Speaking of photography, Mandy was in town a bit ago and did a marvelous photo shoot with Baby Girl. She did some really cool black and white ones and some artsy cropping, but for some reason I can't upload those. But here are some of my favorites:
The photographer and her muse (and Mutt):
Ophelia took her first trip to the Rook farm on Sunday. Sam tinkered with a tractor, Jason made a savory lunch with veggies Larissa grew, I walked Ophelia around while she oogled the animals, and Larissa captured it all beautifully on film here: Ophelia takes the lead
All photos by Larissa 
Last Thursday, I was one of 600 lucky people (well I was lucky, others were rich) who got to see the Vice Presidential Debate in person. I was going to write all about how cool it was, and what an honor, but I can sum it up pretty quickly.
Get to campus, campus was a mess, wait, wait, wait, I got a ticket!, get on the bus, go through security, watch the media circus, be sad TMZ isn't there, stand behind Mike Bush and Deanne Lane so Lindsay, my mom, and Sam could see me, text Lindsay while she watched me on TV, go inside, stand in line for 20 minutes for the ladies room, sneer at young people with McCain pins (old people are more excusable), shake hands with Jay Nixon, almost brush up against Chris Wallace, settle into my nosebleed seat where I can see one podium (whose will it be?), spot Bob Schieffer, Katie Couric, Joe Lieberman, envy another PhD student I see sitting in a much better seat, watch Rudy Giuliani and his wife come in, take a picture of Gwen Ifill for Lindsay (not allowed), be real quiet as debate starts, oh, bummer, we get the view of Biden, shudder at "I'd like to talk about energy" and "maverick" repeat, repeat, text Lindsay (also not allowed), repeat, repeat, debate ends, take lots of pics of the families mingling on stage, shuffle out, return my little WU seat cushion, and then...the coolest part of the entire night....walk past a stunningly beautiful girl in the hallway and realize it is
Baby Girl is a smiling fool now. She's happiest in the morning, but she'll smile all day long if you talk to her, sing to her, or just smile at her. She's a happy happy baby. She's also discovering her hands, shoving them in her mouth a lot, staring at them until her eyes cross, and opening them more.
Man, she's cool.
She just started facing forward in the Baby Bjorn. The very first time I walked down to New Dawn to buy some hippie food and she was awake, looking around, mesmerized by her new view. I put some things in a bag, took them to the counter, and the two girls that work there burst into hysterics. She was passed out, head back, arms lax. Mouth breather.
Last night Baby Girl was upset. I think she was sore from her shots, tired from the trauma, and had a mean case of gas on top of it. She was screaming. I mean SCREAMING. I thought that if I didn't shut the windows the neighbors would call DCFS on me.
After some Tylenol, patting on the butt and the world's longest nursing/screaming-while-nursing session, she cried herself to sleep. Then out came a few long, laborious toots and all was well. She was smiling like she hadn't a care in the world. Then she slept for 6 and a half hours. Whew.
Here's how Sam dealt with the screaming:
And here's BG moments after feeling better, smiling at mama on her changing table:
Thank god she has no memory.
BG went to her two month doctor's appointment today and is in the 97th percentile for length (24.5 inches) and 80th for weight (12 lbs, 2 oz).
We have an amazon woman on our hands.
She also got 4 shots and turned a color I'd never seen before...
Good news first: Baby Girl is 2 months today!!! And, delightfully, she slept from 10pm till 2:45am, and then until 6:30. Momma got some sleep, albeit full of dreams of work and leaving BG with someone without any milk, then wearing a stewardess outfit while piloting our Volvo wagon.
More good news: Sam and I celebrated our first anniversary yesterday, the 15th. We made it one
whole year without killing each other, even while I was pregnant! We celebrated by going to Tony's, the only 5 star restaurant in St. Louis. And it has 5 stars for a reason. The food was amazing and the service impeccable. We had a gift certificate that Sam's parents got from some employees years ago and never used. Thank god, cause that's a pricey meal, my friends. But well worth it!! Sam's folks also watched O for the first time. It was a success! Thanks, Cathy and Gary! Mom defrosted our wedding cake for Sam and made me a gluten-free cake. Thanks, Mom again! Breakfast for days...
Also on the 15th was our friends Casey and Lana's baby Raleigh's first birthday. They had a BBQ and Raleigh managed to put lots of icing in his hair. Our friend Kit has his birthday on the 15th too. Greatest day in the world, apparently.
AND...Mandy was in town this weekend in part to see the babe. She's a semi-pro photographer and took TONS of pics of Ophelia. They are so cute! I can't wait to get them all, and be sure that I'll be posting many of them here.
No news: I haven't been posting much cause school has started and I have LOTS of reading to do. That's difficult when BG doesn't sleep as much anymore during the day, and demands to be carried around, facing outward, or she gets bored. And yes, of course I indulge her because I want a happy baby, a trusting baby, and I know you can't spoil a two month old, no matter what anyone tells me. Mondays are the hardest, where I'm at school from 12:45 till 7:30. And I commute using public transportation (bus/Metro passes free from Wash U), so I'm gone even longer. I end up with a really clean house (thanks, Mom!) and a happy baby (thanks, Mom and Sam!) but I'm exhausted when I get home and I still want to see her. I have class Wednesday days and Thursday evenings as well, but I'm only gone a few hours. So, point is, I may not post as much. I'll try to keep up.
Bad news: David Foster Wallace hung himself Friday night, at the age of 46. I share the sentiments of Radar blooger David Zweig here. While I didn't cry like I did at the death of songwriter Elliot Smith a few years back, I felt a pang of sadness that the world lost an incredibly inflammatory, insanely ridiculous, awesomely talented writer.
I read Infinite Jest in 2002. This is a book that has been called a modern Ulysses, is more than a 1000 pages long, and probably almost a third of those pages are footnotes. There are plotlines that occur only in the footnotes. This book is about addiction, and is an addiction. I literally had co-workers read it out loud to me when I had to do work and they didn't. I carried it with me everywhere for the month it took me to read it. I read it at lunch, I stayed up till 3 am finishing chapters, I snuck it under the register at work just to eek in a few words. It's brilliant. There's professional tennis and a disfigured, veiled public radio host on WYYY, paraplegic wheelchair assassins (from Canada, of course) and twisted tennis boarding school antics. There're incredibly real moments in twelve step meetings and glib Bostonian AA old-timers who yell "Live it up!" out the windows at winos.
There's a connection you feel with other people who've read Infinite Jest. Many people attempt to read it, but very few succeed in finishing it. You all know people who claim to have read certain books...You can't fake this one. Meeting someone who has is like stumbling onto another member of a secret society, someone who has "heard the squeak." I don't think I know anyone anymore who has read it. Those who introduced me to it have moved out of my life, mostly to become clowns and lighting technicians.
So read away, people!! Let this book ruin your life and make it fabulous all at once. And I'll know when you're done.
And to David Foster Wallace...Live it up!!
Baby girl is smiling now. She's smiled at me, she's smiled at Sam, she's smiled at Grandma, and she's smiled at her zebra friend and the ceiling fan. Here's photographic proof:
We went to three days of the Gateway Cup this weekend, and Ophelia loved watching the cyclists whizz by. Or at least she just really loved being outside and looking around. She's really into just kicking her arms and legs, smiling and talking to everything.
Stop sniffing me, Chewy!
Mama and me
Just a gratuitous shot of a Hershey's Kiss on her head.
