July 26, 2005

Well, we had out checkup yesterday morning…. and besides being super tired and then having to wait with H through his nap time for an hour before our doc came in to see us, it went well. Hayes is 28 inches tall, 19 pounds, 4 onces with a head circumfrence of 45mm. That translates to 75%, 90%, 90% respectively on the percentile scale for his age.

For us, it translates into a kid who suddenly like to be on his stomach. So he can try to crawl. He’s got all the peices. The arms and legs moving in motion. The stomach off the ground. He just can’t seem to put them together. And that’s a good thing for us. All we need is him up a crawling, cuz, you know, he doesn’t wreak enough havoc on the place just sitting there. We knew this was going to come, but it seems to be happening much sooner than we expected.

And the bigger question is: where did he get this overachieving nature? Certainly not from his dad who famously told his mom that he didn’t need to try harder because a “B is a good grade.” (Clearly, I was not getting B’s or anything close to that in spelling.) And his mom, well, let’s just say she wasn’t always the most motivated school girl.

So, what gives? I guess we’ll find out soon enough. But if things keep progressing I may start calling Hayes by a different H name. Hercules. Here’s hoping it doesn’t go that far!

July 22, 2005

Wow, 5 month felt like 5 minutes ago. Hayes is big. And getting bigger. 19 Pounds when we went in last Friday, cause we thought H was sick. Turns out, though he may have been sick, or teething or something, the doc said he was healthy. And big. And gregarious.

She also wondered if he was having stranger anxiety. She said it was early, but because he was so interested in everything, it wouldn’t be surprising. And guess what? He has. For about a month now. And it happened again tonight as we made our bi-weekly trip to The Dish for dinner.

Yup, the manager makes Hayes cry. It’s like clock work, if you’ll forgive the cliche. She looks at him. His bottom lip starts to quiver. He looks at us. We smile at him, make funny noises and try desperately to distract him, and he launches into hysterics.

I feel awful! I mean, how do you explain it? “Yah, he, uh, just got up from a nap.” Only works the first 10 times, and with her, we’re past that. Now she says, which incidently she’s said all along, “I have this effect on babies.” But, man, I feel so bad. Has anyone else had this happen? How do you explain, or more appropriately, lie politely, about it? I’m looking for ideas!

July 19, 2005

I think H’s morning wake-up schedule would even out if not for the earthquake upstairs. Not that it happens everymorning, but when it does, the first thing we hear is the earthquake, then H. Sometimes H is crying, others, babbling, but whatever it is, there’s one thing for certain… he’s awake.

Funny thing is, the earthquake is caused by dogs. Not just any dogs either, french bulldogs. And they are small dogs.

Ok, let me explain. For reasons unknown to us, the dogs go on tears through the bottom floor of the condo above our sleeping area. For those of you who haven’t visited our place (which, I’m guessing, is most of you) our condo is set up to have two different upstairs neighbors. Above our kithcn and living area is a quiet single woman. Above our bedroom is a quiet couple… and their loud dogs.

I just can’t figure out how two twenty pound dogs can make it sound like a train is rumbling through the condo. I don’t get it. I know they’ve got hardwood floors up there, but it’s ridiculous. I keep waiting for the “choo-choo” and all I get is a “Whaaaaa!” from the monitor.

July 12, 2005

The way people saw it on our vacation you’d think HBomb and the Quiznos annoying talking baby were seperated at birth. At least the entire state of Vermont seems to think that way.

Anyway, we had an ok vacation. Both Jen and I got sick, Jen worse than me, and H seemed to bypass it all together. So that wasn’t so good. And it rained. And some woman asked us about our bumbo chair and then proceeded to argue with us about how her 4-month-old grandaughter was bigger than Hayes. Of course, the grandaughter was right there and was a good 5 pounds and several inched smaller than Hayes. I mean, who really cares? Oh well.

The highlight of the vacation was seeing my cousin Rachel, her husband Gary and their daughter Isabel. Isabel is 5 months older than Hayes and they had a grand old time together. Their play basically consisted of Isabel trying to grab Hayes’ head while Hayes tried to get any of Isabel’s loose clothing or unattended limbs in his mouth. My aunt (pronounced AWnt) took pictures and swears she’ll send em, so I’ll post em when I get em.

Fortunately, this is just a practice vacation for our 1 week stint in Vermont in three weeks. Hopefully we’ll all be healthy then. And it will be sunny. And cool. Sunny and cool. That would be great.

July 3, 2005

We’re off to take our first family vacation. Going to Vermont! We’ll be back on July 11th, so look for more posts then!

E