Let's just say they aren't yet functioning as a perfect unit. We tried to shoot the kids together, but that turned out to be a little too much. Rowdy couldn't be bothered to sit and jr. just tried to lick everything she could see. We got some good results though.

Jr. keeps her eyes open a lot more now, she manages to stay awake for more than just the time between bottle and poop. She's tracking movements, looking at her toys, and she started tummy time today.

Baby knows who mommy is, for sure.

Big Rowdy got a new outside toy, she loves her slide. "Sit" she says.. "sit, sit."

Meanwhile, baby is doing fine. She's alert, fisty and looks like her daddy :).

Aunt Jill paid us a visit. Haley was shocked to see how well her sister stuck to Jill after we put the Velcro on the front of her outfit.

These photos are taken on consecutive days, day 1, day 2, day 4 and day 5. She's progressing nicely, gaining 8 ounces after her first three days of life! She's more alert, and stays awake for longer periods of time.

It's incredible that you can have a baby and return home 25 hours later. We left the hospital today, we brought the baby home for the first time. We had the help of family, they were here to see us through the first few days of having two babies.

The baby passed all her tests with flying colors. She had a hearing test, jaundice test, a few immunizations and other things. She eats a lot, too.

Mommy and baby are doing fine, and we're sneaking in naps wherever we can.

We're finally getting a good look at her, she is beautiful. We're not sure who she looks like yet, though.

Haley is on the left, Hanna on the right. Both were one day old at the time the picture was taken. They look quite different. Hanna doesn't have nearly the cheeks Haley did. Although Hanna weighed 17% less than Haley, so who knows what she'll look like once they are closer to the same size.

They say that the second birth is always a little different than the first one. In our case it could not have been more so. Looking at the clock in the photo above, the time was 11:01. As you can see, she was not even pushing at this time, there was only one nurse in the room, all was quiet. The birth time (measured by the same clock:) 11:05 AM. In other words, after arriving at the hospital at 4AM, and waiting in Triage until 8:30 AM, the total time from delivery room entry to birth was 2.5 hours. The total time spent pushing was 3 minutes. The total number of pushes: 3. Amazing.

Things happened so quickly that it was very difficult to do anything. I did manage to get a few images, however.

This is the first image taken of her. She was about 60 seconds old at this point. She’s covered in the sticky white stuff that a lot of new babies are born with, but that all washes off. She has a lot of hair, black, curly hair. She has blue eyes, but is definitely not in a hurry to open them. The blue eyes are not a surprise, as blue is the recessive gene, and mommy and daddy both have blue eyes – about as close to a genetic guarantee as one can get.

Each grandmother in our crew is assigned a unique ID. Mom’s Mother is ID: “Nanna.” Nanna was a huge help in keeping the wheels on the wagon as it barreled down the hill at lightning speed. She kept Haley under control, she was definitely the Most Valuable Player for the day. For this performance, Nanna is the RC Cola player of the Game. This is the first moment that Haley witnessed her new baby sister. Two weeks ago, Haley would walk around the house, pulling up everybody’s shirt (mine included) and poking it like the Pilsbury dough-boy. “Baby” “Baby” she would say as she poked the belly of everyone nearby. But now she knew what all the talk was about. As she looked down on her sister, all she could say was “baby” “baby” “Baby” “baby”… she is excited to have a sister (too excited.) :).

I cut the cord. Although if you’ve ever done it, you know that it is a glorified sausage cutting exercise. It’s gross. I didn’t want to do it, but nobody else was around, and at least I can now claim for the record that I was the one who did it. It’s worth mentioning at this point that the baby still didn’t have a name. In this photo, the scales tell all. She was 7 pounds, 13.7 ounces. She was one full pound lighter than her sister. She is 19.5” long, 2 full inches shorter than her sister. Haley, FWIW was one week late. Hanna was born on her due date, exactly.

After that, the APGAR test. 9 was her score, which is good. Her little blue feet tell the tale, however. Babies don’t have full circulation out of the box. It takes a few hours before things start to look pink (and only a few more to look Yellow from overproduction of bilirubin.)

I got the honor of being the first to hold the child that bares my name. (READ: this is it, no holding out for a boy, and keeping the name “Grayson” or like derivatives in my family is an important one. 2 kids will be enough for us.) This is a picture of me holding back tears, sharing a moment with my daughter that will only increase in significance and sentimental value over time. In my short tenure as a parent I have had many proud moments, but this one, which I have now enjoyed twice, really means a lot.

There is a bit of political sensitivity in declaring a day the “best” of one’s life… whether it is the wedding, the birth of the child, graduations, etc. Someone is always a loser in that discussion, and it’s usually the one making the call. (The proverbial married man’s no-win situation.) But this is a special moment that I hope that anyone who desires has an opportunity to share; it is truly beyond comparison. There just isn’t another moment in time when all of your hope, fear, vulnerability, pride and aspirations  are condensed to a singularity. There is more emotion in this moment than there are words to describe it.

Mommy and baby are in fine health, and are both resting peacefully. The next days and months will be filled with firsts, new surprises, learning for our oldest daughter, and all those other moments that make parenting what it is – the greatest blessing of all.

Easter basket and an Easter egg hunt!

We took her to the park, then dada and baby hit the bottle and passed out on the couch.

Look at those cheeks!

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The day started about 6:30 AM, after Haley had a rough night of sleep anticipating Santa Claus. She slept from 6 the previous evening until midnight, and didn't go back to sleep until 3 a.m.. She woke up at 6:30, drank some bottle and went to work.

She figured out finally how to get the presents open. She started slowly, and after she learned that she wasn't allowed to eat the wrapping paper, she got down to business opening the package. The process for this particular package took about 18 minutes. We expect that for Christmas 2009, that time will be down to somewhere in the neighborhood of 0.18 seconds.

The clear favorite? Easily, the Snow White sucker.

Santa Claus arrived early at our house, probably anticipating a new snowstorm due to hit this evening!