Rainbow surprise

I thought I'd do a quick knitting update while Mr. Malcolm is still sleeping... exactly 6 weeks ago I started a Baby Surprise Jacket out of beautiful Koigu multicolored sock yarn (Rav link). I'm at the point where the pattern's author, Elizabeth Zimmermann, says "Work will start to look very odd, indeed, but trust me, and PRESS ON". It certainly doesn't look much like a sweater yet:


Until you flip it over (so the working stitches are on the bottom), fold up one sleeve...


And then the other....and it starts to look cardiganish (baby's head goes at the top)! I need to find some wee buttons and hope that the garter stitch will have enough stretch to make it wearable for a decent amount of time... though first I have to finish the thing... OK, he's still sleeping, maybe I can get another row in!

Next up will be a special holiday something made from worsted yarn from a local dyer. Who I actually met at knitting group last week (and dang, didn't make it to group this week due to the aforementioned cranky fussy sleepiness, and me forgetting it is Thursday!). My knitting goals for the rest of the year are not high, just this jacket and a couple of Christmas gifts. But yikes, it's mid-October already! Only 2.5 knitting months til Christmas!

5 weeks (and counting)

Well, that post about the beach never materialized, did it? Maybe I'll post some recap pics later...

But for now, Malcolm is 5 weeks old! Yes, he's been out of the womb for more than a month! At his last (unofficial, in a Moms' group) weighing, he was 9.5 pounds, which is almost 2.5 pounds over his birthweight, and 3 pounds heavier than when he left the hospital.

Our days sometimes have routine: eat, "play" (i.e. walk around the house and look at lights; do "tummy time" on the playmat; sit in the bouncy chair and observe the world; be held and observe the world), nap; lather, rinse, repeat. If we have an outing, I try to encourage him to eat before we leave since he will then zonk out in the carseat (once the initial "how dare you put me in the carseat" yelling festival is over). The carseat docks onto the stroller for neighborhood walks; I have several baby carriers (Ergo, pouch, sling) but haven't loved any of them yet, and feel like they'll be easier when he's a bit older and has better head control.

Sometimes (often?) this routine goes to pot, and he doesn't play, or doesn't sleep. He always eats, though :). Right now he's asleep, swaddled, on the playmat - play was cut short by a bout of cranky fussy sleepiness.

And here he is. We're going to try to have him wear this blue suit for the next few weeks or until he outgrows it. Er, not wear it continuously, just for the pictures! It's still a bit big on him now.

I think we'll caption this "Mom, please, not another picture with the bear!"

And here's a portrait at 5 weeks, mid-"play" session in his crib. I think he was thinking about getting cranky here, too. He's definitely skeptical about something... :D

4 weeks!

Well, at least we're keeping up with the weekly postings... so far! And wow, the weeks are going fast!

I will attempt a longer, more picture-filled post about our beach time this past weekend (two of the most gorgeous days at the Oregon coast that I've ever seen) later this week. For now, here is Mr. Malcolm at 4 weeks old. And turning 1 month in 2 days!


His eyes, of course, are not actually demonic red. They are blue (started out super dark, and have been steadily lightening), with a gold circle around the pupil (he gets this from his mommy). But isn't it nice how his red eyes match his socks? And heh, as I type this we are watching the Red Sox (losing to LA at the moment, d'oh!).

There's such a difference from his 1 week picture! Weird to think he is 4x as old as he was there (not counting in-womb time, of course). Oh, to answer the comments from last week - Wendy, I will send you an email, we can do a weekend gtg :). And Carolyn, the bear's name is Bo, and I think I've had him since high school.

Grandma left yesterday, so today was my first day alone with Malcolm (for the 9 hours Andy is at work, anyway). We took a walk with him in the sling/pouch thing (which is hurting my shoulder, so I'm probably not doing it right), and went to our "girls' lunch" with my coworkers and their babies. That was enough activity for the day!

Oops, someone is fussing... more later in the week (she says, but doesn't promise...)

3 weeks!

Boy, these entries are getting predictable! We have just enough chaos to our "routine" that I don't tend to get time to sit down and write a real entry - and it's not like I've been knitting much (I'm something like 18 rows into a fingering-weight Baby Surprise Jacket which will have a (hopefully greater than) small chance of fitting him when I'm done). Grandma, on the other hand, is plowing her way through an afghan. Way to go Grandma! Don't forget to put it on Ravelry...

But we have managed to keep up with the weekly pictures - and I forgot to give credit to Stephanie (and Dan) for the idea. They have pics of little Max in a chair with a teddy bear on his birthdays :)

Here's the official pic for 3 weeks, which was yesterday. 3 weeks! They are going fast! That means that 4 weeks is coming up, then 1 month, then 6 months, then kindergarden, then college! Yikes!

And here's a sequence of what happened next:

"Hello, Mr. Bear. My name is Malcolm..."

<twiddles fingers diabolically a la Mr. Burns. >


<faceplant> (parents LOL and then rescue him)

In other news, this past week Malcolm found his first geocache (it was Mommy and Daddy's 700th cache!), enjoyed 2 baths, went out for Vietnamese food, and hosted a lunch for 4 friends ages up to 12 weeks (email me for pics if you are interested). We're headed to the Oregon Coast this weekend for a bonfire with some geocaching friends (and a 2-bedroom cottage for Fri and Sat nights) - wish us luck!

2 weeks old!

...Still no knitting, at 2 weeks (and 1 day) out - so far it's more "web surf when the baby sleeps" than "sleep when the baby sleeps" or "knit when the baby sleeps". But it's all good - I'll get back to it soon I'm sure. And my mom arrived on Tuesday bearing multiple knitted garments so he is not lacking for handmade things!

Anyway, here's his 2 week picture from yesterday. He's arching against the chair in protest - little muscles getting stronger! He's also holding his head up more and tracking our faces with his eyes a lot more than a week ago.

Here's a picture (from when he was 5 days old) of the lovely sweater his aunt Carolyn spun and knit for him! Such beautiful fall colors, and it should fit (we suppose) later this winter - nice to have bright colors when it will be grey and rainy here in Oregon!

And here's a sweater from my Mom, which arrived by mail in advance of her visit. Isn't it cute? (he's 8 days old in the picture):

Finally, Malcolm (2weeks old) and Grandma (or Gramma? the spelling hasn't been decided yet) having a chat:
He's making his little turtle face - it's so fun to watch him try out different expressions. We're starting to see little gassy smiles too, though they don't correlate to much yet. Such fun!

Baby calibration

Malcolm is growing fast! According to the lactation consultant's scale today, he's up to 7lb 10 oz a week after birth - so a gain of 9 oz in a week (and he lost some initially). Even if there's some scale-to-scale variation, he's gaining really well. We're so proud! But oh, our little baby is growing up so fast! :( :)

We want to take a picture of him in the same place every week, to visually track his growth. I'll tag these all the same (Malcolm-growth) so they can be viewed together. We chose the rocking chair in his nursery, with a big stuffed polar bear (his name is Bo, and he's very friendly) for scale. These first two pictures have slightly different zoom levels, and his outfit type is different in each - we (being engineers) will try to control for this better in future pictures. Oh, and this will give me the impetus to blog each week, too :)

Here he is at 4 days old:

And today, at 1 week exactly (camera is more zoomed so some of his growth is artificial, but he's definitely starting to get some chub):

Major update in a quick post

I meant to do a whole August wrapup during Labor Day weekend, but, well... I went into labor! Here's just a quick photo and I'll try to do a longer blog at some point later - I'd been putting it off without time to do a nice long one, but realized I can just post a quick update...

Malcolm Wolfgram (Andy's lastname) was born at 6:32AM on Wednesday September 3. 7lb 1 oz, 20" long, and neither Andy nor I can remember the head circumference (as a knitter, I'm disappointed in myself). He is literally the cutest and sweetest baby in the world, no offense to any of the cuties out there, and we are over the moon with him.


on his birth day in a hospital volunteer-knit hat:
Me and Malcolm, 1 day old:

Daddy and Malcolm (1 day old) sacked out:
2 days old ready to come home from the hospital in a hat I knit (pattern from KT, yarn from Carolyn):
Finally, a video we shot of his newborn walking reflex once we were home. 3 days old!


Malcolm's walking reflex - 3 days old from Alison on Vimeo.

Signing off for now - will update more baby and knitting (probably not so much geocaching in the near future) soon-ish!