The Fine Game of Nil

Lots of things going on lately. My parents completed their visit and have gone home to Seattle. It was great having them here, and really makes you realize how lonely it can be when you are so far away from family. Maybe not everyone feels that way, but I grew up spending most Sundays at my grandparents house with various aunts, uncles, and cousins and having a big family dinner. That’s pretty different from now, where we see our parents our other family members just a few times a year. Here are a few final pictures from my parents visit:

Also, it’s amazing how much he has changed in such a quick time. In just the past week or two, he has begun to really focus on faces, and track things with his eyes. He will stare at black and white, or high contrast items if they are within a foot or two of his vision, and can turn his head to follow it. He has random spontaneous smiles, and I think he may actually have had a responsive smile (although the books say it’s still too early for that). He just beginning to make coos and giggles. Basically, he’s becoming more of a baby and less of a very malleable lump!

He really is a beautiful baby. This is him on his one month birthday, which was Tuesday.

Alex’s parents are here now

Finally, we’re going to Vermont tomorrow for Alex’s cousin’s wedding. We will be spending the night. This will be an experiment in how well he travels, with a 3 hour car ride, and staying in a hotel overnight. Wish us luck.

Since Emily hasn’t mentioned it here. Liam had another doctor’s appointment this past Monday. She say he’s still growing like a weed and in her unbiased opinion one of the cuter babies she’s seen.

He weighed in at 10lb 2oz, a full 3 pounds over birth weight. I have some trouble visualizing abstract weights like that, so via Google here are 10 items which weigh the same as my child…

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…this sums it up pretty well.

Which is not to say that mom and dad are above the same sort of silliness.

I can’t believe that Liam will be a month old on Tuesday. The time has flown by. It still seems like just yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital. I can still remember the delivery clearly. I know that eventually that will become hazy and rosey and some day in the future we’ll say, “hey, let’s have another baby, having that first one wasn’t so bad”. (It really wasn’t that bad; I could have had it much worse). I’m also amazed at how much weight he has gained. The pediatrician has said there is no such thing as too much weight gain in a baby, and also that chubby babies are good. For an example, here he is in the first week:

Here he is from yesterday (I promise my mom is not beating him; he actually does like to be held like this):

On another note, here he is in the sling we bought:

When that child manages to go down, is he ever down. Completely limp, pretty much immune to outside noise, and usually making a cute little two-tone squeaky cooing noise. Of course saying “WHEN he manages to go down” is doing him a bit of a disservice. Overall he’s been a really good baby about going to sleep when he needs to, and letting his parents get at least a couple of hours of rest. I’m just writing this at the tail end of a bit of an evening cranky period. No one in the room, Liam included, knew exactly what the baby wanted, however, some of us were significantly more vocal that whatever it was that was needed should be given to him RIGHT DAMN NOW. Turned out it was a combination of too agitated to eat and too hungry to calm down. Once we managed to talk him down from the ledge, he got some milk in him and has been sleeping peacefully for about an hour now.

Liam appears destined to become either a goth or a flamboyant thespian because he’s already so expressive with his hands. On a related note, there are few things in the world cuter than baby hands.

I’ve tried to be honest with Liam from the start, explaining to him that mommy and daddy really don’t have a clue about any of this. But still, there are times when we’re fumbling to get him into the car seat, or trying to figure out what is misaligned in his life causing him to cry, that he looks up at us with his forehead wrinkled in disbelief and says “Are you sure you’ve done this before?

Just a quick picture of Emily, I and the child out for a stroll. Actually, more of a sizable walk. We were coming along with Emily’s parents for a 5K walk around the Lexington area. Liam kept up like a champ, never complaining that his feet were tired or he wanted us to carry him. Such a good child.

Today we went out and bought him a baby sling from the upscale baby emporium we tend to frequent. This is the same place we took the HypnoBirthing ™ classes from. A really nice store with some good classes and community building and a good selection of baby gear. But wow, if you wanted to drop a paycheck or two on over-designed Swedish baby paraphernalia, that’s your place. We’re definitely on the lower end of the socio-economic bell curve of their clientèle, though mostly because we’re not Boston young urban professionals (though here’s hoping daddy lands that biotech job to keep junior in Svan Bouncers).

We already had a more traditional sling which hangs him cradle-like on his back, but its really tricky to get him into, and I’m never really sure when I put him in if I’m actually going to be able to get him out of it again. Normally in the process, any relaxation from riding in the sling disappears around when I’ve got his bottom half pealed out while his head and shoulders are still wrapped up in the folds of black fabric. We ended up with something called the Baby Hawk, which straps him upright on your chest and allows him to to entertain himself by drooling milk residue down the front of your shirt. Once he’s a little bit older its able to convert to a back carrier allowing him to spill juice down the back of your collar.

This afternoon I strapped on the baby-hawk and took a walk into Davis Square as a test run. Along the way, the most amazing thing happened. People made eye contact with me and smiled. Just to put this in perspective for the out-of-town people. Here in Boston, almost no one makes eye contact with strangers on the street, and when they do, they certainly don’t smile at them. Its just part of the unconscious social norms of the city. Whenever I travel back to Missouri, it always takes me a couple of days to get use to the off-putting nature of locals being friendly. Here people will scratch the head of a passing dog and completely ignore whatever’s on the other end of the leash. You can imagine my surprise then to find out that strapping a baby to your chest trumps all those social norms. I dread the day, though, when he gets old enough and personable enough that complete strangers feel that they have poking rights. I may have to print up some bio-hazard stickers for the stroller to keep away the curious, or teach him to hiss and snap his jaws menacingly at unfamiliar hands.

Opinions from the cats are still mixed.   When we first brought him home they were pretty sure their world was ending and they spent the first couple of nights huddled in the farthest corner of the hallway at the opposite end of the house from the baby’s room.  Now, they’re slowly becoming a bit more brave, though they still don’t understand what this strange smelling, kitten sized, proto-human is or what he’s doing here.  Whenever we come back from a trip with him, both cats are waiting at the front door and seem to breath an resigned sigh that, yes we brought him back again.  They’re really waiting for the day when we finally return him to where we borrowed him from.  Though, little do they know that the regime of tail pulling and ear chewing that we’ve been putting them through is only training for the ride they’re in for once he’s mobile and curious.

We’ve been slow to post because grandma and grandpa gerard are visiting. here is just a brief glimpse of how things are going

off to get groceries…. more later

We gave Liam his first real bath yesterday. It seems that everyday we do something new for the first time, which I’m sure is true. It’s hard to believe he’ll be three weeks old tomorrow. My parents arrive tonight to visit for 10 days. Two days after they leave, alex’s parents will come up for a week. While they’re here, we’re going to Vermont for a wedding. That will be exciting, I think. He’ll be four and half weeks old by then….Enough words for now, here’s some pictures.

Babies are really really slippery. Shortly after this photo, I almost dropped him into the water! Alex and I had to switch off, he did the holding, and I did the washing and photographing. This is a good time to point out that Liam is such a mellow baby. He didn’t cry during this at all, same as with his sponge bath. He just looked at us and sat there putting up with us. This is a good sign, I think, as he’ll frequently have to put up with his dorky parents.

He looks like an angel in this last picture, doesn’t he? First, did I mention that Penny made this beautiful red towel for Liam (plus about 6 other ones in various colors)? Okay, now that we know that, and we think he’s an angel, I hope he won’t be too embarrassed when I tell you he pooped in the towel shortly after this! (there is no picture of that, so don’t worry)
Finally, a few other cute shots from yesterday,

First footie outfit:

Liam and Dad are always so great together!

Plus, I love baby ears (although, his other ear has a little fold in it and is ridiculously cute… I’ll get a picture of it at some point)

Okay, this is it from me for awhile, but here is possibly the cutest picture ever:

Liam loves his daddy very much!