Joy more precious than gold

Take ten hours of sleep, mix in a few doses of good, nutritious food, add a pretty much perfect August day, and what do you get? A very, very happy baby...


All of us fed, rested, bathed and ready to greet the day.

How adorable is she??

Daddy and the dogs, making a coffee run.

Still a bit on the hot side for the dogs, and Max is showing the strain.

When we first got QiuQiu, she was not very enticed by toys. Though she had clearly been held and talked to and given a lot of attention at feeding time, it doesn't seem like she had learned to play. She was much more interested in paper, pens and reading material than anything that resembled a recreational item. This picture shows the very first time she reached down and picked up a toy of her own accord and started playing with it. We were just walking along, and there she was in her stroller, playing with the teething ring. She's even started experimenting with putting it against her mouth, though she hasn't gotten as far as biting down. I think when her cleft is fixed she'll find a whole new world of mouth sensations. In the meantime, I think it healthy that's she's learning to think about it without fear.


Look at that happy face. Does that just warm the heart? After a good night's sleep and a few days of a more balanced diet, she really looks glowing to me.

This kid can express joy like nothing I've ever seen before, and it warms my heart that she can do this. I love how relaxed she is, how she can flop back in my lap and wrap her legs around my leg, and just wallow in her comfort. I think her ease has a lot to do with the fact that, as a cleft baby, she received a lot more one-on-one contact from her caregivers. I love that she has that good basis to start off with, even if it's not the "whole picture". Her happiness gives me more joy than anything else in the world, and that smile lights me up from the inside out.



Oh, you know what? I never knew the origin of the phrase "So good it makes your toes curl" until now. Here it is, folks. Flynn's foot at feeding time. So good it makes her toes curl. If I remove my hand, by the way, her foot stays up there in exactly the same position.

An old family friend from Woodstock days sent this hand-made sheepskin lamb for Flynn to adopt, along with a beautiful letter of well-wishes, which made us both tear up (me and Mike, that is. Flynn was just interested in the sheepskin!)