Mr. Locke's Classroom » Baby

She Likes Flowers

Neal Locke — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:57:37 +0000

For the past few weeks, every time I would hold Abby (who is now almost 3 months old) she would fuss and complain until I turned her to face a certain direction in our living room — always the same direction. Then she would smile and make happy gurgly noises and start to get excited. So I had the idea last week to narrow things down. I picked her up, held her in her “favorite direction” and we basically played the equivalent of the game “hot or cold.” When she fussed, I was cold. When she laughed, I was moving in the right direction.

It was flowers. An arrangement of cloth flowers that Amy actually made several years ago, that was sitting high up on top of our china cabinet. But whenever I hold Abby high up in the air in front of the flowers, she gets excited, starts flailing her arms and legs, laughing and smiling and gurgling and babbling and laughing.

I just hope she’ll always be this pleased with the simple beauty in the world around her.

Abigail Ashley Locke

Neal Locke — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:04:28 +0000

She was born at 1:54pm on St. Nicholas day (December 6th). She weighs 9 pounds and 11 ounces, and is 20.5 inches long. She’s a beautiful baby girl with a soft, sweet cry that is so different than her older brother’s was, three years ago — but just as endearing. Her first name, Abigail, is in honor of Amy’s mother, Gayle. Her middle name, Ashley, is in honor of my great grandparents, Ira and Minnie Ashley. She’s part Sawyer, and part Locke, and looks completely like she belongs in the family.

Amy was in labor with Abby for a little less than five hours — our nurse (and friend, Amy Guest) called her “Ninja baby” because she was hard to pinpoint, and then elusive when labor started. Just when we started talking about a C-Section, though, Abigail decided enough was enough, and she came right out (we suspect there were a lot of people praying, too).

Amy’s mom (“G.G.”) came shortly after, and my mom (Grandma Linda) brought Grady. He held his baby sister and sang “It’s raining, it’s pouring” to her, and asked her if she liked Sesame Street. We did the picture thing, and now everyone is resting (except for Grady, who is running and playing somewhere in the hospital with Grandma Linda).

NOTE: Having trouble uploading pictures on the hospital wi-fi — will post more to this blog as am able.

At the Hospital, Waiting for Baby

Neal Locke — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 05:52:56 +0000

We got here this evening a little after 5:00, and checked in. The room is nice, as far as hospital rooms go, and our nurse is a friend of a friend. Early tomorrow (Thursday) morning around 6:00, Amy will be induced and hopefully go into labor shortly thereafter.

Grandma Linda is watching Grady, and both of them got to come up for a visit tonight (and bring dinner). Grady asked the nurse if she had a “shotter” (as in, “the thing that gives shots”) and Daddy asked the nurse if the hospital had free wi-fi (thankfully, they did).

Things will go quickly tomorrow, but I’ll blog when I can, and post the obligatory pictures. For those who want more frequent updates, check the “Status” feed in the top of the left sidebar in my blog (I can update it more frequently via my cell phone) . Unfortunately, you can’t see it in a feed reader or email, so you’ll have to actually visit the website to get the “play by play.”

Anyhow, by this time tomorrow night, we should be a bigger, happier, and more gender balanced Locke family!

New Release!

Neal Locke — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:35:05 +0000

I’m proud to announce the forthcoming release of Baby Locke 2.0 (Beta)*.

Baby Locke 2.0 will undoubtedly reflect features yet to be seen in previous releases, but by far the most exciting one we can announce for sure is the use of the “Girl-Script” programming language!
Baby Locke 2.0 will remain in beta testing until the official release date of November 30th.
And yes, this developer in particular has hopes that Baby Locke 2.0 will be released entirely open source, and shared with the world! (probably right here on this blog)
You can rest assured that Baby Locke 1.0 (affectionately dubbed “Grady” by our development team) will continue to be a supported release, and has recently undergone several upgrades (i.e. potty training capabilities and now comes standard with a pet rock module) and will henceforth be packaged as “Toddler Locke 1.0.”

*(Yes, I realize this metaphor is less than original, but I still like it).

UPDATE: Ok, I thought I was being pretty obvious here, but apparently I’ve managed to sow confusion once again, so here’s the translation for non-geeks: Amy is about four months pregnant, and we’re expecting our second child (a girl) to arrive in late November. Hence, “Baby Locke 2.0 Beta.” Sheeesh…do I have to explain how this happened, too?