We struck baby gold for a second time this morning when Isabel was safely born at 5:30 am. Mom and baby are both doing well. Izzy was a stunning 9 lbs 1 oz, 20" which with the cord wrapped around her neck and all, made her an ideal c-section baby.

She came out extremely alert - she was awake and looking around the whole time we were finishing in surgery, and has a habit of staying awake while she feeds (yes, she's latched on and seemingly good-to-go). More pictures on Flickr.

Kate had her first two music recitals this weekend - her first was Friday, plunking away and singing "twinkle twinkle" using a cool plastic guitar she just got from her cousins Zoe and Kelsey. Sunday night she brought her xylophone downstairs and hammered a jazzy version of "ABC" with accompanying vocals.

If you dare to sing along, she'll silence you with "Kate's Turn" - but who would dare, she sounded wonderful.

The New York Times seems concerned that the Baby Einstein DVD's are dumbing down America six words at a time:

Op-Ed Contributor
The Genius of ‘Baby Einstein’
By LISA GUERNSEY
August 16, 2007

I know I shouldn’t admit to playing baby videos for my children, but allow me to embarrass myself. “Baby Mozart� was part of my first child’s life when she was all of 3 months old. She was a colicky baby, despite my hours of walking her, nursing her and singing to her. The video didn’t always work — and the calm never lasted much longer than 15 minutes — but I was desperate. (more...)