It is really hard to take a picture of Elena smiling! She is a full-body smiler, which means that when she smiles her entire body gets excited and happy, too. So the result is lots of fuzzy pictures of smiling.

Elena has this eerie way of suddenly looking over your shoulder or to the side and finding whatever is there completely fascinating, even if it is the lamp or the wall. Here she is having a psychadelic connection with the back of the couch. It is possible that she woke up this morning able to see the color red and the couch suddenly looks incredibly interesting to her. It is also possible that there are angels or ghosts living with us and only babies can see them?

YOU'VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY. Okay, so I know that mothers are supposed to think that their babies are absolutely beautiful at birth, but honestly, I thought that Elena was pretty funny-looking those first few days of life. In fact, I was fairly certain that they had given me the wrong baby. She didn't look anything like I expected! But look at this gorgeous girl now-- bright eyed and alert and full of personality! I sent in the forms for the Miss Washington Baby beauty pageant this morning. I think she has a fighting chance for the big win!

The face of a very hungry baby.

Elena is very chatty in the mornings! Here she is telling me all about her sweet dreams. We are starting her on psychotherapy next week (I figure the sooner the better), so I wanted to get her used to sharing her inner thoughts.

Here are the handsome men in my life: Oberon, the cat, and Kevin, the cellist. This weekend Kevin subbed for the Seattle Symphony and go tto play the Shostakovich Symphony No. 10.

Thanks for the great new socks, Auntie Vicki!

These are not lovely German pastries. These are stale and strange-tasting Persian pastries that a student of Kevin gave to us. To see pictures of lovely German pastries, please see Dr. Hausfrau's blog: www.drhausfrau.blogspot.com

Evening fussies!! Elena is a fuss budget in the evenings, but loves to be held. After many weeks of frustrating attempts at keeping her happy, I was inspired by Andrea and Emory and Dr. Katy Hausfrau and finally figured out how to use my wonderful German sling (hand-me-down from Auntie Amy). As soon as I put Elena in it, she promptly fell into a deep relaxed sleep. I don't know why I haven't used this earlier! Probably because I was intimidated by the wrapping instructions? I am pretty much an idiot when it comes to anything spatial. LUckily I figured it out and I was able to make dinner with her in it last night, though my back did hurt afterwards. I have been cooking every night and trying out new recipes while I am on my baby-vacation and last night we had "Cuisses de Volaille a la Diable" (Deviled Chicken Legs) from the 6-minute Gourmet cookbook.

MORNING BATH. Elena gets a bath every few days in the morning. Here she is after her bath sporting her fantastic German tights from Auntie Katy Hausfrau and her German Weleda Calendula cream for her bum.

Okay, so I didn't get a chance to take photos for the rest of the day, but we did do stuff. Today, we went to baby and mommy yoga and Elena slept through the entire class. This means I actually got to exercise, which was nice. In fact, Elena slept the ENTIRE DAY today. This is probably because she got her immunizations yesterday and might not be feeling well. Poor baby! I had a hard time holding my baby down while they hideously tortured her with four horrible huge shots. She screamed bloody murder the entire time and brought me to tears! Next time, Kevin is going to take her!

FAMILY BED 9 am. I am inspired by my friend, Dr. Katy Hausfrau to post a "Day in the Life" of Ursi and Elena. Here we start the day with Elena sporting a brand new, extra-cool Strawberry Shortcake T-shirt sent by Auntie Molly and cousin Adeline and of course, her Very Baby fuschia sleep diaper. Elena starts the night in her fancy cradle swing, then sleeps most of the night in her co-sleeper, then spends a little time cuddling with mom and dad in the morning before waking up for the day. We still nurse about every 2-3 hours a night. As always, Obie is our constant companion throughout the night. When I wake up with all these sweet creatures in bed with me each morning, I am the happiest girl around. (Note: here you also see the morning damage-- pee and spit up stains on the bed and ever present spit-up rag.)

Elena is getting much more active these days! She still does not have hand-eye coordination, but she is getting better at repeating chance behaviors (Level 2 of Piaget's sensorimotor stage of infant development). I am pretty excited about having a picture log to illustrate these stages for my classes! But mainly, Elena still prefers to sleep. Here she is showing one of her famous sleep smiles. We can only hope that this means she only has pleasant things to dream about...

Ready...set...
Action!!

HELLO BABY GIRL!!!

A typical morning for me... Elena takes a nap in her car seat while I have breakfast and catch up on New Yorkers.

This is just to give people some perspective on how very tiny and cute Elena is! And of course, how very massive and handsome our Oberon is...So far, Obie kind of thinks maybe something is different around the house, but he's not sure what. He usually keeps his distance from Elena, so this is a rare moment when he is willing to be near her for any amount of time.

Elena woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning! This was the first morning she seemed really interested in waking up and seeing the world instead of sleeping on and off all morning. She even greeted Kevin with a big smile! We thought it was a good opportunity to take a bath, and she spent a good 15 mintues swimming around enjoying herself. Here she is all clean and fuzzy waking up from a morning nap.

Kevin got home from Yakima late last night just in time to rescue me from a truly marathon night of the "evening fussies." Elena refused to sleep until about 2 am. Today, we all slept in and then napped some more. (We also did laundry after a diaper blow-out in the bed!)

A Girls Day Out would not be complete without a little bit of shopping! We walked down to University Village where we made a stop in Crate and Barrel. Carrie Ann is getting married in June and needed to update a couple things on her gift registry. Here she is registering for some linens, and hmmm... what else?

After tea, we all took a long walk in the cemetary near the teahouse and had long conversations about life and death and everything in between.
Elena took a quick snack break at the Yeats memorial. We hope that Yeats appreciated nurturing new life at the memorial of his death!
Elena was not the only new life present at the cemetary. The cherry blossoms have bloomed in Seattle!

My oldest and closest friends in Seattle, Carrie Ann and Sharon, and I celebrated our annual "February birthdays are the best" high tea at the Queen Mary teahouse this Saturday. Sharon and I got the smoked salmon quiche and Carrie Ann got the "Wellington." Everything was fabulous!
This year we welcomed the addition of a new February birthday girl... Elena already has the pinky gestrue perfected!
But mainly she just slept through the entire event....

I think that Elena smiled at me today! This promptly made me cry! Kevin reports that she smiled at him a few days ago, so he is claiming witness to this momentous "first." Ellie is one month old today, so that makes her first social smile a bit on the early side, but I am still determined that it was not gas! She actually looked into my eyes and smiled! What an amazing moment. I think this is the highlight of my short life as a mother. Newborns are so hard to take care of because it is so hard to tell if you are making any connection with them. I can't wait till she actually starts showing more signs of attachment and bonding.

I have been going a little bit crazy the last two days while Kevin has been in Yakima playing concerts. Right now, Elena is finally asleep in her sling and I am facing another long night of marathon nursing without Kevin there for moral support. I can't imagine being a single mother!