Happy New Year

Happy New Year, twice over. Tet just recently passed and we spent time with my old college friends. And when I say old, I mean old. One day you are wandering through college figuring out how to get a decent meal, the next day you are looking at your friends kids and wondering what happened to the time. Grey hairs and little kids seem to go hand in hand these days.

Caleb is doing well. He is now 4 months old and becoming quite talkative. Here is a recent picture of him before we headed out to the Tet get together.



I thought the picture was hilarous. Max is a gentle dog who puts up with anything as long as someone feeds him and plays catch with him. Besides his revenge on me is every weekend I am out picking up poop. Changing Caleb's diapers is nothing compared to that chore.

Caleb is now 14 pounds and 24 inches long. For all babies born in the US that puts him in the 48-50 percentile. I'm curious to know what that puts him in the Asian demographic. Here he is staring at his toys from his bassinet.



As I hold Caleb, I always wonder if my dad held me in the same way. Did he sit there and stare at me, wondering what kind of man I would grow to be? I look at Caleb and I cannot imagine what kind of person he will be. I of course want him to be Caleb the Conqueror!!! ;)

Holding daddy's hand.

caleb - first christmas

Merry Christmas from Caleb. His grandmother provided a jumper with xmas themes. The stocking is about as big as he is currently.



It has been an interesting 8 weeks to say the least. We wait with abated breath the night when he sleeps longer than 4 hours. Until that moment approaches, its two tired people walking through the day. I can see why baby books and hucksters make money off new parents. People can get desperate when they are running on little sleep. With no experience with this demanding bundle, I can see people doing anything that offers hope. As with everything in life, this too shall pass.

Caleb is sitting in his vibrating chair. He seems to like it, a personal massage chair.......when did people start thinking of things like this? If you are wondering why his bottom is buttoned, well I am a lazy parent who doesn't see why I need to button/unbutton that bottom everytime I need to change his diapers. When he is crying at 3:00AM, time is in short supply.

The tree is a young pine tree that grew from seed in the front of my yard. It is 2 years old and should grow with Caleb. If I do it right, it should be alive for every Christmas although it will be stunted from living in the pot and me pruning the roots every other year.



Caleb is measured against his stuffed bear. As he grows older you should see the progress of his growth against the bear. He is wondering if his parents are just a little crazy.

Caleb Poopypants

Well Caleb has progressed nicely. He is starting to feed longer and sleep for longer periods of time. Which is a huge relief to his minions. Running on little sleep while doable is not enjoyable. Caleb demonstrated who was boss on the first night home.......needless to say I was caught unawares by this change in the guard. I will revolt and retake my rightful place at the top of the heap as soon as I get enough sleep.


No pictures please.

He unveiled a new weapon in his arsenal recently. Projectile poop......while I was expecting to be dodging streams of pee, the poop nearly caught be unprepared. Luckily I had just put in the new diaper and was able to quickly cover up. His aunt was less prepared after giving him a sponge bath. ;)

Eat, sleep, poop, eat, sleep, poop. And I mean a lot of poop. I thought my dog was gross, but Caleb easily passed that. While feeding, he pooped at the same time.......this is the stuff that needs to be written down in what to expect books. How can this not be an important fact?

His aunts, uncle, cousins and grandparents arrived this past weekend to greet him. Along with a multitude of his minions friends. He deigned to allow us a moment of respite from feeding him and cleaning his diapers during this time. I believe this was a scheme to portray himself in a better light while he prepares future torments.



You may hold me minion #5



I have you under my spell grandma.



Even tough old granddad is not immune to my powers!!







I don't have many moments of softness, but when my parents held my son it gave me a warm feeling. Many years ago my father and mother held me, changed my diapers, wrapped me up to make sure I wouldn't catch a chill. My parents had a difficult time talking to their hard headed son. They were in a new world with different language and customs which made their task all the harder. I wonder what I face in the years ahead as I watch my son grow. I think I'll understand my parents a little better each day and I wonder if they are secretly cackling in glee.

Caleb Crankypants

Caleb's birth can be described in one word. Loud. For someone who was a little over 6 lbs, there was a lot of noise coming out of his little body. I was pretty happy to hear the screaming since it was a little tense in that birthing room up until he came out. We had resorted to the foreceps option after 2 hours of Rielah pushing.

She was tired and hungry since it was running into the 12th hour. Since her water broke at 3:00AM, both of us were running on about 3 hours sleep in 24 hours. I can't imagine other women having 30 hour labors. I would have passed out from hunger and I'm not the one doing the pushing. On a side note, never ever eat an italian sub if your wife complains about it. I think we were food poisoned the day before. I was feeling pretty ill when we got to the hospital. I was just imagining me being in the bathroom when Caleb plopped out.

And as for the foreceps.....how on earth do those things go into a woman? I'm still in disbelief. They drugged Rielah up pretty good before they attempted that. I have to say that Rielah was pretty adamant that Caleb was coming out on the first attempt using foreceps. She was pushing and just wouldn't stop. It was like Popeye in the cartoons. ""Enough is enough, I've taken all I can and I t'aint taking anymore." Eats the spinach and kapow!!!!


The nurse called Caleb, "Crankypants". At night the babies stay in the nursery while the mother sleeps. Every 2 hours they wake the mommy up to breastfeed the baby. Caleb doesn't sleep at night and needed to be held to be quiet. He is loud. The loudest baby in the nursery from what I could tell. I can understand the nurses being a little put out by him.

He kept me up on his first night at home. I thought I could handle it since the 2 nights at the hospital wasn't too bad. Sleeping in between feeding and changing his diapers wasn't too difficult. I didn't realize the nurses taking him at night was such a luxury. He just wouldn't sleep without careful monitoring. Instead of 6 hours of broken sleep, I am getting maybe 4 hours of broken sleep. I sleep while he is feeding and I am awake the rest of the time while Rielah sleeps. My head is foggy the rest of the day.



He woke his mommy up at 3:00AM every night when he was in the womb. Looks like he is a night owl like his dad. Ugh. At least the poop doesn't stink too much in the beginning.



Here he is looking deceptively peaceful. Little do you know the scheming going on.



I'm watching you, so don't try anything funny.