Early modelling career

Our Flickr stats over the past few days have blown away previous measurements; 916 pictures were viewed yesterday alone - yikes! No pressure to take good pictures or anything. But if ours weren't compelling enough, I absolutely encourage folks to check out the amazing ones we had professionally taken this morning. (This link is to a sampling of the first few; we're looking forward to getting proofs in the next few weeks!) K had done an incredible maternity shoot back in January, and we'd scheduled a baby shoot for after Owen arrived. Due to schedule challenges, it had to either be today or not for a week and a half -- so off we went with Owen while mima and papa took Zachary to play and have lunch.

The baby shoot was even more wonderful than the maternity shoot had been. She keeps her studio at a very cozy 85 degrees so the babies can be snuggly and warm, and Owen slept through much of the session, generating some great and cozy photos along the way. The only thing we weren't able to accomplish was one of her "signatures", where the baby is placed in a suspended sling and hangs out cozily for some mid-air modelling. Owen was a little too active (even when half asleep) for that to work out this time around.

Oh, with the guess-Owen's-due-date poll now closed down, I just wanted to report back on the results. One person of our 14 entrants did guess the correct date - congratulations! Whoever it is can come visit Owen at their leisure and change the diaper of their choice. Or something. I actually noticed that a second entrant "guessed" 3/8 after he was already born and announced; we'll have to expunge that one from the permanent records. :) For those keeping score, guesses were:

3/2 (1)
3/3 (3)
3/4 (4)
3/5 (2)
3/7 (1)
3/8 (1 + the aforementioned expunged vote)
3/9 (2)

Thanks for helping us count down to Gooshie/Owen!

Oh brother

Everything feels like it's in fast motion with Owen! The hospital staff had been great and very supportive, and it was nice to stay in the same room through the entire experience. Meh and I even found time to watch most of a movie early yesterday evening. But 30 hours after arriving at the hospital, we were still ready to make our way back home this morning. The rear-facing carseat was reinstalled, Owen was dressed in his first actual non-hospital-issued outfit, sitting in his car seat (unhappy like his brother once was, though some gentle swinging seemed to soothe him - already a bit of a difference!), and the rear-facing car seat snapped back into the base.

Next, Owen's first true test: meeting his brother. I'd visited Zachary last night and given him bed time, but he hadn't seen mommy since bedtime on Sunday. So she went in first and was greeted with a giant hug. I followed subtly with Owen in the car seat. Zachary didn't really pay attention to him -- until he was in mommy's arms. Then suddenly he really wanted to be up, and daddy just wouldn't do. He was distracted short of a full meltdown, but so begins a hopefully short-lived rivalry. Later on while Meh was feeding Owen, Zachary again decided her lap was where he needed to be, so there will definitely be some, ah, "learning opportunities" to explore in the coming months.

Once again a huge thanks to friends J and S, who had watched and entertained Zachary for nearly two straight days (starting again at the delightful time of 2:30 am on Monday). We've got so many wonderful and supportive friends to help us during this enormous life transition!

Mima and Papa had fortuitously pre-scheduled their flight to arrive at noon today (this despite not voting for a date on the blog poll!), so I went to pick them up soon after we got back home. They were of course delighted to meet their second grandson and get to play with their first, who correctly (more or less) identified them as 'mama' and 'papa' and was happy to see them. And the "relearning" has begun - I assembled two pack & plays today and stocked them with all of Owen's goodies (though alas, size 1 diapers are still too big, so I'll have to make a run to the drug store tomorrow for N's).

Welcome, Owen Lev!

We are delighted to announce the arrival of Owen Lev Selfon! Owen was born this morning at 7:34 am. The stats:

Weight: 8 lbs 5 oz (3784 grams for the metric lovers among us)
Height: 21.06" (53.5 cm)
OFC: 13.58" (34.5 cm) [that's the head circumference]
Apgar: 8 (@ 1 min), 9 (@ 5 min)

Friends J and S graciously answered our 2:15 am wakeup call to stay with Zachary, and we arrived at the hospital a little after 3 am. Four hours (and a lot of mommy work) later, we got to meet Owen in person. He's already had several quiet alert periods, looking around and being super snuggly, and objecting vocally (but very cutely) to the typical poking and prodding that hospitals impose on newborns.

The bris is still to be scheduled, but for right now we're just excited to start to get to know him. Zachary will likely get to meet his brother tomorrow, and we've already been told that everything is looking great and we'll hopefully be able to go home tomorrow morning. Thanks to everyone already for all of the well wishes!

On the seventh day...

Six days have come and gone since the due date, and while Meh is increasingly uncomfortable, Gooshie apparently isn't ready to meet the world quite yet.

Lately we've been focusing on trying to stay within a few hundred feet of each other; even when Meh took a hill-less shortcut home from a walk to the park yesterday (the stroller wouldn't make it) while Zachary and I took the main path, I was a bit worried until we all arrived back at home. So it was a slightly bigger worry for me to drive off into the city last night for my orchestra's winter concert. Yes, the cellphone remained in my pocket, though in the end the question wasn't whether Meh would have Gooshie but whether I could actually make the concert in time - traffic was unusually atrocious and I ended up not hitting my seat until two minutes past the starting time. Thankfully a full audience meant we started a good three minutes later.

On the ball

Gooshie's very first crate o' diapers (along with some slightly larger diaper reinforcements for Zachary) arrived yesterday afternoon -- a mere 16 hours after I ordered them, what's their secret? Anyway, after I unloaded the contents, Meh had the excellent idea to use the remaining empty box to try out a bag of ball pit plastic balls she'd picked up for the little man. Suffice it to say he loved it:

This morning, Meh checked in with her midwives and got to take a non-stress test. Everything is looking good with Gooshie, who from the subsequent ultrasound apparently already has "some" hair. Color and amount still to be determined!

This afternoon we all went to lunch and then ran some Zachary and Gooshie-related errands, walking across a large outdoor shopping center. (Later we graduated to carting; Zachary pointed at one, said "kaht", and was very happy to be placed in it.) During the on-foot portion of our walk, we spotted the Seattle Humane Society's adoption truck parked at the mall, and Zachary said "bus!" while happily running up to it. First he was licked by one of the tame rescue dogs welcoming everyone to the bus, and he was very happy and giggly about that. Then I tried to point out the various cats in the transparent windowed bus -- but he was already off like a shot to the pet mobile's front passenger side door, where he commanded it to "open!" and then started climbing up onto the step and knocking on the cab door while saying "nah-nah-nah" (knock-knock-knock). Such a cute little man!

Three and Out

(Or should that be three and in?) It's day three of Gooshie watch 2010, and already 50% of our poll-takers are proven wrong; that Gooshie is certainly one tough bookie. I've taken to staying home starting today (a two-and-a-half year old is exhausting even if you aren't nine months pregnant!), though impressively, Meh still went to work. Zachary and I visited her as part of a very full day of reading books (often the same ones repeatedly), playing at a park near mommy's work, grocery shopping, and a Scandinavian shopping and lunch trip (I had to force myself to eat his super-tasty macaroni and cheese when he declined).

Today I also ordered some old standbys from Zachary's early days - Butt Paste, some extra-gentle wipes, and perhaps most importantly, a crate of size 1 diapers. The room transition also continues -- we've been doing more and more of the bedtime routine in the big boy room, until now everything short of actually going to bed takes place there. That step will likely wait a bit, but it's good to see how smoothly he's made the transition (even if after bathtime he still tends to run naked into his own old room before remembering that the clothes, books, and story time are the other direction).

Dated Materials

It's here! Today is Gooshie's due date. No news yet, but to keep things interesting, I've opened up a poll (see it to the right) where you can guess Gooshie's birthday. Winners get to, um, meet Gooshie? But so does everyone else of course. :)

The (Extreme) West End

Zachary's new bedroom continues to come together, with a new shelf (yup, another of the ones that had finally taught me the value of attaching shelving to studs in that mildly disastrous guest room incident) now populated with some of our favorite items from friends and travels, including a Muji "city in a bag", a group of fun wooden toy buildings shaped like London landmarks. Meh had also picked up a cute wall decal of a London double decker bus (from a UK-based Etsy-listed artist, no less) that we mounted right inside Zachary's door. He came to check it out and was very excited by the "busssss" and its wheels. The decal came with all of the numbers, so you could specify the bus number. I of course took on the challenge of figuring out the most appropriate route for his bus. The "ideal" route (which hits both Trafalgar Square [near the hotel we typically stay at], Oxford and Piccadilly Circuses, and Golders Green/Finchley [where our friends N & S live]) was the unluckily number 13, and while we aren't particularly superstitious, that just seemed unnecessary for Z's room. So we instead opted for the route number that matches Z's month and day of birth, the number 8, which still reaches Oxford Circus, Tottenham Court Road, and St. Paul from its origins in East London. Nothing like a little piece of the East End on the Eastside -- of Seattle, that is.

Turn the lights down low

Another step towards transitioning Zachary to his own room: last night I installed a dimmer in his new bedroom. The previous binary on/off switch had been a problem over the last few days; his clothes have made the move into his new room, and when I'd try to get him dressed while (sadly) it was still dark outside, there was either random guesses as to clothes or brief flips of the light. For his end, Zachary likes to turn on the lights and then squint/smile/hide his eyes. Alas, he's started doing this in our room as well, which is not exactly the best way to open your eyes at 5:30 in the morning.

Big shoes to fill

Zachary's love affair with shoes continues. While not yet at Carrie Bradshaw levels, he'll frequently bring us a pair of his own to put on -- even if he's already wearing another pair. Yes, even in the house; we've tried to establish one or two pairs as 'indoor-only'; I feel like Mr. Rogers or something. Yesterday while I was at work, he brought mommy a pair of her shoes (this in itself is generally entertaining, as grownup shoes are pretty bulky for a little man) and said "mama!", then brought her a pair of mine and said "dada".

Here's an illustration of him using his shoes more or less as intended - for wild running, and on a track no less:

At the tone, the time will be...

Most mornings, Zachary wakes up and starts whining or talking to himself at six o'clock, plus or minus one minute. (Seriously, that's a solid internal alarm clock!) I bring him into bed with us for a bit, where he snuggles, occasionally talks/whispers about blankie ("ba-ba! niiice! sah! [soft]"), and, on extra special occasions, falls back asleep for a bit. This was not one of those mornings, but it was almost as cute, as he decided to act as a one-minute snooze alarm: when he sat up, he spotted my alarm clock and started reading the digits. We got a new readout pretty much every minute, though he was pretty insistent that 1's were I's. Was it more impressive that he kept at it, or that we remained immobile lumps until he gave up on us and climbed out of bed at "seis tah fah" (6:24)?

Meh's bags are packed, she's ready to go

We're now officially into the red zone, with two weeks to Gooshie's due date -- and, as we've often been reminded, that due date being roughly plus or minus two weeks. Meh packed her hospital bag yesterday (which she insists means Gooshie will arrive late), and I've got to get going on mine as well. We've created our multiple plans for what happens if Meh goes into labor in the middle of the night, and have several friends generously on standby to watch the little man.

I've also been "grounded" as it were; I had a local conference in Seattle last week (and had to explain to the other attendees why I had an exemption from the "all cellphones must be switched off" rule), but I've passed off my talks for an upcoming London conference to other speakers, and have backup speakers on standby for a conference in San Francisco the second week of March.

Z and I performed our first experiment on Sunday with him sleeping in his big boy bed. He'd quite nearly fallen asleep on our drive home from lunch with mommy and running some errands, so I tried snuggling him and putting him into the new bunk bed, even turning on the new white noise generator we'd picked up on said errands. He happily smiled, snuggled with blankie, and squirmed a bit in the bed as if getting ready to go to sleep. I ducked out into the hall and quietly shut the door. Alas, two minutes later I heard the thumping feet on the ground, the door knob turned, and the little man was there smiling at me. He grabbed me by the hand and led me into his old bedroom, pointed at his crib, said "ba" (bed), and then waited for me to pick him up and put him in the crib. He was out cold moments later. Ah well, I guess the next step is blackout curtains for the new bedroom.

The Last Supper Revisited

The countdown continues, with 16 days left until the midpoint of the statistically probable due date. Hm, perhaps not as dramatic as just saying that we're two days from any time now! With that in mind, we wanted to have a special date night before meeting Gooshie -- and that took place last night, where we went with friends J & S to a very special Valentine's Day-themed dinner at The Herbfarm.

The Herbfarm remains as wonderful and amazing as the first time we were there, which appropriately enough was right before Zachary was born. (Meh was pregnant the second time as well, which means she still has never gotten to enjoy their flights of wine or any less-than-fully-cooked meats!) The food was incredible, the service excellent and friendly, and I'm still always extra impressed when the proprietor/host is able to talk his way down the row of staff members and introduce each by name, background, pedigree, and random accompanying trivia. We of course also took a stroll to visit the Herbfarm's resident 'recyclers', Basil and Borage, who wagged their tails and happily ate some of the leftovers from the little pail we brought with us; talk about a charmed life!

I'm a bit embarassed to admit that one of the most entertaining bits for me were these little self-enclosed hand boilers (glass sculptures filled with a colored liquid that expands and boils up to a top compartment when you put it in the palm of your hand). Which is not to say the food wasn't incredibly amazing, as was the company -- hooray for a very special date night!

House Hunters

Huge news from the east coast -- Mima and Papa are looking to move out to Seattle! The idea had been tossed around for a few months, and this weekend they took a first big step, with a brief visit to start looking for homes. We all got to hang out together in the mornings and evenings, and somehow in between they managed to see something like 30 properties during their three and a half day visit.

There were a few promising options, including one that we stopped off to check out late in the afternoon of their last day before taking the little man down to a play area at the mall and dinner at his favorite digs. One option there hadn't been available to investigate on the spot, so Zachary and I returned there yesterday afternoon with the realtor. Zachary did a great job, happily looking around without getting into too much trouble. The only hitch was when we came back up the elevator from checking out the parking garage, when he decided it would be fun to push the 'emergency assistance' button -- whoops. But the property's realtor was right there and she assured us it was all fine.

Tell me about it

Zachary's labelling skills continue to develop, with new words (or at least semblances of words) every day. Yesterday he and I went to a friend's housewarming party, and he had a great time with her dog ('dah-dee!'), petting the dog and saying 'niiiice'; grandma would be so proud. For breakfast, he now specifically asks for 'mik' (milk), 'cha cha' (Cheerios), and/or 'kah' (Kix). If I ask him whether he wants something, he'll say 'yessss' (though no is still either a head shake or 'all done'). More and more objects in his daily life have names too - 'house', 'sahss' (socks), 'sha' (shoes, and also sheep), 'pah' (pants), 'dah' (down), and others.

Oh, and he has a favorite new word for when his toy airplane propels itself into a wall, or one of his cars or trucks decides to express itself via Newtonian physics:

Thirty Days

We're down to the final month (plus or minus two weeks or so) until we get to meet Gooshie! We're all both excited and a little nervous, and keep trying to remember what things were like in the early days; if only we had a blog or something to compensate for the sleep-deprived loss of short term memory. Zachary still doesn't really indicate that he gets it, though he's got to notice that he simply can't always be "up!" in mommy's arms. Not that daddy can sustain that for extended periods either with our 30-pound little man!

Which brings us to nicknames -- what becomes of "little man" when there's another, well, "little man"? Will we recycle names? Share them between both boys? Come up with new options for Gooshie? Only time will tell; this reminds me of our question of whether Zachary would still ever go by Ziggy after he was born - didn't happen. In the meantime, the preparations continue; we took a tour of the hospital last week (this time we're using the one 10 minutes from our house rather than hiking into the city) and got a feeling for where and when to go. Meh has weekly check-ins with her midwives (with their ongoing ban on kids due to cootie spreading concerns, Z and I have stayed home, so I still haven't gotten to meet any of them), and everything has been looking on track so far. (Ptuh ptuh ptuh!)

We'll close this entry out with a video of one of Zachary's sources of constant entertainment:

Meh-ternity photos

Yesterday we had a return visit to an incredible baby/family photographer who had shot some wonderful Zachary pictures back in 2008. We'd met in that parent-baby class (she has a son just about Zachary's age, and now a younger son too) and she was starting up her photography business. A year later, she's in full swing, and even has her very own studio adjacent to her house. (This is apparently her secret to baby photography; the space can be climate controlled to a nice warm temperature, the babies can crawl around on a variety of cozy fuzzy rugs, and then conk out when she puts on a white noise generator.)

The photo shoot was fun and mellow; Zachary did great, running around and playing with Thomas (you'll likely notice the tank engine in all photos of Zachary), and the pictures of Meh are of course beautiful. We even made the photographer's blog. Hooray for beautiful pictures of my beautiful wife, son, and son-to-be; we're looking forward to seeing the final results!

Better get used to these bars, kid

Zachary's bed is built! I wrapped it up yesterday morning by hammering 60 plastic nails into the cross slats -- yes, as fun as it sounds, especially when the nails are both stubborn and right up against the edge of the bed frame. But once it was done, the mattress was hoisted up into the bed (first the bottom and later the top bunk), and Zachary immediately had to explore. He's just a little too tall to stand on the bed without his head hitting the slats for the top bunk, but he had no trouble climbing in and out of bed. We had snuggle time while watching the planes (comfortably visible from the bottom bunk), though he wouldn't quite go to sleep with the eternal dogfight in progress. Still, he's definitely enjoying spending time in his soon-to-be new room!

Who's the fairest?

We of course have plenty of pictures of the little man around the house. But it wasn't until yesterday that Zachary started looking at one of his baby pictures and saying "Zaza" (his name for himself) and then "bah-bah" (baby). Meh said he spent quite a while looking at (and talking about) himself.

The transition of the guest room to Zachary's bedroom is back on track now that we donated the futon that had been occupying the office. Today the guest bed made its way into the office, and Zachary and I continued putting together his bunk bed. Well, really I put the bed together while he ran around on his mattress playing with a truck, a plastic hammer (too bad I didn't actually get to the hammering part yet), a book, and of course talking about the circling airplane mobile. He was actually a little concerned when he walked into the room and there was no "ba" (bed) to be "up" in, but he got over it pretty quickly, and climbed around the bed frame as I assembled it. Still to come: his snazzy new Swedish dresser, rearranging some bookshelves, and painting his room's back wall.

Quick story on the paint -- Meh and he went to Meh's favorite home improvement store to pick up paint yesterday. He was having a great time looking around and up at the warehouse roof, of course particularly enjoying it when Meh took him through the ceiling fan section (alas, none of them were actually functional). She ordered the paint and picked up a few other paint supplies while it was being mixed. When Zachary showed interest, she showed him (and told him about) the paint brush. He picked up on the brush aspect and started trying to comb his hair with it, smiling the whole time. Silly little man!

English man

Zachary's been gradually developing more and more words over the past few weeks that are actually understandable -- even by those who don't speak Zachary. Unmistakably English words include: "on", "off", "up", "yeah", "eat", "socks", "cookie", "house" and "bus" (the last two often with a cutely elongated s, and now accompanied by pointing at the book or vehicle in question). There ae a few close ones as well -- "bah-bah" (baby, though also his favorite blanket), "mah-mah" (mommy), and "dah-dee" (doggy).

He's also been improving his sound effects -- sorry, I'll take the blame for that one. Here's his howling wolf (followed by his favorite 'AH-wah', which is his take on a panther growl, and must be followed by a 'rewr' and mommy or daddy tickle. The book is totally optional for this part.)