Where the Wind Comes Sweeping Through the Plains!

...our desire to come home (and to show off our little Kathryn).  We will be headed to the great state of Oklahoma tomorrow to see family and friends.  We will also be indoctrinating our little one in the ways of being an Okie.  See, we now have a Texan.  Some of you may not think that this is a big deal, but those that have known me forever get the irony of it.  So...we will be attempting to make her an Okie by coming home as often as possible.  If you would like to meet her (and see us because we'd love to see you) we will be at my parents house (Steve and Shelia's) on Saturday afternoon and Michael's dad's house on Sunday.  Please come and see us!

I Wish She Could Stay This Way Forever!

...our trip to the hospital's weight clinic today.   The hospital provides a free clinic every Monday for new parents to have their babies weighed to make sure they are gaining properly).  The good news is that she is healthy and now weighs 7 pounds, 10 ounces.  She's gained a little over 2 pounds since she was born 5 weeks ago.  Her little cheeks are starting to fill out and she's developing quite a personality!  She's lifting her head and looking around and she actually reached for me the other day while her daddy was holding her (he didn't like it but I thought it felt good!).  

The part I'm struggling with, and I'm sure every parent will understand, is that she is growing and changing so fast.  I already miss the tiny little baby I brought home from the hospital.  I'm doing my best to enjoy every minute.  Don't get me wrong, I want to see her grow and become a dynamic young woman, but not so quickly.  So for now I am going to cuddle her and cherish the little things.  I'm sad it's going so quickly but I'm so excited for what is to come.  

The Baby Whisperer (4 weeks)

...a crazy couple of days in the hospital to get her here, but as of yesterday, Kate is now 4 weeks old! It's hard to believe she's already 4 weeks old, it seems so fast. But at the same time it's hard to believe she hasn't always been with us...that somehow she's always been here. I don't know if that makes sense, but I'm guessing other parents out there understand this paradoxical phenomenon.

I need to brag about my awesome wife for a few minutes...sorry girl, if I embarass you just skip to the next paragraph. People expect moms to just kind of "get" the whole mom thing, while at the same time "ooh" and "ahh" over a dad that occassionally does something to help out. While this might be the plight of motherhood I wanted to recognize the job she is doing. I've never been around new moms and infants before--ever--so this is a completely new experience for me. And I must say she "gets" it. I've learned--okay, I'm still learning--that sometimes I need to just listen to what she says and do it because she's usually right. For example, last night I was holding Kate watching the olympics and she started crying. I couldn't figure out why, but Amanda said, she's cold, she wants to be held the other direction, and you should give her a pacifier. Now, all I heard was "wah wah wah," but Amanda, the "Baby Whisperer," apparently heard Kate say all those things. So, I put a blanket on her, switched positions, and gave her a pacifier...instant sleep. What? When did she learn a new language? Somehow she has the insider information after 4 weeks and I'm still on the front porch with my nose pressed to the window looking in.

Amanda and I pulled a total new parent thing to do...we bought an awesome new camera. (We bought a Nikon D60, digital SLR, for those of you that care) I've been learning about aperture, shutter speed, exposure, fill flash, no flash, slow flash, etc... I'm getting there. I kind of know what all those words mean now. I'll post some random pictures taken over the last few days below.


My girls. The little one and the "Baby Whisperer" catching some z's in the rocker.

"Do I have to take a bath?"

After the bath, recovering body heat.

Papa Steve went shopping...notice the OSU hat.

The New Kid

...the first time Kate met Sophie and Stanley. We, like most of you guys, were curious how the dogs would get along with the new kid on the block. Well, it has been an adjustment period for the dogs to say the least. But not for reasons you might think. They have been great with Kate. In fact, Stanley will make sure we know Kate needs us when she's crying. It's us they have a problem with. If you didn't think dogs could give cold shoulders you should have visited our house recently. After 4 weeks now I think everyone is getting adjusted to each other just fine--meaning the dogs have started giving us attention again. One great thing is that Kate apparently got used to the dogs barking while in the womb, so when they bark now it doesn't even faze her. Just so they don't feel completely left out (and so you can see the interaction) here is a picture of the whole family...sorry it's a little dark, I tried not to blind everyone with the flash.

What's in a (middle) name? Part 2

...a great-grandmother. Amanda's great-grandmother Helene Sisemore Tanner to be exact. Helene, so we are told, was so excited to have a great-granddaughter--Amanda. Fortunately for Helene she got to meet Amanda, but unfortunately for Amanda she never knew it. Amanda was born on November 3, 1979, and Helene died in April of 1980. So, what we know of Helene we've learned from other people and some written history of her. She was born in the 1800's (1896) and lived in Arkansas, Chicago, New York City, and eventually Ponca City, Oklahoma. She attended college, which is rare for her time, and served as a board member and president of art councils, libraries, and historical societies. She was a strong woman (noticing a pattern here?).

Helene, Kate's middle name, is not on any top 100 name lists, but we love it just the same. Again, it's Greek in origin (see Part 1 for my nerdy obsession) and means "Bright One," "Torchlight," or "Illumination." Cool meanings right? For a child that we prayed for as long as we have, to say she is an illumination to our souls would be an understatement. We hope that she will provide light and illumination to a lot of people in her lifetime. I know some of our posts, okay my posts, might insinuate that we have high expectations for her--but really these are merely my hopes for her. She can be whoever she wants to be...my expectations are no exception. Alright, on to the history lesson.

By the way, our Kate officially weighs 6 lbs. 6 ounces today! Two Helene/Helena/Helen stories come to mind:


The first is Helen of Troy (officially Helene of Troy--Greek rendered to English becomes Helen, although Helene is the correct name). Her abduction is what began the famous Trojan war (see Homer's Iliad). History remembers her as having "the face that launched a thousand ships." (picture on left) After seeing Kate, who am I to argue??? ha!

The second is Helena of Constantinople (again the Roman version of the Greek Helene). Helena would later become St. Helena for her role in the movement of the founding of the early Christian church and for an archaeological discovery that would lead to the founding of one of the most well-known churches in the world. While not born into Roman royalty, Helena married a Roman general and had a son that would one day become one of the most important Roman emperors of all time, Constantine. This proved crucial for the early church, because in 312 Constantine ordered all persecution of Christians to stop and declared Christianity the true state religion of the Roman Empire. After this declaration Constantine sent his mother with other historians to Jerusalem to find Christian artifacts. On this trip Helena is credited as finding the "true cross," or the cross of Jesus' crucifixion. On the site where the cross was supposedly discovered, she built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There is a statue of St. Helena at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome (picture below), and her face was issued on Roman Empire money (see coins below). Her body lies in a sarcophagus in the Vatican to this day. Alright, history lesson over.

What's in a name? Part 1

...Shakespeare and his famous line "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet..." Maybe so, but I'd bet any elementary school kid with a name like Bart or Enus would be willing to swap (no offense to those named Bart or Enus). There was definitely method behind our choosing Baby Kate's name: Kathryn Helene.

Choosing a name that will follow your child forever is no easy task. Amanda and I are definitely "name people," which means the name has to have a great meaning. We had to figure out if anyone we didn't like had that name. We ran through the list of possible nicknames and playground taunting rhymes on our list of possible names. (I suppose they could use "Kate's an ape" or something, but we'll take our chances.) It had to be short, because our last name is 36 letters long. It had to be strong not cutesy, because we want her to be a strong girl. Anyway, we arrived at about 3 or 4 possible names, which we'll save for later just in case. Obviously, the winner was Kate, but wanted to give her the professional option one day of Kathryn.

Kathryn is Greek in origin, which completely fits since I love reading ancient Greek so much. Sorry Kate, you might have a good name, but your Dad is a bookish nerd. It means "Pure." Who could think of a better adjective for their little girl than "pure." Since names are so often self-fulfilling prophecies, this father is keeping his fingers crossed!

So, the shortness, strength, and meaning of Kate is what led us to the name...but since we decided on the name I thought I would do more research on her name. While there are plenty of famous Catherines/Katherines I like the story of St. Catherine of Alexandria the best. Alive during the 3rd century Catherine of Alexandria later became one of the catholic churches best known saints. She actually befriended the Roman Emperor (Maxentius) during his violent persecutions of Christians and tried to convince him to stop. He didn't listen, but did convert the Roman Empress, which led to Catherine's martyrdom. Her story doesn't stop though, but culminates in Paris with Joan of Arc's story as the saint that appeared to Joan of Arc and influenced Joan to lead her people thereby earning Joan's place in history. St. Catherine is also the patron saint of college students, theologians, and girls--a trifecta in my book.

Okay, too much information I know. So, I will save Helene for Part 2...

Nude photos already?

...a trip to Kate's first photo session. The photographer is Denae Hutson, and she is great! Kate handled the 2 hour session like a pro, and even woke up for some of the shots. I did think about titling this post "Artsy Shartsy" for issues that arose while I was holding her in some of her nude shots...I'll leave it to your imagination! We don't have all of the photos yet, but should be able to see them and start purchasing them at the end of the week. Here are some of the sample shots Denae posted on her blog (http://www.denaehutsonphotography.blogspot.com/). We'll let you know when all of the photos are ready in case anybody wants to place orders!

Kate's First Fish Fry Friday!

...an obsession with the Cracker Barrel.  Michael's family and the two of us together have always loved the Cracker Barrel.  It seems like it is the place we go for fun, comfort, when we're up or when we're down.  So when it was finally announced that Lubbock would be getting a CB we were so excited.  We were even more excited to introduce some of our friends to "The Barrel".  Last year we started going regularly at 6 on Friday nights with a couple of our best friends for the Friday Fish Fry.  Now it is a tradition and we couldn't wait to take Kate so this week we all celebrated her birth properly (over fried fish!).  
Aunt Brandy and Kate at the Barrel!
Aunt Stephanie with Kate and her CB bib! We are pretty serious about Fish Fry Friday.