No doubt Meghan will be blogging about baby like crazy once she starts again... right now we are both just enjoying our new life and our new daughter, Beatrix (aka Trixie).

I discovered no matter how thick and dry rubber gloves are, rinsing out poopy diapers in the toilet still makes me scowl in displeasure even though I don't honestly mind the task (yes, we use cloth - Kissaluvs - thanks to Bill and Michelle). I've also discovered that hand lotion is my friend as frequent washing dries and cracks your skin. In fact, my life mainly involves me getting my hands into diapers, toilets, washing machines and sinks full of dirty dishes these past few days. But I gotta take care of my girls...
And she's fun! She mainly sleeps, eats and poops at this point, but she's also: very observant and alert; good around company; a good sleeper who loves the baby-carrier sling, the car seat, and snoozing on Poppa's chest; an amazing source of sound effects (grunts and snorts and what I would call purring); and a good sport about getting a camera shoved in her face.
She's grown already in these first two weeks of life and we're still rather shell-shocked about the whole thing actually happening -- to us! Whoa. We knew it would eventually, of course, but as everybody warned, "You won't know what it is like until it happens and then everything is different." Indeed.
Some days we haven't even gotten out of our pajamas, others we've been awake and active for extra hours and then up at crazy hours of the night to feed and soothe but the time just flies by in all instances. Friends and relatives have been wonderful in supporting our new family, sending over delicious food (homemade almond-coconut soy ice cream!) and visiting for brief periods, providing us with some grown-up stimulation.
Oh, and there was a pink clothing explosion once friends and relatives found out she was a girl.
Spending this amount of time (and more to come) at home, not at work, with my new daughter and my wife was a no-brainer decision and I've loved it all, even though I've been tense with concern and stressed about unknown skills needed for successful (heck, even adequate) parenting.
I'm loving every minute of it.

Our lovely 7 lb. 12 oz. baby daughter was born this morning at 9:15 am. Meghan was a flippin' rock star -- no drugs and she was so focused and progressed so quickly that it was a whirlwind and before I knew it I was cutting the umbilical cord and we were meeting Wee Wilker. Baby was alert and awake for about six hours! Everyone is doing great. A bit sleepy, perhaps, but great. More details to come... especially a name!
UPDATE: Now at home. Give us some sleep/settling time before calling or coming over, please! Meghan needs mucho sleep. All are well. And wee Wilker's name is: Beatrix Evangeline (aka "Betty" or "Trixie").

this could be it. meg's having lots of contractions!!

Completely mental. Ingenious. I am lustful and amazed. Have you seen the version 1 or 2 camera? This one takes the cake. The newly announced 3DVX3 shoots 1280x720 uncompressed 4:4:4 stereoscopic 24p video direct to disk via dual on-board Mac Minis and with a binocular viewfinder and two-hour capacity. Basically, two DVX100A camera melded together and accessed directly to the CCDs. Think about those details... wow. Wow. Cannot be bought. Custom-built and only for rental. Your rental does get you a technician and stereographer to ensure success, though. Anybody seen any footage from this thing?

Still no baby... I know... and everybody keeps calling. Like we wouldn't call you or tell you just as soon as we could? No worries! We love you all and rest assured we will let you know as soon as we know something. Which at this point is that our kid will be a full four years old when it finally emerges from Meghan's womb.
In the meantime, relax from your stressful life with some calming images of nature... in our backyard this past Saturday morning. The deer hung around for over three hours and it was mildly exciting to get the video footage in the city (well, 4.5 miles from downtown Minneapolis).
- View the Deer Photos
- View the Deer Video (QuickTime 7)
Oh yeah, and tomorrow is Meghan's birthday. Yay!

Brent Simmons over at inessential.com asks: "Does anyone have a URL or URLs to photocasting feeds? I’d like to see what they look like. Thanks!"
Why, I sure do. I've had one going for several years now just using my MovableType photolog that I created. Click on the link in the lower right corner of the main page or click here for the Kingdom of Squirrels Photolog feed.
Didn't realize I was so far ahead of the curve! :-)

Today is the day. For 10 more minutes. Yet no signs of labor from the wife and mother-to-be. That's OK. We'll take whatever day it is finally ready (but the 16th is Meghan's birthday and she isn't terribly keen on sharing). I am getting darn anxious to meet our little baby! Like giddy anxious. Then I remember there are poopy diapers involved and my excitedness goes down a little... for a few minutes. I've been feeding Meghan spicy food, but apparently baby Wilker loves spicy food as it seems to have no effect (this is good - we love spicy food). Walking just isn't comfortable for Meghan so I've been trying to convince her to just run up and down the stairs a whole bunch. No go. I've already got the baby seat installed in my car and Meghan's bag is packed. Snacks are ready. iPods are charged. Doula is on-call. Just waiting for baby to show up!