camping...sort of

Andrea, Emmett, and I headed up to the mouth of the Russian River to meet up with the rest of the group who we had bailed on for camping because of the smoke. Andrea and I reasoned that going to visit only for the day would be better for Emmett than going and staying the night where he would be breathing the smoky air all night long. It took a little bit to get out of the house with a dead car battery added in to the general process of collecting all things Emmett-related before leaving, but we got up to the campground somewhere around 1pm, I believe. The campground is amazing (Pomo Canyon) and it was great to learn that such a great campground is only 2 hours from our door. When we arrived at the sites, however, no one was there and there wasn't a note, but as there was a 3ish mile hike from there to the beach and it was the group's first day there, we assumed that they had hiked to the beach and headed off: Emmett in the Ergo. The hike was really nice with a mixture of redwoods and rolling, grassy hills, and Emmett was a real sport and slept the entire thing.

Our guess was right and we found the group of friends at the beach. The picture at left is Emmett hanging out on Jeff's lap with the ocean in the background. Emmett noted an uncanny resemblance between the sounds of the ocean and his noise machine, but in the end decided he liked the one he was exposed to first better.

We spent a few hours at the beach with Emmett taking a nap in the Ergo on Jeff, who then started the hike back with sleeping Emmett. About 1/3 of the way back Emmett woke ready to eat, was fed, and then stayed awake the rest of the hike back to camp just looking at the scenery while in the ergo without complaint. A pretty good kid, that Emmett.

Back at the camp, dinner was started and Emmett got to enjoy his first campfire. The picture at left is him relaxing at the fire with Jeff (with how much Jeff has been handling Emmett and the fact that all of the pictures of him with a male are with Jeff, I am starting to think that Emmett will be questioning who his father really is when he comes of age). We put him down at around 7:30 in a tent and he woke once about an hour later, but then slept soundly until Andrea and I decided that we should head back to the city at around 10:30 or 11:00. It would have really been nice to have Emmett have had his first true camping under his belt, but we are too concerned that smoke-induced lung injury will keep him from the 2028 olympic team so home for sleep was the final call.

safety first

We were supposed to take off for camping this afternoon, but the air quality report for the bay area said that all babies and the elderly should stay indoors as smoke from the dozens of CA fires has blanketed the area. Hopefully we are going to be able to go tomorrow, and if we do we have outfitted Emmett with a respirator from the welding class I took a while back so as to keep those lungs clean as a whistle.

Sir Grumpstein of Toothybush

I am finally getting back to writing something on the blog. It was something of a crazy week since we last spoke. For example, I had and interview, was offered the position, and turned it down...and that is just the last two days. Well, that is not exactly true as I am going to call and give it the final turn-down tomorrow. The job was a physics teaching gig at the California Art Institute, which sounded fun but the pay was about half of what I was expecting and I was a little worried that the amount of time I would have to put in to making lessons, etc. would not make it easy to supplement that income and give Emmett his own physics education. Anyway, the school is a training ground for future commercial artists, and it was the first for-profit school I had ever been around. The people seemed nice, but there was definitely something strange with the whole bottom-line feel permeating the place. It was funny showing up before the interview and having to sit down to fill out an actual application asking about prior convictions, personal references, etc.---it must have been the same application they use for every job at the place, but it was stressful trying to think of people who would have anything good to say about me.

Emmett. Oh right, this is supposed to be about him. Emmett has been a bit on the crankypants half of the spectrum the last two days and it has been a little trying for Andrea who has been stuck dealing with it for most of the day. We are going camping this weekend (a first for Emmett) with 9 other people and it would be really nice if lil' E was on his best behavior. Hopefully he got it all out of him today. The thing is he has turned into this slobber machine and today was acting a little funny with his mouth (I don't know how else to describe it) which had us thinking that maybe he is starting teething, but it is still kind of early for that. I find it kind of funny that teething is the newest in the list of possible reasons for unexplained Emmett phenomena with the prior two being "maybe he is going through a growth spurt" and "maybe he has gas." The other possible thing is a fever, but at least you can measure that (well, if you have a battery for your thermometer---something we have needed for months (you are supposed to take a baby's temperature daily "they" say---oops) and Andrea took care of picking one up today only to find out Emmett is fever-free).

What else from the last week? It was hot as all get-out last weekend. The picture at left shows how Emmett spent most of the time---nearly naked. Rare stuff for San Francisco, indeed. On Saturday, A, E, and I went to Emmett's pal Augie's grandparents' place in Marin for some
swimming pool fun. We got a little wild and Emmett slept like crazy. We put him down for a nap at 5pm in someone else's house and moved him to the car seat at 11pm for the trip home. He woke momentarily for a nighttime feeding once at home and was out until 6am when he woke for a while then went back to bed until 10ish. It was crazy. I took off for a couple of hours for a mountain bike ride and he took two more naps in that time. Maybe that is why he is so cranky---he is all sleeped out.

That is where things stand. Here is one more picture that Andrea took today. As you can tell, it is no longer hot here.

What makes Emmett laugh at 15 weeks

• Andrea saying "toes to nose" and putting Emmett's toes to his nose (100% effective)
• Singing "Bicycle Race" by Queen while moving Emmett's legs in a bicycle motion (100%)
• Holding Emmett upside-down (90%)
• The mobile hanging over his crib (50%)
• Dancing in front of Emmett with a funny face (20%)
• Vibrating your lips like a horse in front of Emmett (15%)
  
• Tickling (2%)
  
• Peek-a-boo (0%)
• Blowing a raspberry on Emmett's stomach (0%)
  

owie weenie

Finally getting caught up on the blog a little bit. This past weekend was a celebration of our friends Bobby and Miyuki's wedding (they got married in Japan already, but this was a celebration with their friends from this side of the Pacific. It was a really beautiful day up in Tilden Park (above Berkeley) and Emmett was a pretty good sport for the whole thing---with the exception of the drive...he still doesn't seem to love the car. Emmett also got to play frisbee, sort of. I had to give it another shot as the only other frisbee experience he has had resulted in him getting hit in the head (an errant frisbee while he was getting his diaper changed...he wasn't ready for it). This time I wore him in the Ergo and only threw forehands which meant very little shaking for Emmett who napped the whole time (about 1.5 hours). Unfortunately, though, he has ended up with what looks to be a blister on the end of his penis and I am worried that all of that bouncing around in the Ergo chaffed the end of it. I am back into bad father territory (the day before Father's day I do this, no less). Andrea called the doctor and she said to just keep an eye on it and if gets worth to give her a call in the morning. We are at three months and a week or so and we have only made two calls to the doctor, at least we have that going for us.

Sunday we had big plans to go to garage sales. Andrea got a list of the ones we were going to hit and at about 8:30 she said "OK, let's get ready to go." We were all ready to go except our shoes and we decided to let Emmett take a little nap. Three hours later Emmett woke up with the interim being filled by us hoping he would wake, still waiting, shoes in hand. We ended up only going to our friends' garage sale where we scored a small cooler to transport breast milk to NYC (liquids bad, breast milk OK? Our dumb rules). A bunch of friends came over to hang out, too, so that was pretty good.

Today I finally got around to setting a date for my leaving the lab. I had mentioned that I was going to be calling it quits to take care of Emmett/explore other options, but was countered with an offer of a half-time position. I countered back with a half-time position where I am at the lab one day a week and home the rest, so the ball is in their court and we will see what happens. Anyway, it looks like there will be a change 8/14 where I will go to stay-at-home dad. We haven't really broken the news to Emmett--he is getting used to this mom/foodsource being around all of the time, so I am not sure how he is going to take it. At least he and I have frisbee.

When tummy time goes wrong

The indispensables, vol. 2

Three months in on this whole baby thing and there have been a few more products that have been worth their weight in burp rags:

4. The swaddle blanket. When we got home from the hospital I still wasn't getting the whole swaddle thing (for those that don't know, the swaddle is this method of forming a kid-filled burrito with a blanket shell that keeps the kid filling from self-inflicted face slaps by uncontrolled hands throughout the night). The nurses were able to swaddle Emmett so well that he wouldn't even contemplate moving. Well, since that time we have both improved in our swaddling abilities (the trick is to realize that Emmett can take the swaddle being pretty darn tight), but in the last month or so Andrea came home with a swaddle-designed blanket called the "Kiddopotamus" and it revolutionized our lives. The Kiddopotomus has a pocket for Emmett's legs and two wings which are wrapped around his arms and chest with a velcro closure (the only picture I have of Emmett in one is of the upper half---unfortunately he is already in bed else I would get a better picture). We got a size a bit large and put a regular blanket swaddle underneath (it is chilly at night in SF). Since starting to use these blankets it is a pretty rare night that one of Emmett's arms sneaks out of the swaddle and starts clocking him in the face. The Kiddopotomus definitely gets 7 sock monkeys.

5. The Ergo. I have mentioned the Ergo before, but it really has been a great carrying device for both Andrea and I. We both use the same one, which is nice, and though it doesn't pack incredibly compactly (like a sling, say), it is quite comfortable to wear and Emmett is usually very relaxed inside it (the picture below is what Emmett looks like inside of it looking over Andrea's shoulder, and the picture at the bottom is of Andrea wearing it at the wedding on Sunday with some friends---see, it makes great formal wear). The infant liner that one is supposed to use until the baby is 15 lbs is a little bit of a hassle (Andrea has given up on it, but I still use it). The fact that we can use this until Emmett is 2 or 3 is really nice. I do wish it was positioned just slightly lower so that Emmett's weight was really being carried more by my hips, but he is not so heavy that it is a problem just yet. I would give the Ergo six sock monkeys--not perfect, but a very worthwhile product.

going to the chapel

Yesterday the whole fam headed to Burlingame to attend a wedding. It is kind of crazy that Andrea and I are approaching 6 years of married life together and we had only attended three weddings together, but Sunday made four and was Emmett's first. The wedding we went to was for a college friend and it was fancy schmancy. I got him to settle in the Ergo (soon to be added to a "essential items" list) and he made it through the entrances with only a slight stir (it is kind of funny that in this day and age weddings still have things like the three groomsmen walking in together in one line and the bridesmaids walking in one-by-one with lots of space between them so we can all check them out). During these entrances there was a nice, peaceful harp playing but when the bride came in a trumpet blared that "here comes the bride" thing and Emmett had had enough. Emmett and I spent the remainder of the ceremony walking around the rose garden---he really likes checking out the color contrast of flowers though he doesn't get the whole smell thing just yet. It still amazes me how well he will settle if he is outside and moving about. I think we have a regular old John Muir. Anyway, we took one picture when we got home (Emmett was just starting into meltdown mode). It is a horrible picture, but I figure since I never put pictures of the three of us on here, it might as well be a bad one.

The big 03

Tomorrow Emmett turns three months, or in modern-parent-speak: the end of the fourth trimester. It is pretty interesting to think how different things would be if Emmett really could have hung out inside Andrea for the fourth trimester and popped out where he is not developmentally---maybe giving one of his big smiles right after birth. He definitely seems much better prepared for the world today than he was right when he arrived (not that he is ready to start foraging for food or anything like that, but he can hold that head of his up).

It was kind of funny that I had a first this evening that I was surprised was a first: tonight I filled out my first form that had "number of children" as a box to fill. I found it hard to believe that this was yet to happen, but I guess I am not filling in forms all that often.

We are trying to figure out how to improve Emmett's sleep patterns these days and we have yet to hit on a solution. Our pattern of late has been that Emmett hits the hay around 7:00 or 7:30pm, sleeps until somewhere between 1-2 AM when he wakes, is fed, and goes back to sleep. He then wakes at 2 hour intervals repeating the above at each waking until 6 AM when he and I get up together and spend an hour or so hanging out giving Andrea a little more shut-eye to prepare for the long rest-free day of Emmett care. He will normally go back to bed with Andrea when I leave for work for an hour or two until he is really ready to start his day. We are trying to figure out if we (we meaning Andrea) should be feeding him at each waking or if he is reaching the point that he should be able to sleep longer stretches between feedings and we should be letting him settle back to sleep sans food. There are so many competing theories out there and it is definitely not easy to let him complain when he is inches away from us (and knows we (read: Andrea & breasts) are there). Apparently the woman who leads the parents' group that Andrea attends is of the opinion that 4months/14pounds is an important milestone where one can start working toward sleeping through the night. He is a month short and about a pound light, so for now we are sticking with feeding him when he wakes.

Andrea said that Emmett is getting close to the back-to-front roll (expected ~ 3 months) and is scooting himself in circles on his back using his legs. Not really all that exciting, but I guess it doesn't stop me from reporting it.

I'm just a bill

I just handed Emmett off to Andrea who is already in bed. He and I spent a bit of the evening reading together. Tonight's literature: the voter information guide for tomorrow's ballot measures. Though the supplied arguments for and against each measure may look good on paper, they just don't have that catchy ring when read aloud---even with happy annunciation added.

This weekend was pretty nice for the fam. Saturday E, A, and I walked to the main library and then over to some friend's new pad to visit for a while. Emmett slept in the bassinet of his stroller for something like four hours. It is pretty amazing how much he likes being out in fresh air and how it is a pretty sure-fire way to get him to relax.

Sunday's primary event was a trip to Marin County to Emmett's friend Augie's grandparents' house. The three babies whose pictures often show up in Andrea's blog (Augie, Ethan, and Emmett) all went to Marin with their respective parents for a day of BBQ and swimming. Emmett couldn't take part in the former (except via breast filter), but he did take advantage of the pool availability for his first ever swim. The water was a little chilly as there was a bit of a cold spell and general overcast-ness leading up to the weekend (solar-heated pool), but that didn't stop Emmett and his mom from hopping in for a short swim. FYI (I didn't know this), there are baby swim diapers which are basically just polyester shells. There was general debate amongst the parents present as to whether diapers should go on under the swim covers (they don't come with instructions) and it was decided they should. Who knows? Anyway, here are some pictures of ma and Ems in the pool---you can see the full range of reactions in Emmett from "hmm" to "OK, that's enough"