Mt. Shuksan -- a big, pointy monstrosity in North Cascades National Park -- as seen from Mt. Baker

Dad's room with a view (of Mt. Baker, that is)

Dad in front of Rainbow Glacier, on Mount Baker

Sleepy Isaac finds Grandma Jane to be a great mattress

Isaac devours (literally) his new book from Aunt Robin

Snoozle-bug

Isaac slept through the night last night -- from 9:30 until 4:30. I had such a rough time believing it that I was up at midnight, 2:00, and 4:00, and then when he finally did get up, starving of course, I was so excited that he had slept so long that it took me forever to get back to sleep. Hopefully if he keeps it up, I'll get used to the idea that I need to sleep, too. Or I'll just get used to the fact that I need to make sure he's breathing if he's been asleep for more than a half-hour. Mike used to give me a hard time about this, but now I realize I've beaten him down -- the other night as we were getting ready for bed, I was kind of restless and he finally just turned to me and said "Go check on him already. You won't go to sleep until you realize he's still alive there in his crib."

And then today, because obviously that long, luxurious sleep wasn't enough, he slept almost all day for Grandma Jane (see above). They did get a chance to stretch their legs on a walk on the bike-trail near our apartment in the morning, and for Isaac to eat a huge helping of rice cereal, but other than that it's been a pretty slow one. Good for everybody -- we all got some naps in this afternoon.

On a sad note, our walking buddies, Mindy and Clayton, are leaving us to visit their family in Montana for 3 whole weeks. How bored will we be? But we will try to sign all four of us up for swimming lessons tomorrow evening at a local pool, so that when we are reunited in September we will have additional fun activities on our baby-agenda.

But on a happy note, Dad is back from his adventures on Mt. Baker (see pictures above). His new boots didn't give him blisters like we thought, but he smells soooooooooo bad from all the hiking he did. And one of his field helpers had a very close encounter with a mountain lion, a story I think I'd rather he NOT tell me, should something like that happen again. But he got to visit a glacier very few people ever have, he camped out in the wilderness, which he very rarely does, and he saw lots of mountain goats (who the mountain lion was REALLY after, thank goodness). And now he and his stinky laundry are back, and we are so happy to have them both.

Mom and Isaac, the brave shoppers

Grandma Jane and Isaac Gap-ping it up

Day Two: Grandma Jane and her Credit Card Inferno

Grandma Jane needed her shopping fix today, so in absence of Dad and The Car, she and Isaac and I took the bus to the U-Village this afternoon, where she proceeded to furnish her grandbaby with a new big-boy wardrobe from the sale rack at the Gap (see above for the brave shopping trio). Isaac got a little fussy, as most boys will when, ick, SHOPPING is involved, but his ingenius Mom nursed him in the GapBaby changing room and all was much better. Mom also got some new clothes, after telling Grandma a big sob story about how all her pants are broken (she walked the cuffs off her jeans, her corduroy pants have a broken zipper, her one pair of shorts are missing the button, boo hoo hoo). Grandma Jane was a little surprised that Mom could want THOSE shirts, the ones that prominently display her newly ample bosom ("aren't those a little SMALL, Claire? Maybe a medium would fit right), but Mom convinced Grandma that buying said shirts were like buying something for Mike, too. Everybody wins.

Isaac and Clayton posing for the camera at Mindy and Zach's

Day One: Grandma Jane and her Isaac

So it looks like Grandma and Isaac had a lot of fun together, especially after Isaac finally decided it was okay to sleep for a few hours at a time so as to eliminate the crank. Of course he and Grandma are crazy for each other, but Grandma said they had a little rough time this morning -- we think it's probably because this is the first time he had really been in the house without Mom OR Dad there. I called in the middle of the day to be nosy, and Isaac actually talked to me on the phone. It was so cute. A sample transcript:

Claire: Hi Isaac! What are you and Grandma doing?
Isaac: Aaaaaaaah-gah!
Claire: Oh really? That sounds like too much fun.
Isaac: Mmmmmmgah.
Claire: Mommy misses you, too. Mom's at work. She wishes she could be home with you two.
Isaac: Oooh, owwww-mgah!

Isaac and I also made up a song this morning, as I was getting my lunch together. We were pretty proud of it -- it's definitely Dad-quality.

The Turkey Sandwich Song
(sung to the tune of 'Bicycle Built For Two')

Turkey, turkey, you are so good for me
Low in fat and low in calories
You make me so strong and perky
I love to love you, turkey
And you'll taste sweet
Upon some wheat bread we found at the QFC.

That's what parenting is all about really -- creative song-smithing. And careful caffeine management.

all these toys are juuuuuust greaaaaaat. i'll stick with my thumb, thanks

you talkin' to me?

sooooooo sleepy for Grandma Jane

EWWWWWWWW MAAAAAAAAA this is totally gross

Well, Mom hated peas, too

So the peas were a bust -- I think the picture above pretty much says it all. It was the first time Isaac had ever eaten anything that didn't tastes like mom's milk, so perhaps Mom was aiming too high with her "my child will eat his veggies, dern it" mantra. Next time I think we will try something a little nicer on the taste buds like the Gerber-ized peaches or bananas we have in the pantry, and we will keep in mind that Mom pushed her peas around on her plate until she was in college.

Isaac said "mama" today, just completely out of the blue. Mindy and Clayton and Isaac and I were just doing our evening stroll, and Mr. Talky-talk was trying out new sounds and stumbled across "mama" by accident, but it was still wonderful. Especially since I have TWO witnesses (one can't quite verbally vouch for me yet, but he still heard it).

Dad is leaving tomorrow to hang out on Mt. Baker again, so it will be Isaac, Grandma, and Mom for a few days. I'm sure we will have lots of fun, especially since dad won't be giving us the usual flak about how we turn up the baby monitor loud enough to hear him breathing while he's sleeping. Bite me, Dad. We always miss Dad because he is lots of fun. He makes up the best song lyrics. For example:

Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
Fiery gasses out in space
Get too close, they'll burn this place
Don't go nova, little star
We like you just the way you are.

There's also a remix of "Frere Jacques" that involves a commentary on French girls and their armpit hair, but we can't quite remember how that one goes right now. Anyway, Dad brings high entertainment value to the table.

swinging with mom, working my "bummin' hat"

crawling around on the newly sanitized living room floor -- check out that trunk!

playing while we wait at the airport

Grandma Jane enjoying her grandbaby, who still can't take his eyes off of mama (awwwww)

"yes, yes, I'm awake, crazy ladies. How may I entertain you now?"

Sleepy guy, waking up from a morning nap on his quilt

Big boy, Mama's big forearms say hi to Grandma Jane

Grandma's here

We picked up Grandma from the airport last night, and boy, is she ever stoked to see her grandbaby. He woke up at 2 and at 4 and at 6 this morning, and each time, before I could drag my tired butt out of bed and into the nursery, she was there leaning over him, offering him the pacifier to help him get back to sleep. And Isaac is so excited about Grandma, because she is so non-stop excited about him. And because she constantly talks in a high-pitched voice.

We completed our three-day course of oatmeal with great success -- tonight is the night of peas! We are very eager to see what happens to his poops with this, especially since his pooping has become a rare, but very large and messy, occasion.

horsing around with dad

Oatmeal is yummy

Today I read that, before trying out veggies on Mr. Man, people recommend that you try different kinds of cereals, presumably to get him used to different textures. So we went to the grocery store and bought some Gerber-ized oatmeal, in addition to several nice jars of organic baby vegetables, because we are Seattle like that. Cut to the chase: Isaac loves oatmeal. He scarfed it up. Except for the massive amounts that he dribbled on his chin, which made him look like he had a face full of crusty sores. And except for the stuff he sprayed out at Mom -- he started blowing bubbles in his spoon, which meant that little oatmeal droplets were going everywhere, and Mom made the mistake of laughing about it. This was a mistake because it obviously made the spraying act worth repeating, several times over. And unfortunately each time was just as funny to Mom as the last. Needless to say we had our bath directly after dinner.

"crawling" (more like "inching") on the bathroom rug

He crawled

Isaac crawled today (see above for action shot), several times, for both Mike and I. By "crawled" I mean "put one knee under his body and pushed on it to shove himself forward by a few inches", but it was a definite sight to behold. Mike said Isaac's crawling episode for him happened in the crib, where Isaac saw a pacifier and crawled forward so he could reach it. He did, swatted at it, and promptly batted it through the crib rails and onto the floor. So our "crawling" technique, like our grabbing technique, while impressive, is still the stuff of blooper reels.

Isaac also has been eating rice cereal at school, for two days in a row now. His teacher told Mike that she has never seen a little guy be such a good eater so early -- and by that, she means 1) able to tolerate eating real food and 2) getting much of it where it needs to go. There go Claire's worries that we were starting him too soon, which is good. We will introduce him to the wonderful world of yogurt and/or veggies when Grandma Jane gets here this weekend.

So yes, he continues to be SuperBaby for yet another day, though today he was a total pill. 5 minutes of one activity, and he starts fussing at me; 5 minutes of the next activity and he's fussing again. He even fussed during his evening walk today. Needless to say, he wore poor mom out. But he was entertained by my antics enough for a photo shoot (see below) while we played with his blocks -- I was aiming to capture the latest "grab and eat" strategy he employs with everything he can touch.

On another random (perhaps TMI) note: I have a "nursing mix" playlist on my iPod that I listen to when I have to pump at work. How 2004 is that?

grab it and...into the mouth it goes

grabbing my blocks...but i'm getting bored

rolling around with mr. caterpillar

Isaac pets the fearless, "been-there-done-that" kitty

We're so popular

Isaac and I had a massive social agenda today. First we got an invite to visit my friend Ashly (sister-in-law to my friend Paulene who had a baby 1.5 weeks ago), who had not yet beheld Isaac, the cutest baby in the world. Ashly has two kiddos of her own, and so when it was time for me to have my baby, she totally rocked my Seattle shower, giving me a sling and two books: The Girlfriend's Guide to the First Year (which served the most fabulous purpose of reassuring me, when Isaac was one month old, that everything was indeed completely normal), and Operating Instructions: a journal on raising a son. Anyway, she's the coolest. So we visited her today, and Isaac got to meet her and her family, and to play on her baby blanket for a good long while. Ashly also has a cat who has been thoroughly baby-trained, and actually seemed to enjoy a good fur-tug by Isaac (see above).

Then we got invited over to Mindy and Clayton's place so they could shower us with big-baby clothes! You see, the families of Mindy and her hubby Zach have been exceptionally blessed with winter babies this past year, so they have warm clothes for bigger babies like Isaac that they have loaned us. This is especially important since it has been chilly here this week, and all we have are short-sleeved T-shirts and onesies for poor little guy! But now his chiffarobe is stocked to the hilt with all kinds of name-brand threads. So our hats off to Mindy and Clayton!

Nap time? No way, Jose!

Isaac has adopted a weirdo sleep schedule lately -- he seems to be squishing all of his afternoon naps (he used to take two or three, sometimes for as long as 2 hours each!) into one 45 minute power-nap at 2:30. This means, when it comes to be bedtime for little buddy, he is a cranky-monster. So far, the only person who can convince him it's time for bed is Daddy...see below for evidence.

Daddy's buzzing voicebox keeps baby-man asleep

Daddy rocks his little guy to sleep

From Isaac's teacher

Mike and I don't always get a chance to talk to Isaac's teachers in detail every day about what he does at "school", but the head teacher, Nicole, is great at responding to e-mail. Here's what she e-mailed me when I asked about what kinds of things Isaac does with she and the other teachers:

"On what Isaac does at school: Isaac does alot of what appears to be laying around! But it is so much work. Seriously, he is working on controlling his hand movements, getting things in eyesight, getting things into his mouth, rolling from side to side, etc. This is probably the bulk of what he does at school and it is the best thing for him to be doing (as long as he is ok with it). He really seems to enjoy "grabbing" things to his mouth, especially cloths (diaper cloths, cloth towels, etc.). I will often hold a cloth towel by the center and put it on the floor next to him so that it looks like a trippy pyramid. This is a great way to study the color and design of the towel and to see the lightness and darkness (ie in the folds, etc.). I put it on the further limit of his reaching ability, so that he can still reach it, but he has to work (and move) a bit to get it, and then he has the sweet reward of rolling around and mouthing it!! I know it may sound crazy, but watching this seemingly simple thing and knowing the complexity involved, offers a great perspective on the world!

Isaac also likes adult interaction, like making faces with him and/or singing. This usually makes him laugh! He also likes to sit in laps and watch what's going on. He does seem to like pictures/books, too. He is getting interested in rattles and what not at school, but still prefers soft things that are better for grasping.

In Montessori pedagogy there are "sensitive periods" or windows of opportunity, where a child will learn better and feels and innate need to learn certain things at a certain time. The sensitive periods for the infant/toddler are 1) Order 2)Language 3)Movement. Order can be that there is a place for things or a routine to how we do things at this age. Language at Isaac's age is talking to him, telling him what you are doing, singing, etc. And movement is providing lots of time where he has freedom of movement (floor time). These are the cornerstones of our room. So you don't need expensive toys or battery operated things, because it all exists within the child! OK, I notice I have stepped up on to a soap box, so I will stop here for now. If you have further questions, let me know. If you want to know more specifically about something, let me know!"

Isaac and his buddy Clayton wave goodbye after their walk (with moms Claire and Mindy acting as shuttles, of course)

Big boy = big, shaking right bicep

Hefty Monster (aka Isaac) has a definite mommy-arm preference when it comes to being carried. I flexed my right bicep for Mike the other night and it elicited a "geez, woman!" On one hand, of course I feel a little G.L.O.W.-ed out and buff, but on the other hand, I also just feel tired. So tired.

Isaac has decided that sleeping with me is no longer for him. Since he was two months old, we have had a nightly routine: 1) put baby to sleep or almost to sleep at 8 or 9 pm, 2) lay him in crib, 3) playtime for grownups (minds out of the gutter, please) leading to late bedtime for grownups, at 11 or even later for Claire, 4) wake-up time for Isaac, depending on how sadistic he's feeling, at either midnight or at 2 or 3, then 5) Claire and Isaac go snuggle up to sleep out the rest of the night. Well, now #5 is almost totally out of the question, as far as the mom-sleep goes, as Isaac has become a major tosser-and-turner. I suppose now I have to try to get up in the middle of the night, feed him while I stay awake, and then go back to my own bed for sleep. It all just sounds so friggin' painful, since I have to, oh yeah, get up early and go to WORK now. Stupid baby. Stupid work.

When I'm not being bitter about my newfound sleep-deprivation (somehow it was all so much easier to take when he was 2 weeks old), Isaac and I are duking it out over this new rice-cereal thing. I have a couple of problems with this: 1) the rice cereal must be made with breast milk, which is almost as precious as gold around here, and 2) the stupid Gerber folks had somehow convinced me to make it so thin so that it could run in neat rivulets down into one of his many chins, only to become stuck there to rot throughout the day because he refuses to let me clean under his neck. Last night I made him some thicker cereal, and tried to make him eat it in his new chair, and about 4 spoonfuls in he starts screaming bloody-murder. First I think that it's because he's in his new "high chair", which basically forces him to sit straight up, and maybe that's hard on his poor wittle tushy. Then I taste the cereal I'm making him eat, and I realize I've made it with milk that's gone bad. Can mom win? Heck, naw. Sigh.

On a brighter note, we are convinced that Isaac will start crawling any day now, and he has become a master grabber (take note of the pix below for examples). We bought these new wooden ABC blocks for him, that are the most perfect size for his little hand to grab. He is also fascinated with his new role as Bringer of Entropy, where I build little towers of the blocks and karate-chops them down.

of COURSE the "high chair" isn't for eating time

standing with a just a leeetle help from dad

drooling for the camera

Isaac demonstrates his new grabbing proficiency with something other than mom's hair

can you believe this is how he started?

little bitty hands -- a completely different shape from mom's!

want to crawl...so...bad...

He's my little BOY now

All this week we have been dressing him in shirts and pants, like a little guy -- and he looks so much OLDER than he really is. He is also holding himself up now on his arms very well, so much so that I'm afraid to look away that I might miss him crawling for the first time. Today he also grabbed my keys for the first time. I was holding him in my arm and my keys in my hand, and I watched his little eagle-eyes as they fixated on my keys. His hand shot out, straight to them, wrapping his little fingers around them, and he pulled them -- you guessed it -- right into his mouth. He is becoming a champ at grabbing whatever he wants now, and even transferring things from hand to hand. His favorite things in the world to grab are, in this order: 1) mom's hair; 2) mom's glasses; 3) dad's glasses; 4) dad's beard. Along the same lines, his new favorite toy is his shape-sorter bucket -- he loves to play "baby crane", where I lower him over the removable lid or over one of the shape-blocks, and he reaches down to pick it up. I can't believe he's almost 4 1/2 months now!

On the useless trivia end: my friend Paulene's baby left the hospital yesterday without a name, which prompted some discussion amongst my lab members, many of whom are European. I learned today that, in some European countries (like Belgium), you must name your baby within 48 hours of its birth, AND you can only name your baby something from a government-approved list of baby-names. I don't know what kind of punishment you get if you disobey these rules (they send you home with two babies instead of one!), but my friend Christophe said the laws are in place to prevent people from naming their children Moon Unit and the like so they don't suffer later in life from your whim of looking for an "original" name. I don't quite know if I agree with such an idea, but surely "Isaac" would be allowed!

Putting himself to sleep by 1) snuggling with puppy and 2) sucking thumb

"I'm not a baby, ma...I can almost crawl!"

It's raining babies, part II

I just learned that my friend Paulene gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on Friday the 13th! Her husband Michael is getting ready to take his little ladies home from the hospital now, so I will try to go visit them later this week. It is so much fun to be surrounded by all these brand-new babies. My Michael and I have been doing a lot of reminiscing about when Isaac was first-born -- I will never forget it. It was so very surreal to finally see what he looked like, after cooking him in my belly for 9 months. Although I had tried to imagine how he would look, I never thought he would look like he did. He was just so big, and long, and his noggin was squid-shaped from 3 hours of pushing. And the hair! It was reddish-blond -- I never even thought about him having any. I couldn't believe that this was him, the baby that I had been carrying for so long, and that now was finally time for me to be a mom. It was all very overwhelming, and it almost didn't seem like it could be real. Then the nurses took him away to clean him up and put goop in his eyes, and they put a hat on his head and a little straightjacket-type shirt on him, and brought him back to me and laid him on my chest. I didn't even know how to hold him right -- the nurses had to show me. But I held him in my arms so that I could see his face, and to my surprise, he was LOOKING at me. I will never forget it -- the first time I hold my little guy, all he wants to do is blink really hard to try to get the goop out of the way because he needs to see what his mom looks like, just as I am looking at him, taking him all in for the first time. That's what made it real for me -- the blinking. He wasn't a doll, he wasn't an alien, he was a human baby, my very own little human baby, and he had too much goop in his eyes for his liking, but he was going to stare at me anyway. It was like he was telling me, "okay lady, you may think look pretty rough right now, but I picked you to be my mom and to me you are the most interesting-looking thing I have ever seen. Even though the only thing I have to compare you to is the color red." I better get back to work now before I get too sniffly -- babies are just so cool!

Gastronomic delights

Tonight Isaac ate solid food for the first time -- rice cereal in breastmilk. Mmmmmmm. Actually, I made it so thin, I think he was more entertained by the spoon than the cereal, but he ate it up like a champ. Mike actually got him to slurp it out of the spoon towards the end -- looks like we'll be eating some more tomorrow!

Today we all went to a big garage sale over in Magnuson Park, hosted by an animal rescue group. They charged us $1 each to get in (well, I guess Isaac doesn't technically count as a person yet) and look at their overwhelming amount of junk, but it was all for the animals, so that's okay. The whole garage-sale atmosphere created in us a desire to shop for new Isaac clothes at our favorite consigment shop, so we ditched the g-sale and went there and blew $20 on fancy new Isaac clothes. Let's face it, the kid is in a growth spurt, and it is our parental prerogative to spoil him with new clothes that fit His Fatness.

On a "small-world" note, we also splurged on two Starbucks adventures today, and each time we saw somebody from Isaac's day care -- in the AM, it was 17 month old Georgie and his mom, while in the PM, it was Isaac's teacher, Nicole. Now that we are becoming more sociable, it somehow seems easier to run into people we know. Is it sad that it took a baby for us to get a life?

Hey you blog-lurkers out there -- you know you can add comments about my posts and my pictures, yes? Tell me that you're around or add your opinions about just how very beautiful my baby is.

Difficult to feed baby when he's eating his bib...

Isaac eats rice cereal for the first time

Mmm...what have you been eating?

Mike's beloved purple rocks, artfully stacked in piles thanks to Adams Glacier, at ~8000 ft

Mt. Adams (and Adams Glacier) from Mike's hike down

My feet are just so dern much fun!

Dad's back, but oh his poor back

We weren't expecting Mike back from Mt. Adams until tonight, but he and his field assistant Ryan worked hard and long to get everything done more quickly so they could get back to town last night. Mike says they hiked 27 miles in two days, and got the highest he'd ever hiked on Mt. Adams -- above 8000 feet (so he could get altitude sickness. silly boy). He and Ryan came up with an idea for another paper where they will create a program or algorithm taking into account elevation and vegetation levels (from satellite imagery!) and some other things that will enable anybody to know exactly where they can find the kinds of lichen they need to date landforms before they get there. Check out Mike's pictures of Mt. Adams above.

We are so very glad to have dad back in town -- we joke all the time about how I only need him around to be a cash cow for me and my baby, but when he's gone I always worry that he'll get eaten by a bear, and that makes me remember just how irreplaceable he is in all respects. The night before he left, he sat with Isaac in the glider and read Guess How Much I Love You to him -- I thought my heart would break. This book is one of my faves to read to Isaac -- it involves a "little nutbrown hare" trying to tell "big nutbrown hare" just how much he loves him, but he can't always find the right words. And then I thought my heart would break in an entirely different manner when the book was over and Mike explains to Isaac about Hasenpfeffer. Irreplaceable.

Isaac found his feet -- they are now way cooler than the 'monkeys'. And somehow they're everywhere he wants to be...

It's raining babies

We had a baby shower today for my coworker Meiting, who is due to deliver her daughter in a few weeks. She and I share a cubicle-of-sorts together, which makes for lots of jokes about our "fertility corner". Even funnier is that my cubicle-mate before Meiting, a former-grad-student-now-PhD Paulene, is due to deliver her first baby any day now. Also, the OB who delivered Isaac is due any day now. I always knew I had a certain effect on people... Anyway, good luck to Meiting and her hubby.

Meiting with her goodies from her baby shower at work

Sir Snots-a-Lot

Isaac's cold is not getting better -- he is so PO-ed every morning when he wakes up and can't breathe because his head is full of snot. Mike and I were getting worried because he had his shots on Tuesday, thinking, in our crazy new-parent heads that perhaps he was not reacting well to the shots. He has been sleeping more since then, and while most times he seemed okay, he sometimes just wasn't his normal perky self. So after a day of mild hand-wringing of whether or not we should call the consulting nurses at his pediatrician's office, I finally broke down tonight and did it. She gave me the "silly new mom, of COURSE sick babies are sleepy and fussy" routine, which made me feel much better. She also gave me a homemade recipe for a saline nose wash that I'm supposed to try out on little guy tomorrow. Yeah, he'll love that.

Tuesday's pediatrician's appointment also officially revealed that Isaac is enormous. He now weighs 16 lbs 9 oz and is 25" long (up from 19.5" at birth!). We were hoping we would have the same nurse for his shots as last time, because she is a ninja. You couldn't see her hands moving last time, she was so fast. But nooooo, this time we had a nurse who was so sloooooow: stick the baby, push the plunger, pull the needle out, apply the bandaid...repeat FOUR TIMES. Poor Isaac. He was a champ for the first two -- with the first shot he made this sound like someone punched him in the gut, but was otherwise cool, but by the time we got to the third shot he was screaming bloody murder. At least he doesn't have to do that every day.

Isaac playing at day care -- teacher Nicole (in the mirror) is getting ready for the day

mom loves her isaac

griping about self-inflicted tummy time

i can sit up...sorta...

roly-poly smiley