Your moment of zen

Especially for the grandparents.
We figure there is nothing better than sleeping babies.



And with the WGA strike in the US, no watching "The Daily Show" , so we make our own fun. :)

Back to work

Back to work
Originally uploaded by Niais

Indeed we are. Back at work. Sort of, in our kludgy trying to figure it out kind of way. The first two days were fantastic. Monday I worked from home, Tuesday I worked from work for part of the day. Ok, so we did lots of catching up (Mark brought the baby for a bit) but it was a good start. Ugh, and then today. Sucko. I had a doctor's appointment (my last! hoorah! I got a clean bill of health.) But meanwhile... My appointment was at 9:30am. In the morning. Which is practically the earliest an appointment can be. This strategy was employed much through my pregnancy because doctors in new york, in particular our doctor's practice... the later in the day, the more likely you should have brought two meals & a sleeping bag. Anyway, 9:30am.

She was TWO HOURS LATE.
Awesome. Awesome awesome awesome. So that was a huge chunk-o-rama out of the day. Because I didn't manage to eat before we left the house (Mark was at work, and i have not yet mastered the art of leaving the house with infant) I was *desperate*. On the upside, we had a fantastic adventure aftwards, off to the post office to apply for Zachary's american passport. See evidence in the pictures. But of course, by the time we got home, it was pushing 1:30pm.

What? I'm not in control of my life? Wha? Schedule?
:)
Yeah, I know. We're working on it.

The midget continues to be continuously entertaining. Lots of smiling now when he's awake, which is fantastic fun. We're starting to believe that he means it. :)

... don't you tell me to smile ...

Mark found some time to catch up on his "Dad Book" today. One of the highlights is a chart of baby reflexes, most of which start to fade around now (Zachary is a whopping six weeks old today! Amazing.). He took it upon himself to test a variety of reflexes and when that didn't go as planned (some day bribe me to see the infamous "Orange" video).... Well, he discovered a new reflex, which I've declared the "Collins Clown Face" reflex for obvious reasons....






Oh yes. Yes indeed. On the upside, think how helpful it will be to have documentation when he's in therapy. He won't even *have* to explain....

It's hard out here for a pimp....

happy face 2
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Seriously. Life is really hard. It's hard to tell, from this picture. He just hides the suffering well.

Flashdance anyone?

Flashdance anyone?
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

And I'm pretty sure this speaks for itself.

On the road again...

passport please
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

Oh yes, we're deep in the land of documenting the birth of young Zachary. Now that we have accumulated the initial paperwork, we're now generating all sorts of secondary bits and drabs - note exhibit a. We tried today (in a burst of errand doing) to get to the post office to file his american passport paperwork. Ah, perhaps another day. We did however open a bank account for him (hoorah!) and I had a successful doctor encounter (don't you love not feeling crazy? I sure do.)

So slowly slowly we entangle our son in the global network of existence.
Really, I'm just fond of this picture because 1) It will be his passport till he's 5, and a little more like a person and 2) Because of his desperately concerned face, which looks to me like "Um, mom? That raptor looks hungry..."


PS - I totally get the irony where I'm slightly bemused/annoyed at the huge amount of "registering" and document gathering now associated with existing, and here I am generating all this content related to my itsy bitsy five week old baby. Just meeting demand here, people, nothing to see. This is what happens when you indulge a crazy person :)

I haven't broken him. I swear.

purple tongue, originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd.

Ok, a little. Please don't freak out when you see the other pictures. It's all ok. It's just because he eats a little bit like "Animal" from the muppets. Its Gentian Violet. Just file it under "Another Strike in the war against thrush".... Please don't freak out because I'm getting medical advice off the internet. :) I promise I tried 3 doctors first.

Guess why I'm posting this...

This post has no Zachary content. Just one link. The first person to guess why gets a cookie...... MARK'S FIRST NEW YORK TIMES PHOTO CREDIT!!!!!

Oh wait. I might have given that one away.

I suck at surprises.

A thumb to suck

A thumb to suck
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

During a feeding at somepoint before I went to work, sarah yelled "mark, quick get your camera" so in I ran grabing the nikon on route. Really this picture doesn't do it justice, you'd need a movie, maybe next time. Zach had found his thumb in his mouth and realised just for a minute that this was better than boob. But sucking like crazy he just couldn't quite get the milk flowing from his thumb, and he lost interest.

Teach... your children well...

Mark sings to Zachary. All the time. And the two songs in rotation currently have been "Stand By Me" and "Sim Shalom". Sorry, correction from Mark. He's also been singing "End of A Century" by Blur. There you go. "End of A Century" is the only song he knows all the words to. In the hunt to diversify (and find the words to "Stand By Me" because there are rules.) Mark found two excellent examples of english music (here and here). Weirdly enough, both videos are in black and white. But by far the best find....




And, because Mark didn't understand the title of the post...

Back to feeding the baby.

An ode to my mom

Heads Up, originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd.

First - tada! This is a picture of pre-breakdown tummy time. He's actually putting up with quite a while being on his belly. His little limbs fling wildly and eventually he works out the push up. Mark said the other day "Look, he's trying to crawl!" which I suppose is true in the vaguest sense of the word. It's like when foals are born. They flail wildly for a few minutes and get their legs stuck up their noses and then finally figure out some coordination. Except it takes a little bit longer with babies. Ok. Maybe a lot longer.

This whole new parent thing is pretty funny. Because clearly this happens with babies every day, even at the moment our son is figuring out how to track the rattle and turn his head and hold our fingers and our gaze. Somewhere else, it's happening too. And somehow? That doesn't make it less special.

Clearly the hormones of birth have done some serious and permanent work.

And the ode to my mom - Just for the record, today we had the first incidence of footie pajama foot filled with poo. I say filled. It wasn't really filled because its sticky stringy breastfeeding poo. So it had more tar dripped alllllll the way down to his toes. Oh yeah. It was *awesome*. It was. I blame this on the hormones. We both just laughed and tickled him. Whoa. What is *wrong* with us? :)

Just a blip

Zachary had his one month doctor's visit yesterday. He weighed in at a whopping 12lbs 9oz and 23" long. Our doctor called him a "butterball" (in a good way ;>) and told us if anyone mentioned butterball this month to take the baby and run (for the non-american readers - butterball is a kind of turkey. Making thanksgiving time a dangerous time for butterballs everywhere). He's average weight for a 3 month old. Really, its quite common for breastfed babies to get big fast and then even out. Or at least that's what we keep telling ourselves. :) More pictures soon, we promise.

mummy made redundant

mummy made redundant, originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd.

Oh yes. Today was the day. Zach was four weeks old yesterday and Mark goes back to work tomorrow. Which means 2 more weeks and I'm up for joining the real world too. We had been read the riot act by lots of people about the tricksy step of introducing bottles.

We so should have known better. Nothing gets between Zach and his food. Noooothing.

Who knows if he'll continue to be so nonchalant about change. He certainly didn't get that from me. We can only hope :)

So here's a picture of Mark, concentrating very hard on making sure milk happens. It was adorable, I felt totally at loose ends, and I should be thrilled but really was a little sad to not be quite as special.

Mid late night feed inquiry

Why is it any sort of intenstinal track activity involves a huge amount of limb flinging? We're talking huge. An amount which we should be able to harness and sell back to the utility grid. And it clearly helps. The efficacy is increased hugely if he makes a crazy face in which is forehead is screwed up.

And yet, babies this age DON'T KNOW ABOUT THEIR HANDS OR FEET.

So how can it help?

I'm stymied.

Baby Starfish ...

Baby Starfish
Originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd

What more is there to say, this the the beautiful sleep sac knitted by Antara. The other new photos also show the awesome quilt from Jen.

Don't Decapitate, it hurts Zach's little head!

re-posting this with new settings so it doesn't cut off his head. ---- Yup it works now :-)

And as for hurting his head. Papa monkey has not had such a good dad day. I banged his head on the arm of the chair, and earlier today he wiggled free as I was putting him on the couch for head lifting time. His 1st freefall skydive!

All dressed up

baby, originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd.

and just going to bed. :)
There you go. An up to date picture. With a duck. Can't go wrong with ducks.

By far the big excitement of the day was the baby shooting poo, mark trying to clean it up, and getting his head peed on.

That's what he gets, for posting a cranky picture of Zachary.

What I'm awake, Gah, hungry, hungry NOW

What I'm awake, Gah, hungry, hungry NOW, originally uploaded by m0nk3yphd.

this is a test?

Ask and you shall receive

Seriously. You people are intense. I had no idea.

We'll try to put up some pictures & anecdotes with regularity. We promise. To try, anyway.