Liam's First Dinner Party

Liam got to meet his first cousins tonight, though they are second cousins? Cousin Joe is the best person in our family at describing how to calculate this -- if less sleep-deprived Mark could do it too, but for now, lets just call 'em all cuz! Joe, married to Nancy, is Mark's mom's first cousin. Joe and Nancy, from Minneapolis, and their daughter Mavis and her twin sister Nia's boyfriend Mark, from San Francisco, brought over three days worth of Chinese food (Tune in tomorrow for a photo of leftovers!) Thanks Nancy and Joe!! We had a wonderful visit and Liam was an exceptionally well-behaved baby, sleeping peacefully most of the time yet making extremely cute baby yawns and faces to an adoring crowd.

Saturday After-Dinner Walk

Check out Liam's bamboo pajamas!

Heat Wave Day II

Mark made breakast-in-bed for Melanie while we all listened to classical music. Liam ran some errands in Montclair in the morning and went on a neighborhood walk in the evening.

Liam Lux Warhol

From Melanie's sister Natasha (aka Shatana):

Hooray For Fish

It was very hot in the hills of Oakland today so of course we had our piano tuned. Liam went shirtless and slept a lot. Liam slept through the start of Barack Obama's speech tonight, but ultimately became very interested in it.... not as interested however as he is in books.

Can hiccups get rid of hiccups?

Mark bought groceries today but couldn't get them out of the trunk because for some reason Melanie's car key and car weren't getting along. Back home, Liam had hiccups again, so we tried an experiment -- can watching yourself have hiccups get rid of hiccups? The answer, within the following video is: maybe! Unfortunately it may have also had the side-effect of shrinking him.

Tired from Tummy Time?

Today Liam weighed in at 10 pounds 11 ounces (with clothes on). He's growing quickly. He also slept a lot -- likely in response to tummy time from yesterday. (ha)

Tummy Time!

Liam woke in Melanie's arms today though Melanie got little sleep. Crazy things happen at night that we often just don't talk about the next day, for no other reason than we're delirious and have other things to do (like staring into space while eating cereal together). Our mantra for what to do when he cries is the same as what to do when we're exhausted -- don't ask questions, just keep moving. There are probably other life situations which that can apply to but we won't discuss these today, however keep the mantra in mind in case you ever need it.

The crazy things that happen at night usually include crying fits where nothing seems to work, though there's always that moment where something does work and that's a powerful moment for us as newbie parents. "Wow, he's sleeping" or "Wow, no more hiccups", we think proudly and triumphantly to ourselves and then quickly the moment passes and we close our own eyes to rest, leading Liam to think, "Wow, I finally got them to stop singing to me."

This morning we all had some tummy time, which you can see in the following video. I know I needed the exercise!

Laps:

Lifting weights:

Hiccups, Books and Body Sounds

There are a few pledges about child-raising that Melanie and I made to each other when she was pregnant. One of them was a commitment to keeping things simple toy-wise and gift-wise. Walking through any toy department can overwhelm you with stuff that kids used to use their imagination to create. As the joke goes, young kids are often more excited about the packaging than the gift. When I was a kid the only and best hellicopter I played with was by dropping a leaf and watching it fall. I could spend hours with a stream and a stick or weeks with a tetherball set. There's something positive about getting the most out of one thing as well as the simple educational gifts like letter blocks. We pledged to each other to not buy our kid lots of stuff. Last night however, already exhausted, Mark would not go to sleep because he was obsessed with finding more cool books for Liam's library -- its much easier to commit to not buying stuff for your kid before they are born. Melanie is sticking with the plan. We've already received so many wonderful gifts from people -- stuff we can and do use -- we really don't need anything more for him at this stage. Melanie's been giving Liam top-notch play-time, love and milk -- someday in the future there will likely be a photo of milk coming out his nose within a blog entry named "Milk Drunk". Prior to that: photos of his Aunts & Uncles.







Unique Toddler Books

Liam woke in Mark's arms this morning though Mark got little sleep. Melanie is feeling a bit better these days. The following video contains a secret to eliminating hiccups that is 100% successful for ADULTS. Mark learned this secret from his mother.

Let's Talk This Out

Melanie and I tried out the Baby Bjorn today (aka, The "Bjorn Borg") and went on a walk to the local nursery. Both the sling and the Bjorn Borg have an initial upsetting affect and then a subsequent sedative effect. Both are easy for the parent to wear, though the Bjorn Borg took a minute or two to figure out for both Liam and I. The sling is nice for indoors but the Baby Bjorn Borg is best for walks and longer travel. LIam wasn't as interested in discussing this as I was.

Melanie and I half-jokingly considered the names Agapanthus and Ceanothus. Here's Agapanthus with Mark and a blue flower.

Liam Watches "Dailies"

After uploading yesterday's "Liam Versus Frog" video, Liam was getting a bit cranky, as baby's do at night...so what calmed him last night? "Liam Versus Frog" did!

Liam Versus Frog

Liam and his friend frog play many games together, most involving Liam staring and the frog sitting completely still. In this video, Liam and frog play a friendly match of mind wrestling:

95th Percentile Tall with Donut Holes & Roses

We went to the pediatrician today and found out that the hospital likely mismeasured Liam when he was born. At birth we were told he was 21", but today we measured twice and each time the result was 23". Evidentally two inches in two weeks is not really possible. He's back to his birth weight and one ounce short of 10 pounds.

Melanie (and Liam) generally eat very healthy foods. Melanie doesn't have a "sweet tooth" but she does have a weakness or two and one of them is donut holes.....so, I bought her donut holes and roses.

It's Yoga in San Francisco has beget many great things, including,in a way, our meals this weekend. Vikki, a woman Melanie met at Its Yoga (author of What to Do When You're Dating a Jew brought us a wonderful baked chicken dish with a side of couscous and an apple goat cheese salad. Yum! Thanks Vikki!

Contrast (8/21)

We're seeing first-hand how baby's like to look at that which is high in contrast. The black and white books we have are the ones he pays most attention to. He stares out the side of his crib to look at the crib slats and the dark shadows of the slats upon the white wall.

Auditorally, he likes it all, and he's hearing alot of music, from the classical music we try to have on as much as possible, to our singing, piano playing and his musical mobiles. Oddly enough, if Mark sings him an upbeat song (think: foot-stomping bar-tune-sing-along for children) that could annoy any adult within three minutes, Liam will often be asleep within two minutes.

How do we calm him when he doesn't sleep? In short, we try something different -- keep moving. Some of the "5 s's" also seem to work: saying shhh in his ear, swaying him on his side, swinging him in our arms, sucking and swaddling, though swaddling is the least successful -- the guy breaks out of even the tightest swaddle in minutes.

Mark watered today. That didn't deter the deer from eating nearby.