Happy Mother's Day!

A warm Happy Mother's Day wish to all the mothers who are reading these posts.

This is a very exciting day for me, as it's my first Mother's Day. I have learned this much in the past few months: motherhood is the greatest gift. It holds unfathomable challenges, but also inconceivable joy.

Never again will I take my own mother for granted because now I understand what it takes. :-) Sorry, Mom! I love you!

Holy crap!

Normally I like to keep my posts “clean”, figuratively and literally speaking. But today I felt compelled to share this story.

What is up with formula?? Ever since I started giving Jonas just a touch of formula—just to get him used to it; you never know when a situation may demand it at day care—the number of diaper changes needed has slowed down, but more astonishing is what happens when there is a “digestive moment”. Think…. Mt. St. Helen’s! No joke. There is shit everywhere!!! It must be so explosive that the diaper can’t contain it. It pushes right out the front and back, making for a disgusting mess of impressive proportion. We didn’t have any of this prior to giving him formula. And I don’t even give him that much, just a few ounces once a day.

The reason I felt this merited a posting was because the volume is absolutely shocking, and the disgusting factor rates right up there. I just hope this business isn’t going to ruin all of Jonas’ clothes, or worse yet scar him for life. I think we’re ok on the second part. He actually looks relieved and sometimes quite proud of himself. Maybe I’m the one who needs to get over it.

Well, anyway I think it’s time to try a new version, perhaps something that’s easier to digest. And in the meantime I'll just keep soaking his clothes and hoping that they're not all ruined.

April trip to Syracuse

Here are some photos from our recent trip to Syracuse. We went to visit Jonas' grandparents and also to meet his two great-grandmothers for the first time. Unfortunately one great grandmother was not able to see us for health reasons. We'll just have to wait til next time.


Four generations

Joe, Mima, Jonas, Nana (Joe's grandmother)







Jonas and Mima










Mima makes everything better.








Jonas and Toto
















We had a yummy family dinner at Tony's. Lasagna!



















I'm looking at Jonas who's in his chair.






"I'm not having lasagna. I'm just hanging out. I've already had my dinner. I have the same thing every meal. The lack of variety doesn't bother me. I only know this one thing, and I think it's pretty good."




This was amazing. "Mr. Nelson", Tony's and Jim's cat, who by the way is the most reclusive cat I've ever met, was captivated by Jonas. Wherever Jonas was, Mr. Nelson was close by throughout the weekend. I guess Jonas brings out the best in everyone.

Second month progress report

Look at how our little guy has grown! He's a little tanker. Jonas is up to 14 pounds, 25 inches. The first photo is from 1 week old. Compare it to now. He's rapidly outgrowing the papasan chair. He likes his little blue elephant toy, especially its crinkly ears.


Mommy and baby







We've been working on a little hand-eye coordination lately.



This is one of our favorite games, which I call "punch the bunny". :-)







Jonas playing with the "activity gym".






A few notes on the latest...

• He smiles and laughs regularly. This makes EVERYTHING better. The crying and intermittent sleep, getting vomited all over--I can handle anything now that he smiles.
• Jonas did well for his first vaccination. No fever, crankiness, etc. I was sweating it the most, I think. I felt so sick to my stomach when we took him to the appointment. We're spacing out the shots, though, so maybe that has a role to play here.
• His neck is considerably stronger; he looks around a lot now when I hold him up to my shoulder. But on occasion he head butts me and it never fails that he gets me right in the mouth. Ouch!
• He's lost at least half of the hair he was born with. I'm not sure if it'll all fall out. Interesting hair loss pattern. (It's just kind of all over the place.) Sure hope it doesn't come out like this when he's 40.