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.