He made it!

Collin and Anrdrea had their 6 week check up the other day which is a big milestone. It means that Collin has survived six ENTIRE weeks of having us for parents and his odds get better and better every day. We haven't dropped him or anything! Everyone said that this time would just fly by and it honestly feels like just a year or two ago that we had the little guy. But the calendar doesn't lie - it has only been 6 weeks. I'm sure we'll someday look back at this time and comment on how it flew by but we don't really feel that way now.

This is, however a big milestone. Andrea has been cleared to resume "normal physical activity" however neither of us are sure what exactly that means now that we have a baby. It does mean that she can go swimming and start doing yoga again which she is excited about. Collin has also reached some milestones. He can hold up his head and look around anytime he wants - although he really only does this when looking for a boob. He is getting better and better and burping and farting, although his favorite activities (eating, sleeping and pooping) are pretty much the same as they were 4 weeks ago. He still had little to no control of his arms and legs - they just flail around randomly when he is upset, but he can focus on things, make eye-contact and he smiles pretty often which I think is my favorite thing in the world.

But the big story is his weight. He shocked us when he weighed in at a hefty 13 lbs. 1 oz. which means he could officially qualify as a Chinese gymnast. He's completely outgrown all of the NB size clothes and almost all of the 1-3 month stuff. I'm also pretty sure that he use to have a neck, but it's been replaced by several chins. I really hope he gets his neck back so we don't have to change his name to Vinny.

Separation Anxiety

It's not unusual for babies to develop separation anxiety and Collin gets it sometimes. Certainly not from being separated from me - I'm just the goofy guy that holds him when he cries and makes funny faces - and it's not even really separation from Andrea but rather the holy boob that he misses. But I now know that parent's can get it too. My job requires me to travel quite a lot. The upside is that when I am not traveling I work from home, but a couple weeks ago I had to leave town for the first time. I didn't really want to leave them, but Andrea and I had not been working since he was born and I was pretty sure that if one of us didn't go back that sooner or later they would turn off the electricity, or even worse, the internet connection. So I did not put up a fight up a fight and left for a 3 day trip to San Francisco. Andrea, her dad and Collin took me to the airport and I came to the realization that there is a real possibility that our son will grow up thinking that his dad works at the airport.

Fortunately Andrea's parents, sister and her 2 kids had agreed to schedule a visit from the Midwest to overlap with my trip to SF. They were here for almost 2 weeks and we had great visit. The kids (9 and 11) both stink at monopoly but are otherwise awesome and we had a blast swimming, playing catch, popping balloons and terrorizing the poor cat. Andrea's parents got to meet their newest grandchild (#8) and they were a huge help holding down the fort both before I left and while I was gone. I can't imagine what it must have been like to raise 4 kids during the 60s and 70s before they invented Chinese take-out and the internet. But they obviously knew what they were doing and were great with Collin. We also had the courage to venture out of the house with the baby several times while they were here. Collin has been to our neighborhood pool and Barton Springs now although he has not been swimming yet. I'm not sure when it is OK to teach a baby to swim, but I thought we should wait a bit.

I was OK. It was tough to leave, but once I got on the plane I was back in work mode and things were fine. The bigger test is about to come. I have a LOT of traveling coming up this fall and Andrea has decided that she definitely wants to go back to work on September 2nd. She'll only go back 1/2 time to start and see how it goes, but that still means we have to get a nanny. We are thinking 8AM-1PM M-F, so Andrea can work from 9-Noon then hopefully do some work from home in the afternoons. We've already been through one nanny. She came in for a couple of test days 2 weeks ago then another couple of days this week. Things did not work out for a few reasons. So the nanny hunt is on! We have lots of books on parenting (ALL of which contradict the previous one) and many have advice on hiring a nanny. These are the primary things you should look for:

1. She should be someone you "click" with and generally enjoy spending time with.
2. She should share your parenting philosophy. But since we don't really have one that is sort of nebulous.
3. She should have lots of experience with children of the same age, have CPR training and have taken lots of classes on child care.
4. She should be energetic, fun, caring and respectful for how we want to raise our child.
5. She should enjoy house work, be a good cook, take care of the pets, anticipate what Collin needs and be able to read Andrea's mind.

The only problem is that:
1. This person does not exist
2. If she did, she would be making more money than either of us. and...
3. Andrea would almost certainly leave me for her.

So that leaves us with reality. We have to find someone that:
1. When we leave them alone together there is a very good chance that both the nanny and Collin will survive and things will be more or less how we left them.
2. Someone that reduces our stress rather than adding to it.

But I don't really think this is that tough of a gig. My philosophy is that if you just love him and feed him... the rest will sort itself out.

And the winner is...

And the winner of the 2008 Collin Diaper Poop-Off is.... Plain old pampers. We tried the G-daipers, huggies and actually took a cloth diaper out of the package and looked at it. We even tried the whole foods brand and although they are twice as expensive they don't actually work. We really wanted to like the G diapers but one of the leading reasons we use diapers is for poop-containment and the G diapers don't seem to be able to do that. It just runs out the side and gets all over the place. At this point I would have to rate them as a miserable failure.

We plan to try them again once he is bigger and has less frequent blow outs, but for now we are going to do our part to fill up the land fill. Sorry.

Marking your dad

I've recently become convinced that babies are born with instinctive urge to mark their dads. Similar to a dog marking his territory except babies have more than just pee at their disposal (although Collin makes good use of that technique). If they are really lucky they can mark us with leaky diaper, but their main tool is milk. They have a good supply of it and don't mind using a little for dad-marking. It doesn't matter what I'm wearing, what Collin is wearing or what protective measures I put in place. I can wrap him up like a burrito and cover myself with a blanket and he WILL figure out a way to get spit up on me. Sour milk stinks and possibly the only thing that smells worse is sour milk that has been thrown up. After just a couple hours of Collin time, he leaves absolutely no doubt that should I somehow end up holding another baby, there will be no question who this dad belongs to. I think I need a shower.

Gas Powered

So far I have been careful to let Andrea read everything I have written before posting. She has been kind enough to point out only the most grievous of spelling and grammatical errors while offering very little editorial control, which she has. But this time, I'm going it alone because both Collin and Andrea have gas - BIG TIME. As I've previously mentioned, Collin can really let it rip and does so many many times a day. He has no shame, offers no excuses and they usually result in a diaper change which he accepts.

Having someone other than the dog to blame farts on was one of my primary motivations for reproducing but Andrea is content to fess up every time she lets one loose. But while Collin's are explosive and uncontrollable, Andrea could, I thing with a little effort, fart her way through the first couple verses of the Star Spangled Banner. The dog and I are both impressed by their display of flatulence. I've never seen anything like the two of them together: farting, eating, sleeping and loving each other. It's all amazing.

Bunch of Pictures

Collin, me and cousin Nate from Detroit. He is both a fan of the Longhorns and some hockey team. The Detroit Car Tires? I'm not sure.












Collin's Great Aunt Judy













One of the TWO photos that Andrea has taken since he was born!!! She pisses me off - I could take a thousand and not get this.













This was day 1













The other photo Andrea has taken.











Collin's first trip to our favorite Mexican restaurant, they know us and made a big fuss. Collin didn't get to have any migas (yet).















Sarah and Nate with Collin - (note the Spurs shirt - the kid has taste even though he is from Detroit)










Andrea's sister and Nate and Sarah's mom Kristen. She's great!














Sarah and Collin

Green Babies

Like all parents-to-be we got lots of advice before having a baby. One common theme was that I had "no idea how many diapers we would go through". Being completely clueless about this whole thing they were right in that I had no idea about any of it. We also got lots and lots and lots of diapers at the baby showers. It was an impressive pile but I kept the warnings in the back of my mind and joked that it should be good for his first week. It's gonna be about 3 1/2 weeks worth. A week ago he was making 10-12 diaper-deposits per day. It's gone up. I don't know exactly how many but when I left for a 3 day trip there was a drawer full of them and now they are gone! We have about 50 left then we have to buy more which means we have to pick which ones we are going to use. Like many new parents we had read statistics about how the average size baby will contribute something like 600,000 tons of landfill waste in their first 3 years and that the manufacturing of diapers creates 47 million cubic tons of CO2 (or something like that). Having a baby is roughly equivalent to building 3 coal fired power plants and the only "green" way to do it is to not have one at all. But we did and being responsible earth-citizens we decided to at least read about more "earth friendly" diapering methods. I suggested to Andrea that in order to be more environmentally responsible we don't HAVE to change him every single time he makes a deposit. It says right there on the bag that they are good for "up to 14lbs." and it would take Collin at least 2 days to poop that much, but she insists that we change it every time.

That leaves us with 4 options.

1. 1. Let him go naked and follow behind with a bucket. This is the most earth-friendly provided you don't empty the bucket in a creek. It is also the messiest so we ruled that one out.
2. Go with cloth diapers. Better than being naked, but there is a lot of mess. I also asked around and heard a lot of "yeah we tried that for a while, but then one of the diapers crawled out of the laundry and chased me out of the house". But I never heard anyone say: "we loved changing our child's cloth diapers, can't imagine doing anything else, and you should definitely do it." We'll consider it.
3. There are these things called g-diapers whose motto is "love at first flush" that have a removable liner that you flush - no landfill waste. A good possibility.
   
4. You go with disposables. Definitely the easiest and I am impressed with their load rating. A strong almost definitely.
   

We are going to give the g diapers a try and see what happens at least until we use them up. We have about 50 liners, so it should last a day or so then we'll see. So if you have a success or failure story let me know.