Jolly's excited,
OK folks - I know everyone's out there in turkey-hangover, and probably surfin' over to see what's been put online lately . . . well, we're down in Brooklyn at Christi's Mom's place, and having lots of fun. The big surprise is, we're taking lots of pictures! So, until we get them a bit organized later, here are a couple teasers so that you don't have to wait so long...
Once again, I've determined that this is the year to become a better photographer or, as I say it, finally figure that photo thing out. And, once again, I've turned to The Internet to be my teacher. Finally, I think it's starting to work. This post got me playing with my 50mm lens to get that nice blurry background effect among other things. I'm pretty happy with the results. Now I just need to compose shots as nice as this one that Adam took of our dessert last night.
And a huge thank you to Jim for giving me this lens a few birthdays ago!
Let's be honest. We know why you really come here and it isn't just to "hear about what we're doing". You're here for the pictures of the cutest non-furry family member. Since we're new parents and camera addicts, here are some more shots for you to enjoy.
Last weekend, Margot met her friend Lisa for the first time.
I love this face. It's like she can't believe that you just said/did that.
This artistic shot was taken with Adam's LensBaby. It has a small area of focus and blurs outwards from there. It's a fun and not-super-useful lens. Great for mixing things up when you're taking the ten-millionth picture of your baby. :)
Lets chalk it up to lack of sleep and the cold he's fighting, but Adam is wrong about when the Grandparents Andersen last saw Margot.
Since some cute pictures came out of our family adventure to The Head Of The Charles, here is the photographic evidence. Sadly, we didn't get any pictures from when he met Monica and Jack later on that day.
It was a true family outing involving all of the dogs. This was Jolly's first extended exposure to Sophie and Nanook. He's not so sure about other dogs in general, but it went pretty well. He was even tired enough by the end of the day to let me wrangle the three of them at once!
So, Tuesday we took Margot for her two-month checkup. For those of you keeping score:
- Tuesday was 9 weeks after her birthday
- She's 12 lbs 6 oz, up from just under 8 lbs birthweight and something under 7 lbs minimum weight around five days
- She's 22.5 in long, which is up a couple of inches (call it 10-12%) although I'm less sure of those numbers, and think they're a little less accurate anyway
- Her head is now 38 cm around - just about 15 inches. I don't remember any previous measurements.
She's in good health and the doctor was happy with everything. The less fun part of the visit was getting a couple of early vaccinations - although a tag-team of two nurses made a very quick process of the shots. She seemed to have a rough afternoon and evening after that, but a day later she's none the worse for wear.
She's making a lot more noises now, I think, than even a few days ago. She can also look at you, if she's in the right mood, when you talk to her. And, we think we can make her smile and even kind of laugh, although an attempt at video documentation of such an effect failed this evening. We'll keep trying - it's like magic when her face lights up.
Friday her Grandparents Andersen are coming for the night, to visit, which will be great as they haven't seen her since she was a week old. How things change!
[Edit - as Christi points out, they HAVE seen Margot, a few weeks ago in Cambridge. I guess I was up too late - I was just thinking that they hadn't been at our house again!]
OK - Blogger's not cooperating on letting me post a picture tonight, so you'll have to wait. Sorry!
Up until now, Margot has had one word: "errah". While that hasn't been recorded for posterity yet, we did find that Margot has been holding out on us. When she finally found someone who could really understand her (in this case, the Whoozit toy from her Great-Grandma McKernan), we heard a whole bunch of new sounds.
Notice all of the arm motion punching the Whoozit around. (We'll teach her not to do that to her friends when she gets older!) My favorite is when one of its rings gets close to her mouth and she tries to suck on it. Our little girl is a developmental barrel of fun while she explores the world around her.
(Special thanks to Soren for the loan of the play mat. She loves it!)
