As promised

Here are some of the pictures from Mila's debut. I have more, but they will have to wait until I have access to my beloved Photoshop again. Man do I miss Photoshop.

Mila's very first minute! They don't come newer than this. You can see Ben's hand reaching in to cut the cord.


Mila gets weighed...and Aunt Susan shoves the nurse out of the way to get a picture ;)


Ben holds his daughter for the first time.


Mom C. and her first grandchild. She reports that it may have been easier to give birth to her three children than watch her daughter go through that kind of pain. Difficult or not she was a great support for Marcie.


A very proud Grandpa Cleveland. I think he would have stayed in the room if Marcie had let him. He wanted very much to be as supportive as possible.

Aunt Susan

Welcome to the world Mila Elizabeth Lehman. Born at 3:06, February 18th 2007. She weighs in at 7 pounds 11 ounces and is 20 inches long. She is positively gorgeous (ok, so I might not be the most objective judge).

Pictures to come soon...I'm still at the hospital so there is no way to download them from my camera.

Mark

Not much to report here. I've just been hanging out at the Cleveland's house making my self useful. Today I shoveled the driveway again, finished laundering the last of the baby clothes. They are now pre-washed and hung or folded as they should be. I also put together a bouncy seat (with fun aquarium accoutrements) and a diaper changing table, I installed the car seat base in Marcie's car (although we still need to go get it checked by a professional) and boiled all the bottles and bottle accessories. Nearly all the bottles had this oily film on them, but it came off in the sanitation process. I'm running out of things to clean/arrange so Marcie needs to have this kid soon!

Palate

Did anyone else watch Iron Chef America (Battle Chocolate) last night? If so, does anyone else feel like Jeffrey Steingarten is just a terrible bitter old man. He is very critical of the food, but hey that's what he's there for, cool by me. It's just the way that he treats his fellow judges. He is condescending to a degree I didn't know possible and snipes at everyone. Why would anyone want to be near him...ever? Kudos to the other judges for being adult enough to return time after time to put up with him without stooping to his level. And Jeffrey...get a grip.

It's snowing

Welp, here I am back in Michigan. I got into Detroit yesterday afternoon and drove over here to Muskegon and am currently staying at Roland's parents house. I only rented a car for the drive over so now I'm vehicle-free. It's pretty weird. Although Marcie's car is here and I'm pretty sure I could borrow it an any time. I think adding to the weirdness is my lack of anything I need to do. I don't need to clean up the apartment, do laundry, or anything. And most especially I don't need to take care of the dog. Being back in Florida with Roland, I can't take him for a walk, or brush out the mats behind his ears, or brush his teeth, or Dremel his nails, or any of the other stuff that goes into taking care of him. Today he is due for another Advantage (flea drop) treatment, but I can't do that either. Weird.

Also in this morning's weird files is being here. It's a little weird to be hanging out at Roland's parents house indefinitely. I get along with and love Roland's parents, but it's still...odd. I'm also struggling with baby-daddy. Apparently he is currently out of commission with a miserable cold, so I have a little time to get my self together, but man does my temper want to vent on him some. It's getting harder and harder to separate the boy from the behavior. Anywho, I'm about to go see what I can do about emptying the dishwasher because hey, that something I can do around here to feel useful.

It IS worse the second time

So the whole video blog thing that Anne and I are indulging in was inspired by an author Anne is familiar with, John Green (An Abundance of Katherines, Looking for Alaska) and his brother Hank. After finding that their relationship was turning almost completely textual, they decided to go for a whole year of textless communication. They are calling it Brotherhood 2.0. I find it highly amusing and recommend you check it out. There is one video blog post a day for each weekday alternating between them. As part of this project if they miss a day or use textual communication there are punishments. Today was the first such occasion as John accidentally cc'd Hank on an email he sent. Seriously, although a bit disturbing in that I find it funny, watching a man find out the joy that is waxing made me laugh out loud.

Question: Why didn't the Yeti warn him to pull the skin taut before pulling?

A little bit of this

Some more wildlife has been spotted. This time it includes a male anghinga drying itself near the aquatic center and a widdle bitty lizard hanging out in a transformer(?) box at our complex. Both are much better embiggened.



In other news, I will be flying back to Michigan on Wednesday. I'm going to be staying in Muskegon to help out with Marcie's baby which should be arriving not long after I do...maybe. Who knows with a first baby. I'm actually going a bit early so I could get a decent price on the ticket. She is due on the 19th and right before that (when I would normally have gone) is Valentines Day creating some rather steep prices. I'm avoiding all that by going a bit early. Now I just have to decide if I'm going to rent a car and go over to Muskegon on Wednesday or have Karl pick me up at the airport and wait there until Friday when my Mom can come over to get me and take me across the state.

Family Vlog

Here is my second Vlog attempt.