Back in the saddle

Christina mentioned to me that its been a long time since I've actually had time to write one of these posts, so I'm back. She claims that a large quantity of people really miss my sardonic wit and amusing "facts" about Tobias. I'm not too sure, but I'll humor her regardless.
I've had a hard time with my poison oak (notice big red spots on my arm), since I wasn't able to hold little T for so long. You can see how happy I am here. I swear, the smile is truly authentic!

Tobias has the Gangsta Style head cocked back lookin' away posin' with the bling bling fingers in the air! Playa!

And this picture is just me making a funny face. Its hard to tell the difference, I'm such a looker? No?















This one is priceless! Little boy, in little boy clothing, on little boy blanket, on the little boy floor, with his little boy hair and of course the little boy smile.

So Tobias has started to laugh now. This is his smilaugh (Official pronounciation: Smee-Laf, similar to pilaf, only without the rice), since he can't really do them by themselves.

He also laughs, in what could most similarly be described as a "Chipmonk/woodpecker/antelope/zebra" style. It starts out sort of like a cough that didn't happen, and then turns into an undulating chortle, with self induced hiccup sounds, and he closes out with a long moaning noise. He's having a blast of course, and Christina and I pretty much double over whenever he does it. What an awesome little baby.

... we return to our scene as Grandma J is recovering after having been attacked by the vicious beast, unable to hold off the onslaught on our brave and valiant hero, she's tricked into introducing our story's arch nemesis:
Canis familiaris Nikitas (CfN) to our Hero, the world famous Kung Fu Master, known only as "T".

CfN began the attack with her usual opening, but our Hero strikes up his Power pose, feigning weakness, but only to lure the vicious dark one in his clutches. Oh, the horror of what the black dog is capable of. Our hero is so brave!

The fighting was intense. There was fur, slobber, yelping, it was amazing. The whole time, the Amazing T was protecting his Grandmother from the CfN. Oh, what a powerful fight our Kung Fu master put up.

If you'll notice the lightning fast transition from Power Pose, into Dead Bug attack mode. The CfN has no idea what's about to happen.

As we've seen so many times before, our Hero is about to finish the fight...


And our final scene. The attack fist of fury! The cocked leg of vengence and of course his camoflaged starfish pants (can't forget those).

Victory once more!

Tobias is Two Months Old!!

I can't believe he's Two months old already! We just took him to the doctor for his checkup and we found out that he has gained 5 pouns in the last month. So he now weighs a wopping 12 pounds 7 ounces! and he's a little over 22 inches long. He's in the 30th percentile for height and the 75th percentile for weight, so he's quite stocky :)










We just took a trip to Grandma Proulx's house over the weekend and Justin's sister, Niki, and her beautiful little girl, Emily, came to visit too. Emily was very curious about Tobias and wanted very badly to pull off his hands and feet, but we restrained her :) Justin had poison oak really bad, if you're wondering about his bandages.









This is just a great picture of Grandma Proulx with Tobias.

For the people in the Flood zones...

So the tradegdy that occurred in the south this week has really been quite devastating. Most especially because there are so few vehicles that can make the trek down and bring in fresh water, fresh food and badly needed medical supplies.

There is one organization that is making the trip daily though, and I think they're worthy of supporting. Feed the Children.org is a great organization is making multiple trips a day down there with needed supplies. To see how they allocate their money, check here.

Father and son chillin on the couch.












I was able to catch Tobias smiling on camera over the weekend. He smiles a lot, but it's not often I'm able to photograph it. usually, he gets all serious as soon as I bring out the camera.

here's our little boy in his favorite sumo wrestler pose- legs squatted, hands on his knees, and wearing nothing but a diaper. Look at that belly!














Part of the fun of being a mom is getting to play with all the cute outfits, but I don't think Tobias enjoys it as much as I do :)





















Some more adorable sleeping pictures...It's amazing how such a little being can take up so much space in the bed.

















This is Tobias checking out his new Boppy toy. He wasn't quite sure what to think of it. In this picture he actually looks terrified of it, but he really wasn't.










It's been a while since we've posted, Tobias is growing at a rapid pace and is still as cute as ever. Here's him and Grandma Jensen in coordinating outfits. Tobias wanted me to inform everyone he had nothing to do with the coordinating outfits.














Here's a picture of him laying on my lap during our Friday night Bible study. He's very intrested as you can see...

A little character goes a long way

Hey Grandma... look how much I love my puppy neck protectors! Thank you so much! I'm so interested in them, I can turn my head completely around, isn't that neat!

I'm kissing "Spot" right now, meanwhile "Spot" is looking on jealously from behind my head.

(Hey, I'm only 6 weeks old, gimme a break, I couldn't think of another name.)



This is one of those pictures that you can't really say much about. The sheer photogenic nature of Tobias is just astounding.

Take notice at the subtle way he allows the audience to peek up his tiny nostrils, showing all how clean his nasal pipes are.

Also, please draw your attention to the eyelid-less wonder. I'm not sure how or why he had his eyes that open, but its a bit freaky.

And of course the multi colored pacifier. Tobias is a big sucker (by that I mean one who likes to suck, not the Phineas T. Barnum variety)

You can take a baby to the BBQ, but you can't make him interested.

Apparently, he doesn't enjoy dad searing flesh on the ol' gas grill. He was much more interested in the curtains... go figure.








So we told him to sit there and try to look comfortable, relaxed, and just basically exemplify 'chillin' on the couch. I guess we're pushing too hard as parents.

We ask for cool, and he gives us the Tobias Taxedermy Special.

He looks like a troubled stuffed animal. Or some odd child's doll. The kind that inspires years of therapy and vicious nightmares.

I think we'll help him pose next time...

Tobias is 6 weeks old!!!

Tobias is six weeks old today, I can't believe how fast he's growing! Make sure you compare these recent pictures to the ones of him when he was first born. It's amazing how fast he grows.
This is a picture of Tobias wearing the shoulder strap cushions with puppy dogs on them that Grandma Proulx sent for him. She was concerned about his tender little neck getting rubbed by the straps so she made sure to remedy that. He seems to like them so far.





Here's a couple pictues of dad and the big boy chillin' and watching a movie.

A day in the life...

Everyday when I get home Tobias is larger. He's gaining weight, growing longer, and generally looking like someone else's baby ("Hey, he's not mine. My baby is tiny and small and... tiny.") Today I came home and there's a 6'5" middle linebacker sitting in our son's baby carrier, wearing his little clothes. Somehow, Tobias gained 258 pounds since I left this morning. I'd been looking forward to spending some quality time with him, but I guess we'll have to take up Sumo in order to play around now...

(Christina says that I exaggerate, but I think that she's completely wrong, I've never Ever EVER done that!)

Look at the size of that boy!

The really frightening thing is that some women give birth to babies that are this size. YIKES!


Latest Story: So today, Christina told me, little T learned all about his Thumb. He figured out that when he's sad and needs something to keep him happy, conveniently attached to the swinging appendage that happens to strike him in the face every so often is this really cool sucking tool that fits nicely into his mouth. The other discovery was that the complete lack of motor control and the general manner in which his arms flail around means that about the time he was really getting a solid suction on his thumb, some spazming muscle would cause his arm to pull away and yank his pacifier with it. By his resulting cry, he made it known that he was very displeased with this latest action and wanted the responsibile party to right the wrong that had been done to him. Christina told me that acted all miffed and looked at her as though to say, "why'd you do that?!?!"

Eventually he'd find that sucking device again and start the cycle again, only to be shocked back into reality by the uncontrollable nature of his own arm.
I guess he's now officially part of Humanity. Being controlled by situations that are beyond his understanding. Fighting against the uncontrollable nature of the universe and getting upset at circumstances that only after getting smacked in the face do we really understand how it all works. Thankfully our God is much larger than all of this.

This picture isn't really pertaining to the story. Christina was so shocked that he was actually sucking on his own thumb that she wasn't able to get the picture. The past few times he's tried his thumb, he's turned his face away and acted as if he just ate a bug. So this was pretty cool.

Being a HUGE Starwars fan (Thank you very much Mr. Lucas), I had to throw this one in. He's got the Obi Wan Kenobi look down. I especially like the Dr. Evil pinky in the air.

Here's one more, this one really shows some personality. It' s kind of a "Ladies Man" type of smirk. Almost as if he's saying "Hay, what's yo name?" :)

This one actually looks more like a growl, but it really is a smile!

This is Christina signing on for the second time! Today we hit a huge milestone. I caught Tobias' first real smile session on camera! It pretty much melted my heart . It was so adorable.

Something strange is happening

... our little boy is growing up. He's changing right before our eyes. All of it good of course. Its as though we're looking at a different little boy sometimes.
This is the little boy we brought home from the hospital. Tiny, skinny, swimming in his diapers. He was completely awesome at this point, oh so long ago. And now five weeks later, he's also totally awesome, but in new and completely unique ways. Fatherhood is without a doubt the coolest experience I've ever gone through.

I can't figure out why there are dads out there who don't want more of this? Completely amazes me that I get to spend all of this time with this little person who changes so much and so quickly. I pray that I never tire of this.

Here's our little "T" now at 5 weeks. He's looking more and more perfect everyday. His messy flowing hair, his cute little chubby cheeks, and his overall personality are starting to really form and help Christina and I fathom the miracle of the little life we're sharing ours with.

Such an amazing experience.

We're all really glad that we can share it with all of you as well.



Here are a few more pictures from the last week.
This is a perfect shot of his very prevalent double chin and huge cheeks. What a little cutie.












And here he is getting some of that famous "Beauty Sleep" in mom and dad's bed. He hasn't quite figured out that he has a pacified attached to his hand (his thumb), so he just puts his hand up to his mouth and sucks on the back of it. Its all very endearing.

Nikita Security Alert!!!!
Hull Breech detected...
Alien life form infultration
My Word, WHAT IS THAT THING!

The day that wouldn't end...

OR: How to lose your sanity to a 4 week old.

So I'll do my best to print an unbiased recap of the events leading up to Christina's breakdown.
It all started at 7am... Christina awoke for her regular feeding and prepared to give Tobias all the love and attention his little body could handle. It seemed like a good plan...

He spots her, as if to say, "Oh boy, there's my mommy, a walking vending machine of scrumptous delites!" But today, it was more along the lines of "Here's a helpless victim, I will destroy her soul!"

I know, you're thinking that he's so innocent, how could he possibly be contemplating so much evil. [Hey, I'm just the reporter, I'm not making this up]

Throughout his life this look has always meant business: take notice of the huge eyes, the pensive mouth, and the focused forehead. This look is usually closely followed by [insert favorite Igor character voice here] "I'm here to do your bidding, master." Christina and I are such pansies.

He also adopted the artform of baby hypnotism:
"Look into my eye. You're getting sleepy, very sleepy, and weak willed, very weak willed."

WARNING: DO NOT STARE AT PHOTO UNSUPERVISED FOR LONGER THAN 5 SECONDS. The power is present even in this medium.

Loss of all bodily control including drooling and oohing and ahhing is likely to follow, with unscheduled trips to see and pick Tobias up. Loss of memory, visual accuity, sense of purpose and direction are also quite common.

Subjects have been known to spend hours, neck bent over at an unnatural angle, staring at Tobias, losing all will to live and focused only on pleasing him.

Oh... how upsetting... his latest victim! Poor Eric.


Come on people, you're falling into his clutches... that is exactly what he wants you to do. He's trying to take over the world (shameless Pinky and the Brain soundbite insert)

Its so... so... cap...ti...vate.....
(lest I lose my place in the story, I've decided to type with my eyes closed tigsfhtly sdhut)




Today was different though. Today he meant business, and he brought along his big guns.

The Fist of Fury! He means business.

So young yet so violent.

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.