Much of Nova's first few weeks has been taken up with sleeping. Since Mommy is often awake when Nova is, she is also often asleep when Nova is. Here is a picture of the two of them engaging in one of their sleepfests.

Nova is snuggled up in a blanket that was a kind gift from Daddy's work supervisor Cheri.

Gamma came by when Nova was about two weeks old. Nova was decked out in all her princess gear to meet Gamma. We neglected to get any actual pictures while Gamma was here, but here is an "artist's rendering" of what a photo of Gamma with Nova would look like...

Evidence of Gamma's visit is amply demonstrated by looking in our freezer... she's a great cook and left us plenty of goodies to munch on after she left.

Nova had several other first time visitors during these first few weeks. We missed getting pictures of Mommy's Aunt Melody and Cousin Benjamin, Mommy's friend Mary Charlotte Tate Bruce (I may have missed a few dozen names there), and Daddy's Cousin Jeff (although Jeff doesn't live too far away, so we might be able to get a picture of him soon). We did get a picture when Cousin Amanda visited.

We also managed to remember the camera when Dan Grimaldi came by. This was a special visit because Mr. Grimaldi is a debonair world traveller and seldom deigns to take time to visit us lowly commoners (just kidding... Dan travels a lot for work, and we were very glad to get a little bit of his time at home for a Nova visit).

A big event took place during this time... the remains of Nova's umbilical cord finally came out, so she could have her first bath. After some discussion Mommy and Daddy decided that the easiest thing to do was just take her into the shower, so she went in during Mommy's next shower. Nova seemed to like the shower a lot. You can see she looks very content.

Nova has already had several adventures! For Labor Day she got to go to a party at Mommy and Daddy's friends Billy and Jenny's house. They just had a baby themselves, a healthy boy named Charlie. Mommy and Daddy met Billy and Jenny at their birthing classes. Also in attendance from the birthing class was Alex and Natalie, but their baby is still hiding out in Natalie's tummy, so Nova will have to wait a bit longer to meet that new friend.

Nova's second big adventure was a trip to Athens to see her Nana, Daddy's paternal grandmother. Nova is her eighth great-grandchild, so she is very practiced with new babies. She seemed to be very pleased with Nova.

Nova is wearing an outfit sent by Daddy's Aunt Judy, and it's one of the cutest things she's worn yet!

While we were in Athens we stopped off to get Daddy a haircut. Daddy has had long hair since before he ever met Mommy, and he's been itching to cut it all off for a while. He had agreed to wait until Nova was born to make sure that Mommy got a picture of him holding their first baby with his hair long. Here's that picture!

... and here's Daddy after the big haircut. Daddy donated his hair to Locks of Love, a charity that provides wigs for children who have lost their hair as a result of chemotherapy for cancer treatments. We would like to urge anyone getting a "major haircut" to consider doing the same.

You can see the majority of Daddy's hair sitting on the hair cutter's station in the background, and the little remaining pieces shaved off on the floor.

After all those adventures Nova went back to doing what she does best... sleeping.

Anyone who has written Nova an e-mail will find their letters posted on the "Letters to Nova" page.