September 30, 2004

Jim here, with a long overdue contribution: We didn't get a picture of this today, but since Michelle was teaching this morning, I got to dress Serena. Generally, the outcome of that adventure is highly variable, but today it was excellent - she was sporting her San Francisco Giants onesie that we found at Chloe's Closet when we were down in SF. The Giants are struggling for a playoff spot, so they needed all the help and good karma they could get, and Serena did look awfully good...except for the fact that she has no orange or black pants to go with the outfit. The important part is that it worked - the Giants won tonight, 4-1 over the Padres. So Serena is wearing that onesie for the next three days to keep up the good luck. (Michelle doesn't know this part yet.) Of course, that means more photo ops, too!

September 28, 2004

Happy Four Month Old Birthday, Serena!

Mostly she laughs a ton!

The other day we were at our under-construction house and the framer was trying to talk to us about some boring house thing. I had Serena in the sling, as usual (it's a lot like being pregnant, having her hanging on me so often - but fun because now we know what she looks like!) Anyway, finally she (the framer) said, "She just totally stares at you for a long time. She has such intense eye contact. It's kinda weird. Cool-weird, though." She does really love interaction with people.

We play this cool game where I put my pointer finger out in front of her and Serena is so amazing! - she just instantly points her little teeny finger and we meet fingers for a "pointer-kiss"!

September 26, 2004

Almost Four Months (in two days!)

Serena and I walked to the library today. She wasn't really into doing the book searching thing though. She'd whine and fuss every time I tried to stop and look at books or look in the online catalog. So, I took her out of the Bjorn and literally had her hanging off one hip, way too many books stacked in the other arm, and the Bjorn open and hanging crooked and sideways off my body, flopping with every step. At least two people clearly laughed at my difficult situation. It was the nice, knowing kind of laugh though. I was mostly just sweaty and trying to hurry. Someone did help me pick up her passis when she dropped it, kind soul.

September 25, 2004

We did a family hike in a different section of the Deschutes River this afternoon. It's called Big Eddy. It's a very cool area of the river with a sizeable eddy that kayakers and other river adventurers like to ride. It's also simply stunning. Here's a picture of Serena and her Daddy enjoying the sound of the river and the view (view of Serena for Jim and view of her favorite, trees, for Serena.)

Serena kicking back before our hike - loving them fingers.

September 24, 2004

Serena and I went on a hike with some friends from one of our Mom's groups. It was gorgeous - about 80 degrees and we hiked along the Deschutes River with babies either hanging off the front or back of each of us (depending on the baby's size - smaller on front in a Baby Bjorn, bigger in a frame backpack. It's getting to be time for a backpack for Serena!) It was so funny each time we'd pass someone on the trail they'd get wide eyed as they watched the continuous stream of moms and babies pass them. People just love babies - especially in unexpected circumstances and numbers.

September 21, 2004

Today was my first day back teaching. In contrast to my breakdown a few days ago in anticipation of being away from Serena, it actually went quite well. Serena and Jim had a really nice time together, and I have to say, I can even in just one day see that they have bonded further. That's very cool. And it was a pretty good set up for me, too. I left at 9am and taught from 9:30-10:45 then Serena and Jim arrived at my office at 11:30 for her lunch. I taught a class from 12:30 to 1:45 and was home by about 2pm. I didn't have to be away for very long. And, I remembered in the process why I really enjoy teaching. It's fun. It's also fun to see that Serena and Jim are perfectly happy to hang out together without me for a few hours at a time (yea, I know, pretty self-important of me to think they wouldn't be.)

September 18, 2004

Sixteen weeks

I can't believe Serena is going to be four months old in just ten days! At first, it felt a bit slow, so when people would say to me, "Oh, it goes so fast!" I would privately think, "Really? When?" Not that I wanted to hurry it. It just didn't really feel fast. Intellectually, I understood that when things feel like they "go so fast", it is often in retrospect. You know, like summertime - it can feel so languid and leisurely and peaceful at the time, but then when Fall comes (as it's coming hard and fast here in Bend with snow already falling on the mountain!), you look back and think, "wow, summer went really fast." Like that. Anyway, point is - now it's going so fast WHILE it's happening! And, that doesn't fit the paradigm. So, my latest invention work (this is top secret so please don't tell anyone) is to devise a Time Slowing Machine (TM - soon.)

Serena loves to suck on and chew her fingers.

She also loves when you play pretty seriously with her - big tickles and punching and kicking moves with her feet and hands. She totally cracks up. I wish I knew how to put video on here, I'd show you. Trust me, it's awesome, her laugh!

Other things she loves: the computer screen, her butterfly mobile, her pasis (pacifier) at bedtime, sneaking peaks at the TV (she'll totally crane her neck around to see it!), taking a bath - particularly nursing in the bath, her play mat, most any book with colorful pictures, lots of eye contact and fun voices, kicking her sea horse on her bouncy seat, herself in the mirror, staring at treetops, walks in the sling (maybe it's like being in the womb)...

Stuff she's not into: long naps, getting out of the bath, bottles.

I don't think I reported - my wonderful friend from back to junior high, Amy (and her husband, Scott), had her baby! Abby Kelly Mannina was born on August 31, 2004. Above is Amy about nine months pregnant, mid-August (and me.)

She loves the part in Where the Wild Things Are that starts with "Let the wild rumpus start!" - maybe that's because the whole house here busts into wild rumpus song and dance whenever we get to that section, and it lasts the whole three pages of wild rumpus. Hm, maybe that's just our favorite part.

People often say that Serena looks a lot like me. I asked Jim to take a picture of us, to see if I can see it... hmmm... not sure. But, WOW, is she darling - that's all I know! So, I take it as a fabulous compliment.

I have to say, I'm seeing more and more of her Dad in her as time goes on... (for example, check the ears in the book reading picture above :-)

Alas, the prop up is found in the prop up mat!!

September 12, 2004

Fifteen weeks and two days (~3.5 MONTHS)

Serena is discovering her VOICE! Up until now, for the last few weeks at least, she has been making those coo-ing, gurgling sounds that are sweet and gentle. Then, just a few days ago, she discovered volume. And, she's into it. Now she makes sounds that go something like "hrwAAAAh", "HAAAAAHHH", rrnnhUUUUUhh". At the same time that it's a bit unnerving, it's really pretty cool. You can literally see her moving her little tongue around in her mouth and using her diaphragm to test out the noises she can make.

Every time someone stops to admire Serena when we're out and about, she busts out with a big giant smile. So then, of course, they can't stop talking to her which makes her smile and giggle even more. You see the cycle... She just loves admiration! It's pretty fun, though I'm thinking I better start building in extra time for our errands to account for all her socializing.

It's been a crazy week of picking out light fixtures, cabinets, and various other house decisions, so we haven't taken many pictures. We did pick up pictures from our California trip. Here are some fun ones:

I wish this picture didn't have this big blotch... but it's so cute, I have to share it anyway. That's Serena in the yellow :-), to the right and around are her cousins: Jonathon Kyle, Wendi, Madison, Sami, Miles, and Katie. (Notice how Kyle is holding Serena's foot and Katie is holding her hand? Sweet.)

This is Devon. She's my uncle's baby. At two months ahead of Serena, she is kindly keeping Serena in darling, barely-used fashion attire. We are grateful.

Uncle Greg and Serena had lovely talks.

C'mon - does anything get cuter than this? A bit of cousin-cuddle for Ryan and Miles.

Serena's first hotel bed. She slept... well, like a baby.

Isn't it funny that my brothers both had boys and I had a girl?

September 4, 2004

Suddenly Serena has precision foot-eye coordination! She just picks up her foot and kicks the little hanging sea creatures on her bouncy seat, as though she had been doing it in utero! It's so wild - one minute, she's just kind of testing it out - sort of seeing what happens when she lifts her foot and pushes forward. The next minute she's repeatedly hitting the little sea guy and making the bubbles and music work. This human development process is just astonishing - and sometimes I wish it would just slow up a bit... it's all going so fast now.

Here's a picture of her debut Sea Creature Karate act:

She's also gotten very adept at grabbing the rattle in her floor play gym with her hand. She's been working on that for a few weeks, though, so it's less surprising. It still makes me irrationally proud and want to cry at the same time, nonetheless.

Serena and her Daddy have had some good hanging out time together this week. We've been to Home Depot six times (yep, to buy paint) and we spend a few hours there most times (looking at carpet, bath faucets, light fixtures - you even have to decide which toilet you want!) as well as the carpet store, door store, etc. Jim slings Serena during these trips (except for when she needs to eat, then I sling her and she eats on the go - slings rule.) Here are some cute Serena and Daddy shots in the sling:

Serena chats with her Daddy.

Face cuddles (look at those mirror mouths!)

Bottle update: the dramatic, tear-jerkingly sweet bottle episode from the August 22 writing was an anomoly. Serena has no intention of drinking breastmilk from a bottle. She has made it very clear in every attempt since that day. Working on Plan B.

August 28, 2004

Happy 3 month old birthday, Serena!

I'm not sure why, but three months old feels like an important milestone. Maybe it's because the first round of baby clothes usually go from 0-3 months... or maybe it's because it's just so obvious that she's going from teeny infant into more baby-ishness. For example, here she is practicing turning over, which she works on all the time:

She literally fidgets all the time. We call her Fuss Monkey Baby (yea, I don't know how the names come about, but we've got plenty of 'em) because she's always flailing her arms and legs and making little grunty, gurgly noises. It's literally as though she is practicing talking and moving. It's amazing.

She also loves to watch her hands. She is in awe of them - she'll watch her little fingers move for minutes at a time. When she is nursing, she often puts one hand, fist shape, into the other, kind of like she is praying.

Speaking of hands, yesterday she grabbed Jim's thumb with her whole hand. It was so cool to see the contrast - her perfect little baby-hand filled entirely with Jim's man-size thumb.

In house news, our neighbors most surely think we're crazy. We're (still) trying to pick exterior paint color. It is a horrible process. See, we've considered varioations of blue, mustard yellow (though we didn't think it would be mustard yellow - paint chips are useless), brown...

And, guess which one we picked! Yep, you guessed it - NONE of those! We're still looking.

Here's the latest front view of the house progress: (we were seriously considering the blue paint, as you can see, until one of the guys working on the house said, "I think I've seen that color on Romper Room" - oh, okay, funny guy. And we start over.)

It's quite a mess outside right now, but it's getting pretty fun to walk around inside since all the rooms are framed out and windows are in.

Now we just need someone to come along and tell us what the heck color to paint it.

August 25, 2004

Serena and I just woke from a nap. I often fantasize about all the two-hands-required things I'll do when Serena goes down for a nap (photo album compilation, website updates, syllabus revisions, dishes...) I realized today that she is getting so big, so fast and I will never have my first baby, and only one baby, again. Suddenly I wanted to soak up every single molecule of air around her. (Plus, she takes longer naps when I'm with her.) So, I lay down with her for our nap. Can you think of/remember what it feels like to sleep with a baby curled into your body? It has to be up there with the warmest, sweetest, most precious feelings in human experience. What a fabulous one and a half hours that was. And, see, I can still update the website - another time.

August 24, 2004

Serena smells like a vanilla milkshake.

August 22, 2004

We're just home from our first road trip to California with Serena. Two major notations: 1) I love my family and CA friends - they're fun and supportive and it was awesome to share Serena with everyone, and 2) travel as we know it has now changed forever.

We had a number of significant celebrations on this trip. First, it was my Gramma's (Serena's Oma (Great Grandma)) 85th birthday celebration. My Aunt Ruthie put on a fabulous shindig at her house. We did a slide show of some wonderful pictures from Gramma's early motherhood days and through the years and made an album of 140 or so photos of Gramma all throughout her life. It was very cool. It was also an interesting reminder of how photographs can really stick around and revisit you and all your relatives and friends. Must keep that in mind when posing for shots. Also, it was a reminder of how valuable documenting memories can be for sharing some snippets from a lifetime of very cool moments. Here's a moment between Serena and Oma:

We also celebrated Christmas (yep, in August) with my Mom, brother Greg and his son Ryan, and Aaron and Jenn (again - we celebrate with them twice.) It was cool - we did a gift drawing/exchange thing. I got a Camelback for hiking. Jim got an ice cream maker. Perfectly balanced - first we hike, then we come home and have some ice cream. You're invited anytime.

Then we headed down to the Bay Area (we were in Red Bluff first.) My sister, Kehau, hosted a family get together at her house - kind of a "Welcome Serena" event. If you've been around my family for more than a few hours, you know that they are major baby lovers. They especially love new family babies! It was strange to not hold Serena so much in one night and at the same time be perfectly certain that she was being loved and tended beautifully. Serena did awesome, too. Here she is being held by cousin Wendy, entertained by cousin Sami (left) and watched by cousin Madison:

It took us about 13.5 hours to get from San Francisco to Bend on our trip home. It used to take us about 8.5 - 9 hours. Gone are the days... (need I say that I'll take a 13.5 hour road trip with Serena over a nine hour one without her anyday?)

It was a significant week in many ways. I'm afraid and excited to notice that Serena seems to be embarking on the "they grow so fast" phase (maybe phase is the wrong word, since I understand it lasts many, many years.) All this week she has begun laughing regularly and in direct response to stimulation. She thinks it's particularly funny to be tickled on her neck and to play aerobics and kickboxing while laying on her back. She is outstretching the length of many of her 0-3 month clothes. When we were at Uncle Aaron and Aunt Jennifer's house, she did her first very obvious reach to touch something move. It was this very cool and interesting wooden and spring caterpillar (I think they named it Otto?) and after much contemplation and hand twitching, she reached over to touch Otto with the back of her hand. Aaron got it on film, I think. She is beginning to roll over. It's going to happen any day now. She goes from her back (she still just doesn't like to be on her tummy much at all) and sort of swings her leg so she's on her side then she rolls onto her tummy. The only barrier right now is the lower arm that gets pinned under her belly when she rolls onto it. It makes it too hard to roll all the way flat. But she's about to figure it out.

Perhaps the most bittersweet and intense latest development is that she took her first bottle of breastmilk today:

She was very hungry and crying a bit. Then, as though we hadn't tried seven times before to no avail, she just started drinking. I'm not sure why, but it was instant tears for me... I suppose it has something to do with previously being the sole source of nutrition for her and now sharing that. Of course, I want Jim to get to share in it so I am really happy about it. But for a moment, unexpectedly, I was a bit overwhelmed (don't tell Jim I told you, but we both may have been a bit emotional.) Plus, how sweet a picture is this? He's such an awesome Dad.

August 11, 2004

Last night we were at Victoria's Secret (getting some spicy all cotton undies!) I asked whether they carried nursing bras (they don't) when the woman who worked there said to me, "So, how do you like being a 24-hour restaurant?" At first I had no idea what she was talking about, and I told her that nonverbally. She clarified that she was wondering how I liked nursing. I thought, what a funny question - "It's an absolute honor. I love it." She looked surprised by my response. Do many people dislike nursing?? I get so giddy sometimes when I'm nursing Serena. It is amazing that my body produces the perfect nourishment for this growing, complex, divine human life.

When Nancy was here, we were trying to explain to her what Jim's sweeping truck looks like. When I was looking through pictures, I found this one of the truck. For Nancy and those who might be wondering what a sweeping truck looks like (I didn't even realize there was such a thing as a sweeping truck before this whole adventure), here's Jim's new beauty:

August 10, 2004

We had a fabulous and fast visit with Grammy Franco and Nancy Jane the last few days. We went to First Friday downtown and ate yummy food (though we did have a 1.5 hour wait for our dinner at Merenda - thank goodness the food there is excellent and Serena is such an easy-going baby, and that Norma and Nancy are night owls since it was 1:30am Ohio-time by the time we ate!) We went to Elk Lake (which Nancy kept calling Eagle Lake) and had a picnic (which, frankly, is less fun than it used to be now that I have to keep my EAGLE EYE on the mosquitoes and my baby girl's head.) We also spent a considerable amount of time looking at exterior house paint colors (which Nancy couldn't get enough of, right Nance?) Norma is indispensible on this kind of thing. She's excellent for keeping you on task on a project - and encouraging you to progress. We need that around here. Nancy ventured out on her own, having had enough of the house thing, and went to Smith Rock. Smith Rock is very cool.

Mostly, we cracked up and shared stories. Here's Nancy and Norma, both midstory:

Nancy.

Norma.

August 6, 2004

Serena laughed - I mean really LAUGHED out loud - for the first time today! I was changing her diaper and cheering on her "productivity", as I often do, and she just busted out this two syllable belly laugh. I was in such disbelief that I nearly convinced myself that I misheard it, until she did it again later! How is it that one moment a little human baby doesn't laugh, has never laughed once in their lifetime, and then they laugh as though they have laughed a thousand times before and then they will always be able to laugh? It's just crazy, the whole human thing... it's like holding up their head - you know, one minute they don't hold up their head themselves, then the next minute they hold up their own head and then they hold it up themselves forever - it never goes back.

It really is all simply miraculous, isn't it?

Here's Serena chatting up her reflection (it's a mirror on the bottom of the hanging thing there in her play mat gym.)

August 5, 2004

August 4, 2004

We have been slowly introducing a bottle (of breastmilk) to Serena. She has been kindly and gently rejecting it. Here's a hopeful moment that we later learned was just her way of tolerating our explorations. We've got about seven weeks to convince her that the bottle can also be her friend. School starts on September 20 and I will be teaching for about six hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We now own every bottle and nipple combination available for a two month old baby. I spent my morning run thinking through my version of the perfect bottle nipple. I'm telling you, not only do I want there to be a nipple that really does "feel more like breasfeeding" for Serena but I want in on the capitalization of this humongous (sp?) baby supply industry!

August 2, 2004

What would you do with an open sunny Saturday afternoon? Here's the answer to Jim's perfect Saturday afternoon - Serena cozy on his chest sharing an intense study of the Owner's Manual to the Acura we just bought from my Dad. Jim is so excited about this car. Direct quote, "I thought this kind of car would be, like, three cars out!" Thanks, Dad!

Fire update: the newspaper (and various neighbor stories) says that the fire was started by overloaded wiring at an electrical outlet holding lights "used in the manufacture of marijuana" (or something like that.) The bummer is that this couple is made up of such nice people - we've chatted many times. Now, he's in jail pending $90,000 bail (I think they suspect dealing of some kind.)