My friend Philip and his wife had their little girl a good time before we had Gaspar, and one of the pieces of advice he gave me was two simple words: bouncy chair. He said this over the loud clacking of a bouncy chair his daughter was happily bouncing in. “It’s a life saver, trust me.”

Fast forward to a 4-month old Gaspar. He’s not quite crawling just yet, but he’s very very close. So close, in fact, that it fills him with ultimate baby-rage that he cannot crawl yet. Unless it’s bed time, we can’t put him down on his back for even a second before he’s flipped over and is back at trying to master the elusive ancient art.

Thankfully Polly ordered this last week, and it’s been amazing. This video is his first go in it, and as you can see, he’s having a pretty good time.

We (and by we, I mean Gaspar, momma, and me) all love this thing. In case you’re curious or looking to get one for yourself or a friend, we got the Fisher-Price Rainforest Jumperoo from Amazon. Super sturdy and easy to set up – we highly recommend it!

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Guys, can you believe it- Gaspar is 4 months old!  It’s scary how quickly time passes.  Baby G is movin’ and shakin’ like never before.  He’s trying his very, very hardest to crawl, and while he’s still a ways away from crawling he can scoot backwards and in circles pretty darn well.  Before you know it we’ll be scrubbing crayon marks off the walls and locking up the cat box.

Recently we got together with the other parents in our prenatal group and had a baby brunch.   It was SO cool because although we’ve gotten together several times since the babies were born, this was the first time that they were able to interact with each other.  This mostly involved them staring at each other, smiling, and trying to eat each other’s hands.  The cutest moment?  Taking pictures of 4  four-month-olds on my couch.

Two of the babies were absent, which means that lovely little Clara had a trio of suitors vying for her attention!  From left to right are Clara, Beckett, Gaspar, and Oskar.  LOVE!

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We’ve heard from some parents that the first year flies by, but so far, time’s gone by not too slowly, not too quickly, but just right. It feels like the little guy has been here forever, and it wasn’t until I looked a calendar that I realized three months is nothing!

We haven’t been reading much on babies or parenting – just sort of experiencing it. There’s a lot of learning, and adapting, and changing with the baby as he starts wanting to crawl and stand. He’s started with this new thing that has to be some throwback to our caveman days: he’ll attack my knuckle with his mouth, and pull his head away like he’s trying to pull meat off of a zebra. It’s kind of incredible, and I hope he gets over before teeth come.

He’s also loving sitting up, but even more – standing! We’ll hold his hands, and he’ll push himself upright and standing and be so absolutely happy with himself. He’s still probably a good long ways away from walking, but he is starting to stare at his feet, like “Hey friends! You look important!”.

We also want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas! We went down to our local favorite tree farm and cut down a really neat Corkbark Fir, which we’ll post pictures of later, but for now, a few shots from Gaspar’s very first Christmas!

Gaspar the Red-nosed Reindeer

Gaspar and daddy with a riveting tale of penguin mystery and intrigue

Merry Christmas, everyone!

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Baby G is now 2 months old and I’m still having a hard time deciding who he looks like.  He has a cameleon-like set of features which look exactly like Eric one minute, and then like my dad or my grandmother the next.  In the end he just looks like Gaspar, but it’s strange to get used to the fact that this tiny blend of me and Eric is really a whole new person.  No matter who he looks like, he’s still awesome and adorable as heck.

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Sometimes I seriously can’t believe Gaspar is only 7 weeks old, or 6 weeks old, or however old he is at that moment.  It amazes me to watch him acquire new skills before my very eyes, and I just can’t believe that only weeks ago he was still a cuddle bug all curled up in my tummy.  His best skill is still snuggling, but he’s added some awesome new tricks and talents to his repertoire.  For example, he has mastered the smile!  I managed to capture the tail end of one such smile, but I’m still trying to get the whole giant action- it’s tricky and so elusive!

Other awesome things that my baby is doing now- grabbing and reaching with his hands!  That would so not impress me if I didn’t have a baby, but holy smokes is it cool to watch my baby do it!  I’ve been watching him getting more and more interested in his bouncy chair toys over the last week (he used to not even see them).  I’ve seen him progress from staring at the toucan and elephant to batting aimlessly, to trying to touch the toucan but smacking the elephant, to reaching out and grabbing the toy he was looking at.  It’s kind of mesmerizing to watch him develop one moment at a time.  Other things that we’ve enjoyed this week- dancing and listening to music, going mushroom hunting, putting our hands in our mouths, and getting way better at sleeping the night through.  Yep, my kid is awesome as heck.

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Polly and I are trying to get more into the swing of videotaping to capture those fleeting memories, so here’s a little test video of us trying to wake little Gaspar!

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This Friday will be Gaspar’s 4 week birthday, which is just so crazy to me.  It feels like he’s been here since forever and almost from the moment he emerged I couldn’t imagine life without him.  So what has our first four weeks been like? AMAZING!

Totally GaGa!
 

Eric has been home this whole time, so we’ve been able to spend every waking moment being in love with our precious babe.  This includes gazing at him drunkenly, cooing every time he opens his eyes, and laughing our asses off when he farts and poops (with perfect comedic timing, by the way- do not show this kid a striped sock because it will blow his mind and make him poop like crazy!).  So far we’ve gone on plenty of walks around the neighborhood and even on a trek to the forest!  Our next big outing will be mushroom hunting next weekend, when Tia Feli comes for a visit.

G-Rex

Gaspar investigates fruit!

When we first met with Gaspar’s pediatrician we said that he didn’t cry much but that we expected he’d start crying a whole lot at some point.  Dr. Hoffman said that babies are born with dispositions, and that Gaspar might just be really calm.  Well, he still doesn’t cry too much, but what he does do is way more interesting; he grunts and growls and waves his arms like a little dinosaur.  It’s unclear if this actually signifies anything because he does it for all occasions.  It’s kind of the cutest thing ever.  Don’t get me wrong, there are times when this is just not appropriate.  Like at 3 am when I’m trying to breastfeed him and he’s thrashing around and roaring like a baby G-rex.  Or when I’m forced to breastfeed in public and the thin nursing cover can’t quite hide the fact that I may be nursing a gremlin rather than a human baby.    But even then it’s still really damn cute.  Eric and I have been trying to capture this on video, but so far we’ve been unsuccessful.

Living with sleep deprivation.

A very happy sleeper

Much as you’d expect, we’re also struggling with sleep.  Gaspar is pretty great at sleeping, but of course his tummy is still tiny so he needs to wake up for food every few hours.  This means that on a good night I wake up at 12 am, 3 am, and 6 am, and sleep-deprivedly nurse him for thirty or forty minutes at a time.  Eric and I try to nap during the day, to some success.  During the day life is great, our baby is awesome, and we love each other.  In the dim blur of the middle of the night, however, we growl at each other, throw things in the dark, and say bad words.  Sigh- I think I might have punched at the air once or twice.  It’s rough.

Pee, poop, spit up.

Dancing Baby! Dancing Baby!

Babies are really good at these things, and Gaspar is no exception.  My favorite pee moment has to be during a bath when suddenly this fountain of pee shot out of the water while baby G wiggled his toes and innocently blinked his eyes at us.  And poops?  They are all awesome!  Gaspar (usually while nursing) will stop drinking, make a very furrowed brow, and errupt into his diapers with loud, wet farts.  Sorry if that’s TMI, but it’s too awesome not to share.  And the poop itself?  Some people find it incredibly gross, but whether it’s Gaspar’s poop, or just that we’re not grossed out by baby poop, it’s really not gross.  It smells like milk!  His spit up, on the other hand, is the bane of my existence.  I fear that I will never be able to wear a spit-free shirt ever again.  It smells like sour milk and it stains.  This, above all things, makes me feel like a sloppy new mom in sweatpants.  I cannot stress enough how much I appreciate burp cloths right now.

The next few weeks . . .

So many things are changing now that baby G is almost a month old!  Eric goes back to work next week, meaning that I will be home alone with a baby all day.  This is a little intimidating.  We’re also going to work on moving Gaspar out of our bed and into his bassinet at night.  It’s been really convenient to feed him in the middle of the night when he sleeps on a pillow between us, but I’m also really looking forward to letting him learn to sleep through his sleep cycles and that’s pretty tough to do when you want to snuggle your baby every time he gurgles!  All in all this month has been wonderful and amazing and a huge, huge learning experience.  I think Eric and I are both sad that four weeks are already gone, but we’re also looking forward to every single minute to come!

What mysteries does the future hold...?

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Did you know that the San Fernando Valley was “bedroom and vegetable garden to Los Angeles” in 1946? That’s what I learned looking through an issue of Look Magazine we found underneath the corners of our living room floors.

I know what you’re thinking… “Wait, underneath the living room floors?”

Before little Gaspar came, Polly was nesting. Nesting hardcore. Nesting like, “Let’s get rid of this disgusting carpet!” nesting, which made sense, because the carpet was nasty. We didn’t want to bring a brand new baby home, new to the world, to such a gross carpet. So, a plan to replace the old carpet with nice Pergo was put into motion, with plenty of time before  baby was due!

Our living room was going to go from something like this (actual picture):

To something like this (dramatic interpretation):

But things didn’t quite go according to plan.

The old linoleum. One question: 'Why?'

Did we mention our house is a little over 100 years old? 100 years is a long time – longer than most people’s lifetimes – which is why when we began to peel back the layers of carpeting, we found roughly 100 years worth of home improvement shenanigans. The carpet has been laid over linoleum (an almost camouflage-type pattern which was covering the entire first floor of the house), which was on top of plywood, which sat on top of the original old-growth Douglas Fir flooring from so far back in the day, it was nailed in with square nails. Didn’t know they made square nails? Apparently that’s the shape they came in when they were made by hand.

Holes cut in the floor for no damn good reason (ok fine, it was probably for heating at some point).

Unfortunately, the shenaninagns didn’t stop there. A wall had been built, or moved at some point, and had no support underneath, so a portion of the floor was sunken. Another portion on the floor was up too high, supported underneath by pillars too tall, and another portion of the floor was… well, let’s just say it’s been a pretty great lesson in old houses and building techniques from years gone by.

I’ll be kind and sum up a few of the things we’ve learned about our house here:

• It was moved here from somewhere else at some point in the past.
• It was originally a lot smaller, and had been built on to to add things like: a kitchen, a bathroom.
• Pretty much everything in the house is made of wood, including the walls, composed of tongue-and-groove Douglas Fir, just like the floors.
• People who have lived here in the past had a lot of gusto and gumption, even if they did lack things like common sense and building know-how.

Before the Pergo could be laid down, the floor needed to be leveled. We called around and spoke with a few contractors, and found one who was able to decipher the thoughts, actions, and sins of builders gone by. We still had at least 2 weeks before Piper Gaspar was due, plenty of time for me to do a bunch of demo and prep work for them to come in and make things right. The day after I shook hands with the contractor, Little Gaspar came.

Our little bundle of joy put us a little bit behind schedule, and unfortunately as I write this, Polly and me and little Gaspar and, sometimes, Jojo, Petina, Canelo, and Carson, are holed up in almost 2 rooms on the second floor of the house. The first floor looks a little something like this:

I’m actually very thankful things worked out the way they did – I’d hate to see a 9 months pregnant Polly teetering across these balancing beams. It’s bad (and funny) enough to watch the puppies try to navigate them. For Carson, on the other hand, it’s become her own personal cat fun house, crawling under flooring here, coming out under walls there. She’s even found an open hole to the outside world, her own impromptu cat door.

Hopefully all this will be sorted out soon, and we’ll look back from a sofa on our dark, warm-colored flooring and laugh and laugh and laugh. Even in spite of all this though, we’re still having a fantastic time as new parents. I can’t really explain it – I guess Polly and I have been through enough together, and work well enough together, that we’re able to adapt and adjust. But, we’re going to be really, really happy when it’s all said and done.

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BUT WAIT- you’re thinking- Wasn’t Polly going to have a girl, and wasn’t her name going to be Piper?  Well, yes, friends, that’s what we thought, too!   On Friday, September 21st at 10:46 am we brought Gaspar Fernando Arenson out of the womb and into the world.  He came out covered in vernix, crying, and absolutely,  positively perfect.   After 31 hours of labor including 4 hours pushing, I was so in awe that my baby was here that the shock of his gender was just a fantastic exclamation mark at the end of my birth story.

We’re still settling into our new sleep schedules (which is why I accidentally deleted the very beautiful, long, detailed birth story that I had originally planned to post), but I plan on posting the extended version of Gaspar’s birth very soon.  In the meantime, here is Gaspar on his 1 week birthday- he’s already so grown up!

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It’s always a treat to have Eric home an extra day.  This morning we woke up with very little to do and the weather was so great that we decided to go out to walk our favorite trail for maybe the last time before Piper arrives.  The pups had a great time, I got some Vitamin D and some exercise, and we produced one great picture of my belly.  This is probably my favorite picture of me ever.  And when Piper is here we’ll go back to the same spot and instead of a belly I’ll get to hold her in my arms for a picture.  Pretty great Labor Day so far!

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