Amazing Baby

I'm holding our amazing baby boy. His surgery went well today. He was cheerful beforehand, even though he wasn't allowed to eat, and is waking up sweetly as the anesthesia wears off now. We love our baby so very much, and are grateful for everyone's prayers and support.

Baby Backpacking

I guess you wouldn't call what Chase did backpacking. He really went sleep packing, but he's really good at it.

We headed to Marion Lake last Saturday for some camping with friends. The weather was really great and so was the company. Oliver was self sufficent this time around, he carried his own food, bowl, and tennis ball.

He was really great on the hike, although his lack of awarness of his pack earned him the nickname wide load. More than once that pack almost tripped me as he would jog by.

If it weren't for the mosquitos we would have had a good campsite too.

At least we had a great view. Megan and I are a new and overly protective parents when it comes to bug spray, so we didn't use any. This wasn't a huge problem until about an hour before sunset. Then the litte parasites came out for dinner so we retreated to our tent. Baby's first bug bite isn't something you get real proud of, but it's still a first.

Being a great roller isn't always an advantage. Sometimes you get a mouth full of dirt.

I managed to get a couple sunset pics before getting eaten alive.

Happy family...

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Chase is addicted to rolling. He can't stop himself. When we put him down he immediatly rolls onto his left side then suspends himself there for awhile. About half the time he then rolls onto his back and the other half onto his stomache. When he was three weeks old he would occasionally roll from his belly to his back but this was an accident and it has become very infrequent. Consequently Mom and Dad have to roll him back to his back after three or four minuets on his front.

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

East Coast Swing

For his first plane ride Chase chose the red-eye from Portland to Newark. It was a good choice, he slept four out of the six hours we were in the air. The bad part was that his parents and grandparents were dead tired the next day. But we all survived.

The fam visited Megan's relatives during the week of the Forth of July. It was a very relaxing trip for me and also nice to get to spend so much time with my son.

Chase got to meet a lot of his family for the first time. Aunts, uncles, great uncles, great aunts...

Including his cousin Conner...

Chase isn't very good at sharing...

He also learned some music appreciation...

Flying with a baby was not nearly as bad as I had feared. In fact there are some bonuses. The first of which is that you get to board the plane early. This is a huge advantage because we never check any bags, we got first access to the overhead bins. The second is that it gave Megan and I an excuse to walk up and down the aisle burping and entertaining Chase. The downsides is how cramped it was. Fortunately we sat next to some very gracious people who gave lots of compliments about the behavior of our child. It's really nice to hear, even though we didn't have anything to do with it.

Driving in the car has been the biggest struggle so far. Chase doesn't really like to be in a car seat for more that twenty minutes. We're not sure if he gets car sick or if he's just cranky. We tried to time all of our car trips around his naps. The key to travelling this way is flexibility. We rarely told anyone that we would be meeting them at a certain time. Mostly though we tried to have people come to Meg's parents house.

All in all it was a very good trip. Now it's back to work :(

Can Oliver come out and play?

Of course we adore our dog, but he's become quite popular around the neighborhood as well. In addition to his human admirers, he has a number of doggy friends. A dog named Molly lives next door and frequently prances onto our deck and checks at our screen door for Oliver. If we miss her, Oliver whines to let us know he wants to go play. We open the door, and off they go.



You would think this is an anomaly, but, he has other doggy friends as well. There's a pair of boxers that play on the track. Their owner waves up to our house, we let Oliver out, one of the boxers comes up to our yard to coax Oliver down to the track, and they're off.

Although our dog is not the smartest, he does recognize familiar dogs from ones he hasn't met. From our house to across the track, he can tell the difference. He whines when he sees a playmate, and often barks or growls when he sees an unfamiliar one. (Andrew's not so sure of this, but I'm home all day and observe it regularly.)

Another great thing is that Oliver comes when we call. And on the rare occasion that fails, he always responds to the whistle, which is followed by a treat.


As for the rest of the family, Chase continues to grow, and Andrew continues to get older. :o)

Chase has doubled in size since birth (7 pounds 15 ounces). He clocked in at 16 pounds 5 ounces yesterday. He's a great eater. Imagine if you doubled in size in less than 4 months!

Andrew's birthday was yesterday. So Chase stayed with his aunt & uncle, and Andrew chose a yummy sushi place for dinner.

Here are some Chase pictures:




He's no musical prodigy, at least we haven't seen the signs yet, but he loves the sounds the keyboard makes.

High Chair

He's not quite ready for food but loves to sit up...

Vowels are fun!


Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Hiking and Swimming

Last Friday, I met up with 3 other moms and their babies at Silver Falls and we did a hike. I didn't realize what a spectacle we'd make, but it was nice to get lots of Mother's Day wishes from other hikers.

The following day, Andrew, Chase, and I went swimming. Chase is too young to really appreciate it; the outing was more for me. I had a great time.



Andrew and I had some playtime too. Andrew got to go down the water slide, and I went off the diving board.

He Smiles!

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Monster Cookie Ride

Last Sunday (26 April 2009) I did another bicycle ride sponsored by the Salem Bicycle Club.  I also rode to and from the event start so all told I did about 70 miles. My freind Scott and averaged a little over 18 mph during the ride. The event had three stops which was actually one too many. We only stopped at the last one to use the restroom. The event cost $20 and I'm pretty sure I ate $20 worth of cookies.

Baby Raising Update

Chase's personality has started to show through in his third month of life. He smiles often and will react to us quite a bit. He also likes it when someone talks to him, espcially baby talk, I guess it's best when they speak his language. In the past week or so he has also started using less diapers. We have 16 cloth diapers and he used to use about 16 in a day but that has slowed down to 12-14 now. 

He is also growing. At his two month appointment (10 April)  he weighed 12 lbs 9 oz, was 23 inches long and had a head diameter of 40 cm (what's with the metric?). Ten days ago he weighed 13 lbs 6 oz. The 0-3 month clothes are to small and many of the 6 month clothes he fits into great. It's kinda sad that he's growing out of his clothes only because I have some favorites. I like clothes that fit snug and have zippers. Every once and a while I'll put him in some different type clothes but mostly I like him in sleepers with nothing else on except a diaper. Now that his head is less wobbly I also like it when he wears overalls. It's like wearing a handle.

Megan worked hard to get him on a schedule starting around two months. It has paid off. For the past two weeks he has only gotten up once and even slept through the night once! He feeds about every 30-45 minutes in the evening and she will swaddle him between 8 and 9. The hardest part is getting him to actually fall asleep. He won't fall asleep on his own. He won't fall asleep in your arms if you sitting still. He won't even fall asleep if you're rocking him in a chair. The only way he falls asleep is if you are walking around or bouncing on large exercise ball. Once he's asleep for 10 minutes (somtimes more) he can be layed down in his crib. 

The only problem we're having is that he has an abscess on his butt, right by his pooper. We are going to go to OHSU next week to have them look at it and possibly remove it. Please keep this in your thoughts and prayers.