So, now let's fast forward through those exciting first 3 months of little Elsie's life. Boy,were they were exciting! Sort of. We slept a lot. We slept in shorter increments than we did before, but it was pleasant sleep, for the most part, like this picture here:
Apparently such sleeping arrangements are discouraged since you might roll over and crush the baby, but isn't that advice mostly for drunk people? If you are planning on getting so drunk you might pass out, then maybe you shouldn't bring your baby in bed with you. Anyway, we had lots of visitors, family and friends, all coming by during the early days. Maggie, who is much more hygienic than I, kept a bottle of that squirtable hand sanitizer present at all times. Her pet peeve is when visitors grab Elsie with "subway hands" and smear New York City germs all over her.
Certain members of our family were very happy to finally see us procreate. Maggie's father, Mr. Vining, had been dropping unsubtle hints for years. He's a college professor and uses a wheelchair due to a stroke he had about 20 years ago. He can be intimidating sometimes. We also took our time getting married and I remember him pulling me aside one summer and saying, "Just what are you guys doing anyway?" Boy, did I sweat that answer out. Now at last we could show him our baby. We did it! Another generation! It was very wonderful to see these two meet and look into each other's eyes.
The generational concept was also important to my grandmother, Anita. She was 94 and used to pound her fist on the table and say, "I want great grandchildren!". Old Granny was active right up till the very end. She lived alone and read the NY Times cover to cover every day. Here's great granny Anita is with Elsie and her pile of newspapers. She died about three weeks after this photo was taken.
Even though Elsie was born during the cold winter months we decided we'd try to get her outside as much as possible. Parental friends of ours had mentioned that these first months were actually good times to travel about since the baby is fairly docile and can't complain so much about what is happening. We found this to be true! Our friends Roger and Deirdre had a baby girl a few months before us so now we do things together, like take lovely walks in Prospect Park. Here's Maggie and Deirdre with their daughters all bundled up in January. Deirdre is the author of the fine book, "The Complete Organic Pregnancy" which all pregnant people should check out. Heck, read it even if you're not pregnant. Who really knows if that organic stuff really makes a difference, but you should see the size of their baby right now. She's darn healthy!
We also took Elsie to a New York Knicks game at Madison Square where she slept for most of the time. We figured she was probably the youngest person there and I wondered if I should notify someone so that they could make an announcement and put her name up on the scoreboard lights. This didn't happen though. Here she is asleep at the Garden.
But she woke up for the exciting conclusion! The Knicks came back to beat Miami and big old Shaquille O'Neal. As Knicks fans know, this victory was only a small bright spot in an otherwise lackluster season. See how Elsie is really paying attention to the game here? That's our friends Adam and Whitney sitting next to her. They are famous artists, or soon-to-be famous anyway. Whitney knit that killer sweater which Elsie is modeling in the previous picture with great-granny Anita.
As Elsie got older and stronger we decided it was time to take her north to the great state of Vermont so that she could see some real snow. We have this rustic camp up in the Northeast Kingdom which has no electricity and the plumbing is turned off in the winter. The perfect place for a baby, right? Well, actually it was very nice. Elsie didn't really miss the electricity so much and we heated up snow on the stove for water. Here's Elsie in front of the place in her "cookie monster" suit.
At night we lit the lanterns and read books by the flickering lights. It was just like "Little House on the Prarie", except we were in Vermont, and we drove there in a car. I did feel like "Pa" Engals though, chopping the wood, and keeping the family warm. Here's "Ma" breastfeeding Elsie by latern light:
Yessiree, a little fresh air does a baby good. I call this next picture the "Inuit" shot, since that's what Elsie looks like here. For the record, Elsie is not Inuit, nor is Maggie, though she really likes it when people ask her that. Maggie's mom is Japanese. Before Elsie was born, Maggie worried that my Caucasion genes would dilute too much of Elsie's Asian-ness and everyone would just assume she was white. But I don't think it turned out that way. Elsie's like Keenu Reves! He's a quarter Asian, and many attribute his mysterious allure to this trait. Notice how Maggie's hat matches Elsie's snowsuit. That's attention to detail!
So, now it's springtime and Elsie here is four months old. We're pretty much up to speed with this, or close enough so that all the pictures won't look out of sync. We've got an exciting few months ahead of us as Elsie and her family prepare to move west. We're shipping out of the Big Apple and driving across the country to our new home in Portland, Oregon this August. No more toxins and "subway hands" for us! But first "Pa" Bradford will drag the crew to Camp Jabberwocky, the summer camp which he directs, for the whole month of July. Stay tuned!
