Getting Settled..

Almost a full week has gone by at home all together and we seem to be adjusting quite well. Adrien is realizing he is still our favorite son and there is plenty of love and attention to go around. Not that this extra effort comes easily - the problem is that everyone needs mommy...baby needs to eat and Adrien needs cuddles and reassurance. Amy is doing a great job - but sometimes I feel like she is in the midst of an adventure race...feed Aliena, then get Adrien down for a  nap (special request for mommy time), then run back down for another feeding and repeat! Grandma-Pam and I are doing what we can, but there are some things that mommy can do that we just can't! Adrien has been enjoying the added attention of us all being home, visits from friends (Leoni and kids, Brittny) and the last weekend before school starts with the village kids (ones who spend some time here during vacation). In fact, just yesterday he invited them all into the house to play with his toys...which then migrated to the fountain out front...and morphed into a water-fight. On the upside for us, some of the more annoying noisy toys he has made it into the fountain and are now functional as 'quite' toys only!

Aliena hasn't been up to much new stuff -- eat, sleep, poop, repeat.... Sometimes she seems to be a bit restless when she needs to poop (I guess this is a learned skill??). The other day, Amy used a magical technique they suggested at the hospital - Aliena was restless and squirmy in my arms, and Amy said that they told her she could massage the feet lightly - like so - and...."thhhwwwwweeet" a poop explosion! Amazing! I wouldn't have believed it except that the evidence was starting to sting my eyes (even in my slightly groggy state, I know better than to share photos of this evidence to the scientists out there). Since that first time, the success rate of this technique has been less impressive - but let this serve as a warning to all you foot massage fans out there...

Aliena does have some great awake time though. I took advantage of one of these awake times to try to get passport photos taken -- I fired off a good 50 photos and managed to get one where she was looking head on, had her eyes open, and a neutral expression (all required elements). I still don't understand the point of this since babies keep their passport for over 5 years and don't look anything like their photo after a few months. Well, I guess it does create business for photographers (who told me that my photos might not work and that they could do it for me....until I told them that the same technique worked for Adrien 3 years ago...). Here is the photo....