10 Weeks Old!

Happy Ten Weeks Iris! She's smiling at us lots all of a sudden - it's a great feeling when she flashes those tiny gums.

I don't have any good pics of her grinning yet so here's one of me enjoying a maple bar with bacon from Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland that I've been meaning to post for months.

(We found out about this new Breakfast of Champions when Anthony Bourdain had a couple of them when his Travel Channel show featured Portland)In other news, we discovered that Iris enjoys Pink Floyd. We've been putting on "Dark Side of the Moon" when we want her to sleep. It's worked a few times & hopefully it'll keep working for a while longer. Surprisingly she doesn't seem to care much for "Wish You Were Here"

duuuuuuuuude! put on some Floyd!!!

How you've grown

What a difference 8 weeks make? Compare the photo of Iris on the day she left the hospital and the one taken today. She's wearing the same outfit in both photos.

Baby Name Genie

I discovered this site thru my gmail links today - if only we had known about it in November. Here's the perfect name for our little girl, according to the genie:You can keep pushing the wish again button as long as you like, and the genie will keep supplying names, though he gets pretty sarcastic after you've used up the 3 wishes he prefers to grant.

8 days till a Patriots victory

Iris enjoying tales of the mighty Patriots as told by her dad.

2 Month Check Up

Iris turned 2 months yesterday. Today she got to go the pediatrician for her check up. Jim and I are proud to say she now weighs 10.5 lbs., and measures 22 1/4". She's getting to be such a big girl. Those 2 measurements are right at the 50th percentile for length and weight for 2 month olds. Where she really excels is in head size--hers measured 40.5 cm, which they told us is in the 75th-90th percentile. I suppose that means that 40cm is 75th and 41 is 90th, and she's around the middle of that range.

She was super brave too because she had 3 vaccine shots. She cried of course but was fine by the time we got her dressed & left the exam room. Maybe she had a flashback to her first week of life when she was constantly poked and prodded while in hospital.

It's Cold Outside, Baby

With Jim back at work, I'm alone with Iris all day. She's not sleeping much during the day, and she's more aware of herself and things around her. To keep boredom to a minimum and provide stimulation for Iris (and me), we go out for walks. Iris seems to enjoy the walks and sleeps better at night.

I have carpal tunnel syndrome, and it's too painful to push a stroller for long walks. So, instead, Iris gets to be in her Baby Bjorn on the walks. The weather hasn't been great with temperatures below the norm. I have to bundle her up before our walks. Luckily she doesn't mind wearing layer upon layer of clothing.

Update on Fred

With all the excitement (and drama) with Iris, we've neglected to mention Fred in any recent postings. Fred is now 14 1/2 years old, and he's really showing his age. He's taking glucosamine and pain medication to help with his arthritis. Once again, we're trying to get him to lose weight since being overweight worsens his pain. He weighs in about 16.5 pounds now. I'm not sure how much weight he can drop since he's already on a diet (though Jim has been known to offer food scraps off his dinner plate occasionally). Too bad it'll be awhile before Iris can chase Fred around to help with the weight loss.

Fred has been getting acupuncture to help with his pain (and possibly with early signs of kidney failure). He's not completely happy about the treatments, but they have been working. He appears to walk around with less signs of pain after his appointments. It's hard to see in the photo but Fred has about 8-9 needles in him.

Jim's last day of family leave

Today is Jim's last day home before returning back to work. I can't say how much help he's been with Iris. Iris loves her daddy, and I'm sure she'll be as sad as I will be to say goodbye to him tomorrow morning. It's hard to believe that Iris will be 8 weeks old tomorrow. Stay tuned for updates when Iris has her 2-month check up next week. She'll be getting her first shots then. Let's hope she doesn't scream her head off at the doctor's office.

Here's a pic of Jim's favorite way to spend time with Iris (and Fred).

Come here often?

Jim's Mom in Town

Jim's Mom arrived from Florida on Tuesday to meet Iris.

Here's one of the first photos of Iris meeting her Memere:The day mom arrived was also the day of the NH primary so we spent much of that night watching the surprising returns on CNN. I took this pic of Wolf Blitzer right off of CNN that night--can you believe it's the 2006 elections already??!!
Kelly - please tell me someone's head rolled for that one

Bath time

Iris' belly button scab finally fell off last Friday - here's a photo of what it looked like (yucky I know): so we were able to give her a real bath rather than the sponge baths we'd been limited to when it was still attached. Here are a couple pics and a movie of how she reacted during her bath:

Baby crimefighter

I know I've been lame for not posting in a long long time. I'm glad Jim's been better about updating the blog.

I had to post this clip after seeing this. And no, this isn't Iris. We've seen her do the same moves; we just hadn't thought to film her.