Evan in the City

We went up to the city last night to have dinner with a friend of mine from college and her husband and son while they were in town for a conference. Most people we've told about this seem to think we where being fairly ambitious given that Evan is barely a month old, but we figured he's pretty portable and so is his feeding system, so why not give it a shot?

Overall everything went pretty well and we had a very nice evening. Evan was awake and alert almost the entire evening from the time we got on BART in Fremont until we got back on the train to come home in San Francisco, almost 5 hours in total. Unfortunately, sometime in the middle of dinner he got overloaded (there were a lot of new things to take in for such a little guy!), and we had our first extended meltdown experience. It could have been worse - it's not like he was screaming at the top of his lungs the entire time - but it wasn't exactly pleasant either. Steph and I had to take turns walking him around the restaurant looking at lights (he loves lights), particularly by the bathrooms in back. Fortunately they had a very nice postcard rack back there, and the postcards had lots of text.

There was an upside to all of this, though... Evan was so tired from the evening that he slept through the night for the first time! He passed out when we got to the BART station in the city a little after 11, and he stayed asleep until around 7 o'clock the next morning. Steph actually woke up in a minor panic at 6:30 because she hadn't been woken up in the middle of the night, but a quick check confirmed that he was indeed still breathing (I heard him startle on the baby monitor when she opened the door to his room). The fact that we just left him in his car seat on the floor of his room when we got home (rule #1 of parenthood: don't disturb a sleeping baby) may have helped, too -- babies seem to love car seats. I don't know if the two hours of crying were worth it or not, but it sure was nice for Steph to get a full night's sleep.

I brought the camera, but never took it out of my pocket (it was dark anyway), so unfortunately there are no pictures. Evan and I did get our picture taken by a guy from the bar next door (the restaurant and bar shared bathrooms) on his iPhone while we were walking around (due to the aforementioned fussiness), but I didn't think to have him email it to me at the time. I have an ethical problem with spending money on a cell phone (especially $500!), especially if it's made by Apple (you wouldn't say I'm biased, would you?), but it did look pretty damn cool.

I'm Awake Now

This last week Evan is really starting to become aware of the world around him. He is alert for longer periods during the day, he follows faces around some, he stares at toys if you hang them in front of him and even bats at them somewhat intentionally. It makes him much more fun.

I took a video of him hanging out in his swingy chair this morning where he swats at one of the pooh bear dolls hanging over him and looks at the others. Unfortunately (from a cinematographic perspective) he realizes I'm there part way through and then he just stares at me the rest of the time. That's one of the risks you take working with baby actors:

Just Another Couple of Minutes

Most of our "sleeping with..." pictures involve the baby sleeping with Stephanie. That's partly because Steph naps a lot more often than me (I don't nap very well... you could say I'm not very nappy), and partly because I'm more inclined to take stupid pictures of people sleeping.

After feeding Evan one morning Steph brought him into our bedroom so I could watch him for a bit while she took a shower. We were both pretty tired, though, me because I hadn't really woken up yet and Evan presumably because he was freshly topped off with a vast quantity of milk. So we decided to sleep for a little while longer before we had to get up and walk the dog, and Steph finally got our first "sleeping with Dad" picture:

Sparkle Magic

Here is Evan in one of his new outfits from our cousins Ben and Alexia:

He likes this one because he feels it makes him look a little older (or at least more mature) owing to its lack of pastel colors. What's really spectacular about it is that it came wrapped in tissue paper with glitter on it, and some of the glitter rubbed off on the outfit! We were hoping that some of it might sparkle with the flash, but unfortunately it didn't work out, so you'll just have to take my word for it. We may consider this his first piece of baby bling.

Here's another picture that's almost the same, but I'm including it anyway because I love the face Evan is making:

I don't remember exactly what was going on, but I think this is one of his "push hard" faces. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out what he's pushing.

A Real Bath... Sort Of

Evan's umbilical cord stump is gone, thanks to our last visit to the pediatrician, and his belly button has healed enough that we thought it was time to try his first real bath. Here he is in his baby bath (still on the kitchen counter):

Since he can't sit up on his own yet we had to keep him on an incline and we couldn't fill the water too high (or maybe we just didn't want to, figuring that the higher the water got the easier it would be for him to splash it out). The result of this is that he basically got another sponge bath, just next to the sink instead of over it.

Evan Rolls Over

During his Tummy Time this afternoon Evan rolled over from his front to his back for the first time! And we caught it on video:

OK, so this video doesn't really show his first time, it's actually his third (it's not like we follow the kid around with a camera everywhere we go). In my opinion that makes it all the more impressive, though -- this is a reproducible feat! When he did it the first time I was surprised, although he's come close before. I called Steph in so she could share in our celebration, and he did it again. We both agreed that we should push our luck and try to record him, and he did it a third time! Then he seemed to get pissed off that every time he worked hard to get onto his back we flipped him over again, so that was the end of Tummy Time for the day.

My Baby Outfit

We were going through a new shipment of hand-me-down clothes (thanks Shelley and Bryan -- he's pretty much grown out of all of the "Newborn" clothes, and half the 0-3 month ones as well) this weekend, and for some reason Steph thought this image of me with one of the onesies was hilarious:

Something about how it would look if I was wearing a onesie. I can't explain it.

Pacifier, Part II

This video shows what happens most of the time when you try to give Evan a non-finger pacifier:

Once or twice he thought it was great, but most of the time he seems rather displeased with its non-nipply taste, let alone the fact that suck as hard as he may there's no milky treat to reward him for his trouble.

Baby Feet

We've been getting lots of questions as to what a baby's feet look like. I don't understand these questions - baby feet look just like adult feet, only smaller. Isn't that obvious?

Evidently Steph is sympathetic to these queries, though, and she took a few pictures of Evan's feet:

Here's a little more artsy one:

1-Month Old

Evan is one month old today! We didn't do anything particularly special to celebrate, but Steph did take this video of him making faces at her:

These are all pretty much variations on his "Can't you see I'm hungry, dammit?!" face.

Saaba Visits

Our friend Saaba drove down from Oakland to visit us today. I don't think it was a particularly hot day, but for some reason Evan consented to hanging around in just his diaper, which he usually doesn't like to do. Here's a picture of he and Saaba to prove it:

He's Official

Evan got his first government-issued mail today! He now officially exists.

Soon the credit card offers should start rolling in.

Pacifier

All the nursery nurses and lactation consultants we saw at the hospital all had their own little twists on breastfeeding and how to teach it. One thing they pretty much all had in common, though, was the opinion that you should avoid using bottles and pacifiers for the first several weeks if you can because of the fear of nipple confusion. Instead they say you should let the baby suck on one of your fingers, preferably the middle one, I guess because they (fingers) are a lot bigger than bottle nipples and you can put them in farther to better simulate how much nipple the baby is sucking on when breastfeeding.

Now, you can argue whether nipple confusion is real or not (some doctors don't buy it, apparently), but the couple of times we've tried giving Evan artificial nipples, either pacifiers or bottles, the reception has been lukewarm at best, but he pretty much always enjoys the chance to suck on a finger. Unless he's really hungry, of course, in which case he figures out pretty quick that the finger is not producing milk, and that makes him very angry. Fingers have another advantage over normal pacifiers... they don't get lost or fall on the floor.

Here's a picture of Evan sucking on a pacifier:

All that being said, the day Evan uses a normal pacifier for the first time will be a great day. After a few minutes of him sucking away your fingers start to hurt (I don't even want to think about what breastfeeding feels like). And when you're holding a baby in one hand, and having him suck on the other hand to keep him from crying, you're about as helpless as you can be. You can't even scratch your own nose!

War Paint

Evidently Evan has been preparing himself for battle recently:

I'm not sure who or what he's getting ready to fight with - pretty much everyone and everything in his life is doing their best to help him at this point - but since we don't let him play with finger paint yet I guess he feels scratching himself is the best way to look fierce.

Snuggling with Mom

There's nothing special about these pictures - just Evan snuggling with Steph, which happens a lot - but they're too cute not to post:

Sleepin' with Luce

We went to see an outdoor concert in Palo Alto today, featuring one of our favorite bands from the bay area, Luce. As it turns out the city of Palo Alto runs a summer program called the Twilight Concert Series at parks and street venues around the city, and these shows evidently are magnets for young families... like us.

Here's a picture of Steph and Evan at the show:

As you might be able to tell from the picture, Evan slept through the whole show. You can see that better in this video we took near the end. Try to pick out the little boy in blue about half way to the stage dancing his little heart out. He was going pretty much non-stop the whole hour and a half:

Aunt Megan Rides Again

Aunt Megan visited us again this weekend (at least we still have one family member within reasonable driving distance!), and to celebrate everyone went to sleep in a big pile on the couch as Goetsches are want to do:

Here's a better shot of just the boy:

I don't know what it is about it, but he really loves that touchdown pose. It's hard to get a picture of him sleeping on his back without his arms up. It must be his own version of the Goetsch Salute.

Also, while Meg was here we took Evan out on the town for his first dinner out! We went to one of our favorite restaurants in downtown San Jose, Hally K Ono. As usual the food was wonderful, Evan cooperated by sleeping the whole meal, and we had a very nice time. Unfortunately I forgot my camera again, so there are no pictures to document this milestone. Like I said, though, he was sleeping the whole time.

Bath Gnome

We gave Evan another sponge bath today, and we used one of his special baby bath towels this time. This hooded towel seemed like a great idea, but it turned out to not be phenomenally useful (no more so than a regular towel). Maybe if it was cold in the house this would matter more, but being a summer baby Evan getting cold does not usually seem to be one of our problems. It does make him look like some kind of gnome, though:

Diaper Days

We went to Diaper Days at Camera 7 Cinemas at the Pruneyard in Campbell on Friday to see Ratatouille. Twice a month Camera 7 shows lunchtime matinées where they don't turn the lights all the way down and kids are free, which they call Diaper Days. There's a corral of strollers outside, the theater is packed with moms and kids (and on the day we went, dads and grandparents as well), and someone is always crying or running in the aisles.

Because of the holiday week the movie was being shown on Friday instead of the normal Wednesday time, and evidently someone at the theater didn't get the memo. Between the extra parents who were taking the week off and the scheduling mix-up it was kind of a mad house, but we did get to see the movie, just an hour late. Here are a few pictures of Steph and Evan in the theater after the show was over:


Oh, and we loved the movie. If you liked any of Pixar's other movies I imagine you'll like Ratatouille. It was surprising how easy it was to pay attention to the film with all the distractions, but it seems we're already learning to ignore the cries of other people's kids in preference to those of our own. Fortunately he only wanted to eat once, and then he slept the rest of the time. I think we'll make it to Diaper Day again in the future.

Sumo Baby

Evan is developing an appreciation for athletes of all shapes and sizes, but being a child of the new millennium he is especially interested in activities that are outside the traditional bounds of what we would call sport. I've already discussed his affinity for competitive eating. His near-hyperactivity in the womb and early love of sudden, erratic limb movements imply he will be a natural at Dance Dance Revolution. And I'm not sure how it will be applicable in the future, but he seems eager to practice his spitting for distance and volume skills on a moment's notice.

Recent developments suggest that in addition to emerging "sports" Evan may also have an inherent affection for some of the most traditional athletics (although not necessarily of our culture). To wit, look at him practice his form for sumo:

I may try and recreate this picture in the future once Evan is more comfortable hanging out in just his diaper, as the imagery will be more complete.

Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest

Remember how Evan pigged out when the lactation consultant visited us a few weeks ago? Well, as it turns out that was only a sign of greater things to come. Earlier in the week Steph had been having an awful time breastfeeding, but sometime Monday evening or Tuesday things seemed to click. Still, she decided to follow through with her plans to go to the breastfeeding support group at Community Hospital of Los Gatos today, if for no other reason than to use their scale.

At his first doctor visit Evan weighed in at an even 8 lbs. (1 oz. above his birth weight). Two weeks of voracious eating later, he weighed 9 lbs. 3 oz., and after another hour of stuffing himself he was 9 lbs. 10 oz. That means in one feeding he ate 7 oz., or almost 5% of his body weight! To return to the analogy of the 150-pound adult, that would be the same as him eating 7½ pounds! I figure the hot dogs they use in eating contests are around 3 oz. (including bun), so this would be the equivalent of 40 hot dogs. At this year's Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest the winner plowed through 66 dogs, so Evan's not quite up to world-class eating standards yet. Give him time, though.

4th of July

We went over to our friends Dan and Michelle's house to celebrate Michelle's birthday on Wednesday (this also happened to be Independence Day), and we ran into a bevy of babies. (As a quick aside, does anyone know if there is an accepted collective term for a group of babies, such as a pride of lions or a murder of crows? I tried searching around on Google but couldn't find anything.) Dan and Michelle had twins almost 10 months ago (it was their blog about the twins that inspired me to create this blog), and between an out-of-town guest who was staying with them and an assortment of friends who came by at the peak there were 8 babies (including a second set of twins) between two-and-a-half weeks (Evan) and 17 months old. At one point there were 4 moms simulnursing, which was an odd experience that surprisingly enough didn't seem that odd.

So with all these babies rolling around together why aren't there any pictures of the occasion here? Well, it seems that someone forgot to bring his camera. Seeing as how Evan just slept the first couple of hours we were there and then ate the rest of the time he personally wasn't doing anything particularly photogenic, so no great harm was done.

On a non-related note, given that it was the 4th of July there were, of course, a bunch of fireworks being set off around the neighborhood throughout the night (I think most of them were from our next-door neighbor's house). Like lots of dogs, Peekay doesn't really like fireworks very much. In fact, whenever there's any kind of popping sound outside she immediately goes running to the front door barking her fool head off as if the UPS guy was here (she also hates delivery trucks for some reason, but that's a different issue). Tonight she dealt with the fireworks much better than she ever has in the past, though. It's not like she enjoyed them or anything, but we were able to get her to stop reacting to most of the little ones and some of the bigger ones, which she never would have done before. I think Evan deserves some of the credit - having to keep herself calm around the little guy is giving her good practice at self-control she can use in other situations as well.

Chicken Drumstick

Doesn't Evan's arm look like a chicken drumstick in this picture?

Here, let me help you out. This is the same picture with a photo of a cooked chicken leg superimposed over his arm:

Can you even tell the difference? I'd say the boy is fattening up nicely. Soon he'll have the requisite cookie-dough arms and legs that any cherubic baby needs.

One Sleepy Family

We had a bit of a rough time last night, so today the whole family is pretty tired. Evan seems to be wanting to eat even more often over the last day or so, which means Steph is getting even less sleep than before. We're hoping he's getting ready for a growth spurt (our baby books say the baby may do some "cluster feeding" just before a growth period, and the timing is right) in which case things should go back to "normal" soon. If only we knew what normal was. Times like these give rise to priceless photos like this, though:

I would say "you just can't stage a moment like this," except this picture is somewhat staged. I was toiling away on the computer when Steph quietly said "You should come take a picture of us now." She seems to think she doesn't take good pictures when she knows there's a camera around. I keep telling her that if she wasn't a hottie we never would have gotten married in the first place, but that doesn't seem to have the reassuring effect on her you might expect. Anyway, candid pictures are more her style, and I guess this was close enough.