Category: Family & Home

Miles working the expressions, experimenting with facial muscles and how they affect ma and pa. Watching Miles smile is like eating popcorn — once you start, hard to stop.

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My dad lives up in the mountains. His life is not like yours and mine.

Thurs, I finally got a day off and planned to do so much. What happened? A major wind and rain storm came through. At 2.30 am I am buck naked on the deck tieing down tarps on my woodpiles. Swing, bar-b-q etc. It was blowing 30-40 mph, heavy rain and pine needles pelting me like arrows. Just as I finished the power went out. I cooked breakfast on the coleman stove, meditated in the dark and tried to read in the gloomy light. Thank goodness for the wood burning stove.

I read stuff like that and wonder if I’m going soft, wonder whether city life may have run its course. Wonder what I’m missing by having cushy comfort handed over on a platter day after day.

Any way you slice it, my dad rocks.

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Music: Son House :: Government Fleet Blues

Miles won’t be two months old for another two weeks, but what the hell – he’s well into his second month and becoming more engaged by the day – everything we do, he’s involved with his eyes, with his voice, with his little body. He even offers mini-reviews on the quality of the day’s breast milk: “Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm!”

So we have a new gallery of amazing Miles pix: Shades, slingshot, thumb grab, stim-mobile, naked, comfort…

Also, little Simone Micah was born to Andrew and Gina a couple of days ago – went to visit them last night – so tiny so precious. Congratulations to the Shapiro/Golleges! We’re just swimming in babies all of a sudden, and Paula/Roger’s baby is still to come.

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Music: New Air :: Apricots On Their Wings

When Miles was born, he seemed to have lots of extra skin, like a puppy. Now he’s starting to grow into it, his legs and arms are pudging up. In fact his calves actually feel strong, with real muscle. And you can feel it when he sits with his legs on your belly — give him a little support under the armpits and he’ll push off with his legs, making his first instinctual moves toward standing. It’s amazing to see – he can barely hold his head up straight (although his neck is quickly getting stronger too) but he can damn near stand (but not balance) on his own.

Some images of Miles taken by Amy recently. I love the view through his Stim-mobile — he’s really taken a shine to it, quiets immediately when we lay him down to be changed. Fascinated with the high-contrast shapes and movement. He can watch this mobile turn for 10 or 15 minutes without getting bored.

Music: Stereolab :: Anamorphose

Amy took Miles outside today – the shades aren’t just to make him look like a bad-ass — gen-u-ine UV protection!

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How small is Miles? If I put his heel at the base of my palm, his knee doesn’t even come up to my top knuckles, that’s how small.
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Is September 23, like, dodecahedrally auspicious? Other people with whom Miles shares a birthday:

1920 – Mickey Rooney
1930 – Ray Charles
1943 – Julio Iglesias
1949 – Bruce Springsteen
1967 – Harry Connick, Jr.
1970 – Ani DiFranco

Yet more pix: Miles’ room, grandma and grandpa visit, Miles gets more expressive, Amy is liberated.

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I promise I’ll slow down with the pictures soon! Yeah, uh, we’ll be getting back to normal, um, Monday, I think ;)

Great news: Miles is latching like a champ, mom’s milk production is edging upwards quickly, he’s eating lots. The train is leaving the station.

This week has just drifted by so casually. Amy and I stay around the house, take visitors, watch the baby, take turns finding new ways to make him happy. I cook and clean, take care of things that have been hanging… We talk on the phone to friends and relatives a lot. When I have time off work, I’m usually either on vacation or I stay home and work obsessively on my own stuff, freelance projects, etc. This time is so different – we’re not doing anything but figuring out how to be a family together.

Miles is a different boy every day. We’re beginning to wonder if we spoke too soon in declaring him to be quiet – he’s seeming to cry a bit more every day, and starting to get harder to calm, unfortunately. When it’s not the diaper and it’s not the milk and it’s not the burping… it doesn’t leave a whole heck of a lot to try. We scratch our heads and look all concerned, but it always works out.

Put up another set of images — Miles Week One (click):

While I was at it, moved the sonogram/doppler audio loop into the miles dir.

We obsess over things that would probably look small from the outside – whether his eyes are opening quickly enough (one of them has seemed kind of “sealed,” but seems to be getting better on its own), whether his breast-feeding habits are “normal,” whether he’s pooping too much or not enough… I suppose it’s common to be a bit obsessive as you figure this stuff out for the first time.

We’ve had three outings so far – a walk around the block to get some sunshine on him and to see how Amy is faring (excellently, but not out of the woods yet). Then a pediatrics visit on the 3rd day (all is well) and a trip to Rockridge Kids today to spend some of the gift certificate we received from the J-School.

Amy’s friend Sarah made a gorgeous mobile for us — hand-folded origami birds hanging from backyard apple tree branches (because Miles used to be Appleseed). It’s lovely. Will hang that over the crib tomorrow.

For those who read this blog for something other than endless baby tales, don’t give up on me yet – the newness of all this will wear off after a while and we’ll return to the regularly scheduled blah blah woof woof.

Albums Miles has heard so far in his life:

William Parker – Raining on the Moon
Sex Pistols – Nevermind the Bollocks
Nora Jones – Come Away with Me
Orchestra Baobab – Pirate’s Choice
Raymond Scott – Soothing* Sounds for Baby

*Yeah, right