Super Sunday

Last Sunday we gathered with Brady, Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Michelle and your Godparents to eat and watch the Super Bowl. Or the Halftime show. Or whatever.

In any case, Uncle BJ and Aunt Kari brought over their awesome camera and took some great pics and videos of you and Brady.

We love the video so much...it just captures what an evening playing is like in your life right now.

Perfectly captures the serenity of playing.

Almost makes you want to cry!

4 Months Old- Swimming!

You turned 4 months old today. We can't believe how lucky we are to have such a sweet little 4 month old baby. I can't believe how fast it's gone!

And it's been a pretty monumental weekend already! You've 'found your voice,' so to speak! Making non-crying noises all the time...just a chatting and gurgling and squeaking and grunting and coughing away. (The coughing isn't because you're sick...it's a vocalization that you just use sometimes!)

You even mimicked me, blowing raspberries. You just smiled and smiled when you figured out how to do it!

To celebrate your birth-iversary (and because it's summer in Dallas), we took you to Uncle Jeremy's and Auntie M's apartments to go swimming!

Again, you didn't really LOVE swimming, but you certainly didn't hate it. You just kind of liked it!

And, your Godmother, Aunt Kari, was there with her excellent photographic eye to capture the swimming fun and all the post swimming cuteness!

They are just fabulous pictures of you that totally capture your burgeoning personality!

Happy 4 month birthday, beautiful boy!

8 weeks old and a lot to Smile About

You turned 8 weeks old on Saturday...tomorrow you will be 2 months old!

I can't believe how fast the time is flying by. Yet, it's every hard to imagine life without you.

You had a great weekend, hanging out with Uncle BJ and Aunt Kari and Uncle Jeremy and Auntie M and a very special evening with Nanneh and Baba. You even got to see Mimi too!

We went to restaurants, hung out outside, played, smiled and sang songs. But don't worry, we still had plenty of time to stop and smell the roses (or irises)

You even got to dance to techno music, which you seemed to like almost as much as Zydeco! On Saturday, we went out to dinner to have sushi (mmmm) and the restaurant was pumpin' the house music with a strong boots-n-pots-n-boots-n-pots pulse. Since you were having a bit of a hard time not crying, we danced with you after you had your bottle and...boom...the techno baby stopped crying!

You, Me and Uncle Jeremy...before the techno kicked in. And don't worry, I'm just holding you, not hurting you (I promise!)

The restaurant was clearly not intended for babies to be present, though. How do I know this? Well, there was no Koala baby-changing station in the bathroom! Not in the men's room or the ladies'! So, your ever-resourceful Dad took you outside the restaurant and found a nice metal bench. I laid down the changing pad and had at it...and I think we may have a little exhibitionist on our hands.

Normally during a diaper changing, you'll cry at least a little bit. But on Saturday- your 8 week birthday- you were bare assed in the cool breeze, while I changed your diaper in front of all the passers-by and you were just all-smiles all the time!

Mabye we just need to change your diaper outside at home too..since you seemed to like it so much! Or maybe you were just laughing at me having to change your diaper-- which was very very dirty, for the record-- out in public!

Now, that's something to think about!

Who knows what you were thinking about...but I know what I've been thinking about: your smiles. Your little smile has grown so much in the past couple of weeks.

Take a look at this archival smile footage from 4/18, when you were 7 weeks old (ignore my voice...in fact, mute it...it's rather embarassing) and compare it to your smiles from 4/24, when you're 8 weeks old! And really try to ignore the ridiculous things I must say and the silly voices I must use to coax a smile out of you!

Oh yeah, the thing with the yellow ladle. I was testing your ability to track objects...and you were pretty good. You did better this weekend though. But, mostly, you're not too interested in that yellow ladle thing. But that's okay...

In fact, when you smile, EVERYthing is okay. Someone could have just shaved off one of my eyebrows and I could see you smile and be ecstatic!

And, on a brilliant note, I'm proud to report that we are making major strides in the sleep department! You are lasting longer and longer between feedings (over 6 hours on Friday night and about 5 on Saturday night!) AND you're sleeping for long stretches at a time by yourself! in your cradle! (last night you slept there from 10:00 to 2:30 with only one little cry-spell, which was easily thwarted with me swinging the cradle!). Now, if that's not something to smile about, I don't know what is!

You. Today

You turn 8 weeks old tomorrow!

I wanted to just show you what you looked like this morning. But this idyllic scene didn't last long. You wanted to celebrate your 8 week birthday by testing your lungs all day!
And last night you kind of b-slapped your Godfather in the face! It was awesome. He was just holding you and had his head really close to yours and you up and POPPED him in the face!

It made a big noise, but he only cried for a minute or two!

But, it's better than the time you nerpled your Mom. That was a really funny one!

7,6,5,4,3,2,1 - Happy New Baby!

So, as it turns out, those Friday contractions were right on! I don't want to spoil this for you, but, you were born on February 27, 2010 at 5:51 pm in the evening! A full week ahead of your due date, but right on time-- because we just couldn't wait to meet you any longer.

It was a pretty interesting Friday evening and Saturday morning leading up to that big event though.

Your Mom and I were pretty convinced that the contractions would be slow and infrequent through the weekend, so we went ahead and had dinner and played games with your Godparents on Friday night.

All through dinner, your Mom had infrequent but pretty powerful contractions. But, when we asked her if we should go home, she said "No, they're not that bad." As it turns out, they WERE pretty serious, but your Mom really, really wanted to go to Pink Berry.

She enjoyed her fro-yo and then we retired back to Casa de Weinstein for some Boom Blox (that's a video game on this antique called a Nintendo Wii).

Around 9:00, your Mom decided that the contractions were getting close enough together to warrant doing some timing. At that point, I started a page in my journal keeping track of the contractions.

The rest of the evening and the next 20 hours or so went a bit like this:

Contractions at :

• 8:45
• 8:56
• 9:06
• 9:17
• 9:29
• 9:37
• 9:48
• 9:51
• 9:55
• 10:00
  

Etc, etc, etc...

As the contractions go closer and closer together, we started to realize that this was actually going to go down...and soon.

So your Mom managed her contractions while I became a whirling dervish and cleaned the kitchen, finished packing THE bag, getting pillows together and keeping a list of the contractions.

I also took the last known picture of your Mom pregnant with you in the wee hours of Saturday morning, making it officially the 39th week picture.


Not too shabby, considering that we started out like this, on week 8:

As February 26th turned into February 27, your Mom called the doctor to tell her what was happening. The doctor recommended that we stay at home as long as possible to be as comfortable as possible. We abided...and tried to hang on as long as possible.

So we tried to get some sleep. I blew up the air mattress and we turned out the lights. With each contraction, I'd turn on a flashlight, note the time and watch in awe as your Mom muscled through. This lasted for 2 contractions.

Then we decided to watch some TV, and coast through the contractions. This lasted for 2 contractions.

Concurrently, around midnight your Mom started rating the contractions with Tourrettes-like finesse :

12:33 was "BAD"
12:44 was "getting stronger"
12:59 was "Worse! JESUS!"
and 1:10 am was "Jimminy Christmas!"

At 1:24 am we left for the hospital. I hit every bump on the road accidentally. But, I drove safely and we got there safely, if not a little painfully.

At 2:18 am we were checked into triage unit and it was confirmed that she was dilated 3-4 centimeters.

I asked the nurse if we were admitted to the hospital. She said "Definitely."

So, off to Room 7 we went, where your Mom was hooked up to machinery and continued having stronger and stronger contractions, all without medicine, as per her wishes.

How does this story end? Well, we already know the beautiful end result.

But for the thrilling conclusion, you'll have to tune back in later.

To be continued...as we waited for you: