Zoey is (Almost) 2 Months Old

I haven't contributed to the Blog for some time, so I thought I'd sit down and pound out a few thoughts about Zoey and the first 2 months of fatherhood.

Life is grand.

I cannot express it any other way. I have never felt so incredibly satisfied and fulfilled as I have with Zoey and Judy in my life. Zoey is now, as you can see from the pictures below, spending much of her awake/alert time smiling and making little baby noises to entertain us while Judy and I look on. When she is tired or bored of the same scenery, she yawns or starts to look away, playing with her fingers. Judy and I are starting to read her queues or baby langauge and we can tell that she is ready for her nap time.

For naps, we close the blinds and say, "Goodbye" or "See you later" to Mr. Sun, we wrap Zoey up tight in a swaddling blanket, and we cuddle for a short time until she starts to drift off into dreamland. Sure, some days are harder than others. Today, for instance, she spent most of her awake hours making noises and screaming for something that we could not apparently provide. However, most days her eyes roll back and we gently place her in her crib, and she garbles and grunts herself to sleep.

Often, we stay in the room just to be there.

In addition to looking after Zoey, I've spent a good portion of my summer vacation reading books. After a month of playing PS2 (EA Sports MLB Baseball 2004), I decided that I probably should be doing something a bit more industrious with my time. In fact, I actually told Judy that, after winning the World Series, I would pack up all of my PS2 games, seal them with packaging tape, and not open them until I finished my capstone. I did that about 3 weeks ago now, and I haven't missed them since. Unfortunately, I haven't begun my capstone, because I've been reading like mad.

So my summer basically has gone like this the past week or so:

- Run/Exercise (either am or pm)
- Play With Zoey
- Read
- Feed Zoey when Judy is sleeping
- Read some more
- Read to Zoey
- Watch Zoey sleep while I read.

You get the point.

I can't wait to share books with Zoey. Even today, a day where she was definitely not in her best spirits, I sat Zoey in her vibrating chair and I showed her a cardboard book on baby animals (touch and see variety) and I read her Grandpa Livingston's favorite story, "Peter Rabbit." She was calm while I read, and that was very rewarding.

Sometimes, as I'm putting Zoey to sleep, we whisper about what we'll get Mom (Judy) for her birthday (the big 3-0 is quickly approaching). Sure enough, Zoey inspired me to get the very thing that Judy has been wanting. She actually said just the other day, "I really need a walkman so I can not be bored when I exercise." I told her that I had it covered. OK, I basically spilled the beans that I was going to get her an IPOD for her birthday. Therefore, Judy got a birthday present early. All was inspired by my whispered conversations with Zoey.

Don't worry Judy. Zoey still has some ideas up her sleeve for your birthday.