Hi.

After a long absence, we are back on the internet. We were gone, in part, because the battery in our digital camera went for the high jump. But mostly we were gone because we were slack and not paying attention parenthood is an all-consuming, albeit rewarding, task.

Also, you would totally not believe how much of each day we spend fiddling with the Diaper Genie. The Diaper Genie is a special garbage can designed to keep the stink down. It does this by twisting a segment of garbage bag around each individual used diaper as you drop it in. Inside the Diaper Genie, the segments link together into a chain, which coils and coils and piles ever upward, with all the foul odours locked in by the pinchy twists in the garbage bag.

When it is time to empty the Diaper Genie, you push a button and many warm links of Hell Sausage tumble out the bottom. Ideally this is into a larger garbage can, which is then emptied by the city's skilled sanitation workers, but we are still Diaper Genie amateurs and usually we just drop the links on our own bare feet. We are trying to learn to not do that anymore.

Here is a helpful photo illustration of a Diaper Genie.

Now, we have a lot of photos for you to look at.

Here is the last photo of Lucy before her birth. You can't see a lot of her, but the very expensive machine that goes "ping" assured us she was there. Careful viewers will note that the photo also shows a delicious slice of banana bread, which provided Lucy's last blast of in-utero glucose. Mmm, glucose.

Here is the first photo of Lucy after her birth. She was frankly baffled by the camera. "It's nearly 2006," she said, "and you're still using a flash?"

Two strong women and one crybaby, enjoying an endorphin flood.

This is Bret checking Lucy for tattoos.

Suitably dressed and behatted, Lucy meets her grandmother Jane.

OK, that is enough photos from July 24. Once we were all back home, we concentrated on starting Lucy on a rigorous and healthy exercise regimen. Here she is doing the 300th of her 500 morning push-ups.

Afterward she is very tired and needs to lie on Kate for a few moments before moving on to balancing on the Pilates ball.

"Ah," she said as we took this photo, "so this is what these 'eyes' are for." Her father wisely stayed outside her field of vision.