Attorney Work Product

Then and Now

One year ago today, we received the very first pictures of our baby boy. Unbelievable what a difference a year makes!

Airplane!

Determination

The time: 3 am. The place: Our family bed; Alex between Mommy (sleeping on her back) and Daddy (sleeping on his tummy). The child awakes. He is hungry. He doesn't cry -- why should he? He is perfectly capable of doing this himself. Instead, he rolls over onto his tummy, props himself up on his elbows, scootches a little closer to Mommy, and latches on to her breast. Mommy wakes up to see her little leech boy helping himself.

That's determination.

Family Portrait

Courtesy of Lori Goldberg, here's the only picture of the three of us together at Don & Michelle's wedding. Note to self: PLEASE get better about handing the camera off to others!

TGIF

Mommy is still getting used to being back at work. It's very tiring. Hence, this is pretty much how we spent our Friday off today.

I Love My Day Care Provider

Alex is almost crawling. He gets his butt up, and he uses his arms to pull himself forward. Today, he did it at day care, and Claudia grabbed her video camera to capture it. When I arrived at her house, she showed me the tape so I wouldn't miss it. It was so very thoughtful.

I don't think I would get that kind of attention at a day care center. And neither would Alex.

Thank You...

to whomever was kind enough to send Alex the $100 EE Savings Bond. The Treasury doesn't say who sent it, but if you e-mail me Alex will send a real thank you note!

Busy Weekend, Part II (Aunt Keri)

Alex's other visitor this weekend was Aunt Keri -- in town for a business meeting, and able to sneak the weekend on the front end to see her favorite nephew. The time with Aunt Keri was short, but we had a great time. We went to Cox Farms to pick pumpkins, and Alex was quite a hit!!

He slept through the Hay ride, but woke up in a pumpkin patch.

Alex also was lucky enough to spend all day Monday with Aunt Keri. She was afraid she might be a little rusty, but they had a great time. They went to the fabric store, did some dancing, and took a nice long walk. All in all, a fantasic visit.

Ga Ga

Last night Alex decided to show off yet another newly-acquired skill. His coos have evolved to the point where he can now ennunciate a hard G sound, and he was literally going GaGa.

I just wish he had saved it for a time other than 3 in the morning.

Busy Weekend, Part I (GULC)

So many visitors, so little time! This weekend was Mommy's law school reuinion, and so lots of Alex's new friends (including little girl Lippa, still in utero) came to visit. We had a great dinner Friday night at our house, and enjoyed brunch at Arthur's house on Sunday. Mommies and babies:

Working Hard

It is amazing to watch the thought process as my little boy explores his world. One of the questions the doc asked last week was "does he reach for toys that are out of his reach?" Last night, Keri and I put Alex on his play mat, and he showed that he not only reaches, he eventually succeeds in grabbing. He has a yellow rattle that he really, really, really wanted. He was on his tummy, and would reach out for it. Several times, he would end up hitting it and pushing it further away. He would ooch and scootch and complain a little, and get closer, and try again. The most amazing thing is that whenever he hit his frustration limit, he would just take a break and stick his thumb in his mouth to calm himself down. When he did finally get it, into his mouth it went.

Fluke

It was a fluke. He's back to his normal night waking.

A milestone

Last night I got home late from work, dreading the prospect of pulling an all-nighter and wondering how Alex was going to handle being put back into his crib rather than coming to bed with me when he woke up in the middle of the night to feed. All night long, I had the monitor turned up high as I slogged away at the computer. A couple of times, I went upstairs to to make sure he was still breathing.

Alex slept in his crib from 9:30 pm until I woke him up at 7 am. The first time he has ever slept through the night.

I have mixed feelings about this. It was certainly helpful last night, as I was able to get my work done undisturbed. And of course, I am a little disappointed that I didn't even get a chance to take advantage of it by sleeping through the night myself (although I also wonder if I wouldn't have woken up panicked in any event). Mostly, I am not sure if I want this to be a fluke or not. If he does start sleeping through the night all the time, then there goes my middle of the night cuddles. And that would be very, very sad.

Skinny Butt

Alex had his four month appointment this morning. He weighed in at 13 pounds, 5 ounces, and was 25 ¼ inches long, and his head was 42 centimeters around. If you wanna compare that to other babies he was in the 25th percentile for weight, 67th percentile for height, and 49th percentile for head circumference.

On the raw numbers, the doc seemed a little concerned that he had dropped from the 50th percentile to the 25th percentile in weight. But once she saw him moving around -- how bright and alert he is, how ahead of the game he is on his activity level, and how he has hit every developmental milestone either on time or early -- she declared him "perfect." Thankfully, this doc is more breastfeeding-supportive than the first one we had seen. It didn't hurt that I was able to tell her that he gets around 19 ounces of expressed breast milk a day at day care -- supportive or no, docs like quantifiable numbers, and it gave her more confidence that my supply was adequate. (at four months, she said around 24 ounces a day is the norm/min, and he certainly gets more than that -- he eats from me at least twice in the evening, twice during the night, and first thing in the am in addition to the bottles). I feared they would push me to start solids too early, but quite the opposite -- the doc really wanted me to hold out until 6 months, which was my plan in any event. She said that I should only start solids sooner if he is really pushing for it himself, and even then cereal only (no veggies) on top of breastmilk until after six months, and not before the end of this month. The only reason I should do it, she said, was if I felt my supply was dwindling; I could do solids instead of formula. But I don't like that idea. I plan to hold out.

I talked to my day care provider about it all, and she thinks he could do with a little more during the day, so I am going to try to kick up the pumping a notch and provide one more bottle. I do hope I can keep up! I really do think he is just skinny because he is muscular and active and burns a hell of a lot with all of his ooching and scootching. I also think breastfed babies are just skinnier in general, and would be the ones bringing up the bottom of the curve in any event.

He handled the shots very well. I breastfed him as soon as they were over and he calmed immediately. He is also starting to get good at getting his own thumb in his mouth and soothing himself that way, which is good too. All in all, a good visit.

Like Mother, Like Son

Somehow, it makes me feel better to know that not only did I weigh less than Alex did when I was 25 and 1/2 inches long, but I wasn't that long until I was five months old. My baby book reports that I weighed 13 pounds, 11 ounces at 5 months, and at six months I was 25 and 3/4 inches long and 13 pounds, 13 ounces. Too bad my butt isn't that skinny now!

Reach Out and Touch...

everything! Alex has really found his hands, and has figured out that he can reach out and touch other things. This weekend, he reached out and pet Tucker for the first time. He also has started to touch my face. My Mom told me when I was pregnant that I would absolutely melt the first time the baby touched my face, and she was quite right.

When I had him on the changing table this evening, he reached up and grabbed my belt and started pulling on it. A little scary that he is already practicing getting into chicks' pants -- and on his mother, no less!

Wedding/Birthday

Today was a double celebration: we attended the wedding of our good friends Don and Michelle, and celebrated Alex's four month birthday. It is pretty hard to believe that one third of a year has already gone by. At this point in my pregnancy, I was talking about how sick I was. But boy, do I have a lot to show for getting through that part of it! Look at that smile:

Alex was quite a hit at the wedding. Luckily, he was quiet and happy for most of it. Because the reception was outside, I was able to sneak off the few times he got fussy. And I also managed to feed him, dressed up, without most people even realizing what was going on. The first time someone said, "oh look, he's so cute when he's sleeping!" Mike and I said no, he's eating, and the folks were a little taken aback. So after that, Mike and I just shrugged and didn't bother correcting. We forgot to ask someone to take a family portrait with our camera -- although we think someone else got one, and we are waiting to get a copy -- but in the meantime, we did get pictures with Mommy and Daddy.

Objective Opinion

Last night, we went to a restaurant for dinner in honor of Tom's birthday. Now, being a proud mother, I happen to think my baby is adorable. I even happen to foist that opinion on others with little provocation. Still, I think it is fair to say that my bias isn't that blinding when a total stranger comes up to me as I am holding Alex up to the mirror to entertain him and says "I wish I had a camera! That is the happiest, most adorable baby I have ever seen!" And we are not talking fawning 20-something women, either. This was a guy in his early 40s -- not the demographic that is usually bowled over by cute.

Silver Lining

It's not fun leaving my boy in day care for so long each day. But on the positive side, I get greeted upon pick up with the biggest smile in the world. I am so blessed to have such a happy baby.

Tell Me a Story, Daddy!

Daddy told everyone a funny story about high school at Fray Day 7 last night. Alex nursed and slept through much of the evening, but he also enjoyed some Daddy time.

(Left) Airplane, whee! At Common Grounds. (Right) Storytelling works up an appetite! At Silver Diner.

Back to Work

Mommy went back to work today, and Alex started day care. It was rougher on me than it was on him. Miss Claudia said he was a smiley boy for most of the day -- he even napped for almost three hours, which he never does at home. He loved making new friends! His new friends are Claudia's two sons, two-year-old Manuel and 16-month-old Gabriel, and 9-month-old Max. He did manage to lose a bootie, but that's OK. All in all, it was a pretty good first day.

Alex and Manuel get to know each other.