Sofian and His Oball

A couple years back, Parie was shopping for a present for a young friend and discovered the Oball, a ball with an open hole design that makes it easy for little fingers to grasp. And, of course, Sofian has an Oball, and it's become one of his favorite toys. We like to place it between his legs when he's in his co-sleeper, and he really enjoys kicking it around (which gives his papa a lot of joy and hope for a soccer-filled future). And lately, Sofian has been working on his grabbing skills, and the Oball has found a new use.

Although sometimes, the Oball is just a good friend to take a nap with. As Mamalama says, it's hard work being a baby.

New Sleep Record: 6.5+ Hours

Everybody's happy! Here's another pic from master photog Jeff Carlson to celebrate:

Ready for Some Close Ups

Jeff and Kim came by last night for some dinner, and we'd hoped to get budding professional photog Jeff to get the three of us in a nice pose. Unfortunately, Sofian was more ready for bed (and fussing), so these will have to do for now.

Once More Into The StimGym Breach

Haven't done one of these since May 8, so it's high time to see the boy in action in the StimGym Thunderdome:

Watching the Mobile Go Round and Round

Parie fashioned a mobile to hang over Sofian's co-sleeper out of some bamboo, gift wrap ribbon, and some stuffed vegetable toys that Mamalama gave us, and Sofian has been loving it. He gets very zen.

Flying High in the Friendly Skies

Wow, it's amazing how much stronger Sofian's neck muscles have gotten in just the last week. Here's some vid and pics of our little flyer, who is now 10 weeks old (he looks like he's 4 months!).

15 Years

Fifteen years ago, on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, I arrived in Seattle at the train station in Pioneer Square and was picked up by my pals Ward and Sue. I came to Seattle from Washington D.C., where I'd spent a year-and-a-half trying to find a publishing job, living in a house with my good pal David G. Anderson (aka, Deege, DGA, Mishu, the shorter best man in our wedding), getting involved with a crazy woman, getting engaged with said crazy woman, quickly getting un-involved, and figuring out what the heck to do with my life. I really wasn't enjoying D.C.--I craved more of a community and it just seemed too much of a transitory town--so I grasped the idea of moving out to Seattle where my Ole pals Ward and Sue and Anne and Kari were living large.

My first official day in Seattle (I'd come for a visit earlier in the spring to make sure it was a good place) was an amazing one. The weather was bright and sunny, and I was whisked almost immediately to the annual Folklife festival at the Seattle Center (which houses the Space Needle, amongst many other attractions) where I found myself contra dancing. Next up was a movie at the Seattle International Film Festival that was filmed at Liquor Lyle's, a bar back in Minneapolis. And the day ended with a barbecue in the Wallingford neighborhood, where I was re-introduced to several other St. Olaf grads who had made the trek to the Emerald City. By the end of the day, I pretty much knew I'd be in Seattle for the long haul.

And so here I am 15 years later. I don't know if I would have envisioned this setting back then, but I can't imagine anything other than the life that I have now. I said this many times when Parie and I were first dating seriously, but it deserves to said again: I'm the luckiest man I know. The love of my life and I have one seriously cute kid in Sofian, and we're on the way to building some very exciting things (both physical and experiential) in the coming years, and we'll be doing it in one of the greatest cities in North America.

Hope all is well with you wherever this post finds you.

Tidbits

• The little guy gave us a 6-1/2-hour stretch of sleep on Thursday night, from 10 to 4:30. On waking up to change him, I actually felt rested, since that's about the total amount of sleep I get on a good night. We got 4 hours out of him last night, but it could have been longer if Parie and I hadn't decided to watch the Heroes season finale after he'd gone down to bed.
  
  
• I fed Sofian an entire bottle yesterday afternoon, though it wasn't a completely smooth affair. There was a lot of screaming during a couple of breaks, when he seemed to forget how to use the bottle's nipple. But we eventually got it figgered out.
  
  
• Sofian is starting to grab some rings on his own from a dangly toy that we offer him, and he pulls them up to his mouth.
  

14 Pounds, 15 Ounces

You read that right. We took Sofian in to get his 2-month weigh-in... erm, check-up today, and he weighed in at 1 ounce shy of 15 pounds. And actually, after he weighed, he had a feeding while we waited for the doc to come in, so I'm sure he crossed the threshold.

Guess I should stop trying to feed him off of my plate...



BTW - Sofian also had 5 shots today and he was a trooper and didn't cry too much after receiving them. But he had some kind of bad reaction going on this afternoon back at home that freaked his parents out, but he quickly returned to being happy happy, joy joy.

Evidence of Better Parenting

Here's Parie reading to our little lad.



And if you're wondering why he's in his car seat, it's because of his acid reflux (which kicked in even more heavily during his cold).

It's Been Awhile

Well, the posting has been slim the last two weeks, and I apologize for that. Things have been a little strange as we transition into some rather odd roles: me the traditional male breadwinner figure and Parie in the traditional female homemaker role. It's been a challenging transition time for me as I get back to working a fuller schedule, cos all I really want to do is be at home with the little guy. I've been doing everything in my power to stay concentrated on just work during the times I've set aside, and then focusing on giving Parie a bit of a break thereafter. But I haven't always been successful. Parie's been working on mobiles to hang above Sofian's crib and figuring out how to rearrange the house since we won't have the addition to the LemonDrop for a little while longer (but it's coming).

The four of us last week (that includes Mamalama, who is now back in Raleigh) also got waylaid by a rather virulent cold. It was very sad to see our little guy have to fight through all that mucus. But we all got through it, and we just have a few lingering sniffles.

Anyhoo, we're starting to get things figured out, and I promise that I'll be posting more regularly going forward.

To start off with, here's a bit of an embarrassing story. Parie and I put Sofian in his bed the other morning as we were getting things ready for the day. Only problem was that we left the door open a crack, and didn't notice that Wompus (our cat) had gone through it. I went in to grab my watch and found this scene:



We quickly shooed the cat away... well, halting for just a moment to grab the camera. I promised Parie that I wouldn't share this pic with the world, but I did send it along to my pal Jeff Carlson, who turned it into a bit of computer geek humor (see other examples at LOLcat and ICanHasCheezBurger.



We promise to be better parents.

Happy Mother's Day (a little late)

Things were flying fast and furious with all the guests this weekend, and I didn't get a chance to properly wish my wife a Happy First Mother's Day. Here are two pics I snapped while we were taking a break at the Seattle Aquarium on Saturday:

Mamalama's Also in Town

Linda, Parie's Mom (to whom we've given the Grandmother moniker of Mamalama), has also been here since the middle of last week, and will be here through the end of this week. She's been a great help around the LD, and she's loving every minute she can soak up with her grandson.

And here's Mamalama imparting some political wisdom to the Tiny Democrat (thanks to Ward and Sue for the great onesie!):

Visitors from Jacksonville

We had a busy weekend with a visit from Parie's sister, Molly, and her family (husband Jonathan and 2-year-old Natalie). I think everyone had a great time exploring Seattle, though I hear it might have been a bit cold for the Floridians.

Here they are at our favorite park here in West Seattle, Lincoln Park:









And at the Children's Museum (Parie and I are looking forward to getting a membership here).



And finally, here's Natalie hanging out with her cousin Sofian.

Sofian Meets Rex

Sunday, we brought Sofian over to meet the new new kid on the block, Rex Fleishman. Here's his Dad, Glenn, and I getting the two of them together.

Another Episode of Sofian's StimGym Adventures

These movies of Sofian in the Gymini/StimGym are actually a good gauge on how his development is progressing. For a reminder of where we've come from, check out the first one. Now he's more actively batting at toys and is making sounds as well as wide-eyed expressions.

Sofian's StimGym Adventure, 08 May 2007

Here also are a few still photos from the morning's exercise:

5+ Hours

Got home from a visit to see Sofian's new pal, Rex (over at the Fleishman/Warner household), and our little guy couldn't stop sleeping through the evening. Things didn't look good for sleeping through the night, but we were happily surprised to find that we were first awakened at 3:45am after going to sleep somewhere after 10pm. Not bad. However, we did learn that if he is going to sleep that long, we'll have to double his diaper liner.

So celebrate Sofian's sleepiness, here's a shot of him napping from the other day:



Unfortunately, after getting his middle-of-the-night snack, he didn't slumber for too long thereafter, and he and I have been up since 5:30.

Sofian's First Concert

Tonight we took Sofian to his first Big Time Concert. Well... it was actually at a rather intimate venue and it was preceded by a dessert auction fundraiser for Camp Long, which is just up the hill from the LemonDrop. Anyhoo, we were there to see one of our favorite artists (a very big fave of Parie's), Alice Stuart. We played her CDs a lot during Sofian's time in utero, so he was very excited at the opportunity to hear her live in concert. As you can see from the video, he was rocking out.

Here's Alice Stuart and her band Snake from back in the day (1970 to be exact).



And here's what she's looking like these days with the cover of her new album:



She kinda looks like our good friend Tina. The evening was rounded out with some delightful Boston Creme Cake from our favorite pastry shop, Bakery Nouveau.

Tutu and Sofian

Sofian's Grandmother Tutu (my Mom) and Grandfather TomTom (that would be her husband, Tom) came up for a two-night visit from Portland this week, and Tutu was amazed at how much the SuperChunk has grown. At one point, she pulled out a tape measure (which she keeps in her bag for her needle work), and we measured Sofian at 23 inches long -- that's an increase of 3.5 inches from his birth measurement of 19.5 inches. Here she is hanging out with Sofian in Mama's chair at the LemonDrop.



Next week, Mamalama (Parie's Mom) comes for an extended visit starting on Wednesday. That's followed by the arrival of Parie's sister and her family (husband Jonathan and daughter Natalie) on Friday. So we'll have an exciting week next week.

Turning the Corner (Fingers Crossed)

Wednesday night just might have been the night that Sofian's gastric distress turned the corner. We had a stretch of 4.5 of sleep -- the longest amount of sleep we've had in any one stretch for well over a month. Usually, the longest stretch has been 3 hours, but those have been few and far between. More likely is the 1.5 to 2 hour intervals. No wonder we've been walking around in a fog.

But in addition to better sleep, Sofian seems to be happier in general. During the day on Thursday, he was Happy Happy Joy Joy baby for the most part -- very minimal screaming and more focus on playing and enjoying his surroundings.

This first video is from before we went to bed on Wednesday night.

And this one is from Thursday afternoon.

Parie has been warning me that there are still hurdles to jump and that this corner turning may be just an aberration. To wit, I've been up with the little guy since 5:30 this morning. But we did get a nearly 4-hour sleep session last night. And this morning's distress is due, I think, to him experiencing new sensations in his maturing bowels and not knowing quite what to make of them. He's currently napping out in his motorized swing.