Meet the Firm

I realized earlier today that in all the hustle and bustle surrounding MK, I haven't taken the opportunity to introduce everyone to the hardworking paralegals and staff of our fine law firm. I feel privileged to work with each one of them. Since we have four offices, not everyone was in today, so we will begin with four of our best.

This is Amonya, one of our secretaries:



Noted for her fashion sense and kindly demeanor, we never hesitate to put our clients into her hands, and they are always well treated. Except when they misbehave, whereupon she commences a serious beat-down.

Next, we meet one of our top paralegals, Randy:



A faithful husband, loving father, and pillar of his church, we send him after clients who don't pay us (his butcher knife is not pictured).

Next: Nadine, another paralegal:



In her own description, she's an ol' country girl from Alabama. Yes, I think stereotypes are a horrible thing. Clients feel right at home with her on the phone. Her hat gets compliments all the time, believe me.

Lastly, Carmen, our receptionist:



Bilingual, extremely friendly, and a big smile is what greets folks when they come in the door to Fuller & McKay. People love the ribbon in the braids, too.

As you can imagine, when we're not eating, we stay in stitches here. Oh, and we practice a little bit of law every now and again too...HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

MK's First Houseguests

This weekend, Jenny and I had some friends from college visit - Richard & Leslie Mitchell, along with their 5-month old, Caleb. When we told MK they were coming, she was speechless:



Here is Leslie holding MK, and Richard with Caleb:



Caleb turned out to be a big fan of the camera:



And already, I need to keep an eye on him when he gets around my daughter (this picture doesn't show me in the background cleaning my shotgun):



MK took to Richard very well:



And Leslie:



Meanwhile, Aggie made a new friend in Caleb. Her vision for her life is to get everyone on earth to love her, and she is very effective at accomplishing this, one person at a time:



When the Mitchell's headed for the Ham on Sunday afternoon, MK's reaction was one of disappointment that they left, one of seeming exhaustion.

Rosa Parks, Rest in Peace

Yesterday, we lost an American Hero. Considered by some to be the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks gained notoriety when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955. This action spurred the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was organized under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr..

This is the picture of her getting booked after her arrest for refusing to give up her seat:



I have always admired Parks, who suffered unquestionable injustice and refused to acquiesce, despite her socially unwelcome position as a black woman in the 1950's south. Her memory and example will live on, especially in my house, as I will one day tell my daughter the story of the brave little seamstress from Tuskegee, Alabama who changed the course and history of the civilization in which she lived with her courageous action.

Tummy Time III: The Daddy

Another day, another tummy session. It's like clockwork now. We're praying for the day when we can lay her on her stomach to sleep at night. Since Aggie has gotten into the game, I thought I would join her too:





How cool is it to spend time with you daughter like this? Nose to nose, I and she, she and I...then Mommy shows up with a camera. I sure am glad she did...

Great Grandparents are....Great

Yesterday Mary Kate met her third great-grandparent. Since we're into family history and heritage and all that stuff, we were thrilled:





This is Milly Gentry, Jenny's grandmother, who lives in Warner Robins GA and was an Air Force wife for over 30 years. We enjoy every chance we get to spend time with her, and our only regret is that Grandpa couldn't be here to see the baby. He passed away Oct 2, 2004 and is sorely missed. Rest assured, MK will hear ALL about him - how her Daddy misses spending time with him, drinking beer and watching old cowboy movies, discussing foreign policy and American military history.

Besides Grandma Gentry, MK still has five living G-GParents, including Jenny's Dad's parents, Walter & Mardell Hosch. MK met them in the hospital:





Since I have three living grandparents, there will be more photos to come. Like Jenny's Grandpa, I wish my grandfather could have lived to see MK. Losing him was like losing a championship game that goes back and forth (think Notre Dame/USC this year, and you're ND)...you know it's possible, but it doesn't sink and hit you in the gut in until the buzzer sounds and you're behind. Life sucks for a while, then you get to the point where you become thankful and appreciative that you were able to play the game in the first place, and try to set into stone those lessons that learned from the season and move forward a better man. For me and Jenny, both of our grandfathers gave that to us, and we will always be thankful for it. We will bore MK to death with the stories...

Come Thou Fount of Mary Katherine

For the past few days, our sweet little girl has entered the spit-up phase, and let me just tell you, the kid has pretty good range. Two nights ago, she nailed my forearm from a good 8 inches away! I know this is part of what babies do, but I still can't get over the satisfied look she has on her face after she does it.

Also, she might be in her 3-week growth spurt (I say might, because how should we know? We're first timers!), which might explain her newfound desire to stay awake between the hours of 9pm and midnight. I stay up with her for part of that time b/c I don't get to see her during the day. It's great time, when she's not crying...

Shadow Boxing

Here is a picture of a shadowbox Jenny and her Mother made last week:



Items in the box include (from top to bottom): The pink label that was on MK's bassinette in the hospital nursery, MK's little hospital bracelet-thingy, one of the skully's she wore in the hospital (Daddy's little girl!), the pink bow on the skully came from the pink bow on our front door, her first formal picture (taken in the hospital), and a dried rose given to Jenny while in the hospital.

GREAT job, and great to remember those precious first days of her life. Or, her "little life", as I've learned that it's alot cuter to add "little" to anything related to the baby, e.g., instead of "Honey, look at the baby sleep", it's "Honey, look at the LITTLE baby sleep in her LITTLE bouncy seat, with her LITTLE blanket," etc., though we have both found that when your heart melts, the "L" phoneme becomes a "W", i.e. "wittle feet" (NOT the wittle like with wood, that's "whittle", and in any event no sharp objects can come near the baby), and the above thought becomes "Wook at the Wittle baby sWeep". Perhaps a later post will include detailed instructions on adding "ie" or "y" to the end of anything regarding MK, such as her "leggy" or, from an earlier post, "jammy's" (which is a tough one, because "jammys" includes dropping the prefix "pa"). Sometimes I've found it is proper linguistically to add an "s" before the "ie" ending, e.g. "footsies", which, when combined with symptoms of heart-melting syndrome, can be considered "wittle footsies"...OK, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, I'LL STOP!

Nana & Pops Visit

In what is quickly becoming a Sunday afternoon tradition, MK's Nana & Pops (translation: Brian's parents) came to visit. Here you can see Nana holding her third granddaughter:



Here's a shot of both of them, doing what they love - Nana holding her granddaughter, Pops editing something I've written:



Their visit culminated with MK's very first shopping trip! Not much excitement; Mommy needed some clothes since she is already back to pre-pregnancy weight (and hated by most women for it), and Mary Kate slept the entire time. If only she would sleep every time in her life when we take her to the mall...

Tummy Time, pt. 2

This past weekend, we had another tummy time session. MK likes to be on her belly, at least after her initial shock of going down like that. This time Aggie wanted to join her with the whole laying on your belly thing:

Rubber Ducky, You're the One

Aside from the occassional trouble falling asleep, Mary Kate is a pretty content baby. All of that changes when she gets a bath, whereupon she goes beyond screaming and approaches the threshold of wailing. This might be because she hates being naked and exposed, which Jenny and I sincerely hope will last well into high school and college years and on to her wedding day. Most likely, she just gets really really cold, so Jenny got the idea to actually fill up her baby tub and immerse her in warm water, rather than do the sponge bath thing. Mary Kate likes this much better, which means she backed up to uncomfortable sniffling instead of yelling:



When she comes out of her nice warm bath, she is inevitably blasted with another draft of cold air, which brings on another bout of crying. So we wrap her in a soft fluffy towel and head for the changing table to install a diaper and pajamas (or "jammys" as I am told they are called until the child reaches puberty). Fortunately, any crying that takes place at that point can be erased by Daddy's little finger, which acts as a natural pacifier (Thank you, Baby Owner's Manual, p. 55):



Maybe by our fourth child, we'll have this down to a science. By the way, the Baby Owner's Manual has been my salvation more than once, and I recommend it to any new parent, especially new Dads.

"Tummy Time"

Yesterday, we began Phase 1 of tummy training - teaching MK to enjoy laying on her stomach. We think it went pretty well, which means she didn't scream when Jenny put her down that way.



Actually, we think she might have enjoyed it. Her tummy session led to a long nap on Daddy's chest later that afternoon (as you might be able to tell from the picture, Daddy was napping too)-



As I have said, her favorite thing to do thus far is to sleep. Our favorite thing for her to do (other than sleep, of course) is to wake up so we can watch her stretch.

Thank You, Jordan Family

So who are the Jordan's?? In short, very close to a perfect family, though they would scoff at that notion (which adds to our admiration of them). Jenny babysat for Justin & Elizabeth while in high school, and their three kids have always been very special to us - their two oldest, Rebecca and Hannah, were junior bridesmaids at our wedding. Last year Justin & Elizabeth got a surprise - a fourth baby, Sarah Kate. We think it's great that they have a baby so close in age to ours. Elizabeth stopped by with the kids yesterday to bring us a meal:



Mary Kate, meet Sarah Kate!



Last night was also Aunt Madelyn's homecoming dance for Collins Hill High School. So I took time-out from watching the Dawgs hand it to Tennessee to go snap some pictures of her and her boyfriend Scott:




Finally, for the Mary Kate picture of the day, I grabbed a shot of her in long sleeves, since it was below 70 degrees outside:



Look at that face...it's as if she is saying "I promise I was still this cute when I had Mommy and Daddy up at 3 this morning!!"

Typical Day for Mary Kate

If there were such a thing as Newborn Olympics, I think our little girl would have a great shot at the gold medal for the Newborn Triathlon - eating, sleeping, and pooping. She's very accomplished at all three, and produces with regularity. I noticed yesterday that her routine for each day seems to revolve around three "seats":

First, she wakes up and goes to the Bouncy Seat (thank you, Aunt Jennifer):



Then at some point we go for our "outing of the day", and she moves to the Car Seat:



Finally, sometime mid-evening, she settles for an hour or so in her swing:



Then, maybe some visitors. Like last night, Granddaddy, Grandmama, and Aunt Madelyn (not pictured) stopped by:



Rough life...

Fashion Show

Yesterday, Jenny thought it would be fun to try some of her baby clothes on Mary Kate to see how she would look. Results:



As you can tell, the baby was enthralled. Actually, she kind of has that "Look, I know I'm cute, even if I just lay here" face on. This is actually the baby version of twiddling thumbs:



In other news, Aggie has done exceptionally well around the baby. Occassionally she will steal a lick on the face when our backs are turned, but most of the time she just licks Mary Kate's toes and moves on (I told her this was OK). Also, whenever the baby cries, Aggie will slowly walk up and look at her with a concerned face, as if just checking on her. A few nights ago while the baby slept, Aggie jumped into Jenny's lap for some lovin' (like old times). Jenny commented on how good she had done around the baby, how she listens to us, how she doesn't play with the baby's things, blah blah blah. Aggie looked incredulously at me and said "And you're surprised by this?? I'm deeply hurt..."

Thank You, Jeff & Sandy Dunbar

So who is Jeff Dunbar?? In short, he's the man. We met Jeff and his gracious wife Sandy through Perimeter Church. Jeff and Sandy have meant a great deal to Jenny and me since we have known them. They mentored us over a period of six to eight months, and they were some of the first people we told about being pregnant with Mary Kate. We know that their prayers, along with the prayers of many family members and friends, carried us through this pregnancy to the point where we can now hold our daughter and rejoice over the gift that she is to us. Sandy works in nurse administration at Gwinnett Medical Center, so she was one of the first visitors we had - she wept as she held our daughter and prayed over her. Jeff stopped by earlier this week to hold our daughter and pray a blessing over her as well.



Jenny and I hope that every young couple like us has the chance at some point to develop a relationship with a couple like the Dunbar's, who live such an exemplary life and yearn to pour themselves into young people. Hopefully we'll be that way when our kids are all out of the house...

Burrito Baby

Some immutable facts of life: God's love never changes, winter must fade into spring, and I freakin' love Moe's. Never heard of Moe's? Well, get ready to live...best burritos on planet Earth. Period.

What does this have to do with our baby? Well, her favorite thing to do so far is to sleep, and her favorite way to do that is for her Daddy to wrap her up as tight as possible:







On another note, has anyone heard that you are supposed to ask babies what God said to them right before he sent them down to earth? When I asked Mary Kate, she said that He said many things, and one of them was "Go Dawgs!"

Sleeping Beauty

For those of you waiting on pictures of the baby, I'm having issues with blogspot. Not to worry- I've taken over 200 pictures, most of which will be on the site ASAP.