Four Weeks With Ari
How did almost a month go by already? It feels like just yesterday that we were half-sleeping in the recovery room the night she was born, in awe of having brought this human being into the world, and now she's four weeks old!

It's been an exciting week for Ari!
- We went on our first extended outing; a family lunch, then a walk to the Nurture Center in Lafayette, to check out different carrying devices. We liked the Rockin Baby sling, but also picked up a Baby Bjorn at a near-by second-hand store, They Grow So Fast.
- We took her to the pumpkin patch with my mom.
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We had our first dinner guests since she was born; Colin, Sarah, Maggie, & Sam came over and we had a nice BBQ in the backyard. Ari slept through most of it, but woke up a little at the end to say goodbye.
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Mystery solved — We also solved the "Mystery of the It's a Girl Banner" this week! When we brought Ari home from the hospital after she was born, there was a banner in our front yard, proclaiming "It's a Girl!" We figured one of our neighbors put it up, but after asking around, no one knew who did it. At dinner, Sarah fessed up that she, Colin, Maggie, and Sam put it up. Thanks, guys; we were really touched!
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- I got to feed her for the first time! She took the bottle with no hesitation, and drank 2oz from it, then Ania fed her immediately afterward, with no problem! There is something beautiful and special about seeing Ania feed Arianna, and bottle feeding will never be anything close to that, but I'm really happy to be able to feed her too, even indirectly.
- She got her first rides in the Baby Bjorn, with both Ania and me, and saw her first full moon on one of our walks.
- Ania took her for her first trip to the library.
- We took her out for her first Friday night dinner! We have a long-standing tradition of doing dinner and a movie on Friday nights with Dave — dinner worked out great, but we'll have to think about the movie in context of keeping her on a sleep schedule.

We continue to enjoy her many cute, sweet, and entertaining faces, and have taken to keeping the camera handy so we can catch them as often as possible.

