Christmas (Part 1)

We're here! We landed amidst blowing snow on Sunday (less than an hour late) and have been having a lovely time catching up with Minnesota friends and family.
Finn spends most of his time either getting passed around...or in his carseat, on the way to getting passed around:
So he's been pretty happy. And we've enjoyed having grandparents and aunts and uncles keep an eye on him so we can spend a little extra time on sleeping, errand running, showering... you know, luxuries like that. Tomorrow we drive down to Iowa for the McGovern & Bennett side of things, where there will be more of the same. There are LOTS more pictures at Flickr if these aren't enough for you, and there will be even more after Iowa.
Hope your Christmas was as merry as ours!

Long night; new movie

Our pediatrician recommended that we give Finn one bottle a day so that he's comfortable eating that way when I go back to work. So for the past couple weeks I've been taking the first late night feeding, and the second time he wakes up Jonathan feeds him a bottle of pumped milk. We both get a little more sleep that way.

Until recently.

Two nights ago Finn decided that he didn't want to eat from the bottle, and that he would rather just scream with the bottle in his mouth, so I (eventually) got up and fed him. He did it again last night, so I stumbled out to the living room and Jonathan handed him over, and he immediately consented to eat. Then when I took him off to burp, instead of his usual sleepy face or the occasional pouty one, I got a series of huge, adorable grins. It's like he knew I was ready to strangle him. And then, just to see what would happen, I tried giving him the bottle, and now that he was calm, he finished the whole thing. Tonight's plan: Jonathan's going to wake up and get the bottle ready before Finn wants it, hopefully circumventing the whole screaming thing. Wish us luck.

So, yeah, he's already started manipulating us. But he's so darn cute!

And here's the movie I promised earlier this week:


It's an example of a) him noticing toys and b) him making the funny little grunting noises we've been calling "snorking" but can't quite imitate. He hasn't done any "ooo" or "aaa" type noises yet, and the snorking is his conversational sound when he's just hanging out and content. About 45 seconds in he also does his imitating-Jon-Stewart-imitating-Bush chuckle. And once or twice he manages to knock the hanging toys around with his hand - but not on purpose.

We're heading to Minnesota and Iowa tomorrow to visit family for Christmas, so posting will probably be even less frequent than usual for the next week or so. The cat sitter's booked, the gifts are shipped, and and the calendar is jam packed, so I think we're all set. Wish us luck on the plane and in the car, and have a great holiday!

P.S. Anybody want to come over and hang out on New Years Eve?

Smiles

We're getting real smiles this past week. Here he is at home with me:
Pretty cute, huh? And you thought he just scowled and looked worried all the time.

Here's a real big one he saved for our midwife, Lin, when we went in for my follow-up appointment yesterday:
I suppose it's only fair, since she brought him into the world and all.
He's also starting to notice toys now, which is kind of fun. I hope to get a little footage of that posted later this week.

Neckxercise

Fresh from yesterday, more Finn Footage. Here he is doing his
morning head lift reps.
Go, Mr. Baby! One more set - feel the burn!

So far he'll only lift his upper body like this when someone's holding
him. If you put him on the floor, he occasionally manages to flip his
head from one side to the other, but often just ends up with his face
pressed into the mat. We could post a picture of that, too, but we
thought he might find it kind of embarrassing.

Dancin'? Shoutin'?

Those of you that have visited my office at the University of Arizona or NASA Ames know that, in addition to usual office stuff, I have one of my prized possessions. "Dancin! Shoutin'! James Brown! " He dances and sings. Finn wiggles and squeaks, which is similar. When I was moving down to my office at UC Santa Cruz this week, I happened to notice that Finn and James are just about the same size. Amazingly Finn has a smaller head than James. Finn's shirt says "I love daddy." He specifically requested it.

Finn is a good traveler, mostly. I think he's getting wise to being put into his carrier though, so sometimes it is struggle. This picture was taken before he managed to rip off one of the monkey heads on his chest strap pads.

One month!

Finn is one month old today. I can honestly say much of it has passed in a blur, thanks largely to the whole finals thing. A quick bit of advice: if you're returning to school after a few years off, and working while you're doing it, probably you shouldn't take three classes your first semester. And if you're having a baby that semester, DO NOT take three classes, particularly if they involve group work. And if you're dumb enough to do all of this, please, for the love o' Pete, don't move in the middle of all this or plan on getting any homemade Christmas presents done. Or, you know, anything else.

Anyway, we've survived and are having a great time, and to celebrate, here are some up close and personal photos. First, the parts of Finn that I see the most of, his cute little ears:
Yes, I can tell them apart, even if you tried to fool me with a mirror or something. And after I get to look at his ears, usually while I burp him I get to look at his super soft hair, which it appears he's going to keep:
He's got a cowlick. It goes counter-clockwise. And finally, as a special treat for you blog readers, something we almost never get to see, the palms of his hands:He usually keeps them clenched pretty well, which is why you can see our fingers prying them open, and why, if you look closely, you can see the lint he stores between his thumb and forefinger in one of the shots. At least once a day I take a wet washcloth while he's semi-distracted by eating and say, "Finn! Give me that hand cheese!"

Baby Juggling

One thing that no one ever tells you about having a baby is that they are a lot of work. They like, can't even do anything for themselves. :) This weekend Katie is trying to finish a giant final paper for her last library class, so, being a good husband and father, I am fully in charge of Finn. Except when he has to eat. And except when I have to go down to Santa Cruz for an astronomy meeting. And except when I have to go to the Vikings/49ers game with Rolo this afternoon.

We had our 2nd restaurant outing with Finn yesterday. The first was Thanksgiving. We went out to brunch with a group of 10. He mostly slept until it was time to start yelling for a new diaper. I took him over the men's room and laid him down on his changing pad right across the sinks. Mostly things went well but at one point I realized that he was sliding off the top of the pad and his head was hanging down into the sink a bit. No harm done! I wish they'd have had a baby changing thing, but I suppose that is fairly rare. I'm also glad that no one wanted to use the sink.

We're coming back MN/IA for Christmas, so Finn will be flying at age 6 weeks. I think that he'll be a trooper about it. We've got seats near the back of the plane.

Dinner for one

Feeding your baby is an amazing thing. I think since I've been doing it eight or ten times a day (often half asleep) I've started to take it for granted, but last night Jonathan got to feed Finn for the first time, and being outside the process and watching how the experience affected Jonathan was a good reminder of what it felt like for me the first few days. You realize as you watch them struggling to manage the apparently highly complicated task of integrating swallowing with breathing that very simple things you do, like picking them up or giving them a little food, are the biggest things in their world. They depend on and trust in you for everything, and you just might be up to it. And they just might manage the whole swallowing/breathing thing without drowning on milk. Really, I had my moments of doubt last night - Finn was going nuts with that bottle.

Plus it's unbelievably cute when he's done eating and snuggles up into a ball on your chest and makes his funny grunty breathing noises.

Crib(!) and pics from the Fortney visit

Guess who slept in his crib last night? Finn! For the whole night, you ask? Yes! Well, of course he did it in 3 chunks, as you can see on Trixie Tracker. Yay crib! It was weird sleeping with him in his own room. Even with the baby monitor on, we couldn't hear all of his weird little noises, which had its good and bad points. It took us awhile to fall asleep. He liked it well enough that I think this will be the plan from now on.

Below are pictures of my Dad (Jon) and my mom, sister, and niece (Mary, Jeanna, Jamie), along with Mr. Finn, from the Fortney visit over Thanksgiving.