The Family Edelhay: Jordan, Alex, and Angus

Our nanny Allie has been hanging with Angus for 5 weeks now, but last week was Amelia's first full week.

The threesome is now complete and they had quite a week. Both babies are interested in each other. Angus had trouble sleeping the first couple of days because whenever Amelia would get upset, he'd want to see where all the rucous was coming from. After a few days, he got used to the noise and he's been sleeping like a champ.

The two kids are so different. Amelia likes to be held. Angus likes to wiggle. Angus likes to eat. Amelia loves to sleep. Angus is a little baldy. Amelia has enough lush hair to play beauty shop.

If you look at the photo, you'll notice another development. Angus can now confidently wiggle around to get what he wants. He can't crawl yet, but for the past week and a half, he's been fluently moving from his back to his tummy, his tummy to his back, his back to his side, his side in a circle. He can get almost anywhere that he wants, it just takes a while. In the end, neither he nor I have any idea how he did it.

Yesterday, we pulled out a new toy. It's a wooden clackity ball that's targeted at 6+ months. It instantly became an object of desire. He'll catch a glimpse of the ball in his far peripheral vision a foot or two out of his grasp. He'll turn around, execute a roll or two, and get himself within reaching distance. He got himself all propped up on his elbows. Then, he'd make his move, knocking the ball even farther away. After a full repeat of all of the wiggling, rolling and positioning, he'd be ready to make his move again. This time, he made a big sweep with his right arm, then got the ball tucked into the crook of his left arm, protecting it like a running back.

Angus is moving all over the place. He's turned into a real little boy.

In other news... sometime between when we went to work on Thursday and when we came home, Angus's hair got noticeably longer.

Labels: angus

Babette came up to Seattle this week. She and Angus had a great time together, speaking French, singing songs, taking walks and snuggling.

Babette reorganized our whole garage and basement as Alex's Christmas present. The house feels great, and Angus's French has never been better.

Thank you Babette!

Labels: angus

Angus has had trouble with his right eye since he was born. His tear duct was blocked. His tears would collect. His eye would get a little glassy. Eye boogers would collect and crust up his eye. Poor little Angus.

But for the past two weeks -- no tears, no crusty eye. Angus's eye is draining. Good bye crusty eye.

(The photo is from back in November when crusty eye was in full force.)

Labels: angus

Welcome Allie, the newest member of our family! Allie is Angus's new nanny. She and her husband just built their dream house in Lake Stevens. Before that she lived in California and Florida, where she worked with the three and four year olds on the Disney Cruise ship for four years.

Allie knows all the good songs, and she has a heart full of play. She and Angus have been cracking each other up every day. We feel so fortunate to have Allie.

Check out all the fun they've been having.

Coming soon... Allie and Angus will soon be joined by Amelia.

Labels: angus

Last night Angus sprouted his first tooth! It's one of his lower incisors. It's pretty hard to see, but you can definitely feel it's sharp little cutting edge. Angus has been in pretty good spirits about it. He was a little cranky and reluctant to sleep yesterday, but that could be because he was having such a good time that he didn't want to sleep.

In other news, Angus has now added sweet potatoes to his sampling diet, and he's about to cross the 19 lb mark.

Labels: angus

Angus has been interested in smelling and watching our food since he was 2 months old. He likes hearing the sizzle of cooking. Watching grandpa make bacon is a 3 sense activity - sizzle, smoky smell, and whirl of visual activity. He likes the smell of an orange being peeled. He loves sitting on our laps at the table, using his hands for balance and being part of the family. Alex joked that he'd be a chef. I countered that with his interest in smells, he'd be a sommelier. We were sure that as soon as we could feed him he'd be an eager and enthusiastic eating machine.

We got the go ahead to feed Angus solid food two weeks ago at his 4 month doctor's visit. Per our instructions, we tried rice cereal mixed with breastmilk a week ago. We got out the video camera, set him up with a little bib, and moved in for the feed. Angus wasn't interested. He was less than interested. He was a little revolted. We offered a few times without forcing the food on him. Then we tasted the rice mush. It was revolting! It was goopy and had no real flavor. Yuck!

So this Sunday we tried a new tack. I roasted some acorn squash that showed up in our produce box, and pureed it. Then we sat down with less fanfare and no uncomfortable bib. Angus was in Alex's lap pulled up to the family table. I sat down with the squash on my finger, and ate some while Angus watched. Every so often, I offered the food to him. Eventually, he tried it. He was cautiously interested. He mushed it around with his tongue. Eventually, he even greedily attacked one bite, opening his mouth wide and pulling my finger into his mouth. All in all, he probably got 4 bites in his mouth, 10 bites on his face and clothes, and 1 bite down his throat.

Labels: angus

Angus has been really enjoying his hands and feet for the past week. For the first time, he can grab things when he's on his tummy.

Angus's new obsession is grabbing his feet. We've named his left foot Lester and his right foot Ralph. He is particularly interested in his Lester, which he grabs mostly with his left hand. Then he pumps the foot in and out. This is elevated to a great party trick when he grabs his left foot with his left hand, then pulls his foot towards his body until he farts!

Labels: angus

I just posted a photo essay showing all of the things that Angus and i did last Wednesday. My maternity leave is almost over, and I wanted to capture what a day is like for us.

See the photos.

Labels: angus

Angus is interacting more with the world every day. He's been enthusiastically learning to control his world -- starting with the things most important to him. He's striving to gain control of his binky. He can grab the binky, pull it out of his mouth, move it around using his hand. He can almost get it back into his mouth. Right now when he tries to get it back in, he jams the butterfly edges in his mouth instead of the nipple. But he's close. Any day now, he'll have full mastery of the binky. And he will be happy.

Angus is trying to control all parts of the world. When he's overloaded, he sheilds his eyes with the back of his hands. By experimenting with the sun, he's figured out that if the sun is in his eyes, he can turn his head in the other direction.

Our inquisitive little boy -- next thing you know, he'll be learning how to control us.

Labels: angus

Angus rolled from his tummy to his back on Tuesday afternoon! He was so surprised and pleased with himself. I rolled him onto his tummy and he did it again.

This is all part of Angus's new wiggle campaign. He's wiggling all the time now. He's pulling his knees to his tummy and putting them back on the ground in a sort of perennial pilates. He's shifting his weight from side to side on both his tummy and his back. He's intentionally trying to take a face dive when he's sitting up just so he can see what will happen and where he'll end up.

This has all been awful for his sleep. He's sleeping in only 1-2 hour chunks because he keeps waking up to try new kinds of wiggling. But it is highly entertaining for both him and me. Now, if only he could repeat that roll a few more times.

Labels: angus

Angus is gradually learning to love books. At first, he would look at one or two brightly colored pictures in a picture book. Then he started clumsily turning pages of the board books, and grabbing their spines. Finally, he has started to like rhymes.

A few days ago, I tried reading Yertle the Turtle to Angus. I've tried Dr. Seuss before, but the other attempts all began with mild toleration and ended with wriggling, grunting discontent. But this time, he smiled, he laughed, he looked amazed and fixated. It was so exciting. I love reading, and so does my husband. It was amazing to see Angus taking real joy in the written word for the first time. The joy was real, even if Angus only made it through half the story before he became both overloaded and bored. (How is that even possible?)

Now, I'm on the hunt for stories and tales with rhyme and rhythm. I got my hands on an anthology of nursery rhymes. They are the right length for Angus's little attention span, and they have pleasing meter and rhyme. For your enjoyment, I'll leave you with my new favorite nursery rhyme:

I had a little nut tree
And nothing would it bear.
But a silver nutmeg
And a golden pear.

The king of Spain's daughter
Came to visit me,
And all for the sake
Of my little nut tree.

Labels: angus

Angus just emerged rosy-cheeked and quietly smiling from his pre-sleep nursing. He has been taking time during and after nursing to shyly smile at me, to conduct his side of a sweet conversation, to quietly hang out with me. He seems confident enough to put himself out there. He stares into my eyes, and thoughtfully tries sounds he hasn't tried before.

Labels: angus

Angus is getting bigger and stronger every day. Tummy time used to end quickly in a tired and collapsed Angus, but lately he's been loving it. When he's on his tummy he can control what he looks at and he loves it. Now he laughs loudly while he's looking around. Last week he was on his tummy in his crib. I caught him arching his neck so that he could see his swallow mobile across the room. He's holding his head up really high for a long period of time. He can see things and people that are far away and through windows. He's watching every moment.

We've been experimenting with having Angus sleep unswaddled. Two weeks ago we put him to bed unswaddled at 8pm. By 11:30, he had somehow managed to scoot his head into the corner of his crib. He moved himself 2 feet and as far as we can tell, he has only one rather crude mechanism for moving. He pulls up his feet, then his legs and his butt so that they're all suspended above his head. Then he lets his legs crash down to the floor of the crib, pushing him forward. He only does this when we're out of the room, and he never seems to cry or be upset when he does it. I think that this must be his first movement to see the world on his own -- how exciting. During his second sleep period, he managed to get himself turned around 90 degrees, and scooted himself over to the opposite corner of the crib. As you might imagine, the quality of sleep for everyone in the house has suffered a little. Angus was up all night with his project. Even though he thought he was stealthy, his Dad and I spent most of the night listening to his weird little crashing pattern.

Labels: angus

Angus is intensely interested in the world. He loves being held by Alex or I while we're in a large group so that he can watch other people talk from the safety of our arms. We went to a Hanukkah party at Scott and Joy Silver's house 2 Sundays ago. Angus watched quietly for the whole party, then when we got home, he transformed into a chatterbox. He just talked and talked and talked. Just like all the people at the party. After that, he invented a game where he sits in my lap and nuzzels his head into my chest. Then, he'll lift his head up, look at Alex sitting next to me, and once he has Alex's attention, break out into the biggest, happiest, proudest smile you've ever seen. As soon as Alex smiles back, he burrows his head into my chest again, only to repeat the whole sequence with smiles of increasing brilliance.

Angus is also meeting his first friends. He met Doug and Nancy Treder's son, Elijah at a santa photo shoot on Saturday. He's been spending some quality eating and sleeping time with Kim Painter and Hui-San Chung's daughter Amelia, as Kim and I enjoy our maternity leaves together and look for a nanny to look after the two of them. Last week, Amelia was at our house for the first time. She was fussing, and I was holding Angus over my shoulder. Everytime, I moved so that Angus couldn't see Amelia, he made an abrupt noise of dissatisfaction, until I turned him so that he could watch her.

Labels: angus

We had a great time for Thanksgiving up in Anacortes at Jordan's parents' house. There was a huge turnout:

• Don, Lisa, Zack and Zoe
• Babette & Terry
• Jordan, Alex & Angus
• Owen & Amy
• Jan & Roxy
• Stan & Nancy
• Fred & Kathleen

Angus spent the week surrounded by people who loved him. Angus was social and outgoing and loved all of the attention. He particularly loved spending time with Zoe, the first kid he's gotten time with. She read him his book and her books. She made brightly colored strips of paper with crayons, then she twisted them in the air while he marveled at them. What a great time!

My father took the morning shift with Angus. We brought him upstairs at 6am and my father played with Angus until he konked out. At one point, I found them both rocking out to heavy metal on the clock radio. I didn't think either of them could stand metal. At the end of every play session I'd find Angus konked out sleeping on my dad, with my dad happily holding him.

This year, Dad and Don took the experimental turkey to a whole new level. Dad bought a smoker and they took shifts waking up every 2 hours Wednesday night. The result is that the experimental turkey beat the traditional turkey.

It was wonderful to be surrounded by family and friends. The three of us were so happy and relaxed. You can see all of our photos, or check out my mother's photos.

Labels: angus

We just finished Angus's 2nd month in the world. He's had a whole bunch of firsts over the past 2 months ...

• first bath, September 26th: Alex gave Angus his first sponge bath on September 26th. His first sit-in-the-water bath came later on October 16th. He first got in the real bathtub in Anacortes with Alex on November 10th.
• first outing, October 1st: walking with dad around the neighborhood and to Victrola Coffee while mom was still healing from her C-section
• first road trip, October 8th: to Anacortes to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Hay
• first smile, October 16th: Angus chose a great time for his first smile. During a rough middle-of-the-night change, he broke out a glowing, shy smile for each of his parents.
• first hike, October 30th: with mom. I couldn't find any way to get Angus to sleep other than driving or walking. In a stroke of brilliance, I got us in the car and headed to the mountains on I-90. When it was time to turn around, we found ourselves in a beautiful state park, and we took Angus' first hike near a rushing river.
• first holiday, Halloween: For Halloween, Uncle Owen and Aunt Amy grew Angus his very own pumpkin and Owen carved it in the shape of Angus' bear costume. Angus also got to meet his cousin Jackson for the first time.
• first full-family event, Thanksgiving: Angus spent Thanksgiving week with his mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, mamie, Terry, Uncle Owen, Aunt Amy, Uncle Don, Aunt Lisa, cousins Zoe & Zack, Aunt Jan, Cousin Roxie, and Stan and Nancy Abramski.
• first full-on laugh, November 28th: While Angus has been smiling for a while now, he really stepped it up over the past week. He's now interacting much more with our smiles and this morning we had a full-on laugh fest before Alex went to work.

And for those of you tracking Angus grow-fest 2007... we had our pediatrician appointment yesterday and Angus is weighing in at a whopping 15 lbs 4 oz and measuring 25 inches, putting him in the 97th percentile. Yowza.

Labels: angus

Angus loves to take long walks on blustery days, snoozing to the sound of crunchy leaves underfoot. He also likes to take advantage of the extra dark hours in the day to sleep in. Mama and Papa like that too.

Around Angus's 4 week birthday we went to Uncle Owen's for pumpkin carving, where he got to meet his cousin Jackson who is almost exactly 6 months older. Owen graciously carved the pumpkins while the rest of us cooed over the baby boys.

The photo you see was taken during a hilarious bit of paparazzi with the carved pumpkins, the boys, and the family. There were cameras snapping constantly and Angus got a little shell shocked. Still, this photo is great, with it's crazy composition enhancing Angus's stunned expression. Angus's Uncle Jupe also snapped this more normal one of the three of us.

Not much else to report. Angus is getting baby pimples, and some baby fussiness. Nothing too far out of the ordinary, and we are coping fine. Angus has a great disposition, we are very lucky.

Labels: angus

Howdy from our hobbit hole on a misty autumn morning, coolly kissing us on the cheek. We are taking advantage of these crisp days by taking lots of walks, shuffling our feet through dried leaves, the trees awash in color.

Angus is changing too, like the leaves on the trees. Every day he is more colorful, more alert, more interested in the world around him. His umbilical stump fell off, leaving a delicate little belly button. He is intensely interested in food, watching closely while we cook and eat, pursing his lips, sticking out his tongue, and vocalizing. It is a constant effort to avoid sticking morsels of food in his cute little mouth. He sure doesn't need it as his current diet is adequately fattening him up for the winter: 11 pounds, 7 ounces as of 10/11. If you average his change in weight over his age, he has gained 1% of body weight for each day he has been alive! (It's actually 22% in 19 days.)

We took our first big family trip, driving up to Anacortes to spend a few days at Hay Mountain. Despite our best efforts to time the drive, he got hungry halfway up, so we pulled out of some wicked traffic to fed him in a Starbucks parking lot in Lynnwood. I did my first diaper change "in the field" in the Starbucks bathroom. Yes, of course he peed everywhere. When I think about it, the $3.29 I paid for that double-tall 2% latte is a pretty good price for not having to clean peepee off the walls and floor after changing his diaper.

Everybody was very well taken care of in Anacortes, the Hay grandparents keeping us well fed, hydrated, rested, and taking Angus off our hands every once and a while. Jordan and I were even able to escape for dinner alone! Twice!

Labels: angus

Angus has been doing very well. He has already surpassed his milestone of regaining his birth weight, and early to boot: he weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces on Tuesday. That's 3 ounces and 5 days ahead of schedule! Three cheers for Angus the healthy eater.

Yesterday, Angus took his first walk with me on a crisp autumn day. Strapped in the Bjorn, Angus and his mighty steed explored the neighborhood around Chez Edelhay and the Washington Park Arboretum. We got hit by falling acorns, saw a beautiful wood duck in a pond, and watched squirrels hang upside down while they ate nuts off a tree.

Lastly, the Hay grandparents paid Angus a visit, and we were lucky to snap some wonderful portraits of them with him (here and here.)

See the newest photos.

Labels: angus

We have finally caught out breath and home and had the time to post more photos online.

See the photos to catch a few glimpses of these first few eventful days. Angus had his first bath (harrowing) and his first visit outside to see his Pediatrician. After losing 7% of his birth weight by the time he left the hospital -- typical for newborns -- Angus has already regained half of that weight from just two days of being at home and living the good life: eating, sleeping, and pooping. Way to go Angus!

Angus also spent some quality time with his Mamie, who held him very tight and spoke to him in French.

If you can believe it, he is already changing. The weight gain has added some bulk to his long, lean figure. I can't believe that I am already reminiscing about the good 'ol days when he was just born and somewhat skinny. We decided to take more photos to capture him in his many stages.

See more photos of Angus on Flickr.

Labels: angus

For the last 9 months, he has gone by many names: project popcorn, sesame seed, lentil bean, raspberry, kidney bean, grape, kumquat, fig, jumbo shrimp, avocado, onion, sweet potato, the foot, quinoa, skeletor...

But now, you can call him Angus.

Angus Hay Edelman
born September 22nd, 2007
at 7:14pm
9 pounds, 6 ounces
22 inches long

He is a healthy, large, and long boy with perfect skin, enormous feet, and a pleasant gurgling demeanor. He has his mother's strength and his father's rakish good looks. Words fail us, and all we can say is that we feel so lucky to have such a special person added to our already enriched lives.

For those of you into Eastern Astrology, he is born in a very special and lucky year, the year of the golden fire boar. For those of you into Western Astrology, he is born on the cusp of Virgo and Libra. For those of you into Astronomy, he is born on the cusp of the
Autumnal Equinox.

Jordan is recovering beautifully from what ended up being a multi-day labor and birthing process, culminating in a caesarean section. We are very well taken care of by hospital staff, family, and friends.

Spread the word of our happy autumn baby!

Alex, Jordan, and Angus

Labels: angus

Due date: Mid-September
Gender: Most definitely a boy

Labels: angus