Violent Ink

Thanks, but no thanks

At breakfast on Monday, the day after the race, Judah was being silly. He had a little tiny bit of raspberry jam on his finger, and he decided to let Isaac taste it, though he hasn't yet started on solids. We thought, oh, it's so sweet, he is going to love it.

Instead, his response was: *dry heave*

So yeah, not a huge fan. But we laughed so, so hard.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Isaac!

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Isaac!
Originally uploaded by kicksie.

Happy Halloween!

Big weekend

Judah after the race
Originally uploaded by kicksie.

Judah ran the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday and did a stellar job! I am so proud of him!

Isaac and I ran all over D.C. trying to see him to cheer him on, but we missed him every time. I walked about 5 miles with the stroller and a backpack of camera equipment, which was the most physical effort I'd put forth at one time in quite a long while. I won't compare it to doing the marathon, but by the time we got back to the hotel, we were all pretty darned tired.

Isaac was a little trouper the whole day, as well as the two nights we stayed in the hotel.

One funny story: The night before the race, Isaac woke up after about a half hour, and Judah was going to sleep. I took him down to the lobby in his stroller and was walking laps trying to lull him back to sleep. I noticed they had this nice setup with water with fruit in it, so I took a cup of apple water (which was quite good). The concierge came over and asked how old Isaac was, and I said 4 months and then volunteered that I was trying to get him to go back to sleep so his dad could rest before the race and also so he wouldn't bother anybody in nearby rooms.

His response: "Oh, so you're a guest in the hotel?"

I think he thought I was homeless. It was only about 9:30, but I was in my PJs -- velour pants, a tank top and my shoes. I thought it was pretty funny, and I can't imagine why else he would ask that.

A tall order

Isaac had his four-month appointment yesterday, and all is well. She suggested we start solids since he decided two weeks ago that sleeping through the night is for chumps, but we're at least waiting until after this weekend. Judah is doing the Marine Corps Marathon in D.C., and we're going to be in a hotel for two nights.

At the moms' lunches, I've held a couple of the other babies his age, and they all feel different. I knew Isaac seemed kind of lean (except for his chubby little thighs), but the numbers came out like so:

Weight: 15 pounds, 2 ounces (55th percentile)

Head circumference: I forget the exact number, and it's upstairs, but also 55th percentile

Height: 26.5 inches (95th percentile)

Whoa, crazy! He grew three inches in two months! As for where all this height came from, when Judah and I are not exactly a towering twosome? Well, we do have some height genes lingering in us -- my dad and grandpas are tall, and one of Judah's grandpas was tall. Plus, I was a tall baby, tall enough that I was at one point predicted to eventually become 5'11". I'm somewhat rounding up when I call myself 5'5".

We will just have to see, I guess.

Hits you like a brick

I have TLC on in the background a lot of the time, and I guess the station knows its audience because there are a ton of baby-product commercials on during the day.

But there is one that I just abhor, and it's on about 900 times an hour.

It's for Huggies Natural Fit diapers, and there's a woman wandering around a playground playing with a brick as if it is a baby. Ha ha ha! That's so hilarious. What ridiculously amusing scenario could cause a woman to break with reality and think that this brick is her baby? Years of infertility? The loss of a pregnancy? The loss of a child?

Yeah, not really so hilarious, is it?

(Not to mention, the other diaper companies actually sued because it implies that only Huggies are shaped like an hourglass and are not rectangular, when all companies changed shape about 20 years ago. Whoops.)

Four months ago

Mom, Dad, and baby Isaac
Originally uploaded by kicksie.

How how how has it possibly been four months since this fabulous, fantastic day?

Dear Isaac: 4 months old (almost)

 

Dear Isaac,

My sweet boy, you have been so busy learning that I can almost see your synapses firing these days.

Two weeks ago today, you rolled over for the first time. Your dad was away for reserve duty, and we knew you were on the verge of figuring it out, and lo and behold, you did while he was gone.We got up, you had a bottle and a burp, and I set you down on your activity mat. I sat back down and looked at you, and bloop! You had rolled over onto your belly. "How did I get here?" you seemed to be thinking. ("This is not my beautiful house! This is not my beautiful wife!)

I thought it might have been a fluke, but after being gone for most of the day, we came home, and as soon as you were on the mat, boom! Three more rolls. Then that Friday, we hosted moms' group, and you got all show-offy and rolled and rolled all the way across the blanket, but you haven't done that since. Now your modus operandi is to roll over onto your belly and get "stuck," then flail like a turned over turtle and freak out. At the very beginning, you could roll back, but at the moment you seem to have forgotten. That's OK, though.

At almost the same time as you learned to roll, you discovered your feet. You had started to notice them a couple of weeks before. I would find you gazing interestedly at them sometimes. Then you figured out how to grab things on purpose (and life on the activity mat hasn't been the same!), and soon, you were grabbing and chewing on your toes. In fact, when I was trying to get a video of you rolling over, you chewed on your toes for the very first time. I was so surprised, and you were so cute.

In the meantime, you suddenly seem aware of your feline compadres. A few weeks ago, you started to realize they were there when they were very close, but now, all of the sudden, you seem to have much deeper vision. You track the cats from across the room and watch them for ages. This extra depth of field has proved helpful, too, because you can see me when I am talking to you from the kitchen making a bottle or lunch, and you don't get as stressed about where I have disappeared to.

Every day, you are turning more and more into your own person. You are so charming and sweet, and you want to engage with everyone you see. On the flight home from Oregon, we were stuck on the aisle, and you stood in my lap gazing at this emo kid sitting behind us trying desperately to get his attention. You smiled and grinned and batted your eyes and stared at this boy with navy blue hair in a skull-print hoodie, but he was way too cool to smile at a baby. His loss! But damn, it was funny to watch.

Speaking of Oregon, right when you turned three months old, we headed there, flying solo literally, so you could meet Grammy Ann, Grandpa Fred and Auntie Kate since they hadn't been able to come see us yet. No surprise, everyone adored you, and you adored them all back. You were such a trouper on all the flights and let us take you all over the place. You also got to see Grandpa Mike and Grandma Peggy and met Uncle Alex and Aunt Courtney, too. You were such a busy little bee.

All this month, we have been having fun hanging with the moms' group folks. You seem to really enjoy seeing the other babies at our lunches and walks. Today, we went out to Calvert County to meet Sophie, the two-month-old daughter of your dad's coworker John and his wife Deanna. You liked to watch her and kept an eye on her especially when she was making noise.

For a few weeks now, you have been a drooling machine and really into chewing on things (especially my finger, ow!). We've been wondering whether you were working on a tooth or two, but so far, no teeth, just lots of liquid. And after weeks of awesome night sleeping, lately, you've been waking up, so again, could be a tooth, or maybe it's time to start solids. (Eeep!) We weren't going to do that yet, but if you will sleep again, we're game. We shall see what your awesome pediatrician says on Wednesday.

Perhaps best of all, lately you have begun to laugh. Usually it's just an occasional "ha," but your dad is an expert at getting you giggling. It's simply the best sound ever ever.

So, my darling boy, every day I understand the term "pride and joy" even more. You are amazing and I love you so, so much.

Love,

Mom

How quickly time passes

One year, two weeks and one day ago, we saw Isaac for the first time.

After so much time, so many emotions, we sat in a room in Rockville and watched on the ultrasound screen as two little dots -- our blastocysts -- exited a plastic tube and drifted into my womb. One of them had a short existence, but the other eventually developed into a larger cluster of cells with a heartbeat I saw a few weeks later, then a grape-shaped blob, then a baby-shaped blob, then a stubborn fetus who didn't want to unfold his neck for a test, then a less-stubborn fetus who let us know he was indeed a boy.

And then, a few scant weeks after that, we saw him again, in the flesh, for real, and we had our son.

Lookin'

Lookin'
Originally uploaded by kicksie.

Oh, I'm so behind, but look how sweet my boy is!

So close

I am sitting here watching Isaac try so hard to roll over. He is so close, it is unbelievable. In recent days, he's also discovered his feet, and yesterday, he started trying to play with them. Today, he started grabbing things on purpose instead of by accident. My little boy! So grown up already!