In the three weeks since Ingrid’s birth, we’ve taken a lot of pictures of her, along with a few videos. Picasa, with its magical face-recognition voodoo, claims I have 42 pictures of Ingrid. I won’t post them all here for you, but here’s a few favorites.

We gave Ingrid her first “real” bath, and as new parents we were very careful not to boil her alive. Our fancy baby-sponge mat (thanks Beth!) has a little sticker on it that’s supposed to change color at 104 degrees so you don’t hurt your kid. A little science experiment reveals that ours changes color at about 97, so we’re more in danger of freezing Ingy to death than boiling her.

As our first, Ingrid will likely have far too many pictures taken of her. We’re documenting her growth versus the size of a rather large bear. (That’s week 2 on the left, week 3 on the right)

And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention our cats are a little jealous. The only attention they get now is when I shoot at them with my double-barreled dart shotgun, or when they’re being funny.

Seeing as babies don’t do much, that about sums it up. Here’s a video for you to enjoy, and you can also follow along at home with periodic video uploads to our YouTube channel.

As an FYI, we’ve got ourself an HD webcam and are currently duking it out between Skype, Logitech Vid HD, Google Chat, and Live Messenger to figure out which one works best. If you want to meet Ingrid, give us a holler!

When Lisa had gotten settled in for the long haul they asked her what she thought about epidurals. Her response: “How soon can I get one?” 45 minutes later her IV and all were prepped for the procedure, but the doctor needed around an hour to get between her impenetrable vertebrae. After profuse apologies from him in regards to the duration and pain of it all, Lisa was glad to forgive him as the pain melted away.

Just about as soon as it wore off it was time to push. The Dr. gave her a quick tutorial about how to push, and then for some reason thought it was a good idea to trust me to coach and count. When he made it back a little over a half hour later he said it was time to change into his jammies and catch. At 11:00AM Ingrid Anita decided to make her grand entrance, and we had our long-awaited daughter!

OK then, enough fun with look-alikes. You probably want to see the other ultrasound pictures, and find out if Eustace Clarence is a boy or a girl. Just click here to see!

Eustace just wouldn’t sit still–the doctor kept remarking how active he was, and it took a while before he settled down enough for her to get the heartbeat read. Looks like he got my ADD!

In the tradition of the Tim Pulls, we have decided to give our child a rather odd in utero name: Eustace Clarence.

For those not in the know, Eustace Clarence Scrubb is the protagonist in C.S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader who in many ways I have identified with, and who lies at the center of one of the most beautiful depictions of spiritual regeneration ever written.  Unlike the “original” Eustace who “almost deserved” his name, we hope our child will be pleasant and loving, but we also know with absolute certainty that he (or she) will be born with a sinful nature, and our greatest prayer is that he (like E.C.S.) will accept the Grace that God has freely given us through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ.

If you’re still not clear of the connection, I highly recommend you read The Chronicles of Narnia: seeing the movies does not do justice to the spiritual emphases and masterful writing of C.S. Lewis, and while the books are quick and concise, they are loaded with spiritual Truths.*