People are clamoring for more pictures so here you go. Short and sweet.

Like Harper.

Harper Receives Guests

Slowly but surely we're rediscovering what we used to do with our free time. Spend it with friends drinking wine and eating cheese, mostly. Harper doesn't drink and doesn't eat cheese just yet, but she's picked up the pleasant art of friendship like a pro.

And she's just in time; I think Amanda and I had told all of our good stories already. This new Harper material is going over huge.

Oh and pay attention to the guy in the plaid pants. He's what's in your CD player tomorrow.

This is our friend Raffi

These are our friends Gwyn and Jeremy Lister

This is Gwyn teaching Harper some interpretive dance.

Our First Park Visit

In a perfect world I would spend all of my days very much like this: In the park with my wife, dog and daughter, watching birds fly by and rollerbladers mangle their knees. Here are a few shots of Harper's first visit to the park. I'm pretty sure she enjoyed it a little more than she lets on in these shots.

And here's one that I just thought was fun. This taken in the car while Amanda is in the store buying diapers shortly after I almost ran over Amanda on her way in to the store to buy diapers.

Give Me a Break

Seriously.

Lima Bean

It's amazing to me how much she looks like a Lima Bean when she's curled up like this. What I like most about this picture (other than the fact that she looks like a Lima Bean) is that she looks like she was born to curl up on her Dad's chest and he looks like it's the only job he's ever had. Yeah, that's what I like most. 

Visitors from the North

Going forward, there is something you should know: If you come to our house, we will blog you.

Seriously.

If you don't want to wind up on the Internet, if you have something you would rather not have documented, or even if you are simply shy in front of a camera, you should probably be careful around us. Because we will blog you.

It's not because we're crazy, it's that events and situations that would not normally be noteworthy have suddenly become front-page bulletins.

Today's news: Sam and Carey stopped off on their way home to Boston to meet Harper. And Stephen, even though it's your birthday Sam asked that it be noted that he was here before you were. It has been duly noted.

And Happy Birthday.

Field Trip to the Coffee Shop

It's Saturday and it's kinda raining and it's also kinda sunshining so we bundled up the little one, slapped a leash on the furry one and strolled to the coffee shop. I had granola, Amanda had oatmeal, Harper had a nap and Carmine had a dog biscuit. Amanda read the paper, I read Rolling Stone, about a hundred ten-speed bikers biked by and on the way home we stopped and talked to some neighbors.

In keeping with our new trend of photographing nearly everything, I meant to document Harper's first visit to the coffee shop. With all the excitement of the bike race though I forgot until we were halfway home.

But it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood and a neighborly day for a beauty so here are a few pictures anyway. One pre-stroll and mid-stroll.

Hope everyone's Saturday is strolling along as happily as ours.

Bath time

Bath time is not Harper's favorite activity. She exhibited her discontent by peeing on Buster, which made me laugh so hard that I peed on myself. Like Mother, like Daughter.

Harper's Thursday at a glance

A couple of pretty cool things have happened in the past day or so. First, Harper's gross belly button cord is just about to fall off. Actually it's hanging by a thread, which is even more disgusting than when it was fully intact. Buster and I both look forward to her cord being a thing of the past.

Second, Harper had lunch at Panera Bread today. Well, she slept through most of it but it was quite an adventure for me seeing as I am practically a shut-in at this point. 

Doctor Day

Today was Harper's two-week visit to the doctor. There are three things we're happy to report from the day:


1) Harper's doing great. She's weighing in at 8 pounds, lining up at 21 inches and her head seems to be about the right size. Heart, lungs, eyes, and everything else seem to be doing exactly what they're supposed to and for this we are extremely happy.





2) We really like our pediatrician, Dr. Chetan Mukundan. He spent plenty of time with us and gave us a lot of info that will prove helpful now that we're flying solo without any experienced parents waiting in the wings. He also told us that he'd wanted to name his daughter Harper but his wife didn't want to, even though author Harper Lee had been a generations-earlier sorority sister of his wife's when she was a young coed in Alabama. I told him if we'd had a son I wanted to name him Chetan.

No, not really.




3) Harper looks a little like the Gorton's Fisherman in this outfit.






This is the Gorton's Fisherman.












This is Dr. Mukundan.

This is Harper's World. You're Just a Squirrel Trying to Get a Nut

"Wonder of all wonders, everything has changed."
--Thad Cockrell

So then there we are in the delivery room and we're finally meeting her. And then we're checking out of the hospital (down the hall from Jack White, incidentally). And then we're here, at the house, walking her through the front door. And then I'm back at work, a concept that seems to have been drained of all meaning and importance. And then we're here, on Mother's Day, almost two weeks after Harper came to join us.

The time was flying anyway; now it's simply evaporating.

So here's a wild swing at preserving some of it. It's also an attempt to spread a little bit of the love that is our lovely daughter to the maximum number of people with the minimum time commitment on my end. (Read that as efficient, not lazy.)

And how else can I let everyone know about all the cute firsts that we're checking off our big, new list?

For example, just this morning Harper barfed on herself.

Happy Mother's Day.