A Bonus Posting!

Lucky you! I have some spare time this morning, so I figured I'd put up the photos I was going to put up yesterday. So here they are. But make sure you read the last post before this one. Right.

So the other day we were over at Steph's mom's place for dinner, and we figured we'd get a shot of Theo sitting with Nana, like so:

When we looked at the photo, we realized that Theo was too busy looking at the mug of tea in front of him and had absolutely no regard for anything going on around him. He was totally transfixed on this thing. So of course we had to document it.

I love this one--use the tablecloth to pull the mug closer. "Yes, come to me, my pretty..."

"Almost...got...it....Just...a...little...bit...more..."

"Aha! Now to see what's inside!"

"What the....I can't drink that! Mug, I am very upset with you!"

"Oh, hi Mommy. Nothing going on here."

What a cutie.

The Natives Are Getting Restless

Hello again, blog fans! Glad to be back in my regular chair, typing away at yet another blog posting. Actually, it's not my regular chair. My regular chair is from that Swedish furniture store. It's on a wheeled base with five casters, but sadly two have fallen off (that's because you are crazy). Not such a stable situation, if you ask me. I worked on it for a while when it was only missing one. It wasn't as difficult, but it was still a thrilling ride every time I sat down. Will I get thrown off? Will I tip over? Who knows! Oh, the excitement!

Yes, I am the parent of an infant, and this is the most excitement I can handle in my day. Anyway, I'm on a rather boring black fold-out chair for now, waiting for some seating solution to come to me out of the blue (hey idiot, how about just buying a new chair?!). I will prevail!

So, what else is happening in our exciting lives? Several different Theo-related milestones to tell you about, so let's get right to it.

1. Rolling over, but alas, only the front-to-back kind, not both ways. It's actually pretty entertaining because he tries oh so hard to get from back to front, but it's the darned arm getting in the way. I'll describe it, but you're going to have to imagine how this works along with me. Better yet, get someone to read this out to you and follow along on the floor. Hours of entertainment! Anyway, he gets almost all the way over from his back onto his stomach, after overcoming the part about how both the legs and torso have to move in the same direction, but doesn't realize that he has to move his other arm out of the way first. For those of you following along, laying on your back with your arms to your side, roll over onto your right side, but don't move your right arm. See how when you get all the way over, your arm is still trapped under you? Well, imagine being a baby and not knowing how to move that arm. Like a coiled spring, he wings himself back onto his, um, back (too many "backs"), and shouts in frustration. He'll get it one day, and I'm not entirely sure why we're thinking this is a good thing.

2. Propping up his head. Theo can now sit propped up and hold his head up without it falling over or rolling around Linda Blair style. Okay, I guess he never got the full Linda Blair thing; that would be a little bit weird. But he'd really fling his head around, you know? Anyway, we have head stability now, so that's one less thing to worry about.

As far as the rest of it goes, more of the same. Sleeping is so-so; some nights are good, others are bad, but that's the way it goes. When he's awake, he's still quite the character. He smiles more often now (although they're still very difficult to catch on film--okay, digital media), and is starting to ask for kisses. That's a really funny one, but one that will never come across on, er, digital media, so tough luck. Come by the house if you want an in-person demonstration. I'm sure that'll be the day he refuses to do it.

Not much else happening. Went to the beach last week for the first time with Tanya and Mark (but you can call him Pat), which was fun for all. This weekend we went into Vancouver where mommy got her hair cut (Pure Studio on Spruce and 7th--it's run by a long-time family friend's son--he's really good) while daddy and Theo walked around town. I was going to go to Long & McQuade to indoctrinate the boy on rock and roll guitars, but it moved and didn't tell me, so that was out. Thanks a lot. If my boy likes soft rock or *shudder* country, I'm going to send them the therapy bill. Didn't take as many pictures this week, but we got a few good ones, and those are the ones I'm going to share with you today. Oh, and some others from last week's massive haul, just to beef it up a little bit. Here we go.

First off, I promised Tanya I'd put a picture of her up here, even though it's a decidedly Theo-less picture.

And here's the family...

A couple more from the self-photography session of last week. I love his expression. And, of course, my beautiful wife. I probably have the best-looking family in Canada, nay, North America, nay, the world! Without me in the photos, of course.

And here are his two favourite things to do now. First off, being bashful is his newest thing. If you look at him a little bit too closely sometimes he decides that's enough, and buries his face in whatever's convenient. Usually it's the shoulder of the person carrying him, but in this case it was the bed...

Here's the second favourite thing: chewing on his fist. Just wait til those teeth come through...

Like I said before, keeping the head upright is no problem now, the mechanics of which are demonstrated in this picture. This looks like something out of a textbook, I think, but I can't place why. To me it looks like one of those line drawings, but coloured in. Whatever.

I think he's cheering on the Oilers here.

"Who, me?" I have a feeling I'll be seeing a lot more of this look as time goes on.

I had one more story to share, but alas, my luck with uploading pictures has run out. It's probably for the best, considering it's 11:00 now. Church business meeting tonight--took up quite a bit of productive blogging time. But it was good to go and keep up with what's happening. Anyway, I'll sign off because hey, it's still Sunday (*cough* Jane *cough*) and that means I'm on time.

Oh, one more quick thing. No post next weekend, sadly. We're heading up to the lovely Mara Lake for a few days of houseboating fun with the family. And by that I mean Steph's dad's side of the family. Which is really Steph's step-mom's kids and their kids. Follow? Don't worry, I'll draw you a chart. But hey, going away means several good photos (hopefully), so I'll likely be posting on Monday or Tuesday just to get them up here. So ciao for now, all. See you again sometime next week.

Slight Change Of Plans

Okay, that's it, I give up. No, not the blog, the idea of posting on Fridays. It's suddenly occurred to me that since (a) I haven't had a post happen on Friday in about three weeks and (b) the most convenient day for me seems to be Sunday and (c) the Friday posting rule is self-imposed and has no bearing in reality that consequently it would be a good idea to change the regular posting day to Sunday. So there. Ah, the power of being the proprietor. Mua, ha, ha!

That's all I have for today. It's late. Okay, it's not late by any standard except the parent-of-infant standard. But I'm about spent for the evening, so I'm going to feed my fish and go to sleep. Look for more here on Sunday. See you then.

A Day Late and a Penny Short

Okay, fine, two days late.

Well, here we all are again. How time flies when you've having fun. And yes, we are having fun, thanks for asking. You know, cute babies are really photo magnets. In fact, it's like the camera doesn't even need to have its shutter pressed anymore, it almost does it by itself. I've just taken all the photos off the digital camera for the last week or two and realized that there are 74 photos! Granted, we're still catching up from a week or two of slacking, but still, wow. So the debate really is which of these photos to share with you all. Maybe, if you're lucky (read: if I'm not too lazy) you'll get a second post this week. Ooh, the excitement is overwhelming!

Anyway, not much to give by way of update. Things are carrying on at an alarmingly normal pace, I'd have to say. Well, "normal" now is way different than what we used to consider it to be, but we're getting used to it. It's the lack of sleep that's really still doing us in. But hey, that's part of the package, I hear, so no big deal.

One new-ish thing has happened this week, though: the desire to roll over. He's a pretty determined little guy, so I'm sure he'll get it yet. He gets about half way onto his tummy, and then realizes that his arm is underneath him and he can't quite get over the hump. It's pretty entertaining to watch. Not that we sit and watch Theo do things simply for our amusement. Much.

Oh, and one more thing. We're now into the put-everything-in-the-mouth phase, which I hear can last for quite some time. It must be interesting to have your only point of sensory information-getting be your tongue. Fortunately he's not coordinated enough yet to pick things up off the floor and stick them in there, but that's coming sooner than I think. Fun times.

On the personal front, and this is so exciting for us, we bought a new rocking chair this week. Yes, I know, how can we handle such excitement? But seriously, anyone who's ever had to feed a baby knows how horrible your back gets after a little while. Theo being on the bottle has given both Steph and I the chance to completely destroy our backs, so it's been fun. Anyway, this new rocker is unbelievable. Mmm, comfort....

Okay, so how about some of those 74 pictures? No problem.

"Mommy, taking photos is fun!"

"In fact, let me put that thing in my mouth!"

*Sigh* "Getting photos taken is so tedious."

"Hey, what's that over there?"

There's been much debate over which one of us Theo looks like the most. Here's a picture that will hopefully set to rest that he actually looks more like Steph than like me.

Still not convinced? Okay, I didn't want to have to resort to this, but you forced me. This photo is hanging in Steph's dad's room. Hmm.


Gah! What the...! And that's not even the best view (couldn't get a straight-on view due to flash issues). But besides the uncanny resemblance, how about that look on his face. Whoa. All-around just a weird scene.

Okay, moving on. Not sure what distracted him here, but it makes for a pretty cool picture.

Theo has this mobile in his crib now and he just loves it. He watches the bugs go around and around, sometimes fixating on one and following it around, sometimes watching each as they go by his head. This picture captures it pretty well...

Of course, even the most exciting mobile gets a little boring after a while...

This is his best impression of a marionette...

Okay, everything's fine; back to normal.

Here's one for all you Monty Python fans out there. "I fart in your general direction!"

And who can resist little toes?

This photo is a graphic example of self-photography gone wrong. I sometimes wonder what Steph does all day with him when I'm not home. Now I have my answer--self photography. You know, the kind where you pose and then hold the camera up hoping to catch the perfect shot? Sometimes you miss. Although the miss looks pretty avant garde, if I do say so myself.

Okay, time grows short, so I will conclude today's post with my two favourites of this batch. I just love these two shots. Here's one that is like catching lightning in a bottle, or some other saying denoting a rare and precious event.

"I'm coming to get you!"

And finally, my favourite of the bunch, and the reason why self-photography sometimes works. Many of you reading this likely have the same question floating around in your head as I do: "How on earth did a guy like me end up with a family like this?" If I'm not the luckiest guy around, well, someone else has a pretty great life.

See you all next week.

Cross Your Fingers

You know, it's occurred to me that I'm frequently apologizing for the lack of recent postings in this space. Hmm. Maybe I should get my act together.

Want to hear some lame excuses though? Okay! (1) An infant lives in our house. (2) I have a ton of school work to do. (3) I am a lazy slacker. Good enough?

So cross your fingers that we'll actually be able to upload some pictures today. Let's give it a shot before we go any further, shall we?

AHA!! SUCCESS!! I like this one--what a couple of cool cats. With that, let's continue.

Here's the update on things at home. Mark April 24th on your calendars because I'm going to petition for a national holiday on that day known as "End of Colic Day." It will be celebrated by tired parents everywhere. Yes, we feel confident in our assessment that the colic is officially over, and for that we are hugely grateful. Of course, you've heard me speak of this before, but the reality of it is still sinking in, so forgive me for repeating myself.

Theo is turning into quite the little man. The exciting part for Steph and I is that we're starting to understand him a little bit better as a result. For example, you know how people say that babies have different cries? One for hunger, one for boredom, one for pain, etc? Well, when you're dealing with a colicky infant, those distinctions just don't exist. You start to wonder if you're just missing the signs, but they really just aren't there. This, I think, is another reason why colic sucks so much. Not only does it make you completely exhausted to the point of insanity, but it also makes you doubt your own abilities as a parent. Okay, I'll admit that we're not grizzled veterans at this, but come on, we're pretty smart people who should be able to at least figure something out. But colic doesn't permit that. We just had to come to terms with the fact that not only was there nothing we could do about it, more importantly it wasn't our fault. Still and all, it's one thing to say that to yourself and another thing competely to believe it and feel confident.

Anyway, now that he has other faces besides screamy-face, he's starting to make those distinctions in his cries. Before, we'd just have to guess what was going on, but now we feel pretty confident in making an assessment about what's happening. And herein I've found yet another inherent joy of parenting. It's a little bit like being married. Permit me a brief analogy, if you will. When you're married to someone, there's just that something special about knowing more about them than anyone else does. You know what makes your spouse tick (and what ticks them off). You know their likes and dislikes, you understand their moods, and you feel like you're really inside their head for better or worse. Heck, you might even know them better than they know themselves. I know personally that there's nothing better in my marriage than being able to talk to Steph about something and know that she understands me completely, even if nobody else does. In some ways, it's just a function of how much time you spend with someone--Steph and I are around each other more often than not, and so we've developed that bond.

So it goes with being a parent, I'm finding. The most enjoyable part of raising this boy has been getting to know him better. As his personality develops, I know I'll grow to understand him more and more, and that's just so exciting. Yeah, sure, sometimes we have no clue what he wants, but our accuracy rate is climbing steadily. And I think that he recognizes the fact that we're there to help him, and he's become more compliant as a result. All in all, things are going well.

Here are the details, for those of you who are anxious to know. Our day normally starts at around 5:30, with Theo waking up in his crib and letting mommy and daddy know that he's hungry. The 5:30 feeding has become my feeding, so I get up and go see him. Here's the part that makes my heart melt: I go get him out of his crib and put him down on the change table, the recognition flashes across his face, and I get a huge smile to start my day. Although it's really early, that one smile makes it all better. After he eats, Theo usually sleeps for about 30 minutes and then is up in earnest to start the day. He usually eats roughly every three hours, a schedule that we're trying to adhere to. You know, some babies like to be "on-demand" as a rule and other like to be scheduled. Having tried both ways, we definitely feel like Theo is a schedule baby. When we leave him to his own devices, he gets insecure and worried; on a schedule, he's calm and relaxed. Nice. Anyway, since he's awake more and getting more recognition of objects, he's started to want to play regularly as well. He's got this cute little mobile in his crib that just keeps him so entertained, and he also likes to interact with us, which is the coolest thing ever. He's starting to learn how to laugh and squeal as well, which was surprising when it first started, but now is so cute. In the words of McDonald's, I'm loving it.

Yes, he still wakes up in the middle of the night. But really, that's not a bad thing. Come on, kid's only three months old for Pete's sake. But it's funny--we know several parents of babies at our church, and in talking to them we've found that every baby is truly different. One baby who's a month younger than Theo wakes up four times during the night on a regular basis, while another has slept through the night since nine weeks. It's all about your baby's personality. We're in no rush to force him out of the middle of the night feedings. If it's still going on at say, six months, then yeah, we've got a problem. But for now, let's let him do it his way.

The other factor in this equation is Theo being a preemie, and yes, being a preemie has more to it than weight. We're finding that he's just a little bit delayed in some things, like it's taking his system time to adapt. In some aspects, like motor skills, he's way ahead of the curve. In others, like vocalizations, he's more like a two-month-old than a three-month-old. But that's the nature of the preemie game. Everyone we've talked to says that up to about six months, all preemies are about a month behind. But the great thing is that they all catch up in the end. Given this, we're definitely in no rush to force him to "grow up" by sleeping through the night and what not. Give him time and when he's ready, he'll let us know.

Okay, that's about all the stories I have for today. How about a few photos?

"Oh teddy, how I love you..."

I like this one a lot. "Hey mommy, what's that silver thing you keep putting in my face?"

"Get it away from me, mommy!"

"Never mind, I'm fine now."

"Hi there. Come here often?" What a smoothie.

Okay, Aunt Bern, this one's for you...

Ah, nothing like playing with daddy on a sunny spring day in the backyard. Hey, our yard may be small, but it works when he's this age.

What, am I boring you? Great, he's only three months old, and he already finds me boring.

But eventually he realized that this was actually fun.

But all that playing sure is tiring. Whew.

Finally, my personal favourites that I have, of course, saved until last. No explanation needed here; the photos speak for themselves.

So that's it for this week. Hopefully the magnitude of this post has made up for my slacking over the past two weeks. As usual, your comments are welcome on the blog, and emails are appreciated too. Talk to you all soon.