Buckley’s Birth

On Sat., 14 June 2008, at 5:24 AM, Buckley Daniel Harty was born. Buckley is his first name for at least three reasons:

• It is his paternal grammie’s maiden name
• we have a handful of friends named Buck or Buckley, and they are all cool people in their own right
• we just really like the name, since it’s unusual but not totally made-up and random

Daniel, likewise was given for three reasons:

• He is named after Diana’s brother Daniel (who alternatively goes by Dan or Danny depending on who you ask)
• Daniel the Biblical prophet and exemplar of faith and courage
• the name means “God is my Judge”

Buck weighed 8 lbs and 7 ounces and was 20″ long (thereabouts).  Though the pictures don’t show it, I caught him making a face that shows that he has two dimples.  He doesn’t have any birthmarks that we’ve noticed as yet.  Keep in mind that most of these pictures were taken in the first few minutes after he was pushed cold, scared, and screaming into this world. He’s usually very calm and only cries when he feels a grave injustice is being done to him (such as when someone attempts to steal the diaper he has just managed to make his own, or un-swaddles him leaving him exposed to the biting cold). He is an adorable, very calm little guy most of the time. Now, on the second day, he is much more alert and will sit contentedly making little cooing noises with his big gray eyes opened tentatively when the lights are low.