A beginning...

...About time, some of you might be saying! She's over 18 months old already!

Pardon me! I'm getting ahead of my story. Please allow me to introduce myself first:

My name is Mark Spencer. That's me on the right -- the follicly challenged, goofy-happy guy in the picture.

But this blog is not really about me!

Also in the picture, tired but happy, is Ksenia Bronicki. She and I both work at the University of Waterloo Library in the province of Ontario in a friendly place called Canada. Ksenia calls the University Map Library location her home away from home while I spend much of my time in the Library's Cataloguing Department, housed in the Dana Porter Library, but I can also be seen at the Davis Centre Library's Information desk thrice weekly.

But again, it's not about me; nor, as much as Ksenia deserves it, is this blog really about her either.

As interesting as we might be (to ourselves at least), I've quickly come to realize it is no longer about us. It is about that little peanut bundled up between us in the picture. It is about our daughter, Natalia Jazz Maureen.

On September 27, 2007, we were blessed with Natalia's birth. The picture above was taken about an hour after that happy event. It is all about her now -- philosophically, emotionally..."blogistically" -- it is about her life now.

So, by way of wrapping up these introductions...

Besides me posting pictures and videos of Natalia to Facebook, some of you agreed that a blog, keeping track of her progress, might be a good idea to enhance that visual experience: an electronic updating of the idea of the 'baby diary' of the past. My sister told me hers were invaluable tools in remembering the details and dates of important events in her babies' lives. Similar to a diary, I hope I can keep this blog current with stories, anecdotes, pictures and video (sometimes duplicating what is on FB, sometimes not) allowing everyone who is interested in reading it to be more or less up-to-date on Natty's progress.

While I hope this blog informs and entertains you, I will be glad if it succeeds in keeping track of the benchmarks of our little girl's first few years. I have no illusions when it comes to my decreasing mnemonic capabilities so if in the future I will have a readily accessible place I can go when the inevitable questions get asked ("What were my favourite books when I was young?") then not only have I done my work but I feel I have provided myself (and all of you) with some memories. My wish for Jazz from this is that it becomes a useful way of paying my debt to her forward.

Finally, having perhaps over-prefaced this, let me provide you with one further caveat: this is my first attempt at blogging. Please bear with me but join me in wishing a very warm...

Welcome to the world, Natalia Jazz Maureen!