Three months old!

Today our little girl is 3 months old! It was a busy birthday. She had a morning photo shoot, where we captured her perfect Evie smiles. She also took part in her first video conference. All this time in front of a camera today, and we forgot to take a photo of her for her blog until she was already asleep in her crib. Here's a little retrospective our our beautiful girl.

That Is Love

Happy Friday to you all. Tomorrow we are off to get professional pictures taken of Evie Lu. And can you believe she's three months old tomorrow too? I can't wrap my head around it.

We'll give you the rundown tomorrow.

A Movie For Everyone!

First, make sure you have your sound turned up. Second, double click on the play button on the picture. Third, enjoy!

I Think This Has Been Worn Before

A long, long time ago I wore the outfit you see Evangeline in now. I can't help but be amazed that I once wore this very clothing. We have been given so many wonderful handmade baby items that I would not be able to list all the cute outfits, tiny hats, socks, and toys. I know I'm getting way ahead of myself, but someday Evie Lu's children may wear something you made for her.



The people at the church have been telling me Evie Lu is favoring me, but I still see Kaia in her. What do you think?




Calling out to all Montanans, we'll be home June 18-24!

Settling Into A Routine

For a couple weeks Evangeline was sleeping from 11pm until 6am. This was glorious for Kaia and I, but we wondered if she should be going to bed earlier. Evie Lu has taken matters into her own hands. She now calms down after a last feeding around 8:30pm. Last night she slept from 8pm until 4am, ate and then went back to sleep until 7am. I'll take that any day.

In a slightly frightening development I had a dream last night that I was sitting between two young girls who were fighting. Was this a premonition of another daughter? At least it was only two children. I had a dream while Kaia was pregnant of Evangeline getting mad because Kaia and I were paying all of our attention to the infant twins we had. Yikes. Maybe my sleep cycle needs shifting.

Baby Pattern Baldness

About a month ago our darling Evangeline discovered she could move her head and make a vigorous "no" motion as she was on her back. This is still one of her favorite things to do. I often pretend she's watching tennis.

The results of this discovery are seen in the pictures below. Not only does she have a nice bald spot in the center, but she has also worn a line near the crown of her head. Kaia protested greatly as I took these photos.

Where's her beautiful face you ask? I'll do a happy smiley post for Evie Lu later today.

Burping Is Hard Work

Doesn't our sweet daughter look like a little old man in these pictures? She doesn't know we are laughing at her now, but Evangeline makes the most ridiculous faces as she's working out the whole gas thing.

This is a busy week for all of us as we gear up for Easter on the 8th and Kaia continues her hard work in the lab. We'll keep you posted as we countdown to three months old!

Gifts For Everyone!

Thursday was Kaia's birthday and Evie Lu and I did our best to shower her with gifts. What do you get for the mother of your child and the love of your life? Bunny slippers of course! It was actually a difficult decision due to the variety of slippers Evangeline and I found as we were shopping. The monkey was cute, the pig was funny, and the ladybug slippers might have been the winner, but Evie Lu looked a little frightened of them.

Could you resist putting these on your feet?

(Dad, don't worry. I also bought jewelry and other good stuff.)

Kaia wasn't the only one to be on the receiving end of gifts. A package from Minnesota arrived on Thursday containing a gift from a friend in Coon Rapids. You gotta leave it to the Lutherans to create this onesie. The tag says 12 months, but since Evie Lu is already filling out 6 month clothing it will be no time before she'll proudly sport this one.

A nod to the Toddler Reformers?


Wait, how many Lutheran article of clothing does Evangeline have?

So, I Mentioned A Parrot

A few days ago I wrote about Evangeline discovering she has hands and how she grabbed a parrot without my help. Kaia told me after she read the post we should clarify Evie Lu is not grabbing real birds, but instead a stuffed, crinkly bird that hangs from her playmat. Still, I am amazed at how she is developing.



Evangelines latest adventures in sleep include going from 8pm to 3:30am last night and then 4am to 7am this morning. I hear sleepless parent horror stories everyday at the church and so I know we are blessed to have Evie Lu who sleeps so well. Although, Kaia heard from a co-worker yesterday his duaghter slept really well until she turned 5 months old and now they get no sleep.

Happy Birthday Kaia

Here are a couple of pictures of our little family from our dinner with friends on St. Patrick's day.

Evangeline has already given Kaia a gift this morning, but since it is Kaia's birthday I unwrapped it and made it go away.

Happy Birthday!

Look At That

Evangeline has recognized she has appendages. She has no idea what to do with these fingers yet, but she is exploring. I watched her yesterday grab firmly on to a parrot and pull down. I did not place the parrot in her hand. I was amazed.

Hey Lady, Keep Your Lips Off My Baby!

At the church I serve at we have communion every week. We serve communion by intinction, which means a piece of bread is broken for you and you then dip your bread either in a chalice of wine or grape juice. Anyone who does not take communion (generally small children) receives a blessing. This usually consists of marking the sign of the cross on the child's forehead and saying a brief blessing.
We ask for members of the congregation to come forward to help serve communion and they are then given the bread, wine, or grape juice and sent to a communion station.
Every week this happens.

Yesterday, I had a problem. As members of the congregation were coming forward to help, I handed a woman some of the bread and sent her to a station. It just so happened I sent her to the station where Kaia and Evie Lu were sitting. My beautiful wife walks to the front to receive communion and instead of a simple blessing and the sign of the cross for my daughter, this woman kisses Evangeline!

Pastor's kids have a reputation (generally well deserved) for being hellions and I wonder if part of it is because of incidents like this one. This woman does not really know me or my family, but because I am one of her pastors she thinks we have a deeper relationship which gives her greater liberty with my child. She didn't kiss any other kids and I guarantee other parents would not have stood for it if she did.

My microbiologist wife assured me the hoarse throat Evie Lu had last night could not have been the result of this woman, but I'm not so sure.

Go, Cobbers!

Hey, Auntie Kaitlin!



I want to know if it is OK if I wear this to your graduation. I've never been to a graduation before, and I'm not sure if I have the right attire. I would hate to get kicked out. Dad says it looks fine, but he always wears a T-shirt and jeans.

My social calendar is packed!

As Will mentioned yesterday, there hasn't been much time to post this week. Yesterday was no exception. We all went to a baby shower where another baby was getting all the presents and attention. (It's about time the spotlight was off of Evie for a while!) I even won a game prize of a Starbucks gift card (caffeine!!) for drawing the best baby picture, drawn with the paper on top of my head. If the whole microbiology thing falls apart, at least I know I can make it as an abstract artist. Last night we had some wonderful homemade Thai food with friends, including spending time with an older baby who I'm sure is more than happy to show Evie the ropes of how to be a good toddler someday. Today was church, of course, and we all enjoyed listening to Evie's dad rock out on the guitar. It was the first Sunday that she was actually awake during the service! Today's snapshot is of Evie in her Sunday best.

My Parents Are Slackers

Tomorrow Evangeline will be 11 weeks old. This amazes me. We have been a little hit and miss this week with the blog posts, but we promise to do better so that you can hear about all the things she is doing.

This week she really took cooing to the next level. Kaia mentioned the laughing and it is even getting more pronounced each day. Also her hands are becoming more familiar to her. She batted away at her purple elephant for quite a while. Was she trying to grab it? I'm not sure, but I am sure she meant to hit the elephant.

As you can see from the picture below, she really holds her head up high during belly time. When you hold Evie Lu to your shoulder she usually wants to look at you as opposed to just resting her head on you.


She is now consistently sleeping through the night. We are talking 11pm to 6am at least. She slept for nine hours one day this week. Everyone I talk to reminds me this is not normal and I should be lucky. Well, we do feel blessed and not just because Evie Lu sleeps like a champ. She's an all around sweetheart.

And I know I'm biased, but even when she's upset she melts me. Evangeline, what could be so horrible?

Mommy and Mukluks

It was a busy day for the Seattle Sappingtons today. It was the bishop's convocation for Evie and Will, and judging by the picture Will sent to my phone, Evie was enjoying herself (she was sleeping). It was early to the lab for me so I could be home just in time for Will to take off again for Thursday evening practices and meetings. At least we could all enjoy breakfast together, except for Evie who was a little impatient and ate earlier.

While Will and I ate our oatmeal, we heard new sounds coming from our daughter. I think they were the beginnings of laughter! I still don't know what was so funny, but her shriek certainly made Will and I laugh. I'm so thankful that she is learning to express herself, and even more thankful that those expressions are happy ones.

Evie and I went for a walk this afternoon, and since it was a little drizzly, it was a perfect opportunity to try out her new mukluks from Aunt Becky. Finally, some footwear that Evie can grow into! They did the trick and she stayed toasty the whole walk. She is staying awake more, and now we both enjoy the blooming cherry trees on our strolls around the neighborhood.

What Work Looks Like

So you might think having a ten week old come to the office with you would be distracting, but it turns out Evie Lu is not any more of an office distraction that anything we had happening previously. In fact Evangeline makes everything better at the office because she gets to do the things we all wish we could. Sleep through a meeting? Check! Eat whenever you want? Check!

Here is her domain in my office. You can see the webcam we use to keep Kaia and Grandpa Ralph in the loop.


The webcam is perched on the diaper changing ledge which was the scene of yesterday's fiasco.

Comedy Of Errors

Ah, that faint smell of pee in my office? This would be the result of one of the of the worst displays of diaper changing in modern history. Here is the rundown . . .

Evangeline ate like a champ and as she was finishing her bottle she successfully filled her diaper. She let me know she had accomplished this with an audible "whooomp" sound. I burped her and then moved to the changing of the diaper.

In my office I have a playpen for Evangeline and Kaia showed me a wonderful feature of this playpen, a ledge made especially for changing. I place my daughter in the changing ledge and find her diaper is not quite containing the abundance she has produced. This necessitates changing her little onesie and this is the moment we went completely off the rails.

I now have a, but for her diaper, naked baby and I attempt to quickly make the switch to the new diaper. It turns out I'm not quick enough and my baby begins kicking and peeing simultaneously. I do not have a diaper completely on her just yet so the changing ledge now has pee pooling in it around Evangeline. Sweet Evie Lu takes this moment to smile at me.

I eventually got my daughter clean, dry, and changed. Whew!

Fun In The Tub

Tomorrow morning brings early morning meetings for Evangeline and me, so this post will have to tide you over for a little while. And what could be cuter than bathtime?

Kaia gave Evie Lu a bath and I think they have too much fun. Can any serious baby cleaning be happening with a face like this?


I think my little girl is gorgeous in every way, and there are two things I hope she inherits from Kaia and I. I hope she has blue eyes like mine and curly hair like Kaia's. The picture below gives me hope on the hair front.

Monday Morning With Dad

So what do you do after a busy weekend? You lounge a little bit. Evie Lu was a complete chatterbox this morning. The hightlight was noticing she would respond after we said something. I told Evie Lu, "I love you" and she responded with, "oooo aaahhhoooo." There were a few times I could almost convince myself she was responding with "I love you, too."


We are not sure, but we think Evangeline has discovered her hands. Kaia asked me this morning when she would start grabbing things and althought I didn't know the answer a bit of panic hit me as I looked around our place and caught sight of all the things we do not want her to grab. Baby proofing will need to commence sooner rather than later.