big and little

My dad is so in love with Peter it's heartbreaking. When we met my parents and sister at the airport yesterday, it was my father who was eagerly awaiting a chance to hold his new grandson, and that excitement continues - like a little kid who has just received the most awesome, exciting, and completely adorable toy ever, and who just doesn't want to put said toy down.

a 5,000 mile hello

Peter wanted to tell his Gram and Pop hello, and he hopes they're enjoying their trip in Ireland!

a very good boy

I want to make this point very clear: Peter is a very good baby. To wit:

He sleeps well. For the past two weeks, he's given us 6 hour stretches at night. For the most part, he goes down very easily as well, and if he DOESN'T go down easily, he's just wide awake , not fussy. When he wakes to eat at night, he doesn't cry or scream, but simply sits in his bassinet, grunting away, until someone comes to pick him up. In fact, he's only flat-out cried at night only two or three times (one of which, you may recall, involved nuking Russians).

He eats well. He'll take a bottle from Kevin just as greedily as he'll take milk from me. (My favorite noise he makes, by far, are these hungry, excited grunts that he makes when he is "lowered into position.") He's really good about self-managing his intake as well, which means that, while he does spit up, he doesn't do so often.

He's a really happy boy. It's easy to get him to break into a smile, or to distract him away from fussing. He loves people as well; I'm really kind of proud of how willing he is to hang out in a stranger's arms. He's also incredibly tolerant of his parents' sad attempts at parenting.

He's possibly the most adorable baby ever created, garnering the attention and devotion of all who meet him. Beware the powers of this baby, lest you be enslaved by his charms.

two months down...

Since my parents and younger sister are coming into town tomorrow, Peter's proper 2-month birthday, I am posting some updates today...

- Two nights do not a trend make. Yes, Peter gave us two blissful nights of 7+ hours of sleep, but he went right back to his around-3 a.m. feeding last night. As Kevin rightly pointed out, he DOES sleep for 6 hours at a time, and really, one late-night (nay, early-morning) feeding is really quite manageable.

- Peter had an enjoyable, fuss-free dinner out last night with Kevin's officemate and wife. As they are expecting a baby boy of their own in late August, I think they were quite happy to see how good babies can be. (And they could be naturals themselves; Kevin's officemate was quick to pick up Peter's "complaining" cry from his "aah! help urgently needed!" cry.) (They related a cautionary tale, and tried to convince Kevin to move to Toronto.)

- Peter's really started drooling in full effect. It's startling just how much slobber he can generate. This morning, the front of his onesie was so thoroughly drenched I thought for sure that he'd spit up...but no, he'd just slimed all over himself.

- As a result of a case of cradle cap (or, cradle crap as it's called around here), he's starting to lose his newborn hair. Sigh. It was a good run, kiddo.

milk drunk

Feeding Peter is one of the most satisfying experiences I think I've ever had, if only because it's one of the most satisfying experiences he's ever had.

Dainty eater.

Milk drunk.

Post-lunch nap.

dreamland

Peter sleeps with the fishes...and the tortoise, and the shark.

Last night was an interesting one. First, we tried to go to the drive-in for Peter's first movie, but he was...passionately uninterested...in getting into his carseat. Next, Peter was also uninterested in what had become his "normal" bedtime zone, which is 8:30 to 9 p.m. He was, as we like to call it, Baby Alive (a state of almost eerie alertness), mixed in with some unusually persistent fussiness to boot. Thus, we had a pretty unpleasant and late bedtime of around 10:30.

Finally, Peter woke at 6 a.m.

Yep. That's 7.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep from our little tiger. We tried to recreate the rich alchemy that lead to this little miracle tonight - was it the weak swaddle? The fussy last feeding? Uncle Shaq on TV? Only time will tell if last night was a fluke or if it was for real. I'm suspecting fluke, if only because I don't want to get my hopes up.

The only thing that would have made last night even more dream-tastic is if I'd actually been asleep the entire time. Alas, my internal clock forced me awake at 3 a.m. (typical feeding time), and then again at 4 and 5 a.m. I have a feeling I'll be much more prepared to sleep through the night along with Peter tonight, though.

videoland

A few videos of our favorite baby:

"Hickies"

We found a strange red mark on Peter's arm the other day, and weren't sure how it got there...until we realized he was giving himself some serious hickies. The kid's a lover, all right. In these videos, you can see how seriously he's sucking his arm.





"Fishy Kisses" - or, "how Peter might already be a bit of a Drama King"

Here, Peter's making out with his fish, Monterey. Note how he freaks out whenever we take the fish away...although, it's what we're learning is his "fake freak-out,"* especially evidenced in his second freak-out. (Note how he flashes a smile at the end, like he knows he's just playing his parents for suckers.)

*"Fake freak-out" is characterized by an adorable pouty-frown, and a few dissatisfied grunts. I'm pretty sure it's totally fake, because if we ignore it, it usually goes away. Lately, Peter's been giving Kevin his fake freak-out pretty regularly...like, whenever Kevin looks at him, or whenever Kevin comes over to play with the two of us. It's sad. But funny.



"I Dream of Moro"

Here, Peter demonstrates why swaddling is so helpful - it's a Moro reflex in the middle of otherewise peaceful sleep. In this example, he falls back to sleep. Usually, he wakes up screaming.

sitting pretty

We love to sit with Peter resting against our legs, facing us. (He likes it too - it's his "poopin' position.")

In recent days, though, Peter's been trying to sit up on his own from this position. He's not strong enough to do it yet (come on! he's only 8 weeks old!), but it made us think that he might be ready for his infant seat.

Peter shares his ride with San Jose.

Peter thinks his seat is a car - he's using the pummel as a steering wheel.

His neck control isn't exactly at the place where we could use the seat for more than a few minutes at a time - Peter will hold up his head only when he wants to, thankyouverymuch - but he seemed to enjoy a bit of big-boy sitting.

static cling

So, Dr. Harvey Karp tells us that babies like white noise, because apparently it's pretty noisy in the womb, what with all of the wushing blood and digestion and who knows what else.

And, since KJ and I are hopelessly cheap when it comes to things like this, we decided to forgo any fancy sound machine and just tune the radio to static.

For the first week or so, we had it tuned just off of a bizarro NPR station (which is a lot better than KQED), so I would wake in the middle of the night to Carl Kasell talking to me, or Michael Krasny kind of telling me what would be on that day's Forum.

Then, we somehow lost that station, only to have it replaced by a station that played popular indie rock and weird, crappy mid 90's music. Think Death Cab for Cutie followed up by the Goo Goo Dolls. It might be newborn-baby-sleep-deprivation speaking, but I kind of remember having a Decemberists singalong with Kevin. Then again, this really sounds like a bad party I might have attended.

Next came a pretty solidly static-y station, which was nice except for the night it mutated into some kind of semi-air raid siren. This little bit of audible pleasure occurred just as an unusually fussy baby was having his diaper changed. It turns out he was fussy because, in the moment it took me to find the "off" button on the stereo, Peter had managed to pee all over his face. Yeah, I'd be a little fussy too if I thought the Russians were nuking us and I had just peed in my eyeballs. Poor kid.

For about an hour we experienced the static station that played really bad jazz. Not even Peter appreciated that one.

Now, the station is pretty solidly fuzz. And it works magic, in ways I never would have anticipated. And...it's free!

personality

Peter's developing more and more of a personality, as evidenced by these latest funny faces: