Here is a picture of our third child:

You can almost imagine he's smiling, which is not bad for the evening of his birth.

Unfortunately, even the healthiest of babies seems to look a little beat up when they first get out. Fortunately, the skin clears up surprisingly fast.

I wrote a minor epic when our first child was born, and waxed at some length for our second. For Nathaniel, I trust you'll be satisfied with this interesting fact: Nathaniel arrived early -- that is, he arrived before the midwife. And that arrival was lovely.

As you can deduce from the pictures, it has been rather awhile since he was born (cough), and Nathaniel has even been duly baptized. He was a little young for the snappy white suit that one of the other boys sported, but I'm starting to wonder if our plan to use one unisex baptismal gown for all the kids is going to work.

I'm just glad that whoever stuffs other people's babies into flower suits and fake pots and courts future lawsuits by hawking them on greeting cards wasn't around to get visions of Mother Ginger.

(Which reminds me: all baby pictures on this site are copyrighted and may not be used for anything except excessive viewing by friends and relatives. I've been considering a more distributist license for most of my online content, but family pictures will be locked up permanently, or until such greeting cards finally inspire universal cultural outrage. Go wear your own sunflower suit.)

Anyhow, I'd forgotten what a newborn is like. I'm beginning to despair of even attempting to describe certain happenings until I learn how to draw or write verse. But here Nathaniel is, whole and entire, another stranger claiming Preferred Member Status in our little club. We all give him a warm welcome, and look forward to a fuller acquaintance.