"Congratulations"

It's weird - When Mary's pushing Rosalie at the store or at Church, she rarely gets a "congratulations." But when I have Rosalie, people seemingly fall over themselves to say it to me.

Maybe it's because she's back to her pre-pregnancy weight? No one thinks she's the mommy?

So it goes without saying that it doesn't seem right that I was just named one of Champaign-Urbana's Dads To Know. It's just because I'm a celebrity. We know Mary does all the work :)

A Busy Month (in photos)

Update: changed the photos to a slideshow. Click any photo to open the album. This has been a very busy month in terms of visitors. It's been great to see so many family and friends. Rosalie is now 7 weeks old! This is the last week before Mary returns to work (part-time) so we're going to try and spend as much of it together as a family. Mary might be a little cranky when she returns to work; we've given up fried foods for lent :)

Click on any pic in the slideshow to open the photo album (and to save it for yourself).

Our Projects

We've been busy in the house -
1) We have a 6 week old baby (maybe you've heard about her)
2) Mary's been working hard on the IL Marathon - She even made an appearance on TV! Watch it.
3) I've been re-designing the Boy Scout website - PrairielandsBSA.org

My sister Kathy & Andrew, and their girls Daphne and Briget visited this weekend. Pics to come. The girls loved Rosalie; they held her and did a lot of petting her. We ended up at the play area at the mall; a small playground for little kids - I don't know why 9 year olds were playing there, or why it has a doctor theme. It was our first occasion to bust out the stroller to push Rosalie around (and introduce her to thousands of germs). I can see bringing Rosalie back to the mall when she's older to play - I wonder if there are other indoor playgrounds in CU?

Rosalie's One Month Bday

Today is Rosalie's one month birthday! We celebrated with chinese food.
In the past two weeks, Rosalie has met some new friends and family:

Rosalie Nuggets

- Milk came out of her nose for the first time while feeding last week.
- She's been a sneezer (you've seen the video). Now, she's becoming quite the snot rocket. It's funny (and cute) to find random goobers in her crib, on her clothes, and on her cheek.
- Rosalie has some stronger neck muscles. She doesn't have full control, but she can hold her head up off our shoulder and chest when she's on her tummy.

I was thinking how funny it is that I get proud about some of Rosalie's grossest stuff. Some parents are proud about long stretches of sleep at night, neck strength, and smiles, not me! Boogers, bowel movements, burps - the bigger the better!

2 Weeks Old

Looking back at the last two weeks (as we enter the last weekend of my paternity leave), it seems like a month. The first week was fun - we were playing Mommy and Daddy. In the second week, exhaustion and reality sunk in - we're going to be nursing and changing diapers for a loooooonnnnnng time. Not that getting up a few times in the middle of the night and making sure to be attentive throughout the day to Rosalie's needs aren't worth it. The honeymoon phase is over. Next week will be a whole new adventure with me at work and Mary still at home.

Rosalie's just about out of her Newborn size clothes. Some of the bigger stuff still fits, the smaller stuff has already been retired. We're trying to use the last of the newborn size diapers while we can; the rest we'll pass on to the next new parents.

Rosalie has had many visitors. Both sets of grandparents were here after the birth, the Anderson's returned again this week for a night. Janice and Jan have both brought food as a bribe to rock her. And she's met some new friends: Carter Alderks, Ellie Wallheimer, and Mallory Kotewa. More visitors are scheduled to come in this weekend and in the coming weeks.

Below is a slideshow of pics from the last week. If you want to see a larger pic to download it, just click it during the slideshow!

Rosalie's First Graduation

Rosalie had her second Dr's appointment today. The first thing they did was weigh her - 7 lbs 5 oz! That's up 17 ounces from last Monday! Mary and I thought there would be some weight gain after seeing her face and chins (plural) fill out, but didn't think she'd be such a champ.
Because she's gaining so much weight and has been pooping and peeing regularly, she's graduated from Breastfeeding 101. At this rate, we expect her to graduate from Newborn size clothes/diapers to 0-3 month clothes in about a week.