Today, Z discovered that a bath,

while initially somewhat alarming,

and altogether new,

involving quite a bit of manhandling,


can actually be quite lovely.







The drying off part was a little surprising,

but we ended the day with Z's favorite meal.

Daily Zee

Hey, Guys. Its me, Z.


I just wanted to let you know that I was NOT a party to the selection of these bright sheets.

I mean, really.

AMAZING HAT:

THANK YOU, LEAH.
We have been inundated with wonderful, beautiful gifts. We do mean to thank each and every one of you and will do so very soon in actual paper form. We're still trying to get used to this higher level of multitasking, and in that vein have adopted this man as our new role model. Click the link and be amazed.

The Greatest Love of All (Suspended Eight to Ten Inches Over Your Face)

I was dubious when R's Mom found us this mobile (at either a yard sale or a secondhand shop). It seems a little too engineered to be much fun, one of those products that is meant to appeal to the parents more than the baby in the end, the kinds of things R and I have tried to avoid (so far). Not having money has made this incredibly easy, by the way. Try it! It totally cuts down on your consumption, conspicuous and otherwise.

Anyway, we attached it to the changing table in a fit of boredom when Z was still doing her sit-in, and joked about the claims made on the box, and the ultra-specific instructions it came with. Proper distances from the baby, when to switch to a more complicated pattern... Again, it all seemed a little too engineered. Some of the best-loved toys I've seen have been (a random sampling in no particular order): a monkey made from a stuffed bleach-stained dress sock (a Mom Roberts creation), a one-armed Micronaut (a Mom Roberts find from the old days), and a Lost In Space flying saucer made out of glued-together paper plates (a Lila and cG creation of long ago). What I'm trying to get at is kids-- even babies-- can be made happy with just about anything, and a lot of stuff is just over-designed.

That said, this mobile is awesome. It is one of those rare beasts that doesn't fail to live up to its hype. It's so great that at times I get a little jealous at the way Z stares at the various parts of it. In fact, if the love affair goes on much longer, I'm going to start wearing a mask with the various mobile designs blown up to face size.

Check it:


You can't tell here, but her little fists are flying! She really loves this thing. I think she also digs the shapes of the photos on the wall, but that's a distant second. Nota: the hairdryer is for diaper rash (pediatrician approved!), not styling. Really.

The Many Faces of Zora

Annoyed:

Angry:



Concentrating:



Pooping:



Oh, there's many, many more.

PS. I actually do call her my "Li'l Lou Grant," though R. disapproves.

What a weekend we had...

Auntie Lila visited Saturday...
as did Auntie Carrie and Uncle Joshua...


... as did Auntie Liz. We had a wonderful day of cooing, toe-biting and general cuddling of the baby.

On Sunday we went down to Newport for a little more family time.Cousin Linda...
and Great Grandma, among others, were introduced.


On Monday Zora slept in the quiet jungle over by the window, worn out from all the attention.

Thanks for a great weekend, all!

A Walk in the Park on Friday

We made a baby!

I realize that, aside from the various woodworking projects described below, we haven't really given the full run-down on the BIG craft project. I'll spare you the details of the first steps of the project- we don't have photos of that, anyway. Also, if you need info on the whole mitosis/meiosis thing that took place between mid-March and this past week, you'll have to look it up yourself. I'm not sure I totally get that, but I think it was mostly mitosis. Or maybe meiosis. I don't know. We didn't go over that at urban planning school.

As most of you readers have probably heard, I had an incredibly easy pregnancy, so there's not much to report in that regard. I really had none of the yucks that often bother ladies in a delicate condition, until really late in the game. Month after month, week after week, the midwife wrote absolutely nothing on my chart at my regular weigh-ins- there just wasn't anything to write, aside from the usual weight and blood pressure stuff. My medical record from this pregnancy is one mostly blank sheet of paper. To celebrate our anniversary in October, we went bike riding around Block Island with 7 months of baby-in-progress on board, and the weather this year made it pretty easy to keep on with our weekend beach and nature preserve walks mostly right up to the end.

I don't remember who it was who told me that "the baby comes when you just can't stand it any more, and then you wait two more weeks." As Z's due date got closer and closer, I kept feeling like, "This isn't such a big deal. Who are these people who just can't stand it any more?" Just around the last week in December, just about when I went on leave from work because the baby was supposed to show up any day, I got this itchy rash on my stomach. Then my arms were continuously asleep, I got too winded to make much more than a lap and a half waddling around the park, I woke up one morning and said "Holy crap, are my feet fat!" and I actually outgrew my maternity clothes. I thought, "I just can't stand it any more!" And then we waited two more weeks. And then we waited another 4 days, just 'cuz.

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion, coming soon. . .

Another Project Documented With Photography!

The other project we made this fall in anticipation of Zora was a changing tabletop. It was obviously a much smaller project, but a nice warm-up for the bed.

Also, these photos allow me to show off my Daughter Anterior, the Divine Ms. M.

A simple box, we measured for underside braces so it would fit tight on top of a small bureau R's mom found for $5 (!). R and I painted it incredibly sloppily over three days, but you can't tell unless you look from, say, ten feet away. Still, with the tabletop on it, it looks cool and works wonderfully for all those little baby clothes.

R's Mom made soft little pads for it, too-- another nifty project...

Sparing you the construction photos for what is essentially a shallow box, I take you first to the sanding stage. We used the wood left over from the baby bed project, which you can see in pieces under the table.

M had her first woodshop class this year in school. What fun it is to sand!

The sanded box with a first layer of powdered color rubbed in. We didn't paint this project as we did the bed, just rubbed the stuff in.

First red, then yellow...



H applies the first of two coats of lacquer. Like most people, he has an industrial venting system and different airbrushing equipment.

Here it is on its bureau. Note the soft, soft pads... No complaints yet.

Thanks for looking!

We Made a Baby Bed (over a few months)

We made a little co-sleeper bed with nifty wheels for rolling around the apartment in order to better annoy our neighbors. It has a removable (sliding) wall and it fastens to the side of our bed with simple hook and eye pieces. Vanity demands I point out the circles were my idea, but R's Dad (H) made most of this possible, both with his expertise in building things and his extensive collection of tools.

I enjoy building things provided they aren't too complicated (IKEA, piles of debt). I did assist in a number of Roberts family constructions in my youth, including a massive chickenhouse/work shed. It is Vermont's only Brutalist chickenhouse/work shed and will never come down, neither by the hand of man nor that of nature.

Had I done this by myself the bed might still be in pieces under our bed, covered with a downy layer of discarded cat fur. If it was together, it certainly wouldn't look as nice. It is a certainty that a butterknife would be employed at some point as a screwdriver. Luckily, there are no substitute tools in H's world; he either has it or it does not yet exist. In one case we had to wait for a tool to be invented.

I think it came out nice and thought I'd share it. Sorry for the length, but I wanted to show it from beginning to end. Don't worry-- the baby's in the last few. She spent nearly all of last night in it, and lay in it this morning in the living room. She's in it right now!


The dimensions had to be re-thought a bit.

H.

We used two locking casters and two free-rolling. I thought I was being fancy, but the locks haven't been useful for anything yet.

The poor hole saw was overtaxed.
H has all these great colors in powder form. We added pure yellow and then pure red to alcohol and painted it on.


We burnished it once it had dried, blending the colors. H then sprayed it with a lacquer.

Here it is, done weeks before the baby even deigns to join us!

Finally, in the living room tonight:


Good night!

* R adds: Is it me, or, in this last pic, does our darling Z has an amazing resemblance to Vinnie Jones or some other footballer yob? Awwww.