Thanksgiving

As I sit here watching Lydia sleep beside me, I can't help but be very thankful for the little life that Elizabeth and I have been graced with. It is now hard to imagine our lives without Lydia -- but at the same time it is still quite surreal that we have a daughter. This Thanksgiving brings many things to be thankful for. Our immediate and extended families continue to be the thing that we are most thankful for.





Two weekends ago we were blessed to have a our families join us to celebrate Lydia's baptism. It was a very special day made even more special with her Aunt Sara performing the baptism and much of our family present to celebrate with us. The service was truly a time of celebration for us as a family -- celebrate God's wonderous love that we have been shown through Lydia's life.



Over Thanksgiving weekend we welcomed a new little one to the family! Our newest niece Alyssa was born on the day before Thanksgiving. We already had set plans to travel to Minnesota to see the expectant parents, Steve and Mary, and big sister, Maria - so it worked out nicely to be able to see Alyssa on the day after her birth, There is nothing like a newborn baby to put in perspective how much Lydia has changed and grown over the past 10 weeks! I think both Elizabeth and I were not able to believe that Lydia had actually changed as much as was apparent when Lydia was compared to newborn Alyssa. Alyssa was as light as a feather and Lydia now seems a little bit heavier than we previously perceived. Even the most uncoordinated movements of Lydia's now look quite advanced compared to a two-day old's. It will be fun to see Alyssa again at Christmas time to see how she makes these same fast progressions in her livelihood and appearance.

It was also enjoyable to have some good quality time with my family and to have cousins Maria and Lydia "interact" over a few days. Maria very much liked playing with the baby things of Lydia's and even tried to fit into Lydia's hat! It will exciting to see how Maria develops as a big sister to the newest one in our family.

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us we march forward into the Advent Season and toward Christmas. It will be a joy to help Lydia experience this time of year with Family and Friends. I think most of all we are looking forward to traveling to our family gatherings and getting to introduce Lydia to many more family members. Lydia is undoubtedly our pride and joy and we love to show her off to anybody that we know.

I hope that this time of Christmas preperation brings a renewed sense of joy and purpose to our family as well as many others around the world.

Oh So Many Things to Mention...

It has been a few weeks since my last post -- needless to say life has been quite busy and the weeks have flown by. Work is beyond busy, which makes coming home and seeing Lydia and Lib all that much more rewarding.

There are many exciting things that have happened since my last post, let me see if I can hit on some of the highlights.

1) First Snow -- October 26th -- Having heard that there was a chance of snow overnight, the moment I woke up on Sunday I checked outside our bedroom window. Seeing the snow coming down, I rushed to the nursery where Elizabeth and Lydia were and said "I have something to show you, Lydia!" I opened the shade to the window and held Lydia toward the window so that she could see the snow coming down and landing on the garage roof below her window. I am not sure that she could actually see the snow flakes, but she did stare out the window for a while which made me feel excited to share this with her. This undoubtedly will be her first of many 'snow-days' to come.

2) Halloween Activities -- One of Elizabeth's professors has started the tradition of having a halloween party for all of the Psychology Department Faculty and Grad Students. Every year there is a "theme" by which you are to dress up - this year was "Favorite Movie Monster" We decided to go as "kid friendly" monsters and dress as the characters from Disney's Monster's Inc. Elizabeth did a great job of creating a costume for Lydia to play the part of the little girl "Boo".

For Halloween night Lydia had another great costume that was given to her from Grandma Lee -- the little Pumpkin costume was perfect -- after all Lydia is our "little pumpkin."

3) First "real" smile - Laying on her changing table, Lydia gave us her first 'official' smile! We had hints of smirks prior to this, but this was the first one that both of us were like "that is a smile for sure!" It will be fun to see her smile at us more and more. Hopefully we will catch one on camera soon!!

4) First election -- we had a election day and night full of activities for Lydia to "participate" in -- she came with us to vote in the morning and then spent the evening with us watching the returns at two different election parties. Although she won't remember it, I am glad that Lydia was able to be a part of the historic day.

5) First Day at Daycare - Lydia went to daycare for the first time last Thursday -- Mommy started back meeting with her advisor Wendy, and so Lydia got to go to daycare. Lydia was awake for most of the time that she was there and the staff said that she was the "bell of the ball" So far the daycare center at NDSU has been impressive.

Pictures below will also capture some of the other happenings from the past 3 weeks -- note that there are two slide shows below (one for week 7 and one for weeks 5 and 6).

WEEK 7

WEEKS 5 & 6

Support and Generosity

Has it already been over a month since Lydia was born?! She of course has changed and grown so much over the past month. Being born at 7lb 6 oz, she is now over 9 pounds and starting to outgrow some of her newborn clothes. She is definitely becoming more aware of the world around her. The other night I was able to catch her attention with a toy and even get her to follow it with her eyes for a while when I moved it back and forth in front of her. Her sleep patterns are fluxuating, with her waking up more in the middle of the night than she used to. One thing is certain, it is a conflict of interest to have Lydia staring up at you with her wide awake but content eyes at 2 am when you are tired and want to go back to bed. Overall things are still going well, and I know personally that I am not pulling my fair share. Elizabeth has shown herself to be a wonderful mother to Lydia - she is absolutely giving of herself and does so with great pride and joy. I cannot thank her enough for the wonderful love and support that she is giving to Lydia and myself.

Over the past month we have continually been showered with many wonderful gifts from many people that certainly have helped us greatly. I know that even as all of us think about where the economy is going to go next, we have all these persons giving to us so abundantly! In addition to the gifts, we have also had wonderful friends and family come and cook meals for us and offer to help out with whatever we may need help with. If anybody loves to rake leaves, do I have just the yard for you! :)

More important than the gifts is knowing that Lydia has such wonderful friends and family that already love and support her. These friends and family will be there to help Lydia develop, grow, and discover the world.

We look forward to getting to introduce her to everyone who has yet to meet her!

First Time for Everything

It is a lot of fun helping Lydia experience many of her "firsts." Let's see, in the past week she has experienced her first doctor's appointment, first restaurant, and even her first trip to Target. Last Sunday she went to her first church service where she was the absolute center of attention! Yesterday she went on her first shopping trip with Mommy (and did just great!)

I got on this path of thinking while Elizabeth and I were talking about the many things that she is learning and will only know through experience. It is amazing the many instincts that she knows, but there is so so much that she has to learn - and I am sure she is learning every moment.

I actually get pretty excited thinking of all the things that she has yet to experience and that I get to help in the process. I will most likely get to be there when she gets to feel grass for the first time or the first time that snow falls on her face (hopefully not too soon!). We will get to push her on her first swing and be with her on her first plane trip. Oh, I could go on and on, but I will stop because I don't think I am ready to start thinking about first trips to school or first bike rides! No, I will just try to savor ever small moment and hope that time won't pass by too quickly (which it will, of course).

Other exiting things that happened this week:

• Uncle Mike, Uncle Steve, Aunt Mary, and Cousin Maria came to meet Lydia for the first time.
• Grandma and Grandpa came to visit for a few hours on their way to New York Mills
• Daddy went back to work this week
• I accidentally flipped over to my stomach !

Two Weeks

It is hardly believable that two weeks have passed since Lydia's birth. But, then again, it is amazing how much we have done, learned, and witnessed over those same two weeks. I would have figured that it would be months before I would look the part of a parenting veteran - but now I can already see that both Elizabeth and I have quickly found our comfort zone in regards to caring for Lydia. Passing her off to one another or somebody is no longer done with full fear of "breaking" the baby. Instead we are now more relaxed and are really starting to have fun with our daughter.

I have to say, that this transition would have been many many times more difficult if we would not have had the wonderful help of Elizabeth's parents throughout these two weeks. I am not sure how we would have done it without Jack and Cynthia there to help around the house and be an extra set of arms that were more than willing to hold Lydia while Elizabeth and I rested or took care of other things. When Cynthia left on Friday, there was a moment of panick for both Elizabeth and I as we realized that we were "on our own" to take care of Lydia (and ourselves).

Well, Over 24-hours have passed, and I think that we will make it work. Lydia and I even had our first experience figuring out getting her fed and changed in a public place while mommy was on campus for class. I now know that College men's restrooms are not the ideal place to change a baby! No matter what happens in the next weeks and months, it is comforting to know that we have great support available from both sets of our parents and they are only a phone call away.

Here are this weeks pictures (note that some have been added since they were first posted).

Thanks to Cynthia/Nana for all her great photography! We will never be able to thank her enough for all the great memories that were captured during her visit. We will be doing our best to continue the great pictures coming!

Expectations

Leading up to Lydia's birth, there were many thoughts and planning that went into the time that would come right after our child was born. We started building expectations regarding how we would be able to transition from being two to being three: How much time off of work would be sufficient?; what would be like at home with a newborn? All of these expectations are of course without much merit, but simply based on what the "typical" new parent experience is thought to be.

Well, maybe my first lesson of fatherhood is that any of my pre-conceived expectations are most likely not going to reflect reality.

Over the past week, I have seen this as ringing true in two profound ways:

1. There is no way that I could have possibly expected the wonderful child that is Lydia. She is simply beyond-expectation. Everthing from the way she looks to the way she acts is outside of what I could have possibly imagined two weeks ago. Of course Elizabeth and I talked about things like "I hope he/she has your eyes" or "I really don't want the baby to have my nose;" but to be able to actually picture anything like this little baby that is now living in our midst...no way! Maybe this is lack of creativity on our part, but more so, I believe Lydia is living proof of the wonderful miracle of life! I feel truly blessed that God has created someone so special that we can now call our daughter!

2. Well, for the second week in a row we went in for a clinic visit on a Thursday and didn't leave until Sunday! The first time we gave birth to Lydia...this time Elizabeth was re-admitted to the hospital due to increasing blood pressure and liver enzymes. These symptoms typically subside after giving birth, but for reasons unknown, they were not acting in the "expected" way for Elizabeth.

The news that we would have to spend the next days in the hospital were tough to swallow. We very much expected and wanted to be at home, getting to know our new daughter and forming a routine. Instead, Elizabeth, Lydia, Elizabeth's Mom Cynthia, and I got to spend our time together in a small hospital room while Elizabeth's condition was treated with rest and IV medications. Elizabeth's dad returned to be with us on Saturday. Elizabeth was able to make a good turnaround over the few days in the hospital, and we are certainly glad to be home with a much better bill of health! Of course, this was not what we "expected" as part of our first week with Lydia, but in the long run this will be just another interesting part of the beginning of Lydia's life.

So, when it come to parenthood, now I am looking to "expect the unexpected." Hold on, here we go!!

Lydia Anne

I am amazed at how one small moment in time can change life forever. The birth of our daughter, Lydia Anne, on September 19th (3:26 am) was the perfect example of this type of transformational moment. Elizabeth and I cannot believe this amazing person that has entered into our life. At 7 pounds, 6 oz and 19.5 inches long, Lydia is unbelievably perfect (of course no father would say any different of their child).

The few days since her birth have seemed like a dream - partially due to the lack of sleep, but more so because it just seems unreal that we could now be in the presence of such a small wonder. I can't say that there haven't been frustrations along the way, but so far I have found every minute of it worth it tenfold. Lydia captivates us even more every minute and I can't begin to imagine the wonderful joy that we will experience over the next days, months, and years to come.

My plan is to use this blog as a means to describe some of the great things that Lydia shall do, like when she stretches out her legs as straight as can be for moments on end (now that she has room to do so). Some things, like the way she opens her eyes when waking, will be beyond description and so I also hope to capture some of my own thoughts on this little (all to soon to be bigger) life that has started before us.

Thanks to everyone for their love and support as we have welcomed our little Lydia into the world.




Pictures from our first few days with Lydia Anne: http://picasaweb.google.com/eaewinglee/LydiaAnne02#


All of the pictures of Lydia Anne will be posted at: http://picasaweb.google.com/eaewinglee/