I had a whole role of film which I excitedly took to the store, with great expectation of its development. It included all the pictures of Zoe from 4-7 weeks (Iknow, I know, but give me a break, you just don’t have the unlimited means of unhindered photography with a 35-mm. I really have taken quite a few pictures but just not recently). In light of that, just imagine my horror when I got the pictures back and they are ruined – double-exposed pictures on every picture. At first I thought I could just get them to run the negatives through again, but when I checked the negatives, they were double-exposed as well. The only thing I can figure out is that when my well-meaning husband, bless his heart, brought me a package of film he just happened to find one day, one of the roles of film had already been used, and I blythely put it in my camera and used it. At first I was furious with the developers, and they equally thought it was their fault and gave me $26 worth of gift cards to their store [that's the only good thing that's come out of it]. Unless somehow it was their fault and some digital imagine got in there somehow. All in all, it’s a very sad story because I now have no pictures of my baby from 4-7 weeks. I was ready to throw my 35-mm out the window when that happened and order me a nice, new digital on the spot.

Not too long thereafter,  beings that the nice, new digital wasn’t ordered, I gave my old trusty camera a chance to redeem itself and took a whole role in one afternoon. The Little Princess behaved beautifully and I was overjoyed to at last have some pictures before she turns any older…

Some of these seem just a bit grainy, but otherwise okay. And just for the record, these are not edited or digitally enhanced. Nope, these are exactly as the photographer took them [there's got to be some added eprops for that kind of quality in today's digital world].

whoops, I forgot to stick within the background prop for this one


this is her little hat she wears everywear… I think it’s precious.

And now, cheers to my two lovely sisters coming to grace the state of Georgia tomorrow!!! I get the tremendous privilege of picking them up at the airport tomorrow afternoon, and oh my, will we have a beautiful time! I was able to see my dearest Mumsie last weekend, and that was just splendid. So to see my family two weeks in a row is just… divine!

And sad tiding to my other sister who is not able to come… Our sisterhood won’t quite be complete this weekend. We will think of you fondly, dearest Jana.

Well, we returned last night from a lovely weekend at the ocean. St. George Island, off the Florida panhandle, reminded me of Outer Banks or an area similar to that. Lots of ocean, scrubby bushes, sea breeze, areas marked off where sea turtles laid their eggs, huge houses… The house where we stayed was enormous. We were able to be there by the graces of a friend who house-sits it occasionally. I was exclaiming about the size as we entered, and the friend said, “Yes, well, it does have 9 bathrooms. No, wait [she counted mentally], I guess it has only 8.” 4 stories, huge commercial kitchen, built right by the ocean. Had our own private beach front, where we ladies spent some time while the guys were golfing. The only sad thing was that we only had one full day there, it seemed very short. But a beautiful weekend indeed!

Baby bouncers…  If you moms, babysitters, and all other people who have had experience with bouncers of any kind could give me some advice, I’d be greatly obliged to you. I’ve had 2 so far… and returned them both. One was a spider theme, and I wasn’t too thrilled about my baby girl gurgling up at the little creepies while “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” serenaded her. So that was returned. Next was a rainforest theme, with little monkeys and treefrogs and such. Dolly cooed up at Curious George the Monkey, she seemed quite delighted to be spending time with him. But the toybar was down at her toes, there was no way she could reach it with her hands. Plus, I read reviews about that particular one from target.com and people said the little animals that moved up and down were always getting stuck. So that one is being returned too.

Basically, I just want a plain and simple bouncer, one that doesn’t scream “BABY ROOM” and that isn’t an infant-style TV set. I saw the Baby Bjorn but those are disturbingly expensive, and they’re the simplest of all. I checked ebay, overstock, amazon… I didn’t know a bouncer would be so complicated! But now that Zoe is getting more alert I need somewhere to put her when I’m working, where she can still look around. She doesn’t like lying down at all. So, if I could get any tips from you all, please don’t hesitate to let me know!!

“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, inquire for, and insistently require: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life; to behold and gaze upon the beauty, the sweet attractiveness and delightful loveliness of the Lord, and to meditate, consider, and inquire in His temple…” Ps. 27:4

Baby has a new name recently. It all started when Ben was leaving for work one morning, and asked me what I  was going to do for fun that day. I shrugged, then grinned and said, “Play house!” Ever since then she’s been “Dolly.” It feels sometimes like I’m just playing with my real-live baby doll. I think all the years of playing doll when I was a little girl was just practice for the real thing…

There is something about a baby that is just breath-taking. The innocence, the untainted purity. Knowing Zoe makes the world a little sweeter, a little brighter, a little purer…

After taking Dolly’s birth announcement pictures professionally, I went out and did a little experimenting of my mind. Behold the results… When she’s laying on the truck I think she looks like a wooded nymph or something.

Some more of the fairy, but in color. These were taken at the cabin where we stayed for the summer, just a gorgeous setting.

Sometimes this thing of being a parent feels like such a huge responsibility… Here we’re first-time parents, never had any experience before, and we’re suddenly entrusted with a real live little person. Sometimes it’s scary. How will we know how?? How to train her, teach her, love her, guide her, enjoy her… Ben was talking with a man one day that has several children himself, and the man gave him this advice: “One thing I’d do differently is to just enjoy my kids more. Not worry so much about training, but just love on them and enjoy them.” I really liked that. Training is important, but unless the child knows he/she is being delighted in, the training won’t be effective. So – enjoying my baby I am!!

While we were still in PA, these 3 Little Cherubs [I was going to say '3 Little Pigs' because that just comes out from all the days of reading that book, but Ben said I may never call our baby a pig. He just hasn't seen her eat recently. ] and their mommies met up one morning. All three girls were born within 2.5 weeks of each other, and Zoe and Callie were actually born on the same day. So fun… There were so many pregnant women this summer, it was unbelievable. There are many other friends’ babies I don’t even have pictures of that were born within a few weeks or a month of Zoe.

From left to right: Esther, Callie, Zoe

And the very proud [first-time] mommies…
Dana Cohen, Ruth Leatherman, Yours Truly

I’ve been having some relaxing days the past few weeks. I’m busy with Zoe, but it’s a different kind of busy than before. I definitely haven’t had time to get bored though, there’s far too much to do for that! My big event for the week was trying to make cinnamon rolls… It was disastrous the last time I made them, so it’s been a year since I last attempted the feat. Other than half of the flour on the kitchen flour, and half of the dough cascading over the sides of the bowl, I’d say it was a success. Wow, Dolly will have quite the training in culinary arts with me as her momma. So, my life, though relaxing as far as schedule, has been pretty exciting these days. I may need to fill you in on one day in particular some day.

And now, this weekend we’re off to the ocean to one of the islands in Florida! Zoe’s first time. Not sure how sand and a 6 week old baby will get along, but we’ll find out.