You know she's really asleep when...

Ellaiden has shown a tendency toward sleeping with her arms flung up, like she's riding a roller coaster in her dreams. When her arms go up, you know she's in deep sleep. Such a cute little girl. We like her quite a bit...

Lord, Why?

Lord, why did you give me THESE parents. I know they aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, but how hard is it to figure out that I have a pond in my britches and I would like some dry land?

The Big Pizza and Baby Meets Baby

Some friends from our church brought us dinner last night. They had told us the night before that they were ordering pizza for us. Little did we know that by "pizza" they meant "the largest box of pizza imaginable". So around 5:30 in the evening two guys came to our door with pizza in hand. Here's the box they brought.
Indeed, it is the "largest box of pizza imaginable," filled with equally large slices of pizza. Good pizza, good friends.

Later on some other friends came over with their own new baby, Eli, who is one day older than Ellaiden. While Ellaiden has reached 6lbs 11oz, Eli, already born big, has gotten bigger, 10lbs 3oz now. Here they are together for the first time.

Crooked Toes

I was sitting out on the patio the other morning and my mom stated that Ellaiden had crooked toes. My thoughts on that went something like this....

Crooked toes? Really? Wonder where those came from? Hey, I have crooked toes! How come I never knew I had crooked toes? My daughter does have something from me! Of course if I could choose something of mine to give her, I don't know that it would have been crooked toes that I didn't even know that I had. Well, I guess you DO learn something new every day!

First Bath

Here is E's first bath. She loved the water. Not a surprise with her mom's aquatic background. She is planning on her first swimming competition when she is 3!


Thanks Mimi for doing the honors!

Ellaiden's new kicks

Check out Ellaiden's new kicks, compliments of my (Chris') mom. They've got a quiet little jingle when they shake.

Mohawk and Bunny Ears

Well, while I was at work this past Monday, Jenny and my mom had a little fun with Ellaiden. My mom is responsible for the mohawk, which I think makes Ellaiden even more aerodynamic than she already was. It's sort of like a perpendicular spoiler for her head.


Their intent, in my opinion, with the bunny ears, was to raise Ellaiden's height so she could ride the rides at the local beside-the-highway carnival. Alas, Ellaiden didn't care for the ears and she soon returned to her normal newborn height.

Grand help we've had

Well, we've had both grandma's here now. My mom was here for the first week and Jenny's mom got here Tuesday and will be with us a couple of weeks. Their help is much appreciated. Their moment to shine with the E-factor.

This my (Chris') mom, Jan. This was one of the few times Ellaiden cried with my mom around.

Here is Jenny's mom, Peggy. Peggy babysat tonight so Jenny and I could go out on a date. Thanks grand-moms!

John 20:19-23

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forigve them, they are not forgiven."

Little pink ninja

There is now no such thing as multiple hours of consecutive sleep. When it happens (and it does more for me than Jenny), sleep occurs only incrementally now. On other hand, when we're awake (even if it's 4am) we get to hang out with our little girl, even if she's proudly showing us what intestinally processed breast milk looks like.

Two things:
(1) She knows how to strike a pose. This causes our hearts to melt and we don't mind changing her.


(2) Ellaiden was born with an innate knowledge of martial arts. This makes us feel safe and incites fear in the hearts of any potential evil-doers.

All hail, the Burrito Queen

Thoughts and things I have learned on being a new mom as well as living in Texas…

Instead of getting a chicken pie (yummy, yummy typical North Carolina fare) for our coming home meal, from friends we received “King Ranch Chicken” with Rotel, peppers, and chili powder. Yummy, yummy!

My child will only go number two’s in freshly-changed diapers. She has consistently waited until AFTER I am done changing her to a new nappy to finish what she started. This is even after I have waited to make sure she was done.

Preemie diapers hold everything in. At this point newborn diapers do not!

Ellaiden HATES having her diaper changed. She screams bloody murder every time. When changing is over, she's back to normal.

Because swaddling her makes Ellaiden look liked a well-wrapped burrito, I actually use “Burrito Queen” as a term of endearment.

A blanket, subsequently, has become a “tortilla.”

I refer to grandparents as “The Original Burrito Makers.”

When I am woken up in the middle of the night by an “uncouth noise,” instead of knowing it is my husband, I ask myself: “Was that my husband, was that me or was that my daughter?”

And lastly, I can pick up my ringing cell-phone with my toes while breast-feeding.

More pics

For those so interested, I just uploaded nine more pictures to Ellaiden's flickr photo album. Click to the left, on the collection of pics, to get to the album.

We're home from the hospital now. Jenny is asleep in bed, my mom is out buying premi-diapers for Ellaiden, who while not pre-mature, is a small'un. I'm doing my best to update all you folks out there who're begging for more pictures. I'm posting them after fast as we're taking them. Right now, Ellaiden is cooing away like a dove in her bassinet, coming ever so slightly out of a good long sleep, after which she will feed like a ravenous animal. I don't want to go back to work.

11:02 am, April 11th, 2006

Ellaiden Page, welcome to the world. We've been waiting and are very glad to meet you. Here, at this site, we'll show you off proper.

More to come soon...