Everyone Poops?

Everyone Poops -- except Zane. Zane went four days without pooping, and it became a great topic of conversation and the overriding concern during that time. When would he poop? Would it be explosive? Would it be at a bad time? Would it ever happen? With lots of holiday travel we were afraid it would be a big explosive mess while we were in the car or visiting someone. Luckily, in the end, he "came clean" at home with little effort, although the day before he was mighty cranky and probably in some gas pain. I had always heard that when you become a parent, you will talk about poop when you meet other parents. That did indeed happen last night when we visited Finn Tecumseh Loroff-Richards at his grandparents' house.

Zane was oblivious to his first Christmas, but it was fun to imagine it was exciting for him. Here he waits anxiously for Santa:
Opening presents is fun:
Getting cool shades to make all the other babies jealous:
We had a wonderful week with Grandma visiting. She read Zane his favorite book:
It also turns out that Grandmas are exceptionally tasty:


We are very sad that Grandma is gone, and we hope to see her in the summer! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Squeeeeeeee!

How to drive your parents crazy:
1) Learn to scream a high pitched squeal.
2) Practice often.
3) Then quit napping.

In the photo above Zane is allegedly tired for a nap. For the past three days he has slept only about an hour and a half total during each day. We're not sure what is going on. The upside is that he exhausts himself and sleeps really well at night. The downside is that he gets mighty cranky. He's probably got a sore mouth from teething.

Today Zane was very talkative, and I conducted an interview which was interrupted by some gastric yuckiness:


Grandma is here! Yay! Saturday we walked out to the produce stand and picked out a little tree. Next week you get Christmas pictures. May you all survive the next week and have lovely holidays!

Four Months!

Here's Zane in his new (used) Bumbo seat which lets him sit up like a big boy. It's great for giving me 10-15 minutes to get something done.

Today we had his four month doctor visit. All is well, and Zane is 25 inches long and 13 pounds and 4 ounces. Not quite double yet. Although his health is excellent, his weight percentile for his age has actually gone down over the last couple of visits. The doc isn't worried, but just to be safe we are meeting with a lactation consultant next week to make sure he's getting enough to eat. Most likely he is just long and lean like I am and like Michael was.

The vaccinations were much easier than two months ago, and so far he isn't feverish like he was then.

We're excited to see Grandma at the end of this week! Yay!

Daddy Time

I forgot to include this with the last post. I was away for work things three times last week, and near the end of the longest time Michael called to say that Zane had cried for 30 minutes and was inconsolable. I was happy to find this when I came home. They worked it out!

Boom Boom Crash!

Last night we went to a World of Martial Arts exhibition, and Zane met many of Michael's Kung Fu friends. We didn't stay for the whole thing, but at the very beginning was a Lion Dance with a pounding drum and clashing cymbals. Every time the music would start, all of Zane's arms and legs shot out and quivered. It was pretty funny! He didn't seem at all upset, just very, very stimulated. After a while I covered his ears. He seemed more into the music than the lion dancers. Today I got out a tamborine for him, and he loved scratching his hands on the drum head and tinkling the cymbols. So far, Zane likes banjos and tamborines and hates violin and flute. Not a classical scholar so far. He also likes to play with gaudy fabrics, so maybe he needs his tastes refined a bit:This week has been record-breaking cold in Seattle (nothing for you Maine folks, just in the 20s). Bijou and JoJo have been sacked out by the heaters all day:
Tuesday Zane has his 4 month check up and shots. I'll report back!

Zane Says Ha!

This week Zane began to laugh a little! Not much, just a couple of wheezy ha-has, but it's a start! I even heard him laugh in his sleep last night, which was cute. So far, though, he mostly smiles. He has a lot of fun playing games like Blanket Burrito and Airplane:





One great development this week has been less pooping! Last night and the night before, he didn't poop at all for the first time. Today he only pooped twice. This may not be exciting for you, but it's exciting for me! His digestion change seems to have made him super hungry, though. Today he wanted to eat every hour. All of this eating is making him grow! He is pretty much double his birth weight now.
An unfortunate new development is that Zane is now a Mama's boy. He has decided to freak out and cry when I have a shower, even if he's just eaten! Tomorrow I go to work (helps with health insurance to work a little) and will be gone for 4 hours. Poor Michael and Zane! I hope they survive.

When Zane was born, he had a spot between his eyes that I thought was a zit, but almost 4 months later it's still there! I guess he has a third eye. Maybe he's a buddha or a lama! It's hard to see in the photo, but it's there...

Finally, poor Bijou. We have not been able to get her diabetes in check, and after many many vet visits (several all day), and lots of needles, she had an ultrasound. She had to have her belly shaved, and now her saggy belly looks like elephant breasts!
It turns out she also has a kidney infection and pancreatitis, so we're trying to get that under control, and then we hope the diabetes will bend to our will. It's hard being old!