His Fake Smile

This is Monito's new fake smile.. He has begun to pose for the camera ... but em and I are distressed by his adoption of the "fake smile" - at the same time I do sorta like the mischevious glint it brings to his eyes. 

Getting on the Train

Riley is checking out the Coast Starlight in Deb's arms as we get ready to leave Seattle and head down to Portland. I don't have enough kind words in my vocabulary to express how great this trip was for us. Deb I just love you and your family with all my heart... just crazy crazy love ... and I am so glad that Allie & R. got to see what all the fuss we've been making about lil' Riley is about. At the same time I got to see my Aunt Suzan, Cousin Tracy, Marissa, and our Cousins Carrie - Chuck - Rylie along with Aunt Shirley from Ithaca and the lovely twin boys.

I will post more about the trip and add a tabloo soon.... I am jet lagged and hungry ... Monito sleeps - so good to see Em when we got home (& its 50 degrees out - go figure... whats up with the Boston winters I thought they were supposed to be killing me ???)

Chanakuh starts tomorrow & many many Newfields come to town... I hope Blasto is ready -

peace out -

Monito and Mom

Some shots of Monito and his Mommy as they nap their days away. Mom is recovering from working nights --- Monito is just recovering. I can't believe how very cute they are.

Now its time for me to do the dishes.

... See my Tabblo>

6 Month Compilation

More photos of the boy from Grandpa Phil, or Grandpa "Oh No" as I am calling him.

I really can't believe how incredibly cute this kid is -- & yeah I know every parent thinks that their babe is the cats pajamas - but I can only say MEOW.

Before going to bed tonight we listened to Mommy Em's Blasto songs on the computer -
Polyphonic Spree "its the sun" and Blackbird by the Beatles (yeah) - which we modify slightly by inserting the name Blasto where they say Blackbird... anyways he jumps up and down & smiles & giggles and waves his arms --- its pretty cool.

We miss em when she's working though.

Next week we go to Seattle and Portland for a quick trip - I am so excited to see Deb & for her to see how big monito is, and to see everyone else in Seattle and the GN clan in portland & I will get to ride the train with the boy which should be a lot of fun. 

Thanksgiving Weekend

Here is a nice Photo from Grandpa Phil - or Grandpa "Oh No" as Riley knows him. And here is another good one from the weekend as well.

These are a few of my favorite things....

What do I have to be thankful for this year --- my two sweeties. 

Things I do when the baby is sleeping (& I can't) ...

[A is for age:] 42 almost 43
[B is for beer of choice:] Beck's Nonnie
[C is for career:] FTM - full time mommie-daddie
[D is for favorite Drink] Coffee, then tea - hot & iced, then milk
[E is for essential item you use everyday:] Diaper Bag
[F is for favorite song at the moment:] Still the soundtrack from Wicked - Dancing through Life, Defying Gravity, Loathing etc
[G is for favorite game:] Peek-a-Boo this week
[H is for hometown:] Born in Spokane WA, raised in San Francisco
[I is for instruments you play:] the radio
[J is for favorite juice:] I like a good juice mix - little of this little of that surprise me bartender, surprise me
[K is for kids?:] just the one
[L is for last kiss?:] See K above --- fewer kisses from busy mommy these days but gummy slobber kisses all day long from the baby boy.
[M is for marriage:] Yup - gotta love that Mass. for the big gay marriage.
[N is for full name:] Yup - I have one.
[O is for overnight hospital stays:] Post-Partem with the lil Monkey
[P is for phobias:] Spiders, Snakes and Nuns
[Q is for quote:] "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine." -- Patti
[R is for biggest regret:] regrets, I've had a few
[S is for sports:] Motorcycling.
[T is for time you wake up:] when the baby cries.
[U is for color underwear:] Blue, black, white, green...
[V is for vegetable you love:] Artichokes
[W is for worst habit:] I bite my nails.
[X is for x-rays you've had:] teeth, and my leg after a bike boo boo
[Y is for yummy food you make:] Soups this fall
[Z is for zodiac sign:] Sag sun. Gemini moon. - cause I was born on a full moon.

Thoughts on being the other mother... linkety link

An article from LesbianDads on being Not The Mommy.

Mazel Tov!!!

This week Steph "officially" adopted the girls. & although
we all think its a bit silly that folks have to adopt their own kids - I say a big huge
Mazel Tov & congrat's to the whole C-C family.
And check out that cute adoption attorney on the far left!! 

Our Little Science Experiment....

Here is monito in the bib that he earned from the good folks at Harvard last week when he went in to participate in another early childhood development study. This time he watched film clips of happy shapes that "spoke" to him in English and in gibberish to measure whether he is responding to hearing his native tongue yet. I think he may have liked both the native & the foreign chatty blobs about the same... but I know that he likes his Rockin Ve Ri Tas bib --- Just Like Grandpa's study chair & just in time for Solid Foods. 

For Val D. today

Because the Night



Dancing Barefoot

Em's Favorite Outfit

Em likes to remind me that textiles are in her blood from way back in the family tree. When we were in SF we dropped into Chloe's Closet where she discovered this "hot little number". Cashmere, Imported from the UK, retails for .... 75 Pounds - saddly its a 0-6 month sizing which means we only have a couple more times to squeeze his handsomeness into this fine little number.

Poopy Poopy Sh#t Fest

Someone just pooped so far up his back it was at his shoulders - one onesie, one long sleeve shirt and one pair of pants into the laundry along with the changing table cover and the socks that were unfortunatly still on his padders when the diaper came off to reveal its happy surprise. I guess the rice cereal isn't constapating him anymore.

Also on the poop-front someone else has taken a liking to eating discarded diapers - YUCK!

Thats the update from Cambridge.

That Nap

Didn't last long - it's 5:45

The Crib

Monito is Six Months and a few days and I had told myself and em that he would start sleeping on his own in the crib when he was 6 mo's (when we got home from SF- actually). So now I am sotra stuck.

I am surprised actually by how it hurts when I go to put him down in his own bed. I thought I would be relieved and not sad.

So last night he went into the crib for the first real night (he's been napping in there for awhile to get ready) - and he went right to sleep. I - on the other hand -was up until 1am listening to the dog snore, and emily snore and the baby snore through the monitor which was turned up way to high. It turns out that I was the one who couldn't sleep without knowing he was close by. So I finally "went down" around one am and he popped up shortly thereafter and WITH GLEE I skipped on into his room, "rescued" him from his crib and brought him into bed to nurse and snuggle with me where we stayed CONTENTLY until this am when em went off to be a doctor.

Right now its 5:30 pm and he just fell asleep in my lap & I took him back into THAT room and laid him down in that CRIB and I feel like crying again.

25th Percentile for Weight - 99th Percentile for Cute

So we had our 6 Month Peds visit today & the boy handled it like a champ (as did Emily as well). He got 4 shots - 3 boosters and the Flu Shot, He got the docs ok to keep eating solid foods although he didn't poop for a day and a half after the first tablespoon of rice cereal (she said give him fruit). And we decided that he remains the cutest baby EVAH.

So here are his stats...

26 1/2 Inches tip to toe
15 lb and 13.3 oz without a diaper -- 15lb 15.8 oz with (time to change that diaper) and his cute lil keppie measures 43 cm or 17" - I know aunt Melanie is waiting on that head measurement.

So they said that puts him in the 50th Percentile for length, and the 25th for weight -- And we say the 99th percentile for CUTE!!!

Rice Cereal

For his half birthday - (yep he's really six months old!!) Riley got to try food. Here is one of his first bites of rice cereal. And what does my boy think of solid food???? You guessed it - he couldn't get enough.

This time next week - veggie surprise - 

C is for ...

Candaloo - these two totally cool night lights that aren't actually child friendly -but Em sure LOVES them - as does Riley from the looks of things. (thanks out to Lily & Eric) 

Pleasant Halloween

The kids on Pleasant St. got all dressed up to head out to the park. ... See my Tabblo>

SF Visit

We did a LOT of eating on our trip out to SF - breakfast at St. Francis, Lunch at Zuni, Tea at Lovejoys, Veggie Asian in Berkeley and Valentinas and Zante from the old neighborhood.  We also saw a lot of folks - family, friends, classmates - sometimes we even remembered the camera ... See my Tabblo>

Learning

 

B is for BAKED ALASKA

The final "formal dinner" on the cruise (April 2004) is topped off by all the waitstaff parading flaming baked alaska through the dining room. Our jmp crew - me & em, Holly & Doannie, Mel & VJ loved our waiters -especially Oscar who took 15 minutes to tell really, really bad jokes to our table.

Table for 2 - Visiting with Grandpa at Zuni

These are Stefans shots of Eldon & Lil' Riley from our Lunch at Zuni -- home of the best chicken in the world - not to mention a great burger & a killer cesar salad.

It was a great chance to try and see if there is much family resemblance between these Reiley's --- what do you think?

Plus we got a couple good shots of mom1 and mom2 to boot.

... See my Tabblo>

Flying To SF

The boy did good on his flight out to SF.  He is so much bigger now - on the first flight we were able to lay him on a pillow on the tray table - this flight he actually scored a seat and could do most of the ride in his car seat (yeah) - except when he fussed and Em did the mommy dance with him up in the first class cabin, ... See my Tabblo>

A is for ... Adventure

This is a shot that I took out the door of a helicopter. Em & I were in Kauia & she really wanted to do the helicopter tour. I went along with her. So this is the volcano shot that we got just as the weather was turning pretty bad & let me just say that where you don't want to be is in a helicopter with no doors in a thunderstorm ... But we did get to see amazing views of the island and got to swim in a waterfall that you can only get to by flying in.

inch worm

 

Fall Colors

A quick view of what we saw this weekend driving from Boston to the Berkeshires - I guess this is what everyone says they like so much about the New England Fall - I didn't realize that some trees can actually turn bright Orange!!! The photo's don't really do it justice but you get the idea. 

Accepted at Harvard

See prior post

Five Months

So the boy has been with us for Five Months now (on the outside) - He has trippled his weight pretty much - putting on 2 pounds a month and he has grown about an inch a month -putting him at 14-15 lbs and 24" or so - these are highly unnofficial measurements. His most recent weight was on the postage scale and I am measuring his length with the Lamaze Inch Worm stuffed toy.

He is an amazing little person. His disposition is so good & easy going - not like either me or em. He can sit for 20 or 30 minutes on his own in the swing or kick chair sucking his fist and mumbling to himself (see above). I still think bath time is my favorite time of all. He loves the bath - he floats (with a little help) kicks & splashes and coos -

I can't wait until our trip to SF when we get to show him off to everyone - he is such a big guy now & not just a little houseplant/larvae like he was when we left. He will also get to meet some of the other babes that got born after we left town so that will be very cool as well.

I guess one of the biggest things for me is just feeling so crazily in awe of his little self. There have been some of those times when I am holding him & I just start crying - for no reason except the sheer enormity of it all - here is this amazing baby & he is entrusted to me & em & he is so perfect and handsome & fun. It is like the line in the grinch where it says his heart grew 3 sizes that day.

Duck Boy

Some of you in SF may remember "Duck Boy" - when I took this pj outfit from DGina and stuffed it with T-Shirts and socks to make a "practice" baby that I would carry around the house - Well we agreed that the stuffed Pj's with no head was a little creepy .... I think you all will agree that this new version is a great improvement. Funny that at 5 Months (almost) he is finally getting to be the same size as my underwear baby. 

A great posting on why it rocks to have 2 Moms

I found this post today via the Lesbian-Dad web blog (that I love... the photos and commentary are both AWESOME - I keep thinking this has to be someone I know...) -- anyway its a cool post that gives some props to the dyke moms & dyke dads out there. Also if you want to keep up with all the new dyke families keep checking the baby blogroll at LesbianFamilies.

You call this food.

Monito tried out a high chair for the first time at the shire this past weekend.
As you can tell by his perplexed look he wasn't quite sure what to make of it.
I think he liked sitting up at the same height as us for the first time but perhaps
missed swinging, kicking and music as provided by his current favorite chairs.

I want to get him a bumbo seat but think he may actually learn to sit up on his
own before I get around to buying one for him. I did get to enjoy some crass
consumerism this week & got a new stroller - on the suggestion/recomendation
of Lori Brown (one of DGina's great neighbors) I got a Mountain Buggy (& got a
good deal by buying last years model!) 

Today's special ingrediant ....

Placenta Roast:

All "food" should be properly cleaned prior to cooking, and all "food" should be properly cooked prior to eating.
This is a good recipe for placenta, which should NOT go to waste:

INGREDIENTS:
1 to 3 lb. placenta no more than 3 days old1 large onion1 large green or red pepper (green will add color to the presentation)1 cup tomato sauce1 sleeve of saltine crackers1 tsp crab or shrimp seasoning1 tsp black pepper1 tsp white pepper1 clove garlic (roasted and minced)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Chop onion and green or red pepper in small cubes. Place in large bowl. Crush saltines into crumbs and add to onion and pepper cubes.

COMBINE IN LARGE BOWL:
Placenta, seafood seasoning, pepper, garlic, and tomato sauce. Place into aluminum loaf pan. Cover and bake for 1 and 1/2 hours, occasionally pouring off excess liquid. Retain liquid for gravy base if desired.

or if you prefer....

Placenta Cocktail: 1/4 cup raw placenta8oz V-8 juice2 ice cubes1/2 cup carrot. Blend at high speed for 10 seconds
Placenta Lasagne: Use your favorite Lasagne recipe and substitute this mixture for one layer of cheese. In 2 tbl. olive oil, quickly saute meat of 3/4 placenta, ground or minced; plus 2 sliced cloves of garlic, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/2 diced onion & 2 tbl. tomato paste, or 1 whole tomato.
Placenta Spaghetti: Cut meat of 3/4 placenta into bite size pieces, then brown quickly in 1 tbl. butter plus 1 tbl. oil. Then add 1 large can tomato puree, 2 cans crushed pear tomatoes, 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tbl. molasses, 1 bay leaf, 1 tbl. rosemary, 1 tsp. ea. of salt, honey, oregano, basil, and fennel. Simmer 1 1/2 hours.

Placenta Stew: Meat of 3/4 placenta in bite size chunks, 1 potato (cubed), 1/4 cup fresh parsley, 2 carrots, 3 ribs celery, 1 zucchini, 1 large tomato, 1 small onion. Dredge meat in 1 tbl. flour mixed with 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. paprika, pinch of cloves, pinch of pepper, 6-8 crushed coriander seeds. Saute meat in 2 tbl. oil, then add vegetables (cut up) and 4-5 cups of water. Bring to full boil, then simmer for 1 hour.

Placenta Pizza: Grind placenta. Saute in 2 tbl. olive oil with 4 garlic cloves, then add 1/4 tsp. fennel, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 1/4 tsp. paprika, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/4 tsp. thyme, and 1/4 cup of wine. Allow to stand for 30 minutes, then use with your favorite home made pizza recipe. It's a fine placenta sausage topping.

recipes courtesy of Virtual Birth Center by way of LesbianDad

First Rosh Hashanah

Okay.. so the first thing I have to say is that Emily and I bring the camera with us EVERY time we go to a family thingy... yet despite this we manage to NEVER bring it out of its pocket in the diaper bag - somehow. Luckily the Newf's were well equiped with camera's this past weekend as we flocked to Nanuet NY like lox returning to the nesting grounds.

This is a big family that I have married myself into - or at least it is on the Holidays... we were MANY ... Jim, Lisa and their "spawn" Mathew & Olivia - who are both gorgeous and incredibly sweet, Me & Em and our lil caviar, D-Gina (Dan & Gina) and their tadpole Farah, Grandma-Grandma Anne mother to Nancy & Chuck, Chuck and Shirley were there from Ithaca - with Ariel and her two trouts - Elijah and Isabella (Photos of Carrie, Chuck and the guppies Ryley and the twins were passed around and best wishes to them in Seattle --- very very cute babies!!!), Anne's sister Janet came with her grown kids (I am running out of fishy metaphors...) Mark and Suzie, Claire & Herb were there along with Liz, Jaime & Neal & Jake & Molly.

Oh and we brought Mabel as well cause its important to have an 85 lb dog running around when you have a house full of family, kids and food!!

Baby Riley came through like a champ - he slept well on both the ride down and the ride back. We left Boston Friday night at 7:30 & got to Nanuet around 11:30 - D-Gina beat us there by a few minutes cause they don't have to stop and breastfeed along the way. We all slept okay - then went to services Sat am ... we spent more time in the hall letting all the kids say hi than we spent in services but that was fine - we heard the drash then headed back to the house. Folks arrived between 1 & 3 and we ate, and ate and ate... I think I had 5 kinds of desert. It was so cool to see all the kids get to play together. Mathew and Elijah are practically the same age and got along great - Farah adores Olivia and follows her around, Jake got to be the biggest guy of the crew and herd them around. Isabella was playing with the cool presents that Gma Gma Anne had gotten her & Riley napped a lot.

Sunday we stayed at the house while Phancy took Farah to services, Em slept and I had coffee and played with Monito. Then JLisa came back over & Chuck & Shirley came back & em & I packed ... (sad) then everyone got home from services and we had lunch then said goodbye and drove back. The boy rode home good & we got back in time for Em to sleep a little bit before her FIRST shift on Nights (now throught October).

The only downside was when it was time for us to go to sleep last night Little Mister didn't think so... He had a MAJOR Meltdown starting around 9:30 on & off and was still SCREAMING at 12:30 am until I finally turned on the bathroom sink and let him look at the water running for 15 minutes (thanks Phil).

Now Em is sleeping, Boy is napping & I am getting some lunch & computer time.... Have a sweet New Year everyone. tikki te-vu 

L'shanah Tovah

Rosh Hashanah

Boston to Nanuet

Tomorrow Eve we will leave Boston aound 7:30 or 8 and drive up to Em's folks for the Rosh Hashana weekend, and we will turn around and drive home on Sunday so she can be at work by 7pm Sunday night. If you google "Boston to Nanuet" you can find the following NY Times Story

-------------------

DRIVING; Ah, Boston To Princeton, The Rolling Parking Lot
By GLENN RIFKIN
Published: January 17, 2003

IF there were a contest to name the worst drive in America, I would know what to
enter and I would expect to win. Surely there cannot be a more congested,
dangerous and unpleasant set of roadways than the pastiche of highways that take
travelers from Boston to New Jersey.

...The trip is about 250 miles, and most of it is on highways supposedly built for convenience and speed. But it always takes at least five hours, for an average speed of 50 miles per hour. And on holiday weekends it can take seven hours -- that's averaging only 36 m.p.h.

To experience this pleasure, take the Massachusetts Turnpike west from Boston; at Sturbridge take Interstate 84 west through Hartford, Waterbury and Danbury, Conn.; then, in New York, it's south on I-684 through Westchester County into White Plains; west on I-287 over the Tappan Zee Bridge to the Garden State Parkway South and into the heart of New Jersey. In 31 years, I've made this trip hundreds of times.

Things usually go fairly smoothly in Massachusetts, though I have sat in two-mile backups at the Sturbridge toll plaza. Then comes Connecticut, whose name, I'm convinced, comes from an old Indian word meaning ''road work ahead.'' I've never made it through Connecticut without stopping somewhere in bumper-to-bumper traffic because of road repair.

Though Hartford, when approached at the wrong time of day, can be a traffic nightmare, it is Waterbury that holds a special place in the traffic jam hall of fame. Is it a reduction in the number of lanes that causes the inevitable tie-up? Is there some automotive significance in the giant cross (a relic of the defunct Holy Land U.S.A. theme park) visible on a nearby hillside? Is it simply Connecticut's way of saying, ''Take that, you snobby Bostonians and rude New Yorkers''?

How about an alternate route? On a map, it looks logical to avoid Waterbury by taking I-91 south from Hartford to I-95 and then go west through Stamford, Conn., and Westchester. But if there have ever been 30 consecutive minutes when none of that congested stretch of I-95 was a parking lot, I was not there to witness it.

Out of Connecticut, the driver finds respite in a 30-mile stretch of I-684 through Katonah and Armonk in New York. But the sweeping curve onto I-287 is a jolt back to reality. Suddenly and without warning, there is an overwhelming volume of cars, all screaming toward the Tappan Zee Bridge.

There is no mercy here. Don't bring beginners around here or they may return their permits. This is also a place where road work never ceases. Five-mile backups to the Tappan Zee seem almost inevitable. Even the breathtaking sweep of the bridge as it spans the Hudson River near Nyack, N.Y., does nothing to soothe the pain that by now is physical as well as emotional, afflicting the back and the knees. Car time has
been close to four hours.

Heading south at Nanuet, N.Y., onto the Garden State Parkway and past the ''Welcome to New Jersey'' sign, there is reason for optimism: an easy-access rest stop... I have made this drive for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, bar mitzvahs and a lifetime's worth of family gatherings. I swear I'm never doing it again -- until my mother comes out to the car, bursting with love and welcome, and says, ''You made good time!''

This isn't to say that I'm not looking forward to seeing all the N family, but I am a bit scared of making the trip with the lil guy.

Baby goes boom...

Okay so it turns out that there IS a reason why these swingy chairs have straps in them.... same reason why they are so LOW and CLOSE to the ground. Yep, once your kid starts wiggling themselves around they can wiggle right out of these puppies. So, Monito took his first tumble - as I sat at the computer basically looking on nonchallantly (bad mothering magazine Sept 06 Issue) - but he took it great - Just looked up at me sorta surprised as he lay on the floor. No crying, No bumps (that I could see or feel).

So now the boy is pretty content to play by himself (maybe he did bump his head ??). He is listening to music as I vacuum (Thank you again Kathy B.) the office and hallway and Swiffer the kitchen. I also find myself doing non-necessary but compulsive "cleaning" such as rearranging the books on the bookshelf because they just don't look right to me. When Em is next home alone she'll probably re-do my re-do .. oh well. And continuing the project of MP3ing all of our CD's into the computer memory. What I should be doing is paying bills and making sure all the thank-you cards have been written and mailed, walking the dog and doing the nasty dirty dishes... BUT I hate those chores... waaahh.

I also submitted the boy to be studied at Harvard by the baby-studiers. I am not sure if they accept premies.. but if they do it could be fun.

I still miss my old life & home really really bad... Em switches to nights next week and that means that We'll be getting to see more of her. ... isn't that ass-backwards ??

Update...

Its 12:30 and I have a few minutes (or at least I hope I do). Monito is napping in his crib and so I am taking the moment to catch up and to record some more CD's onto our hard drive - soon all of our music will be MP3'd (yee haw) and available to the Palm (for me) & the new Ipod (for em). So we are 4 months, 1 week and 4 days old according to my gator ticker... the past few days the lil' guy has been working on getting both of his fists in his mouth at the same time, but has mainly settled on a 3 finger suck as his current favorite. He has grabbed a toy at least a couple of times and brought it up to his mouth for gumming (yeah!!! Go Blasto) - he is kicking his lil paws - or kickers as emily calls them with furor - whether on his bouncy chair where the kicks give him a ride or in the bathtub where he is rewarded with splashes or just on the bed where he kicks away at the air.

We do not do a lot of tummy time so he isn't really getting much practice at a "roll over" - I am trying to remember to put him down on his belly a little bit more - but he doesn't really like it and I can't really blame him - who wants to be squooshed face down into the mattress or a blanket really ????

We (Monito & I) spent another nice weekend up at the Shire... Grandma Anne got us some chicken for Friday dinner and on Saturday morning we hit the outlets and she got the boy some great fall/winter outifits from the Osh Kosh store. (I also scored a couple of sweaters & we got em a few shirts for the hospital). When Phancy arrived they tested out their new Jogging style stroller by taking the boy out for an hour long walk. He decided to skip most of his naps while we were up there so we've been a little challenged with bedtimes the past 2 nights... funny how the last thing a SUPER TIRED baby wants to do is sleep - screaming is such a better option -
Em has been taking some late night (that means 9:30 pm by the way) walks with the boy in the bjorn.

Honestly I can't believe how lucky we are to have scored such a cute & generally sweet baby. I fall in love a little bit each day.

And don't forget to look at the photos ... they are up on flickr

2 Fathers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qf0puHJ-KM

Bathtime for Monito

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlNQ-vP637M

Sushi Boy - 4 Months old

Little Monito
is 4 months old today (and also celebrating one year from his conception date)
and we broke out our favorite outfit of the 3-6 month pile. Besides being a stylish
sushi design - with sushi on the pants, chopsticks on the shirt and a couple of goldfish on the shoes... these are the SOFTEST clothes ever. I can't stop touching him when he's wearing them.

Meditations on 4 months...
I guess the biggest thing for me is how I have seen the boy change in the past weeks from a little dependant guy to someone with a personality that he can use his face, feet & hands to express. There are little things that he does that are HUGE - like when you hold him now he HOLDS onto you... He wraps his arm around your shoulder & HUGS - Oh my god... the feeling is beyond words. And his playful smiling games are amazing, as are the sounds & chirps that he makes - both to just amuse himself & also to get a grownups attention. He is an unbelievably happy kid - he spends 98% of his awake time playful, cooing & kicking and only a little bit of totally crappy crying & screaming time. Em & I know we are blessed. PLUS he is so so so so friggin' cute. I am enchanted by his big blues and the smile makes you forget what you are doing.

All in all its pretty much a love fest over here in Cambridge. I am still a little in shock that this is my life right now - but he is the most amazing companion in this journey...