Get Your Fiend Face On!

Now that we are fully sequestered in the unique torture- ahem, we mean joys of new parenthood, a few amusing baby discoveries have emerged:

#1. When Eliza is hungry and ready to eat, she puts on this ferocious "fiend face" and snarls and roots like a depraved, booby addict, which is quite funny but mildly disturbing.

#2. We had no idea that, while being oftentimes indescribably cute, babies are also prone to putting on their "grumpy old man" faces:

#3. Following several unexpected clean-ups, Brian has discovered the impressive ability of babies to projectile poop (sorry, no accompanying photo of this one). 

The World According to Eliza (At Nine Days Old)

There are an awful lot of strange things to contemplate in this new world...

These giant heads keep hovering over me, making odd cooing noises...

I know this looks ridiculous, but it is comforting and the vibrating seat is oddly soothing...

I seem to have inherited Daddy's long toes, which are much nicer than Mommy's hobbit toes...

Mmmm, fingers... not quite as tasty as booby time, but this will hold me off for now.

"Stop Pointing That Thing at Me!"

Grandma and Grandpa Collier doing what grandparents do:

Eliza's First Days at Home

Now that we're no longer checking on her every two minutes to make sure she's still breathing, we've managed to take a few more photographs of Eliza (okay, it's been more like 80 pictures, bless these digital cameras). Getting to know her over these past few days has been pretty amazing. We never imagined that the best vacation from work we'd ever take would involve thorough discussions around bowel habits and never leaving the house. 

How could a head possibly be so small?!

Now serving, an Eliza Bean Burrito:

Trying out a laugh:

Mom and Dad showing off the circles under their eyes:

Welcome to the World, Eliza Maeve Collier!

Wow! So much to write, and so little time to do it between feedings, swaddlings and diaper changes! Here are the basics: Eliza Maeve Collier was born on June 3rd, 2008 at 11:34 a.m. Carrie started getting regular contractions late the night before, we drove to the hospital around four in the morning, and Eliza bean was screaming into the world before noon! Carrie was a champion pusher and only  had about an hour and fifteen minutes of active pushing once she was dilated. (She was the "perfect pusher" according to nurse Laurie!). The nurses actually had to call the doctor twice and tell her to hurry up!  Once she was born, the doctor immediately put her up on Carrie's belly where she started rooting around and some good, old fashioned bonding occurred. Dad was allowed to cut the cord. Afterward, the nurses did their assessments and everybody was relieved to see she had all her parts in the right spot. She weighed 6 pounds, twelve ounces and measured 20.25 inches in length ("a keeper" according to Grandpa Bob, the fisherman!), and she was born with some beautiful brown locks and big blue eyes. 

Anyway, what you're really interested in are the pictures, so here's a few:

She's a big yawner.

She likes to be kissed on the head.

Mom and dad couldn't be more proud!

And the cats have vowed to protect her with their lives.

That's all for now. We'll certainly try to keep up the postings as the days pass and this beautiful little creature grows (we were just about to insert a really corny pun here involving a "sprouting bean" but thought better of it).