Day 31 - I'm No Longer Tongue-Tied

Yep, I'm one month old today. Mom and Dad celebrated by going on a date last night, to see the musical at the local playhouse. It was their first night out together since I was born and I stayed home and hung out with Auntie Jill. Actually, I slept the whole time, but she kept praising me, so I must've been good company.

The big event this week -- although I also slept through this -- was that I got my frenulum linguae clipped. I bet you don't even know what that is, or that you have one, too -- under your tongue. Mine was apparently a little too close to the tip of my tongue, and it might have affected my sucking, making Mommy's nipples sore. They call this being "tongue-tied," literally. When I was deep asleep, I had this dream that a sharp pair of scissors was creeping stealthily towards my mouth, and when I woke up a little while later, my tongue felt longer. Really, it had more range of motion. Which I put to good use when I open my mouth wide and bellow.

Another thing: You'll notice in these pictures that my right hand is blue. How annoying! No, it's not poor circulation. It's usually the same color as the rest of my skin, but today my parents tried to make my handprint with blue ink and -- they should've guessed this -- the ink didn't really wash off. Not even with Fast Orange. Real smart!
Lastly, I didn't realize I was going to have to go through puberty at three weeks old. Right now I am suffering through the bad stuff (pimples) without the benefit of the good stuff (girls, driving). But I'm leaning that all of life is preparation for what lies ahead.

A Day in My Life

So people ask me, "Soren, what's it like, being a baby?" Let me tell you, it is no easy job. No way, no how. It is a 24-7 non-stop Herculean effort. What? You think not? OK then, I'll provide you some insights on what a typical day in my life is like.

12 Midnight - 3:30 AM (yeah, that's right, AM!)
Most of you folks out there (unless you work the night shift) are blissfully unconscious at this time of night, but oh no, not me. It is my job about every 1 - 3 hours, daytime or nighttime, to eat. That is my numero uno responsibility. If I do not eat, I do not grow and ever get to leave this house. So I eat, heartily.

I'm sleeping with Mom right now (Dad is sleeping downstairs in the wallbed in the library; he's like the emergency back-up for Mom). When I need to communicate I try to do so with subtlety, with little squeaks and squirming body movements. I try not to wake up Mom with a full-throated howl in the middle of the night -- that would be cruel and unusual punishment. No, my Mom and Dad are pretty good to me, so I try my darndest to be good to them back. And usually, after a few squeaks and grunts, Mommy will rouse herself from sleep, prop herself up on the headboard and breastfeed me. This always hits the spot. And you know, what comes in must go out, right? So I like to follow up my feeding with passing a little doody. Since she's already up, Mom will usually change me right then. Afterwards I usually drop off to sleep for a couple of additional hours.

3:30 AM - 10:00 AM
I average three to four feedings each night and at some point between 3 and 6 a.m. I'll feed for the last time. Then Mommy will use the telephone in the house to "beep" Daddy to come and hand me off. Daddy will usually start by changing my diaper. He likes make sound effects while he's doing this like he's opening a radioactive vault. When he's done and the new diaper is on he'll say, "We have containment." I'm not sure what that means but I feel better afterwards.

Dad likes to take me downstairs and put music on, and dance around our living room with me in his arms. I like that -- he's a good dancer. So far my favorites are North Carolina Appalachian music (Laura Boosinger singing and playing banjo) and Irish folk music (the Irish Rovers, who were stars when Dad was a little kid). We will oftentimes then go for a walk. Since my legs are not up to propelling me around yet, the people who are holding me have to do the walking for both of us. My favorite way of being carried is in something called a Moby Wrap. It's a big long piece of cloth that is wrapped around my holder's body and I nestle down in it. It is so comfortable I pretty much sleep the whole trip.

Lately Mom and Dad have been having guests over, to help them cope with the challenges of being new parents. I've met both sets of grandparents, Mom's two sisters (my Auntie Nora and Auntie Jill), and Mom's good friend Sierra. One of these folks will often get up and help Dad with breakfast and with holding me. I like being held by family. It makes me feel loved.

10 AM - 2 PM
Around 10 or 11 a.m. or so, Mom will get up. She doesn't get a lot of solid sleep in bed with me and I think a few hours of sleep after I'm up helps her keep sane. Once she's up and had breakfast we might do all sorts of things: go to the Farmer's Market, go for a walk in the neighborhood, or just hang out around the house. Dad has started working again 4 days a week, so he'll be gone much of the day. I basically get held, eat, process the food, sleep, squall once in awhile if I'm not happy, and start the whole process over again. Lots of people stop by or get introduced to me during our walks. They say things like, "He's so cute," or "He's so small," or just, "Ohhhh." They always smile. I like making people smile. I hope I can keep doing that my whole life.

2 PM- 4 PM
If I'm in the mood (and Mom and Dad are lucky), I'll take a nap around 2 or 3 p.m. My favorite place to sleep is on a bunk in the living room. Mom or Dad will wedge me in with pillows and I'll just drift off. They'll usually have some Irish music or something playing in the background. I'll hear them talking in the background so I know I'm not alone. It's a nice way to sleep.

4 PM- 8 PM
Dad gets home from work between 4 and 5 p.m. So around this time we'll start thinking about dinner. For the past couple of weeks friends of the family have been dropping off pre-cooked dinners every other night. Mom and Dad really appreciate this. Mom and Dad and any family staying over will set the table and sit down to eat. All of those wonderful food smells invariably set my stomach to rumbling. I want to eat too! When I make my desires known (more squalling) Mommy usually sighs and takes me off to the living room for nursing. After I'm fed she is able to join everyone for dinner while I'm lying on the bunk snoozing off my "milk coma."

8 PM- Midnight
Well it's been a long day. I'm sure I've had a few firsts (everything is new to me). This past week some of the firsts include: meeting Auntie Nora, taking a shower with Mommy and Daddy (way fun), meeting Nora's friends Mary and Beth who live in Seattle (I hope Mary brings her accordion next time), meeting Sierra (she promised to come back and give me another sponge bath, wahoo!), riding in a car seat (for that matter, first ride in a car! Hey, everything is going backwards!), and first time visiting Mom and Dad's church. We didn't go to the whole church service, we just stopped by for snacks and socializing afterwards. I was a little . . . "overstimulated" let's say, by the crowd of folks all talking at the same time in the church reception area. But it was nice to meet all those folks and know that even more people care about me.

Around 9 p.m. or so in our house everyone starts heading for bed. I usually get one more feeding with Mom, and Dad usually keeps me company until Mom is ready for me in bed. Then Mom and I settle down for the night and everyone else goes to their respective bedrooms. It's been a long day, but fun. I wonder what tomorrow will be like?!

Week 2: Losing Body Parts

Well I feel so mature and worldly entering week 2 of my life (life out of Mom's body, that is). Since my last entry many interesting and bizarre things of note have occurred. I'll start with the least strange and frankly best event of all.

Meet the Grandparents
On Wednesday, one week after my birth, I was able to meet for the first time Dad's parents, Jim and Gloria. They traveled from the land of my father's birth, the dusty plains of eastern Washington. They were fun, though I'm not sure they knew what to make of me. "He's not very big, is he?" said Grandma Gloria. "Does he have a pointy head like Jeff had?" added Grandpa Jim.

Jeez, I can tell these guys are going to be a tough audience. I did my best to be cute and after two days they became completely enamored of me. Just like Mommy and Daddy, they think that everything I do is completely adorable. Hahahahaha . . . you are all in my power now!

Meeting a Legend
I met my first famous person on Sunday. His name is Andy Mackie and he is a musician and music teacher of young kids in Jefferson County. I met him at the Andy Mackie Music Foundation Family Music Festival at Memorial Field in downtown Port Townsend. Andy holds the Guinness World Record for leading a group of the most people playing harmonicas at the same time (about 1,700 people). He has also taught many more children to play harmonica and raised money to ensure that any child in our county who wants music lessons can have them as well as an instrument of their own. He is an amazing man and I was very honored to meet him. He even gave me an autographed harmonica!

Meeting the Mountain Climber in the Family
Auntie Jill (Mommy's younger sister) arrived last Saturday (8/30) and has been here all week. She is way cool and super helpful to Mommy, Daddy, and me. In fact, I think Mommy and Daddy would be complete wrecks without Auntie Jill's help this week. She's helped out with all the routine boring stuff like helping to cook food, tidy up the house, change diapers, give me baths, etc. But what I've really appreciated is all her cheery holding of me and especially our outings.

She and Daddy walked me down to Point Hudson (Olde Pointe Hudson? Hudsonsie Pointie? I'm just going to be a traditionalist and call it Point Hudson). We arrived in time to walk the grounds and see the displays of boats for the 2008 Wooden Boat Festival and listen to some live music. We heard two people playing fiddle and accordion. I couldn't believe so much music could come out of two instruments. I've decided I like music. I want to play all the instruments. But I don't want to play like Daddy, I want to be good.

Auntie Jill also took me on a walk all the way to the Marine Science Center Pier at Ft. Worden and we walked back on the trails over Morgan Hill. This was a puny hike for Auntie Jill. She has climbed Mt. Rainier 5 times! She's also been to Pakistan, climbed up frozen waterfalls, and been a ranger at Mt. Rainier National Park. Now she's taking a hiatus from adventure while she gets her nursing degree. I can't wait until I'm old enough to do some real hiking with her.

Losing Body Parts
OK, for all you squeamish people you might want to skip this section. I thought that this stuff only happened to old people but I guess your body can do weird things at any time in your life. So here it is . . . my umbilical cord stump fell off. I just woke up at 2 a.m. for a little early morning meal and there it was in my swaddle. Ewww! Well I guess it is all part of growing up. It looks like I'll have an "inny."

So Who Would I Vote For? - McCain vs. Obama
My goal is to make this blog inclusive and I don't want to turn anybody off by dissing their favorite candidate. But the fact of the matter is I was born during the 2008 Democratic National Convention and have heard much of the Republican National Convention broadcast this week. I can't not be aware of this stuff in my household. Dad is such a political geek. And he is a total Obamamite, as is Mom.

So after listening to all the speeches the last two weeks, here is my analysis. Like many of the other pundits, I find the Democrats unusually organized this year. They seem to have coalesced behind Obama in a way that they apparently didn't do the last couple of presidential elections. I like what Obama has to say, especially about promoting renewable energy (Dad's business), making sure health insurance is available to all, and making college affordable by encouraging financial aid for public service. I'm all for that. I also like the fact that he believes we should take steps to address global warming so our planet is still habitable when I am an adult. It is a small favor my generation asks.

Regarding McCain, I think he made a pretty bold choice in Sarah Palin for VP. I mean, my gosh, picking an Alaskan!? You never know what you are going to come back with when you go to Alaska. She appears to be part grizzly, part beauty queen, and part basketball point guard (tough and quick). She's certainly more qualified than Dan Quayle and a whole lot easier to look at and listen to than Lieberman. She should make the race somewhat interesting.

But what about McCain? Well, I have to say I am pretty unimpressed with his campaign lately. He just seems to be ripping off and repeating lines from the Obama/Biden campaign. That works fine as long as Obama is making speeches and McCain can just repeat his lines. What will McCain do if he actually wins? He can't steal Obama's lines at that point and he'll have to lead and think for himself. Oh, I forgot, Karl Rove will be there to help him come up with a plan at that point. OK, now I've given myself nightmares!