Summer in Andover

Henry Jonah got through the 10-hour car ride very peacefully, only waking up to nurse three times: at waysides in New Jersey and Connecticut and waiting to pay toll at the George Washington Bridge. He slept the rest of the time. (A car is a lot like a womb.)



 

Saying goodbye

It's hard to get any packing done with a newborn around, but finally we've managed to load up our car and drive to my folks' place in Massachusetts. We'll be here for about a month.

Ken's cousin, Kevin, stopped by to meet Henry and to give us a crib that his three boys (and before that, he himself) had slept in. Nice to have something that's been in the family!





And below is our friend Kate, visiting on the morning we left. (You can see in the background exactly how much packing we've gotten done.)













Ken will come back to Washington by himself to take care of the rest of the packing and the big move. But I'm not sure when I'll see DC again.

Mixed emotions about this. There's a lot to dislike about the town -- but a lot of people to miss. And of course Henry won't even remember living here.

On the saying, "Enjoy them now, while they're so little."

Everyone says this to us: the nice lady at the bus stop who has three kids and five grandbabies; the young couple at the farmer's market carrying their nine-month-old in a sling; our colleague whose six-year-old is going to day camp for the first time this summer.

"Enjoy him now, while he's so little." I have trouble figuring out what this could possibly mean. Is it like all those well-meaning people who told us that high school was "the best years of your life"? Of course most other years turned out to be much better: college, graduate school, newlywedness, even pregnancy. I can't see many advantages of being confused, in a hurry, unable to tell the difference between your mind and your body, unable to articulate what you want even if you could figure it out yourself.

Which sounds a lot like infancy. What's to enjoy? Sure, Henry has the face of an angel, but won't we love him more when he can speak for himself and help us figure out how to make him happy? Right now he spends a couple of hours every day trying to fall asleep and not knowing how. Every small developmental achievement is liberating, for him as well as for us.

For instance, to everyone's relief, we've trained him to take a pacifier:



"Training" meant letting him suck on it while sitting on his breastfeeding pillow in my lap, in nursing position. Now he seems convinced to use it even in his bassinet. He has also found his hands, even his thumb. This is a big advantage over sucking a grownup's finger, which was his preferred calming device until now.

I started asking all the "Enjoy them now" people what they were talking about. The new parents said they meant that babies grow up so fast, and new parents are so stressed and sleep-deprived, that it's hard to pay attention and not let this adorable early stage pass you by. (I think the blog takes care of that -- we can look back at it in about ten years when we've caught up on sleep and notice how cute he was.) Older parents said they meant that newborns can't crawl around, talk back, or get themselves into trouble. Basically (pace St. Augustine) they don't have a will yet. "Learning to express what they want is a double-edged sword," our colleague said. "It isn't always the same thing as you want."

I'm still not convinced. Every day this kid seems more intelligent and coordinated. He gets more of a personality and becomes more fully a member of our family. He can make eye contact with Ken and me now. We can tell when he enjoys our singing and dancing him around the room, and when he stops enjoying it. He seems (implausibly) almost ready to to show real facial expressions; up until now he has just been testing the circuitry. It won't be long till he can join us for an afternoon snack at our favorite ice cream shop, and won't that be wonderful?

Visiting

The pace of visits has accelerated: Henry Jonah saying hello to our friends here even as we say goodbye to them.

Here he is bonding with our friend Raph (who also gets a costume credit for the cute pajamas) and taking a walk to the Franciscan monastery in our neighborhood.





Fortunately, Henry napped for most of the afternoon. Because in the evening, my mom was back in town, and there was a gathering to attend. We asked the Moscow School #2 friends to pose for a group photo.


We have been so lucky in DC to have such great family friends to watch over us and provide so much good advice and hilarity. We'll miss you, guys!

Fresh country air

We spent the day out at Stoney Lonesome Farm, a small paradise run by our friends Pablo and Esther. Henry took a long, sweet nap in the grass...


...while his dad helped Pablo weed onions and spread mulch.


This is a bumper year for garlic. Here is the assistant grower, Chris, bringing in part of the harvest.


Later came the sad part: saying goodbye to Pablo and Esther. It has finally hit us that we are leaving Washington. There are lots of things, like visiting Stoney Lonesome, that we won't get to do again for a very long time. We have been so focused on beginnings (for obvious reasons) that the end of our time here has just kind of crept up on us. But better get used to the idea: we are leaving one week from tomorrow.

Happy Father's Day!

Catching a nap...

 

Belly button

Henry's umbilical stub fell off yesterday. Now he has a regular belly button: a cute little innie. One step closer to being a big boy.

He is two weeks old today. And Ken and I have survived our first week as unparented parents, since my mom left last Sunday. There have been some confusing moments, but we are getting through it. Hurray for all of us!

The unrepentant pooper...

 

Projectile poop

We had our first experience with "projectile poop" the other day. You know, the kind when you're not quick enough on your feet during a diaper change, and it ends up requiring a change of clothes for the whole family? Our friends had told us about this phenomenon, but it has to be seen to be believed. The velocity is spectacular.
Everyone was already dressed to go over to our friend Kate's house, and Henry was wearing one of Kate's adorable veggie-print onesies. Oh well! Good thing they're washable. (And so is the floor, and the wall above the changing pad....)

Back to work...

The excitement hasn't worn off, but the deadlines haven't let up either. Little by little, we have started experimenting with ways to get a bit of work done...

Learning about faces

Our friends V. and L. visited on Saturday night and gave Henry a Learning Shoe toy with a big mirror in the sole.

Who's that kid in there? Why does he make such funny faces?

Did everyone see this article on breastfeeding in the NYT?

To the doctor

Henry Jonah saw the pediatrician today. At nine days old, he weighs over eight pounds (could she really have said eight pounds four ounces??). So he has regained his birth weight and then some.

Prehensile toes

The infant grasping reflex works for feet as well as fingers. If you push your finger gently on the ball of Henry's foot, his toes will curl up around an imaginary tree branch.



We are trying to figure out who in the family has such long toes. Especially that big toe. Or do all babies have long toes? This is the sort of thing one thinks about. Sleeping in three-hour blocks at night, doing no work at all, haven't opened a newspaper in a week because I can hardly bring myself to put the baby down. Our own little 24-hour news cycle right here. I guess this is the parent's version of the grasping reflex. But can you blame me?

 

Resemblance?

Ken's mom says Henry Jonah looks a lot like he and his sister did at this age. (We'll try to post a baby pic of Ken if we can find one -- anyone?)

Another theory says he resembles his maternal grandma's side of the family....

Eating and socializing

My milk is in. Henry seems to appreciate it. He has a mouth like a piranha and an attention span that sometimes stretches to 40 minutes. (And he will search for a breast on any surface. One day he was so hungry he gave Ken a hickie.) By Day 6 I have stopped keeping the hospital-mandated log of feedings and wet and dirty diapers, because it was clear that we were surpassing the production quota.

Our friends A. and L. come over with their two-month-old daughter Liel. She and Henry enjoy a meal together...

before getting handed off to the proud daddies...

Now we are six (days old)

You can't see it here, but when you spin Henry Jonah around like an airplane, supporting the back of his neck with your two index fingers, he arches his back and flies like Superman.

Tummy time

By his fifth day of life, Henry is ready for "tummy time." If you put a hand behind his feet, his crawling reflex makes him push off and propel himself forward.