welcome to baby land

Baby Claire arrived March 30th. She came quick. Surprise, I was in labor! Oh my stars, the pain! And then within just a few hours she was screaming, and HERE, earth's newest tiny citizen. Pink, flailing, wailing, a little five pound thing.

She immediately bewitched us with her baby ways. 

Suddenly it became clear: all the sweet songs and poems are about her, all the planets spin for her. 

Our hearts are in a state of beautiful wreckage. 

But like magic, these hearts have never been more intact. 

Nothing is for certain. Anything can be.

Parenthood is terror and serenity, chaos and order, day and night, calamity and victory. 

Does all of this seem over the top? It is, dear reader. It is. 

Simple truths abound. Life is a circle. 

Each day is a series of epiphanies. 

Neurons are firing and synapses are connecting at an unprecedented rate.

It is earnest and exhausting work, growth.

We are frankly astounded that she is real.

She has joined a wild tribe of girls.

And the world awaits, little one.

New York trip

We took a quick weekend trip to New York at the end of January/start of February. It was wonderful but cold. Brutally cold, nine degrees cold.

But we bundled up and walked fast! Like the old days.

We stayed at the Andaz Hotel across the street from the main branch of the New York Public Library on Fifth. Scott fished for a free room upgrade by saying we were there to "celebrate the birth of our child," who was clearly still unborn in my pregnant belly, but it worked and we got a room with a view. 

The room had high ceilings and tall windows, which inspired many photos.

One of my favorite NYC landmarks! Right out our window!

We walked to breakfast at the Galaxy Diner Saturday morning and passed through Times Square. Let it be known the Naked Cowboy has a very strong work ethic and is willing to risk frostbite, which clearly rendered me incredulous and unable to make eye contact.

After breakfast, Scott went to visit his buddies and I spent the afternoon exploring. 

That's Scott retrieving our car from the parking garage beneath Grand Central Station.

Meanwhile I visited my old friend, the library, which is as lovely inside as out. 

So grand! 

And full of exquisite detail.

I went into the map division. This globe was gigantic!

I scurried around outside a little bit too, and took as many pictures as my cold fingers could stand. Two or three.

Pedro's grandmother invited us for breakfast at her apartment Sunday morning. While we were hunting for a parking spot, we ran into Pedro walking Puddles, and they jumped in the car with us for a few minutes.

Pedro let me walk her too. We are old friends, Puddles and I.

And Scott and Pedro are sweet men who both brought flowers to Grandma. 

She cooked us an enormous and delicious breakfast, that included many treats.

Hooray, New York!

March iphone photos

We transferred 6,000 (!!) phone photos to my computer recently. I'm on bedrest during the last few weeks of my pregnancy, so I have time to work on projects like this that have been on the back burner for the last 5-7 years. Other accomplishments from the couch include cleaning out and filing paperwork, unsubscribing from and deleting 22,000 emails, and training to become a professional tv viewer. 

Here are some pictures from the last month. 

March: in like a lion, out like a lamb? Still waiting for the verdict on the latter.

I think everyone is ready for spring, but the snow was lovely still.

That's a windshield love note.

I like the long winter shadows on the snow piles in the backyard. 

That's me practicing to be on bedrest. Sometimes when I sit there in the living room looking up at the branches and sky, I can pretend I'm in a treehouse. One that has a comfortable couch.

Scott sometimes takes secret spy pictures of me doing unflattering activities like grocery shopping, which I discover on his phone days or weeks later. But I include this one as a record of my baby bump (pre-bedrest, don't worry).

Scott also takes his own delightful selfies, so we're even. 

I broke out my watercolors and have been painting a little during couch captivity.

And bedrest doesn't mean I can't celebrate holidays, like Pi Day. 

I also helped Scott get some seeds started to plant in the garden and yard later. I love seeing everything sprouting this time of year, and I miss being able to poke around the flower beds to see what's coming up green these days, but I'll be back out there soon!

All for now - I'm going to try to work backward in uploading photos here from my backlog, so maybe more to come!