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

Beautiful Baby

I'm sure I'd love her if she weren' t the prettiest baby in the world, but, fortunately, we'll never have to find out.

I had a weird dream the other day that Aletheia was sick and the doctors were having a hard time making a diagnosis. One of them turns to me and says, "Well, there is one possibility we could consider, but we'll have to observe her for the next three months. Or we could try to diagnosis it from photographic evidence, but we'd need to have a picture of her from almost every single day since she was born. And no one takes that many pictures of their kids."

We do!

3 Months, 15 Days

Laughing at Daddy

Okay, we've taken a lot of good pictures of this kid. But I think this is my new favorite.

3 Months, 15 Days

Lost In Thought

I hear that geniuses often drool when they are thinking deeply about important topics.

3 Months, 15 Days

Post Bath Bonding

3 Months, 14 Days

Movie Star

Aletheia and I have both been pretty sick with a cold today, and we weren't up to taking pictures. But I did have time to grab one of the alternate photos from yesterday and have a little fun with it.

3 Months, 12 Days

Bad Moon Rising

This time of year the pumpkin sellers set up in the mall parking lot and send up a giant, glowing, inflatable jack o'lantern to advertise. Getting a picture of Aletheia with the spooky jack o'lantern in the background was too much to resist.

3 Months, 12 Days

The Kiss

3 Months, 10 Days

Logical Progression

It all starts with sucking your thumb. Completely innocent, you think. Harmless, in fact. But before long you become used to the taste of your own sweet epidermis, and two weeks later, you're sneaking surreptitous licks of your wrist when no one is looking. Maybe you can get away with it undetected for a while. But sooner or later you look up, and there's a camera ready to record your shame. And eventually, it's going to wind up on the internet. These things always do.

3 Months, 9 Days

"This Is Fun!"

3 Months, 8 Days

Command Center

Aletheia's great-grandfather bought this for her. The box said it's for four-month-olds, but she's holding her head up so well that we thought we'd go ahead and try it for a few minutes. She seemed to enjoy herself.

3 Months, 7 Days

Born To Ride

Aletheia finally grew into her gift from Uncle Kasey--a supercool Harley Davidson onesie. You can tell she likes it. Probably smiling so big because she's thinking about which model she'll buy when she's grown up.

3 Months, 6 Days

The Most Delicious Thumb Ever

3 Months, 4 Days

Portrait II

3 Months, 1 Day

She's Really Lovin' This

3 Months, 1 Day

Bloggy Strangeness

For some reason, a video that I had previously posted spontaneously reposted itself this morning. I don't know why that happened, but it's been deleted now.

Mesmerized by the Mobile

3 Months, 1 Day

Sitting Up (Sorta)

3 Months Old Today!

I'm not sure about this, but I've been told that the designation newborn only applies to babies under three months old. So, we hit a little milestone today. There is no longer a newborn in our house, just an infant. This is shaping up to be a week of milestones, though.

(1) Aletheia's first emergency trip to the clinic.

Less than two hours after we took a picture of Aletheia in front of the hot air balloon, we were rushing her to an urgent care clinic across town. Aletheia was being carried by one of her parents, (hereafter referred to as Parent S to preserve her anonimity), when Parent S tripped on a curb just outside our church and went sprawling to the sidewalk. S's fall was completely unexpected and propelled her with sufficient force that she was unable to maintain her grasp on the baby, who ultimately fell about 18 inches from S's shoulder onto the sidewalk, with the back of her head hitting first. I walked outside probably about 30 seconds after this happened, and was told "Your daughter just fell!"

This was the first time I've dealt with an injury to Aletheia, and it's amazing how quickly and how narrowly one's attention focuses. First, I set a new speed record running from the exit doors to the scene of the accident, where I found Aletheia and took her from the arms of the person holding her. Looking back on it, I have no idea who had her. Let me explain that. Whoever it was had to be a person that I know--it was one of our church members, and, as a minister, I know just about all of them. But I didn't even notice who I was taking her from. All I saw was Aletheia.

Then I started asking questions--what happened? who saw it? how far was the fall? There wasn't any blood, but holding Aletheia as she screamed and screamed was absolutely heart-breaking. Aletheia is always happy. She'll cry for a few seconds when she gets an immunization, but then calms right back down. I had literally never seen her screaming inconsolably before. Parent S was pretty distressed, too, as you might imagine.

One of our friends, a nurse, recommended taking Aletheia to be examined, just in case. Concrete and babies are a scary combination. So we dashed to the car and made our way to an urgent care clinic we knew.

Good news--by the time we showed up, Aletheia was already calming down. She smiled and laughed with the nurse and the doctor, and we were already starting to realize that we had made it through this incident with any serious harm. After a precautionary skull x-ray, the doctor gave us some warning signs to look for (swelling in the soft spot, projectile vomiting, not acting like her normal self) but told us that she looked fine. We watched her closely for the rest of the day, but none of those things happened, and we went on with life, breathing a sigh of relief.

One of the interesting realizations to come out of this (other than just how remarkably unimportant everything else becomes when your baby has been hurt) is that, even at three months old Aletheia has such a clearly defined personality that when the doctor says to bring her to the emergency room if she isn't acting like herself, that really means something to us. Aletheia definitely has a self, she is her own little person. This brings us to a point about which I am surely biased, but the kid not only has a clear personality, she's got a really great one. It's fun to watch her smiling at people and laughing, to see her calm and happy approach to life. After a scare like her fall, I wouldn't blame her for being out of sorts for hours. But not 10 minutes later, she was back to her normal happy self. It's not quite right to say that I am proud of her, because I know she didn't get to choose her disposition, but I am extremely delighted by it.

(2) Aletheia's first evening with a baby-sitter

The next day after the hospital scare, Parent S and I went to a concert (Country legend Don Williams' Farewell Tour--yeah, he's getting older, and yes, we were the youngest people in the audience who hadn't been dragged there by their parents, but it was a great show). This was our first night away from the baby, and it was a great success. One of the older ladies at our church has been virtually begging to babysit for us (another perk of ministry!) and Aletheia seems to have had a blast with her. Mary asked us, "Is it okay if I hold her and play with her the whole time?" Yes! By all means! Apparently it was a gummy, drooly smilefest at Mary's house all night, and Aletheia was exhausted when we picked her up. She went straight to sleep, and slept until 7:30 this morning. A brand new record! There might be a lot more concerts in our future. Pretty good way to conclude Aletheia's last day as a newborn.

New Update Soon

Sandy and I were at a concert until late last night and didn't have a chance to post a new Aletheia picture. But sometime tonight we'll give you: (1) a brand new picture and (2) the story of Aletheia's first trip to the urgent care clinic.

Full of Hot Air

I was on my way to church this morning when I saw that a hot air balloon was descending into our neighborhood park. I ran back inside, grabbed the baby, and had Mommy take a quick picture of the two of us in front of the balloon. You can see another one touching down in the background.

2 Months, 28 Days