These pictures are by Jessica Crawford and have not been edited yet. We really love them though. Chris didn’t get around to shaving for the pictures and I didn’t get around to showering but Helen Jeanette was bathed and dressed to the nines. She was the talent of course so this was completely appropriate.

A lot of valuable things in life are costly and difficult to obtain. Precious stones come from mines where there are dangerous gases and chances for a cave in, people dive for pearls at dangerous depths, and sleeping newborn pictures are obtained by letting the baby go without her diaper for hours at a time. She was able to poop all over several blankets, in one of the props, and all over me. Once again, she was the talent so we had to put up with it. I’ve heard of movie stars with more erratic behavior on set.

Friday was an exhausting day for all of us. We had Helen Jeanette’s first bath at home, her newborn photoshoot in Raleigh, and her first trip to Oma and Opa’s in Cary.  I’m going to post our pictures from the day and then put up some of the pro pics in the next post. 

Day 3, technically her 4th day, and her second full day home.  Her Grandpa Keith came to visit and the day was spent napping, eating, and pooping, as were the days proceeding and following it.

On day 2, our first full day home we went to the pediatrician and everything was looking healthy and good. We made an appointment for Thursday (which we went to this morning) to make sure her weight was on the upswing after the initial weight loss following birth. She isn’t quite at her birth weight yet but she’s gaining at twice the expected rate! I knew those cheeks couldn’t be for nothing and that we’d make a complete chubster out of her yet!

Oh and while at our Tuesday pediatrician appointment she baptized Chris by peeing all over him while her diaper was off for weighing. This led to some confusion which resulted in the nurse throwing away her dress and causing Chris and I to question just how sleep deprived we were when it was time to go and we weren’t sure whether we’d brought her naked pr clothed. We both insisted she’d been dressed but the evidence was against us until we did a particularly deep root through the trash.

519 Holloway has been an exciting place to come home to over the last week and a half. The painters are incredibly close to being done and they just have to put the second coat on the back bedroom before it’s over! In the meantime I’m completely in love with it! Graduate Custom Painting always does a great job for us but they really stepped it up this time and knocked everything out in record time. They did 6 windows for us downstairs (remove, strip lead paint, patch up rotten/holey areas, reinstall, and repaint) and painted the walls, trim, mantles, and ceilings everywhere except the kitchen (when it’s time comes it’ll be a total gut job so we’re not interested in spending any money on it now).

It’s amazing what a difference a good paint job makes! They also cut the door and installed the step shown so we can go upstairs without going outside. Oh the luxury.

Everything is a mess because we piled things in the middle of a room while they painted. I’m cleaning up and throwing things out as I sort stuff back where it belongs so hopefully it will be much cleaner then before when finished.