Getting to know people

We had an amazing trip to Denver. Steve and I got quite a break from constant caring for Stanley. There was lots of family to take care of Stanley. And, more surprisingly, we got lots of sleep because for 2 of the nights little Stanley slept for 4.5-5 hours. Most people say that it is hard to sleep at altitude. But, for me every time I am at altitude I sleep like a log. Apparently this is the same for Stanley. I was hoping the 4.5-5 hour sleep was just developing, but back at home, we were back to more like 3 hours. Oh well. i'm sure we will get the 5 hours at 100ft elevation at some point.

Stanley chilling with Grandpa Tom

Our little family

While in Denver, Stanley got to wear some of his dad's cloths. He got to show everyone lots of outfits, because he managed to soil 4 outfits in just one afternoon. Here is a cute one from when Steve was around this age.

 Uncle Founder was in Denver for Thanksgiving--it was the first time he had gotten off Thanksgiving since he got out of college. We ventured out for coffee and some Cline X-mas card pictures.

 It sure is bright in Denver, everyone needs a pair of sunglasses. We had forgotten Stanley's at home, so uncle founder donated his. I think Stanley has a little room to grow.

 Grandma LeLe and Grandpa Tom put on a wonderful little party to welcome Stanley. He got to meet lots of new friends. However, after an afternoon of being with strange people in a new place, Stanley had had enough. He just wanted quiet. The kitchen noise was just too much for our poor little guy.

 It was a great trip and we can't wait to go back!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Stanley got to celebrate his very first Thanksgiving today.  He had a good time and got to hang out with a whole crowd of people.  There were 16 people total at Grandpa Tom and Leigh Ann's house.  Stanley pretty much got passed around all afternoon so that everyone could get a chance to hang out with him.  Julia and I really didn't see much of him except for when he needed feeding or changing.

Stanley hanging out with Uncle Chase.

Pre-meal hangout time.

All the food was exceptional and the company was great.  Here is a picture of the crowd at dinner.

Quite the gang!

We're all pretty tired and full tonight -- always a sign of a successful Thanksgiving.  Hope everyone out there had a nice holiday.

Wednesday Cooking

On Wednesday Stanley, Julia and I spent the day cooking with Leigh Ann and Aunt Liz.  We did all the prep work for the feast to follow on Thursday.  We made pies, chopped veggies for stuffing and baked banana bread.  Stanley thought he would help us with the banana bread by squashing the bananas.  He didn't get very far, but we appreciated the thought.

Get in there Stanley!

Hanging out with Aunt Liz.

I thought this one was cute.

After all the cooking, the three of us decided to go for a walk in the woods around where Leigh Ann and Grandpa Tom live.  We saw lots of ducks, a hawk and great big owl on our walk.  Stanley even got to try on Mom's sunglasses.  It was quite a day, but we all had a good time.

Mr. Owl.

Maybe a little big?

Denver Bound

We all headed to the airport on Tuesday and got on a plane to Denver to see all the Colorado relatives for Thanksgiving.  We decided to take BART to the airport to avoid the crazy traffic and the hectic parking.  Well, in good Stanley style, we got out of the house a few minutes late after shuffling the cars around so we didn't get parking tickets over the holiday.  We had to speed walk down to the BART station and ended up just making our train.  After getting off to a sweaty beginning, the rest of the trip went fairly smoothly.  Stanley was a trooper on the flight and we landed in Denver just fine.  Grandma Leigh Ann picked us up and we headed to their house.

Waiting for our flight at SFO.

Leigh Ann and Grandpa Tom had lots of toys and stuff ready for little Stanley.  They got a play station very similar to Stanley's Space Station from some friends, a little swing from another and a car seat from the neighbors.  They even put together the old crib that they had in storage.  Stanley really seems to be riding in style.

New swing (and outfit!).

Stanley's adventures

Since it has been a while since we posted, I wanted to say a few items happening.

Stanley has been reaching out to touch the mirror in the hallways. He wants to play with the cute guy there.

He also has wonderful timing. We are off to Denver for the holidays this morning and I had dressed for the plane. Stanley gave me two nice coughs and then a huge spit up all over the pants, sweater, and shirt. Nice timing Stanley.

Mr. Cool Guy

Need I say more.

2 months

Stanley turned 2 months yesterday. Since he is now multiple months, I'm thinking of changing to say how old he is on a monthly scale than weekly scale.

Independent of the scale, it is amazing how quickly he is developing. Just since Grandma Lolo arrived earlier this week he has been able to hold up his head much more, be really alert, spend 10+ minutes studying his space station, and study his hands.

His Hands:

We think Stanley is beginning to realize that his hands are attached to him. He has grabbed at a few things. Steve watched him moving his hands and staring very intently at them. And, he has moved the objects in his space station in the same manner a few times. In the below picture, he is holding his star, though he is not very happy about it.

 His Neck and Back

His back and neck have also gotten MUCH stronger in the last few days. When he is burped he just stays straight up. Steve noticed that he holds his body completely straight. Steve can hold him as a flying airplane for a while in this position. Maybe we have ourselves a little gymnast. 

His personality is coming out also. He loves to study anything for a while. Unfortunately, my skills seem to be degrading based on the mess I did trying to put on his sleep sack.

Home Alone

Today Stanley had his first time home alone until the firemen and Lolo returned home.

Lolo is helping me write this post.
This morning, Lolo was being very thoughtful and took out the recycling not realizing that the door was going to lock behind her. She was outside with the recycling bin and nothing else, while Stanley was chilling in the house in his swing. Horrified, she had no idea what to do, so she ran to the fire station for help. They told her to go home and they would meet her at the house. When they arrived, they asked the age of the child locked inside and realized it was pretty critical when she said it was an 8 week old infant inside. Lolo was in quite a panic. They all searched for a key to no avail. They were in the midst of figuring the best way to break in to the house (break the window, take off the door, etc) when the neighbor who has a key came home. Lolo walked in followed by the firemen to make sure Stanley was just fine. He was still asleep in his swing.

Fists

Stanley used to suck his thumb, but now that he has grown up and moved on to bigger items; he is eating his entire fist. Here is a little video of it below.

Lolo's Back

Yesterday Grandma Lolo arrived back in SF so that I could go to work today. It was a sad day this morning when I had to leave little Stanley, but at least he was in wonderful hands. Apparently, Lolo and Stanley had a good day-he slept, ate 15oz of milk, and went on a walk to Whole Foods. Grandma Lolo is now at home sleeping. It is a tiring day taking care of an 8 week old baby.

As for me, it was a rough day at work. I kept wanting to be home with Stanley, though it was nice to see people at work. And, the long 1+ hour drive home felt like forever.

Stanley at 8 weeks

We were so busy hanging out this weekend that we never got to post about Stanley being 8 weeks old. He is a much bigger kid this week. Lately, people have been asking me if he is around 4 months old. He is growing up, but that seems way down the line. He is also harder to carry in the carriers for an entire day. Both Steve and I now have very SORE feet after a day or so walking the streets of SF.

Since I'm getting ready to go to bed, I'll just write a quick post for this week. Stanley's main new item his is strength in his back and neck. He looks like he is trying to flip onto his tummy when we put him on his play mat. He looks at the toys to the side and keeps trying to reach them--I think his flipping will be coming reasonably soon.

He is also a lot more talkative and smiley (when he chooses to smile).

It has been a really fun week to spend with him. I'm going to miss being with him everyday. Lately, I have difficulty leaving him even if it is just for a few minutes so that I can get some rest. I'm going to be a wreck going back to work for two days this week. Crazy!!

Our little family in Union Square

Saturday Adventures

Stanley is now the real SF native. He was the tour guide for his cousins and family. We had fun hanging out with our family from SB:

Stanley took us to the following:
- On the Muni and Bart systems
- Rode the old time street cars along Market Street (only because the Muni broke in the tunnel with a computer glitch)
- Hung out at the SF Moma
- Went to the Ferry building
- Walked along Market Street
- Hung out at in Union Square watching his cousin ice skate
- Went to dinner (well Mom ate dinner) in the Mission

It was quite a day.

Steve carried Stanley in the Becco the whole day!!! His feel are now killing him. Our little guy gets heavy after a while.

Aunt Kathy and Uncle Tom are practicing for their up-n-coming grandbaby boy.

on our way out

we had been trying to get stanley to go to sleep for hours. just as we were about to go, we saw this...

Stanley's playdates

Stanley had a big day of play dates yesterday. He hung out with Andrew while April, Steve, and I had delicious Tartine sandwiches. Andrew is a younger but has some weight on Stanley

Stanley is in the left of the identical strollers

In the afternoon, his cousin Haley came to visit. She had Stanley staring right at her as she read to him, made him a fort, and talked with him. She will be a great babysitter in a bit.

Back to Basics

When Stanley was about 2 weeks old or so, we stopped swaddling him.  Not because we were against it or thought it was difficult, but because he became a little Houdini and was able to get out of EVERY swaddle that we tried.  He would wriggle around and move his hands up, millimeter by millimeter, until one of them was free.  Once one hand got out, he would then start slapping himself in the face with the newly liberated hand and promptly start screaming because he didn't know what was going on.  He got out of all the blankets, the "swaddle-me" (like a mini-straight-jacket with velcro) and the "swaddle-pod" (similar to a VERY tight fitting small sleeping bag).  The only thing we were able to keep him in was a blanket swaddle that we then stuck into the swaddle-pod, but we weren't sure he was breathing completely it was so tight.  In the end we just gave up.

Fast forward to a week or two ago, and one of our friends recommended we try swaddling him again to put him to sleep.  They said that sometimes things that haven't worked for a while will all of a sudden work again.  So, we tried it again and it seems to be working.  We swaddle him up and put him in the swing (which we had also abandoned for a bit and were about to move to the garage) for a little while and usually he will drift off to sleep.  I'm sure this will stop working soon enough, though, and we will have to move on to something else again.  But, for the moment it is working pretty well.

Stretching

When Stanley wakes up from a nap, he will usually stretch out for a minute or two before he really feels like moving around and opening his eyes up.  His stretching involves arching his back and reaching his elbows way up over his head.  It is all very similar to how Julia wakes up, and quite cute.  I don't think either of them particularly like waking up very much.  Can't say that I blame them.

Nice arch, Stanley!

Play Date

Stanley and Zuri had a play date today. They were quite happy hanging out in the park together even by accident holding hands and I was happy seeing Carolyn.

Putting Zuri and Stanley next to each other pointed out to us the differences between them. (They were born only two days apart from each other.) For example, I now see how Stanley is on the 75% of the weight chart.

Here is a picture of mom and baby from the AM.

Did you vote today?

Well maybe it was mom that did the writing, but Stanley helped.

So San Francisco

Today Stanley and I headed to Mommy-Baby yoga. It is mostly yoga for the mommy, but at the end Stanley did enjoy his little yoga session (mostly just me moving his hands and feet around). If you were wondering, Mommy-baby pilates is just down the street. So San Fran :-)

7 weeks and growing

I cannot believe Stanley is 7 weeks. (It is scary to think that at 8 weeks I'm going back to work. Yikes!!!)

Stanley is so much more alert and inquisitive.  He loves to check out the world around him. When he is in the slings or carriers he looks all around; he was quite enthralled with the fridge.  This morning he was quite upset when I was shielding him from the sun and blocked his view. It is fun to see his expressions when he sees different items. We are not sure if his vision got a lot better in the last few days or if he just is taking in more items.

This last week he has been eating up a storm and sleeping quite a bit. He still has a fussy period in the evenings around 4-9 pm. However, we have been having success to put him in the swing and swaddle around 8pm and he just looks around until he finally gets sleepy and falls asleep. Today he got fussy around 3pm, which we thought was strange until we realized it was the usual 4pm with daylight savings time figured in. Apparently he never got the memo.

Stanley loves:
- The swing again
- The space station without music (he kicks the posts to make the little toys move around)
- His new "White Noise" app, particularly the ocean noise part
- The zebra over the changing table
- Momma's milk
- Looking around awake between 3-5am
- Falling asleep in the carriers
- Parties with lots of white noise and chatter

Stanley can:
- Standing (with help)
- Hold up his head most of the time
- Sleep for 3 hours on his own
- Scream so loud that mom and dad's ears start ringing
- Smile (it seems real)
- Open his mouth like he wants to laugh or something
- Make a lot more cooing noises this week

Stanley does not like:
- Being woken up (takes after his mom in this regard)
- "Tummy time"
- The car and the car seat
- Being hot

More Smiles

We were able to catch Stanley smiling for a little bit on video.  Kind of dark, but you can get the picture.  Happy viewing.

Burr!

It is cold in SF.
Our heat broke.
The house is now 64.

Thank gosh for blankets.

Nanny share

Today Steve, Stanley, and I met with a potential nanny share family who live about 6 blocks from us. We all went out to lunch.

Stanley slept the whole lunch; Steve and I had a very pleasant time. We have very similar hobbies and it turns out the dad will be working in the same building complex as me (Julia). Plus, we have similar requirements for the nanny. So, we agreed to do a nanny share with them. Both Steve and are thrilled how this seems to be working out. It will really help that Stanley is not in the car for 2+ hours per day and it is nice that both Steve and I can help with pick-up and drop-off. (This morning I went to the grocery store with Stanley and he screamed the entire trip home. I walked in the door with a screaming baby, handed him to Steve and said "Nanny share here we come".)

Anyways, the mom has two potential nannies and we will interview them also. Both are Russian so maybe Stanley will pickup some Russian and he can help us on an adventure in Russia someday.

So far this seems as though it is working out really well and has greatly relieved my worries of about a week ago when we did not have any options. We are all excited.

Daddy's work tour

Stanley and I went to visit Dad at his work today and then dinner with Kate, John, and Ronan. Here are some photos of the day. I enjoyed the tour of Steve's work. Stanley seemed to enjoy it in his fashion of sleeping through the whole tour.

Stanley getting dressed into his bear suit to be
ready for our tour of dad's office

Nice view from the office! Far superior to cubicle land
in my office!!!

Kate and I carried them for 9 months, here
the dad's are getting a turn. 

 After this we headed to meet up with John, Ronan, and Kate. Here the 2 little men are "walking" towards each other with the help from the dads.

Smiles

Stanley has been gracing us with his smiles these last few days. He is camera shy lately, so it is hard to get good photos. Well actually, it isn't so much camera shy as we love to watch him so we enjoy it rather than taking photos or Stanley gets really interested in the camera and stops smiling. Here are a few photos:









The time when he always smiles is when he is on the changing table. However, it seems like playing with fire to try to take pictures with a possible pee fountain at any moment.

The Miracle 4 hours

Last night was a miracle for all three of us.

Stanley ate at 8:15 pm and then Steve took him out on a walk. Stanley was in his 6 week fussy stage, but fell fast asleep by the end of the block. I went to bed by 9pm. When I woke up exploding of milk at around 1am, I found Stanley curled up next to Steve in bed. I was convinced that Steve must have given him a bottle, so I pumped and crawled in bed. Turns out Stanley woke up at 1:45 am starving. He went almost 6 hours. Oops. I not sure if this was good or bad for him, but it was great for his parents sanity and sleep.

I went to bed again after that feeding and slept till 6am. Amazing!!

For sure this will not last forever but we will take whatever we can get. Especially since the night before Stanley was awake from 2am-5am and then again from 6:15 to 8am.

Stanley's First Halloween

Stanley spent his first Halloween on dad's chest. I'm not sure he really enjoyed the costumes of the kids that came by, but his parents sure did.




Stanley was originally dressed up in the following

but when that got spit-up all over it, he moved onto his Monkey suit