"is she just that beautiful or have they had too much wine?"

so last night we went to see mike, penny and cade. he is so wonderful. he has a full head of dark hair, and his arms, legs and tummy look like he's been eating for weeks. that kid has a future in football if anyone does. his feet are huge, his hands are huge. he's just tough lookin, and he was born yesterday. i would have pictures if my child hadn't decided to scream starting about two minutes after we got there. seriously, i fed her at 6 so when we went to see the baby, she would be good. ha. she wanted to eat again at 7:30. reason and schedules are not easily communicated to infants. they just don't care.

so.. we were in there for about 20 minutes before the screaming had escalated beyond tolerable. we retreated quickly to the lobby for baby dinner No. 2, and all was well with the world. dave, amy, katelyn and noah & aaron and jeanette also came to visit around the same time. so landon, ellie and i hung out in the lobby until those guys were done. then we went to joe's for some adult dinner.

noah slept a lot of the time, but ellie was bright-eyed as she is more and more these days. landon and i took turns holding her while we were eating, and she just looked all around with her lovely blue eyes.

at one point, landon had her up over his shoulder, patting her back. i was down at the other end of the table, and the next time i looked up this large party of (i think) italians was huddled around landon's shoulder, exclaiming about how beautiful ellie is. seriously, there weren't just like, 'aw, cute baby!' on the way by. they were lingering there, several of them, just oohing and ahhing over her, touching her hands and her cheek and audibly complimenting her in their thick accents.

after about 10 minutes and the italians retreated back to their table, i leaned to landon and whispered, "is she just that beautiful or have they had too much wine?"

without blinking, smiling or otherwise indicating he was anything but serious as a heart attack, landon answered.

"she's just that beautiful."