We moved!

We have started a new family blog over at wordpress.com. I should have posted this at the time, but it slipped my mind. Anyway, you can get to the new website by clicking here. I'll leave this blog up as a record of Rayna's first few months.

The Times They Are A-Changing...

...as the man said.

Rayna celebrated her six-month birthday last week on the 6th. She is changing at a faster pace and is truly a joy to watch. You may recall a few months back, I reported that she was rolling over from her belly to her back. She is able to go the other way now and happily rolls from her back to her belly and back again. She is fairly content now to lay on the floor and play with her toys while we do our own thing a few feet away. She occasionally throws things far enough away that she cannot get them back again and that produces some cries. Other than that, she seems happy rolling around on the floor. It's going to be time to start child-proofing the house pretty soon.

She's eating solid food three times a day now with formula mostly late at night. So far, she's eaten everything we've put in front of her but I don't think she likes the green beans so much. She eats them but not as enthusiastically. The beef and vegetable mix is a special favorite and she eats it with gusto. She is taking fruit juice (pear and apple) in her bottle mixed with water. She likes it but has to pause periodically to shake her head. It's really cute. I don't know if it's the sweetness but she is obviously still getting used to it. We just weighed her the other day and she came in at exactly 15 lbs.

While she still squeals and squeaks a lot, she is increasingly making more coherent sounds. Mostly, it sounds like "ba ba ba ba", but occasionally I could swear she was saying "da da". :-) Her other new trick is stick her tongue out. She started doing that a week or so ago. She'll sit there with her tongue hanging out for the longest time. Shades of Gene Simmons...

What a Mother's Day!

Rayna was christened at St. John's Lutheran Church in Kasson on Sunday. It was a wonderful service and Rayna was as good as gold through the whole thing. Family and friends were there in abundance: Nicole's folks and her family were all there as was my Mom and her friend Wayne. Nicole's sister Mary stood as Godmother and my very good friend Andrew came up with his wife Jacque to stand as Godfather. After the service, we all retired to Jimmy's for an afternoon of good food and fellowship. It was a great weekend! There are a few pictures on our Flickr page and we'll add more from everyone else's cameras as we get them.

I want to thank everyone who came up, sent us gifts, thought about us, and otherwise made this an extra-special Mother's Day. You all are great!

More pictures!

We got more pics up on our Flickr page!

New Pics!

Not much to post tonight, but there are new pictures over on our photo page. Check 'em out!

A couple of firsts!

This is Donovan, broadcasting from Washington DC. I'm here for the annual Computers in Libraries conference, which starts tomorrow. Three days of really nifty people talking about anything and everything relating to technology use in libraries. Lots of vendors trying to sell us expensive stuff, too. Anyway, this is the first chance I've had in the last week or two to sit down, catch my breath, and post something here. I had to fly halfway across the country to find a calm moment. Ironic, huh? Anyway, Rayna has had a couple of firsts in recent days. Last week, we went to daycare for the first time. This was a big step for her and probably a bigger one for her parents. It had gotten to the point that Nicole just couldn't take her to the office anymore; she needed more attention than Mommy could give her while still getting something accomplished. So, we've begun taking her to Kid's Planet Daycare. It's a pretty cool place. They have one other infant about the same age as Rayna and 6 or 8 kids who are a little older. There is someone who deals just with the two infants, but they don't keep them seperated all the time and it's fun to see the older kids (3 or 4 years old) interacting with the babies. They all seem to have a good time and I'm sure it's good for all of them, including Rayna. Each day we get a written report of the day's activities including a run-down of feedings and diaper changes. Once Rayna gets a little older, it will include details of books read, games played, projects done, etc. Nicole and I really like it. It's close to where we live and I knew Liz, who runs the show, and her husband Al already. So we know that Rayna is among friends. The other big Rayna news is that she rolled over for the first time a few days ago. It happened in the middle of the night. I had gotten up to feed and change her (Nicole and I take turns getting up and it was my turn). I put her down on her belly in the crib and turned away to throw the dirty diaper away. When I looked back at Rayna, she was laying on her back with a "What just happened?" look on her face. I picked her up and put her back on her belly; she immediately rolled over again! After three rolls, she didn't want to do it again and she hasn't done it since. But I know it happened because I saw it with my (sleep-blurred) eyes and I'm sticking to my story. Well, that's it for now. I'm supposed to meet some people for dinner soon so I gotta run. No new pictures yet, but when I get home we'll see if we can snap a few. Many thanks for all who are thinking about us.

Three months!

Yesterday, 03-06-2006, was Rayna's 3 month birthday! We didn't do much to celebrate but had a good time playing on the floor. Her favorite playtime activity is to lay on her back while Mom and Dad pull on her legs and bend them back against her tummy. Making funny faces and odd noises just makes the game even more fun. She's making a lot of vowel sounds and smiling a lot; we have a good time.

It's All About Timing: Last weekend, I was holding Rayna so her head was on my shoulder facing backwards. We were walking around, fussing a little for no apparent reason, when she made the most incredible burp and spit up all over my shirt. Well, when you're a daddy you have to put up with such and I calmly went and changed shirts. No sooner had I picked her up again when (you guessed it) she spit up again, worse than before. There's no moral to this story, just a reminder to keep your priorities straight. The shirts can be cleaned and Rayna felt much better after unloading whatever was making her tummy hurt.