Back to reality . . .

This week has been pretty quiet--we've mostly been learning how to juggle our schedules around the peculiar demands of a newborn. I think that honestly Andrew probably suffers the most (although he probably wouldn't know it), he tends to watch a lot more TV while mommy feeds the baby (or tries to get a little more sleep--thank goodness for PBS in the mornings! Andrew will sit quite contentedly by me in the bed while I sleep through his shows). We're also learning to cope without the generous help of my parents, since, as of yesterday, they've been out of state, having been roped in at the last minute to help grade AP Statistics exams in Nebraska, or wherever it is that the exams get graded. (They'd initially said they couldn't do it, because the exams were too close to my due date, but, since Evelyn came early, and one of their good friends is in charge of the exams this year and needed more help . . .)

As you can see, Evelyn is slowly starting to put on weight--she's taking on the classic traits of Collings' family babies--big eyes and bulldog jowls. (Dan says our kids follow the same theme: fat cheeks.) Since we don't really have a lot to say about what we've been doing (mostly we don't leave the house, or if we do, we don't go far. Well, except for Dan who goes to and from work), we're compensating with lots of pictures. We figure most of our readers would prefer it that way anyway.

Evelyn in her bath (the NICU nurses bathe babies in their blankets, because it keeps them warmer, so we've adapted that practice with towels). She doesn't seem to mind the bath, but she *hates* being naked and cries whenever she's fully exposed.



As you can see, she's progressively more content post-bath.

Andrew remains fascinated by his baby sister and likes to hold her whenever he gets. (If he looks like he has a little facial hair in this photo, it's probably the combination of the marshmallow he had just eaten and whatever dark material he rubbed his face on after that.)

Evelyn doesn't seem quite so enthralled with the holding process. In fact, here she looks distinctly alarmed, with her little hand held out as if for help and her eyes nearly as wide as they'll go.

We gave both Evelyn and Andrew baths tonight, and they looked particularly sweet together after the bath. (We've included a video at the end of the post of Andrew offering to "burp" Evelyn while he was holding her).

I'm starting to think maybe we need to find Andrew more little boys to play with--whenever he goes to visit his cousins (Sarah's kids and Jeni's kids), he winds up wearing some sort of feminine attire: shoes, dresses, skirts, floral hairpieces, you name it. Of course, in most cases he's following the lead of his older girl cousins. And here, at least, he's tempered the feminine look of Emi's tinkerbell costume by carrying a sword and a whisk (what he hopes to do with both those instruments, I have no idea). Maybe next time we need to find him a cousin with some trucks and cowboy costumes . . .

Since, for some reason, the flash on our camera always seems to capture strange expressions on Evelyn's face, while never capturing exactly the way she typically appears to us, we decided to try a video. Not a very exciting video, since of course she doesn't do anything but blink and wave her hands around in that delicate, tentative way that newborns have, but we figured the grandparents at least might enjoy it. And of course, Andrew has to get in on the action.

(Count how many times Andrew asks Evelyn, "Evelyn, are you burping?")