Dexter's Smiles - Captured!

I finally caught some on video!




And, just in case you thought it was all fun and games, here he is about 4 hours later...

Dexter's First Bath

Well, we finally managed to get Dex in the bathtub tonight. A couple of weeks ago, we had given him a semi-bath, where we didn't let the tub fill up so his umbilical stump wouldn't get wet. It was a little crazy.

Things went much better tonight. He only peed on us twice - once right at the end of the bath, and once while we were drying him off.





And, finally, video goodness:

Dexter's First Smile!

We'll say it was this morning. :) I think I might have gotten a real smile a day or two ago, but it was too fleeting to be sure.

The real first smile wasn't captured, but here he is just moments before. He had a bottle, then we went to wake Dennis for work. (You can see how well that went. Apparently taking the 4am feeding made Dennis a little tired.) They looked cute, so I took a picture. Dexter politely waited for me to put the camera away before turning on the real charm.

He whipped out the smile again a couple of hours later, though, and I caught it. Amazing smile, horrible picture. (Hey - you try juggling a baby and a camera and trying to get him to smile all at the same time!) Trust me, it's much cuter if you can see it from my actual viewing angle instead of the camera angle.

Dexter's Belly Button

It's finally revealed!

His umbilical stump finally fell off last Thursday (I think). He was just shy of 3 weeks old.

Stump-free baby.
(pic taken 10/27/08 - 3w, 3d old)
Yeah, he seems not-so-sure about this whole belly button thing.

Stump closeup.
Because apparently I have to document everything.

Belly button closeup.
I think it looks perfect.

Of course, you know what this means - BATH TIME! He had some residual scabbing, so we've held off on the bath. The scabbing came off today, so I think Tuesday night is Dexter's First Bath. Photos/possible video to follow, of course.

Dexter's 3 Week Photos

Our baby boy is getting so big!



And, just because, here's that last one with a caption from my friend Christa. I guess he does sortof look like he's about to start a revolution or something.

Dexter's Nursery

It's finally finished! I finished the painting late Friday night, October 3. I put the furniture back between contractions in the wee hours of the morning, and Dexter was born at 12:03 PM on Saturday, October 4.

It's taken the rest of this time (almost 3 weeks) just to put the finishing touches on, like putting the rug down, arranging things on the bookshelves, and putting sheets on the crib.

Here it is, in all of its glory. I do love it, but I'm not sure I'd do the same thing again. It took about a month to do all of that painting. I think the next kid is getting peel & stick decals.

Dexter's First Pro Photos

We had Dexter's newborn photos taken by Susie Gaal on Monday, October 13. The proofs are now available for your viewing pleasure:

• go to www.spgphoto.com
• click on the view proofs link
• event code: cooley
• email - I don't think you need to enter a valid email - feel free to fake one if you want to avoid any spam.
• password: danielle

For those so inclined, you can order directly from the site. There's a chance we may buy the copyrights to a few of them, though, so if you do want any prints, you may want to hold off a bit - it'll be way cheaper if we happen to buy the copyright for it. (They'll also make great Xmas gifts for some extra special grandparents, so if you have a favorite, maybe you should just let us know.)

Here's a taste. (Suitable for viewing, but it's not high-resolution for printing. Copyright Susie Gaal.)