Happy New Year

Melissa and I have a hard time imagining how 2008 could possibly be better than 2007. 2007, for obvious reasons, was about as good as we expect it can get. So we'll hope that 2008 is half so good as 2007 was to us. And we'll wish all the best to everyone who cares enough to check in here to see how our little Bean is doing.
Happy New Year.

First Lunch

Big weekend for Sylvie. She had her first restaurant lunch yesterday. Not coincidentally, this coincided with her parents' first restaurant lunch as parents. Syl performed like a seasoned restaurateur: she enjoyed her entree, then promptly dropped off to sleep (and let her folks enjoy their meals). She also managed to garner multiple compliments from wait staff and co-diners alike.

Sylvie, conversationalist

Probably wishful thinking, I know... but watch this and then tell me she's not trying to respond to us...

Playing and Learning

It's amazing the things I find myself bursting with pride about.  Sylvie got a bunch of new dangly toys for Christmas.  The idea is to suspend them above her to get her learning both to focus and to use her little hands.  In this video you can see her really getting the idea for the first time.  You can probably hear it in my voice: I felt like she'd just won a Rhodes Scholarship or something.

New Record

Sylvie is getting REALLY good at the whole holding her head up thing.  She's started pushing like she's trying to roll over.  According to the books that ought to be her next step...

Christmas video

We relied mostly on the still camera to chronicle Sylvie's first Christmas, but here's just a little bit of video from the big day.

Christmas Photos

OK, I finally got to editing the hundreds of photos I took on Christmas, and they are now posted in the photo column.  

As you can see, we spent a lot of time with our wonderful friends the Phifers and the O'Learys, who so kindly included us in their Christmas dinner.  Other than that, we spent most of the day in the family room, opening presents, enjoying each others' company, and generally making a big old mess!  Sylvie obviously didn't know what was going on, but she was interested enough in the variation from the ordinary routine to stay wide awake almost all day long.  

We missed our family, but had a nice first Christmas with our daughter.  We're looking forward to extending the season over the course of the next month, as Sylvie takes us "on tour" to Ohio and Florida!

Don't forget to vote!

Otherwise, how will poor Sylvie ever know who she truly is? The poll is in the right-hand column. If you need to study up, see the post "Who are you?" from earlier this week. Right now "Best of Both" is running neck and neck with "Her own woman," but turnout has been very light.

Playtime

...and to all, a Good Night

Sylvie had a very nice first Christmas, spent first with her mom and dad, and then this evening with our wonderful and generous friends the O'Learys, who kindly shared their Christmas dinner with us.  She missed her grandparents and her aunts and uncles, and looks forward to seeing everyone in the next month, as she makes her first visits to Ohio and Florida!  I forgot the camera at the O'Learys' house, so photos will have to wait until at least tomorrow night.  

Now off to bed.  Perhaps without even knowing why, Sylvie was excited about Christmas - she barely slept at all today!

Merry Christmas everyone.

Who Are You?

So... who does Sylvie look like?  Personally, I think she looks like her mom, which is lucky for her.  This is especially true after I spent an hour plus staring at their faces to make this comparison...  

Blogopalooza

Sylvie and Dad have spent an inordinate amount of time at the computer this morning to bring you the cornucopia of video and photo posts below.  Scroll down to the post with a big photo of Sylvie smiling and work your way up!

This Morning

Workout

All of this tummy time is really paying off.  Syl barely needs any head support at all any more, and most of the time she's turning her head back and forth so much (to look around) that she looks like she's watching a tennis match!

Interview - Christmas Weekend Edition

Bath Time!

Gotcha!

I've been trying for two weeks to catch one of Sylvie's big smiles on camera, and I finally got it last night!  Also got some great ones of her hanging out with her pal Frosty.

Sylvie had her first social engagement last night - a Christmas party. She was, of course, the model guest (although she made us pay for it by screaming blue murder all the way home.  This girl does NOT like her car seat AT ALL.

I of course got a lot more photos of Sylvie in her Christmas party finest.  Click "Sylvie's First Christmas" in the photo column.

No frowns

No fear of spooked penguins in the Haley household. Now that she's found her smile, Sylvie is in danger of wearing it out.*
But for when she's "starving to death" and therefore fussing for food, Sylvie is pretty much demonstrably happy all of the time. To our amazement, this includes when we wake her out of a deep sleep, as we did twice yesterday to try and keep our streak of full nights sleep running. Lifted out of her slumber and subjected to such irritations as tickles under the chin and on the feet, diaper changes and raspberries blown by dad on her tummy, she could be expected to wake in a foul mood. But not our Sylvie. After a few moments of foggy grunting, yawning and stretching, she can be counted upon to focus in on her tormentor and... break out in the sweetest little smile. It almost makes her dad want to wake her up for no reason at all.
As we captured (somewhat) in yesterday's video - below if you have not seen it - she treats us to the same mood on initial waking in the morning, even though after a long night of uninterrupted sleep she is usually both soiled and very hungry. Sure, she pretty quickly lets us know she'd like breakfast, but the fact remains: her first act upon seeing us is to smile.

(*For those of you wondering if we recognize the potential karmic implications of all this blog-bragging, we do. We fully realize that with each word I type in this vein, we invite the heavens to visit us with a all manner of equalizing bad fortune. But we can't help it!)

Personality

In my continuing quest to bring you Sylvie's true, effervescent personality, I offer you yet another video of her on the changing table.  For some reason that's where she really shines these days.  This is from this morning, first thing after 8 hours straight of quality sleep for all three of us.  She REALLY gets talkative at the end, and tops it off with a radiant smile at her mom.

Growing

Sylvie passed another milestone last night, graduating from size "N" diapers to size "1," mostly to accommodate her alarmingly rotund little belly! We notice every day that clothes that did not come close to fitting her only a couple of weeks ago are now almost outgrown, so it's not just the belly. And of course you can see the difference in the videos from the past month. I suppose we should not be surprised that she's growing fast, what with all the sleeping and eating she does.

Weekend Activities

Dad likes to think that Sylvie is pleased by the weekends, when he's around to spend some time with her.  Here's some video of typical Sylvie/Dad activities - a diaper change and then some exercise.  We also watched the Patriots' game together this afternoon, but as everyone knows, there's no taping allowed during the Patriots' games.

Getting in the spirit

Melissa has gone all out decorating the house for Sylvie's first Christmas, and now it seems it's close enough for the Yuletide-themed baby clothes to start making their appearance.  Unfortunately, Sylvie really doesn't like her Santa hat!

Snow

Looks like this weekend will be a good time to get Sylvie into her snowsuit for the first time, which should make for some good photos! People in MA are weird. First significant snow of the season - between 6 to 12 inches, depending on where one was. Significant, but hardly epic. But this small amount of snow resulted in Sylvie's dad sitting on the Mass Pike for 3.5 hours yesterday evening, going under 5 MPH all the way home. He watched people act like they were fleeing for their lives, cutting each other off (at 2 MPH, which is just silly), rear-ending each other, even abandoning their cars in the center lane. In the CENTER LANE!! Who does that?

Few New Photos

More by clicking "Five Weeks Old" in the photo column to the right...

Talking

Sylvia continues to progress. She spends a lot of time "talking" now - just chattering away. And, as I think you can see in this video, she's way ahead of the curve in terms of "finding her hands." She routinely puts them in her mouth, and has even started using them to guide other things - like Mom and Dad's fingers - to her mouth as well. The books say she shouldn't be doing that for weeks!

Happiest Baby On the Block (at least!)

In two hours Sylvie will be 5 weeks old. Pondering those 5 weeks, I really cannot believe how lucky we are in having this little girl. Obviously the health thing is first and foremost, and in that too we have been most fortunate: Sylvie's worst "health" issue has been the occasional stubborn booger and a bit of stuffiness at night (only occasionally). In addition to that, though, the following things are true:
1) She's had one bad night in her whole life. One. That was her third night on earth, when we were still in the hospital and therefore still had a bunch of wonderful nurses around to help us cope.
2) She has never - not once - gotten inconsolably upset. In other words, we haven't had a "can't make her stop crying" incident. A corollary to this is that she's never thrown a tantrum without an easily-discovered cause: a diaper, hunger, gas or just the simple desire to get out of her swing/chair/bassinet and be held.
3) She sleeps through the night more often than not. All the way through. As in 7 or 8 hours.
4) When she's awake, she's a joy - looking around at everything, smiling, even now laughing occasionally and chattering away to herself incessantly.

As the one who has to satisfy her insatiable hunger, especially in the evening hours, Melissa might add a qualifier to this glowing "report card," but I kind of doubt it. We're incredibly lucky to have this kid. As I keep saying, I hope she doesn't make us pay for this when she's a teenager.

Sylvie loves the tree

Big Tree

I told Melissa this morning that I thought this year maybe we'd get a reasonably-sized tree, with all that's going on and everything.  Then I saw this puppy in the front row on the tree lot, and I realized that Sylvie's first Christmas is no time to get tree-lazy.  Sylvie is already transfixed whenever we turn on the lights.  And she's taken quite a liking to Christmas music - like her Mom, John Denver and the Muppets really do it for her.

More Company!

Sylvie continues to receive a steady stream of visitors.  Last night, Uncles Ben and Pat and Aunt Lia came by and brought us pizza.  Very nice of them!!  Sylvie said, "Thanks, but I think I'll have... milk."  

Then today, Matt, Michelle and Samantha LeBretton came for lunch.  Sylvie's mom made delicious homemade focaccia, chicken and mozzarella sandwiches.  Sylvie said, "Mmmm... smells great!  But I'll have... milk."  

I've put photos of all of our weekend visitors up in the "one month old" gallery, here.  There are some REALLY good ones of Samantha LeBretton.

Those of you inclined to follow links from the main page may already know all about Samantha, through her blog.  She's really a miracle baby.  Born with a hole in her heart, she had a really tough - and scary - first few months of life.  But she overcame a whole lot of odds and is now the beautiful, happy, unbelievably smiley little 6-month-old who visited us today. 

Tomorrow Sylvie is going to help mom and dad decorate her first Christmas tree!!  She'll celebrate with some... milk.

A few new photos

Dad subjected Syl to a little post-interview photo session.  Here are my 3 favorites.  All of them here.

Interview Number 2

Boy, was the Interview With the Baby segment ever popular.  There's a certain pair of Grandmothers out there in particular who I know are multiple-time viewers.  Having resolved my computer problems (with a new computer!!), I bring you installment number 2.  Sylvie, I am finding, only has the patience for very brief interviews...

Greeting the day

I am having some major computer issues at home this week that I hope to resolve tomorrow. So I have not been able to upload my usual volume of photos or any video - sorry! This poor-quality shot from my Blackberry is the best I can do for now. It was snapped at 5:30am as Sylvie (who slept straight through from 10:30 last night) recovered from a particularly traumatic diaper change. She's taken to peeing during the first change of the day, and we're not yet skilled enough to catch it before a full clothing change becomes necessary. With time...
Assuming I get the computer working, I'll put up some more video and photos over the weekend.
In other news, Sylvie had her first out on the town yesterday, courtesy of her mom. Melissa's plan was just to run out quickly to Fiske's, the local general store (yes - we have one of those, for real) to get some ribbon and break up the day. Although at first Melissa was nervous about taking Sylvie out of the house (given her absolute *hatred* of the car seat and, in truth, any type of restraint whatsoever), once they were underway they both settled in and the trip expanded to include visits to Restoration Hardware, Linens & Things, and even Whole Foods!! Yes, at barely a month old Sylvie is already a shopper. According to Melissa, Syl screamed blue murder for the first 5 minutes or so, then apparently decided shopping is a good time for napping and was a perfect little bundle for the rest of the excursion.
The kid really does hate being restrained though. It was interesting. For the first three days of her life she *loved* being swaddled - the tighter the better. Then, literally overnight she decided she hates to have her arms confined. She's always waving them around, touching her face, grabbing things... she sleeps with them splayed out to both sides, and wakes up the instant we try to bundle them up. She even screams when her clumsy dad gets her dressed in the morning, often catching her arms up in her sleeves. Diaper change - no problem. Naked in the bath - no problem. But the second one of her arms is tied up in a sleeve, look out. Problem. So thus far she hasn't gone in for the whole "babies love the car" thing, because in this nanny state of ours, car = car seat = restraint = Sylvie no likey.

We're going to have a smiley talker

I've gotten a LOT of good feedback on the interview video, so I will try to make that a semi-regular feature. I know those of you who met Sylvie over the past couple of weeks can already see how much she's changing day-to-day, both physically and in terms of how she's responding to and even interacting with people. It really amazes me - every night when I get home from work, there's a little bit more of a "real person" there waiting for me. She's definitely smiling now - no question of it being just gas. While it still isn't a full-fledged smile of long duration (and for that reason I've thus far been unsuccessful at capturing it on film, but for the side-view smile at Allison last weekend), it's definitely a smile. She draws in a quick breath, her eyes widen, and she opens her mouth and smiles for just an instant when she's pleased. That was how she greeted me at 4am this morning when she woke up for a diaper change and a feed and I bent over the bassinet to gather her up. Made me not mind the hour one bit (particularly since she'd slept soundly since 10pm).
Also, she's "talking" a whole lot now. Sitting in her bouncy chair or her swing or one of our laps, she just jabbers away like a little bird. This is very different from fussing and is very cute. Her hands are constantly moving about in front of her face, and while I realize it may be (probably is) accidental, twice now she's used her right hand to shove a drooping binky back into her mouth.
Finally, lest I forget, she continues to be an excellent and prolific pooper.

Landslide

Although turnout was light, with only 10 voters casting ballots, the outcome was decisive: by a (literal) 9 to 1 ratio, Sylvie's fans prefer the new Sylvie's Place to the old Bean Blog. Here we will stay. Apologies to the one voter who preferred the old page. Sylvie has a sneaking suspicion that the dissenter might have a conflict of interest related to her employer...

Interview With the Baby

More Visitors

Sylvie's fourth weekend on earth was much like her first three - a lot of sleep (often on Mom) and a lot of new friends. This weekend Allison, Jeff and Alex Liggett came to meet Sylvie, and the O'Learys (minus Brendan) came by to join us for Thai. Sylvie had milk, as Thai is still a little spicy for her. Alex reminded us of how quickly Sylvie is going to grow up - he's a real little boy now, where just a few months ago there was a toddler. The weekend closed on a high note, snoozing on Dad's chest while he watched football and drank a beer. Dad pretty much couldn't be happier.

Photos of the weekend by clicking here. You might notice in one or two of them that Sylvie is starting to smile. At first we thought it was gas (and perhaps it was). But now it's pretty clear that our little girl has found her smile.

Working out

Those who have met Sylvie know that almost from the get-go, she's been trying valiantly to hold up her own head.  At not even a week old she was having pretty good success for a few seconds at a time, and now she barely needs any help at all.  She's starting to really enjoy "tummy time," when she is placed on the floor or a bed or my chest on her stomach, and immediately starts trying to lift her head.  Here's some video of the exercise...  I realize that in some ways it looks kind of sadistic, but believe me - the noises she is making are *not* her "I'm upset" noises.  They're more like her "oh yeah, push it" noises, at least until the very end when they are her "enough of this, Dad" noises.  She's very articulate.

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Democracy in Action

So it's been a few days since we moved the Blog from the Apple-based Bean Blog to its new home at Sylvie's place. So far Rob is the only one who's let me know whether he approves (unsurprisingly, he does). Sylvie does not like uncertainty (she expressed her discontent by projectile pooping all over mom and me during a 5am diaper change this morning) so she asked me to conduct a poll.
Let her know what you think! Vote at the bottom of the right-hand column.

Our Little Snoozer

Another milestone last night. At just over 3-weeks old, Sylvie gave her mom and dad the gift of an uninterrupted night's sleep! She went down with us around 10:30 and wasn't too crazy about the idea, demanding that Dad rock her to sleep. Once she drifted off, though, she stayed asleep until Dad woke her up at 5:30 so he could get in a diaper change (this is what passes for "quality time") before heading off to work.
A friend's mother recently accused us of either (a) lying about Sylvie's sleep habits, or (b) drugging our daughter. To the latter, I say, "is there something wrong with that?" Seriously, we're fully cognizant of just how incredibly lucky we are in Sylvie's sleeping habits (knocking vigorously on wood now). She eats like a maniac through the evening (our nurse in the hospital said she's a "cluster eater") then she fusses for a short while until she gets off a good burp or three. Then, just like a regular human being, she's sated and good for some serious sleep time.
Funny the things that make a parent proud. "Way to sleep honey! Good poop! Did you see how she just moved her HEAD??!"

Blogging with Dad

Sylvie seems to like the new site!

Packing on the Pound!!

Sylvie had another doctor's appointment today, and it came as no surprise - particularly to Melissa, who feeds her every waking moment - that she's packing on the ounces. She's now at 7 pounds, 5 ounces, almost a full pound over her birth weight and considerably more than a pound over her weight when she came home. The doctor also confirmed more of what everyone who's met her already knows: Sylvie is a very healthy, alert and strong little girl. The word "awesome" was used, and not by her mom.
I'll put up some new video over the weekend. Those who spent time with us last week will be amazed at how much she's already changed.

Sylvie's New Home on the Web

OK, OK, OK, I quit. Much as I love the ease of blog posting from my beloved Mac, enough of you have told me that reading the blog at its old location is either painfully slow or virtually impossible to prompt me to move to what will hopefully be a more user-friendly site. And no, it's not just because that crank commenter Rob wouldn't let it go.
I have moved all of the photo links to the main page (at right), and all of the old posts will still be available at the old site if you get nostalgic. But everything new will be posted here, so re-set your bookmarks!
Please do drop a comment and let me know if this works better for you.