Tobias is 1 month old!!!!

Wow, our very first Milestone! Our 1 month anniversary! His 1/12th birthday! ok, enough of that...
Here's our little champ!

One of the bonus benefits of using TinyTots Diaper Service (of which they oddly don't list as a selling point) is that by using cloth diapers, little T gets an instant recliner. Which of course is a big deal for 1 month old boys of every age.

It appears as though he's going to have some sort of eye color (scientifically observed...kind of), right now they are a deep deep color of blue, but I'm not sure if they will continue in that direction. My dad had blue eyes, and uncle Eric rocks 'em. I of course ended up the FON (freak of nature) two different colored eyes, so maybe the curse will pass along to him. For those of you fans of early 80's movies, images of Teenwolf pop into my head when I think of this.

Here's our little champ now. Its tough work being born 2.5 weeks early, eating at the Mom Cafe every 2 hours, and crying throughout the night (mom's favorite!).

But at least everything he does is very cute!

First Doctor Visit

This is Christina here, doing my fist Blog entry as I scarf down a bowl of cereal for lunch ( don't have much time for eating if I want to be able to sleep at all ). I'm not as fancy with the language as justin is, but I'll tell you what you need to know :) We took Tobias to his first check up today and he has gained 2 pounds and has grown two inches longer. So he is now 21 inches long and weighs 7 pounds 11 ounces. He's getting bigger everyday! The doctor said that he responds really well to sights and sounds, he seems to be focusing well, and is doing great.

The true secret of Tobias' cuteness

So you look at this picture and the obvious question that pops into my mind is what exactly is so darned enamouring about this little guy? I can't figure out. If I laid on the floor with no teeth, my tongue hanging out, and said a bunch on unintelligent words, I get put into "special programs."

But this little darling, adorable little boy looks at you and coos in his baby babble and then sticks his tongue out while staring out of his big baby blues and people just melt. Take my mom for instance, the other end of her arm is actually just a prop, as this one has totally melted from her body. The doctors say that it started somewhere near her heart (and the crowd goes.... Aaaaahhhh.)

So Tobias spent most of his day today, sort of like this, awake, and cute. I believe that somewhere in a baby's chemical makeup is a glue like substance, that makes putting them down very difficult. I haven't quite figured out the exact formula for this, nor do I have proof (other than observable), but it really seems that it might be shortly coming. My mom held him for about 14 hours straight today. We had to pry him out of her arms so that she'd sleep and go to the bathroom. Christina finally had to use some diversonary tactics and set the house on fire, and my mom finally gave him up. We had to give him a bath to get the soot off...
And of course, freshly washed, wet, naked little babies are so adorable...

and the cycle starts again... my mom picked him right up.

Baby Glue, does anyone have the formula?

Grandma's back in town

My mom has returned for a few days to help Christina and Tobias out. Now that I'm back at work full time, Christina's alone one-on-one time with the baby is at a high point, and she could definitely use a few breaks (read naps) during the day.

It doesn't help that the house has been a sauna the past few days. Those house builders around the turn of the century sure didn't understand about energy efficient homes with current insulation and double pained windows... geez! Sure, the house has been around since 1912, but that's no excuse!

Our garden is on steriods, we have about 30 ripe tomatoes we now need to figure what to do with. We turned to the horticultural version of BALCO, and used a bit of MiracleGrow to enhance our production (hopefully no testifying before a grand jury will be required). We basically created Jurassic Jungle of Tyrannasaurus tomato plants and Sasquatch squash that grow up over our 8' fence and have become unruly. But the fresh veggies are awesome!

Sunday morning update

Not much to report, as the whole house seems exhausted. Tobias has been really pulling a number on mom and dad by not sleeping in regular patterns. He'll sleep for 4 hours, or 15 minutes, his call.
He's started really focusing on things though. On Friday, Christina and I purchased his very first books. His favorite so far is Tana Hoban's "Black on White", he focuses right in on that.

My mom was also telling us that babies can learn limited sign language, long before they can talk, which is absolutely amazing to think about. Here's some information about it from the site, signwithme. We've added this one to our "Wish List."

Sleeping babes

For most parents, when they view their children sleeping, there's some immediate need met (silence, is that you?) that enamors the heart and solidifies the bond between parent and child. When we gaze upon Tobias, he is the cutest little guy we've ever seen (note: supreme parental bias on display). Here's his usual manner while sleeping.

Noteworthy here is the sheer "coolness" factor which he displays without really trying. Hello, baby modeling!

But occasionally, when its hot, we place him on the floor to sleep, rather than in his crib. The floor tends to be far less encumbering to him. So we then have these images from our little beloved.

Notice the completely unnatural angle of his neck, and the splayed manner of his limbs. If I were to try and position him such that he looked like he'd fallen out of a 2nd story window (morbid thought yes), I don't believe that I couldv'e improved on what comes natural to the little contortionist.

Perhaps his spine, and all of his surrounding muscles, such as, oh I don't know, say... his body, are really made out of playdoh, instead of actual body parts. My son, Gumby.

My mom and I decided that we'd try to have a "family" picture taking after Tobias.

Isn't it precious when the whole family falls off the roof?

My mom didn't really get the intent of the picture, opting more for something out of the original Batman film after a meeting with the Joker.

I was very proud of her for even getting on the floor and humoring me though.

During this shot, I was about to die, as you'll notice the bag of dirty diapers next to my head. My advice to kids, don't try this at home. I almost didn't make it up off the floor.

3 Generations of Proulx

My mom wanted to get a picture of all 3 of us together in the same place. I had some ideas of how the shot should go... each generation holding their own spawn (the other way, which of course is totally illogical as Tobias can't even hold his head straight, let alone my body weight, was ruled out right away).

Even though my mom appears to be incredibly strong here... I'll let you in on a secret, we used trick camera angles. Sorry mom.


Here's a serious one:
Tobias decided that he'd rather sleep than suffer through this miserable experience (yup, he's a boy, already dislikes picture taking!... that's my son!)

My mom had to hold his head up, as he kept flopping over at the exact moment Christina was taking the shot.

We tried our best to make it look natural, but I think we need better stage props or something. Subltety is one of my mom's strong suits. Tobias' master ninjitsu skills were a bit lacking as well.

We were all in white t-shirts, which was a rather cool, albiet totally unplanned, coincidence.


Here's the sleeping prince in all of his majesty:

Impressive, most impressive... but you are not a Jedi yet! 

Hey kept trying to dunk his right ear in the soup, so my mom had to hold the side of his head like this the entire bath. 

1 second in Grandma's hands, and he's "Like Buttah" - notice the complete relaxation of his arms, and the laid back feet up style. 

Hey Christina, how're you feeling today? Christina...? Christina? 

Winny the Pooh, Bath #2, Grandma Proulx...

... and don't forget the poo!
So, normally (emphasis on this word), a baby goes through a few diapers in a day, they pee in some, poop in others, and we as new parents have the 'tard factor a little higher as we make mistakes during the change over period.
As it turns out, the very process of changing Tobias' diapers:
Unfasten them, hut 2, 3, 4
Lift the legs, hut 2, 3, 4
Wipe the backside, hut 2, 3, 4
Evacuate the detritus, hut 2, 3, 4
Replace with new fatigues, hut 2, 3, 4
AH-TEN-TION!
Is the action that unleashes the fecal beasts. The fresh air, coupled with a continuous pumping of his legs in and out (I swear this is part of the normal changing process), add in a little stimulation of the (*), and about the time we have the new diap's on, and the saftey pants, and the "cute" outfit Dejour, he gives us his little Toot Salute! And we're back to square one. In 4 days he's dusted 80 clean diapers... yikes! Our delivery service comes once a week, that's once each 7 days. Again, I'm using the "new" math (even imaginary numbers like EleventyEight and Thirtyteen), but the numbers don't add up.

So boys+dirt is cool, cause hey, I'm a boy and I like dirt. But poop dirt... ungh-uh! Kid needs a bath!

So he's getting another one. This time Grandma helped out. Amazingly, he was either very relieved to be less dirty and smelly, he was too tired to profess, or Grandma and Mom on the spot made him feel so much more happy.

This was the worst one I could find, and I was snapping pictures like crazy. He wasn't quite sure that he was enjoying himself here, but it definitely wasn't the Hurricane of 3 days ago. We'll dub him "Tropical Storm Tobias", downgraded from a more severe weather pattern.

And then of course, after the bath, sans clothing, we have the cute "candid" shots:














And then I found, in the recesses of my closet cave, a blast from my past. This is not a "retro" mobile, this is the original issue, circa 1975. This bad boy is over 30 years old, and has graced the cribs of many distinguished dignitaries (my sister and I only being 2 of the 2 recipients).

Grandma Proulx comes to visit

My mom came on Sunday night to visit her brand new Grandson. The bond was immediate!
We're having some camera issues, so we don't have much in the nature of "action" shots, but we do have a few dancing pictures.

She's had a lot of practice with my sister's baby girl, Emily Jeanne, who is exactly 9 months older than Tobias. Emily, and her mom and dad (Niki and Justin) live in Reno, NV.

My mom is helping my sister who is working part time and eventually as she goes back to school. My sister and her husband both work for the Department of Forrestry and are firefighters. Justin works for the Tahoe Hotshots. Niki works for the Humboldt-Toiyabe (Toe-Wabbi) BlackMountain Hotshot crew (sorry, no picture available).


This whole process will be very cool, with the cousins being so close in age.

Its bath time!

So we measured the water, moderated the temperature and stripped the boy, and we were ready for bath time. This was our first bath time, so we celebrated the occasion with a few pictures.














Then (as you'll follow the progression) things turned a bit less light hearted as the demon took over...














And then the full onslaught took place. Too bad I can't add sound to this Blog.














But all's well that ends well. He seemed to legitimately enjoy the after affects of the bath: namely being cuddled, swaddled, and clean.














Hopefully we'll be able to repeat this wonderful process every 2-3 days.

I think this is the position that I'll miss the most as he grows up. Having your little boy sleep on your chest is about the coolest thing in the world. 

Maiden voyage of the stroller

We took our stroller out for a short run to Mervyn's.
Tobias displayed an awesome ability to sleep the entire time, totally disregarding the fact that dad is a horrible pilot and steered the vehicle over/down/off curbs, large cracks, grass, rocks, and small dogs. (just kidding about the dog part)

We made it none the less, and he's still asleep now. What a trooper.

What mom's do best... loving little boys. 

Gave birth a week ago, doesn't she look great! 

Mom and son 

Tobias: WBF super ultra featherweight. 

"Hey, I just woke up. Who's there?" 

Tobias and Great Grandmother 

This was taken exactly prior to loading his diaper. The smile is a warning. 

Here's my weak attempt to get him to smile. When he does it on his own, its totally AWESOME! 

The sepia tone to the picture really makes everyone look jaundiced... he's all better today 

Darned cute alien though. Adorable!