Alison's Parallel Pile of Sticks

2009-11-25T22:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving (tomorrow)!

Sorry yet again for the lack of updates here. We've been busy getting the new house to a livable-yet-still-boxful state, and prepping the old house for selling. If you know anyone who wants to buy a nice 4-BR in Hillsboro, send them my way :)

We haven't taken very many pictures here yet - the clutter and the early sunset (plus the fact that a default location for storing the camera has yet to be determined) make for an uninspired photographer. But I do have my phone on me when we are out and about in more photogenic surroundings, and so I have managed to get a couple of cute videos recently, which Andy has kindly stuck on YouTube.

The first will give you a toddler perspective on (a portion of) our new backyard. Malcolm is carrying and attempting to eat small green tomatoes - the house came with some plants, but just before the video I had ripped them out as the weather has definitely become too cold for them to ripen. They were pretty loaded with tiny green fruit, though, which bounced all over the yard and were a perfect target for toddler hands and mouth. Please note the lovely helmet - a Grandma knit, of course!

Second, we have a video from last night, when we went out to dinner at an all-you-can eat salad bar place (Sweet Tomatoes) which also has all-baby-can-eat Mac'n'cheese (and soup, pizza, etc). This restaurant is quickly becoming one of our go-tos, because a) it's halfway between work and our new home, b) kids under 3 (I think) eat free [and kids love mac'n'cheese], c) we could always use more veggies in our diet, and d) if you sign up on their email list they will send you coupons for a free adult dinner on a regular basis. Plus, they have ceiling fans and generally lots of hustle and bustle and kids, which seem to be key to Malcolm's enjoyment

ANYway, at the restaurant Malcolm encountered a lucky confluence of sticky mac-n-cheese and optimal angle of spoon-to-bowl, and managed to feed himself successfully for several spoonfuls. We were quite impressed. He's dabbled before in dipping into yogurt and oatmeal (and even sweet potatoes), but mac-n-cheese is a whole new level of tool use :)

And that's today's update, folks! I'll try to check in with Thanksgiving pictures soon :)

Halloween!

2009-10-31T21:32:00.001-07:00

Isn't Malcolm the cutest lil cheetah ever? He enjoyed helping us give out candy to the bigger kids, too - probably more than the brief walk-around-and-see-the neighbors that we did early in the evening. He thought it was very cool, if a bit intimidating, to watch dressed-up kids dive into the candy bowl.

Also - we're moving! This week! Closer to Portland, in the "better" school district, a block from an amazing park, library, and elementary school. The house was built in 1959, and we found the original plans rolled up in a closet. Pretty cool...
More later... though maybe not til we've unpacked...

A year and a walker

2009-09-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

bSo... yeah, it's been a while. Again. And here I am at 9:30pm trying to bang out a quick entry - and since Mr. M. is often up at 6 (if not earlier squawking, though usually he will go back to sleep for a bit after a 5AM squawk-babble session) that leaves limited time. Especially since bed was late last night.

Anyway - Malcolm had a birthday! His first, in fact :). We had a nice day (I took him in late to daycare and Andy visited him at lunch), and that morning he actually took a couple of steps. Just between me and Andy - stagger stagger collapse/hug - but it seemed like very good timing. Over the next few days he started making quick progress, and less than a week later we captured this video:

(at this point he was much more comfortable holding our hands while walking, but would do it unassisted if something really special [like Mommy's video camera] presented itself)

We took another video tonight, 3 weeks exactly after his first steps on his first birthday. It's amazing how babies change so quickly at this age - though the first months have a lot going on, the transition out of babyhood happens in the blink of an eye, really. May I introduce, then: Malcolm the Toddler!

(and yes, he's not just toddling, but toddling with definite goals, however mercurial they may be. Cabinets beware!)

Hopefully this will inspire me to get back on the blog train (and hint hint, comments would be very inspiring as well). We really need to get a 1-year (and 3 week) bear-chair picture. We'll make that a goal for this weekend :)

A final note - one of the drawbacks (or benefits) to using Youtube for video hosting is that there is a lot of extraneous clutter on the site - including suggestions for similar videos. Right now, "Malcolm Performing for his Raisin" is one of the top videos suggested to me. Hee!

Sushi, 10 months later (plus corn)

2009-08-04T20:08:00.000-07:00

Back when Malcolm was one month old, we took him to our local sushi restaurant.

He wasn't too impressed by the menu

or the foodbut conveniently slept through the meal, allowing us to eat in (relative) peace.

10 months later, eating out is not exactly peaceful, usually, but can be a lot of fun! The neighborhood sushi place is still a favorite, and they've even expanded. Malcolm is happy to look at (or chew on, or throw around) the menu...

And eat yummy noodles, and tofu, and green beans, and rice, and teriyaki salmon...

And wash it down with a sippy of water.

Mmm, sushi.
(actually, we are holding off on giving him raw fish for a while yet, but much of the rest of the Japanese cuisine is baby friendly)

One very cute pic from tonight - we had fresh corn (must be August!) for the first time this season, and after Malcolm and I had our kernels (which had been scraped from the cobs - we are both dentally challenged, me more so than him in the lateral incisor department), we gave him the denuded cobs. They amused him for a while and then he was ALL DONE. Here he demonstrates the ALL DONE sign (though he also uses it for "Oh My Gosh I Just Spotted The Kitchen Clock Up There!")
Hopefully I'll be better at updating this blog going forward. Feel free to find me on Facebook, too, where the short updates are more frequent but the pictures are fewer (shoot me a note if you don't know my full name but want to friend me :).

Still here!

2009-06-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

We're still here! I know it's been ages since I updated, but we're doing great. Just very busy, at home and at work :). In the last month and a half, we have had:

a) A visit from Grandma and Grampa and Uncle Carl, complete with a beach day

b) pulling up on furniture / couch / people - on Memorial day weekend when we also went for a nice mountain hike

c) real crawling! (finally, right at 9 months)

d) cruising the furniture (has just started in the past week)

e) love for avocados still endures, lots of other foods tried with joy (beets! crackers! ) or indifference (cauliflower... deli turkey...)

f) hung out with second cousins Braden (14 months) and Henry (2 weeks!)

g) waving bye-bye, clapping and prompted hi-fiveing

h) diagnosis of slight anemia, but on-and-off-willingness to be fed (!) applesauce mixed with rusty-nail-tasting vitamin drops

i) first expedition to swimming at the rec center; and probably unrelated but you never know:

j) another ear infection just this past weekend :(. He's only had the two, not too bad for a daycare boy, but he was just miserable at night before we got it diagnosed. Antibiotics have perked him right up, though.

k) and of course, multiple bumps and bruises from the mobility milestones b through d. He doesn't know much fear yet, though he is getting progressively better at controlling his falls.

Anyone have any requests for pictures of any of these? I am overwhelmed by the photo possibilities. And it's time for bed now, but really quickly:

To the other point of this blog, I finished Malcolm's vest, started and finished the Wisp that's been in my sidebar for ages; am working on afghan squares, and then it will be on to a baby sweater for a friend/coworker's baby. And I'll be going to the Sock Summit in August - yay! I might want to brush up on my sock knitting skills, since I will be taking a baby socks class there :)

Genre-mixing picture from Worldwide Knit in Public Day a few weeks ago. Mmmm, gauge swatch! Note the lovely vest (if I do say so myself!)

Munching and pseudo-crawling

2009-05-06T06:52:00.000-07:00

In the past week, Malcolm has figured out a couple of things. First, that solid food is actually good to eat! He still mostly doesn't want to be fed by spoon, but give him some appropriate finger foods and he now goes to town! At least until he gets sick of it and rubs his eyes... we've had an interesting time at bathtime recently!

To demonstrate, a quick video of pear-slice-noshing that occurred Saturday night:

Malcolm noshes a pear slice from Alison (& Andy & Malcolm) on Vimeo.

And the other big development - as of Sunday night (yes, it was a busy weekend) we have forward motion! The legs are not really involved yet, but he manages to drag himself where he wants to go by his arms and sheer force of will. The little dude is going to have very strong biceps, that's for sure! As you'll see in the following video, grown-up glasses (the drinking kind) are one of his favorite things. When he sees us take a drink, he often gets very insistent until we give him a sip (if water), or distract him. We're working on sippy cup use, but so far he is not very good about tipping it up enough to get much - or about not tipping it over to pour everywhere! (we're trying them without valves since he doesn't seem to get the concept of sucking on the valve yet)

Here's the pseudo-crawling video. We're not sure what to call this - pull-crawling? Dry butterfly stroke? Please don't mind the dirty floor, it was just fallen bits from dinner.

Malcolm almost crawling - 8 months! from Alison (& Andy & Malcolm) on Vimeo.

Edited to say - if the videos aren't showing up in the blog post, click on the video title link to go to Vimeo and view it there. Not sure why it doesn't appear to be working at the moment...

Rugrat!

2009-04-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

Continuing the rug replacement recap...

While we were tearing out the old rug, padding, and baseboards, Malcolm spent some time hanging out in the livingroom in his Pack-n-play, filled with nearly all his toys:

Then once we were down to the subfloor, he was allowed back in for a snack:

And a gander at the naked floor:

Once the new carpet was in, he had a fun time in the big empty room on the fun, clean, patterned floor. It's loop-style (berber), great for small baby fingers to feel the textures, and hopefully better at staying clean than a plain cut style would be.
And eventually we got the furniture back in (note nicely sorted knitting stash in the cabinet behind his head...)!(the ball is one of Malcolm's favorite toys right now, just squishy enough to pick up with one hand, interesting enough to chew on for a while, and light and bouncy enough for Mommy and Daddy to induce giggles by bouncing it off of his head!)

Bits and Pieces of March and April

2009-04-21T21:08:00.000-07:00

I'm at that point where it's been so long since I've blogged that it's a negative feedback loop - something neat happens, or I take a great picture, and I think "I should blog this!" but then the thoughts of all the other things I haven't blogged crowd in and the whole task just seems overwhelming. So I'll just jump in with some this-n-that and pictures of late March and the first bit of April.

Malcolm got an ear infection (preceded by about a month of daycare colds) and spend more time than usual napping on us.He was back to his normal self after the first dose of antibiotics, thankfully. And we have now learned that the best way to get said antibiotics into him is to lay him down, have Mommy perform a manic rendition of the Itsy Bitsy Spider while dancing about, and have Daddy squirt the stuff in a bit at a time any time he opens his mouth to grin.

KT had her baby boy, and we sent him a knitted, stuffed bass drum (KT and I met in the marching band in college). Malcolm test-drove it and pronounced it yummy. I did wash before sending :)

Malcolm turned 7 months! And he now pulls Bo the Bear completely in front of him, which makes the picture not so great for showing his growth...Bo knows babies...

Sans Bo.

In early April we got new carpet in the family room - the old was in pretty nasty shape by the walls where, well, the cats (ours and probably previous owners' too) had had their way with it. We figured something new before Malcolm got mobile would be ideal.

Here's a before, in the process of clearing out the room:

And Malcolm, having a last roll on the old carpet:This is all I have time for tonight - new carpet in the next post!

Beware the Turtles!

2009-03-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

Just another quicky post. Malcolm's daycare notes today were funny. He got his first "incident/accident report for parent". It's a very official looking form which had to be signed by the director of the center. Here are the details (don't worry, it's amusing):

Nature of Incident/Accident: Malcolm hit himself in the forehead with a turtle (plastic).
Action Taken: Picked him up and comforted him. He recovered quickly. Slight mark.

(we couldn't see a mark and he was fine when I picked him up)

His daily sheet (which lists his diapers, bottles, and naps, and has a space for a day summary) said "Malcolm sat and played and played with the stacking turtles. Then he smacked one into his forehead (see accompanying accident report) - after that, bottle and bed"

Poor guy, attacked by a turtle at daycare. I'd want bottle and bed too, after that.

Really, it's all good. See?

Belated Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

Malcolm had the following to say to the loyal readers of this blog, after having a meal of sweet potatoes on St. Patrick's day:

Malcolm's first St. Patrick's day from Alison (& Andy & Malcolm) on Vimeo.

That's our boy!

Half a year old!

2009-03-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

As of almost 2 weeks ago (I plead illness for the delay in blogging- the first daycare cold, of course, hitting me worse than Malcolm, but hitting Malcolm enough that his sleep has been a bit rocky some nights) - Malcolm is half a year old! He's experienced the end of summer, all of fall, and most of winter. We took him out in the stroller today during a brief "sunshower" amidst the rain, and he squealed with joy to see the sun and be out and about. He's loving daycare - "wow! They have babies here!" - and his teachers love him, and always rave about his smiley and observant disposition. And he's rolling all over the place!

Let's see, what else has he been up to recently? The 6 month bear photoshoot pictures aren't that great, mainly because he would grab the bear and wrestle with it before I could get set to take the picture. So we have the great half-yearly bear-chair wrestling tournament:

ding ding! The match begins!

Bo is off to an early lead. Where's the baby?

Malcolm recovers (with some help from Mommy) and goes on the offensive...

Malcolm for the win! 6 month olds always beat stuffed bears :)

What else has he been up to lately?

Video-chatting with Grandma and Grampa in Wayland. Pixelated area is a knit gift-in-progress which I don't want to spoil for the recipient('s mother). Grandma's on TV and plays peekaboo!

Snoozing in the carseat... (note the lovely hat, and the corner of a knitted blanket from KT!)

Sitting in the box in which two pairs of baby shoes arrived. We were proving the ridiculousness of the size of the box, which could contain both pairs of shoes (in their fancy cases no less!) plus the baby!
Attempting to eat banana pieces (with Mommy and Daddy keeping a close eye!) - making this face ("what the heck was that? Eeew! or, mmmm?!?" - then squishing pieces back into his mouth - lather, rinse, repeat... He does seem to like the idea of finger foods, though of course we're only letting him try a few very soft things. But he also likes one puree in particular:

Sweet potatoes!

We can't believe that in less than 6 months he'll be eating off the table with us (well, with modifications, of course)!

6 months - preview

2009-03-01T20:37:00.001-08:00

We got some professional photographs taken today to celebrate Malcolm's upcoming 6 month birthday :). The photographer, Jennifer of All That Jazz Photography (click "family and wedding" not "boudoir"!), shot us in her garage-turned-studio, and we got digital copies and rights to all 300+ photos. She was great and we had a great time, with just a few tears. It will take me a while to go through them, but here is a small sample:

Cute!

Cute and snotty! (we may be able to photoshop out the runny nose)

Where did he get his blue eyes?

Not more pictures (loooove the pout) !!

ZOMG!

Cuddlin' with Mommy...

Half smiles with Daddy...

There are tons more good ones - if you want a link to all 300+, drop me a line and I'll send it to you. Now I need to go get stuff ready for his first full day of daycare tomorrow!!! (eeps)

Cereal and videos

2009-02-28T20:27:00.000-08:00

For the past few days we've been offering Malcolm some (highly milked-down) rice cereal after his evening bottle-feeding. He's generally been happy to play with the spoon, but would make a "yuck" face if any got in his mouth, and would push the spoon away and clamp shut. We didn't want to force the issue, but were wondering when he would decide this stuff might be edible and actually seem interested in trying some (after all, he's almost six months old!). Tonight, he made the same "yuck" face when we put some on his lip, but then opened up for the spoon! He kept opening and lunging for the spoon while making the yuck (or maybe just skeptical) face at each spoonful! Funny little guy... most of it ended up on his chin, but we think some made it in. It's amazing to think that in just 6 months he will be eating the same foods as we are!

And I have two videos to present (these are especially for Grampa, who requested recent videos). First, Malcom splashing in the bath tonight! He just figured out how to do this last night!

Malcolm learns to splash in the bath! from Alison (& Andy & Malcolm) on Vimeo.

And second, a very cute boy giggling in his Bumbo a couple of weeks ago. For some reason he decided that me bobbing my head up and down was the funniest thing ever. It was very nice, especially since Daddy gets more of the giggles usually... I'm glad to have the laugh for posterity, because it is such a cute little heh-heh-heheheheheheh.

Malcolm's giggles from Alison (& Andy & Malcolm) on Vimeo.

6 month update coming later this week...

Things Malcolm has been up to...

2009-02-21T17:15:00.000-08:00

since turning 5 months... (i.e. Mommy doesn't have time for a lot of text...)

Attending his first non-relative dinner party.

Learning to sit (pants and sweater by a knitting friend of mine).

Sitting in the bath.

Chewing his toes.

Helping me prune the roses.

Turning 5 and a half months!

and, after all that tires him out...

Napping without a swaddle*!
(doesn't the cuteness just slay you? :)

* we put him to sleep initially on his back, but since he can roll over (oh yeah, add that to the things he's been up to, though he does it inconsistently), the AAP says he can sleep on his side or his tummy now. He seems to prefer the side or 3/4-rolled positions. This is just for naps, right now, but we will be attempting un-swaddled night sleep soon!

FO: Matching hats!

2009-02-21T16:26:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Circular Bicolour Prime Rib (Brioche) Hat by Megan Mills
For baby size, started pattern after first set of decreases (though the adult is pretty small unstretched and actually could have fit him, just very loosely!)

This was fun! Since only one color is used per round (despite the striped appearance), it was fairly easy to pick up and put down as baby allowed. I used Cascade Fixation (the green) and some brown Madil Zaffiro, the other ball of which had become Andy's Coding Gloves. The pattern has a lot of stretch, and the Fixation of course is part elastic, so Malcolm's should grow with him - until it runs out of length! Both father and son needed spring hats, and I'm hoping these will serve for a while.

Next up - gift knitting; not sure what after that. I am trying to knit from stash for a bit as I have more yarn than I really need at the moment (don't we all?).

5 months!

2009-02-08T12:35:00.000-08:00

Wow, time sure flies. I'm pretty sure it was just the other day that I was posting that Malcolm was two months old...

This 5-month picture is late because a) my Mom was in town and we spent time with her rather than blogging, and b) I went back to work last week so wanted to spend time with Malcolm rather than blogging. b) will always be the case from now on, but I should manage to sneak in the odd blog after he goes to bed (but there goes the knitting time!) or during naps (if only they'd become > half an hour). Or, you know, during my breaks at work. Heh. Work was pretty quiet since my boss was out sick for the first couple of days, so I still got to come home early; and Andy and I availed ourselves of the free babysitting which Grandma offered, and went into Portland to our favorite restaurant (though, I'm not sure I enjoyed it as much as previously, I think they're trying a little too hard). Of course we mostly talked about Malcolm, but it was nice to go to a grownup restaurant and have time to order appetizers and desserts!

Anyway, the best bear-chair picture this month shows a somewhat grumpy Malcolm - I think he was getting sick of being posed in the chair. He has taken to whining sometimes - kind of a sheeplike bleating - which is better than all-out wailing but still kind of annoying. But annoying in a cute way, of course. We still get the all-out wailing on occasion, most often when overtired - like the other night in the bath where we had the gall to take away the washcloth he was chewing! Looks like we'll need more washcloths per bath since he has decided they're toys - I'd better get knitting!
Lots and lots of developmental stuff going on recently - not so much rolling (he's only done back-to-front a couple more times), but he's gotten very interested in sitting unsupported. He can do this for a couple of minutes, or more if we gently place a leg or pillow behind and around him. It's a whole new way to play with toys! Here he is sitting (highly supervised by Daddy!) on the kitchen counter and playing with a nearly empty plastic cookie box:

He also grins a ton and giggles a lot, especially for Daddy. One of his favorite games is to be carried by Andy, feet out, and be rushed over to me so I can kiss or raspberry those chubby feet. Here's a blurry action shot - I love this picture for the wide grin!

And one final pic - he is not hating tummy time as much now, though it still becomes crank-worthy after a few minutes. He has figured out that he can grab at toys from that position, which keeps him occupied a bit. Somehow I managed to take a really great picture of him - not sure how, but I got the camera to do that "fuzzy background" thing. As opposed to the fuzzy foreground in many others :D. Just a bit of demon-baby redeye, but that's not a big deal...

I have also done knitting (huzzah!) and will blog about it in another post... As a matter of preview, matching baby-daddy hats are very cute!

4.5 months and on a roll

2009-01-20T21:09:00.000-08:00

Sometime around now, Malcolm is 4 and a half months old! So we went back to the bear chair.

Playing with Bo the bear is old hat by now:
look at those chubby feet! Compare this picture to his 4-week chair picture :)

He likes to have dinner with us when his naps allow (though if he's napping during dinner, we honestly don't mind eating just the two of us either), sitting in the Bumbo, trying to chew on Sophie le Giraffe. He's started watching us eat, but not with any particular longing to join in yet, we think. We have a (belated) pediatrician appointment on Friday (his doctor had surgery and so his 4-month appt was delayed) and will ask about her philosophy on starting solids. Even if we wait til 6 months, that's not too long now! Andy is excited to cook baby food and introduce Malcolm to new tastes.

He has also started enjoying his new Exersaucer - though mostly it is a venue for him to practice standing (he LOVES to stand, though not so much to sit or be on his tummy) without Mommy or Daddy holding him, and chew on his hands or the towels we sometimes use to prop him up. But he has discovered one of the toys on it, and will sometimes play with an intense look of concentration:

Finally, today Malcolm and I watched the inauguration (well, it was interrupted by a diaper change right at the beginning of the inaugural address, unfortunately, but we caught most of it). I was glad to be able to watch history being made, but Malcolm was not so interested, so spent most of the time on his playmat. I guess he wanted to get my attention, because towards the end of the ceremony his playing got especially thrashy and he rolled over onto his tummy! He looked surprised and pleased for a few moments and then began the "I hate tummy time" crankies. Now, we'll have to see if that was a fluke or if we really have a roller on our hands! It hasn't happened again so far...

Milestones

2009-01-14T21:41:00.001-08:00

We are loving 4 months over here! Malcolm is so smiley (when he's not cranky), and has started reliably giggling (usually at Daddy's wacky antics). He now actually likes going out and about, maybe better than staying in - we made a fun and calorific expedition downtown over the weekend - Malcolm's first ice cream shop, city-block-wide-bookstore, and gourmet drinking chocolate cafe. He hung out in the front carrier looking around, took a nap there, had a snack in the Art section of Powells, and enjoyed his first streetcar ride.The past week or so he has achieved some milestones!

He finally got to pet the cats, actually getting a handful of Sasha's fur and then her collar. She was remarkably patient. Cirrus is a little more skittish, but a couple of days later also got grabbed a little bit.
He is working on mobility - and while we don't have consistent rolling and certainly no crawling, he can rotate like clock hands while working on rolling onto his side.

The other day he started in this position, looking at that kooky baby in the mirror:

And pulling up his knees for the side roll practice, which also served to rotate him:

After a few minutes of this, he was almost 180 degrees around:And then 270 degrees:
And a full 360, yeah!
Self-satisfied portrait in the mirror, with new favorite toy Tigger (who is an amusingly bizarre hybrid of classic Tigger and a fuzzy beach ball gifted from Uncle Carl)

The final milestone explains why he's been so into gnawing on his hands, our noses, our chins, and Daddy's delicious head...
Malcolm has his first tooth! Yes, at only 4 months old, the bottom middle left tooth has popped through just this week. We noticed last week that his gnawing had become distinctly sharp, and a few days later the tooth came through. I was also an early teether - it seems to run in my Mom's family. We are hoping this explains some of his crankiness!

Of course I couldn't get a picture - the camera has a bit of a delay and he kept getting his tongue and lips in the way. But there is definitely a millimeter or so of white (sharp!) tooth poking up. We wonder if the next one is starting because he's still quite gnaw-ish and more cranky today. Though he did enjoy an outing to the local sushi place for dinner tonight

4 months!

2009-01-10T14:16:00.000-08:00

Since I can't remember how many weeks old Malcolm is any more (er, 18? 19?), I guess it's time to go to monthly pictures. I'll still try to put something up weekly, though, since his skills are developing faster than ever. And I'm even getting back into knitting a bit (we'll see how long this lasts since I'm going back to work in a few weeks too) so maybe there will be actual knitting-related posts as well.

Malcolm turned 4 months old (on January 3) while we were in Boston at my folks'. So for this picture, he's in a different chair, and the part of Bo the Bear will be played by "Rexer", my childhood stuffed T-rex.

His pants were made by Grandma ("Loisknits" on Ravelry), from the "Pimp My Longies" pattern (Mom, let me know if that isn't the right link). See how she pimped 'em? This way we know which side the short rows (in the bum) are on.

They are super soft and comfy - she also made Andy a sweater from the same yarn. I'll have to get a picture of "the boys" in their matching wear.

We had a great time: made it to the airport (had to put chains on the car to get out of the neighborhood, but the highways were OK), did OK on the plane (only 3 meltdowns), and on the return trip (also 3 meltdowns, but shorter in duration). Vacation was nice and relaxing, and Malcolm(and us!) really enjoyed hanging out with his uncles, aunts, grandparents, cousins, and various kinds of 2nd cousins with a great aunt and other friends thrown in there too.

Well, someone's nap is ending so I will wrap this up, but will try to make another entry later this weekend.

16 weeks and Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T15:34:00.000-08:00

Malcolm says...

Happy Holidays everyone! And tomorrow I'm taking my first plane ride to see my Grandma, Grandpas, Uncles, Aunts, and Cousins! P.S. - I love this bear! (and Daddy making faces at me behind the camera...)

(fingers crossed that the melt that started this afternoon continues - it would be nice not to have to drive to the airport in chains...)

Arctic Blast!

2008-12-22T21:39:00.000-08:00

So, we are having TONS of snow (with a lovely layer of ice in between). TONS. Not just tons for Portland (which would be maybe a few inches) but tons for snowier cities. Well, I haven't lived in a snowier city for 10 years, so I may be misremembering (especially since we have a distinct lack of snowplows here, so it builds and builds), but it's over a foot! And there is the matter of that lovely layer of ice... the city is pretty well shut down, and in fact Portland's county (which is not ours) has declared a state of emergency so that they can get state and national guard resources. Yikes!

Anyway, we haven't driven since Saturday, and going a bit stir-crazy, decided to make an expedition to the grocery store, about half a mile's walk. Malcolm doesn't have a snowsuit, so we put him in a largish fleece pajama over his regular clothes and sweater, a nice warm Jayne hat which a friend knit for "wee cap'n Mal" (KT has an adult-sized pattern here), and red furry socks as mittens. I eventually zipped my coat around his feet and tucked my scarf (Christmas gift from KT a couple of years ago!) around his neck too. He was content (as long as I was moving) to chill (hah!) in the Beco baby carrier and watch the snowy world (and Daddy). Here are a few pictures:

starting out:"whoa, it's all, like, white out here"
We made it! Lots of folks stocking up, and our neighbors toldus later that they had talked to the grocery store manager - the chain (Albertsons') had told him that they couldn't make deliveries today (some of the highways are closed!) so he called up local restaurant supply places and got produce that way. Hence the garlic, yams, etc looked a bit rough as they were not meant for display. Yay, local grocery store manager!

On the way back, Malcolm had a nice nap while I had a soda. Then we stopped in at the aforementioned neighbors' for tea. One of the neighbors is from Ireland, so of course they had Barry's tea - nice!
Oh, and we're supposed to fly out of here on Thursday, and there's another storm forecast for Wednesday... wish us luck!

15 weeks

2008-12-20T21:26:00.000-08:00

Whoops, well, we skipped 14 weeks... but Malcolm is getting big enough that weekly pictures aren't a necessity. See how Malcolm is admiring the bear (or maybe the thought of his cute self) here!At 15 weeks (yikes, 3 and a half months!) Malcolm is definitely reaching for things, studying things intently, and even will tolerate having a book read to him if it is interesting looking. He didn't used to like to sit on laps! We've had some laughs/giggles which sound more like "heh heh heh", particularly in response to the "Daddy far away.... DADDY UP CLOSE!" game, which in the right mood will result in Malcolm chortling, opening his mouth, and attempting to shove both fists in :)He's also gotten into standing, and will suddenly go straight and stiff in our arms, our cue to prop him up on his feet to look around (especially at whoever is not holding him) or even try to reach for things. I wanted to add a picture here, but we don't have any great ones... will try for one later.

In the right mood, he'll take to tummy time like a seal... for short periods, anyway. No rolling yet except the occasional accidental front-to-back.

He's still got an odd schedule - during the day, he can only be awake for an hour and a half before needing a nap, which might last between 30 minutes and 3 hours (though the 3 hour naps have gotten rarer, sadly). He can nap in the baby carrier or the carseat, though often not as well as in the bouncy chair. I'm not going to mention nightime sleep since I have now learned that to do so invites smiting by the Sleep Gods... ;)

More posts tomorrow, probably - we're having a blizzard and an ice storm, and so there should be more time for the internets...

3 months (=13 weeks)

2008-12-07T20:11:00.000-08:00

Malcolm's month- and week- birthday lined up this week - he was 3 months (or 13 weeks) on Wednesday! We took his photoshoot in the morning, and for the first time, he actually seemed to notice the bear! He's been grabbing (or waving at and randomly opening and closing his hands near) things this week, and decided to go for Bo! The best pic I got is a bit off-center, but includes both a grabbing hand and a smile for the camera :)

We even got a little video:

Malcolm notices his bear! from Alison (& Andy & Malcolm) on Vimeo.

He's also gotten really into sucking on his hands this week. He discovered them a few weeks back, but didn't really do anything with them. Now, it's drool, slobber, suck... If we give him a napkin or burp cloth to hold at the same time, he will kind of wipe up his own drool :)

No knitting update today - I am rather behind on the one thing I am trying to do for Christmas. Hmm, I should go get it...

Napping in the bouncy chair

2008-12-05T09:14:00.001-08:00

a comparison.

2 days old:
4 days away from 3 months old:
At his 2 month appointment he'd grown 4 inches over birth (from 20" to 24"), and I'd guess he's added at least another one or two to that. He's growing lengthwise out of his 0-3 month onesies, but the 3-6 month ones are a bit roomy in girth. Andy and I both have height in the family, though neither of us is particularly tall (and I also have plenty of short in the family). It will be interesting to see if he continues long and lean...

And yes, we still swaddle him for naps and bedtime (and for calming him down when the crankiness takes over). Good thing I bought these extra-large swaddle blankets on Etsy (from this seller's shop) before he was born! Regular receiving blankets certainly wouldn't cut it now. We're using the Miracle Blanket (i.e. Baby Straightjacket) at night and slightly dreading what will happen when he grows out of it. Knock on wood, but last night he slept for 8.5 hours!

Bumbo bumbo bumbo bumbo... (and sweaters)

2008-11-29T18:00:00.000-08:00

One of those words that's just fun to say! Til we took an interest in baby gear, we had no idea what a Bumbo was. Is it a variant of the cheesehead?

No, silly Andy, it's a baby seat for babies who can't sit up yet! Technically they're supposed to have complete head control, which Malcolm doesn't quite, but he's small enough that the back supports his head a bit, and he can hold it up really well when he wants to.

He will sit in the Bumbo while I have my breakfast in the morning... and it makes a great seat to showcase knitted sweaters...
Yes, I finally finished his Baby Surprise jacket! Just in time, too, since it just fits him. I'll try to block it bigger when I remember to wash it. This was made with line by line notes by Dawn Adcock to help keep track of where I was. It was a fun knit which would have been pretty quick had I not started it 6 days before he was born, just 3 days before I went into labor! After that, it took me about 11 weeks to get through it :). Here's another view on his playmat, where Malcolm likes to gaze and swat at his ladybug and his sun:
My knitting goals are much reduced for the rest of the year - just a scarf for a Christmas gift, which I really need to get working on. And I guess I'll need a project for the flight to Boston, assuming Mr. M. cooperates and sleeps for a good bit.

Here is the promised other view of the lovely blue sweater, one of a couple his Grandma brought from Boston for him. Grandma, you need to put these on Ravelry!