Happy First Birthday, Shea

Sweet Shea,

What fun it has been for us to get to know your charming personality and watch you grow over this last year.

You are our baby joy.

Love,
Mommy and Papa

P.S. We should have recognized your fantastic potential for SCREAMING from the video footage below, shot less than an hour after your birth. A sign of things to come, indeed.
May your voice always be heard.

Birth Day: April 30, 2005, 1:57pm

10 days old

one month old

two months old

three months old

four months old

five months old

six months old

seven months old

eight months old

nine months old

ten months old

eleven months old

one year old

Sometimes She Reminds Me of Jack Nicholson

Twice As Goofy

Watching Her Favorite Show, Teletubbies

Say Uncle

This batch of photos, taken at Finn and Shea's cousin Reilly's third birthday party on April 15th, represents the old digital camera's last day's worth of photos (may it rest in digital peace).

We had a great time celebrating with friends and family and watching the kids tear open the pinata. But the highlight of the day was definitely the arrival of the kids' sweet Uncle Paul--an uncle little Shea and Reilly had never met before last Saturday--who flew in from Denver to visit us all over the last week or so.

Visits from Uncle Paul have been few and far between in recent years, so we all did our darndest to convince him to move to California once and for all. Hopefully, we'll be seeing more of Paul in the future (hint, hint, Denver guy).

Birthday Boy Reilly, flush with his newfound three-year-old power, prepares to take first swings at his birthday pinata

Sister Kendra, handicapped by the beanie, takes a blind stab at tearing the pinata open


The booty -- and subsequent mad scramble


Uncle Paul and Baby Shea, meeting for the first time

John and the kids in a quiet moment

I'll Take "Tonsilitis" For Two, Alex

The Good Ol' Days

Now that the camera's officially dead, I may not be posting recent shots for a while. Until we find a replacement machine to sate my full-blown photography addiction, I'll be posting images I have stockpiled over the recent weeks.

Here then, are Shea and John sharing a snuggle and a tousle in the living room a few Saturdays ago. Back before she turned into a snarling, fanged, triple teether, that is.

Woulda Coulda Shoulda

I woulda had a doozie of a photo for you today--a real gem of a shot that showed Finn fast asleep while on the potty, his head propped up on the toilet paper holder with Puppy Baby as a cushioning pillow--had I not killed the camera.

Well, actually, it was Shea's leaky bottle that squirted out all its milky goodness into the basin of my purse, saturating a number of important items, but none that will be missed so acutely as the digital camera.

I'm all twitchy about it, like a smoker aware with every cell and fiber that his/her cigarette supply has just run dry. John's doing his best to conduct emergency repairs but I fear the worst.

I shoulda never put the bottle in my purse, yes. I coulda saved myself a lot of hassle if I only had eight arms to carry the babies/toys/bottles/purses/backpacks/etc. that I seem to have attached to me at any given point of day or night.

Add to this latest inconvenience the fact that Shea's cutting three teeth at once and running a fever, making this week four of tending to sick children. (We went from an ear infection and conjunctivitis for Finn, to conjunctivitis for Shea, to conjunctivitis for Shea again, to fever and tonsilitis for Finn, and now this mystery ailment for Shea that I'm insisting is "just teething" because I don't know if I can stomach one more trip to the pediatrician and pharmacist.)

Sour grapes make bad whine.

DVDevious

Step One: Empty entire drawer of DVDs and scatter around room.

Step Two: When busted for trying to climb into empty drawer to then step upwards and into armoire, flash disarming smile that will surely get you out of trouble for many years to come.

His First Slumber Party

Last week was spring break for us--a week when many mothers across the country spent the entire week with children who are otherwise usually in school, a week that serves to foreshadow the long, hot summer to come.

Since nobody had to get up to go to school, we decided to celebrate by having our very first sleepover party and invited sweet Daisy as our honored guest. It was a great success--everyone was asleep by 8:15pm and up by 6:30am--and not one tear! Daisy was a real champ, especially at bedtime in a new place, and Finn and Shea were delighted to have a third party participating in their dinner/bath/bedtime routine.

Bring it on, summer -- we're ready for you!

Cousins

Three cousins together in 2004...


And baby Shea's addition evens the score on the bench

Happy Easter!

A Picture's Worth A Thousand Dimes

As you may have noticed, I take a lot of pictures. (And now, ladies and gentlemen, the award for Understatement of the Year goes to....)

It's pretty rare that I go anywhere without my camera. As such, I've got lots of photographs in my computer. What may not be so obvious, however, is how many end up in my computer's trash can; for every shot you see on this blog at least five get dumped. My shooting strategy is based on the sheer law of numbers mixed with a pinch of instinct: if I take enough shots I just might get a good one.

I took an embarrassing number of pictures during our trip to Hawaii, partly because I knew it would be a long time before we would be there again, but mostly because my daily shooting mantra is "my kids will never be this young again." Before leaving the island, my Mom suggested I submit one of my favorite images to a photography contest being held in the free island guide magazine we received at the rental car checkout desk at the start of the trip.

(Before I go any further, it must be said that I'm lucky to have one of those moms that thinks pretty much anything her kids or grandkids create is nothing short of legendary. If Finn colors a picture or spells a word, the Guinness World Record folks are likely to hear about it. If there were a contest for the Best Poopy Diaper, she'd surely submit one of Shea's most spectacularly soiled Pampers, confident in her granddaughter's super poopability. This is why I always take her well-intentioned compliments with a grain of salt the size of Gibraltar; she's completely biased.)

That said, I still took her advice and submitted four of my favorite shots to the magazine's "Share Aloha" photo contest. And guess what? A month later, I learned that one of my images--a shot of two rock stackings we saw at sunset while visiting Ed and Amy in Hilo--had been chosen as the first-place winner for the month of February for the Big Island.

And the best part? A cash prize of $100--just enough to cover the cost for some extra computer memory capacity to be able to handle the next 5,000 photos I'm sure to take this month.

Oh yeah, one more thing: Mother knows best.

From Bad To Worse

Shea's a great eater. What Shea is NOT, however, is a great lounger. When she's done with her meal, she wants out of her high chair immediately, if not sooner. Forget hanging out with a few cookies while Mom and Dad finish their meals, I've got toys to play with, brothers to follow, and floors to traverse.

See, below, what happens when Shea's forced to sit in her chair just one moment longer than she'd like.

Ever Watch A Three Year Old Primp?

In The Name Of The Father

Lean On Me

It's official: less than a month from her first birthday, Shea's finally been weaned from her attachment to breastmilk. She's also getting her third tooth, standing on her own for a few seconds at a time, walking with her walker, climbing up the stairs, and even saying "thank you" (and even though it was only once, it was a sweet, sweet song of gratitude).

Check out this fun new blog feature: VIDEO!