Monkeyin' around

Here are some recent pictures of Jane, including some of her dressed up for Halloween as a monkey. We actually could not convince her to get in her costume on Halloween night (she put up a convincing counter argument: hysterics), so these pics were taken on Saturday when she was much more agreeable.

Jane runs the Army 10-miler!

OK, not really, but she is now officially a walking toddler! We're all very excited, but maybe a tad unready for the whole transition to walking. But so far, so good. No black eyes or scary falls -- yet. Just kidding. It's pretty amazing to watch her go, and improve her balance, too. They grow up fast, as they say.

Here's a short video of an early walk. A warning about the video: you may want to turn your sound down before viewing because there is loud yelling from excited parents. :-)

And here are some more recent pictures.

First steps!

On Friday, Jane took her first two steps on her own! She's been walking around with me or Liz holding her hands in the last few weeks, but this was the first time she took steps on her own. Wow, it's very exciting, but as Apple says "this changes everything!"

Rehoboth Beach for Memorial Day weekend

We just got back from a fun weekend at Reboboth Beach. We shared a house with four other families and their kids. Of course, with that many kids there was some chaos, but aside from the kiddie mayhem, it was enjoyable. The weather was perfect all weekend: mid- to high-70s during the day, in the 60s at night, and clear skies. We had some good meals, Jane got her first taste of the beach (literally), and we tried to relax as much as we could.

Here are some pictures from the trip.

Jane's First Birthday

Jane is now one year old! All the cliches about time flying and kids growing up fast have already begun to ring true -- it *is* hard to believe that it's been a whole year since she was born. It has really flown by. We had a small birthday party for her, and she had fun. She wasn't totally into the cupcake and didn't dive into it like some kids do. She studied it more than tasted it.

There are some other new developments/favorite activities that she's doing now. One thing is she loves climbing up the stairs. It always makes her happy when she gets to the top. She'll usually let out little yells. She is also pulling up all the over place and cruising as well. It looks like she is also dangerously close to standing on her own. She seems to want to do it but is not quite there yet. She's got two bottom teeth coming in, and the doctor says some teeth on the top are not too far behind. She's off the formula (yes!) and is happily eating regular food, although she doesn't like meat too much but loves her veggies -- a budding vegetarian?

Here are some pictures from her birthday party. (I've moved over to flickr.com because it's much easier, and time is a premium these days.)

Jane at 11 months

Hard to believe that in a few weeks Jane will be a year old! I know it's been a while since I've posted any new pictures, so this slideshow is 3 months worth. She has become pretty proficient at crawling although she is a not a long distance crawler... her specialty is more like very short bursts of crawling. She loves standing up (with helping hands from a grown up) and will go up and down for hours. OK, minutes is more accurate but the point is she loves it. She's eating real food now and is doing very well in that department. But she has no teeth yet! Something to look forward to. She's been doing the sort of babbling thing and making vowel sounds. And as you can see, she's still working on the hair, but it's starting to get a bit thicker. All in all she's really doing well. Enjoy the pictures!

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Ladies and gentlemen, we now have crawling!

Jane has reached a milestone -- she has started to crawl! It is a tentative, sort-of shuffling crawl, but a full-on crawl nonetheless. Legs and arms move together, for the most part, and she can go about a foot or two. It was amazing when I watched her do it. Amazing to watch her figure it out. We, of course, had to put the proverbial carrot out in front of her (in this case a book) to motivate her, but it worked! I have some video of her doing it for the first time. And that's the first time that I saw, anyway. Our daycare provider tells us that she has not seen Jane crawl before, so I'm gonna assume that I saw it first. I'd like to put the video online, but I've got a feeling that may never happen. Maybe some pics!

Welcome to 2008

2007 is dead, long live 2008! Well, maybe it should just live for a year... 2007 has been an exciting and eventful year for us. Of course, first and foremost, Jane was born in May, so that was the most exciting thing that's happened to us this year. We've now been in our new house for a year, and we really like it. And there was also some excitement (and anxiety) for me job-wise with our re-org and then my resulting promotion.

We had a fun, but busy, Christmas and New Year's. Jane enjoyed her first Christmas although we're sure she was not aware of what was really happening. She did really like playing w/ the wrapping paper (ie, grabbing it, crumpling it, and stuffing it in her mouth). And she looked very cute in her Christmas dress. We spent a lot time with family and friends over the holidays, and Jane loved all the action and attention.

Looking forward to 2008, we have 2 weddings we'll probably be traveling for, and my sister is graduating from college, so we'll be heading out of town for that too. And Jane will be turning 1yr old this year too. Otherwise, I don't need a crystal ball to know that we'll have plenty of stuff to keep us busy and happy.

Jane at 8 months

It's hard to believe that Jane is already 8 months old. It's amazing to watch her learn and develop. She's able to sit on her own (when we put her in a sitting position), she's been very grabby in the last few weeks, and we think she is teething because of her prodigious amount of drool. And she is (slowly) growing more hair! She is really a lot of fun these days.

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First Halloween in the Spring

Our first Halloween in Silver Spring was a good one, and a learning experience. Both Liz and I haven't participated in a Halloween, ie, giving out candy, in many, many years. So we were not sure what to expect not only because we were in a new neighborhood but also because we haven't done this a while. It went well but we had a couple of lessons learned.

Lesson 1: When your side of the street has no sidewalk, kids will not come to your house. This may necessitate you chasing kids down in order to give out your candy (see Lesson 2).

Lesson 2: Buying too much candy is always better than not buying enough. But in our neighborhood, it appears that 10 bags of candy is way too much.

Lesson 3: When you leave a bowl of candy out on your front stoop in order to try to get rid of the excess, the kids will swarm around the bowl like sharks (I watched safely from inside). And in that situation, the oldest girls will always try to maintain order by insisting that the other kids only take 2 pieces of candy. Usually not that effective to try to regulate candy in a "free market" front stoop (I watched safely from inside).

Lesson 4: Dressing your infant daughter in a ridiculous costume is awesome (but that kind of goes without saying, don't it?).

Jane at 5 months

This week Jane hit the 5 month mark. She's continuing to smile all the time (as you can see in the pics), she's getting good at propping herself up while on her tummy (although for short periods of time), she gets *very* talkative now (well, not talking... how about vocalizing), and she loves to thump her legs down on her bed while we're trying to get her to sleep.

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Crafty weekend

This past weekend was fairly busy but fun. And the beautiful fall weather didn't hurt one bit. I don't usually do a blow-by-blow, but here goes...

Friday night we went over to A&E's for a pizza dinner. We got to see their baby girl who is very cute and also their 2.5 yr old girl as well. So it was good catching up w/ them -- sounds like everything is going well.

Saturday afternoon my mom came by for a visit w/ Jane and brought over a bracelet that used to be my sister's when she was a baby. So I guess you could say Jane gets her first family heirloom. It's great to have that stuff. Saturday night we went over to T&R's for a party which was cool. We don't get to see them very often, so it was good to see them for a bit, plus we got to see their little daughter who ain't so little anymore. Jane came w/ us cos she likes to party. Well, only if it's early. Well, okay, she likes to party somewhat, and then when she doesn't, she really doesn't. So we left at around 8pm -- it was a quick stop at the party.

Later that night I watched Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, which is a Korean movie and part of a thematic trilogy about revenge and vengeance. The second movie in the trilogy was Old Boy, which is very good but disturbing. It was also controversial because there was speculation that the VA Tech shooter may have been "inspired" by the movie in some way. In any case, SFLV was decent but disappointing to me even though it seemed to get high marks from others on netflix.

Sunday, to top off our weekend, we headed down to Adams Morgan for the Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair that was put on by the City Paper. We took the metro down -- Jane's first time! -- and walked over from our old 'hood, Columbia Heights. The development and building that's going on at 14th and Irving is pretty incredible to see. It looks completely different now that the structures are up for the DCUSA mall and the various condo/apt buildings. Wild. Liz and I couldn't help but speculate how bad the traffic will be once everything's up and running. But w/ the metro stop right there, hopefully that'll diminish traffic some...

Anyway, on our way to Adams Morgan we walked past Mt. Pleasant and were pleasantly (sorry) surprised to see that the DC Fiesta 2007 was going on in Mt. P. We didn't stop but I *did* manage to spot Ian MacKaye standing on Mt. P. Street. He's easy to spot, and I figured he'd be at something like that, but still I was pretty impressed w/ myself. After that I started singing Everybody Knows by the Evens in my head because there's a line that goes "Washington is our city". Don't know why really, but I did.

Got down to the Crafty fair, and it was crowded. Many, many booths. A big product being sold: t-shirts! I don't think there really is that much of a demand for t-shirts, but hey what do I know? I think every other booth sold t-shirts of some sort. But we did pick up a bib for Jane and some mounted photos of DC. Then we popped over to Lauriol Plaza for some Mexican for lunch and to feed Jane.

After lunch we hightailed it back to CH metro to get our girl home! She did really well while we were out. We were very happy with how she handled it, and she was in a good mood just about the entire time. We then got home and Milton came over w/ some Chinese for dinner, so we chilled out w/ him that evening.

Jane at 4 months

Jane turned 4 months old last week. She started up daycare and Liz started back at work, so we've had lots of new adjustments to everyone's routine. Jane's been really smiley and generally happy. Next week is the big 4 month check up at the doctor. Jane gets to have some shots so no one will be happy about that.

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Labor Day and Summer come and gone

As the work week creeps up on us once again, I'm left w/ the empty feeling of really, really not wanting to go to work tomorrow. More than usual. We had a good weekend, I think. Got some house stuff done -- there's always house stuff to do. And I hung a picture in our bedroom! (You have to be proud of all the things you do, big or little. That's what I say, anyway.) But even with that level of accomplishments, it still doesn't make me feel like going back to work. It's too enjoyable spending time w/ Liz and Jane.

Life with Jane is just going really well right now. She's super smiley and happy and funny now. She just makes Liz and I laugh. She just turned 4 months old last week, and she continues to eat well and sleep well... well, except for small hiccups like below. But it's really great. We took some afternoon walks this weekend w/ the dog and Jane in the baby Bjorn, and it was just really nice. I was thinking back on our trip to Rehoboth over the Fourth of July and how we were still waking up w/ Jane every 2-3 hours to feed her and how hectic that was. And now she sleeps from basically 9pm to 6am, and it's unbelievable! I'll have some new pictures up soon.

Back to the weekend...

We got some crabs on Sunday night w/ my brother and his wife. The crabs were really good. Had to pony up for the large ones. They're def not cheap -- and haven't been for some time -- but we do it so rarely that I don't mind spending the extra cash. Funny, but I don't think Bethesda Crab House uses many Bay crabs anymore. After we had just sat down, some guys wheeled in several large boxes of crabs with "BWI" stickers on them. Guess they were flown in from Louisiana or somewhere down there on the Gulf of Mexico. Wherever they came from, they were really good.

On Sat afternoon we spent some time w/ Aunt Cathy, Gammy, Milton, and Jane's cousins, Braeden and Abby. That was fun. I haven't seen Braeden and Abby in ages, probably since Easter. They're both getting so big. Jane was a little worn out from that visit. In fact I think Jane was worn out from the weekend in general. Today we went down to Tyson's to do a little shopping (it was a bit crowded and crazy), and Jane was just waaaay over stimulated. Liz and I both agree we'll have to wait until she gets bigger to do stuff like this with her in the future. She just likes to see all the stuff going on around her too much, and she wears herself out. Doesn't seem like she can shut things out and just fall asleep like some kids. Granted, shutting out a busy day at the mall is pretty tough to do for anybody, but some kids are able to crash out in their strollers. We saw 'em.

So, now it's the symbolic end of summer. I love autumn here, but I'm definitely a summer person. I'm always sad to see it go.

Whole new world

Today, Jane turned 15 weeks old (I'll be happy when I can stop counting in weeks... maybe I can do that now?) and started her first day of daycare. We're doing a nanny share with a family who lives in our 'hood. It seemed like a pretty good situation when we first discovered/heard about it, and so far we like the nanny. Liz was very worried and stressed about Jane starting daycare, plus she went back to work today too. So, this is a new twist on being new parents that we're sorting through. But Liz, as always, has been very focused on this and has just about thought of everything in order to keep things from falling apart. And for that, I'm very thankful. Liz has been focused on Jane and being a (great) mom, and I've been tyring my best to be a helpful dad and husband.

But the baby thing continues to open our eyes to a whole new world. Now as parents we have to worry about China. Not China as in "those commie reds," but China as in "that country that supplies the US (world?) with baby products." Seriously, seemingly every baby product we own -- from toys to clothes and everything else except our bottles -- are produced in China. And now that China has demonstrated that their standards for quality control are not the greatest, we've got to worry like crazy people whether our baby is exposed to all sorts of bad stuff. I knew I was signing up for (partly) a lifetime of worry by having a baby, but this is some serious modern-day worrying. Sure doesn't seem like the garden-variety worrying my parents did (eg, out past curfew, did he dress himself properly today, etc.).

Now I pay attention to all sorts of parent/child-related content on the web... such as this, uh, interesting story about people reserving domain names for their kids. Who knew? Not me. But in this case, I don't think I'll be reserving a domain for Jane. That just seems a bit excessive.

Jane at 12 weeks

This past Wed (8/1), Jane hit the 12 week mark. So now at 3 months, her lifetime achievements include meeting her great grandmother, continuing to add OZ's (altho she's still small compared to other babies her age), smiling a *lot*, sleeping for 5-6 hr stretches at night, and shrieking happily while watching the mobile in her crib. So, life with Jane is good. She's starting to show some hints of personality now. It's still tough at times, but it's much easier and more enjoyable compared with 1 or 2 months ago. Here are the latest pics:

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Rock n Romp

Last Sat afternoon, we took Jane to the Rock n Romp at McGinty's in SS. RnR is a semi-regular event where local DC indie rock bands play at kid-friendly volume for kids and parents alike. Lately, it seems that most of the RnRs take place at McGinty's. My buddy James's band, J. Forte and the Secret Pop Band played this time around -- which is why we went -- as well as Greenland.

We got there at 3pm and chatted with James at the bar for a bit. There was a pretty good sized crowd there of kids and parents -- mostly bigger kids around ages 2 through maybe 5 (I dunno, not the greatest judge of kids' ages). The Secret Pop Band played first chugging through their indie pop -- good stuff! Some friends and my brother and sister in law joined us with their kids, too. Seemed like some kids were into it while others were definitely not into it. Jane ended up getting hungry after the Secret Pop Band played, so we split. I think it's a great idea to do that for parents and kids, but maybe next time we go will be when Jane's a bit older. We're so eager to start doing kid stuff that we just couldn't wait...

Reality Check

A little update on life in general: got a lot going on at the moment. It is beyond great to have Jane here now, and she's getting so big. We're all adjusting to each other I think, and the past 9 weeks have not been without their challenges and stressed out periods. But I guess that's probably just life w/ a newborn. Once Jane started gaining weight in earnest, we thought "well, we should be good to go -- hurdle hurdled." Jane sez, "not so fast." She's been showing some signs of acid reflux altho the doc says that it's not full blown. Whether it is reflux (I'm not completely convinced) or whether it's just garden variety gas, the bottom line is she has periods of extreme fussiness/discomfort where she will not sleep or let us lay her down. But on the plus side, Jane's way more alert now and her expressions are very funny sometimes. I say "we" have to deal w/ her fussiness, but it's actually Liz who is bearing the brunt of the cranky baby. I feel badly about it, but I gots to go to work.

Speaking of work, there's a bunch of stuff going on. Causing a bit of stress. Big decisions to make. My department's management just announced a big re-org/realignment/whatever on Tuesday. What it comes down to is whether I want to stay or whether I want to take a severance package. The packages are pretty generous, but I've got this life situation now -- baby! -- that doesn't allow me to be too cavalier about what I do. So I'm not sure whether to roll the dice and take the package or stay at the company. Oh yea, I gotta decide before midnight this coming Tuesday. Ugh.

And I'm putting some pressure on myself to get a car very soon. I currently have an old two seater (Miata), and that just ain't gonna work out w/ aforementioned life situation -- baby! We're looking at small SUVs, but I think I'm going w/ a Honda CRV, most likely a used one. There seem to be a lot of features and it gets pretty decent mileage. We're looking at the CRV type cars because we also need room for Lucy in the back. The drop dead deadline for the car purchase is mid August when Liz goes back to work. At that point I've got to have the ability to put Jane in my car. I'll be a little sad to get rid of my car, but all things must pass. I've had it for 11 years, and it has been great to me.

So, that's the update at the moment. I'm sure there are other things that need getting done (our yard is turning into a weed species showcase), but for now I'm only doing the important stuff. In fact I barely made time to write this.

Jane at 8 weeks

Here are some pix of Jane in the weeks between 4 and 8 weeks old. She turned 8 weeks on July 4 and rang it in at Rehoboth listening to fireworks (she was inside). While I was looking at some of the pictures at the beginning of the slideshow, it's clear how old they are because she's already gotten much bigger than that. Seems like she literally changes every few days... maybe I've said that before. I'll probably say it again. Anyway, she has really put on weight compared w/ 4 weeks ago, and we're really happy about that. So far the consensus seems to be that she looks most like me. I can see that, but I think Jane is showing more of Liz as she gets older. You be the judge!

Also, as you'll be able to tell, I have discovered the super close up feature on my camera. There are a lot of close up shots. A lot. So, please enjoy...

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First Father's Day

It's the end of my first Father's Day, and we all had a nice, if a bit lazy, day. It was pretty much business as usual around here: takin' care of Jane, goin' to get groceries, laundry, etc. My big Father's Day gift was a nice smile from Jane, and it was the first real one she's given me. Well, at least that's what I'm choosing to believe. Other smiles have probably been due to gas, but not today! Today's smile was the real deal, and it was the best thing that happened all day.

Sometimes Liz and I both look at Jane and still find it a bit unreal that we have this baby. But there she is, staring back at us... well, most of the time she's just asleep, but sometimes she stares back.