Our Little Boy Gets Bigger...

The 2-month check-up report:
ELEVEN POUNDS THREE OUNCES!!
and 22 inches long!

Each cheek weighs one pound.

I'd say our little "peanut" has come a long way from 5 lbs. 13 ounces, 18 inches.

I guess it wasn't my imagination that he really was getting bigger, or the laundry shrinking his clothes...

I also survived him getting his shots :(
and he did fine, too.

That's all for now.
Don't worry, I'm sure we'll get plenty of priceless Christmas pictures to share.
NNW

Love Those Cheeks

This picture taken with the DaddyCam. I wonder if Webber will have the same impressive wingspan that his dad does.
I can't resist the bath pictures. That's the primary reason Webber gets a bath around here. Why else would we strip him down and put him in a bin of water in this freezing house? Just kidding - Daddy lets us turn the heat up to 68 for bath time.

And finally, a little comparison to how Webber fits into the outfit he wore home from the hospital. Here he his featured in it with Aunt Punchy at 10 days old.







And here he is, busting out of the seams (close enough), at one day shy of 2 months. (click pictures to enlarge)








Good work, Webber!
NNW

Just like the Old Days

WE LOVE WALKS.

It had been a while since I'd taken a self-portrait of my side-view. It's a different look than the belly pics, isn't it? I'm more top-heavy these days, on account of carrying our son in the Baby Bjorn, a device that I own thanks to my sister Emi.


Yes, Webber is inside my coat. Plus a few other layers. I'm set on making this arrangement work as long as my coat is big enough to zip and snap the bottom half shut.

I've determined that The Boy has now grown big enough to fit into the Bjorn, which is just a nice variety from the sling. This device is the new mutual best friend of Webber's and mine. Not only does it mean that we can get out of this lovely box we call our home and get some fresh air together, but it means that we can also move around the lovely box together more easily, and allow me to do really exciting things with two hands like I used to, like: unload the dishwasher (oooh!), fold laundry (ahhh!), and sweep up the cat hair (okay, I tried it once).

It also comes in handy when the little man wants to be walked around just for the sake of walking around and my arms would otherwise fall off from walking around for the sheer amount of time that he would like me to walk him around. Around the dining room table. Into the kitchen. Out of the kitchen. There's a whole downstairs circuit, not to be confused with the upstairs circuit. And for extra points, you can connect the two circuits and walk up and down our creaky stairs and burn a few extra calories that have been sneaking onto your thighs during the rest of your time that is spent sitting and feeding. Okay, maybe those are my thighs, not yours.

We Bjorned (yes, I'm making it a verb) around the downstairs circuit for quite a while the other night, or should I say morning, when Webber informed me that instead of dutifully going back to sleep after his 2am feeding, he would like to remain WIDE awake, and that he wanted, surprise surprise, to be walked around. I title the pictures below, "Greetings from 4:29am". It's a splendid time of day.
















And a big blog high five to anyone who can tell me how many calories are burned per hour of chair-rocking. WHILE breastfeeding, no less. AND holding a magazine.

Are you sensing a little cabin fever? Well I hope so, because I'm pleased to have had the appropriate amount of time available to paint the picture. This blog entry has been brought to you with the help of our friend the Boppy: another wonderful device that lets you type with two hands like you used to in the old days. Okay, those are my two hands and my old days. As long as he is content to feed and sleep while laying on the Boppy, and can hold off on his need to be walked around for just a little longer, Mommy can blog.

This belated segue from the cabin-fever topic is that Mommy and Daddy had their first legitimate date night last weekend.

Okay, it was for Daddy's company's annual holiday party at the Elks Lodge...

But how often do you have a date night when the meal and one drink, with the redemption of your drink ticket, is paid for?

It was all I could do to refrain from writing with lipstick on my forehead, "MOMMY'S FIRST NIGHT OUT SINCE THE BIRTH OF HER LOVELY SON. HE IS 7 WEEKS 2 DAYS OLD. NO, I DIDN'T BRING PICTURES. NO, HE'S NOT SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT YET. NOW THEN, WHAT TOPIC OF ADULT CONVERSATION WOULD YOU LIKE TO ENGAGE IN WITH ME? TRUST ME, NO TOPIC IS TOO DULL. I REPEAT, THIS IS MOMMY'S FIRST NIGHT OUT." I decided against it. Even with my forehead, there just wasn't enough room.

I never knew the Elks Lodge could be such a magical place. Filled with so many adults. Who clean themselves after they go to bathroom. And do not spit up on your shoulder. Although, they will walk away from you if you sing Christmas carols or the Name Game song to them. Free-thinkers, those adults.

And I was able to talk to, and dance with, my husband while neither of us were on Walk-With- or Dance-With-Webber-Duty. He is a charming man. He even treated me to my second glass of wine - the one that he did not have a drink ticket for.

I pumped milk for 2 weeks in preparation for the night out. There is now a very modest stash of this Ice Freedom in our freezer. But I'm still holding out on using it for frivolous things like grocery shopping without The Boy, or going to see a movie without The Boy. I'm saving it up for our second adult night out at a holiday party tomorrow night.

A big thanks goes out to my dad for sitting/walking around with Webber last week so that I could walk in town to get a hair cut. I didn't care how it came out, it was the best hair cut I ever got. I think I even skipped a little bit on the way home. That is, until I realized, an hour after leaving my house, that I forgot to bring my cell phone with me. YIKES. I guess I'm a little new at this being-separated-from-my-son thing.

Thanks to my mom and Steve for babysitting last weekend - thanks to our Freedom in a Bottle, she made it through the evening unscathed by any Webber hickeys. And thanks in advance to Nate's parents for tomorrow night. I'll try to remember to bring the cell phone. I'm still getting used to how weird it feels to tell my parents to "help themselves to anything in the fridge; here's what he sleeps in; we think we'll be home by 11pm."

Okay, his marathon nap has ended...
It's been fun, everyone.

And really, there are many moments of this parenthood thing that are truly fun, too. It gets more and more fun with every new fat roll that Webber grows, and every new facial expression that he makes, enhanced by his steadily growing jowls.

Nicky, Nate and Webber

I know, I know...

...It's been a painfully long time since the last posting. I'm happy to report that Webber successfully passed his driver's test last week.

So although this first picture is rather revealing, it was the best one to show off his thigh rolls, which we're very proud of. A sign of determined eating!











The next one was taken before we left to attend his second craft fair of the season - he loves them!







One of the happy family...





And one that looks like he crashed one of mommy and daddy's college parties. After his bath, of course.
Nicky, Nate and Webber
7 weeks 1 day

Better Late Than Never

This blog material is over a week old, but it's too good to leave undocumented for reading and viewing enjoyment.

Side note - the blog formatting is being wierd and doesn't reflect line spaces, etc. and I don't have the time or energy to look into it further... so I hope you can muddle through this bare-bones entry...

The background:
I hadn't started pumping milk yet, and don't have formula, so I am IT when Webber gets hungry. We haven't used pacifiers yet - we just let him suck on our pinky finger to tide him over if his food is not ready RIGHT when he wants it.

My mom was over last week helping out, and I wanted to have our car seat checked at the safety check that happens once a month. I hadn't considered anything besides taking Webber with me, since we're, as I've previously stated, joined at my nip. But since he was sleeping, my mom suggested that we just go, and she could stay behind with sweet slumbering Webber. It was less than 3 miles away, and I calculated that we had another hour or so of him sleeping, based on history. I decided this plan would be okay, left my cell number and took off.

I was gone for maybe 45 minutes, checking my cell phone every 5, surprised to see that yes, my battery was still working, and no, there were no missed calls. All must have been fine.

Meanwhile, Webber threw history to the wind and woke up after just a little bit. When he wakes up, he's ready to eat. Mom changed his diaper, saw that he was hungry, and tried the pinky finger, only to be rejected due to fingernails longer than he's used to. She reasoned not calling me by figuring that I'd be home "any minute". So she let him do what my sisters and I used to do, I guess, which is to suck on her chin. Well, 15 minutes later, I arrived home to see him fastened to her face, with her saying, "I think he's ready for you!"

I must state that this blog really and truly was not created to spread laughs over the internet at my dear mother's expense. And I thank her for allowing us to capture this spectacle on film.

And now without further ado, click here for the video.

For those of you who can't open the video, this is the short version:
And now some pictures from the past week.
































Life is good.

Nicky, Nate and Webber
6 weeks old in 2 days

p.s. - I started pumping today.

Laundry Day

Here is Webber looking particularly like a "little peanut" as he has been called many times so far.

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And here is his reaction of me telling him that he will be required to wear a teenage-sized version of this orange and purple outfit to his first day of high school.








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- Nicky Nate and Mr. One-Month-Old Webber

Good Times with The WebMan

A glimpse into the sling...
I am all about the walks these days. Any day now, the weather is supposed to start being a bit more November-in-Maine-like, so I've been stocking up on walks with "The WebMan," as Uncle Seth calls him. He loves the sling - falls right asleep as soon as we get moving. Actually, I think he's a sleep talker, because he makes the cutest noises while we walk.

Musings:
The other day I had one of the songs from Webber's RainForest Swing stuck in my head. It's set up in the kitchen, where he can hang out so that I can make myself breakfast. I mistakenly thought you had to have a toddler to start getting children's' songs stuck in your head.

Breastfeeding entails a lot of quality time together. We're attached at my nip, if you will. Several hours a day. I vacillate between trying to multi-task during these times, and trying to just be zen about it and enjoy his cuteness. Some of his most adorable sounds, expressions, and movements happen when he's nursing. Nonetheless, mommy needs to eat, too. Thus the running list of food items that I have dropped on my son so far: popcorn, trail mix, mashed potatoes, and the World's Most Perfect Food, Muddy Buddies.

I need to send a way overdue shout out to Nate's sister Aunt Kara who stayed with us for Webber's first 2 weeks. She's actually a post-partum doula in San Francisco, so she makes a living out of spoiling new mothers by doing their laundry, dishes, errands, and holding the baby while they indulge in things like showers and e-mail so they can type with two hands unlike what I'm doing now. She also provides lactation counseling and is a wealth of knowledge concerning all things new baby and new parents.
She gave us a gift that made me laugh harder than I laugh at America's Home Videos: a Mini Safe Baby Handling Kit. I was, surprise surprise, nursing Webber while reading the book, and am still amazed that he stayed attached despite my vigorous laughing.

All right, I'm going to stop multi-tasking and go park it in front of the TV while The WebMan finishes Dinner #5.

Nicky, Nate and Webber

Saturday Night Cards...

... with a twist.
I like this next picture because it features the Boppy.
Nicky, Nate and Webber

Grins, Hiccups, and Webber's First Bath, oh my

Here is the result of what I thought were a couple more test runs with our new camcorder.

Really though, I think Nate just wanted an excuse to broadcast a Fleetwood Mac song on You Tube.

Webber's First Bath (this was 2 weeks ago, by the way) went successfully thanks to Aunt Kara.
Successful meaning, Webber got clean. Not that he liked the process. A valuable discovery since then: he LOVES the shower.

Enjoy-
Nicky, Nate and Webber

U Can't Touch This

At this early stage, it's a whole lot of "The Boy" (as Nate calls him) eating, sleeping, and pooping. And peeing.

And with all those fluids circulating, there's bound to be leakage. He's kind of in between premie and newborn sized diapers. Most of his newborn sized clothes are still too big. So, we've had some emergency shopping trips by Grammie Debbie and Aunt Punchy for a few pieces of premie clothes to tide him over. But frequent leakage + limited wardrobe = frequent laundry days. In explaining this predicament to my mom, bless her, she offered to make him some pants, which were the top priority need of the moment. She used a pattern she had for sizes Premie - 24 months. She whipped up 2 over night, with 3 more pairs to follow a few days later.

Did she measure him? Why bother - how much variation could there be to patterns for premie pants?

Thus, the birth of Webber's "Hammer Pants", named after the unfortunately dressed rapper of the 90s, M.C. Hammer.

The purple fleece ones are his most Hammerific, on account of their extra bulk.

I will say again, bless my mom. It was just an unfortunately sized pattern.

Too bad he couldn't show us some dance moves while modeling the Hammer Pants. Maybe when he gets older.

Nicky, Nate and Webber