toby of the day, 9.28.07

hours sarah spent at work: 4 ounces toby drank from a bottle: 6! jon’s level of frustration: low! Through insight, trial and error, or just sheer luck, jon hit on the winning combination today and toby is now quite adept at drinking from a bottle. I hope they can both remember how it worked when they try again tomorrow, but for now we can celebrate. get wendy her party hat!

toby of the day, 9.27.07

hours sarah spent at work: 0.75 hours sarah spent at the coffee shop around the corner because her computer hard-drive at work was being wiped clean because it had, among other issues, parts of German Windows on it: 1.5 ounces toby drank from a bottle: < 1 jon’s level of frustration: still high today was pretty uneventful. I think the biggest happening is that we somehow stained part of our coffee table with a pizza box. as I said, pretty uneventful.

toby of the day, 9.26.07

hours sarah spent at work: 2.5 ounces toby drank from a bottle: < 1 jon’s level of frustration: high, and not just because I keep forgetting to mention that there is a new link to pictures (september photos) over to the right. The day according toby: Breakfast. Nap. Snack. Laid on blanket, wiggled all limbs. Talked a little. Laid on tummy, got frustrated. Snack. Nap. Discussed favorite lamps. Snack. Watched mom eat lunch. Snack. Nap. Take bath. Change clothes. Mom is gone so dad offers strange bottle as snack. Explain I would prefer mom. Still offered bottle. Explain more loudly. Still just bottle. Yell loudly. Get tired, nap. Wake up. Hungry. Still that stupid bottle. Yell. Dad uses telephone. Apparently mom is buying an external hard-drive to back up all data before computer is wiped tomorrow because of a virus incurred during her time at home. Yell some more. Mom returns. Smile, laugh. Snack. Snack more. Sleep well, dreaming of victory: Toby-1, Jon/Sarah-0

toby of the day, 9.25.07

hours sarah spent at work: 3 ounces toby drank from a bottle: 2 jon’s level of frustration: lower! This evening we met with toby’s future day care provider. She has a lovely lamp that toby was quite enchanted by. Whether the fancy lamp will merit us handing over a hearty chunk of our income remains to be seen, but so far we’re optimistic.

toby of the day, 9.24.07

hours sarah spent at work: 2.5 ounces toby drank from a bottle: 1 jon’s level of frustration: medium This week I’m beginning to transition back to work. Unfortunately Toby prefers his food directly from the source, and so instead of eating while I was gone today, he pretty much held out until I returned. Thus, I suspect the next few days will showcase an exciting battle of wills. How long can toby resist the bottle? How long can Jon tolerate Toby’s not so demure requests for non-bottled food? How long can I stand to be at work? We’ll keep you posted.

toby of the day, 9.23.07

Toby accidentally attended his first street craft fair when we went to the pharmacy today, complete with stained glass sun-catchers, hemp clothes, and overpriced pottery. Toby bought a couple of t-shirts, one with a dragon (for 6 months old), one with a rooster (for 12 months old). Of course, upon closer inspection at home, we determined that they are exactly the same size. Those crafty craftspeople!

toby of the day, 9.22.07

Today is Saturday, which in many ways is no different than any other day except that jon is home and showing off all the things he can do. For example, toby and I slept in, jon cleaned the fish tank. Toby ate, Jon swept and mopped. Toby and I took a nap, Jon recorded some music. Toby ate again, Jon showered and looked for job postings. Toby and I did some kicking on the floor, Jon mixed down some songs. Toby put his hand in his mouth, Jon put his foot in his mouth.

toby of the day, 9.21.07

here, toby is holding a milk towel with mickey mouse silhouettes on it. During their visits, each member of my family threatened to someday take toby to Disney world. And though they weren’t surprised that we were against Disney world, given our anti-consumerism/ anti-corporate ranting, they were, well, surprised that we were against Disney world. I’ve been thinking about it since then, and I realize that while we dream that toby will always prefer totoro to mickey mouse, and Nausicaa to Aladdin (and yes, I see the irony of this comparison since Disney distributes Miyazaki’s work), kids like Disney world, and I admit that I did too when I was young. It’s normal. Moreover, I imagine that my parents didn’t dream that I would, for example, prefer the dead kennedy’s and the subhumans over Woody Guthrie, so as much as we’d like toby to follow our crazy off the grid lifestyle, that doesn’t mean that he will or should. He’ll probably also want us to buy a TV that was made more recently than 1981. So I suppose they can take him, but the TV stays, at least for now.

toby of the day, 9.20.07

Number of shirts we went through before finding one that fit toby today: 3, he sure is a big boy. mid-morning naptime: 9:47am activities/milestones: toby can now hold his head up really high when he lies on his stomach, which also means that lying on his stomach doesn’t immediately result in screams of frustration like it used to. It sure looks tiring, especially with those little arms holding up such a big head, and of course all those extra chins.

toby of the day, 9.19.07

Number of times I wish that I hadn’t set myself up to come up with something clever to count every day: 14

mid-morning naptime: 12:13pm

activities/milestones: toby slept until 10am this morning, recovering from spending 4 hours trying to sleep in his own bed last night. Of course, 10am is his usual naptime, which greatly complicated the morning and made him somewhat ornery until a nap in the swing set him straight. This afternoon I made my first trip back to work to get some information from Kathy before she moves to Boston (stopping in Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Israel, and Europe on the way). Work is hard, especially after not thinking for 2 months. It doesn’t help that Kathy is the smartest person, well, maybe ever. After she ran through information on solenoids and digital I/O’s and Matlab functions, she asked if I had any questions. I realized then that the entire time I had been singing to myself a little song about toby wearing pajamas that I wrote this morning. Needless to say, I couldn’t come up with any questions, though I’m sure I’ll have a ton once she’s on the other side of the world. Now that I’m back home, my head hurts and I need a nap. I was only gone an hour. Work is hard.

toby of the day, 9.18.07

number of wardrobe changes today: me-2 toby-3. time to get more quarters. mid-morning naptime: 10:03am activities/milestones: Today, Mimi from my lab brought us lunch and toby, as a gracious host, decided to show her the magic of wool diaper covers. In particular, how they not only fail to provide a barrier between you and a soggy diaper, but also, once wet have the lovely smell of wet wool. Genius! This evening toby slept for the first time on his own mattress. For a little while anyway. After his first feeding at 3:15am he made it clear that he much preferred to be wedged into our full size bed than stretched out but cold and lonely on his. of course, with him back in our bed, his spacious mattress looked pretty appealing to both jon and I.

toby of the day, 9.17.07

number of times toby kicked me while I wrote this: 4, either someone needs to learn to sit still while they eat or someone else has to type faster

mid-morning naptime:10:08am

activities/milestones: a note on swimming etiquette—if you want to join a lane split by a 70 year old man swimming the breaststroke and a 33 year old mother of one swimming 3 freestyle laps for each one of his laps, do not just jump in and swim directly toward the mother without warning, forcing her to move into the slow man’s lane and tread water until you pass by. This will make her grumpy. In better news, toby may have started to get the hang of the bottle. It seems that at least one thing he wanted was milk as warm as his mom, which apparently is quite warm.

toby of the day, 9.16.07

age at which stealing is wrong: maybe 12? At least according to the young girl who told us it was ok for her to steal things because she’s just a kid.

mid-morning naptime: 10:17am

activities/milestones: today we watched part of the great banana chase where adults dressed as bananas chased children around the track. Actually, they mostly acted as sweepers, keeping the rolly-polly stragglers company and urging them to finish the race. We were mildly frightened of the prospect of someday having to interact with some of the parents, including the father yelling “bring it!” to his 8 year old son and the parents who insisted on running with their children rather than just cheering them from the sidelines. Fortunately, toby can’t even walk yet, so we have a little time. Also today, toby watched as his dad performed the death-defying feat of hanging a poster over the stairs. Fortunately, not kneecaps were broken in the process and we now have a cool satellite photo of San Francisco to look at.

toby of the day, 9.15.2007

number of times uncle matt has visited and seen more than our neighborhood: hmmm, 0? Maybe next time. . .

mid-morning naptime: 10.54am

activities/milestones: we massaged toby’s head with olive oil to relieve some cradle cap while feeling sorry for babies that don’t have so much hair to hide their cradle cap under. Breakfast at darla’s. toured around golden gate park including toby’s first trip to the de young observation tower. Toby has started making new sounds, something like a very quiet howler monkey. Not sure what it means yet, aside from the fact that learning a new language is tough. like maths.

toby of the day, 9.14.2007

number of times toby’s diapers have to leak on me before we break down and buy larger ones: apparently a lot. about the same number of times jon tried to impress me with his biceps.

mid-morning naptime: 11:06am

activities/milestones: we spent a lovely afternoon of beer, sun, and snacks at the park chalet. Toby is getting quite good at grabbing your finger and maneuvering it to his mouth for eating when he gets tired of eating his own hands. Needless to say handwashing has greatly increased around the house. Toby also got to visit the new brewery in the neighborhood. Their service was wonderful, with a confused waitstaff serving us two glasses of beer for every one that we ordered!

toby of the day, 9.13.2007

number of days late this post is: only 3, I’m not a machine you know, I have a life too.

mid-morning naptime: 10:02am

activities/milestones: toby’s uncle matt arrived and regaled us with stories of his gaming convention in las vegas and life in new york. And toby enjoyed watching us all eat a tasty meal at koo. Iwashi is tasty.

toby of the day, 9.12.07

Number of Canada geese in the park today: 0, they must have migrated on.

mid-morning naptime: 11:45am

activities/milestones: yesterday, toby’s maternal grandfather arrived. Still recovering from his attack from the pediatrician, toby mostly ignored this visitor. Today, however, he was in much better spirits and demonstrated his various skills including kicking and hand eating and pointed out the many exciting lamps in the house. He also showed him some cool tree branches and how to sleep whenever you are taken outside during our San Francisco style (read cold and foggy) picnic in the park.

toby of the day, 9.11.07

number of times someone poked toby with a sharp needle: 4.

mid-morning naptime: 11:04am

Today toby is wearing his “I’m smarter than the president” shirt. To support this statement, in the picture to the left he is counting on his right hand the number of links between the 9.11 attacks and iraq. See, the shirt doesn’t lie.

Today was a very busy day. We went to the pediatrician where Toby received four vaccinations and two purple band-aids with skateboarding dinosaurs on them. Not surprisingly, skateboarding dinosaurs don’t do much to placate a baby who has received 4 shots in the thighs. Also at the pediatrician, we found out that he (toby, not the pediatrician) has gained 4 pounds and 2 oz since his last appointment 1 month ago. 4 pounds! The doctor said, dryly, “well, I guess you probably don’t have any questions about breastfeeding.”

toby of the day, 9.10.07

number of times we thought about leaving the house: 9
number of times we were successful: 1

mid-morning naptime: 10:14am

activities/milestones: today we pretty much did nothing. Apparently watching jon cook a boar leg is tiring work, so we had to take many naps to recover. At one point toby was ready to get up, but I convinced him that we should sleep longer.

toby of the day, 9.9.07

number of folds in toby’s thigh: 3

mid-morning naptime: 9:58am

activities/milestones: We had friends over for dinner to help us eat a leg of wild boar, which sure was tasty. their visit involved many rare occurences, including the use of the dishwasher to wash dishes, as well as an attempt to put Toby to bed before the guests left. he slept for maybe 20 minutes before asking where we were. And Toby received some lovely rocks from his friend emma who seemed disappointed that he wouldn’t hold the rocks but instead just kept his hands clenched in fists. mmmmm, delicious fists.

toby of the day, 9.8.07

Number of times jon stood up from the couch this morning: 27. Number of times toby got up from the couch this morning: 1. Mid-morning naptime: 10:02 Activities/milestones: first trip to downtown San Francisco; first (and maybe last) ukulele festival. Toby was quite impressed by the ukulele stylings of Jake Shimabukuro, though he did point out that ahhgaaahlaahbliiiooouuuhaaa, which loosely translates to, “man that guy is such a ham”.

toby of the day, 9.7.07

Number of times the cats have moved in the past 3 hours: 1, and we wonder why they’re fat. Mid-morning naptime: 11:08am Activities/milestones: On top of our usual eat, sleep, poop routine, we bought 2 yards of flannel to make reusable diaper wipes. Went to the grocery. Watched tennis. Made soup. Wow, could this post be any more exciting?

toby of the day, 9.6.07

Number of times I thought the yellow stars on toby’s socks were poop: many, too many. yellow decorations on infant clothes = bad idea Mid-morning naptime: 9:33am Activities/milestones: Toby received cool pants with a tiger on them and a shirt that says “genki” from his aunt and uncle. Of course, 90% of toby’s clothes were handed down from a boy named genki, so it appears he cannot escape wearing genki associated clothes. also in today's news, toby drank 3/4 oz of milk from a bottle. Will that be enough to let me leave his side occasionally? There’s only one way to find out, who's up for happy hour?

toby of the day, 9.5.07

number of times I cleaned lint from between toby's fingers: 3 mid-morning naptime: 10:08am activities/milestones: I patched my jeans, now no one can see my underpants. we watched tennis at a local pizza place where toby experienced (survived?) his first public bathroom changing table.

Ed is stuck up, Isaac is blonde, so what am I?

There’s been some talk of a blog competition, a blog-off of sorts. Unfortunately, I fear that, as we’ve just had a baby, we may be at a disadvantage. While I’ve learned a lot in the past 8 weeks – babies are not ergonomic; they’re noisy sleepers; if I can use only one hand to type because I’m, say, holding a baby, I’m better with my left hand; there is more debate than we’d like on the environmental virtues of cloth diapers (but they are a pain in the ass, so that has to count for something, right)—the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that spending 1344 hours with a baby doesn’t enhance your communication skills. Somehow when the things you look forward to each day are naptime and maybe chatting with the woman at the cheese boutique, there aren’t many stories that I have that don’t have baby as the punchline. I guess I’m quickly becoming one of those people. But then again, what’s cuter than a baby hanging out with me, aside from maybe a baby holding a kitten while getting licked by a puppy that was raised by a koala. And we have a baby, a cute one at that (see embedded picture). So we’ll take on you’re fancy European living and snooty opinion blogs (though not the pictures of a man in a coconut bra, nothing beats that) and blow them out of the water. At least we would, if we weren’t busy with our super cute baby.