Nora Evelyn McGowan

We took our poor little girl to the doctor today for her two month checkup and pin-cushion practice. She got her first round of immunizations and, judging by the amplitude and fury of her reaction she did not approve. Here’s a picture from a happier, more innocent time, taken just moments before the subdermal unpleasantness.

makes me happy. that’s 9 lbs 9 ounces of eight week old cute perched up there.

In this video we see Nora smiling, laughing, spitting-up, and weeping. It’s all in a day’s work, really.
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Nora decided to celebrate the new year by learning how to hold her head up. Amazingly, she did not spit up on me at all while taking this picture.

Professional baby on closed course. Do not attempt.

Nora’s been kicking around this old planet for exactly one month now. I admit that her bacon has been saved a few times by e-bay’s “no babies for sale” policy but all-in-all I think we’ll keep her (there’s a 90 day return policy on these, right?).

To celebrate her one-month-a-versary she gave us a surprisingly restful night last night and then, stunning everyone, is suddenly able to fit (more or less) into the nice cloth diapers we bought. We still have a few newborn disposables left — hopefully just enough for all three of us to learn how real diapers work.

This is also the first of what will end up being a series of Christmas-related posts. Shown here are Nora sporting the amusing onesie* given us by Sylvia in the Linguistics department main office and the three of us together at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Both of the genuinely clever people in our family are still in their pajamas.

*Honestly, my first thought was “huh, when did that proper noun get uncapitalized?” My second thought was “ooh, is there a hidden message spelled out by the different colored letters? no? perhaps it’s scrambled? no. they wouldn’t actually encrypt something within the text of an infant’s onesie, would they?” My third thought was “oh, I see, because she wakes us up a lot. quite amusing.”

and she’s dancin’ like she’s never danced before!

Machine wash warm with like colors. For best results use gentle cycle. Tumble dry low. Do not bleach. Do not iron. Do not fall asleep and leave your sleep-deprived goofball husband entirely unsupervised with your 13 day old baby.