In bed
In his play dome
Sitting on Todd ([1] [2])
Leslie says in her LiveJournal:
Memo: Cade definitely sleeps better when in a lap/being held/etc. Must have to do with listening to my circulatory system for nine months. I suspect he'll grow out of it; very cute, in the meantime. Also, put together the automated swing-thing today; it's much heavier than it looks in the pictures. Instead of putting the ducks that it came with on its mobile, I put on little bats. The only disadvantage is that I think it automatically quacks whilst spinning the mobile. Cade will undoubtedly go through life wondering why he associates quacking with ducks *and* bats...
Pity. I was hoping he'd go through life thinking that bats say "quack".
Shall have to make do with bats saying "eep" instead.
While they were out, I was quite industrious. Cade managed to sleep for a good long time, which allowed me, in a couple of goes, to put together his Ikea Diktad crib. Leslie was surprised when she did get home, but she was out until after 8. (She left before 3.) I have to say, that cradle swing we got from Heather (at Gina's suggestion) really helped give me a few hours to work. Leslie is liking it too; it may seem like an impersonal machine, but it makes the time you do spend holding the baby all that much more pleasant. We only used the word "defenestration" once today (aww, poor Cade).
Cade is getting ever so much closer to understanding that he has hands. His eyes are much more responsive these past days, and he seems to have some expression with them that makes sense to us. His mouth remains but he is gradually learning; occasionally we see a hint of a smile or something that almost looks intentional. Also, his strength has increased; when I burp him over my leg he raises his head, pushes with his arms, and with his legs as well; he's quite an armful already.
Something Kathy and us noted the other day: Compared to her former co-workers, we're much more common-sense parents. We've spent money where we think it's important without being too taken in by marketing or over-spending. Case in point: we didn't get a diaper changing station. What a waste! For the convenience of standing up to change a diaper, you pay hundreds of dollars and need to spare yet more precious floor space. No thanks. Oh and, Cade has nowhere to fall off when he's already on the floor. Yay cheap portable changer. Prospective parents: make sure you understand what you actually need. If you don't think you need to preserve the baby's cord blood, then guess what--you probably won't need to (I think that's an uber-yuppie example anyway).
We did get the Diaper Genie, however, and boy does it help. So do the cradle swing, play dome, and large quantities of clothing, bibs, and burp rags (especially the 10-pack of cloth diapers my mom sent for use as burp rags--very good thinking!).
Shiney-Thing With Fishies! =^_^=
Part A: What We Grown-Ups Think
(part B, What Cade Thinks, forthcoming)
Cade likes light. When he wakes up at night, he loves to look at the lava lamp.
However, there isn't really a good way to put the lava lamp within his view close to the crib.
So, we went out and got him a thingey that hangs on the side of the crib. After some debate about which one to get, we got him the Fisher-Price Aquarium. It sends bubbles through a bit of water inside, it has lights that fade in and out, it has little fishies that bobble, and it can play either a couple of lullabies (at least one of which is really spiffy) or water sounds (waves, bubbles, that sort of thing). It won over the LeapFrog "Dreamscape" crib thingey (which Todd initially liked a bit better) because while the LeapFrog one sings lullabies in multiple languages and tells a story for the pictures of animals that it shows, it's completely passive; it's just a talkative night light. The Fisher-Price Aquarium has some buttons on it that the baby can push to make the fishies go, thus entertaining the kid when he wakes up at night and theoretically giving us a bit more time to get to him before he starts squalling (once he can sit up and play with the buttons, anyway).
And I'm a Pieces [sic] and have this thing about water. I figure if I find the aquarium-thing that fascinating, Cade might, too. He was completely entranced by it when we tried it out... have to see what he thinks of it in actual use.
kasra_c's
parents are in town and they all stopped by to meet Cade. They brought much cool
stuff, both from them and from Kasra's sister, who has a good sense of humor
(one of the items was encased in an AOL CD tin, and another was a book of
Pittsburgh-type recipes - wheee!). Cade made sure to sneeze in her mom's face,
but he's so little that we decided it probably would've still been cute had he
spewed. In the meantime, Temujin snagged the leftover pork from dinner. Can't
help but notice that the siamese generally only misbehaves badly when he thinks
that it'll get him attention, and that the amount of attention he needs goes up
exponentially with respect to the amount that Cade's getting. Evil, cuddly
cat...Yeah, I never thought babies could eject it with the same force as urine, but when Leslie picked up his butt as he started to go (to make it hopefully easier to clean the mess), it went about 6-8 inches and nearly cleared the diaper changing mat. Prospective parents, beware.
Cade does have his dear moments, however, like when he holds my hand (finger, anyway). He also opened his eyes very nicely for me, at last! And then he thought he'd pose, all cute-like, for an encore. And as if that wasn't enough, his attitude began to manifest, as if to say, "Are you threatening me?"
Just got back from a doctors' appointment for Cade.
Official Cade status as of today:
10 lb 10.5 oz, 22.5" long, head 15" around. :-D
(Yep, at one month, he's of the appropriate size to be wearing some of his clothing that claims to be for kids 3-6 months old.)
It looks like it could be a late night with packing and preparations...
Cade was adorable, even if he did re-discover spewing. He made lots of really cute faces, though, and right before we left, he was throwing some consonants into his little wheezy mumbles, which was very entertaining. He went to see his first movie while we were there, too: Matrix Revolutions on IMAX. The sound was turned up a bit high for him, so we stood/sat in the hallway just beyond the arch to the room, where the sound was less painful but we could still see the screen. I got to see that magnificent battle in the middle on IMAX, so I didn't mind standing around at all. Cade even payed attention to the Agent Smith vs. the Oracle scene. :-D
Husband Dear's family was fun. His older sister took me to get my hair done before we all went for a big family portrait on Saturday, and her son (age 4 or 5) wanted to babysit Cade ("We'll play with planes and trucks and do all boy stuff. No girl stuff!!!"). Older sister also made much good food, and even made fried fish that has turned me to the Dark Side (that is, no longer fearing seafood). I kid you not. I honestly desire to eat fish. Her son also danced hip-hop (apparently he's learned from watching his mum at a dance class) and sang Seal songs (from the newest album) for us.
His next younger sister and her husband watched Dark City and Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away with us; his youngest sister watched the two Miyazaki movies there as well. All were well-liked (youngest sister really, really seemed into the anime). Next younger sister also made the most fabulous deadly chocolate dessert... *drool*
Went shopping only a bit this year. In MediaPlay, the youngest sister and I poked around the Manga shelves, and I gave her the run-down on as many of the serieses as I knew. She loves the pictures of Chii from Chobits and wants a Chii costume. Yay! :-D
The parents made wonderful wonderful food (best turkey ever), and got way too much stuff for Cade (of course). (I barely got to hold him the entire time; everybody else wanted to!)
The dogs were lots of fun... the collie was nice and sedate, the two smaller greyhounds were enthusiastic, adorable drooling maniacs, and the new dog is officially my favorite dog now. He's a *huge* greyhound... he can lay his entire head on the table, while standing up. Huge! Very tall and narrow. Looks like he should be out taking down deer or sleeping in front of the castle fireplace (indeed, they apparently found him through a greyhound rescue group at the local Renaissance Faire). And best of all, he doesn't smell strongly or drool a lot or anything (though he does have some impulse control problems involving food on the table, probably since it's right at eye-level for him...) ;-)
We put together three puzzles (a new record). Even got to hang out in the hot tub a bit.
And of course, not everything was totally great. Cade had a couple of explosive diapers, and picked some inopportune times to spew (like on the plane on the way back)... And the pups got a hold of Cade's Eeyore toy ("Dude! It squeaks when you shake it!" *dogs promptly run around house vigorously shaking Eeyore*)... And the pot in which the turkey bones were boiling unexpectedly went dry whilst we were all out, resulting in an interestingly scented house when we got back (it smelled like some of my mom's cooking...).
But overall, it really was a great trip.
We're hoping that some of the family can come out here to visit this coming year, so we can do all the tourist-trap visiting...
Now, time to go catch up on online stuff...
Now for my corrections: Heather and Chris' dogs (Devo and Gypsy) are whippets, not greyhounds. Conner is the greyhound, and belongs to my parents.
And the pictures, of course:
Cade on the plane
Danielle and Cade
Cade in my parents' cradle
Cade in the portable basinet
Gina with Kolin and Cade
Cade on Gina's shoulder [1] [2] [3]
Cade in the carseat in white fluffy suit
Todd and Cade
Leslie and Cade
Cade in sweats [in the portable basinet] [in the carseat]