Thanksgiving

If the only prayer you ever say in your lifetime is, "Thank you," that would be enough.

- Meister Eckhart

We had much to be thankful for this year! Maren was so excited by her first Thanksgiving that she slept through the whole thing. (Mercifully, she also slept that night - more gratitude from her parents.)

She met a lot of family members...

She got to hang out with her cousins...

And then, the next day, she got to meet some more friends.

All in all, not a bad weekend.

Maren, week three

It's hard to believe that we are approaching Maren's one-month birthday soon! She's had a good third week. Many adventures. Including:

Meeting cousin Lauren, who visited from Montana (and brought her some super cute shoes to wear later...thanks, Lauren!)

Several car rides, in which she usually looks like this (seems horribly uncomfortable to us, but she sleeps like a rock)

Going to church at Holy Spirit Lutheran, meeting lots and lots of parishioners, all while wearing her spectacular hot-pink flower hat (a gift from one of said parishioners)

Maren's first bacon! (More of an observation experience for her - dad ate the bacon)

Tummy time with dad (who has been home from school because of the snow)

Maren's first snow! (Don't worry, grandmas - she was only outside for two seconds while we took the photo.)

Coming soon: Maren's first Thanksgiving. Hopefully coming shortly after: Maren sleeps through the night! (Ha, ha, ha. Just kidding.)

how you can recognize a new parent

There are a lot of ways to recognize a new parent. Such as:

1. Glazed-over expression from sleepless nights.

2. Someone who looks like they might not have showered for a few days.

3. A person whose head whips around at the sound of a baby's cry.

4. Pale skin (from not having left the house in a week).

And, of course, there is this tell-tale sign:

This is the stroller we received as a gift, which is designed for use with the infant car seat. I put it, already collapsed-down, into the car and took Maren to the mall (to get out of the house and avoid sign number four, as indicated above). It was a little tricky to set it up and get the carseat into it, but I figured it out.

However, re-collapsing it so that it would fit back into the car...well, that's another matter. I tried numerous times, all while the woman in a large SUV waiting for my parking spot at the mall was getting a day's worth of entertainment out of it. Eventually, I gave up, crammed the whole stroller into the car, slammed the door shut, and took off.

Also a sign of a new parent: people who take pictures of the stroller their desperate wife crammed into the car while they both laugh and then go into the house to practice collapsing and un-collapsing the stroller (we're pretty sure we figured it out this time).

open mouth, insert fingers...eventually.

Shhh...don't tell Maren, but her fingers are actually attached to her arms, which are - in turn - attached to her body. Which means that, someday, she is going to be able to get those fingers in her mouth on a regular basis, and that is going to be an exciting day.

For now, the Great Finger Search is on. It's a daily event. We'll keep you posted.

hand-me-downs

Once upon a time, my mom wore these clothes. She and my grandma thought it would be fun to have me wear them too. I, personally, am not opposed to that - I mostly just like to wear things that are comfortable and that don't involve getting naked when my diaper is being changed.

I wore this sweater to church today (my first church service - I slept through the whole thing).

And my grandparents have a photo of my mom wearing this University of Washington Husky jersey from...a long time ago. Featuring some guy named Sonny Sixkiller. I did not particularly enjoy wearing this jersey (I spit up on it big time) but, according to my mom, that does not mean that I am a Washington State Cougar fan. (My dad swears by this theory, however.)

sleep 101

Sometimes I sleep like this.

Sometimes I sleep like this.

I really like to sleep like this:

And lately I have developed a new sleep position, which looks like this.

Too bad I don't seem to use any of these skills at night.

Oh well.

bathtime

Maren has had three baths so far: one at the hospital (which went pretty well, thanks to the expert nurse); and two at home. Those were...well, loud. Lots of screaming. Everyone tells us that, one day, she will love having a bath. Hopefully that day arrives soon.

You would think we were waterboarding her from the reaction we get, but fortunately, she only needs to be bathed 1-2 times a week. The first time, we learned that it is important to get a diaper on her as quickly as possible after the bath is done (we learned this the hard way). She calms down almost immediately after she gets dried off, but while she's wet? Wow, can this kid scream. No problem with her lungs.

Poor baby. Fortunately, she looks more like this most of the time:

One of these days, she is going to figure out how to get her fingers to stay in her mouth, and that will really help. (I'm pretty sure she is not actually flipping the bird to the camera in that photo, but given how much she hated that bath, it might be a possibility.)

Maren has visitors

We've had lots of fun visitors so far - all kinds of grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, friends...and more to come.

Maren's first visitors were Aunt Ami, Uncle John, and Sofia - they came to the hospital, and as a bonus, they were dressed for a Halloween party. Which means that Maren's first sight of her Uncle John was of him dressed as a used-car salesman. (Sadly, no photos of that one.) Grandma and Grandpa McCallum were at the hospital soon after, and then we connected with Grandma and Grandpa Sachse, Aunt Brenda and Uncle Bob, and Jenny via video chat.

When we got home the next day, Maren met John, Ami and Sofia again:

They had made a "welcome home" sign for us!

And Grandma Diane spent the week with us. That was a huge gift.

Grandpa Malcolm came over pretty regularly.

And cousin Jenny was the first Bray to meet Maren in person.

Sofia was eager to help keep Maren warm when she came over a few days later. (When Ami asked her what Maren does, she said, "she drinks mama's milk and makes good money." Good to know.)

Then Uncle Grant, Aunt Shannon, and cousin Wyatt came to visit on Thursday.

Aunt Brenda arrived on Saturday, and Jenny got to visit again.

And then Grandma Jackie and Grandpa Bill came on Sunday, and stayed until Wednesday - and made us great food, and helped clean the house, and held Maren a lot.

Aren't you lucky, Maren?

Maren agrees.

the adventures of Maren, week one

Maren is 9 days old today - and she's had a great first week. (Except for the bath. More on that later.)

She spent the first 24 hours mostly like this:

Being born is a lot of work.

Then, she started waking up a little bit, now and then:

But eating is also a lot of work, so she went back to sleep. (Except at night.)

She really likes sleeping on her daddy's chest, especially for the midnight - 2am shift.

And now, she is awake...well, sometimes. (Mostly from 9pm - midnight.) Which looks something like this:

It's too bad nobody takes any photos of this kid.

More on Maren's many visitors later!

Maren takes a bath

Maren had her first bath (at home) on Thursday. She did not enjoy it. We didn't think she would, so hopefully she'll get more used to it as time goes by - but we did discover that there is certainly nothing wrong with her lungs. This girl can scream.

We, of course, took a video of it, which will undoubtedly humiliate her when she is older, but you can check it out first.

welcoming Maren

My name is Maren Grace Sachse. My mom is going to take over writing this blog, because my fingers are not all that quick (and I am still figuring out how they attach to my arms) but I arrived into the world on October 30, 2010.

My parents think I am the cutest baby of all time and I've overheard a few other people agree with this, so that's nice. I sleep a lot. I also eat a lot. Eating is a lot of work, so it makes me tired and then I sleep some more - except at night, when I'm not quite as interested in sleeping. My parents are okay with that so far, but I think they are hoping I figure out the difference between night and day pretty soon. I don't see what the big deal is.

I like eating, and sleeping, especially sleeping on my daddy's chest. I don't like having my diapers changed. And I definitely don't like baths. AT ALL.

This is what I looked like the day I was born.

I weighed 8 pounds, 5 ounces, and I was 20 1/4 inches long. Grown-ups seem particularly interested in those sorts of things.

All this typing has really worn me out, so I'm going to eat. And then probably sleep. Variety, you know.