Thursday, January 29, 2009

don't call it a comeback

Hi all -

Sorry for the lack of updates; here's some pictures to make up for it.

Cassidy continues to do well and maintain his charms. He'll be eight weeks old this weekend. He smiles more regularly (although not for the camera), chews on his hand, and is better at holding his head up. I've been working on teaching him music theory, but he's still having a hard time mastering key transposition, and his improvisational skills could use work.

As you might guess, Holly takes the bulk of the pictures, which is why she's not in any of them.

So the last several posts have all had musical titles and references. In an attempt to take advantage of this Web 2.0 thing the kids all talk about, we'll have a contest - the reader who identifies the most references gets a free poopy diaper. Second prize is two poopy diapers.








Friday, January 23, 2009

let it grow

We've had a nice visit from Grandma Rachel this week. She got some practice with the feeding and diapering, and Cassidy added another member to his fan club. Aunt Judy and Cousin Sheila also came to visit and were suitably impressed.

Cassidy has discovered the joy of chewing on his hand (it's the simple things in life that are truly meaningful) and continues to eat well. He can be seen below reminding me that 'food goes here!' A side effect of this is that he's already started to outgrow a couple of his first outfits. Pretty soon, he'll be heading off to college.





Wednesday, January 21, 2009

counting out time

We took Cassidy up to Bernal Heights yesterday for some outdoor adventure, including a picture of the three of us on Bernal Hill, a quick outdoor feed-and-burp in the wind (we're demonstrating the "milkshake" burping technique) and a diaper change in the trunk of the car (not pictured). Grandma Rachel also got in some feeding, and avoided getting barfed on.

He's now 10 lbs 13 oz. and continuing to grow (as expected). He's 46 days old today, and as we all know, 46 is 2 times 23, which is clearly significant. 10 lb 13 oz is 173 oz, and 173 is a prime, so this is clearly a great moment for him in numerological terms.





Sunday, January 18, 2009

hey ladies

So it turns out that Cassidy is quite the ladies' man. All the women seem to find him irresistible. (To be fair, so do the men.) On Saturday, he made his first trip to Contra Costa county to meet his future bride, Freya. She seemed quite impressed with him, but he played hard to get.

Today, Grandma Rachel arrived for a visit. She was also understandably impressed. He also took some time out to pose with his new Pooh Bear and flash what we're interpreting as a smile.







Friday, January 16, 2009

baby love

Here, for your edification and amusement, are more pictures of Cassidy. He's 41 days old (six weeks tomorrow) and continues to do the standard baby things. He's starting to discover the joy of chewing on his hand, although he's still too little to have the coordination to do it regularly - it's more of a happy accident. He's acquiring quite the wardrobe, and seems to enjoy trying on new clothes. His long-on-top hairstyle also gave Holly the chance to experiment with a faux-hawk.

Tomorrow is his first visit to see Freya - I suspect we'll get a few photos of their summit meeting.





Tuesday, January 13, 2009

the babe and eye

Some random sleeplessness-driven observations:

- We've been getting a ridiculous amount of food and presents from everyone lately. Thanks! We really appreciate it!

- Cassidy and I have started making excursions around the neighborhood, thanks to the 70+ degree weather. No, we don't miss Wisconsin.

- Cassidy's hiphop name is going to be 2Cute. (check out his shirt.)

- His hair is thinning on the sides, but still thick on top and particularly in the back. It's either a Mohawk or a mullet.

- But this is really just an excuse to put up some more pictures ...




Sunday, January 11, 2009

on sleep and poo

The two most common questions we get asked are:

1. Are you getting any sleep? This is either asked with a snicker by childless friends, or with a knowing, sympathetic look by those with kids.

2. Isn't it gross having to change all those diapers?

As for sleep, we get some, although less than we're accustomed to. Our usual schedule goes something like this: Holly goes to sleep around 10 or 11. Cassidy eats then and falls asleep soon after. (He's sleeping in bed with us for now.) I go to bed around 12 or 1. Cassidy wakes up hungry at 2 or so and I feed him. Holly gets up around 5 to go to work and feeds him again sometime between 6 and 7. He comes back to bed and snoozes for an hour or so, and we get up around 8. When Holly's not working, she watches him in the morning and I sleep in more.

As for poo and pee, it's gross the first couple of times, but then you get used to it. He's developing an amazing number of ways to keep it novel, though - peeing on the changing table, peeing on himself, pooping on his clothes, waiting until the new diaper is on to poop, waiting until his legs are being lifted to projectile poop across the changing table, and so on. He doesn't like to rest on his laurels.

Here's a picture of Cassidy weighing his poo-distribution options, shortly after his bath last week.

sunday baby sunday

It was a busy weekend for young Cassidy. As of Sunday, he's 36 days old, and entering his sixth week of life. On Friday evening, Sean and Kim came by to visit and brought rotisserie chicken (Cassidy opted for formula instead). On Saturday, Ron and Mike came by bearing Chinese food and a stuffed dog bigger than he is, and on Sunday Carrie brought chocolate cake. (Again, Cassidy went with the formula option. He's a baby of simple tastes.)

He also squeezed in a bath, and a little bit of baby yoga. At this point, the baby yoga consists of some gentle massage, plus a few leg exercises to strengthen his hip flexors. Hanumanasana is probably a little ways off for him.

Here's some more pictures, including Cassidy flashing gang signs as he poses with his stuffed dog, giving a terrorist fist jab as he models the outfit he got from DD, Mike and Freya, and helping me come up with clever blog entries.









Thursday, January 8, 2009

still life with baby and bugs

Cassidy is 33 days old, and growing. He's developing a bit of a buddha belly, although we're not sure yet if rubbing it gives us good luck. It certainly reduces his gas and post-feeding barfs, which seems lucky. He's still a simple, easygoing baby - he likes eating, pondering, sleeping, and posing for photos. It's good preparation to become either a philosopher or a supermodel.








Sunday, January 4, 2009

month 2 begins

As Cassidy enters his fifth week of life, we're starting to see some changes. He's definitely getting bigger - there's rolls of baby fat around his neck, wrists and legs. He eats more, and can hold his head up better. He's starting to do something that might be considered a smile. His head looks much less pointy, also.

He's still a few weeks away from reading The Brothers Karamazov and learning about Gaussian distributions, although we figure sometime before week 8 seems about right.




equal time

Since Cassidy's arrival, our other two 'kids' have taken a back seat. In the case of Muffy, it hasn't been such a big adjustment; he was kitty #10,000 before, so the bottom of the totem pole is a familiar place for him. Flannery, on the other hand, was used to being the unquestioned queen of the house, and has had to adjust to being number 2. The most ironic thing with her is that Cassidy is still very young and sleeps a lot; there's plenty of time for her to get attention, if she'd just be willing to choose times other than when we're feeding him.

Writing this also makes me think a little about nicknames. Muffy's real name is actually Charlie, but we almost always call him Muffy or Scruffles or Mr. Guy. Similarly, Flannery is almost always referred to as Kitten or Squirrel. I'm assuming Cassidy will acquire some nicknames - so far, Dean Squirmer, Mama's Special Little Guy, and Baby the Hutt have gotten some play.

So in the interest of fair play, here's some pictures of the kitties.