xtcian

You are all so damn pretty and glowy I can hardly speak. Welcome to the world, lovely Lucy. We're a better place for it.

Congratulations, Ian and Tessa! Welcome to the world, Lucy!

Can't wait to hear the birth story...

I've been reading your blog for months, always lost in the crowd and hiding in the shadows, but this entry has moved me so much, I decided to comment.

Just wanted to say congratulations to you and your family. Your daughter is beautiful.

Oh she's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Welcome, Lucy!

Wow! She's so beautiful. Congratulations, Ian and Tessa.

Welcome to the Garden of Earthly Delights, Lucy de lux!

In the words of Kurt Vonnegut:

Hello baby. Welcome to Earth.

Congratulations! What a beautiful family!

awesome.

deepest congratulations and best wishes to (all 3 members of) the blake-williams family.

you all just made my LA night,

CP

Congratulations. Wee Oliver says hello, and promises to inform Lucy about life, parents, etc. when she's ready.

Welcome Lucy! Congratulations Mom and Dad!
You both received -- and gave to the world -- a most beautiful gift.

Thank you Tessa and Ian.

Lucy - "light"
Kent - "bright, white"
Blake - "fair haried"
William(s) - "valiant"

What could be better?

Kent and family had a birth party tonight; Melissa bought pink roses for the table. For all I know they drank pink champagne. I wanted to be everywhere today, in Napa with Michelle, in NY with all of you, in Iowa with Kent, Melissa and the boys. Bless the internet for keeping us all so close together.

Welcome, beautiful granddaughter. I'll see you soon.

The Gang here in Maui sends you loads of Aloha!

Hauoli La Hanau (Happy Birthday in Hawaiian)

Cheers,
lisa

Wise and irreverent Lucy has already caught on to her Dad's penchant to pontificate, and is showing us how she feels.

Go Lucy, try to keep this man in line where many another person has failed.

Congratulations to you as a family. Let the fun begin!

Happy Birthday, Lucy! You and your beautiful parents are loved with a very MIGHTY love!!!

Dear Lucy,

On the day you were born
the Earth turned, the Moon pulled,
the Sun flared, and, then, with a push,

you slipped out of the dark quiet
where suddenly you could hear. . .

. . . a circle of people singing with voices familiar and clear.

"Welcome to the spinning world," the people sang, as they washed your new, tiny hands.

"Welcome to the green Earth," the people sang, as they wrapped your wet, slippery body.

And as they held you close
they whispered into your open, curving ear,
"We are so glad you've come!"

from "On the Day You Were Born" by Debra Frasier

Nap? We warned you previously that the napping is over.

Congratulations.

What a darling! Congratulations!
And at 9 lbs she actually looks like the cute, chubby newborns in commercials rather than the typical newborn spider monkey!

Look, it's a pretty version of Ian! Did you ever think you could be so beautiful? I can tell Lucy has big plans. The adventure has begun and I can't wait to see.
Get excited!

Dear dear light, bright white, fair-haired valient Lucy, what a deep deep delight to welcome you. Roman eager for his first kiss, and so thrilled that the baby chose to come out of Tessa's tummy. Me, too. What a strapping healthy and (of course) gorgeous gorgeous Lucy. And with a name like that, she'll be making things with lite brite before you can say 'hasbro'. So much love from Efland

What a beautiful baby girl! Congratulations Mom and Dad and grandma and aunts and uncles! Let the fun begin! Well, a new and different kind of fun anyway. And, no, it doesn't really involve much napping.

Yay! Yay!! Yay!!!

Congratulations to everyone, and welcome to the world, Lucy!

I love the name. Absolutely LOVE it. I will not go on and on and on about how cute she is and how much I love the name. But, ya know. She's so CUTE. And I love the name!!!

Much love and happiness to you all. :)

Excellent!

Welcome to the world, Baby Girl!

C

Just looking at your glowing faces is making me happy. Lucy is perfection. Congratulations.

Beautiful Lucy, welcome!

Well, I'm just crying. How incredible.

Speechless. Cannot get over pix of her, her little round eyes & mouth. Her little strawberry tuft. Her wee yawn!

Aunt Annie will be there to see you in a few short weeks, Lucy dear!

Hallelujah, She is born. Ain't she purty.

Ya'll all together in that hospital bed reminds me of cramped Granville Towers shared sleeping arrangements w/my future wife--a tight, but just right fit.

What a beautiful little girl!

While I am disappointed "Jawadette" did not make it into the name, Lucy is terrific. :)

Congrats to Ian and Tessa!

lucy is all kinds of perfect and tessa is a warrior-queen.

As another of the daily readers, but not known to you and yours, I also want to wish a hearty congratulations and best wishes for you, Tessa, and your expanding family.

welcome to the world, little lucy, and blessings on your family and your life.

much love,

aunt and uncle C

Yay, Lucy! You made it! congratulations Tessa and Ian...damn you two make a pretty baby! all the best..

Wow. Just....wow. Congrats to all. Need any knit hats?

that thar's a fine lookin' baby. happy days!

Beautiful baby, beautiful parents, beautiful photos! Congratulations and thanks for letting us all share a little in your joy.

It's true, there won't be much napping, but it doesn't matter, it just means more time with your lovely wife and your georgeous baby. Enjoy!

Lucy,

My best wishes and kinest thoughts to you. Enjoy your time here! You have chosen well with this family. Enjoy.

Ian & Tessa,
Congratulations, she is beautiful and comes with an old soul!

On Children

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children.
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with his might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the Archer's had be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

The Prophet, Khalil Gibran.

Well it's about time. Congrats y'all!!!

Thanks for bringing another thoughtful being into the universe. I bet you'll be great parents.

Welcome, Lucy. Best of luck to you.

OH THE CUTENESS!!!!!!

(dies)

Welcome to the fatherhood club, dude. And you're gonna get more sleep than you think, so don't worry.

Gorgeous! But she comes from excellent stock...

Congrats, Ian and Tessa, and welcome to your beautiful baby girl -

mercury in retrograde be damned!! lucy finally made it. she is sure to have her way in the world from here on out...
congrats to you all!! she's one lucky little munchkin.

Congratulations! Lucy is a great name.

Yippee! Lucy, love, light, lovely!

It's been so fun to read the build-up to this moment. Congrats for everything!

"Day Two: Still tired from the move."

-Steven Wright (from his infant diary)

Congratulations! What a lovely baby!

Congrats! She looks beautiful and has a beautiful name.

Earlier this month you posted a valentine to Tessa and said that she is capable of things you could only dream of....and now you have Lucy! Ain't life great!! Congratulations! Beautiful baby, beautiful family.

Congratulations! Must be so great to have the waiting over ... and the exciting part beginning.

Simply BEAUTIFUL. Congratulations. You deserve to nap.

Ian, your blog has become a regular part of my morning routine – the first (and most interesting) of the many blogs I read over coffee before starting the day. Despite having stumbled across it unexpectedly, and having never met you, I enjoy your writing tremendously. Although I must confess, as an old prep school buddy of Tessa’s… I often feel a little guilty about being one of the “lurkers,” – as if I’m watching an old friend’s life unfold from a distance, without necessarily having her permission to do so. Nevertheless, it has been so amazing to follow the build-up to this, the happiest event of your lives… instead of waiting several months to simply see a one-line birth announcement appear in the back of a CRH alumni magazine. Please know how absolutely thrilled I am for the both of you upon the arrival of Lucy, who will no doubt grow up to the be the total kick-ass human being I remember her mom to be (and who I imagine her dad to be as well). Lots of love and best wishes for some much needed nap time.

She is **GORGEOUS!** Congrats to you both. All that extra time in the oven makes for a big muffin...I knew she would be 9lbs+ -- WOW! We want more pictures!

Congratulations!!! So happy for you all.

AWWWW!

Joy to all three of you. D. (and P too!)

I'm yet another daily reader and most-times lurker who has to join in on the congratulations for your beautiful new daughter! Welcome to the world, little Lucy!
Aimee D.

we just got back from four days' holiday, and i am so relieved to read that your peanut made her debut...

what a little sweetie, and what a lovely name. congratulations on her arriving healthy and beatiful!

lucy discovered the wardrobe, then proved to be a wise queen in c.s. lewis's chronicles of narnia -- another cool thing about your baby's very UN-cul-de-sac name.

Ian, I've never seen your face like that before.

Congratulations!

i am crying again at work... absolutely gorgeous. congratulations!!! love to the three of you, xoxo jiff

AWESOME!! She is so cute! You won't utter solipsism for some time :-]
Our daughter is just over 4 moons old, we haven't slept so little nor smiled so much in both our lives!! Welcome to the club

Lucy, congratulations on your birth! May the sun always shine in your kaleidoscope eyes!

It's been so wonderful to read all of these comments, welcoming my sweet niece into the world (who I will not get to lay eyes on until Memorial Day weekend). But it's also neat to see everyone's association with the name... and while I sit here pining in Northern California to see Lucy and Mom and Dad, all I can think of is Lucy from the Peanuts cartoon- Lucy, the smart, capable one, the one who couldn't resist pulling the football away from Charlie Brown ONE MORE TIME, but who became awkward and senseless and lovelorn around Schroder. When I first heard her name, it was Schultz's Lucy who came to mind, and I absolutely lost it. I cannot wait to see her.

Congratulations all around. What a beauty! Let the fun begin.

Advice- pace yourselves, think long term and be patient. You have just assumed the "watch" and you'll be on the watch for the rest of your lives. But remember, it's been done by 11 billion others on this earth so the odds are highly in your favor!

Is she a redhead? Brings to mind Lucille Ball; THE sitcom of all time!

Since "Coastopia", I've checked in every couple weeks to get a "sitrep" on your baby Lucy's arrival...what are you going to do as an encore?
(as if you're going to have the time...LOL)

B2

congratulations! welcome to the world, lucy!

ok i'm totally crying; what a BEAUTIFUL little girl; THOSE EYES! congrats you guys, hilary

congrats...to you all...has it really been that long..What a beautiful child, and the look on mom and dads faces...amazing! so happy...

jeanmarie

I just happened to check in while settin here in front of the TV back down in North Carolina. And "Every Which Way But Loose" was on when I found out about Loose-y. Here's a part of the theme song (by Eddit Rabbit no less)...

I've always been the kind of man
Who doesn't believe in strings
Long term obligations are just unnecessary things
But girl, ya got me thinkin
While I'm drinkin one more beer
If I'm headed for a heartache
Then why the hell am I still here

Something about this I liked for a lullaby.

Congratulations!!
Kirsten