May 1st, 2009 — by mom
Everyone told me the days would go by too fast. They told me to pay attention. They said to enjoy these days because someday I will miss them. I feel that urgency now that you are nearly eight months old. I already feel the days carelessly slipping away from me like the blue satin blanket I try, yet fail to hold on my shoulder to cover myself as I feed you. Calendar pages flutter through this year, just like they do in the movies. I record your milestones in the tiny calendar boxes like a nurse records a patient’s vitals. I mentally catalog each of your milestones with a mixture of relief and satisfaction and dismay. You ate your first solid foods. Check. Bananas are your favorite. You already try to bring the spoon to your own mouth. You learned to crawl two days ago. Check. At first you rolled, scooted, and rocked your way across the floor. Not now. Your four-legged stride is not confident yet as if you are not even aware that you have managed it. Yet you have, and it happened overnight. Today I found you standing tall in your crib. Check. Your smile told me you were proud of yourself. You knew you’d accomplished something new. We don’t need words with expressions like yours. I was proud, too. I hope you always know that. I am almost too proud of you.
I try to remember what it felt like to hold you when you were one month old. Two. Five. The months feel messy, the memories melding like a badly separated egg. I grasp for that yolk of perfect memory so hard it oozes through my fingers. And that makes me feel cracked.
March 29th, 2009 — by dad
The six month mark hit and you became a little person! You have a fun personality and what seems to be a great sense of humor. You get silly sometimes and giggle and squeal and fling your arms up and down and huff (I call it your Hulk smash). You’re trying to crawl and, whenever you get up on all fours and I start to squeal and clap for you, you look very pleased with yourself. You roll over just fine now. You like to try to hold your hands up for patty cake games and you sit up in the grocery cart and in your high chair. You have three little teeth coming in on the bottom and you’ll walk around the room if I hold both your hands. I can’t believe what amazing progress happened all at once! My arm muscles are starting to bulge from holding you so much, especially now that you lunge and squirm and wiggle so much while I’m trying to hold you. I’m also starting to see a mischievous gleam in your eye like you’re capable of a goofy naughtiness that will keep me busy for maybe the rest of my life.
March 29th, 2009 — by dad
You have a little playmate in the house! She was born March 19th, 2009 at 7:21am. You were in the waiting room while Melanie had Calina at the Altamonte Springs Florida Hospital. You loved it there, for some reason. The nurses were all ga-ga over you and you would grin and wag your eyebrows at them. Melinda and you and me waited to see her for the first time. Then the nurse came out and told us to go to the nursery window and they opened the blinds so we could see her. She is so tiny with Melanie’s long skinny feet and toes and great little “piano fingers” as your Bubbie would call them. She’s home now and you stare at her much like you stare at our dogs and cats, like she’s a fascinating creature you don’t quite understand, but like all the same. It will be fun to relive all your little accomplishments through her. You were never as small as her, though. When I pick her up, in comparison to you, my “chumbawumba,” its like I’m holding nothing but a blanket with an adorable face. Hopefully you won’t try to bite her or smack her or drive toy cars over her feet or anything else that little boys may do to little girls. We’ll see!
March 12th, 2009 — by mom
Tonight Jhonen felt like laughing. He gets into this mood where something, I never can tell what, will strike him as hilarious. And then he just wants to laugh, like it’s a new skill he’s discovered and he wants to practice it, to perfect it. I love his laughter. The gut giggle that starts low and rumbling like a geyser about to blow. Then, when it does, it shoots up sprays of the happiest surprised squeals like even he didn’t know he could laugh that high. What’s most pleasing about his laughter eruptions are that they are repeatable. Most adults could die happy after laughter like this. These belly laughs happen about once a decade past the age of ten. And here is this six month old experiencing the greatest glee again and again, with every pop of my grinning head over the side of his changing table and shriek of “Peek a boo!” I don’t know what’s better - the laughter itself or that wonderful split second before he begins when his eyes shoot open and I can actually watch his mind register amusement mixed with surprise. The smallest bit of time when we both excitedly prepare for the glorious cleansing mist of pure bubbling laughter to shower over us until we’re soaked through
March 7th, 2009 — by dad
No kidding, mister. I know I’m biased, but that’s a smile of champions. Your Bubbie is rather fond of it, herself.
March 7th, 2009 — by dad
You excel at food. Congratulations, buddy. You really like to eat. I can’t put a glass to my lips without you grabbing for it and pulling it to yours. I expected a disastrous mess of banana goo all over you, me, and the house, but no. Your first food went right into your mouth again and again. You loved every bite and would have shoved the entire spoon down your throat if I’d have let you. You have a cool new high chair and a plastic catchy bib.
Other than eating solids for the first time, your almost-six-month-old-update should include that you just weighed in at 21 pounds 11 ounces. We’ve been to the doctor a couple times recently because you’ve got baby eczema and you just got over your first little flu, which was not much fun. In happier news, though, you love to be tickled, you are fascinated by the dogs, especially when they play rough and run around like maniacs. You like to pet Leela which sometimes means grab Leela’s fur and pull. She is not as fond of that as you are. You can keep yourself pretty well entertained when given a constant stream of toys, books, and blankets. You especially love toys that make sounds: the dragon that plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and says good morning and good night in several languages, the strange plastic chewy toy with the eyes that blink creepy red lights and plays out-of-tune classical ditties because its batteries are slowly dying, and the dog that jingles, crinkles, reflects your face on its belly, and squeaks out of one paw.
I remember when you were born it felt like an eternity would go by before you would be six months old. Now that it’s here, I can hardly remember when you were a tiny seven pound baby. Melanie’s baby girl will be here in a month and it will be fun to have a reminder of how tiny and new you once were!
February 12th, 2009 — by dad
You are so fun these days. We just went to the playground for your friend Elizabeth’s birthday party. We went down the slide and you played on the swing. I sat you in a high chair for the first time (you didn’t like it). I take you to the gelato shop to “help” us make gelato. You can roll over pretty well now and you’re making high-pitched funny squealing sounds. You drank out of a sippy cup for the first time. You sleep in your big-boy crib. You have toys that you grab and play with by yourself. You are still drooling like crazy and you still don’t like your car seat, but you love watching us make faces in the mirror, you like bath time, you like to chew on everything you can get your hands on, and you love watching me do just about anything.
Last night was one of the best moments yet. We were playing on the floor with these little egg rattles you have. I dropped one on the floor and it made a loud sound and you started cracking up. You just laughed your little brains out for no real reason. You just thought something was the funniest thing ever! You, your Dad, and I just sat around in your room laughing and laughing.
January 18th, 2009 — by mom
Look at you! You have shoes on and everything! Soon you’re going to be walking around on those shoes. It’s crazy.
I like the 4 month old you. You’re fun. You are playing with, and then trying to eat or drool on, toys and books. You like to look at people, smile really big at them, and then turn away really quickly and bury your face in my shoulder. The first thing people say when they see you is either, “Look at those big eyes looking around” or “What a happy baby!” I don’t know if all babies are like that or if that’s just the way you are, but I like it. Curiosity and a happy disposition are qualities I deeply value in other people and it’s pleasing that those are two things people notice in you already!
I’m happy, too. I get to watch you learning and growing and laughing and that’s awesome. I’m teaching myself how to cook and I’m trying to make time to read and write and your Dad and I have been making it a point to go out to fun places. He’s working on personal gaming projects that he’s excited about. We’re about to inaugurate Barack Obama on Tuesday. The gelato shop is getting more business. Baby shower #2 plans are underway for Melanie. We’re thinking a lot about what 2009 will bring (Do you want to live in Japan? hmmmm) All sorts of things are going on!
RIght now, though, you just concentrate on learning to crawl and sit up on your own and we’ll take care of the rest. You’re getting close. It won’t be long now. I even see white teeth peeking through those gums. Slow down, mister! You just weighed in at 19 pounds, 12 ounces and are 27 inches long. You are well off the height and growth charts.
You don’t need to be in any hurry, buddy. You’ll get there.
January 2nd, 2009 — by mom
Last January you were a tiny hope. You were the possibility of being. Now here you are! Almost four months old! It is humbling what one year can do.
I was thinking about how glad I am that you were born in September because it meant that 2008 was all about you. I found out that you were definitely coming into our lives on your Uncle Adam’s birthday, January 15th. This coming January 15th will find you able to scoot across the floor (slowly), smile and, recently, laugh (that’s your new and, definitely, my favorite development that happens most often when I put the top of my head on your belly and wiggle it back and forth which makes my hair tickle your face. You love it for some reason). You can hold your head up without much struggle at all and you just rolled over for the first time! So much progress and so much more to come.
When I look at you, you feel like my earliest science lessons in potential and kinetic energy. Last January I felt like we were a science experiment. With each passing month I felt we were on a roller coaster creeping higher and higher up the first major hill. Your birth felt like an exhilerating plunge that sent you out on what will be the most incredible ride. Now that you are here, I feel like you are so full of energy - a ball set in motion, a roller coaster on a thrilling, white-knuckled, exhilerating…zoom! - and all I can do is try to keep up and help keep the train on its track.
Happy New Year, buddy! I hope each new year is a really fun ride.
p.s. I can’t include a special New Year’s picture of you doing anything celebratory because you slept through it. Way to ring in 2009!
December 25th, 2008 — by dad
HOLY CRAP LOOK AT HOW AWESOME IT IS!
IT’S SO AWESOME!
YOU CAN’T BELIEVE IT!
