Crank that Soulja Boy

Oh look, Lil' Viv has joined the ranks of young hip hop artists with her own rendition of Soulja Boy's "Crank That." We're so proud!




And if you have no idea what I am talking about, you can watch Soulja Boy on YouTube:

Blue Steel

Tiona Fuller came over this weekend for Vivian's first photo shoot. Tiona was really fun to work with, and she got some great poses, including Vivy's own take on Blue Steel below. We've known all along that Vivy is unusually beautiful (as well as kind, intelligent, hard working, and athletic). We were thrilled nonetheless for Vivy to get her first taste of fame with a feature on Tiona's web site.

My Girls

The three best looking ladies in the whole world - I'm the luckiest husband, father, dog-owner there is!

Severely Pacified

She took the pacifier for about five minutes, and boom, she was out!














Notice the marks around her mouth - so funny!

Weekend Visitors

We had lots of visitors over the weekend! My dear friend Kelly came over with her daughter Tallie and sister Erin to meet Vivy. Vivy slept the whole time, but I think Tallie enjoyed meeting her none the less!




Then, my Aunt Nancy, cousin Ginger and her two boys came all the way from Atlanta to meet the little one.




Last, but not least, our regular weekend visitors, the Metzls, came over with Steph for pizza on Sunday. I think Uncle Randy started this game of putting all his loose change in pots and making noise with it, but Josh just wanted to wear the pot. He even recruited Marty for his fashion show!




Thanks everyone for coming! It was a wonderful weekend to share with you guys.

Bath Time

Vivy had her first tub bath this week and even added her own hot water in the process. We didn't want to bathe her in her pee, so we moved her to a pot! My mom said we should just change the water in the tub next time... Anyway, here are a few precious pics from her bath. I want my UNCG gals to note that Vivy is wearing her "Super Star" onesie that Carolyn made-- she wears these personalized onesies a lot.

Off With the Fingernails!

Both Vivy and I have been in need of a manicure for several days. Actually, I was planning to just file my nails because the edges were so jagged from the last time I cut them. And Vivy just needs hers trimmed. So today in the car I was examining my jagged nails, thinking that I needed to file them as soon as I got home and saw that there was this light brown something under my pinky nail-- you guessed it: Vivy Poop. So I decided to forget filing; I need to keep these nails as short as possible. Another surprise in motherhood...

But I can't complain too much-- I'll take a little poop to see this face any day.

War Stories

Once I was visibly pregnant, it seemed that everyone I met wanted to tell me the story of their child's birth. I had been warned that this would happen, especially with women who had particularly difficult experiences. And overall it was fine-- I actually enjoyed meeting other moms and hearing their stories. But until I experienced Vivy's birth I didn't get why they wanted to tell me all this personal information. But now I do! A birth story is a mother's war story. My friend Mary J said that now that I have experienced birthing a baby I am in a league with all the other mothers in the world, both past and present, who have this shared experience. And now I have my own war story to share. So here's a short version:

My labor was pretty textbook until I started experiencing some back labor. We didn't know that Vivy's head was pressing against my pelvis and back in such a way that the right side of her face was hitting my pelvis with every contraction. After over an hour of pushing, my doctor Chris realized that Vivy was brow presenting (if you want to read more, you can at www.birth.com.au). The long and short of it is that she came out right eyebrow first which is the "broadest" way a baby can come out. .02% of births are brow presenting, and most of them result in a c-section. So for her to arrive here through a vaginal delivery is pretty incredible. Needless to say, both her recovery and mine have been a little longer and harder than expected, but were both doing really well now. Here's picture of Vivy's other side (the one we didn't post initially, and I wish you could see her bruising better) and one of her with Randy the other day. And I won't show you a picture of my bruising! ;)