One day down, ~17 to go

I survived my first day of teaching, though when I left in the morning I was quite sure I would not. Here is the situation: I am covering two courses and a lab for a professor who went on paternity leave. The baby showed up a week earlier than expected, so I had to start earlier than expected. For one of the classes I got an email telling me that I needed to start from chapter 8---this is from the future-father professor and was before the baby's arrival. So Thursday night (the night before the class) I worked on my lectures and at 1am stapled them, put them in their folder and was excited at the prospect of 5 hours' sleep. I decided to check my email one last time where I re-read an email from a professor who had covered the class for a couple of days before my starting who told me that I should start with chapter 7. I had read this email before and though it said chapter 7, I read it as chapter 8. Wonderful. Well, I stayed up all through the night and prepared a new lecture on material I hadn't looked at with this book, and headed off for my first day of school not having shut my eyes for more than a blink since 6 am the previous day. This is how everyone should start their first day. It was kind of funny to think that these kinds of things were probably always (well, sometimes at least) happening to professors through my schooling years, but I didn't know (and nor did my students). I survived, I am now ready for the real lectures for this week. Hopefully things go better for me sleep-wise.

Friday was the first day for our new nanny. Everything seemed to go well as I came home to a very happy Emmett who really seemed to be enjoying his time with her. That was comforting.

Friday night Andrea and I went to bed at 8:30. That was exciting. Emmett didn't wake on Thursday night (well, didn't wake to where we needed to get up to get him...staying up all night I learned that he wakes a number of times but settles back to sleep nicely). He also didn't wake last night or the night before, so that is three in a row from 7pm to 6am or 7am, depending. Pretty exciting stuff. I like this trend and hope it continues.

Saturday was a really nice day that the fam spent together. We went to the California Academy of Science for the first time. We are members, which is nice as we don't have to go with a goal of seeing everything in the building. We concentrated only on the sub-level which is where all of the aquariums are and such. It was pretty neat but crowded. I must say that I am much more excited for the other levels. There were some cool things we saw like jelly fish, but fish in tanks aren't really my thing when it comes to science. We will be heading back again soon. I took the picture to the left under one of the aquaria (aquariums? who knows) with the iPhone (which I just traded in four hours ago as it pooped out on me)---the lighting is weird because of the aquarium and the iphone doesn't take good pictures. Emmett was pretty interested, but not super interested. I think it is still out of his league---or maybe he is more excited for the other levels, too? We went to a friend's birthday bash in the park and had a nice walk back. All-in-all a pretty great day.

Today I spent trying to get ahead with the courses so another all-nighter doesn't occur. In the afternoon, though, we took a CityCarShare car out for a spin to make sure we knew how it all worked in case we needed one and were more pressed for time. I think I have mentioned it here before, but last weekend we gave our car away as we weren't using it enough to justify its costs even though it was paid-in-full. We signed up for CityCarShare for those rare times that we need a car. For $10/month we both are members and we can borrow a car as often as needed. We have to pay something like $6/hour + 40 cents a mile for use, and I did the math on the trips that we make and it made more sense to do this than to hold on to our car (weekend trips we will rent from a real agency as it is slightly cheaper). Anyway, today we took it for a spint to Japantown to get some of those rice crackers that the woman in the park gave to Emmett and he loved. We found some, but they weren't exactly what we had before. He is figuring out the chewing thing even though he doesn't have any upper teeth to counter his pair on the bottom. Afterward we got a frozen yogurt (not a really sweet one...a tart one) and he was begging so I gave him a spoonful. The look on his face was too funny as it was tart and very cold. It is so hard not to laugh when he makes these faces. However, I went back for another bite and he had his mouth open at the ready, so I gave him another---with the same result. I didn't give him too much, but he seemed to like it. Oh, and on the bad parent front: while we were at the birthday party I had a cup of beer in my hand and he was reaching for it again and again. Remembering my first taste of beer and my reaction I figured I would give him a taste so that it would turn him off to it, but he took his sip and decided he wanted more (which he didn't get). This kid is crazy.

OK, I think that is enough of an update for now. More about me than him, it seems. He is continuing to pull himself up by our hands and isn't much closer to crawling, although he is improving in his ability to spin around on his belly. He has become MUCH more vocal in the last week. I feel as if we are spending time with a different baby. He was yelling up a storm in the museum on Saturday. The pleased look that he gets on his face when he really lets out a real yell is pretty funny. He looks very proud of himself. Oh, here is another picture I just found, too. Andrea took this one.

Ah, yes...the blog

I have neglected you, dear blog, for some time. As you are a blog about my life with Emmett, a recent lack of Emmett has been much of the reason. Last weekend was the first night's separation between Emmett and myself (two in a row, in fact) as Andrea and E headed to the Pacific Northwest to visit Angela, Scott, and Tyler. It sounds like they had a great visit and Tyler, now 15 months rather than the 12 when he last saw Emmett, is learning to treat Emmett with care and a light touch. Andrea was raving about how good Tyler was with Emmett, with the former showing the latter how to operate toys, etc. But, alas, I missed it all as I was in the city.

So, this is part of the reason for blog negligence. The other part is the fact that I have been working toward the last day at the office, which has kept me mighty busy, and today was said final day. The original plan was that today was going to be my REAL last day, but now I am going to be staying on through the end of September so that I can attend a conference and will be working from home here and there with a couple of trips to the lab thrown in every once-in-a-while. Should be a smooth transition, hopefully, to what will happen at the end of September which is always-at-home for me with some consulting work taking place from home.

So what does that mean for Emmett and I? The picture at the left tells the tale, and as Emmett will soon learn: it is always 5 o'clock somewhere. Andrea will be starting work in a week's time (we have a week's vacation before then), and then it will be party time for the boys.

The nice thing about being slow with the blog (which is all going to change when I start doing the stay-at-home-thing, I swear) is that each new post has Emmett leaping forward in his abilities. I came home this evening and Emmett was in the Plastic Monstrosity(tm) or whatever it is called turning himself around and playing with all of the toys. I found myself quite surprised at how much more advanced he seemed (the advances have seemed big to me, too, as during the week i am only seeing him about an hour or so a day and I lost all of last weekend to the Portland trip). Anyway, I uploaded a quick video I took of the kid playing in the thing (the seat is filled with blankets as he is not to the official size/weight to play in the plastic machine---doesn't stop mom). The video shows that he is picking up some arm control, but it isn't always there as though he is able to get the flag into his mouth once, the hands make a big swing-and-a-miss later. Not a very exciting video, I know.



The head turn at the end of the video is the new thing for him. In the last week he has found that he has little interest in what is in front of him as he has discovered behind him. If he is sitting in his bouncy chair (still a 7 sock-monkey item) he will suddenly start leaning forward and turning his head around to see what is taking place behind the chair. This is a cute trick but has made the elimination communication stuff a little difficult as the normal Emmett's-back-to-my-front puts me behind E so when I start with the ssssss he just turns his head and checks out the source of the noise rather than peeing. We had lost some ground on the whole EC thing with travels and such, but we are getting it back. He has gotten so he can hold his pee for quite some time now and leaves a pretty good puddle in the bottom of the baby bjorn potty when the time comes.

Right now E is asleep, and we have on loan a video monitor from a friend. Tonight was the first trial of it and it is pretty neat as we can see exactly what Emmett is doing as he sleeps (shown to left). It is a two channel deal (for those with two kids, I suppose), and while we were sitting in the front room watching Emmett I changed the channel to learn that not only can we watch Emmett, but we can also watch some neighbor girl sleep. The funny part is that we have no idea who in the near houses has a ~18 month old. Anyway, we get the chance to be entertained by a neighbor's sleeping baby, too (at right). Life is too good.

Emmett who?

Ah, yes, the blog. I haven't really touched it since we got back from New York as things are much more mild on this coast. It has not been that great being back here for the Emmett/Damon relationship as I see so little of him during the week---it is very frustrating. Emmett has been sneaking his bedtime earlier while I have been staying a little later at work trying to finish things up before the big switch to the stay-at-home life. On top of this, Emmett has moved away from his waking at 6:ish to waking at 7:30ish (by which time I should be leaving for work) making him not a very dependable alarm clock (I have left late many times over the past week-plus).

Andrea and Emmett are both in what was the guest room/changing room sleeping. Andrea and Belinda painted what was our room in anticipation of the grand switcheroo where Andrea and I move toward the front of the house into the former guest room, Emmett takes over our former room (we are going to try the sleep apart thing), and the dining room gets converted to something of a guest room, which will probably be our room when guests come and our room will be the guests'. So confusing. Anyway, it was very nice of Belinda to come and paint today and they did a great job. Exciting times.

Last weekend we did some planning for the move, but the big event was Emmett attended his first birthday party. The party was for Griffin, the one-year-old son of our friends Charlie and Trish, and took place in Rocklin outside of Sacramento. Trish made great monkey party hats, and as you can see, Emmett loved them. It was great getting to see the Colorado clan, and we rode over with Joe, Jake, and Addison which was nice as well (the latter two can be seen chasing a pigeon in their party hats below). Lots of cute kids at the party...unfortunately we didn't take a ton of pictures, but you can see Griffin and Eva (Trish and Charlie's two) in individual pictures as well.

The party was fun but I didn't get the impression that Emmett was up with what was going on just yet. The neighboring party (we were in a park) had rented a bouncy castle and slide for which emmett wasn't quite ready but soon, soon. As it was pretty darn hot there for us San Francisco types (100ish compared to summer's 60's in the city), we spent a lot of time hanging out in the shade.

Emmett is really going through a lot of changes right now. In the last few days he has taken to grabbing his feet every time he is changed making it incredibly difficulty to perform a diaper switch with any sort of rapidity. He also seems to be reaching the point where he is becoming manipulative of us with his crying (which isn't frequent), but we are trying to avoid being played by a 4.5 month-old---not as easy as it sounds.


We head up to Susanville tomorrow night for a grandparent filled weekend. Emmett told me he can't wait.

Rubbing butts with the rich and famous

I pushed Emmett too hard today, I think. It all started with the trip to get bagels. He took about an hour-and-twenty minute nap when I finally got him down, but things were a little off. As soon as he woke, I was all ready to go with a change of clothes, bags packed, etc. We headed out with the goal of checking out art at the Met which called for two transfers no matter how we swung it. I chose us a route that would take us by Grand Central Station and we exited there to check it out as neither Emmett nor I had seen it before. I took some pictures while there (among others) but can't find the cord for the camera so I might have to wait until we return to add pictures. We got back on the train and reached the museum just as Emmett remembered that he hadn't eaten for a while---which reminds me that I had brought a lot of stuff: a cooler with two cold beers to keep two bags of breast milk cold, the ergo, the stroller, and the typical bag of diapers, etc....all of which I had to haul (with Emmett often in stroller) up and down each flight of stairs we reached. Fun.

I fed Emmett in the park before we headed into the museum. The first bag had melted almost entirely and Emmett paused a little while he ate but didn't seem to get ice cream headaches or anything. We went into the museum with Emmett in the stroller. I changed him up a few minutes in to the Ergo and he seemed genuinely interested in the armor section, especially a couple of shiny, metal, face-like helmets. It didn't hold his interest long, though and I had about 45 minutes through the museum with him asleep. I was deep into the impressionists by the time he woke and it didn't take long until he had had enough. I knew he needed to be changed but unfortunately we were on the second floor (where a floor in this museum equals about 4 floors worth of stairs) and the only men's restroom with a changing table was on the first. It is worth noting here that should one ever want to find a place where a baby's cry seems extraordinarily loud, I am quite sure a museum ranks behind only libraries and classical guitar concerts. So, with this loudly crying baby I the one-floor elevator would not come therefore I decided to negotiate the stairs with Emmett screaming and writhing in my arms and all of the stuff in the stroller. My method was simple: hold on to one handle, kick the stroller so it would fall one stair, step down, repeat. I had made it down one normal-size flight (three to go) when a kind woman offered help as she was going down too. She said something along the lines of "please let help you. I could take the stroller...or the baby??" where both she and I could see that Emmett, even though he was very upset, was the easier cargo to carry down three flights of stairs. This left me with a dilemma, which caused a pause, which she filled with "I am a grandmother," which left both of us wondering in that pause if this was a helpful statement or not with her surely trying to imply that she had had kids and had taken sufficient care of said children that some survived unscathed enough to bear offspring, with the side implication that a grandmother is not going to run off with your child, however leaving open the question of should she be carrying an infant downstairs. So what is a new father to do in this situation? Emmett had another first today!!! The first trip down a flight of steps in the arms of a complete stranger. Andrea is going to love that one.

The changing table was a joke and I would have been better off just changing him on the stroller in the second floor bathroom. If you took a two-foot square table and then cut in half from corner to corner and put the remaining triangular table into a corner, you would have the Met's "changing table." We took care of business, though, and he was much happier. I learned that Emmett really likes modern art, particularly artists who paint large canvases in only one or two colors. He is all over that.

Part of the museum trouble was that emmett was hungry again. The second milk package was cold so I stopped into a deli to buy a large hot water (I wish I didn't have Emmett in my arms so that the guy could have just wondered why I was ordering a large hot water on a hot, hot day). I defrosted the milk in the water while sitting on someone's stoop and fed him right there. By the time we were done Andrea was out of her conference and we decided to meet at the store she wanted to visit. Not long after arriving Emmett needed to be changed with a big potty, but unfortunately for Andrea the only changing tables were in the women's bathroom (I actually made a small snide comment when trying to take Emmett into the men's restroom along the lines of "what, men don't have babies?" I am getting pretty bad). After changing Emmett we went outside to meet Luisa (out to visit family) with me having Emmett in my arms. I decided that I wanted to quickly go back into the store to look at shoes and handed Emmett off to Luisa. While I was walking away I noticed that my shirt felt wet and looking down found out that Emmett had had his first explosive potty and that it had gotten on my shirt (he has been in disposables a lot of the time here...I will explain the diaper situation later). We decided that rather than go back through the store to the bathroom we would change him right there on the sidewalk. First, let me just say that Luisa is a good sport. We did a three-person change with wipes and Emmett being handed around in order to take care of everything. In the middle of it all Emmett realized he was naked and as he had already peed twice in the outdoors in NYC, he kicked it up to three with a little getting on the kind, helpful Luisa. Very unfair.

The change finished I went back into the store to get a shirt and had an Emmett-esqe meltdown of my own as the place was crazy crowded and I couldn't find any other section of the store except marked down Versace t-shirts (was $600, now $200!!). I finally found something and was purchasing while Andrea walked in and found t-shirts that would have easily fit the bill. By that time I had already ripped the tag off of my new bright pink button-up. You win some, you lose some.

We had plans to meet Laura and Lesley for a bee art show (not sure...when we got there we saw bees but not the art). We grabbed a bite to eat at a bad good-for-you restaurant where the server proceeded to basically wake Emmett because she wanted to touch him and then while we were waiting for the check she came up to Andrea with arms out like she wanted to hold him (and we all know how we feel about strangers holding our baby). Strange.

The bee event was hopping, but Emmett was pretty beat by this time. Andrea, Laura, and Lesley went in while I waited on the sidewalk, and Andrea returned to tell me that she had just stood less than a yard away from Kirsten Dunst. Laura and Lesley were still inside so I went in to let them know that we had to take Emmett back to the hotel, and while I was going in Kirsten was making her way out through the crowded room. We both turned away from one another and K.D.'s butt rubbed against mine as we passed. That definitely makes my closest celebrity approach.

Laura and Lesley came back to the hotel with us and we had a nice night chatting it up while Emmett finally got his well-deserved sleep. Now they have gone home, Andrea is here sleeping next to me, and I have passed on too much of what has gone on in New York.

E hearts NYC

Sorry, where was I? Ah, yes, we were landing. Well, the flight landed in one piece and for the 5+ hour flight Emmett slept for about 4 hours of it. People in the nearby seats said that he was a pleasure to travel with. The only person that might have complaint is the person who was sitting on the aisle who had to get up about 4 times during the entire flight.

We landed in Newark, NJ (Emmett's fourth state) and our bags arrived just fine. It was pretty hard moving around with all of our stuff, but we took the NJ transit to Penn Station and then subwayed it to our hotel at Columbus Circle. Besides having to move around with so much stuff, the transit wasn't that bad. We got into our room about 7:something to find that they hadn't put in the promised crib and that the refrigerator that was supposed to be in every room was not present. The former was necessary for obvious reasons, but the latter was needed as we had flown across country with 13 5-ounce bags of frozen breast milk to keep Emmett nourished while Andrea conferences. I should mention how we got the milk here as it worked really well.

Andrea has been pumping milk and freezing it for times like this. A couple of weeks ago John and Carlos had a garage sale where they were selling a lunch-sized plastic cooler which we bought for a very reasonable rate. I was able to squeeze 13 containers of milk in the bottom and then a couple of gel ice packs on top. I loaded the whole thing the night before and stored it all in the freezer until the next morning when I packed it in our luggages surrounded by cloth diapers for insulation. When we unpacked the milk about 12 hours later it was still rock solid and opening the luggage felt like opening the door of a freezer as there was cool air inside the bag. It all worked really well.

We got some food while the fridge and crib were installed. It was about 9 by this time and Emmett had a minor meltdown so I waited outside while Andrea did some food shopping for the room. While waiting a nice, older lady sat next to me and chatted me up about Emmett, informing me that Emmett means "truth" in hebrew and giving me a whole lot of other NY insider info. Such a friendly town.

Sleep...this is the best part of the story so far (not saying much). We didn't get Emmett down until about 10pm here time, which is 7 CA time (a little earlier than his regular time) and we went to bed not long after as we were pooped. At 7 am the alarm went off (a first post-Emmett's birth as he has served just fine as an early alarm) and all three of us had had our first 8-hour plus night of sleep since Emmett popped out.

Andrea fed Emmett and headed off to her conference around 8:00. Emmett and I took off for the park on our first day in the city together. We walked around with him in the stroller and he ate in the park before coming back to the hotel for a nearly two-hour nap. Afterwards he and I headed off again for a long walk through Chelsea and Greenwich with him spending most of the time passed out in the ergo. It is hot here, but not too hot, and when he came out of the Ergo we were both pretty drenched. We rode the subway back to our hood and waited for Andrea to return where she fed him in the park. I think she was a little horrified when she found us as it was pretty hot so I had stripped Emmett naked and had him on top of his changing mat. As it was a little small and he kept digging his hands and feet into the dirt, I laid out the huge subway map that we had as I forgot to bring I blanket (I will learn these things), so Andrea arrived to find her naked child sprawled out naked on a subway map in central park. I bet she revokes permission for me to be stay-at-home next year.

Emmett is passed out again, Andrea is back, and we will be seeing our friends who live here soon (Laura, Lesley, Sal, etc.). I will try to put pictures up next time....Andrea had the camera at the conference and apparently didn't find anything worth photographing there.

Oh, I can't believe that I forgot to include the most exciting parts...Emmett and I were hanging out on the bed doing a little tummy time and I got to witness a front-to-back roll (Andrea has seen three or so). The other big news is Emmett did his first poo in the big person toilet. Andrea caught a poo the other day in the Baby Bjorn Little Potty and this was my first since the days of yellow mustard poop (months for those not up on your baby poo consistency). So on our first day in the city Emmett didn't have a single soiled diaper. Thank you NYC.

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"

What's up

I just wrote the post below about shots a little bit ago, got to feeling that I have been dwelling on that immunization stuff for too long, and thought I would add a little of what is going on with Emmett. Yesterday was the first day that Emmett went all day without pooping, and apparently when you don't poop on one day it doubles up on the next (says Andrea who got to deal with the cleanup as it was while I was at work). I had heard all kinds of stories about parents getting worried when their kid doesn't have a bowel movement for a day, but I don't think that either of us ever gave it much thought at all. Cleanup of his poop used to be no big deal, but it is definitely getting less fun as it is stinky and messy. I am trying to pick up on his cues that he is going to go so that I can run him to the bathroom, but the signals seem subtle at best and the events typically take place in the middle of the afternoon. I haven't given up on EC and am still getting him to pee a few times a day.

As I mentioned, yesterday we all went to the new parents/newborn class that Andrea and Emmett normally attend alone. The class is for 0-3 month-olds and is headed by a midwife/RN-in-training who we had for one of our pre-birth classes and who we really like a lot. The format is a bunch of people and their kids sitting around in a circle for an hour with each parent or set of parents introducing themselves and their little one and asking a question of the leader or the group. It was good to get to hear what others are going through, and it really made me feel like we have a pretty cooperative kid so far. We have a friend whose pediatrician appointments have at least a part which is a group meeting like this, and I think that this approach is extremely valuable as when Andrea and I see our pediatrician it seems like we can't remember all of the questions we have in the weeks between appointments (plus it gives parents a chance to look at other parents/kids and feel like things aren't so bad).

The other big event in the last day or so was Emmett had his first erection this afternoon...or at least first that either of us have spotted (Andrea saw it, I didn't...I was at work for this event, too, and I guess she didn't snap a picture---that would be good for his baby book). I think that this was a little unexpected and surprising for Andrea to come across. It is good to know that Emmett, unlike so many other male children, will get to know and celebrate the anniversary of this momentous event (sure, there were probably others hiding under diapers, but this first in-the-open one must count for something).