Since Halloween (see Kaia's disturbing Raggedy zombie parents below), we've been here & there exploring the world with our mouth and hands. Kaia's finally taking interest in her toys. She's always a fan of going outside, no matter if it's raining or freezing. She loves the baby read/sing-a-long at the library. Naps on the couch with Poe are becoming a thing of the past as we've been introducing her to the crib and the struggle to achieve the elusive Sleep Through The Night; Dear Santa, that'd be the best Christmas present of all.

happy halloween!

heart-shaped

Since Kaia's 1-month birthday, we have achieved true smiling (definitely not just gas, though she has plenty of that). The red birthmark on her lip has become decidedly heart-shaped. This may be gone, says the good doctor, by the time she's 2, which will make it harder to identify her in a line-up of bald bandit babies. We've all fallen under the spell of the pacifier. We are only now able to give her full baths since her belly-button was so long in healing - I like to think she didn't want to lose this vestige of prenatal mommy-attachment. Final countdown of daddy going back to work. We're getting in all the housebound robe-wearing that we can.

if a tree falls...

So we went camping in Connecticut with Kaia. The bringing-baby part was fine, it was everything else that conspired against us. The lethal funk odor in our tent, the miserable under-construction campground I errantly reserved for us, and then the tree that fell just inches away from our tent. Here's a photo reinactment of the exciting baby rescue. Needless to say, we're signing up for a B&B at our friend's state park wedding next year and we now have a new fear of trees.

Rorschach and Awe

Hello World. I'm just so happy being a dad, I've got to blog about it. This newborn stuff isn't nearly as agonizing as I was promised. In fact, it's great. When Kaia is fed & doesn't seem to have gas, yet won't stop crying, bouncing on the ball works 9 out of 10. The other video shows us trying out new material; the helicopter ride. Are these techniques perceived as awesome? Doubtful. Shocking? Perhaps. It's hard to say. We're told infants like high contrast so we made these b&w cubes with a variety of shapes to test her aesthetic sensibilities. She seems to look past at my ear. Oh well. It will be helpful when she can genuinely smile. Paternity leave is an amazing gift. I treasure this time and it's made easy what would surely have been tuff. Thank You MoMA and PIB! We've had Grandma JoJo, Mimi, Uncle Erik and Grandpa White to visit. Beautiful. She's getting much love & family and friends are STILL sending gifts and meeting her for the first time. We do a lot of dishes. Not working, yet how are we so busy? It's like I've heard about retirement. We each even take our trips to our special doctors for our various ailments and checkups. No worries. We're all doing fine and just very grateful for Kaia and the support and generosity we've recieved over this super-huge Summer.

awake states

the states of being (when not sleeping of course, which is 80% of the time): being distracted by herself or mom, dad, and grandpa (that's the growing glowing globe of her brain being read to by Jeff), continual nursing (not pictured), crying

hospital to home

toe to head

The first film of Kaia (and Jeff's hand)...

Kaia!

The grand debut of Kaia Madsen White was Wednesday, August 13th at 3:48 p.m. in the Roosevelt Birthing Center after 7 hours of labor and nearly 4 hours of pushing. At 8.12 oz and 21 in., not only was she big and long but she was positioned both posterior facing and had her fist up with her head, so it was challenging to say the least, but with the amazing support of Jeff, my midwife Corie and nurse Laurie, we have this beautiful baby girl. Kaia (pronounced "Kai-a") means "earth" from the ancient Greek, maybe she can save it. (So far) she has blue eyes, a heart-shaped face, a little bit of brown hair, and a sweet disposition. One photo here is all we can muster the strength for right now, but stay tuned for more.

suckers

Well 8/8/8 has come and gone and we're still waiting on baby, learning the art of patience and impossible nights, as we eat spicy food and watch every episode of The Office. We've also finally had the chance to update our long overdue Suckers and Biters site with the images and artist bios from our Feb. 14th show. So in lieu of baby photos, check out these exquisite corpses from collaborating couples like us. Can't help but wonder if life could mimic art and maybe baby could have Jeff's head, my torso, his limbs...let's hope not.

rainingbabies

July was baby shower season - one in hometown, CT; one at Stain in Brooklyn (that's me in front of the backyard mural, sorry the belly is disguised!); and a nice hamburger send-off for Jeff at MoMA. Thanks to all who came and for the many amazing (and necessary) gifts we received, especially all those great books we can't wait to read to [insert name here]. The big name reveal is slated to come VERY SOON as my midwife just announced I'm about to blow any second. We might just have this magic date of 8/8/8 after all. Olympic gold!

mooninghoneys

So, we took the slow train to Montreal, guided by our $1-store plastic wedding couple figurine, which I perched everywhere like something of a dashboard Mary. If the first month is any measure of future happiness, we really dig being married.

wedding photos

Here are the wedding photos our wondrous photographer Jenna took, as posted on her Flickr account. If you'd like some for yourself, clicking on the picture and then clicking the "all sizes" button on the upper left of each picture will take you to the original higher res image to download. Ah technology.

just married

Just a tease of a wedding photo (more to come) from our sweet little bash in Beacon, NY at the charming Howland Cultural Center, complete with BBQ, carrot cake cupcakes, calla lilies, mojitoes, our best men brothers and so much more.

belly

Yes, this is Krista's belly, all dolled up with henna by friend Diana. A figure-eight configuration for good luck. We feel lucky indeed. 34 weeks and counting, oh my.