Baba

My mother was a little under the weather when she got to DC

and didn't hold the baby till midweek. Torture! But, she is

making up for lost time now, which incidentally is

cutting into Papa Du's baby time.

My mother, Pat, who comes form Croatian stock,

opted to choose the Croatian equivalent for grandma, Baba,

as her grandparenting name. This is a familiar word to us,

as it is also used for grandmother in Russian.

Baba also performed a physical therapy evaluation on Simone

yesterday afternoon, which she passed with flying colors.

The Recently Demoted

Just to avoid any confusion, Ella is not short for Noelle.
She is our dog, also known as "Sass-box".

Ella has done very well with her transition to bottom of the

food chain. She has been calm around the baby, a remarkable

feat for a lab. She didn't even notice the baby when we brought

her up in the car seat the first day--until she cried.

She really wanted to lick Simone head to toe,

which we prevented, of course.

So, she waited till after her walk and immediately

ran over to Nana, who was holding Simone in her lap,

giving Simone a big lick on the top of the head.

She remains somewhat disinterested, but I can tell she is waiting

for her chance, biding her time, until a complete licking is possible.

Girl with Towel

This last one was right after a bath,

right after the screaming,

hair still curly,

eyes sill wet.

Papa Du

My parents, Dick and Pat, came to DC to meet Simone.

My father has decided that his grand-parenting name will be

"Papa Du".

There is some concern that a young child learning to speak,

may come up with "Du Du" or "Papa Poo".

We'll let you know.

Papa Du has really taken to Simone,

holding her every chance he gets,

even during the crying spells.

He has good success calming her

with many naps on his belly.

The Thumb

Little by little, she is finding her thumb and learning to self-sooth.

Introductions...

Our former neighbors from the last apartment, Amy and Hanna, the ones who discovered James, the plumber, living in our furnace room and had the bathroom ceiling collapse while one of them was taking a shower, came to meet Simone. Hanna was recovering from a cold and had to watch as Amy rocked the Little One.

New Friends

Our Peace Corps friend Becky came over to check out Simone and demonstrate her take on the "airplane hold",
not pictured here.