Cry Baby

Life as a baby may not be the ever overflowing bowl of cherries one assumes. There are bouts of frustration brought on by tiredness and nagging hunger, painful diaper rash and even when all the baby's needs are met, still more reasons to fuss.

Film Star

After taking an exhaustive amount of photographs over the last 6 weeks of Lou's life and becoming repeatedly confounded by our video camera we decided to amp up our media making arsenal with an ultra cheapo Flip camera. It may look a bit rugged but it does the trick. For those of you who have yet to meet Lou, here she is at 6 weeks old doing baby like things. In real life she is far less grainy looking, I promise.

Life in the chair

Everything seems huge when you're just a little pup. Though Lou is getting bigger everyday she's still a little peanut compared to her mom's rocker.

Splish Splash

Certain diaper related events this morning warranted an emergency bath. Here Lou is post bath looking clean, happy and very relieved.

It sure is hard work being a baby, all that round the clock eating and sleeping can really wear a girl (and a mommy and a daddy) out, so we're heading to the woods for some well deserved rest and relaxation. Have a good weekend everybody.

Cute Dad of the Year

A man of the for the new millennium!

SMILES!

While entertaining Louise as she lay on the changing table, she flashed me a bona fide smile, possibly her first that had nothing to do with the reflexive grins that occur during sleep or the expulsion of gas. In between my "boo-ga-woogies" and "I lovey-dovey yooo" in a high sing-songy voice her face lit up, her eyes shined and she flashed that gummy smile. It was a very beautiful thing and as you can tell by the photos I did a terrible job of documenting the moment. I do think that you can still tell that we have a very happy baby.

Family Portrait

Thanks to Danny who realized that of all the millions of photos snapped of our little girl: with one parent, with other relatives, all alone, we somehow missed the big picture. There seems to be a glaring lack of pictures showing all of us together. Here's the debut of our first little family portrait taken on Danny's iPhone at his very warm housewarming on Saturday night. Since this blog is a virtual baby book for Lou we'll be sure to include more pics of our whole family.

One Big Happy Family

On Wednesday Louise's Auntie Em, cousin Lila and Grandma Marlene came to Brooklyn for a second visit with their favorite Brooklynite. Yes, Scott and I are no longer anybody's favorite Brooklynite. Also, Aunt Rebecca dropped in on Saturday while she was in the city visiting friends.

Who's that sitting in my chair?

This week two of Louise's best baby buddies came over and tried out her checkered arm chair. Caroline (aka Cairo), that little rogue, gave the seat a try but quickly turned her attention to a vibrating bouncy seat. On the other hand Lou's older cousin Lila (looking smug in her teal fleece), saw the chair, hopped right in and refused to leave. Louise was none too pleased and felt she was being taken for a runt. Could there be a turf battle of the babies next time Ms. McSorley rolls into town? Time will tell.

Her Highness

After much popular demand to post these pictures on the blog, drumroll please... I proudly announce Queen Louise I perched delicately on her royal throne. This sweet gift came from our aunt Esta and uncle Bobby. Did they know they were giving us such a great posing prop? I suspect we'll be having fun for years with this one.

Alas, I must run, her majesty is ringing her little bell!

Next up: What happens when another baby sits in Lou's chair?

Lou's Got a Case of the Mondays

Which basically means she's been a bit more fussy than usual. Of course you wouldn't be able to tell from these pics. Cute.

The forest for the trees

Over the weekend the New York Stedmans fled the city with baby and dog and settled in for a cozy fireside campout in Great Barrington. On Sunday we walked the Benedict Pond loop which was actually too icy to navigate with our papoose enclosed baby so we stuck to the road, which too was beautiful and sunny. Scott is wearing Louise- very macho!

Yes, that's Danny's normally ropey-haired dog Theo, who had a very close shearing last week.

3 Weeks

I've Got Sunshine

On the eve of Louise's 3 week birthday, a little basking in the glow of a sunny window...