Porker

Guess who weighs 10 pounds 8 ounces now! Amelia has gained exactly 5 pounds since she's been born -- basically doubled in size. Can you imagine doubling your weight in 2 months? Ha. Her doctor is very impressed -- and we can now let her sleep as long as she wants both day and night and let her feed when she wants -- not by the clock like we have been doing. Hopefully she won't continue to double in size because that means she'd be 20 pounds in 2 months...

She is also smiling at us and she is laughing in her sleep. We are looking forward to some awake laughing soon!

Who is that Baby?

A week or two ago I posted a picture of a baby that was actually me. I gave you some time to call me on it but no one ever did. So it must be true that she looks like me--people have been telling me this all along. For the record I am sticking with my assessment. I think she looks like Great Grandmother Perkins, Heidi's grandmother.

Here are a few more of me as a baby.

Fishing and Mother's Day

We are currently enjoying our first Mother's Day with Amelia. We celebrated with a trip to church and a picnic in the park in Concord. It has been a beautiful day here in Concord. The only time today that Amelia has been calm was during church. We postulate that she likes the loud music. From the time returned from our picnic lunch until now (6:30pm) she has been awake and screaming. We have tried everything except for another car ride. We are still leaning towards keeping here but this has been one of those afternoons. We are hopeful that she won't be as fussy in the middle of the night due to all of this afternoon crying.

This weeked Heidi proved that she was an awesome mother by letting me go fishing with some friends up on Squam lake. Here is a link to pictures of both fishing and Mother's Day.

http://picasaweb.google.com/crumlives/FishingAndMotherSDay?authkey=fTLrdXoPsKQ

Amelia's Many Faces

Tummy Time

A little video for today:

Church

Today we took Amelia to church for the first time. It was fun to take her and she did quite well. I had to take her out for a walk for a bit of it but she was able to stay calm in the sanctuary for about 1/2 of the service. After church we went out to lunch with Granny Perkins.

The rain finally stopped about 4pm so I put Amelia in the baby bjorn and went for a little walk. I also did some raking and shoveling in the yard. She does very well with all of the movement.

We didn't have many posts last week because dear Amelia has entered a pretty fussy phase. In the evenings she cries constantly unless she is held. Not held in any easy way like sitting on your lap--held with both hands and constantly moved. So that leads to no computer use in the evenings. Heidi continues her greatness as a mother. This week alone she has read 2 books on fussy babies and still does all of the feeding and taking care of Amelia during the day. She is great.

Oh--on Saturday we went up to Squam Lake and saw our friend Chip. He had not met Amelia yet and it made for a great day trip. We were very glad to see him.

Picture

Thought you might enjoy this one. Seems like a nice picture to me.

Tom

Not About Poop

After an earlier post that included some descriptions of poop we received some feedback that many readers did not wish to think about poop even when described in comic detail. And called poop.

But I need to share what happened today. I took Amelia to the grocery to pick up some haddock for dinner. When I returned home and pulled her out of the car seat she felt very warm--and a little damp. I will spare you all the detail of color and odor and say just this--when I opened up her clothing I found poop in the following 4 locations: between her shoulder blades, above her belly button, on her left thigh and on her right foot. It was such an impressive performance on her part that we took her right to the bath and threw all of the surrounding clothes and blankets in the washing machine.

Bath Time

Some pictures from bath time...

I like this one of her gigantic belly.

Becky Comes to Visit

We were excited by a visit from Heidi's sister Becky this weekend.

A couple of photos:

Heidi and Amelia Sleeping (with cat)

I think this is a beautiful picture of Heidi and Amelia sleeping. I'm sure Heidi won't like her hair but it is just such a great image of them.

This one is our mean cat Toonces. We love her but she can be snarly. She has been incredibly kind to Amelia though and sleeps at Heidi's feet almost every night. Maybe she is serving as protector.

This final one is from our trip on Wednesday to visit Tucker. Later trips in the week were cancelled because I was sick and had to sleep all day on Thursday. I don't know what was wrong with me but I could not wake up. I feel much better now though and I am headed out to continue working on our side porch.

Couch Pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/crumlives/AmeliaMontage?authkey=J9ml_As3N3w

Here are some pictures of Amelia sitting on the couch.

Types of Fish

This is a little video that Heidi took while I was trying to calm Amelia. It is proof that parents will say anything to try and get their kids to calm down.

Currently, yes dear reader in this exact moment, I am trying to calm Amelia with the magical Baby Bjorn. I had her in the approved--facing my chest--position and have now moved her to the very age inappropriate outward facing position. Of course because the detailed instructions that come with the Baby Bjorn say not to do this until a certain age lest the baby's head break off, it is working perfectly.

Heidi has been the real champion in terms of calming Amelia down because she has been the one to continually try to feed and calm her in the middle of the night. I remain the cooker of dinner and the occasional unloader of the dish washer.

League Play

April 2008

Today I took Amelia down to the basketball court. Partially she needed a walk and I wanted to try out the court. I haven't played basketball in a few years but I used to play all the time in college. I have gotten much worse by never practicing. I used to be able to make about 22/25 free throws on a regular basis. Today I first made 11/25, then 13/25 and finally 9/25. I think the last time was because my arm got tired. I'll keep practicing.

The video clip here is one that I found. It is from the other day when we went to Squam. I didn't know Heidi was filming this. At the end I do slide up on the ice. The top of it was a slushy layer but the ice was still 5 inches thick.

Heidi and Amelia went to the lactation consultant today. Amelia has been very, very fussy from 1am to 4 am for the last few nights and Heidi went in for some advice. The good new is that Amelia just happens to be fussy in the middle of the night. She is still gaining weight and is producing all the things that she is supposed to produce (many of these very smelly.) She now weighs 7 lbs. 14 ozs. so even with all the fussiness she is gaining weight faster than she needs to.

Outdoor Time

21 April 2008

The weather here has been so sunny and warm this week. Heidi has been able to drink her morning cup of tea in the front lawn, with Amelia in the bassinet beside her. Yesterday we were all out in the yard for about 2 hours. I was working on a new deck for our front yard and the girls were working on sending out birth announcements and thank you cards from the shower.

Right now I am waiting for Amelia to wake up so we can do another first--a trip to the dump. I'm sure Amelia will like it because she does not seem to mind bad smells. And we will be travelling with about 100 of her diapers so she will feel right at home.

The high school is off this week so we are going to take a few day trips to see friends. As of now we are planning one trip up to see Tucker in Lebanon and maybe one later in the week to see Matt and Heidi up near Squam. We'll see what happens--and let you all know.

Kayaking on Squam

Here is a set of pictures from our recent trip up to Squam.

http://picasaweb.google.com/crumlives/AmeliaSFirstRedHouseDay?authkey=ZKOWGEE5Mjc

Stretching

19 April 2008

Heidi was home alone the other day and was playing around with the camera. Here is Amelia at her most active.

Amelia's First Trip to Squam

19 April 2008

Today I was going to work on building a small deck at the front of the house. But it was so sunny and so warm that we decided that we just had to do something outside. I knew that Squam was still frozen over but I wanted to go up and see it. This time of year, when the temperature is in the 70s but the lake is still frozen has always been one of my favorite times to live in NH. There is something about the fact that spring is so appreciated here. Other places this would be just a normal day but we haven't worn t-shirts outside since September so it is really a treat when all of a sudden the weather finally snaps and spring truly arrives.

We enjoyed a great drive up to Squam, we bought sandwiches at the Holderness General Store, and then we took a walk down to see the lake. Allow me to set the scene for this first clip. The temperature is around 75 F and the water temperature is...cool. This video also does a great job of showing all the baby weight that I gained in sympathy for Heidi. Very embarassing. Luckily I recently found an issue of Self that has, "4 weeks to your best bikini body," on the front cover so I will be using that to get ready for summer. I also am happy to include this clip as a favor for my friend Dan who is getting married this summer and thinks that he is fat. Dan--this should make you feel better.

I don't really need to defend anything there. The water was truly brisk and refreshing. But I will give a little more context to the day. While driving home today we saw girls in bikinis riding a paddle boat through the ice. So I'm certainly not the only one who is ready for summer. Here though is one more clip--at the end Heidi gets to editorialize a little about what she thinks of my swimming.

So that was Amelia's first trip to Squam. I would show you video of here there but she mainly just rode around. Even after the white whale body that you have just seen I assure you that it was a very beautiful day up there. If you every wonder why we live where we do--it is for days like today.

Tom

A little Amelia Video

I was trying to take a nap the other day and this is what happened.

PS How did we get this video? Our house is rigged like the Nixon White House--just with video rather than audio.