Our First Date

As I mentioned earlier, Steph's birthday was earlier this month, but at the time we didn't do anything too special to celebrate. That's partly because we don't tend to do a whole lot for our birthdays, and partly because I got tickets to see Crowded House at the Mountain Winery later in the month. Well, tonight was the night, and quite a beautiful night it was -- perfect weather for an outdoor evening concert. This was our first date since Evan was born, and we had a very nice time.

Of course, part of going on a date is finding a babysitter, and this was our first time leaving Evan with anyone besides a grandparent for any appreciable amount of time. This was no normal babysitter, though. Our friend (and realtor) Leslie and her partner-in-crime at Keller Williams, Kelly, offered to help us out. Leslie has considered going pro as an auntie (she even has a stage name already, Auntie Essie, which she uses to refer to herself in the third person sometimes), but I don't think it pays as well as the real estate biz. Kelly, as you'll see below, is in a family way (she and her husband are expecting their first in November), so she was using this evening as a dry run. Not that anything stays dry around a baby for very long.

Here are our two lovely babysitters at the beginning of the evening:

Also, here's a shot of Steph and I just before we left thrown in for good measure:

I didn't get a picture of the babysitters at the end of the evening, but they seemed no worse for wear. I think they even had a pretty good time with the little guy.

We used to pay a lot of attention to when Evan ate, and slept, and was fussy, and was alert. Steph even kept track of his state in her Palm (it also helped her to remember which side to feed from next, back when it wasn't so obvious). We were hoping to discern some pattern or schedule so we could predict when he'd need what, and we (particularly Steph) could plan when we could do non-baby things, like have lunch with a friend, or shop for groceries, or shower. Unfortunately Evan had other ideas. Or maybe he had a total and utter lack of ideas. Whatever he had, after a few weeks of paying attention to his "schedule" the only thing that became clear was that he had no schedule. One of the "benefits" of having two parents (one of whom produces enough milk to feed a preschool class) and only one baby is that you can get away with not being very regimented and stay sane -- ask anyone you know who's had twins, or is a single parent, and I think you'll get a different take on this matter. Anyway, we've given up tracking Evan's goings on in such detail, and we're now focusing our efforts on imposing a routine to get him to go to bed around the same time each night.

Why do I bring this up, you ask? Well, evidently Leslie and Kelly have not had these same journaling instincts eroded yet. Maybe they were just trying to be conscientious babysitters. Maybe Steph and I are subconsciously still paying more attention to this stuff than we realize and when we relate our evening routine we enrich our descriptions with enough detail that we scare people and they think they have to behave in kind. I'm not really sure why they did it, but they kept a detailed log of what Evan did when. So here's what a fairly typical evening with Evan looks like:

• 6:45 - 7:15 Fine
• 7:15 - 7:40 Nap
• 8:00 Hungry (ate 1 oz?)
• 9:00 Fussy, changed diaper, fed again (1/2 oz?)
• 9:45 - 10:15 Nap
• 10:30 Hungry (1 oz?), changed diaper
• 10:55 Put to bed
• 11:00 Asleep
  

Why should you care about this? Well, you probably don't, but since Leslie and Kelly took the time to write it all down I wanted to share it anyway.

Mannies and Peddies

Both our Moms have taken to getting Steph gift certificates to the spa down the street from us for massages, manicures, and pedicures recently. These gifts are very much appreciated, but they do pose a bit of a challenge -- it's almost impossible to predict when she'll have a 2-hour window free during the week (the windows exist, but you can't be sure you're in one until it's over), and it's hard to schedule appointments on the weekends. Holding an ever-growing baby who knows how many hours of the day was starting to catch up with her, though, so the desire to take advantage of one of these gifts was getting closer and closer to a need.

Fortunately, we're a two-parent household, and being back to work full-time doesn't mean I have to work all the time. Steph was able to get a Saturday appointment, and she took off for a few hours of pampering today, leaving me alone with the boy for the afternoon. We had an uneventful day (literally -- I got absolutely nothing done), but we did meet our primary objective -- to make Steph's hands and feet shiny and pretty. She says it was unplanned, but when she got home she noticed the nail polish color she chose is remarkably close to the color of Evan's little lips:

It was also almost identical to the color of Evan's evil red eyes, but I used Photoshop to fix that so you're none the wiser... pretend you didn't read that last line.

Here's another picture showing their lip-fingernail chroma synchronicity where Evan is also sporting one of his cute-and-goofy smiles:

That's My Boy

When we got home from the dog walk Saturday morning I noticed that TiVo was recording something for us. That seemed a bit odd at first -- Saturday morning isn't exactly what you'd call prime-time TV, although TiVo is good at finding interesting stuff at all hours of the day. It then occurred to me that the English Premier League started up again last weekend, so there was a pretty good chance there would be at least one new soccer game for me to watch. Furthermore, I remembered that Everton (my favorite team in the EPL) were playing Blackburn this weekend, so I flipped on the TV to see if that was the game that was on (as luck would have it, it was).

Now, Evan and I watch a lot of soccer together -- it's a great way to pass the time during those mornings when Evan is unwilling to sleep by himself and I'm too tired to do something productive while carrying him around but not tired enough to motivate myself to build a nest where I can lie down with him and actually fall asleep. Usually I'm doing most of the watching, while Evan does most of the sleeping. Today was different, though. As soon as the TV came on he was fixated by the action before us. I've never been so proud:

Watching the World Go By

Since Evan has been doing such a good job holding his head up recently Steph thought it was time to try walking him around in the BabyBjörn facing out yesterday! This is a very big step in a young man's life, when he finally gets to move about in the world (or at least be transported about in the world) and observe his environment (or at least his environment within a radius of a few feet). OK, so maybe it isn't that big of a step, but it is a step, and one which Evan took with aplomb. He and Steph walked the dog around the neighborhood for half and hour or so, and he was awake and looking around the whole time. He also managed to slobber all over the edge of the BabyBjörn, which wasn't a shock in and of itself (we've seen friends' babies do the same thing), but was illustrative of the surprising amount of saliva one baby can produce in a relatively short amount of time.

Anyway, when we went on the family dog walk this morning Evan got to look out at the world again, but this time we got a picture (it's easier to take pictures when there are two adults around):

Also, partly because he's turned around and partly because his head is growing along with the rest of his body, Evan's walking hat finally fits him as more than an awning! Plus, with the head-support flap of the BabyBjörn folded over you can really appreciate how color-coordinated his hat and carrier are.

Family Portrait

Do you believe that we haven't taken a reasonable picture of the three of us since the day we left the hospital? Well, it's true. I don't know how many times we've said "When so-and-so is here we should have them take a picture of us" or something like that, but we haven't seemed to be able to remember that sentiment when so-and-so is actually here.

My parents were staying with us again this weekend, and after four days they had almost earned their way onto the list of near misses. Fortunately I remembered to request they bring our camera with them to dinner, and we had enough time between finishing eating and taking them to the airport to remember our need for a family portrait. So, here it is:

The setting isn't exactly your classic Olan Mills snowy lane backdrop, but what can you do?

We also took a photo of my parents holding the boy for good measure:

Sitting Up... With Help

We put Evan in his Bumbo chair for the first time today. Or rather, Steph put Evan in his Bumbo chair for the first time. I had to go back to work full-time today -- I have been working half-time for the last month or so. I guess this is just the first of many "Guess what Evan did today" conversations we'll have in the coming years. At least through the magic of digital photography I can see pictures (and sometimes videos) of these things as soon as I get home. And for that matter, so can you!

As I was saying, Steph put Evan in his Bumbo chair for the first time today, and he definitely seemed to like it:

The seat forces him to slouch a bit, so he always looks very relaxed when he's sitting in it. If he could hold his bottle by himself the image would be just about perfect, but he's not there yet so you'll have to imagine it for yourself.

Steph also took a video of him sitting there, but I'm not going to bother posting it. Just stare at the picture for 10 seconds or so -- that's about the same as the video.

Dancing Baby

Steph's sister Melissa danced her way through her youth, and was a cheerleader at UCLA. A cheerleader's main job is to demonstrate infectious enthusiasm (and to do acrobatics in minimal clothing, but we'll ignore that aspect of the job for the time being), and according to Evan Lissie has still got it:

Grandma

Somebody took about 17 pictures of Sheilagh holding Evan during dinner Friday night, and a couple of them turned out pretty well! Here's one of them:

Adorable

I don't know what, if anything, was going on in this picture, but I think it's adorable:

Do You Know the Muffin Man?

We put Evan in his first pants-and-shirt outfit today -- before this he's only worn onesies, sometimes with pants over them, or just a shirt with his diaper. Once he was all suited up we realized that he was sporting a muffin top! You can't see it super-well here, although it's a little more evident if you click on the picture to see the full-size version:

I'll think you'll agree that Evan's ongoing expansion plans are progressing quite nicely.

Here's another picture of him in the same outfit, but zoomed in a bit so you can't see his muffin-topness. He does have a very interesting look on his face, though: