The following pics are from my sister's 33rd birthday party.

We were sitting around the living room, and I decided to play with the self-timer on the camera. This is the only one that came out.

Johanna gets her first cooking lesson as she helps mom make corn bread.

So it's been 10 days. Sue me.

Since then, Johanna has done the following:

- Met Scotty, Amanda, and her son Christian at a taco feed hosted by Phyllis (Scotty and I tied at 10 tacos!). No pics!
- Entertained the teachers at Daddy's school durin Daddy's "Paternity Leave Survival Party" - with a Superman theme. We received many cool things - lots of diapers, board books, gift cards, etc., even some Pittsburg Steeler stuff for Dad. (waiting for pics!)
- Saw Grandma Helene twice!
- She has started to smile at everyone when she first hears their voice. It's a good feeling when she rssponds like that.

I've been enjoying the hot weather (70s all week!) by taking Johanna on walks through the neighborhood. I've met a lot of neighbors this way, mainly retirees who ask about the baby and want to talk about their own kids. I tried to take a picture of what we look like walking around, but it didn't work out too well. But still, there's me and there's Johanna in her Baby Bjorn.

It's been 5 days since I entered anything. We are doing some experimenting with nipple (for the bottle) sizes, to see which ones she likes best. Johanna has outgrown the #1 nipples, and we tried #3s. She seems to drink too quickly with that size and chokes, then cries, then not fun. I'll keep you posted, as I'm sure you're all waiting with baited breath to find out which nipple she prefers.

On another note, we took Johanna to Barnes and Noble tonight for the opening party for Lemony Snicket's last book, creatively entitled, The End. She won an "extra small" t-shirt, pictured below. Her first contest, first win. Tomorrow I'll take her with me to get a lottery ticket....

Grandpa Dale Geldreich came up with Grandma Kareen all the way from Sacramento to see Johanna.

Grandma Kareen Geldreich



Grandma Kareen

With grandpa Fred at his house in Portland.

Another tough day of paternity leave. Sheryl woke me up at 5:30, and I had to get out of bed to get Cedar ready for school. Once we dropped her off, Johanna had a small bottle and slept until noon. In a show of solidarity, I slept with her on the couch, she was sprawled out on my stomach. I needed the rest as my back had hurt so much, I hadn't slept until 1 am the night before. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading, walking around the neighbor, drinking bottles, that kind of thing. Johanna was great until we waited in line at Felida to pick up Cedar.

From then on until around 4, Johanna cried. I tried to burp her for the better part of an hour, alternating that with trying to sing to her, distract her, giving her some more bottle, etc. She FINALLY burped 3 times, then fell to sleep again on my chest like nothing had happened. We were still there on the couch when Sheryl came home.

I don't know how many more days of this I can take (actually I do - 7 1/2 weeks!), and I will be sure to enjoy each one.

A few pics Sheryl took trying to catch a smile.