Peruvian Hat and a Rat

The title of this blog is a bit deceiving. There is indeed a Peruvian hat but the rat is really more of a field mouse from our backyard. Lily's Uncle Eric from California recently returned from a sojourn in South America. While on his travels he picked up a lovely hand-made hat for Lily in Peru. Lily has worn the hat on a couple of occasions- some worked out better than others.

Our 'rat' incident occurred when Ben was babysitting. Our cat Bella has been feeling extremely neglected and to remind us that she is still around she decided to bring us a present. She walked through our back door with a live mouse in her mouth and proceeded to drop it in front of Ben. Ben then trapped the mouse in a Tupperware and let the cat torture it for nearly an hour. You can check out the pseudo animal cruelty in the video below. Please note, Ben did eventually return the mouse safe and sound to its natural habitat.

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Photo Shoot

We have been trying to take cute pics of Lily for her birth announcements. The photos below are the ones that did not make the cut. These are mostly for our family down in California that beg for new pics of baby- we are sorry to bore everyone else with the inundation of Lily photos.

My face is getting chubby.

Girls Rock Onesy.

Enjoying Baby Aerobics

The latest hot item on the Wendy's menu. We had to try it.

Teaching Our Young

Lily likes to be up and alert for a few hours in the evening. Her Halo-loving Dad thought it would be a good idea to introduce her to the ways of XBox 360.

6 Years Ago

Family Anniversary Portrait

Today is our 6th anniversary and we are thrilled to be able to celebrate with the new little person in our home. Lily stayed at home with her babysitter (Nona) while we went out to a celebratory dinner at Romeos. It was not fancy, but it was still great to get out of the house!

Lily's Grandma from California went home this afternoon after staying with us for 2.5 weeks. She was a huge help and took on the not so exciting jobs of making meals, cleaning our house, and helping with the occasional screaming session. Thanks Mom!

And on with the pics...

3 Generations

I became furious when Dad tried to pose me.

Sometimes I am a little thumb-sucker.

Exhausted but in Love

Sometimes I have to wear gloves so I don't scratch my face

First walk in the fancy BOB stroller at 8 days old.

Hanging out with her Grandpa from California. See the resemblance?

The best part of bath time- a warm towel to pee in.

We were warned in the past that having a baby changes everything... drastically. We figured that after 6 years of marriage, careers and life experience that we would be able to figure out this parenting thing no problem. Holy crap, all I can say is that it is way more difficult that I could have ever imagined! This is by far the most interesting, exhausting and hopefully rewarding challenge yet. It feels like a full-time job x 2.

Our little Lily is growing really quick. According the the books she is eating as much as a 1 month old and has already gained back 10 ounces from her brief stay at the hospital and has far surpassed her birth weight. Her job right now is to sleep lots, eat tons, scream a little at night and then start the cycle over again.

Thanks again to everyone for their well-wishes, phone calls and emails. I promise that in the coming weeks we will start to show our faces a bit more.

Day 4

Friday May 9th.
Sarah got her stiches out today, and had a good night's rest. The hospital was not conducive to sleep. So she came home last night and after some shaking (exhaustion withdrawls??) she got a few good hours. Lily tried her pacifier once or twice during the night just to keep her from breast feeding for a couple hours. She did fine. Now the schedule is back on at every 3 hours.

Anyways, you don't care about that. You just want the pictures. Her is Lily posed with her doll.

Cute.

Bath time.

Not a big fan.

But drying off is better.

The easy life. Manicures already...

Baby mohawk.

Lily has some long hair.

Well that's it. I guess from now on, we'll have to get some pics of other people. Ken and Lizzy are arriving on the plane this afternoon. So maybe there will be something going on this weekend worth documenting. Mother's Day perhaps?

Day 3

Sarah was discharged today. But she's trying to get some rest so I'll just post some more pictures for everybody's enjoyment.



"Yawn."

"Maybe I should give them cute?"

"I found something here"

Teri. Pre-all niter. Imagine the pictures post...

Thursday @ 3-4.30pm. They wouldn't discharge us for over an hour, b/c the nurse on Tuesday morning forgot to give us bracelets identifying us as the parents. But that's ok, good to know there is security for other people.

Finally get down the elevator on our way out and who do we meet?

Good timing. 30 more seconds and we'd have missed eachother.
Sarah with her friends Jen and Sam.

Strapped into the tank. This baby is not going anywhere.

Merci Brian and Beth. This will come in handy

"I need a different shade of pink"

"Where is that nose again? I think it was here somewhere.."

Ben's homestyle Burrito's.
STEP 1: Roll tight

STEP 2: Let simmer

Little Cervato

JOY to the world

LILY JOY GULBRANDSEN May 06, 2008
7lbs, 6 ounces. 50cm (20")

Delivered by C-section after 2 nights of hard work.

"Hey quit poking me!"

"Who do I look like?"

Sarah and Lily bonding.

What a great present for mother's day!

I'm heading back to the recovery room. Sarah is there for at least another 3 nights. I'm sure when she get's back home, she'll write something long and post more pictures. But I thought I should give you all some preliminary ones. We filled up a 256mb memory card already, so I had to come home, shower, download the pics, and then head back.

Sarah is doing well. Pray for a speedy recovery. Lily is beautiful, quiet, sweet, and so far has slept for most of the time. We'll see how long that lasts LOL.
-Ben