December Union Hall Meeting

Today the June Babies Club met at Union Hall in advance of the holiday break. We had a gift exchange (Secret Santa/Happy Hanukkah) and every baby got a present. They're all starting to sit up independently, maintain prolonged eye contact, smile broadly, and enjoy being held by other parents. Although each baby is different and has a distinct personality already, we're amazed by the similarities as they develop. They are all in the exploration phase, and putting hands in our mouths/hair as they nurse, starting to giggle, teethe, etc.

Stella (3rd from right) has the best head of hair in the bunch and has since she was born!, and Alice and Soren are tied for second place in the 'Great Hair' category. What Naomi lacks in hair (4th from left) she makes up for in length. She's the 'supermodel' baby of the group: the longest, most slender, with long, pretty legs. Matteo (on right end) was born in May and was the first to sprout two of his lower front teeth. He and Oona look related, and take adorable photos together. Ella and Henry hold hands when they meet at yoga or at Group meetings. Max (2nd from right) stays at home most days with his father, who is a professional chef. Alice is the newest member of the group.

Here are photos from the lineup (see pictures of babies on red corner sofa). Initially they were all upright and cheerful (they enjoy sitting next to each other). But now that they're in the wandering-hands phase, it's a very short time before one baby's hand gets into another baby's hair or mouth. Soren and Ella were straddling a huge gap in the sofa cushions and listed to the side, creating a domino effect. By the time the parents backed away and started snapping photos, the gang was listing and starting to wail...
Group pictures (from left to right): Alice, Oona, Henry, Soren, Ella, Naomi, Stella, Max, Matteo.

The cloud overshadowing the day is that Golden is in the hospital getting a blood transfusion to alleviate his anemia. Jen estimates they'll be in the hospital until middle or end of this week while they conduct tests and doctors try to determine the cause of the illness/anemia/low platelet count. This is a shout-out to Golden, Jen, and Brian, who were greatly missed today. In the first group photo of the babies (taken on Labor Day, September, 2007 - see above picture of babies lying on a striped blanket), Golden is second from the right. By the 2-month mark, while some of us were fretting over breastfeeding challenges and the babies' weight gain, Golden had grown 3 inches and gained 3 pounds. He has one of the sweetest dispositions of the bunch. We're all thinking of the Randolphs every day and praying that they find the root cause of his illness, he can recover quickly and come home, and play with the rest of the June babies again.