautiful girl

I wonder how many times Jim and I will turn to each other and say, "We have two kids now!"