If a picture is worth 1000 words, here are about 12,000...

If you haven't yet heard, we had the most beautiful baby girl on the 27th. Rowan is now almost a toddler (3 days old) and is doing exciting things like eating, sleeping, and passing flatus. I honestly just stare at her, and am amazed at how perfect she is. Our entertainment dollar is going to spread much further than before, because all I do is gape at her for hours on end. That is a good thing too, because diapers are not cheap.

In some ways having a baby is like being a second year medical school student again. When I was studying pathogens and diseases, I would look at symptom lists and say to myself, "Hmmm, my arm has been a bit itchy lately, and I've been tired. I must have tropical parasitic worms crawling in my cutaneous tissue." Pretty much every disease you study, you think you get. Having a baby is similar. When Rowan first spit up, I said to myself, "Oh no! She must have a tracheo-esophageal fistulae!" Or else, when her temperature went up a bit, "Rowan must have Group B Strep!" It is a bit disconcerting knowing lots of the things that can happen, but so far, we seem to be doing OK, except that she has to work on feeding a bit more aggressively. We actually do have something to be concerned about there. The hospital staff was a little nervous to let us take Rowan home, because she had been losing lots of weight mainly because she didn't eat much. That is a trait that she gets from her mother, because, well, I'm a belly-buster. However, we have been quite vigilant about feeding her and getting her going on breastfeedings, and she seems to be improving. We will know better tomorrow at the pediatrician's visit.

Prior to leaving the hospital, Uncle Phil and Aunt Joyce came to visit. They left Rowan a very cute little bear that goes perfectly in her bedroom. We snapped some cute pictures.




Also, our friends Jeremy and Sarah Rice (and their young son Elliot), Rebecca Greaves, and Eliot and Sylvie-Anne Rasmussen came to visit. Here are some pictures of Rowan meeting Elliot Rice. Sarah and Jeremy brought some good Spruce Goose Grape Juice, and nice flowers.



Then we went kind of crazy/camera-happy.












Last night, after we got home, Jeremy, Sarah and Elliot brought dinner over. We loved it so much, we have entitled the dish First Family Dinner at Home and plan to make it every year on the 29th of January. It was this delicious Tomato-Orange Soup and rosemary potato bread, fresh green salad, and cupcakes. In the words of Andy Samberg, we have been "Mack(ing) on those Cupcakes!" ever since.

This afternoon, Alicia and I played dress-up with Rowan. Once again, we went camera happy.








She won the cutest double chin award. Twice! (thanks for the joke, Steve).

I'll keep you posted on my own tropical parasitic diseases. Meanwhile, we will work to keep Rowan's belly full.