Erin is now three months old, and we haven’t posted any updates since we brought her home.  So, I guess I’ll tell you a little about her.

She has been a very strong and curious baby from the very beginning.  She’s always watching and looking around to see what is going on, and if people are around, she’ll often refuse to go to sleep because she doesn’t want to miss out of anything.  She’s longer than average, but weighs less than average, and her torso is quite a bit longer than her legs.  Fitting clothes on her is quite the guessing game.

She loves talking, and on occasion trying to sing.  She has never been very happy to lay down, especially when someone else is around.  She prefers to sit-up and watch everything around her.

Erin’s Dedication

We had her baby dedication on January 15th.

Erin woke up right before we went up on stage, and was very curious about all of the lights.  During the prayer though, she very noisily filled her diaper, which made Rebecca giggle quite a bit.  She had to restrain herself because she was afraid that members in the audience would think she wasn’t taking the occasion seriously.

But everything turned out well, and Erin got her little pink bible and her certificate.  This was also Erin’s first time at church, and she seemed to enjoy it.

Grandma Dolly even got to come to town and meet Erin that week and see the dedication.

Everyday

One of Erin’s favorite things to do is talk to Curious George.  She’s enjoyed spending time with him since we brought her home, but now I think they are both making plans to get into trouble.  As soon as either of them find a way out of the crib, it’s going to mean trouble.  Erin can’t spend as much time with George now because she not home as much, and because George has button eyes, and they could be dangerous.

Erin doesn’t enjoy bath time much.  She gets very cranky, even though we got a floor heater and made sure she’s as comfortable as she can be.

Erin does like Finnegan and her swing, which is good, since they both share the same area.  Finnegan has taken up being Erin’s guardian, and is often times very upset if you leave her crying for long.  He will seek you out and make sure you realize that she isn’t happy.

The Uncles

John and Jud came to visit us in January also and got to meet Erin for the first time.  They came down to visit us around John’s birthday and got to experience to joys and frustrations of having an infant in the house.  Luck for them, Erin is a pretty happy and low-maintenance baby.

Who could not enjoy having a baby to enjoys sitting around, chill’n to some music and sticking her tongue out at you?

Two Months: Shots and a Plane Ride

After Erin got her two months shots and we were sure she was at a lower risk for travel, we flew off to Tucson to meet more family and friends.

We flew out to Tucson on a Thursday night and came back Monday evening.  While the added stress of traveling with an infant isn’t fun to deal with, Erin did great on both flights, and she wasn’t any more cranky than either of her parents.

Erin got to meet Grandpa Mark for the first time over lunch.  But because a couple of colds had been going around, time spent with family was a little limited the first couple of days.

Ben, Rebecca and Erin stayed at La Paloma while is Tucson so that the risk of any of us catching anything was reduced.

Meeting the Great Grandparents

Erin also got to meet her Great Grandparents while in Tucson.  Ash and Helen were both ecstatic to meet her, and Erin really enjoyed Papa Ash’s musical bell.

Three Months

Now she’s three months old and getting bigger and stronger.  She’s not crying like an infant any more, and she’s talking up a storm.

Today we brought Erin home from the hospital.

I introduced Finn to Erin after I went and picked him up from my parents’ house.  He did very well, and is very curious about all the strange noises she makes.  But he is a little anxious about being kept out of the front living room while Rebecca is feeding Erin.

Erin slept part of the night in the cradle in our room until her early morning feeding.  She likes the cradle, and she doesn’t look like she’s lost in a white void like she does while in the crib.

Tonight at 10:01pm Erin Elizabeth Anderson was born.  She weighs 7 lbs. 14oz. and is 20.5 inches long.

This week we got in the journals that I made for us to write in over the next couple of years, until we’ve filled them.  The funny part is that I misspelled “unconditionally” in the title of the first book and didn’t run spell check properly in the software I was using.  And since I duplicated that book and replaced the photos in it for the other copy, it was wrong in both books.  On ever page.  Due to my rushed work, I didn’t proof the book thoroughly, and missed the small type.  “Uncoditionally” and “Unconditionally” look very similar, especially when you’re thinking about too many other things, and already know what it is supposed to say.

These conditions were not acceptable by my OCD wife.

Which brought me to thinking about the vastly difficult part of unconditional love.  The first part.  Everything here on Earth has conditions.  All of us have conditions of employment to deal with everyday.  If we don’t have those conditions to contend with, then we have other situational conditions to deal with.  Even on your death bed, people are worried about our condition.

“Unconditional love” has a whole lot of conditions in its contract.  Those conditions are huge!

Unconditional means regardless of the conditions. Not just their condition, not just the condition of the environment around you, but it also includes some of the most frustratingly difficult conditions to deal with when it comes to love, our own condition.  There are a lot of times where my own condition is interfering with my desire for unconditional love.

In much of the same way as the condition of the flawed journals would be difficult to convey unconditional love to the reader if money was the reason they weren’t fixed and replaced, our flawed attitude is the condition that interferes with God’s love for us, and our love for others.

Sometimes it will be hard to express love because of the hurt we feel as a result of something stupid the other person did, and the disappointment is short-circuiting your delivery.  But far too often it ends up being our own stupidity that becomes the condition that hinders our delivery.  It’s easy to prepare yourself by answering the tough questions about how you’ll handle their mistakes and stupidity, but it’s nearly impossible to prepare for our own blind spots and shortcomings without constantly re-aligning ourselves with God.  We can prepare ourselves for those hard situations with others, so that we think and plan our response without being emotionally attached to the situation and increase our chances of holding on to unconditional love.  But what preemptive actions can be taken to handle ourselves, aside from regularly depending on and accepting God’s love for us?  How else are we going to realize that we’re the hindrance without an opportunity to be convicted and repaired by a greater love?

Regardless of the conditions, we are loved.  Therefore, regardless of our condition we should also love.

This weekend Rebecca and I both spent many hours going through things, doing a little spring cleaning in preparation for all of the changes in the house.  Many of the things we had to sift through were sentimental items.  Since I’m not very emotional, most of the things Rebecca accuses me of hoarding have very little sentimental value to me, they are practical things that are either some form of investment that I’m waiting to cash in on, or they are more of a practical investment, e.g. my boxes of electronic parts that I don’t want to have to go out and buy again.

I’ve always know that Rebecca is a very sentimental person and she keeps things that have absolutely not monetary or emotional value for anyone else other than her self.  But this weekend I realized that as weird and goofy as her attachments to the A+ on a paper from high school are, my daughter will probably have some similar personality traits and attachments.  As a result, I’m creating and printing a personalized journal for me to write letters to Erin.  These journal entrees will not all be appropriate or meaningful to my friends and family, so not all of them will be shared here, but along with our updates for friends and family you will find entrees from my writings to Erin.

My intent is that there be a meaningful keepsake that I can give to Erin when she is older, so that when I’m not there she still has a reminder of how much I loved her and her mother.  The domain for this blog wasn’t accidentally chosen, and I have years of personal experiences that cement the concept and responsibility of such a claim.  But one thing I have learned and relearned through the years is that simple concepts for myself that I feel I completely grasp and understand are nearly impossible to convey and explain to others in a meaningful manner.  When forced to sit down and elaborate on situation and condition so that others can correctly understand the feelings and concepts I’m trying to convey, my own understanding is furthered.  To that point, this is partly an exercise for myself, that I hope fill provide meaningful value to others, especially Erin.

As a son, a brother, now a husband, and soon to be a father, I’ve tried to express unconditional love. But as every relationship will show at times, it’s a difficult state of being.  I’ve heard many times that you will not truly understand unconditional love until you are a parent, but I already know that regardless of how unconditional my love is for my children and my wife, that it isn’t always, and at times they may feel rarely, shown and outwardly expressed.  My goal is to express it, and in the process, remind myself of it, and hope that it helps others understand it.

I know that most of the time I’m either too carefree for some, or too blunt for others, this will be a chance for you to see the serious and caring person that some people have had the chance to know and grow to love

You’ve been warned.  But I’ll also make sure that it isn’t the sole content of the blog, and that there will be plenty of fun and funny experiences shared.

It’s time again for our lives to transition through another one of life’s many stages.  The Anderson house is expecting another member soon.  In four months, give or take a little time, we’ll be welcoming Erin into our lives.  We’re expecting our first child.  While we’re frantically trying to arrange our lives, both metaphorically and physically, we are also extremely excited about this change.

Along with the real changes, comes a need to share the news and provide little glimpses into our family members’ lives.  I’ve decided that Facebook and other social media tools won’t completely share and communicate in the means best fit for this transition in our lives.  We will still share the news and everyday noise that is so much a part of the social networking experience, but as I’ve thought about the changes and transitions ahead, the social networks don’t seem to correctly fit the excitement and celebration required for a new life.  Most of those reasons are simply opinions and politics, but as an artist and techie, I don’t want the stories and experiences shared with my family and friends to be owned or controlled by a third party.  The content on this blog will be produced by our family, owned and controlled by our family, and shared through the most relevant means of the time.  I wanted to create a single and consistent place for family and friends to get news, laugh at stories and admire the fun photos and videos that we share, without being a part of a specific network, community, or program.  And since technology and products change, I wanted to make sure that everything we have to share is controlled and maintained by our family without worrying about Terms of Services or third party privacy issues, and kept for memories sake without worrying about a specific platform disappearing.

Besides, how else can we have a place to share all this fun and entertaining stuff with such an awesome domain name?!

Welcome to UnconditionallyLovedBy.Us!