My Fabulous Aunts

Not to be outdone by the men, AJ also has two fabulous aunts, Nicki (top) and Annie (bottom). Their job is generally to counteract the overdose of testosterone that is currently in our family.

My Uncles

This post is in honor of AJ's Uncle Andy, who is visiting us this week. AJ has been blessed with five uncles who are all excited to teach him things like how to ski, play basketball, sleep late and laugh at their jokes.

The pictures in order are of AJ with his Uncle Dave, Uncle John, Uncle Will, Uncle Andy and Uncle Brett.

Baby Bumbo

Today we got out the Baby Bumbo for the first time, which is this great molded foam seat invention that helps babies learn how to sit up. AJ has pretty good head control now, which was the prerequisite on the directions for starting to use this seat. He seemed to discover his feet for the first time once I put him in the seat. I am looking forward to the day when he tries to stick them in his mouth like all babies do.

The Object of AJ's Affections

One of the highlights of the trip to Iowa for AJ was the fact that his Grammy J has two ceiling fans. He has been obsessed with ceiling fans since he first noticed one when he was just a couple of weeks old, and he now saves his best coos, smiles and squeals for the ceiling fans in his life. When Joe calls from work to check in on us and hears AJ making particularly joyful noises in the background, Joe now knows not to ask anymore whether the baby is trying to talk to him. Joe: "He's looking at that damn ceiling fan again, isn't he?" Me: "Yep." If AJ had to rank the objects of his affections in order of importance, his list would look like this: (1) The ceiling fan in our bedroom (a sleek, contemporary number pictured above); (2) The ceiling fan in grandma's bedroom (three adjustable speeds!); (3) The ceiling fan in grandma's kitchen; (4) His grandparents; (5) His Mom and Dad; (6) Everyone else.

I wanted to post a picture of him smiling at the ceiling fan, but since he has become obsessed with shoving his fists in his mouth at all times, all I could get was a picture of him smiling into his fists. Picture a demure Victorian lady smiling into her hand, except that AJ then shoves his fist into his mouth and drools all over it.

Joe and I have thought about taking AJ into Home Depot to look at the ceiling fan department, but I think he would have a stroke from all the excitement.

You Know You Are Old When...

You know you are old when the little girl who you used to babysit when she was three years old is a fully employed college graduate with her own apartment and is sitting across from you holding your baby, who now needs his own babysitter.

Take Your Grandson to Work Day

AJ and I went with Grammy J to her office last week to show AJ where she works and to show AJ off to all of mom's colleagues. Mom's work friends all have grandbabies around the same age and swap stories about the best way to get them to sleep through the night, get on a schedule, etc., etc., so I was desperately hoping that my little guy would not exhibit some sort of behavior that would become the subject of discussion at the lunch table for weeks. On my mom's suggestion, I also made sure to give his little noggin a good scrubbing before we headed over to meet her so that his head would have that clean baby smell. Once we were in the cafeteria with mom's friends, I noticed that she took him out of his car seat right away and held him on her lap. As soon as he looked like he might even think about fussing, she popped that pacifier in his mouth and held it steady. I asked her if she wanted me to hold him so that she could finish her half-eaten lunch, but she smiled sweetly at me and declined. No grandchild of hers was going to cry while at the cafeteria lunch table!

Just Hanging Around

This is AJ on a typical morning, just hanging around with Grammy J. He likes to be rocked from side to side in this position. Note that these PJs that are too short on his legs are size 6-12 months. We are going to invest in Levi's stock to pay for all the pants he will go through in his teenage growth spurts.

Bathing al fresca

We gave Andrew the first of what will likely be many moments that make him cringe when he hears about them at age 16--his first outdoor bath. My aunt and uncle came down from Minnesota to visit, and it was so hot outside on the deck that we decided Andrew could use a little bath to cool off. He wasn't shy about his first skinny dipping experience and squealed and smiled throughout tubby time. The second photo above will be useful to embarass Andrew when he is older. The first picture is of my Aunt E., who loves babies, and the last highlights his new addition of a couple of extra rolls of baby fat on his legs and chin, which I love.

My Hat

This post is just a flimsy excuse to share a cute picture of Andrew in his new summer hat.

He has not decided yet whether he likes it. (...actually he has clearly indicated that he does not like it, but I am trying to change his mind.)

The Big Kahuna* of Farmers Markets

This morning, Grammy Julie and I took AJ to the Des Moines Downtown Farmers Market. This is the Mothership of all Farmers Markets--8 city blocks, 200+ vendors and 30,000 people. It even has its own website: http://www.desmoinesfarmersmarket.com/. They have everything from handmade Polish pottery to Salvadorian breakfast sandwiches. Oh yeah, and tons of farm fresh fruits & veggies.

Since this is a blog about AJ, rather than a commercial for Iowa tourism, I will try to include more about his experience here. There is an incredibly short window of opportunity between AJ's last feeding, diaper change & nap and the next feeding, diaper change & nap (we're talking 1.5 to 2 hours, tops) and this short window is even shorter in the afternoon when the baby is more tired. So I try to do big outings in the morning when possible. This is made easier by the fact that babies wake up incredibly early, and I am itching to get out of the house by 9:30 a.m. (which was considered an ungodly hour on the weekends in my pre-baby life).

This morning at the market, AJ slept in his stroller for the first hour we were there, allowing me and mom to enjoy a coffee and pecan roll at Java Joe's while sitting down (since AJ has been born, much more food has been consumed while pushing the stroller with one hand) and to get some shopping done. Once he woke up, he was into looking at the people for about 15 minutes or so and then was ready to hightail it out of there. The pictures from top to bottom are a look down the main drag at the farmers market, a snap of a cute booth by Blue Gate Farm and one of Grammy Julie with AJ.

*This post was originally titled The Mothership of Farmers Markets, but as my friend, S, accurately pointed out, this seemed to imply that the post was about moms. I think I meant the Mother Ship. I changed the title to avoid confusion.

Iowa State Fair!

Where to start? It is impossible to adequately capture the Iowa State Fair in a one paragraph description, but I am hoping that the list of things we saw today will give a sense of what it is like. In our three hours, we saw a 1,200 pound pumpkin (they had to use a forklift to weigh it!) and a 1,200 pound hog, homemade wedding dresses, a picture of superman made out of colored lima beans, a life-size sculpture of Harry Potter made out of butter, pygmie goats, Rhode Island Red hens, an elk, rabbits, sheep, cows, horses, and a litter of piglets that were born this morning. In case that doesn't make you want to come, we also have all of the presidential candidates in attendance. It is a tradition that the presidential candidates each take their turn grilling in the Iowa Pork Producers Tent. This year, Mitt Romney caused a scandal when he dropped a pork chop on the ground and put it back on the grill--a definite violation of grilling etiquette.

A description of the Fair is not complete without a description of fair food, which includes at least 20 items on a stick. We had the pork chop on a stick, grater tater (a potato sliced into one continuous ribbon using an attachment on a standard power drill), Bauder's ice cream (listed in the NY Times travel section as a must-try for visitors to Des Moines), and hand-shaken lemonades. Other options include fried twinkies, corn dogs, funnel cakes, egg rolls, turkey drumsticks (1,000 calories of meat per leg), steak tip dinners, homemade pies, cinnamon rolls, fried pork tenderloin sandwiches the size of a dinner plate served on a regular size bun, and (new this year) the potato lollipop.

The pictures from top to bottom are me and AJ on one of the smaller John Deere tractors they had on display at the fair, Grandma Julie holding a chick next to AJ, the 1,000+ lb pumpkins, and two pictures of Corn Dog, the hog who came in second in the biggest hog contest at 1,100 lbs (for perspective on how big he is, note the adult human legs in the background.)

White Picket Creamery

AJ and I are spending two weeks in Iowa visiting my family. Grandma Julie and I took the little guy to a local organic dairy farm and creamery yesterday to see his first farm animals. When we got out of the car, the guy who runs the farm was moving a pile of manure around with a piece of equipment that had a big scoop on the front. So we said to AJ, "This is where they separate the city babies from the country babies. If you don't cry at this smell, we'll consider you a country boy." I am happy to report that he passed his first test.

The dairy had all of its calves in what I think were little weaning pens, which made it easy for us to let AJ take a look. His eyes got very big when one of their long, gray tongues came his way and almost licked his face! The best part of the trip was the homemade ice cream for mom and grandma.

Sunday Night Family Dinners

The pictures above are typical of how we have spent our Sundays this summer on the patio over at AJ's grandparents' house having a family dinner. Grandma Francie is a great cook, and Papa pours the wine and turns on his little fountain near the patio that sometimes seems to put AJ to sleep while we are eating. We were commenting tonight on what a difference a few weeks makes in a baby's life--at six weeks, AJ would fuss throughout dinner and we would all take turns holding him, walking him, bouncing him, etc. More recently he has been pretty content to sit in his stroller during dinner and suck on his fists while he looks around taking in everything.

The Godfather, Part 2

AJ had his second visit from his godfather, Pete, on Saturday night. We were joined by another one of Joe's friends from high school, Conrad, who is also a dad and had some good suggestions on how to get AJ to stop crying during diaper changes, which included singing to him during the process. Conrad drove a Camero in high school and loved '80's bands like Guns 'N Roses, Whitesnake, etc., so his recommendation for a good diaper changing song was "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison. I tried it out this morning, but I think it requires doing a better impersonation of Bret Michaels than I was capable of at 7:30 a.m.

We also had a conversation about a godfather's responsibilities and decided that Pete can have the job of telling AJ about the birds and the bees someday when he is ready for this information. This will be many, many years from now. The picture above is Pete holding AJ and Conrad on the right.

Two Month Update

This morning we had AJ's two month checkup at the pediatrician. He weighed in at a whopping 14 lbs, 7 oz and is now 25 inches long, putting him in the 95th percentile on both height and weight. I wasn't surprised by the increase in length because his toes now reach the end of his car seat. AJ also cunningly figured out how to spit up all of the clear rotavirus vaccine but none of the purple grape-flavored Tylenol that he took 30 seconds before the rotavirus vaccine. The volvanic eruption of rotavirus vaccine earned AJ and me a return trip to the pediatrician next week for a redose--thanks, buddy. I have a feeling this child will be capable of hiding his peas under his tongue until he leaves the dinner table.

The pictures from top to bottom are Joe and AJ at the pediatrician's office, AJ's two month picture and AJ's one month picture for comparison.

Visit from the G-Man

My dad was in town for a business meeting and stopped by to visit us. Dad is still getting adjusted to the idea of being a grandfather, so we are trying out alternative names to grandpa. So far we have come up with Pops, Poppa D, Hey You and (my dad's favorite) G-Man. Perhaps he should consult Goldie Hawn for her opinion, who reportedly prefers to be called Glamma, rather than grandma. I think the appeal of G-Man comes partly from the irony that the same nickname is given to government agents, and dad is a don't-stick-your-nose-in-my-business libertarian. Anyway, G-Man was duly impressed by AJ's vocalizations (he squealed and cooed throughout G-Man's visit), and by the increased chubbiness in AJ's legs. ("That kid has some meat on his bones!") I am looking forward to AJ's two month checkup on Saturday to find out how much weight he has gained in the last month.

Mommy and Me

As my friend, S., who is a good with details, pointed out in her comment, I didn't have a single picture of me with the little guy on the blog. As the family photographer, I don't have a lot of pictures of me with AJ. I actually thought about asking a Starbucks barista to take a picture of me and the baby last week because we both had on clean shirts (!) but thought it was a little too much to ask and chickened out. Here are a couple of the pictures that I do have--the top one is from the rehearsal dinner at the Houston wedding last weekend and the bottom one is AJ at one week old.

(Little) Man in the Mirror

This weekend we were in Houston for the wedding of my friends Kaitlyn and Michael. We stayed at Hotel Zsa Zsa, which is comparable to a W Hotel and very trendy, epitomized by the life-sized mannequin in a frilly evening dress that was in a cage suspended from the ceiling in the lobby. The guest rooms featured floor-to-ceiling mirrors along one wall, and AJ was fascinated with smiling at the "other" baby in the room. He definitely doesn't get that it is himself in the mirror and was flashing his best win-them-over smile to the other baby. He was delighted by the other baby's quick response. This picture is also a great one to check out AJ's recent mid-life crisis hairdo as his darker newborn hair is falling out and starting to be replaced on top by finer and lighter baby hair.

First Airplane Ride!

This weekend we attempted to conquer one of our greatest parenting fears--taking a baby on a plane. As business travelers who have spent a fair amount of time in airports, we definitely had ideas about how we wanted to try to manage the process as best we could. However, we do not always agree on our strategies. For example, I am a big fan of paying the few extra dollars to use the skycap service for curbside check-in rather than lugging three suitcases and a stroller through the long lines at the counter, but (not shockingly, for those who know Joe) my husband sees this as a waste of money. Anyway, we managed to make our way to the plane, and AJ did a great job as a passenger. As the Paula Abdul of our home judging system (minus her weird behavior) I gave AJ an A+ for making it through without a meltdown. Joe is a tougher grader and gave him an A-, docking AJ for not napping on the plane. We both agreed that it was a relative success and are even talking about attempting a plane ride again in the near future to go to Miami with Joe on a business trip.