Our daughter, Kaitlin Marie Hamilton, was born at 5:32pm one month ago.

It’s amazing to watch her grow over the past 31 days. She’s gone from being awake just long enough to eat, burp, and poop to spending her mornings and late afternoons tracking our faces and realizing she has hands. Kate’s vocabulary is no longer limited to crying; she talks and sighs while she eats, as if she’s giving a running commentary of her meal or trying to share tasting notes. In the past few days, we’ve noticed tears running down her cheeks when she cries, and have even caught her fake crying when she just wants to get our attention.

And we’re growing just as rapidly as new parents. She’s made us learn the true meanings of sleeplessness and multitasking. Tasks that were once theoretically repugnant, such as changing a baby that has soaked her clothes through with an exploding poopy diaper, have become a reality to deal with and get desensitized to. We’ve started to differentiate between her various sounds and expressions. The endless cycle of feed-burp-change-nap is getting handled more efficiently (despite looking out our window at the Olympic celebrations and wishing we could have timed her birth a little differently). I’m sure there is more to learn and that she will continue to wrap us around her little finger as her first year progresses.

Thank you to everyone that has supported us thus far with gifts, food, advice, and assistance. We welcome your help and experience…and most definitely your babysitting skills!

Another update next month. For now, look at the 365-day photo project we have on Flickr (month 1 below). Each photo describes any milestones in its caption.