Well, this weekend was a big one for little Pooper. Her cord fell off, she got her very first bath and she went to her first block party!

She's really been doing great. Her hair is lightening up but we're still not sure if it's going to go red or stay blonde. She's able to lift her head up and hold it up for quite a bit when I have her on my tummy. She's got no real interest in pacifiers. If she takes it it's cuz she's really hungry and it's a bottle she wants. Otherwise, she just spits it right out.

Saturday evening was our neighborhood block party. Our little community gets together every couple of months and bar-b-ques and just hangs out. Jeannette was quite a hit, even though the little princess decided she'd rather sleep. Not even the sounds of the other kids playing with the police car loud speaker and siren was enough to disturb her (our local precint's liason officer attends these events as well).

Her little cord came off Sunday so, Jenn gave her her first real bath Sunday night. She seemed to really enjoy it until she decided it was getting just a bit too cold and that she was clean enough. Once she was all dressed and warm again, she was quite happy. Speaking of happy, she's ticklish. She doesn't know how to laugh yet, but when I stroke the bottom of her foot, she squirms it around and makes faces at me. It's quite adorable.

Yes, she's already got Daddy wrapped around her chuby little finger.

Well, the last two days have been just Itty Bitty and Daddy home alone. Mommy had to go in to the office. The first week of each month is the busy time for her so she needed to catch up a little. Needless to say, she was a bit nervous about how New Daddy would handle Itty all on his own.

Three words - Piece of cake!

She's pretty solid on her three hour schedule, so, all I had to do was keep the one end fed and the other end dry and she was happy. I put her swing in my office facing my fish tank so she could watch the fishies. I doubt she can actually make them out, but I'm sure she can see the colors moving back and forth in the tank.

Jenn and I have settled in to a decent routine for dealing with the night time feedings. She put Jeannette to bed at 9pm, changes her, puts her in her pajamas and feeds her. She also handles the 3am feeding. I get up at midnight and 6am and take care of the munchkin then. At 6am, I bring the baby monitor downstairs with me, and get ready to go to work, either at home or to the office. This way, all of us are getting a decent night's sleep.

It's the cutest thing when I feed Jeannette. I'm right handed so I place her on my lap with her head to my left so I can hold the bottle in my right hand. She takes my pinky in one little chubby fist and my middle finger in the other chubby little fist and holds on tight until she's done eating. Only then, will she spit the bottle out and release my fingers. It's very cute. And, this whole time she's lookiing up into my face with tose big blue eyes saying "who the heck are you?" :)

This was our first weekend home with Jeannette. A great time for both Mommy and Daddy to not only bond with her, but, to learn her routine and how she communicates with us. She's really been a very easy baby. She fusses when she's hungry and when she needs a diaper change. That's about it. the rest of the time, she's fairly content to just amuse her self looking at this brand new world she's just arrived in.

Friday night, I took the 3am feeding. Jeannette is on a three hour schedule and generally wakes up just before my alarm would have gone off. Anyway, Jenn had done her mindight feeding so it was only fair that I take my turn. I walk into Jeannette's room and see this.

Mommy had gone and made herself a little nest of pillows so she'd have a comfy place to feed her baby. It was very cute but I realised that yes, we needed a spot to feed Jeannette that was close to her crib. So we went to Baby's R Us on Saturday and bought a glider. As cute as the "nest" was, it wasn't very practical.

Jeannette has also started spending more time awake during the day than she was at first. She likes her swing and her bouncer but is content to be in her bassinet as well. I was on the computer Saturday morning, so, after changing and feeding her at 6am, I put her in her bouncer and took her into my office with me. She just sat there quite happy to watch Daddy.

We went with the aquarium theme for her bouncer and swing and stuff because of my interest in my salt water fish. I've got a big 90 gallon salt water tank in my office. She's not really old enough yet to enjoy but, I'm sure she will. She really enjoys the Fisher Price "aquarium" in her crib. I turn that on after her night time feedings and watching it soothes her to sleep.

It's been so great the amount of positive support we've been getting from all of our family and friends and coworkers. Everybody seems to happy and excited for us it's very gratifying. I think one of my biggest "fears" when we first dicussed the idea of adoption was how the child would eb received by our families. Well, that fear is definitely put to rest. Everybody seems to lover her! Because we've been asked, Jenn set up a Baby registry at both Baby's R Us and Target. She's got lots of stuffed animals, but, clothes are always good, plus any of the normal baby things too.

She looks so cute in her little outfits. She's got some really cute "dresses." This coming weekend is the next neighborhood block party. Every few months, our neghborhood gets together and BBQ's and just basically hangs out. This will be the first one since Jeannette has come into our lives and we're eager to show her off.

This, is Jeannette.

She was born on May 23rd, 2009 to her birth Mommie Emily. She named her Hope April. She chose to bless Jenn and I with her baby. We brought her home on May 26th.

We named her Jeannette Erica Hope. Jenn's Grandmother and my Great Aunt are both named Jeanne. We chose to honor these two women who were important in both our lives. Unfortunately, neither of them is with us to meet Jeannette in person, but, we feel that she'll make them proud. Eric is Jenn's brother who was tragically taken from us at too young an age. Jenn loves her brother deeply and knows he'd be proud to share his name with his niece.

Jeannette weighed 8 lbs 3 0z at birth, was 20 inches long and has blonde hair and blue eyes (and one very cute dimple). She'd lost a couple of ozs of weight by discharge, but, I can happily say she's put all of that wieght back on.

She's been an amazing baby. She only fusses when she's actually hungry or needs a diaper change. The rest of the time, she's usually asleep, but, even when she's awake she's happy to just look around at this great big world around her.

There was a ton of traffic on the ride home from the hospital, but, I think her day had been a rough one and she slept right through it. I took side streets hom and drove like I was carrying a load of eggs stacked on top of nitro glycerin. Happily, despite the rain and rush hour traffic conditions, I managed to get my precious cargo home without incident. She was changed, fed, changed again, and then settled in for her first night home. She slept in her bascinet in our room that first night. I think Jenn was worried she might disappear and wanted to keep one eye on her all through the night. Neither of us slept much as the excitement had not worn off.

The next day, there were some things we needed, so, we decided to load her up and take her on her first outing. As you can see, this didn't phase her one bit. She managed to sleep through the entire trip, although she was cooed over a great deal by everyone we passed. I also managed to do better driving. Take it slow and easy.

Yesterday, she had her first doctor visit. She did very well, even when the doctor tried to take blood. Although, I don't think I've ever been so close to slugging an old lady doctor as I was when Jeannette shed those baby tears. I had to fight down the dad instinct and tell myself the doctor knows what she is doing. We calmed her right down afterward and a bottle removed any lingering remnants of discomfort, although, you can see the little band aid from the needle.

Even though she wasn't dirty, Jenn wanted to give her her first bath so, a little once over with a damp wash cloth and a change of cloths and she was all set for the evening.

Nights have taken some getting used to. We are trying to get her on a schedule for human beings. As it is, she likes to wake up around 2am and stay up for a couple of hours. It's not that she crying the whole time, but, she gets hungry so, we're up and down a bit more. But, on the whole she's on a roughly 3 hour schedule. Every 3 hours she changed, fed, and usually changed again. She's eating between 1 1/2 and 3 oz of formula at each feeding, where she was only eating about 1/2 an ounce in the hospital. She's definitely found her appetite.