Baby Baby Baby!!!

Oooooh my word. I have the most beautiful child I have ever seen. She has a smile that will liquify your heart and make it come out your eyes... hm, maybe I should jump on that. Maybe I could get some HD video of her and use it for heart transplants... far less painful. ;)

So, what is it like to be a father? WHY DOES EVERYONE ASK ME THAT?!?!?!? It's like breathing. It's natural, feels good, and if not controlled properly, ends up giving you a really hard time. Annabelle is beautiful and happy. She's the happiest baby I've seen. She doesn't cry through hiccups, she tolerates a fair amount of jostling when we're changing her diapers (which I then have to rinse out because they are cloth), and, just like her papa, she LOVES the outdoors. She can be pitching the worst fit ever, but take her into the sun and BOOM... happy baby.

She's doing all sorts of cute baby-type stuff. Her delicate (and amazingly well-formed/intricate) hands are always exploring. She touches my face and smiles, then wiggles a little and clenches, then opens her tiny little fist. I took her out to the bushes in the backyard and played with the leaves for a while in front of her face, then she, with great effort and many failed attempts, reached out and took hold of the branch, then wiggled it a little and withdrew, staring at the magic of our typical greenery.

When I stroke her head, or touch her little nose, she smiles with her papa's big smile to let us know that we're doing a good job. She eats a lot... every 4 hrs or so. It's amazing.

Also amazing is the number of times she pees and poos. Somehow, 1 oz of milk turns into 15oz of waste product. Friggin amazing. Another thing that is amazing, is the fact that I don't mind the stinky poos smell, nor did I have a hard time helping Cheryl deliver. Blood, poo, pee, and other bodily fluids associated with birth and babies really don't bother me. All this time, I thought blood was my issue, but it turns out it's the sterile smell of hospital plastic. Since we had the birth at home, I had no problems. I even cut the umbilical cord myself.

Sleep isn't an issue either. She sleeps like I did all the way through my homeschool experience. Tons of high energy activity followed by a nap... repeat all day and through the night. I've been getting plenty of sleep at odd hours and feel better than ever!! (Though I'm not sure how this is going to work once I have to work around Thomson's "core hours".) I may just need to extend my lunch period for a mid-day nap...