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The Baby Chronicles: Dexter laughing

Jim — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:38:15 -0800

I can't believe it's been two months since my last post!!! To say I'm behind in posting pictures is an insult in being behind - I've got pics from maaaany events in December, January, and February, not to mention just not having any pics of Dexter up for you to see his growth. I'll try to rectify that soon, in the meantime I've had a chance to capture a short video of Dexter laughing. Finally, Dexter has his own video! :) Enjoy!

The Baby Chronicles: Booyah

Jim — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:38:30 -0800

We had broccoli for dinner today. Usually we have to cut it into smaller pieces for Cam and sometimes we have to 'hide' it by mixing it into his rice or whatever else is on the plate, but today he was grabbing them on his own and eating them whole. At one point, he popped an entire piece into his mouth, chewed it all, swallowed it, looked at me, and said "Booyah."

There have been many awesome moments with Cam, that may have been the most awesomest moment to date.

The Baby Chronicles: Dexter's personality is showing up

Jim — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:54:29 -0800

I'll be right here waiting for
someone to play with me

Dex is a very laid back, low maintenance baby. He'll sit on his bouncer without a peep while we are doing some chores or keeping Cam occupied. Ten to fifteen minutes later we'll go to check in on Dex and he'll light up with smile and start kicking his legs and waving his arms excitedly. Poor little guy, he was just waiting for someone to attention to him. No complaints, though, just sitting there waiting patiently.

He is a laid back baby, but when he gets upset he'll let you know with a mega put where his lower lip engulfs his upper lip and his eyes portray such a pained look. I find it quite endearing. :) He pouts for a few seconds then resumes his laid back self. But if Dex transitions from being merely upset to actual anger, watch out - when he gets mad, he gets really mad. He follows the mega pout by unleashing an ear-drum shattering cry. It's actually difficult to hold him when he's crying since he's close to your ears and it's just plain painful on the ears; I now understand where the term 'ear piercing' came from. Luckily he doesn't cry all that often so it's not something we have to deal with too often.

Dex is also quite a chatterbox, he'll happily babble away in his baby talk with you when you play with him. He says lots of different things as he's capable of several different sounds and syllables, but not just sounds - he's also physically expressive. There are head bobs and shoulder shrugs and chin dips and making "O" shapes with his mouth and jutting his head out... it's a lot of fun to have a conversation with him.

We've also discovered that he's ticklish. When you tickle his neck, he'll shrug his shoulder into his neck and his face gets all scrunchy and his tongue sticks out. I love seeing Dex's toothless grin and the way his little tongue sticks out just a bit. He's recently started to laugh, too. It's not the long uncontrollable laugh that Cam had at this age, instead it's a quick burst of joy. :)

A couple night's back, Dex slept from 11pm through til 9am without waking up. We were completely shocked and utterly amazed - was Dex about to turn into one of those mythical babies that sleep through the entire night from an early age??

It turns out that that was just a one time occurrence. Dex does wake up in the middle of the night to feed, but he only wakes up once. Sara's very happy that he sleeps for at least five hours at night - it's soooooooo much easier than the painful ordeal that we went through with Cam waking up every hour to eat. I'm even happier about it since I'm not much help at night; Cam is still not sleeping through the night and needs somebody to sleep with him so I'm down in Cam's room while Sara's on her own with Dex at night.

I'm still behind with posting pictures, but I've been able to post November pics, through Dexter's 10th week of life. Enjoy!

The Baby Chronicles: They're smarter than we think

Jim — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:21:15 -0800

New Year's Eve was an extremely low-key event for us. We were trying to get Dex used to a bottle in preparation for going to daycare so we decided to stay at home to make it easier to stick with the program. We let Cam stay up all the way til midnight... EST. We watched the ball drop in New York at 9pm and then we all went to sleep shortly after.

Earlier in the day, Sara said to Cameron "it's New Year's Eve Cameron, what should we do to make it special?" It was a rhetorical question, but Cam spent a few seconds thinking about it and replied "Um, how bout cake?" to which Sara said "that's a good idea Cameron!" and it was indeed a good idea, something we would not have thought of.

Cam was obviously pleased with himself - he spent the next few minutes saying "good idea Cameron" :)

Cam loves the zoo, during the Christmas break we talked about the zoo often and Cam got all excited to visit the zoo. We finally ended up going but on our way there it started to drizzle and by the time we got to the zoo it was completely raining. We didn't want to walk around in the rain so we said to Cam "it's raining Cameron, we can't go to the zoo" to which he replied "use umbrella!" Can't really counter with anything so Sara and I were quiet. A few seconds later Cam follows up with "use hat!" More undeniable logic from our two year old. Seriously, this kid, he's gotta stop having such good responses.

We couldn't really counter with anything but didn't want to walk in the rain, so went with Diversion Tactic #1: "Cam, let's go home and watch a movie!" and he excitedly replied "okay!" It never fails. :)

Lake Tahoe 2009 pt II

Jim — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:42:06 -0800

Scenic hike at Emerald Bay

My first post about our trip to Lake Tahoe only covered the first four days of the week-long trip, and I only now got a chance to post about the remainder of the trip.

We had planned on doing three separate hikes over the last three days of the trip but it suddenly became extremely windy, making it too cold and uncomfortable, even in the sun. We drove out to the hiking sites and could not last more than a few minutes in the wind before retreating back to the warmth of the car.

The wind finally died down on Saturday and we were able to make our way to Emerald Bay and hike down to Vikingsholm Castle. Unfortunately it is off season so they did not have any tourist guides or information set up, so we didn't know too much about it, but it was nice to look at. :)

The castle itself is really more of an old wooden mansion than an actual castle, though it did have some rock-based exteriors. Due to it being offseason, the castle was all locked up so we could only wander around the grounds. Cam and Popo took a look into the castle through some boarded up windows, and Cam got spooked out - he was scared and I had to hold him as we left the castle courtyard.

The hiking path to the castle starts near the top of a mountain and runs just over a mile til you get down to the shoreline where the castle is located. It's a pleasant hike down with a few stop points to take some shots of the scenery. The hike up is a completely different matter, as you're battling a climb that is much steeper than you realized on the way down, and of course you're tired from the initial hike down. We had to take a couple rest stops and Cam only lasted about 20 feet before he was sitting in the stroller for the rest of the hike out. We struggled our way out and then rested some more at the top before heading back to the hotel.

During the cold and windy days, we spent some time just hanging out in the hotel room. At one point, Sara's mom was messing around with Cam and asked him "Are you Dexter?" to which Cam would respond with "No! I'm Cameron!!" and that evolved into "Who's Dexter, who's Cameron" with Cam responding correctly, and then Sara's mom threw in a "who's Jim?" and lo and behold Cameron said "dada" out of nowhere. We were absolutely amazed, and followed up with "who's Sara?" and he said "mama"!! Holy cow Cam knows our names?!? That's crazy! We tried various different ways of asking who we were and he correctly identified us, either calling us "dada/mama" or even "Jim/Sara" - nothing's cuter than hearing your two year old refer to you by name.

I tried asking him our names again recently and it looks like he's forgotten our names. I'm guessing that Cam picked up on the name association during Sara's mom visit but since she's left he hasn't heard 'Sara' or 'Jim' nearly as often so the association to us is not being reinforced and has probably worn off. It was pretty cool while it lasted.

All in all, it was a great time at Lake Tahoe. It's too bad that we lost two days due to inclement weather. I wish we had headed out for the hikes in the first half of the week when the weather was nice, but this just means we've got a couple of hikes waiting for us on our next trip to Lake Tahoe.

I've added lots of pictures to the Lake Tahoe album, new stuff starts at picture 71, right after 'Dex got to enjoy the great outdoors'. Enjoy!

The Baby Chronicles: Halloween and visiting Golden Gate Park with Popo

Jim — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:25:06 -0800

Editor's note: this post was originally written in November but the author has been too busy to complete the editing job til now.

In a couple years, this pic will be replaced
by one of them punching each other

Sara's mom headed home a couple weeks back, basically right after our Lake Tahoe vacation. We all miss her, and Sara actually cried a little after she dropped her off at the airport. (Sara will kill me for posting that, so you didn't find out from me) We ask Cam "where's popo?" and he says "Can-dace!" which is Cam-speak for Canada :)

Before Popo left, we had spent an afternoon at Golden Gate Park. We entered the park on the Pacific Ocean side and it was extremely foggy and cold and wet and we were rethinking visiting the park for the day, but we drove inland all of five minutes and it was sunny and warm - a perfect day for a picnic. Typical crazy San Francisco microclimates.

Popo had made some homemade sushi and Cam loved it. I'm actually not sure what he liked better: eating the sushi or saying "sooooshi!" - he was so excited every time he said it.

There were tons of squirrels at the park, and they are sooo not afraid of humans. I overheard a couple call them "vermin" and "wingless pigeons" and I could not understand it - they're cute little critters! They came right up to us, even climbing right onto the bench where we were sitting and posed all cute-like, asking for food. We found out why they're such nuisances pretty quick, though - when they didn't get food they were actually bold enough to jump at us to swipe some food!!! One jumped right at Cam and I pulled him out of the way right in time, or the squirrel would have landed on Cam and who knows what would have happened at that point. We avoided the squirrels whenever we stopped for a snack the rest of the day and had a nice day at the park.

We also visited Fisherman's Wharf with popo. I figured Cam would love seeing the Sea Lions, but he wasn't all that interested and looked for other entertainment after only a couple minutes of watching them.

We took Cam to the dentist for the first time. He was not at all nervous, but that was probably because the first thing he noticed was the Megabloks table - he didn't see the big scary dentist seats and gleaming sharp tools of the dental trade. The doctor was very nice and had a very calm demeanor about him, and Cam was still not nervous when we sat down with the dentist to listen to what was going to happen. Finally it was time to check out Cam's teeth and I had to hold Cam down and of course he cried through the inspection and toothbrushing that the dentist gave him. He was soothed when he got to pick out a "prize" for finishing his dentist appointment - a little plastic dinosaur. At home, he fought and cried when I brushed his teeth for the first couple days, but after that he lets me brush with no complaints, though sometimes he does fight me not to avoid brushing, but to brush himself. It's funny when he tries to brush himself - he just holds the toothbrush in place for a few seconds then says "all done". :)

Hallowe'en at Taleo

We ended up not going trick or treating this year. I had to work that day (yes, I had to work on the Saturday. Boo.) so we ended up not going out trick or treating. Sara had bought a big bag of candy and was all set to hand out the goodies through the night, but nobody showed up. I don't mean "nobody" as in one or two kids knocked on our door, I mean "nobody" as in not a single person came trick or treating. Our neighbourhood has gone from "sleepy and quiet" to "perfect environment for burglars" in my eyes.

Anyways, we didn't have any Hallowe'en activity at our home, but my office threw their annual mini-party for families so Sara dragged Cam and Dex all the way out to my work. Not much to say about the party itself except that Cam had fun walking around and helping himself to the candy bowls lying around the office.

The big notable event was that Sara got rear-ended on the way to the office. Sara and both boys were all frazzled and crying, but thankfully it was an extremely low speed collision in stop'n'go traffic and nobody was hurt. The other driver was very sorry and placed a thoughtful follow up call to Sara to see how she was doing, and his insurance company (Allstate) was great about taking care of everything. They even made sure we replaced the kids' car seats, something we didn't think about doing.

I'm quite happy to have replaced the infant seat as the one we had was a hand me down as getting a bit long in the tooth, but I have a hard time letting Cam's car seat go. The collision was extremely light and I can't imagine that any of the seat's cushioning has been compromised by the accident. It's better to be safe than sorry, of course, but I can't bring myself to throw what is a perfectly good seat away so it's currently sitting in our vestibule while I figure out what to do with it. We'll probably stick it in the Lexus as an occasional use seat for when Dex gets bigger.

That's it for now, enjoy the few pictures I've posted.

The Baby Chronicles: Dexter at one month

Jim — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:09:49 -0800

We had Dexter's one month checkup. He feels like a big and heavy baby, and I guessed him to be 10lbs 8oz... after weighing him, it turned out he was 11lbs 14oz! Almost 12 lbs at one month!!! Crazy giant baby!

That's 93%ile, from 35%ile at birth. Another 2 percent and Dex woulda been off the charts! For comparison's sake, Dex was half a pound heavier than Cam was at one month (maintaining the same half pound weight difference from birth). Dex's other one month stats:
Length: 22.5 innches (70%ile, compared to 30%ile at birth)
Head circumference: 14 inches (50%ile, 30%ile at birth)

Dex is already bigger than Cam. I was holding Dex for a lengthy period the other day, and my shoulders were aching the rest of the night. I wonder just how big Dex is going to get...

Dex all dressed up

For Dexter’s one month celebration, we had a small gathering of family at our home. Sara's mom cooked up a storm and we all enjoyed a delicious celebration, complete with red eggs :) The only regret is not taking a picture of all the food!

It was really nice having the 2 boys all dressed up. When we put Cam in a collared shirt, he said "Dada clothes" - that stuff'll melt his Dad's heart. :)

Since Dex was in his Sunday-best, we took the opportunity to take some passport photos. Although we have decided not to go to Toronto for the holidays, we wanted to be prepared should we change our minds or decide to escape to a Mexican resort. Taking Dex’s picture was easier than it was for Cam, probably because Dex is older and not as giggly or perhaps it’s because we are experienced now ;)

Enjoy the pictures of Dex from two and a half to four and a half weeks.

Lake Tahoe 2009

Jim — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:28:49 -0800

It's been over 2 weeks since my last post - almost half of Dexter's life! It's been very busy the last couple weeks; I'm typically up at 6:40am, get myself and Cam ready for the day, then out the door at 7:20am, drop off Cam at daycare, head to the office, back home by about 6pm, have dinner, bathe Cam at 7pm, get him in bed and asleep by 8:30-9, usually fall asleep with Cam and wake up at 9:30, then do whatever household cleanup/chores, then it's usually past 10pm by the time I get to get on the computer, and the past couple weeks that time has been devoted to doing work rather than blogging or posting photos... but anyways, enough about me.

We're in the middle of a one week vacation to South Lake Tahoe right now. We're staying at the Marriott Timber Lodge which is a ski resort and is located in a little ski village centered around a big gondola that heads up the mountain to the ski runs. It's not yet ski season, but past the summer tourist season, so it's pretty dead out here. The ski village feels deserted but it's actually kinda nice - we've got the run of the place and there are no crowds anywhere. Cam has loved climbing all over the rocks and jumping everywhere, and he yells out "Ah-bot!" (his word for 'robot') when he sees the gondola. Sara and I were here three years ago (gosh I can't believe how young we looked before our kids) and enjoyed riding the gondola; too bad it's closed til ski season starts this time, we were looking forward to taking Sara's mom and kids up there.

Enjoying the firepits

We've had fun so far; the weather's much cooler here compared to San Francisco so we've enjoyed sitting beside some firepits at night while munching on smores. We walked to a beach which was completely empty - it was so quiet and peaceful, I could have gone down for a long nap in the sun - which Cam did. We've also gone on a nice hike through the woods, and we saw salmon attempting to swim upstream to spawn! That was seriously cool. Spawning season runs from mid September to the end of October, so we only got to see the tail end of it - the resort concierge described it perfectly: "you'll probably see more dead than live fish."

We're only halfway through our trip so far. Tomorrow we're hiking to some waterfalls, so I'd better get to sleep and get some rest. Enjoy the pictures!

The Baby Chronicles: Dexter comes home... and then goes right back to the hospital

Jim — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:31:02 -0700

Dexter was born on Wednesday, we went home on Friday evening, and then on Saturday had an in-home visit from a nurse, who did drew some blood from Dex to check his bilirubin count. We got a call later that day from the doctor: Dex's bilirubin was high and we had to get him back to the hospital for jaundice treatment.

Dex was home for less than a day.

The Baby Chronicles: Dex is shaping up to be one big sucker

Jim — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:45:37 -0700

We had Dex's two week appointment today, and he's getting B.I.G.

To recap, his birth weight was 8lb 3oz
Leaving hospital three days later: 7lbs 7oz
One week old: 7lbs 15oz
Now, 1 day shy of 2 weeks after birth: 8lb 11oz!

The average baby gains between 0.5 and 1.0oz, and Dex has been gaining 2oz a day!! Dex is going to be humungo, even bigger than Cameron! If you don't remember just how fat Cameron was, here's a refresher:

Cam at 3 months.
No he's not wearing a sumo suit

I'm thinking maybe we should sell Sara's milk - that stuff is potent!