Good grief.

Dear Stella McCartney,

Your collection for Baby Gap is pretty adorable, but if you think I'm going to spend $58 dollars on a cashmere sweater for my baby and then ANOTHER $58 for the matching cashmere leggings, you are out of your everloving mind.

(But I might spend $28 for the cashmere hat. Touché.)

Sincerely,
Suzanne

So cute my heart stopped for just a moment.

And thus Levi begins his modeling career, showing off the cutest little onesie I ever did see. (That would be the amazing creativity of Auntie Carrie, y'all.)

One of these things is not like the other ones...

Happy Halloween-ing, y'all.

Love,
Shane, Suzanne & Little Pumpkin

A little bean poses as a little bean, part dos.

More pictures from Stephanie, photographer extraordinaire!

http://stephanieryanphotography.blogspot.com/2009/10/levi.html

That's one cute baby. If I do say so myself.

Month 1.

Dear Levi (aka, Little Bean, Little Buddy, Hungry Monkey, Little Munchkin, Little Dude, Little Man, Little Toot, Tooterooni, Glow Worm, or Smacky Face),

The calendar says you are one month old. But I'm pretty sure you and I must have fallen into some kind of wrinkle in space-time, because I'm sure it can't have been more than 45 minutes.

Some things you should know about your first month of life:

• God bless the epidural. It made your entrance into this world a much more pleasant experience for all involved. Especially me.
• Upon arrival, you couldn't quite figure out the whole breathing thing and you had a touch of hypoxia. They whisked you away to the nursery where medical technology compensated for a bit until you got it down. It was scary, but it didn't last long.
  
• I gave birth to a fish. The sound of running water soothes you better than anything else and you love, love, love taking a bath.
• For the first few weeks, you slept approximately 23 out of every 24 hours. I had to wake you to feed you, which sometimes proved simply impossible. (I supposed you take after your mother this way.)
  
• Tipping the scales at 5 pounds, 12 ounces and 17 inches long at birth, you were too small for clothing for the majority of month 1, so you spent most of it in the standard issue side-snap shirt from the hospital and your diaper. Sometimes you sported a onesie, but even those were mighty long. It wasn't until just past three weeks old that you were big enough to wear normal clothes, and even then, only the "newborn" sizes fit.
• This won't last long, though, because at your one month check-up you weighed in at 7 poundss, 12.5 ounces and 21 1/4 inches long. You're growing like gangbusters, Little Bean.
  
• Breastfeeding: harder than you'd think. You aren't the world's most efficient sucker (I'm sure you are very talented in other areas, though), my breasts aren't very enthusiastic when it comes to milk production, and sometimes you simply refuse to nurse. In my sleep-deprived, postpartum state, this has resulted in many meltdowns. But we're working it out. I think... maybe... I don't know... could I interest you in some formula?
• Your Grandma Toler calls you "my baby." You are the first Toler grandchild that is 1/4 Ingrid, and I'm pretty sure that means you're her favorite, although I have yet to get that in writing.
  
• You were born on the Jewish high holiday of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. A New Year's baby. Of sorts.
• You came out all yellowy (also known as jaundiced, if you want to be all technical about it) so you spent a week wrapped in a biliblanket. We were kind of hoping it would make you permanently glow in the dark, but it didn't.
  
• You are loved to itty, bitty, teeny, tiny pieces. Thank you for being ours.

Love,
Mama

Sleep when he sleeps.

A little bean poses as a little bean.

Saturday, my good buddy Stephanie drove to Hollister from Fresno to take pictures of our Little Bean. (She is a photographer specializing in children, particularly babies/newborns. And she's pretty much awesome.)

I haven't seen all the photos yet, but she posted a sneak peek on her blog at http://stephanieryanphotography.blogspot.com/2009/10/leviaka-little-beanr.html.

Take a looksie, won't ya??