more special people

just want to wish happy birthdays to two special people, sabs & lucy. Hope you both have days worthy of your awesomeness. G would give you both kisses if he knew how and could stop eating long enough to do so.

happy birthday, grand g!

I write this post in honor of my dad's 71st birthday! I know he waited a long time to have a grandchild and he and my mom never once pressured me to have a baby. They knew it was important that I do things on my own schedule. I'm grateful for that. They did tell me often how special parenthood was to them, and now I'm enjoying the experience as much as they said I would. I must say, my timing was perfect, because we ended up with a beautiful, sweet little dude (who is snoring his sweet, squeaky little snore in his ergo as I type this).

I'm also grateful that G has such great grandparents (on both sides!) Having good role models helps me in my own parenting more than they know. My childhood was awesome, and I hope G's is just as good. I'd like to give him the unconditional support, encouragement and love that I got. I'd like him to feel as special as I feel (to this day). I'd like him to feel that his parents are proud of him, as I feel mine are. I'd like him to love me and feel about me as I feel about my dad (and mom)--proud to be my kid. It's a big legacy to live up to, and I hope I'm up to the task.

Obviously 8 pm six weeks ago today was one of the best moments of my life--when G was handed to me for the first time. But a moment almost as special was when I got to see my dad with his new grandson for the first time. The look on his face in this picture says it all.



Happy birthday, Daddy, I couldn't love you more!

one month--the new normal

Thursday marked another important milestone--g turned one month old. It's hard to believe that he's been around a whole month. He's changed our lives in a lot of ways, but not the ways that people told us it would. For the most part Mr. A and I like to spend our time at home, and I don't know that there are that many people who are as content to stay at home (i.e., not big hermits) as we are. Sure we like to go eat once in a while, but we don't even go out to movies. Anyway, the difference between our lives now and a month ago isn't so great, but I think that I'm the one who has changed the most, lifestylewise--namely it is my sleep schedule that has evolved. I used to be a sleep until 10am person and go to bed at 2 or 3 person. That has stopped. I'm now a go to bed at 10:30 or so person and get up at 5. It's been challenging to change my sleep pattern. Luckily for me, Mr. A thinks it's cool to get up at 2 or 3 with g to feed him. I've only filled in for him a couple of times, and that was because g would take too long to eat one night and Mr. A would be like the walking dead the next day, so I'd insist that he let me take the "late shift." 

Other than that, though it's just a new form of entertainment added to our dull lives. Amos pointed out that summer was a great time to have a baby, because there is just no other entertainment available...most shows are on summer hiatus, so there's no TV, etc. Not to compare having a kid to TV, but from a purely entertainment standpoint babies and TV ARE both entertaining, and surprisingly enough babies are actually MORE entertaining. For some people this comparison may seem silly...babies are living things, etc. Yes yes. But, for people who love TV as much as we do, the comparison is high praise.

I suppose another change, which is actually more of an enrichment, not so much a change, is that g has given Mr. A and me another project on which to work. Now, we do a lot of stuff together--probably more than most couples have the chance to do, because we both work from home most of the time...but this is yet another shared project. A really kick-ass project. It's also not to say that we have it all figured out, we don't. Working together on something always involves some compromise, and we've already butted heads on a few issues and decisions about g, but one thing I think we both always know is that we are each in our own way wanting to do the best possible things for g. That, in some ways, makes the compromising easier, because you know the person you're working with has your shared goals, but they just see a different way to get to that end-goal. Anyway, g and md are our two favorite projects, and I'm looking forward to working on them with Mr. A for a long time to come.

Here's g, Mr. A & MD, chillin' on g's one month b-day

tonight, another first--a babysitter!

Tonight we left g with Rali so we could go to band practice. We weren't nervous at all, because he was in such capable hands. She watched him for about 2 hours and had to change 2 diapers (one poopy!) and he was hungry and she had to feed him. He's lucky he has some one who loves him so much that she was actually excited to come over and watch him. I'm impressed with her diapering skills!

Thanks, Auntie Rali!

4 week appt with dr. okorn & about G's name

Dr. Okorn was pleased with g's weight and everything else today. He weighed in at 7 lbs 14.5 oz--a full 10 oz from last week. When you see him eat it's easy to understand why he's gaining. He seems to want to eat almost hourly. We're fine with that. Today he had about 4 oz of milk in about an hour--crazy baby! Anyway, we got a reprieve from the weekly dr. visits and won't have to go back until he's 2 months old. A & I really like Dr. O, she's very cool.

Today I also started working on his baby book. I enjoyed writing about some of the stuff that happened before he was born and the story of his name. In case you didn't know, he's named for my great great grandfather, Miles Garrison (and all the other cool Garrisons I know) and Hogan, is A's dad's middle name (his cousin, Dalton has A's dad's first name as his middle name). If he'd been a girl he would have still been Garrison, but he would have been Garrison Katherine Lea Etheridge (a nod to our mothers--Katherine and Leona). Miles Garrison was married to a woman, Mary Frances Huston, who was born (Feb 14, 1866) in Portland, OR. Her parents came to the PNW in a covered wagon across the Oregon Trail. After a few years in Portland they returned to Illinois via steamboat around South America and New York. Her mother's name was Amanda Hogan--so there's another connection to the name Hogan. G's name has a lot of significance to both our families. Of course, there is also the great Miles Davis (the dog, not the jazz musician) who also shares a first name w/ G--appropriate, because he is G's pal and guardian (I like to call him Nana). And our sweet neighbor, Nan (who made G the most beautiful quilt), has several grandchildren and oddly enough her first two grandsons are named Myles and Garrison--we found that out before G was born, after we told her what we planned to name him (small world).

And for your viewing pleasure, some new pictures of lil g.

as promised g video #1

here is my first g video. I've got lots more where that came from, but this is my first attempt. (x-posted at etheridge exhcange).

I'm so bad about posting

It's not like there's nothing going on around here, it's just that I haven't taken the time to write anything about lil g. He had a rough week or so. At his 2 week visit to the doctor he had not gotten back to his birth weight, so we had to try to fatten him up. It looks like the problem was me and the poor breast milk production. I felt bad, like I was starving the poor guy. I'm now taking a lot of fenugreek and reglan to help things out. He's back to his birth weight and eating like a champ. His appetite was never ever the problem--he's constantly hungry.

Another health related item, he had a clicking in his hip which we had an ultrasound for on thursday...all clear. I was worried, because I had a hip that was not in the socket (I guess that's hip dysplasia) and had to wear something called a pillow cast when I was a little baby. Anyway, g's fine. No pillow cast for him.

He's had a lot of firsts in the past 3+ weeks. First party (sabs' & eric's), first time meeting his cousin (lucy!), first shopping trip (with my mom & me), first lunch date (with sabs, maddie, my mom & me), first walk around the block (with amos, miles d & me)...it's very exciting watching him change. I can't believe he's almost a month old already. He is endless hours of entertainment and amazement.

Oh, and I've finally figured out how to upload all my g-movies (ha ha) to imovie from the new video camera. v. exciting. I should have some g-movies posted soon.