Kickin' Back

It's Sandy's fault. She said we should add something to the picture for perspective.
Age: 28 Days
Happy Four Week Birthday, Little One!

Holding Daddy's Pinkie Finger

Age: 27 Days

Saturday Morning with the Kiddo

A new Aletheia Update feature: Video!
Age: 26 Days

Bearly Asleep

Age: 24 Days

Working on her Linda Blair Impersonation

Age: 24 Days
(Click here if you don't know who Linda Blair is.)

Bright and Alert

Age: 23 Days
(Picture taken by Mommy)

Apple Dreams

Age: 22 Days

Clean and Happy

Age: 21 Days

Beauty Sleep

Age: 20 Days

Along For The Ride

Age: 19 Days

Already Learning To Flirt

Age: 16 Days

With The Fishes

Aletheia as seen through her Ocean Wonders Aquarium Bouncer.

Age: 17 Days

The Legend of Uncle Kasey and Captain Stupendous

There's a lot of downtime with Aletheia so far--she doesn't cry unless she really needs something, or someone misses an easy question on Jeopardy. She's content to look around the room, listen to music, and practice making interesting-looking stains with her voluminous spit-up. (There are certain pictures we are unable to post, for the emotional well-being of our visitors.) So we have plenty of time to sing songs, begin Greek lessons, and tell stories. One ongoing story we tell is the Legend of Uncle Kasey.

Uncle Kasey is my brother, a cop, and probably looks a lot like I would if I had another three inches of height, fifty-two pounds of muscle, and a habit of carrying a pistol anywhere I went. And a couple more tattoos. He's is the Paul Bunyan of our home--stories are based on the real person, but tend to grow some in the telling. They're pretty formulaic, beginning with an attention-getting introduction: "When Uncle Kasey goes to the beach, he stays cool and tan, but after an hour the Sun gets a Kaseyburn." Or, "Uncle Kasey once moved a barn with his bare hands, just to get a better view of the mountains." Then we tell an exciting story through to the climactic conclusion, "So the West Wing was in shambles by then, but the President was safe and Uncle Kasey had tied all the ninjas together with their own belts." Because this is a children's story, there is always a moral, usually beginning with: "If any boy ever treats you disrespectfully, you just call Uncle Kasey and he'll: (1) speak to him very sternly, (2) present him with one all-expenses paid trip to the local slammer, or (3) surgically remove certain well-attached but not technically vital body parts using a rusty spoon."

Along these lines, when Sandy's sister was pregnant with our nephew, Drew, she asked how I wanted Drew to refer to me when he started talking, and, making a joke, I replied, "I've always wanted to be called Captain Stupendous." It took until he was almost four to be able to say it, but now when we visit them, I enjoy hearing a clear little voice calling, "Captain Stupendous, come help me!" I don't know what my superpowers are, unless they are things like: "Able to name any Star Trek episode within ten seconds," or "Able to deliver an impromptu speech extolling the value of the serial comma and decrying the forced Latinization of English grammar." If anyone in our family could think of situations wherein those skills might save someone, there would probably be a collection of Captain Stupendous stories, too. But the best I can realistically hope for is sidekick status in the burgeoning Uncle Kasey corpus.

The candy factory was a mess, but the machinery still worked. Halloween had been saved. Uncle Kasey uprooted a pine tree and used it to wipe the last of the taffy off of his boots. He then tried to turn on the laptop, but the battery had died and the AC cord had been used to provide energy to the chocolate chip chopper. Uncle Kasey thought for a second, and then made a rapid, intricate swirling motion with his arms. It was a secret movement he had been taught by an isolated group of monks after an unusually powerful sneeze had propelled him to Nepal, and it temporarily changed the laws of physics within the vicinity of the computer. It now booted up with ease and operated normally, although the air around it had a slightly greenish tinge, and instead of "Start" the computer screen now said "Revisit the initial phase of your journey." Uncle Kasey handed the laptop to Captain Stupendous. "You mind typing up the report? My hand is cramping and I never can remember how to spell ribulosebisphosphatecarboxylase- oxygenase."

"I'm on it!" cried Captain Stupendous!

Sly Smile

Age: 16 Days

This one was a little blurry, but waaaay too good not to post.
And check out the bed head look! Aletheia is super stylish.

Comments Are Now Open To All

Aletheia Update fans:

I know some of you were wanting to be able to comment on the pictures without having to start an account with Blogger, so that is now possible! In order to prove that you are human and not a drug-hawking robot, you'll have to type in a nonsense word that you'll see on the comment screen, but everything else should be pretty straightforward.

You'll also notice that all of the posts have a little "letter and arrow" icon beneath. If you see something that you'd like to email a friend about, just click there and you'll be able to email a post link directly from the Aletheia Update.

Thanks for your interest!

Reaching Out

Age: 15 Days

Napping

Age: 14 Days

Dark Eyes, Open Mouth

Age: 13 Days

Just After the Her First Real Bath

Age: 11 Days

11 Days Old

10 Days Old

9 Days Old

8 Days Old

7 Days Old

An experiment in color

Aletheia with Uncle Kasey

6 Days Old

5 Days Old...later that night

Holding hands with Daddy.

5 Days Old

Here's a typical sleeping position for Aletheia. Her right leg was apparently tucked in close in utero; she usually reverts to this pose when asleep. We often find her right hand over her face as well. If you catch Allie in her bassinet, she'll probably look a lot like this.

4 Days Old

Getting to know a new friend.

3 Days Old

Hi, Memaw and Pawpaw! Come here and pick me up!
I'm looking at you!

2 Days Old...later that night

2 Days Old

Home from the hospital.

Day One

Okay! Time for some details. Aletheia Jean was born July 3, 2006 at 11:20 p.m., and weighed 7 lbs., 3. oz. Length was 20 1/4 inches. She has a bunch of dark hair and beautiful deep eyes. So far, she's the world's calmest baby--really just happy to be on board. She hasn't cried yet unless she was being poked and prodded, and she calms down as soon as the affliction has ended. She also seems pretty alert for a newborn. Eyes wide open, taking it all in.

Allie's breathing was a little labored at first, so she spent a couple of hours in the nursery, but before long her breaths were gentle and steady. Since then she's been in the hospital room with her Mom.

Healthy girl! 11:20.

Healthy girl! 11:2o.

Fully dilated.

Fully dilated.

9 cm. Good progress now.

9 cm. Good progress now.

By the way, if today's

By the way, if today's posts are really badly formatted, it's because they are text messages from my cell phone. Best I can do now.

Thirteen hours since her water

Thirteen hours since her water broke and she's still slowly progressing through labor. 5 cm now. Looks like a 7 / 4 baby for us.

Epidural! Sandy's happy about that.

Epidural! Sandy's happy about that.

Sandy has begun to have

Sandy has begun to have some good contractions, but now they are starting her on Pitocin to speed up her labor.

Sandy's water broke at 6:21

Sandy's water broke at 6:21 this morning. We won't go home without a baby again.

Second Try

In a couple of hours we'll take Sandy back to the hospital. It's called "Mountain View," but from the L & D rooms we mainly get a nice view of the air-conditioning equipment, and an occasional nurse taking a smoke break on the roof. Induction procedures will start again tonight. We've been monitoring her blood pressue very closely at home, and it's definitely trending upward, so my uneducated guess is that once we start trying to have this baby, the doctors won't want to stop until she's delivered, even if that means a C-section. That worked out okay for Julius, though, so I guess it wouldn't be a bad way for Aletheia to enter the world.

There's a fair chance that she'll be born on the 4th of July, which we would rather avoid, just because we are already tired of the comments about having a patriotic baby, but ending her party with a huge fireworks celebration every year could be incredibly cost effective for us, although it might make her future siblings jealous.