FAQ: Accessing Photos from Flickr

Some of you have been wondering, how can I get to the original-size images that show up here on the blog?

Just as this blog is a closed environment, our online photo repository also has a layer of privacy to it. You'll be able to see the photos that I post to this blog, but if you want the full megapixel meal deal for downloading to your PC for printing or archiving, you'll need this log-in combo.

[If you have a Flickr account already, disregard this and send me an email with your account name -- I'll then invite you as a friend/family, which allows you full access to our photos.]

First, go to the Flickr sign-in page, and enter the following info:

Yahoo! ID: lemondrop_friend
Password: papaags

To make things really easy, check the box that will keep you signed in to subsequent visits for 2 weeks. After clicking the Log In button, you'll be sent to the intro page to the lemondrop_friend account, where you'll see a bucket for photos from the contacts for this account. I've set up our main Flicker account (bornflippy | flippyfacade) as the only contact, so you'll see a few of the latest photos there. To see all the bornflippy photos, simply click the bornflippy link under one of the highlighted photos.



When you click through to a photo, you'll see be presented with a row of icons, from which you can select All Sizes:



If you don't get automatically sent to the Original Size, click that selection and then click the link to Download the Original size.



Back out by clicking your browser's back button, or click the Back to Flickr photo page at the top of the page, then click the Bornflippy's Photostream link to see all photos in the collection.

Advanced Steps
If you've visited Sofian and snapped some pictures, you can upload them to the lemondrop_friend account for everyone to see. Simply click the Upload Photos link at the top of the page, then click the browse button to find individual photo files on your PC desktop. Before clicking the Upload button, please click the Private button as well as the Visible to Friends and Visible to Family checkboxes underneath.

If you have any questions, leave a comment or send us an email at thekiwi.lemondrop@gmail.com.

Meeting Tutu and Tomtom

My Mom and her husband Tom just set foot on the Left Coast this week for their big move to Portland, which brings them much closer for visits to see a certain grandson. They made the Amtrak trek yesterday for a quick glimpse of the little guy before returning back to Portland to deal with the imminent arrival of their cargo from Hawaii. We brought Sofian to them at the Edgewater Hotel last night and today for lunch, and here are some pics from the initial meeting last night.









For their grandparental names, Mom will be going by Tutu, which means Grandmother in Hawaiian. And rather than going by the Hawaiian Tutu Kane for Grandfather, we all thought Tomtom would be a good alternative and a little less confusing.

Still Trying to Get Our Feet Planted

Haven't posted in a couple of days as we've been feeling a little overwhelmed with a number of little projects and tasks that need completing -- taxes, putting together Ikea furniture, figuring out the right placement of said furniture, doing a little freelance work, checking to see if Gonzo is still kicking, buying more diapers, etc.

We've had a couple of visitors the last couple of days. On Tuesday, Pastor Mark from All Pilgrims Church came in the afternoon and was sufficiently wowed by our handsome boy. Later in the afternoon, Tina Schwien stopped by for some good hangtime with our comatose son.



And last night we were feted to a delightful meal brought to us (and shared with us) by Philippa from Parie's office, DNDA. Tonight, our friends Eric and Scot and their little dude, Isaac, will be coming by with some vittles.

Also, tonight Sofian will be meeting another set of his grandparents -- Tutu and Tomtom (aka, my Mom and her husband Tom). They'll be training up from Portland this afternoon, where they just moved to from Hawaii this week. (Yes, it is a slight step down from island paradise, but they've moved to a continuing care retirement community that's going to be a really great home for them -- plus, they're a lot closer now.)

Finally, here are a few pics from our walk around the neighborhood yesterday with me hanging on some of the playground equipment at the recently completed park just a block away from our house.

    

Twin Sons of Different Mothers (and Different Generations)

Compare and contrast: all-around tech guru and good pal Glenn on the left and Sofian on the right.

     

Glenn helped get me started on the path to freelancedom back in '99 when he and Jeff Carlson asked me to help out writing a book on Adobe GoLive, and he's been a good friend and helpful officemate (physically and virtually) ever since. He and his wife Lynn are expecting their second child soon, and you can check out occasional musings about his first son, Ben, at his blog (don't get scared away by the techy mumbo jumbo -- I usually just nod my head as well...).

[Also... the subject line comes from this album...]

[PS] Glenn and Lynn have gifted us with a number of helpful items (among them -- a book on recovering from C-sections, a meal delivery service), but I think we've found the most helpful of the lot: a CD of rain sounds. I encoded it into iTunes and transferred it to one of our iPods, then played it through the iCrib last night. (Below is an image of the iCrib uploaded by a customer to the Amazon product page, to give you an idea of what it looks like in action.) Everyone was lulled to a sound sleep by its somnambulant sounds.

Here's a Vid for Aunti Keri

Keri has wondered if she'd ever see Sofian awake, since he's been pretty sacked out on her two visits. Well, here he is, wide eyed and ready for his close-up.



I'm sure he'll be ready to play next time Keri comes around.

Parisian Living at the LemonDrop

Just finished a nice celebratory dinner of halibut poached in a French onion soup reduction and broiled aspargus (enjoyed to a soundtrack of chanson Francaise with the likes of Benabar and Sanseverino), with Sofian enjoying the swing for the first time while Mama and Papa ate.



Now I'm typing away with the little guy asleep on my stomach while lying on the sofa. I tried typing one handed, but that didn't work. Thankfully, I found a position that didn't disturb the sleeping Sofian and that allowed me full use of my typing skills. Here's a pic of me in this same position earlier today.



I know that a baby doesn't necessarily smile on purpose until a few weeks (maybe a couple of months), but Sofian's facial muscles have been trying out some smiles the last couple of days, and they look quite cute and jolly. But as Sofian's third grandmother Annakay (who will be going by the nom de plume of Ama) told Parie, just about everything a newborn does is cute -- and even when he goes into his Senor Scrunchy face, he gives us a few smiles. (BTW, I'm going to be adding a name glossary to the blog at some point in the near future so everyone can keep track of who Tutu, Mamalama, and TomTom are.)



Got a late start to the morning due to a little more fussiness overnight from the little guy. We then got ourselves wrapped up in some homestead clean-up and attampts at updating the bedroom, but that will have to wait a day or so as we wait for the pieces of the Ikea furniture to outgas themselves in the shed.

We also paid a visit to Doctor Guerra (Mama and Papa's doctor) for a quick check on something regarding Parie (seems to be fading out, so no worries -- but we've got a prescription as backup). We brought Sofian in to say hi, and Doc G. was quite impressed that our little rocker was wearing a CBGB's onesie (thanks, Aunt Kitty). We also got some good news that he and his med assistant Valerie will be moving offices to the Swedish family practice here in West Seattle. We'll be seeing Doctor Weiss (Sofian's doc) next week for a 2-week check-up.



A few other photos from the day. Here's Mama putting the new sling to use while putting away dishes from the dishwasher.



And an afternoon tea for Sofian (with Nip looking on):



Well, since the boy is still snoozing in this position, I'll sign off so I can do some research for an Amazon blog post. Au revoir.

Not Much to Report

And no new pics. We had an easy going morning spent with Mamalama before she headed back home to Raleigh. She was very sad to leave Sofian and is looking forward to finding a reason to come back to visit him. Speaking of which, we're going to be chatting with folks at the church where Parie and I got married -- All Pilgrims -- to concoct a dedication/naming ceremony for a weekend hopefully in early May. We'll keep you up to date on the progress on that.

After dropping Mamalama off at SeaTac, I headed over to Ikea to find a new bedside table for Parie (I love any excuse to head over to Ikea). When I got home, it seems that Sofian had been gorging on breastmilk just about the entire time I was out (erasing the plans for a nap for the two of them). Seems he might be going through a growth spurt.

Seattle had an absolutely lovely spring day today, and we took a short walk up the block with Sofian strapped to me in the new sling we got yesterday and Parie setting a slow and steady pace (as she's still recovering from the C-section). I was a little dubious about the whole sling thing, thinking that it might be a little hippy dippy. But actually, it was quite comfy and Sofian fell right asleep against my chest. And hey -- there's nothing wrong with hippy dippy!

When we got back, the little guy was still sacked out, so we sat in the rocker with him in my lap -- we read all about Scooter Libby and how lies can get you into trouble -- while Mama finally found some nap time.

Tomorrow I'll take a video tour of the Sofian set-up in our room and get some pics with the sling.

One Week Old

Sofian celebrated his one-week birthday by giving his parents an amazing amount of sleep last night -- a nearly 5-hour stretch followed by another 2 hours. After a slow morning of pancakes (if it's Saturday at the LemonDrop, it's Pancake Saturday!), we rousted ourselves to head over to Birth and Beyond to make a few purchases, including some more cloth diapers to try and a wipes warmer purchased by Mamalama (who's very concerned about Sofian's tushy).

After we got back, Linda chased us into the bedroom while she cleaned the rest of the house (thanks Mamalama!!!), and Sofian was quite alert and checking us out.







Our pal Keri is coming over with dinner in just a few minutes, so I gotta fly for now.

Check out Sofian at the Amazon Blog

Typed out a couple of gadgety/techno thoughts regarding our labor for one of my blog writing gigs at Amazon Current.

Slow Day at the LD

Not too much to post about (save for the fact that Parie seems to have been hit by some identity theft and I can't get ahold of Palm customer service about my broken Treo -- which is why if you've called my cell phone, I haven't responded to you). Well, I guess we have been kinda busy trying to figger that stuff out, but Sofian has been blissfully unaware of that and has been sleeping quite a bit today.

Here I am reading up on what to expect in the coming months with Sofian taking a nap on my chest:



I think it was our friend Eric Liljegren who noted that the smell of a baby is like crack -- you can't get enough of it and you are always trying to seek it out. I'm finally understanding what he was talking about, and I think I'm becoming addicted to it. Here's another view of Señor Sleepyhead:



And here's Señor Sleepyhead with his cute little breathing (and a cameo by Nip):

Sweet Sofian Blue Eyes

When we headed out of the house last Friday on our way to the hospital, I flipped on the CD player in the car and it started up with "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" from the original Crosby, Stills and Nash album. It was a great soundtrack to our quick journey from West Seattle to Swedish Hospital on First Hill, and it's been running through my head ever since. Lyrically, it's perhaps the most applicable song, but the refrain of "I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are" is what keeps playing on my internal soundtrack. That's what I hope to impart to my son as we grow together over the years, and I hope he takes it to heart.

Anyhoo, here's the CSN performance of the song at Woodstock, if you need a refresher:



Sofian currently has piercing dark blue eyes, but I guess all babies do at this stage. We're very curious to see what hue they turn into.

Milkbomb Is OK!

One of my old Amazon officemates (and the man who actually hired me into the asylum), Steve O'Neil, has started a great kidswear line called Milkbomb (I noted this on my Cracks blog last fall), and he recently got some great press from the celeb-aholic mag, OK!



We've got a couple of Milkbomb onesies, and I'm looking forward to modeling them on Sofian.

Hup Sofian Hup

As many of you may know, Sofian's Papa has a weakness for anything orange (see his digital camera, Treo cell phone, baby monitor, and Holland soccer jerseys for confirmation -- by the by, the title of the post comes from a cheer for the Holland soccer team). Grandma Mamalama (that would be Parie's Mom) indulged Agen with a bounty of wonderful orange-hued onesies and other clothing options. Here's a onesie and pants combo from Positively Organic, and Sofian's Papa thinks it's quite fab indeed.



And here are his monkey toes.



Finally, here's a message for Karl Rove and his gang of loyal Bushies:

Bath Time

Here's Sofian's first sponge bath at home.







Unfortunately, I grabbed the wrong towel for him to dry off in -- we've got a lovely towel from his Grandmother Tutu (aka, my Mom) with a very cute needlepoint illustration. Not to worry, Tutu, that'll be coming out next.

Photos for the Day

First up is getting Sofian ready for his first doctor's visit, which became quite the ordeal.



The doc's office asked us to get there a half-hour early for paperwork, and if I'd been a bit more alert yesterday, I would have asked them if that was really necessary. It wasn't. We finished his minimal paperwork in about 4 minutes (during which I duly noted that he's single). We waited 45 minutes before Mama and Papa started melting down and were rescued by the doc's assistants. Sofian also had to get tested for jaundice, which necessitated pricking his heel for blood. Unfortunately, he wasn't much of a bleeder, and it took about a half-hour for the technician to squeeze enough blood from his foot. Oy vey.

Last night we got visited by Anne and Eric and their girls Mari and Clara. They've been so helpful during the entire pregnancy. They brought over some food for us (a very wonderful pasta concoction with goat cheese, golden raisins, spinach, and pine nuts -- as well as a really nice bottle of Spanish wine). Anne's also been coordinating with other folks to bring food over, and Tina and Ryan are the providers of tonight's meal (which is in the oven). Here's Eric holding Lil' F (his nom de plume over at Cracks) with Mari voguing for the camera.



Finally, here's a very proud Mamalama with Nip hanging out:



Linda will be staying with us through the weekend, and she's been quite helpful in allowing us some nap time this afternoon.

Sofian's First YouTube

With Mamalama working on her swaddle schwerve.

We're Home

Finally got released by the hospital around 8pm on Monday night and the three of us spent a pretty decent night together back at the LemonDrop. Yes, it wasn't the most restful night for Mama and Papa, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Here's the little guy in his co-sleeper crib, which is set up on my side for now to allow Parie more room to move as she recovers from the C-section.



And here we are this morning, joined for breakfast by our cat Wompus. (Our other cat, Nip, is a bit more wary of the little guy for now.)



Finally, here's Parie's Mom, Linda (who we're calling Mamalama), soothing Sofian at the hospital yesterday:

Professional-Like Photos

Our pals Jeff and Kim stopped by for some paparazzi time with Sofian, and they caught some great photos. Be sure to click through to the one of Sofian's hair -- it's the best photo caught yet of his color.

Sofian James Harley Hines

Well, Sofian is just about 24 hours old and he's doing pretty well -- seems to be latching onto Parie for nourishment fairly well, has a good set of lungs but can also be calmed down pretty easily, and is a super meconium pooper. For those of you who didn't get my email of welcome, here's a bit of a recap:

The Name

We actually have had the name selected for quite some time, but it took all our stamina (well, I should say it took mine - Parie's as cool as a cucumber) not to reveal the name ahead of time to everyone. The name came out of our search for names for both sexes, with Sofia selected for a girl and Ian selected for a boy. And we just started referring to the bun in the oven as Sof-Ian before we knew for sure he was a he. But we found that we'd come to like that mashed up name, so we hunted around to see if Sofian was really a name. It is, and it's found in several cultures including French (where it means wisdom; we also found a couple of soccer players and musicians with the name), Arabic (where it means devoted), and Islamic/Bangladeshi (where it means sandstorm; I originally thought this was a Hindi translation, but I'm still looking for just the right sourcing on this). His two middle names come out of our family histories: James was Parie's father and Harley was the brother of Agen's Grandmother (Babe).

Long Day

It was a hard slog of a labor. Parie's water broke around 8:30pm on Friday, after which we went to the hospital and found out we'd not be sent home (due to the possibility of infection with the breaking of the amniotic fluids). Parie worked hard with very concerted contractions until about 5am, when we found out she was only dillated 5cm. That was a little heartbreaking, so we ordered up an epidural for her, which slowed things down for a bit -- but provided us with some rest. We were joined by our good friend Anne Gienapp as our doula, and Parie's Mom (Linda, aka Old Fogey over at Cracks in the Facade) made it in from Raleigh with her husband John well in time for the birth.

Sofian kept on moving and pushing, but it was finally determined after 5pm on Saturday that Parie was going to need a C-section, which was definitely disheartening for all the work we put in. Unfortunately, our usual doctor, Dr. Mary Weiss, was out of town during all this, but we were in the capable arms of one of the other doctors from the practice. She kept working with us to try to go with the vaginal birth. However, no matter how much Sofian push and twisted himself, he just couldn't make it those last few inches.

In the end, it went very well (I'll never get the image of the little guy being manhandled out of my wife's stomach) and we're glad that it brought everything to finality -- and to bringing Sofian to the world. I got to hold him and introduce him to Parie as she was stitched up after the procedure. I couldn't stop crying -- it really was the most momentous day of my life (second only to the day that Parie and I got married).

Here I am getting suited and booted.



And here's Sofian just moments after making his debut.



For those of you making wagers, the official weight is 7 pounds, 5.4 ounces. He was also 19.5 inches long.



Here I am bringing him back to the room to get ready for Mom (and to meet Anne and Linda).



He's got a good head of hair (which is a reddish brown -- a good amalgem of mine and Parie's).



Getting a moment's rest.



Writing his first blog post (with his papa helping out on the keyboard).



Today we were visited by Anne and her husband Eric and two girls Mari and Clara, who've been very excited to meet our little guy. We were presented a postcard by Mari that has an American flag on the front with the words "Another American for Peace" highlighted into the flag, and Sofian's quite happy to help out the cause. I wish he was just a few days older so that we could go to one of the anti-Iraq War protest marches going on tomorrow here in Seattle. But Sofian is quite excited about seeing Attorney General Gonzo getting frog-marched out of DC (he told me that this morning as we surveyed by RSS reader hoping to find out that he'd finally resigned).

We're still running slow/late on contacting folks via the phone, as cell phones aren't allowed in the hospital room and we forgot to get a calling card (a situation that's been remedied). It also hasn't helped that my Palm Treo 680 crashed out the evening Parie was going into labor, but that's another tetchy/techy rant for another time. We're also still pretty pooped, so we'll be getting on the horn in the next day or so to say hi to folks and respond to those who've called.

We also got some great replies to our email from yesterday, including

"Please make sure the wee man is a Chelsea fan." - Andrew McCombie (already working on that on, AC)

"Smart Kid.........wish he was in Congress already!!!" - Bob Kinney

"Welcome Sofian JH Hines, sounds like an author's name if I ever heard of one." - DGA in Brussels

"Thanks for restoring my faith that good, smart, compassionate people are also reproducing." - Creighton

That's all for now. Much more to come...

Health Update

The Plague is still a pox upon this house, but hopefully we're turning the corner into Wellville. Parie started taking some antibiotics this weekend, and while she's been coughing so much as to have her ribs hurt when she chortles, the infection seems to be subsiding a bit.

Went in to see Dr. Weiss (our baby doc) this morning and while we waited, I was given a golden ticket to see Dr. Guerra (our regular doc), whose schedule had previously been booked. He hooked me up with some drugs and an enhaler for my cough, so hopefully that will do the trick. But as per usual, my office visit with Dr. G was less about medicine and more filled with conversation about Chelsea FC, blogging, and twee music -- a genre I had not heard named before. Here's hoping he makes the Top 296 list next year!

Parie's been napping most of the afternoon. Here's to good health all 'round.