Afternoon Babysitting

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Re-racking in a Big Girl Bed

Lucy slept until 5:45 this morning, which is smack dab in the middle of the "is it time to get up?" or "should I go back to bed?" time frame. She chose to do a little of both,first joining Andrea and I in our bed for a bottle, and then deciding to catch some more zzz's.

Impromptu Photo Session

Lucy woke up like a bun out of the oven this morning, happy and cuddly. We figured it was a great time for a photo shoot to document it on film, mostly to prove that her days aren't entirely filled with crying and fussing. She slept a majority of the night last night, but still managed to get Andrea up at 4:00 to have a sip on the bottle. One of these days she will learn the wonderful bliss of getting up at 4:00, realizing you have an extra few hours to sleep until the alarm goes off, and drifting back to sleep.

Our deck project is well underway. We got the footers dug this past weekend, and then last night I ventured into a new world....pouring concrete. Not as tough as I thought skill-wise, but it put a hurting on my back that was still with me this morning. We'll do a before and after photo shoot once it is finished.

Post Chore Manhattan

Andrea and Lucy are visiting with the Hale ladies tonight, so that left me with a free night to get some things done around the house. I managed to fertilize the lawn, round up all the weeds (no small task), prepare the stakes for stringing the deck tomorrow, finish building my new time trial bike for Sunday's race, loaded the dishwasher, swapped out the laundry, and finally vacuumed the house with our new vacuum. Andrea will argue that not one of the activities listed above is a "chore", because I get pleasure out of doing each of them. I can't really argue with her, especially vacuuming the floors with the new Shark Upright that we got suckered into buying off an infomercial. We are not proud of ourselves for falling victim to a skilled TV pitchman, especially since it is the second time it has happened, but this new vacuum was worth every penny.

Back to the above mentioned Manhattan....

Friday Afternoon Babysitting

Our nanny leaves at 4:15 a few days a week, and today I had babysitting duty until Linden's mom got off work. Andrea insists that it is not called "babysitting" when it is your own child, but I think watching Lucy while her friend is over puts it into babysitting territory. I had this same situation about a month ago, where both babies decided to throw tantrums at the same time. They may be young, but I have a feeling that they planned that episode ahead of time to test my parenting skills and see if I had what it took to watch them. Needless to say, I surpassed their expectations and easily won their trust and respect. This time around things couldn't have been more different. The girls knew the "Father of the Year" was watching them, and decided there was no need to test me again. Instead, the three of us (and Willy) enjoyed a beautiful cry-free, dirty diaper-free, tantrum-free,
and overall incident-free afternoon together on the living room floor. We even made it through a full playing of Peter and the Wolf without anyone getting frightened. I used to be scared by the French Horns that signify the wolf, but these girls are much more advanced than I was as a child. They didn't even flinch.

At the helmet doctor

We went in yesterday to get the first fitting done on the helmet. Lucy enjoyed the 10 minutes of helmet free bliss as the doctor made a few minor adjustments. She is generally happy while there, but as you can see, holds onto a small amount of skepticism while she is there.

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Blog Spotlight - Aunt Susie

In honor of our first reported reader of the recently resurrected Baldwin Family blog, we want to do a short spotlight feature on the infamous Aunt Susie. The photo below was from Aunt Susie's first visit to see Lucy a few weeks after she was born. If you look closely, you can see that even from this early point in Lucy's life, Aunt Susie is more than happy to impart great wisdom and share the secrets to a happy and fulfilling life.

Not to be labeled purely an intellectual, Aunt Susie is also willing to help out with more mundane tasks. Below she is helping Grandma check little Lucy for an unfortunate and untimely containment issue. From the looks of it, everything appears to be clear.

Geographical challenges are no match for Aunt Susie, and despite one of 2011's "Storms of the Century", she made it from NYC to Chicago to see her niece. While in the Windy City, Aunt Susie helped escort Lucy on her first Bloomingdale's shopping trip and her first evening out in Greek Town.

The greatest gift that Aunt Susie has given Lucy so far, however, was letting her borrow some of those gorgeous copper locks. From the looks of it, though, our dream of a red headed baby seems to be fading. Andrea didn't grow hair until she was 4 years old, though, so we are still holding out hope!

Another Crown Shot

Best Friends?

Best friends?? I think so, but who knows. They could actually really dislike each other and we would have no idea until they can start talking in a few years.

I am kicking off this blog again....but this time I really mean it! I figure it will be a good place for Grandparents (and Granddude) to look at some pictures and also a way for us to look back in a few years to see how small Lucy was.

This is also the first formal picture of Lucy's pink crown. Under no circumstances will it be called a helmet or an orthotic device. She wears it because she is a princess.