Ok, so it’s not a compound.  But there is a new face.  My second daughter, Leila (”Laylah”) Belle, was born early Saturday morning and my wife and I couldn’t be happier.  Big sister Ella seems very excited and has attempted to be very helpful around the house.  At a little over 4 years old, that help often ends in more work for the ‘rents but I love the effort.

Leila was a week late but it was clear that she was just staying where she liked the food.  She was born at 4230 grams, or 9lbs 5oz.  She’s as cute as a button and very curious.

Now my wife and I are fully engulfed in the mystical art of deciphering what the hell this baby needs.  My mother bought us a DVD called The Dunstan Baby Language.  If you haven’t heard of this before and have an infant at home, it is definitely worth checking out.  The Reader’s Digest version is that this lady in Australia was born with a gift for being able to identify sounds and recreate them after one hearing (”a photographic memory for sounds” they call it).  When she had her first child she discovered that he was repeating the same basic sounds and, after some research, discovered that it was virtually universal among human infants.  She was on Oprah.  Yes, I’m the last to hear about her.  I don’t watch Oprah - sue me.

Let me tell you this, when you watch the DVD it looks foolproof.  If you manage to hear the sound in your own child you feel like a genius.  If, like me, your child seems to make every sound other than the basic sounds on the DVD you feel very frustrated.  Right now I’m about 3 for 12.  It’s better than 0 for 12 but I do hope it gets easier…