The Best and Worst So Far

The Best:
(1) I seem to be a lot more popular when I'm carrying a cute baby girl around. I wish I had been able to get one in high school.

(2) Aletheia is a compulsive smiler, and everyone smiles back. Having her around is like having an industrial strength joy generator set to 11 all the time.

(3) When she's waking up from a nap, and I go get her, and she gives me a record-breaking wide smile. That's incredible.

The Worst:
(1) Post-solid-food poopy diapers. I literally can't change them without retching. How can someone so small and cute make such horrific stenches?

(2) I know every dad gets this, and I know it's just a silly little thing that people say trying to be funny, but for crying out loud, the next time one of you people tells me it's sure a good thing that the baby looks like her mother, I am seriously going to snap and kill something with my bare hands. You've been warned. I'll get a good lawyer and plead temporary insanity. Stay out of my path. Ha ha ha, I'm ugly. Ha ha ha. Shut up.

(3) "She'll be in second grade before she knows how to spell her name!"
"She's going to have to pick a nickname when she gets to school, you know."

Okay, this is a good time to link again to the Aletheia Name FAQ.

Next: Look, I run into dozens of kreativvvleigh spelled baby names all the time. Having one unusual name transliterated properly from the Greek can't be any more difficult than being Mikayla in a kindergarten class with a Michaela, Mykala, and Michayla. Right across the room will be Madisen and Maddisyn, as well as Katelyn, Kaitlin, and Caitlin. Yes, the name is rare, but get over it. We're living in a era of all-out onomastic anarchy, and "Aletheia" is barely going to register on the weird-o-meter.

Finally: what are we really talking about here? Eight letters. Two are repeats. It's not like your kid was spelling his name in kindergarten because he had learned to sound out the word phonetically. Nope. You just chanted J-o-n-a-t-h-a-n, J-o-n-a-t-h-a-n over and over until he memorized it. Jonathan, I might point out, is eight letters long, just like Aletheia, and only one syllable shorter. But did anyone tell you he'd have to be a super-genius to figure his own name out? Nope. They just said, "What a nice name!" You just think Aletheia is hard because you've never seen it before. She'll be writing it before she turns five. Not because she's got a brain the size of the proposed lunar base, but because it's not that difficult. But for the record, she does have a brain the size of a lunar base. It's so massive that it has a detectable gravitational field. When small items in the house disappear, they are usually in her hat or lodged in her ear. Five pets have gone missing in this neighborhood since we bought our house.

If you are having trouble remembering how to spell it, you might be helped by the Aletheia song that we sing to the baby:

My name is Aletheia, A-l-e-t-h-e-i-a!
My name is Aletheia, A-l-e-t-h-e-i-a!

I'm going to go to Harvard University
and be the president of the whole world.
I'll find a cure for cancer in my labratory.
Cause I'm the strongest, smartest, prettiest girl in the world.

My name is Aletheia, A-l-e-t-h-e-i-a!
My name is Aletheia, A-l-e-t-h-e-i-a!

Okay, rant over. That should hold me until her first birthday. I promise I'm nice in person. But watch yourself.

Uncle Kasey Montage

Renewing the relationship



Apparently some kind of allergic reaction



Wide-eyed



I really have no idea what this expression means.

All these pictures were taken on 12/19/06, when Allie was 5 Months, 16 Days old.

Under the Tree

And, yeah, all those presents are for her.

Merry First Christmas, kiddo!

5 Months, 25 Days

Aletheia with her Granddaddy

Aletheia has been having a great time this week with her grandparents. Just having family who care about her and love being with her is a great Christmas gift!

5 Months, 22 Days

Aletheia and "Uncle Harold"

Uncle Harold, like a lot of Aletheia's aunts and uncles and cousins, isn't really related by DNA, but is an old, good friend who might as well be a family member. He's also the computer-savvy neighbor who prints off all of these pictures for Aletheia's great-grandparents. So here's a big thanks to Harold for all his help!

5 Months, 15 Days

Adorable

Here she is in San Antonio on her Memaw and Pawpaw's couch, with her old friend the bear. We had about four and a half days with the great-grandparents, and Aletheia definitely wasn't hurting for attention. Meanwhile, a new milestone: she's now very good at sitting up and balancing all by herself. Every day is a new adventure.

5 Months, 19 Days

With Her Memaw

Aletheia back with her great-grandmother.

5 Months, 19 Days

Back With Her Pawpaw

Aletheia with her great-grandfather.

5 Months, 19 Days

Standing Tall

I put Aletheia on my shoulders for a little while today and took her outside. She loved it. Something about being up above everyone else made her laugh like crazy. Especially when she was taller than her mommy (which, to be honest, doesn't take much). She looked down at mommy and laughed and laughed and laughed. The neighbors heard it and looked to see what was going on. Must've been a banner day for the kid.

Also, I need a haircut.

Tomorrow we go on vacation for about a week and a half, and then we go back to Cuidad Juarez, Mexico to see our friends there. I'll post updates as we can, but internet access is going to be iffy. Keep checking back and I may do a bunch all at once to catch up.

5 Months, 13 Days

Old Friend in a New House

Aletheia is adjusting to the new place. Here she is in the crib with her old friend, the bear. You can see two of the four walls of her room here--each of the four is a different color. Getting the corners right took a long, long time.

5 Months, 11 Days

Peek-a-boo!

Aletheia through the bars of her crib, in her new room.

5 Months, 9 Days

Moving Day

Sorry again for the recent lack of updates. Buying a house and getting ready to move has had us working overtime. But we're moved in now and hopefully my new DSL connection will be up and running today (good-bye dial-up!) so we can get back to regular posting. Moving has been a pain, but we were very careful to label all our boxes and not leave anything important behind.

5 Months, 8 Days

Learning Her Numbers

5 Months, 4 Days

Aletheia With Papa Doug

Doug is one of Allie's local substitute grandparents.

4 Months, 28 Days

Babies Are Flexible

5 Months Old

Knit Hat

Been a busy couple of days. Aletheia caught a cold, and her mom and I are trying to get the interior of our new house repainted before we order new carpet to replace the green shag carpet, which needs to happen before we move in, which needs to happen before we go on vacation on the 17th. Oh, and I'm performing a wedding this weekend and trying to prepare for my next doctoral class in January. So, we missed two updates. Send us a SASE for your money-back refund.

Anyway, here Aletheia is a couple of days ago with her Nana Freda from church, who bought her the swell knot cap. I'm not sure how to characterize the expression on her face. Wry?

Let's look it up.

–adjective, wri·er, wri·est.
produced by a distortion or lopsidedness of the facial features: a wry grin.

Yeah, that'll work. But who knew you could make it a superlative. Wriest? Wriest? I don't think I've heard that in my whole life.

4 Months, 28 Days

Happy

4 Months, 27 Days

On the Balcony

Another shot from Thanksgiving.

4 Months, 22 Days

Congrats to Aunt Loree and Uncle Dwayne!

On the birth of Aletheia's latest cousin, Alyssa. We're looking forward to seeing some good pictures of the new kid! (And, hey, I think alyssaupdate.blogspot.com is free. Just an idea.)

Butterfly Wrestling

4 Months, 25 Days

SWF, Loves the Outdoors

4 Months, 22 Days

Great-Granddaughter

Aletheia with her great-grandmother today, clearly having a good time.

4 Months, 22 Days

I'm Sooooooooo Excited!

Aletheia with her cousin Patrick. They're bonding. If she were 12 years older, I'd say she had a little crush.

4 Months, 21 Days

Laughing at Melissa

We're at Thanksgiving with the extended family this week. Tonight, Melissa got a big smile from Aletheia while they were playing.

4 Months, 20 Days

Happy First Thanksgiving, Aletheia!

Disappearing Lips

Aletheia has recently started sucking in her lower lip so that it disappears. Mommy thinks it's funny. Maybe that's why she keeps doing it.

4 Months, 18 Days

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

Aletheia had her four-month immunizations done today--two in each thigh, plus some concoction she had to drink. I, of course, was elected to hold her arms down while she was getting her shots. 9:52 this morning might be the worst single minute I've experienced this month--Allie looking up at me, her huge brown eyes filled with tears and a look of utter betrayal. "Why are you helping them do this to me?"

But she's a trooper. Two minutes later she was all smiles again. That's my girl!

4 Months, 17 Days

Sweet Face

4 Months, 16 Days

Beans and a Baby

Our church is putting together a bunch of Thanksgiving baskets for poorer families in our neighborhood. Here's a shot of Aletheia on top of a stack of green beans.

4 Months, 14 Days

Scene from a Restaurant

Aletheia at lunch with our friends in Cuidad Juarez last Saturday.

4 Months, 8 Days

Finger Food, To Go

4 Months, 12 Days

Teardrop

4 Months, 3 Days

New Discovery

I know a little girl who found her feet this week. Now she's practically obsessed. "Leave me alone! Can't you see that I'm playing with my toes!"

Also: another milestone. Tonight Aletheia rolled over from her back to her tummy. Now that she can roll over both ways, can crawling be far behind?

4 Months, 9 Days

Somos Amigos

4 Months, 8 Days

We visited Cuidad Juarez, Mexico today to meet up with our friends Enrique and Anay. Here we are at Rudy and Nelly's restaurant, after Sandy and Anay decided to switch babies for awhile.

Anay is already planning a wedding for Aletheia and Enrique, Jr. She calls Aletheia "my future daughter-in-law."

Note to mi familia: we were completely safe the whole time. Completely. We were in safe, touristy areas during daylight hours. Anay has four kids total and every one of them survived lunch. No problemo! So don't freak out that we took a four-month-old across the border. There are, like, 23,000 four-month-old girls in Juarez. Ours fit right in. Did I say we were completely safe the whole time? Because, really, we were. Really.

Pencily Picture

4 Months, 7 Days

Gross Motor Skills

4 Months, 5 Days

Aletheia has really started interacting with her ExerSaucer a lot. She grabs the toys now, whirls around, jumps up and down, and rocks back and forth. She even spins the little toy in the lower right hand corner of the picture. She's having a lot of fun.

Sorry that we didn't get an update up yesterday. Wednesdays are usually long days for me. But remember, you did get an extra cool video this week.

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On the Couch

4 Months, 4 Days

Video: "Aletheia Rolls Over"

Aletheia has been rolling over for a few weeks now, but we finally got it on video. A little grainy, but you get the idea.

4 Months, 3 Days

Goofy Smile

4 Months, 2 Days

Bear Hug

4 Months, 1 Day

Cousins

4 Months Old Today!

824082 #^

3 Months, 30 Days

More Internet Piracy

3 Months, 28 Days

The Dread Pirate Aletheia

is here for your soul!

3 Months, 28 Days

How We Began

1 Day Old

Here is a picture, uncropped, unedited, from July 4th--the next day after Aletheia was born late in the evening on the 3rd. It is amazing that in less than four months she has changed from this tiny 7 lb. bundle to a 14 lb. little girl who likes to sit up, stand up, laugh and smile. Compare this picture to the one posted yesterday. The metamorphosis is incredible.

I don't remember who took this picture. It wasn't me--I'm the one holding Aletheia. You could have entered the hospital room 100 times at random on that day, and 87 times I would be the one holding the baby. She and I talked a lot that day. Well, I talked; she listened. I told her how glad I was that she was here, and how much I had been looking forward to meeting her, and that I had been in need of a younger ally for quite some time, and now, if she was willing, we could team up against everyone else. In other words, I set out as soon as possible to make Aletheia a Daddy's girl. I told Sandy that she could have the next baby--this one is mine.

I don't know what kind of impact those first hours have had, but it's clear that there is a significant bond between us. I like it that when she is upset and cries in anyone else's arms, that I can take her and she'll calm down instantly. I like it that when I smile at her, she breaks out into that huge toothless grin and shakes her arms like she just won the lottery. I'm already dreading the day that it take more to make her day than just smiling her direction.

Of course, she has her own special relationship with her mother, and the truth is that she would smile at Adolf Hitler if he grinned at her. Allie's easygoing that way. But sometimes I feel like one of the old men in all those fairy tales, who has the Very Special Daughter Who Daily Brightens His Otherwise Dreary Existence. Maybe that's the standard father-daughter dynamic, but it's the coolest thing I've ever experienced.

Last week at dinner a friend caught me and Aletheia engaging in one of our half-hour smile-a-thons, where I smile at her as big as possible and she smiles and giggles back, and we just keep repeating that until she gets hungry or falls asleep. Our friend said, "See that look on her face? That's adoration. It lasts about 18 years."

Eighteen years. Six thousand, five hundred and seventy days. Possibly close to one hundred thousand exchanged smiles.

I'll take it.

Aletheia and Cousin Melissa

3 Months, 25 Days

Video: Aletheia Laughing

Although Aletheia has made laughing motions before, Thursday night was the first time we heard her laugh out loud. We were just about to put on her pajamas when something struck her as funny and she started to laugh. We were able to grab the camera and catch part of it.




3 Months, 23 Days

Reclining

3 Months, 24 Days

If We Had The Right Make-Up...

she could go to Halloween parties as Bozo the Clown. Not that I would ever do that to her, mind you. Not at all. It would ruin my plans to turn her into the Dread Pirate Aletheia.

3 Months, 22 Days

Sleepy Girl

3 Months, 21 Days

Off Kilter

Busy day today, so I just grabbed a picture of Aletheia asleep when I came home. You might notice she's losing some hair. More and more, she looks like Bruce Willis, circa 1997.

3 Months, 20 Days

Out of the Bath

3 Months, 18 Days