Picture this

After several dozen photo shoots under my decidedly rookie eye (have you checked out the link to my photos over on the right?) Hattie participated in her first-ever professional photo shoot on June 22. Lisa Maksoudian (an award-winning photographer who, among other commendations, took best of show in the 2006 New Times photo contest) came to our house for a multi-hour session, and posted a sneak peak at some of the results on her image blog. See them at lisamaksoudian.bigfolioblog.com. Hattie is the baby modeling under the pseudonym of "h" if you don't recognize her.

Here's a larger shot of the two blankies.

Everything old is new again

My dad announced that he had a surprise waiting for our new baby, so when Hattie was born, he gave us a "Happy Birthday" bag with his handiwork inside: A crocheted yellow blanket with a silk border. To the untrained eye, such a gift may seem like a typical baby present, but this particular item was unique for two reasons. The first: My dad crocheted the blanket himself, and my mom added the silk edge. The second: The blanket is a replica of Yellow Blankie, the essential bit of cloth that I clung to, Linus like, all through childhood. And junior high. And high school. And maybe a little in college. After almost three decades of constant wear and tear, Yellow Blankie was looking a bit worse for the wear. But now, there's a new blankie to carry the next generation of the Miller clan through her formative years. And maybe into her time as an undergrad. Thanks, Dad. (And Mom!)

Early elitism

Never being one to start small (except, perhaps, in physical mass), Hattie's first encounter with the world of literature was Pablo Neruda's Las Odas, from a bilingual edition, Odes to Common Things, which was a wedding present from our friends Brian Leonard and Angela Barley. I would have thought she'd ease into reading with something lighter, like, say the collected works of Dr. Seuss, or something by Shel Silverstein, or maybe even Edward Lear's Complete Nonsense (a wedding gift from our friend Joel Short). But no. A scant 24 hours after she was born, she was listening to the Nobel laureate's "Ode to the Table." Here's an excerpt:

"The world

is a table

engulfed in honey and smoke,

smothered by apples and blood.

The table is already set,

and we know the truth

as soon as we are called:

whether we're called to war or dinner

we will have to choose sides,

have to know

how we'll dress

to sit

at the long table,

whether we'll wear the pants of hate

or the shirt of love, freshly laundered.

It's time to decide,

they're calling:

boys and girls,

let's eat!"

She obviously took this poem to heart: There was both honey and blood at her birth, and some apples in the background. I didn't see any smoke, though. She has since worn the shirt of love--many shirts of love, in fact, freshly laundered after each spit up. And she has heeded the call to the table with great gusto, sometimes eating for two hours at a stretch. Needless to say, Sarah has been tired from all of the late-night nursing sessions, but I'm happy to know that Hattie has been nourished in mind as well as body.

Hattie is here

Harriet Rose Miller was born at 11:07 a.m. on June 14. She was 7 pounds, 1 ounce. She's four days old here, and we have no idea how much she weighs, though it's probably not too much more.