The first 10 days ...

It's so amazing how quickly Camille is adapting to her new life on the "outside". She seems to like her mom and dad quite a bit and has been pretty content 85 percent of the time. She had several visitors over the weekend.

Laura, Christabel, Solay, Yoan, and Arnaud stopped by after work and they came bearing gifts for Camille,

and champagne and cheese for mom and dad. Saturday morning, Trever's English buddy and team mate, Chris,

came over with crumpets for breakfast and in the afternoon Anita and Leon, friends from Holland, stopped by for an introduction.

By Sunday, Amanda was pooped and I guess Camille was too, because she slept most of the day away and decided to keep us up throughout the night. I got to try out my granny skills and rocked her, and rocked her, and rocked her at 2 am while Daddy got some sleep. It was his first day back to work and he had to get up early (ugh).

On Monday we were wondering how our day would pan out because Amanda had back to back appointments scheduled; pediatrician at 10 am, a stop at the lab for a blood test (ouch),

ob/gyn at noon, and the lactation visit at 2pm. It actually went better than we expected. Camille was a trooper and never caused us any stress, thus allowing us to look like pros and not a couple of bumbling fools at our first parade.

Mid-week Camille had two more visitors from her mommy's school.

Chris brought Selina over on his Vespa and Conte,

her mommy's assistant from school, came home from work with her daddy. She got lots of surprises this week too. Daddy came home bearing gifts every day.

Today she went on her first shopping adventure. We went to one of the fancy shopping centers on Orchard Road to get some essential items for her mommy. Of course, she decided to sleep through the entire outing so she missed out on all the cool Christmas decorations. Now she's out grocery shopping with dad and mom. Daddy squeezes in some play time after work,

and gives her lots of kisses.

and Mommy tries to catch a few winks whenever she can,

and Nonna, well I just can't stop looking at her.

Let's blow this joint ...

After two nights in the hospital, the Crowson family all decided enough was enough. Although Amanda was suppose to stay until Thursday, they opted for an early checkout, and mom, dad and baby arrived home on Wednesday afternoon. Camille was escorted around her new digs.

First we showed her the view from her living room window, and then we showed her the swimming pool she will get to use with mommy and daddy as soon as she is a little bit bigger. She especially liked her private space in mommy and daddy's room.

Even though mom felt like she had been run over by a Mac truck, she was quite happy to be home.

In no time at all, they settled in quite nicely and although Amanda's belly is pretty sore, she is handling motherhood like a champ. Her milk started coming in on day three and Camille is starting to settle into a nice routine. Although she seems to want to suck on demand during the day, at night she has allowed her parents intervals of 3 hours of sleep between feedings.

Daddy is already teaching Camille how to use the computer. She learned about skyping her cousin Kai and now wants to meet cousin Skylar but being the older cousin and all, it's hard to catch him at home.

As you can see, she is still tolerating our excitement by allowing us to play dress up with her (my fault) and taking endless numbers of photos.

Trever is a champ at changing diapers, swaddling and keeping her content when she decides enough is enough ... although Amanda is a bit incapacitated right now, she has spent several hours telling Camille all about each and everyone of her family and friends, so if you've ever pissed Amanda off, Camille will probably have a distorted view of your personality ... and I, of course, am magnificent at cuddling her in my arms and telling her she is the most beautiful baby in the world. We are trying very hard to remain "serious" around Amanda because every time we make her laugh she doubles over in pain. I hope she heals quickly because, as some of you know, Trever and I are not very serious people and together we are hilarious (my opinion, anyway).

As you can see, Camille already enjoys bath time...

loves daddy's massages ...

and especially mommy's story time.

This is going to sound weird, but the story she is reading to Camille is about Sushi.

"I see take-out,

kappa maki packed to go.

Temaki-style hand roll

with uni urchin roe.

Miso in my sippy cup,

tofu in my bowl.

Crab and avocado

fill my California roll ...."

What do you think folks, have they been in Southeast Asia too long?

Ladies and Gentlemen (drum roll please) ...

On this day, November 2nd, 2009, here she is for her debut in Singapore (drums again) ... I'm proud to present ... MISS CAMILLE FAYE CROWSON (loud cheers from her fans) ...

This little beauty weighs 7lbs 60z and is 20 inches long. She has a great set of lungs and can really belt out a tune.

Sometimes, even though we like to think we have everything under control, our best laid plans don't work the way we had thought they would. That's when Plan B is ready to put into action. Here is a scenario of how the big event took place.

It turned out that Camille just wasn't going to make an appearance without a little coaxing. Amanda and Trever left for the hospital at 11 pm on November 1st. I walked them to the elevator, gave them a hug and sent them on their way. I guess there are three or four steps involved when inducing labor. I will let Amanda share the personal details with you; however, I will tell you that in the end she had to have a C-section. Camille made her appearance into this world at 2:39 pm (Singapore time). I wasn't present for her arrival, but her daddy was, and this was my first sight of what a new dad feels like. He looks pretty happy. Baby and daddy were taken to their room to wait for mommy, and I was invited to come along (yeh).

About half an hour later Amanda was wheeled into the room, a bit groggy, but with a big smile.

Although Trever assured us that Camille had all her toes and fingers and no ugly birthmarks, we still had to check her over ourselves. She was pretty accommodating and actually put up with our probing and poking. Then, of course, Nonna had to hold her just for a little bit ... I have waited soooooooooooo long. The nurses showed Amanda how to get Camille to latch on to the breast and I knew immediately we had a quick learner. It was getting late by now and it was pretty obvious that mom and daughter needed some much earned rest,

so I quietly kissed them goodnight, left Trever in charge, and headed back to the apartment to write this blog.