We Made It to 1 Month

You'll be happy to know that the NorCalAllens have made it through our first month, baby and all! We returned home to Milvia Street on March 23, a sunny Thursday afternoon. Since then, the Sun hasn't been around too much--I heard that it got lost somewhere in Oregon. In its place, we've had rain, scattered showers and rain. Lucky for us, we've been somewhat tethered to our place by an imaginary half-mile, infant-care radius.

Early on, at least when Ben was home helping out for a couple weeks, we didn't venture out too much. We couldn't leave the comfort of the changing table.

When we were both at home, we took turns trying to sleep while the other hung out with Daphne. And by "hung out," I mean constantly moving. Luckily we have a chair that swivels and rocks. We've also got a 25 pace track in our place (kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, nursery, dining room, kitchen...), which we use a lot.

In the first couple of weeks, Daphne slept quite a bit. The only problem was that she had her days and nights mixed up. Here's her signature sleeping move.

As I said, we didn't leave our place too much early on. Luckily, we had a few visitors. Here's Cortney's Mom Kathie, with a sleeping Daphne.

Here's Cortney's Dad Dan holding Daphne at our place, demonstrating the modified swaddle. Daphne likes cozy (I mean, who doesn't?), but she likes her arms and legs free. No doubt she'll grow up to oppose evil doers who want to take away our freedom--but, that's another thing all together.

Here's a picture of Daphne meeting her grandmother, Ben's Mom Deborah. Daphne was very focused, which she gets from time to time. I think she liked hearing her grandmother's subtle North Shore accent--you just can't find that too often out here in California.

Kelly, Rob and Emma also visited Berkeley too. Here's Aunt Kelly holding Daphne.

This month, Daphne had her first trip out of beautiful Alameda County, for Easter. We got off to a great start as Daphne quickly started sleeping in the car as we pulled away from our place. Then, just as we got to the Carquinez Bridge, Daphne started flipping out. It was very unpleasant, because we couldn't pull over on the bridge and we couldn't snatch Daphne from her carseat. We finally made it through the toll plaza (thank you FastTrak) and darted into Vallejo for a quick nursing and hugging pitstop. A little drama, but overall the first 100 mile car trip was OK.

It was great to see family and friends in the Sacramento River valley. Here's a picture of Daphne with her great-grandfather, Papa. Daphne was very happy to meet him and had lots of questions about when he was a kid. In this shot she's just taking a quick snooze.

Here's a picture of Daphne in her fancy new Easter outfit, courtesy of Kathie. That flower is an aftermarket part that Kathie sewed on. Daphne was very appreciative.

Well, that's all for this month. Our plan is to post once a month, on or around the 21st (in honor of Daphne's monthiversaries). So, please return monthly for exciting stories and photos from the NorCalAllens!