Merry Christmas!

We'll be traveling on Christmas day (and staying in a hotel room by the airport tonight), so Brady opened his present last night.  Confused by all the commotion:

Excited by this present stuff:

No longer able to chew the wrapping paper:

Looking at his new blocks:

And the cat, feeling left out as usual:

We'll just have to get him a huge pillow.

As previously posted, the pediatrician was slightly worried that Brady's huge head could be an indication of hydrocephalus. This diagnosis was made in the absence of the Eaton family hat size data. An ultrasound has since confirmed that everything is OK and shown what Jess and I already knew: our son's head is full of brains.

Naturally, I requested the ultrasound images, so we could show everyone what Brady's giant melon looks like on the inside. Unfortunately, the hospital messed up and gave me a bunch of blank images. In place of these, here are two photos from my phone.

Six-Month Pediatrician Appointment... Oh, Good Grief.

Six-month check-up today. Brady is happy and healthy... and the pediatrician asked me if big heads run in the family. (Chuck, I'm looking at you.) Six-month stats:

• Weight: 16 pounds, 12 ounces, 50th percentile
• Height: 27 inches, 75th percentile
• Head circumference: 18 inches, 93rd percentile

She asked us to make an ultrasound appointment just to make sure nothing's wrong with HIS MASSIVE HEAD. I'm not too concerned, but the appointment's on Saturday. Hopefully it will result in a fun story or two.

Banana-loving Baby Brady's (Half) Birthday

Brady's six months old today!

We started playing with "solid" foods a few weeks ago. He loves bananas and sweet potatoes and is okay with oatmeal, although I don't think rice cereal agrees with him. (I'm not surprised; the stuff seems nasty.) Here he is enjoying some banana this afternoon.

Oh, and yesterday he got his first tooth... soon he'll be ready for the Snickers bars! (No, not really.)

At least Brady could enjoy the football season...

... Even though his parents are just glad that it's over.  

Only a matter of time!

Until he's mobile, that is.  Everyone tells me that we'll both be much happier as soon as he can get around, and I'm sure that's the case.  For now, look at him go!

The Sleeping Baby Collection

A surprising number of my pictures lately have been while Brady's asleep. A small sampling:

He's a little charmer...

Not really worth it until about 25 seconds in, but I always appreciate an opportunity to see him entertaining himself!

Test Video

Not a great video, but I just remembered that our camera has a video feature, and I wanted to try it out...

Happy Halloween, Kiddo.

Brady celebrated Halloween a little early this year at a mommy-baby brunch.  He's never going to forgive me for this:

Earl on Baby Duty

Able to handle baby, kitty, and cell phone at one time, and leap tall buildings in a single bound...

Also, one more baby picture, because I just can't resist. We got this bouncy chair thing (stationary baby walker? I'm still learning the lingo) as a hand-me-down (thanks to the Gattikers), and I was really hoping that Brady wouldn't like it; the thing is ugly. Of course, he's thrilled with it.

I'm on a roll with the updates now...

Our kid is a giant!  Four-month pediatrician appointment stats:

Height:  25 inches, 70th percentile

Weight:  15 pounds 4.7 ounces, 74th percentile

Head size:  44 (centimeters, I assume), 94th percentile

It's like an orange on a toothpick!

Brady's First Hike

I've been wanting to take the kiddo hiking for ages now, but something always seems to come up - bad weather, travel, Michigan football (ugh).  Finally, Friday afternoon we went up to Hyde State Park, about halfway up the mountain between town and the ski basin, and took a short walk in the woods.  

We didn't get any great views of the Aspens (probably ended up on the wrong trail), but I had a good time and so did Brady.  I'm already planning a few lower-elevation trips before the snow hits.

Jess and Brady:

Earl and lots of trees: 

Nothing like a lost hard drive to make you think about updating your blog...

These technical difficulties, plus my stubbornness about Earl posting more, have caused an unacceptable delay. I'll write more soon, I promise, but for now here are a few recent pictures. Brady's four months old today - insane!

Definitely his father's son.

In all fairness, I knew that Brady was overtired yesterday evening.  We were running errands when a storm came up during the afternoon, and all the excitement made him too cranky to settle down for an afternoon nap.  I was half-hoping that this would make him fall asleep at 7:00 or so, giving Earl and I the evening to watch the Olympics and then, ideally, letting him wake up for his first middle-of-the-night feeding just before I went to bed.  Those are typical baby hours, right?  

Instead, the last thing he wanted to do was sleep, especially if it meant sitting in one place.  After letting my salad wilt and my dinner get cold, nursing him until we both cried, walking and walking and walking, and going a bit crazy from the quiet calm of the baby room, I asked Earl to take a shift and went to sleep around 11:00.

I woke up at 6:30, the first time I've slept that long at a stretch since about halfway through my pregnancy.  Amazed that Brady slept through the night - progress!  (And yes, I did reach into the bassinet and put a hand on him, just to make sure he was still breathing.)

It turns out I got excited too soon.  The two of them were up until 2:30, and Earl was just too nice to wake me up again.  I'm thankful, but I also think it serves him right; these are his late-night genes, and he needs to deal with them.

Stuff Brady's Parents Like: Special Triple Feature

1.  The Moby Wrap

Carrying a baby, especially one that still has questionable neck control, is hard.  I can't just throw him on my hip and go, and the over-the-shoulder method is only successful for short distances.  Now that I'm watching these things, I've noticed that many people with kids Brady's age hold them in front, hugging the baby to their chest while they walk, and while this is very cute, it's also pretty uncomfortable.

While we were traveling, we were walking a lot; there was no way to just stay in one place, and I really didn't want to.  I ended up using this every day.  It's one long piece of stretchy cotton fabric (t-shirt material) that you tie around you and use as a carrier.  The wrapping process takes a bit of getting used to, but after a few tries I was a pro.  Brady loves sleeping and nursing in it, and it also lets him look around and get a good view of everything while we're walking.  Its best use was around mealtimes - we'd walk and look around until he dozed off, then I could wear him at a restaurant while we ate out without disturbing anyone or taking up a ton of room with a stroller.  

A lot of people seem to swear by the Baby Bjorn-style backpack carriers, and we have one of those, too (actually, it's an Ergo), but I ended up not using it at all on this trip.  The wrap was much more comfortable, and because it could be crammed in the diaper bag, it was easier to carry.  Plus, I had tons of women on the street asking me about it, and it made me feel cool.

2. Camera Phones

Ok, please, no comments about how camera phones are so six years ago, and how Earl and I are the only people on the planet that don't have them.  I finally got one two days ago, and I'm hooked.  There will be lots of camera-phone pix of Brady coming, especially since it means that now I'm always carrying a camera.  (Yes, I was usually carrying a camera before, but I was getting frustrated with the additional few ounces that it took in the diaper bag; I'm working on packing efficiently here.)

Here's my current phone wallpaper:

3. Sports Bras

An odd choice, I know, but you'd be amazed at how well these can be used to carry cell phones, cash, and other small items.  It was the only way I could bring both the phone and Brady over to the computer, and I figured that made it valuable enough to include in this post.

Whew!

We're finally done with all of our summer travel.  Thanks so much to everyone who helped with places to stay, meals, errands, baby-holding, and everything else.  If we didn't have so much help, wow, I can't imagine how tired and stressed I'd be by now.

A few pictures, thanks to my mom and dad (since Earl and I were busy or in most of them)...

Great-grandma Eaton with Brady:

Holly at Chuck and Georgette's wedding, who saved the day by helping with baby duty during the ceremony:

Grandma, post-wedding:

Earl and Brady, already tired early in the trip:

A nice pic of us at Jenny and Marty's wedding - aren't they cute?

Then, the baptism.  Brady screaming:

And Brady screaming:

And Brady screaming:

A mess of pictures from our trip...

More later!

Brady with Daddy on the train:

Brady with Mommy on the train:

The view from the train:

Brady ready for a walk around Chicago:

Brady in some of his new Michigan clothing:

Brady with Grandpa:

Brady with his Uncle Dave, post-wedding (he partied too hard the night before):

Stuff Brady's Parents Like: Amtrak

I hope we like it, anyway, since we're heading out today to start our grand tour of the Midwest.  We'll see a lot of you soon!

(And for those of you we're not seeing, expect some train pictures...)

Tummy Time!

Poor guy.  You can tell that the cat is really enjoying his misery...

Stuff Brady's Parents Like: Super-Thin Swaddling Blankets

It's summer, and summer in Santa Fe is hot.  (Not as hot as most of the southwest, but hot nonetheless.)  Our next-door neighbors, the source of much parenting-stuff advice, recommended these muslin baby blankets for a summer baby.  

There's only one thing they're not good for, and that's what I think of as the standard baby-blanket purpose: giving the baby something to sit on, roll around on, and look at while he plays.  (We have lots of those, and they'll probably be the subject of a different blog post.)  But they're good for just about everything else.  Number one is swaddling, and Earl already touted all of the benefits of that.  They're also a great nursing cover-up, and burp cloth, and stroller shade, and arm rest for me while I'm nursing, and arm rest for Brady for "tummy time"... and they're cute.  

Yeah, I use these a lot.  Here we are at Santa Fe's 4th of July "Pancakes on the Plaza," where we used one for almost all of the purposes listed above... Cute, don't you think?

The Many Faces of Brady Lawrence

This is another soon-to-be regular feature, expected to get more interesting as Brady learns better muscle control and starts staying awake more often.  

Brady tolerating a long walk.  I enjoyed it, even if he didn't.

Brady smirking.  Occasionally he even smiles, but that's much harder to catch on film.

Brady staring at a (non-moving) ceiling fan.  Still ceiling fans and the corners of painted rooms - better than any toy at this stage.

Brady deciding whether he's going to let his diaper leak all over the quilt from Grandma.  (Yes, he is... sorry, Mom.)

Stuff Brady's Parents Like: The Sleep Sheep Innards

This will hopefully be a regular feature that lists which of the baby products (among the seeming billions that are manufactured) that we actually like.

This is the sleep sheep.

I could take or leave the actual sheep. What's important is the thing inside the sleep sheep.

This is the thing that generates noise and it's great.

This guy says that one of the ways to calm an upset newborn is with shushing. While I'm normally inclined to be skeptical about stuff like that (and people named after fish), it does seem to work (as do his other 4 S's). The problem is that shushing for long periods of time is hard. Enter the sleep sheep innards. This thing produces four different white noise types and can do it with pretty good volume. I'm partial to the ocean noise, but the rain is nice also (the heart beat and whale sounds are sort of disturbing). It also has a timer to turn itself off after 23 or 45 minutes. It's great to have in your pocket while walking the baby around. I highly recommend the inside of the sleep sheep.

A few more cute pictures, thanks to my mom.

He's grown up a lot in a few days, hasn't he?

Naked Baby Photos

Not really, but they are photos.

Mom and Baby

Brady's First Close-Up

Taking a Break

Hiding From the Paparazzi

A Hand

NSFW

Me and My Son (Poorly Lit and Tired)

Me and My Son (Better Lit and Still Tired)