Photos from John's Christening

I wasn't terribly impressed with how my photos turned out. And some that I wanted (John with my brother and with my Aunt Jean) didn't even occur. Ah well, I did get a bunch that were useable, though I had to work on the lighting for a number of them and even then ... 'nuff said. I'll try harder at Christmas.

Honorable Mention for family portrait. Naomi is doing her turtle pose like she does when she's terrified. There must be some strange man nearby. Adam has removed the tie, the tie of which he had been so proud because he had picked out a new one that was just like Daddy's. His shirt is also untucked. Will it be gym attire once he's a teenager?


Everybody else in this shot just looked silly. So I cropped them out. So there! John is pointing out the jewellery that Auntie Joan was kind enough to lend me. I forgot to bring any other than my wedding band. I like to wear jewellery of sentimental value for special occasions, so my Aunt's jewellery, including earrings that were my grandmother's fit the bill nicely.

One of the best shots on the "roll." nicely done, Ian Hobbs.

John slept through the entire ceremony. despite the heat. despite the water. y'know the water.

My family is so cute!

Another Uncle Ian!

The second of two Honorable Mentions for family portrait. Dion's smirking and ill-positioned. Naomi's not smiling. John's not either (and he had just learned that week!) though we'd excuse him for sleeping. And there's camera jitter. Sadly two honorable mentions is all we'd get. No first prize is awarded.

attempt at large group portraiture. not bad.

2 paternal grandparents? check! 3 grandchildren? - d'oh!

My dad is smiling because that crying baby? - - - not his problem! The joy of being a grandparent. Sometimes I think it's a shame one can't usually skip over parenthood, straight to grandparenthood. But then, I guess that robs you of the joy of seeing your children get their comeuppance.

John is just a model for the gown. I've started composing a post in my mind just for the gown. For when I get around to it. uh oh.

Great Auntie Joan got lots of quality time with John over the extended long weekend.

twofer: Colin and John

Because life needs more parties.

One random day, Adam asked if we could make a cake. And why not? So we made a two layer golden cake. from scratch while Naomi napped. And we wrote Harvey* + Happy Anniversary on the cake. Because, according to Adam, it was Harvey's birthday. And because, according to me, it was my and Dion's 11th anniversary. Once the cake was made, we got out the decorating icing, which is stored with the other party supplies, so before we knew it, we had a party on our hands. With streamers, balloons, party hats, and party plates. Life does need more parties.



*Harvey is a fictional engine and a friend of Thomas.

style

Adam's in Junior Kindergarten!

No kidding! Junior Kindergarten. And by all reports, it's going well. It just so happens that his outfit seems so carefully planned, what with the navy and grey checked shoes tying together the sweater and cords. In fact, he chose it the way he almost always does - by grabbing the item at the top of the pile in the dresser. And that sweater, with the too-short sleeves, needed rolling of the sleeves when I bought it for his birthday. We measured him this week and he's grown two inches since MAY.

Adam and change ... not so much, doesn't usually go over so well. He's been nervous about school for months, much more concerned about school than John's arrival, so we've been trying not to make too big a deal of it. But luckily, this has been a rather small adjustment and he's managed just fine. And, as always, the anticipation was the worst part. Reports coming back from Adam and the teacher (via the daycare staff) have all been positive. Mind you, Adam's reports are brief, which isn't surprising; routinely, I can barely pull out of him what they ate for lunch at daycare. One day he reported that he played in the bin centre and in the dramatic play centre. I also got the names of a few students. C'est tout. I suppose he won't even tell me the names of his teachers once he's in high school.

It's not a big adjustment because our school has only half-day kindergarten and because, before and after school, he's still at the same daycare he's been since he started last year. Moreover, there are several (5?) children from his daycare in his kindergarten class. The daycare staff walk all the kids from the daycare to the school after lunch and walk them back to the daycare after school.

His first day was Wednesday but, since they stagger the start dates, he got to join those whose first day was Tuesday on the to-and-from-school walk, which is a nice transition exercise. Becky was kind enough to come by on Wednesday to watch Naomi and John so that I could join Adam on his first tour of his classroom. I joined the class on the walk over and Adam was so reluctant to go that I was half-dragging him for about the first 5 minutes of the walk. He eventually resigned himself to the inevitable and played along. I had a fleeting moment of butterflies in my stomach; so, I can only imagine how nervous he was. And yet, Adam didn't even seem very tense when we, Elias, and Elias's mom got our tour, while the others played outside. He did ask me to take him home when I was leaving but he quickly accepted that I was not going to. So, he asked that I be waiting at daycare for him when they got back, to which I did agree. Everybody, including Adam, was very no-nonsense about everything, which was perfect. All-in-all a good start to the year! Plus, when Dion got home from work, he had a present for Adam, which was well-received.

technical details: Adam is in a mixed JK/SK afternoon class of 17ish students at our TDSB home school. We're keeping an open mind about French Immersion, which doesn't start until SK and applications aren't until January, because FI is at a different and farther school, I only ever hear good things about our school, and, y'know, Adam and change ... not so much.

Oh yeah?

Actual dialogue

"I said, 'No videos until the living room is tidy.' "

"Okay, we'll wait until you're done tidying."

*eye twitch* [I might have flipped someone the bird while his back was turned.]

Followed by internal monologue

"Fine. The living room just went to the bottom of my list, after the kitchen, bathrooms, closets, laundry room, and storage locker."




Ed note: this got drafted quite a while ago but not posted for some reason.

Weigh Ins

John is growing like a weed! a weed, I tell you. And that's making me really hungry. all the time. all the time, I tell you.

age	WEIGHT			HEIGHT
mos	lb,oz	%ile		in	%ile
0*	7,13	60**
2 d	7,10			20.25	80
8 d	8,6	75
1	11,4	80		22.75	94

* If you notice discrepancies from earlier posts, you might just have too much time on your hands. I recalculated his birth weight, which was measured in grams but incorrectly converted to pounds. And the student who measured his length at the hospital was all thumbs. I'm going with our paed's measurement from 2 days.
** very approx. I'm nixing the CDC tables and using the WHO tables, like our paed, but I haven't found one with much granularity. 7,13 is between the 50th to 75th percentile and I'm eye-balling it to 60th.

What John really looks like.

This photo may not have lots of visual or artistic interest but I can't take my eyes off it because it's just so right.

I often find with portraits that the photo just doesn't look like the subject. not completely. And in the 100s I've taken of John, none of them has matched my mental image of him as completely as this one does. I haven't read enough about photography to explain it in technical terms but I'm guessing it has something to with the combination of
- focal length (49.0mm, 35mm equivalent: 78 mm)
- depth of field
- ambient lighting (diffuse natural lighting late in the afternoon, 1/60 sec, f/5.6)
The only digital altering I did here is cropping and retouching a few teeny tiny blemishes.

Some "candids" and "not-so-candids" of John

A dozen of my favourites from John's 300+ first month portraits in chronological order. Sorry, purists, several have been retouched. Mainly for lighting.

one week old

two weeks old

three weeks old

John is a tummy time star. Good staying power and surprising head control.

See what I mean ...

about the room shredding? Naomi alone managed all this mess (we'd just tidied in the morning) and to fall asleep, wearing Adam's dress shoes, in the time it took me to feed John.

But there's no getting mad at this bundle of cuteness, is there?

fun in the tub! (and bedtime woes!)

See how happy they are? That's 'cuz Dion was out of the house. I'm only half-joking, too.

The regular routine is that Dion starts Naomi's tooth-brushing and bath and Adam goes to brush his teeth and have bath 7 minutes later. Naomi gets dried and moisturised and is sent on her way to drop her laundry in the basket, get a pull-up, and read a story with me in the kids' room. If Adam has a "good bath," he gets 1o minutes of an activity of his choice before being sent on his way to bed.

And if Dion is doing bath, there is a good chance of one meltdown or blow-up in there somewhere. Sometimes Dion's, or even mine if I can't bear the arguing emanating from the bathroom. But if Dion is out, and I do bath, it usually goes swimmingly, so to speak.

On the other hand, once the kids are in their room, things usually go great if I'm out of the house and usually not-so-great if I'm home.

Things have been much less predicatable in the past two months, and unsurprisingly, especially since John was born. Not worse, actually better, just less predictable. In the first week, Adam was extra cooperative and agreeable and we had a week of respite from the great limit-testing war of 2011. Then for a week, he swung the other way. Naomi is hot and cold day-to-day. Many nights, I've had to go lie down with them or sit in their room until they settled enough to fall asleep. We're on Adam's fourth good-bedtime-bribery-chart. He's had 4 good nights out of 5 and now I think he's demonstrating to himself that bedtime isn't so bad after all. And whereas, it is very rare that Naomi struggles at naptime (as in just goes into her room on her own and lies down), today, she absolutely lost it. Lost it, I tell you. I had to rock her to sleep as she struggled for breath through sobs and a quivering chin until 30 seconds later she was fast asleep. I think it was just one bad nap.

If anything, I think things are gradually getting better since the worst, which was about 6 weeks ago. One thing that is helping is that in the past 2 or 3 months, Adam and Naomi are getting along with each other better. Adam seems to have developed enough of a conscience to stop using the tactic of attacking Naomi to force our hand in providing attention/intervention. And luckily, he rarely retalliates when she is aggressive with him. He folds. Tonight Dion despaired, "Maybe hockey really is out for Adam."

Perhaps they're even getting along too much better. They can now play together without much help from us and they're even collaborating together - or should I say conspiring? A few weeks ago, they shredded, shredded!, their bedroom together. Over the course of about 3 nights, they had created such a mess (that we didn't make time to tidy immediately) that I pulled Adam from daycare one afternoon to help me clean it up. We got in there and it was so bad that I didn't even know where to begin for a while. Adam's contribution was somewhat symbolic. I had him taking books and toys back to the living room, pretty much one by one, to keep him busy the whole time I was putting everything else back together. I wish I'd thought to get some snapshots. One upside to the room shredding was that Adam introduced Naomi to the potty he found in their closet (though she has yet to use it correctly) and he also found his new favourite book, a Curious George collection, given to us by Karl for Adam's baby shower.

To those of you unfamiliar with young children: Please do not construe any of this as cause for concern. It's all healthy, developmentally/age-appropriate behaviour that is, as a matter of course, improving. And while they are gaining skill at pushing our buttons, I can usually see the humour in all of it, if not immediately then soon after. Most people would never believe Adam and Naomi are capable of any of this. They are amazingly well-behaved in public. We get tons of compliments. They save this stuff especially for us (thanks!), when they feel safest (thanks, I guess). And, we've been at Poh-Poh and Gung-Gung's house so much lately that they're limit-testing there, too. One bedtime was such a disaster, that, as I had warned I would, I packed them into the car and drove them home, somehow, managing to do so without waking P and G!

Anyone wanna babysit? Muhahahahahahah.

See? It ain't all bad.

Saying Goodbye to the Echo

How sad is it that Adam's one shot of me turned out better than any of the three I took of him?

And how cool is it that there is a reflection of the licence plate on my shirt.
And now, a few words about our dearly departed dark red 2003 4-door manual-transmission Echo. Our first car. It was a lovely little car. It will be missed. It served us so well and I wish we could have kept it. But, alas, it would not hold three car seats and we have only one parking space. It had surprising get-up-and-go and surprisingly abundant cargo space - certainly more cargo space than its successor, our new (to us) Mazda 5, when it's configured to seat 5. It was great on gas, inexpensive to insure, and did not need any repairs in the 4.5 years/35 000 km we used it. Yes, it was overdue for a new battery (causing some inconvenience and concern late in my pregnancy when it wouldn't always hold a charge) and the dealer/wholesaler who bought it will need to do some cosmetic work and repair the radio but otherwise, the Echo was in great shape and had less than 100 000 km on the odometer. By my calculations, the capital cost to us was under $1600/year (not much more than one Metropass subscription!) or just over 20 cents/km. I think that's really good; correct me if I'm wrong. Farewell Echo, I hope your next owner appreciates you!

I got a lot of things done between the time school ended (notably, trading in the Echo) and John was born but one of the things I didn't get to was a photo record of my third-trimester belly, like the ones I posted two years ago. The one above will have to do. It's from 17 hours before John was born, at 38 weeks, 5 days.

Ed Note: I have literally 100's of photos to sort through because I've had lots of photo-taking occasions since June and just got a working computer. Luckily I have a 4 GB flash card for my camera. So, I'll be posting in semi-random order. I'll probably start with the least daunting topics. Patience, please.

John Lew

John Lew
born 1:58 am, Wednesday, July 13, 2011
7 pounds 14 ounces, 20.5 inches

Okay, so the photos I took at the hospital aren't so great. I'll try to get some better ones up next week.

We had a very good labour and delivery. In a nutshell: A contraction woke me up very close to midnight, John was born just before 2 am, and we were home for dinner. We were lucky that my OB (also my friend) was on call and so I got to have her deliver each of the kids.

Or in a little more detail ....

I decided to go in to the hospital right away when I had a second contraction. Susanna zipped over to watch the kids until Poh-Poh and Gung-Gung could arrive (Thanks, Su, P and G!) and we were out our door at 12:30. On the drive over, in Dion's first drive of the new-to-us Mazda 5, we briefly discussed names, since we hadn't exactly pinned one down, but we still didn't come to an agreement. Driving in the middle of the night was easy, of course, but parking was a pain, so to speak.

I thought that the point of having pre-registered was to avoid 100 questions in triage but that didn't seem to work this time. I had a couple of monster contractions in triage and by the time they examined me, I was 100% effaced and 8 cm dilated with baby at station -2. Even I was surprised that I was that close. By the time I got to the labour and delivery room, it was already time to push. The whole thing was a little surreal because at no point did it really sink in that I was so far along. Even as we were delivering the shoulders I was thinking, "Wow, already?" John and I were both in good shape (all things considered), he ate like a champ right from the word go, and we got discharged early.

I knew immediately that his name was going to be John, though I knew Dion wasn't completely sold. I told (yes, told) Dion that he could choose a middle name if he wanted a J.P. or J.J. or something or if he thought that "just" John was too ho-hum or too grown-up for a baby. But I pointed out that Jay is a good nickname for John and that I was perfectly happy to continue the pattern that the boys - he, Adam, and John - have no middle name but that Naomi and I do. And that was all the persuading I needed to do. Dion decided that he'd used all his baby-naming mojo on Naomi, so, John it is. Dion still isn't sure how we'll say John in that boy-are-you-in-trouble tone but adding the last name always helps. I do do that with Adam.

Some readers may not know that my family tree is full of Johns. My brother is John Ian, father John David, and grandfather John Norman. The pattern goes back a few more generations, too. Also on my father's side I have a cousin John. My mother's sisters (twins) are Jean and Joan and I assume that they were named after their maternal grandfather and uncle, both of whom were John Paterson. I'll have to ask.

Adam and Naomi are adjusting remarkably well. Naomi is thoroughly fascinated, sometimes a little too fascinated. Adam was stand-offish at first but he has really warmed up to John. He was really proud to take a copy of the picture of him, Naomi, and John to daycare on Thursday. Thanks again to Poh-Poh and Gung-Gung for making and delivering those prints. They were really useful as a conversation starter, i.e., for short-circuiting what we thought might be a difficult daycare drop-off. Thanks for that idea, Rebecca.

John's timing could hardly have been better. Not only did I get all the way through the school year but I'd even got a couple of weeks to relax and to get a few things done, like buying a car. All through my pregnancy, my own estimate for his arrival had been Friday the 15th (officially he was due on the 22nd but Adam and Naomi were both about a week early) so I "knew" that last weekend was my last weekend and I'm glad we made the best of it. I bought the car on Saturday and on Sunday, we went with the Ho's to Centreville, which was a lovely day. I'd also just reached the point on Monday where I was completely done with being pregnant, although that clearly is not coincidental with going into labour on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. We took delivery of the Mazda on Tuesday afternoon, i.e., just in time. I'd even wondered whether it was really a good idea for me to be driving out to Mississauga by myself because I'd had some spells of being miserably uncomfortable. One of those times was Monday night, when I couldn't sleep, so I got and packed a hospital bag (finally.) Another of those times was Tuesday, just before dinner, when I called Dion at work to tell him that I was not in labour but I still wanted him to come home instead of going to ultimate because I just didn't think I had it in me to get through Adam and Naomi's dinner, bath, and bed by myself.

I feel like I'm forgetting something - Questions?

Check Ups

Adam and Naomi had their annual checkups yesterday. Clean bills of health and growth.

Here are the stats* for Adam at 4 years, 2 months:

. your child is 44 pounds, and that is
. at the 91st percentile for weight.

. your child is 44 inches, and that is
. at the 97th percentile for height.

and for Naomi at 24 months:

. your child is 24 pounds, and that is
. at the 15th percentile for weight.

. your child is 34.5 inches, and that is
. at the 65th percentile for height.

That second percentile doesn't ring true to me, mainly because our paed quoted 75th percentile to me and, I suppose, partly because her narrowness makes her seem so much taller.

*from http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/usefultools/l/bl_kidscn_calc.htm?gender=1&years=4&months=2&cwt=44&chf=3&chi=8&chi_percent=0&submitButtonName=Calculate+Percentiles

Happy Second Birthday, Naomi!

Happy Father's Day, Dion!

In these pics are a card and bracelet by Adam (with a little help from his daycare teachers) and three books:
Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle from Adam,
I Love My Daddy Because ... , from Naomi (I helped choose), and
Nurture Shock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman from me. I can't wait to read it once Dion's done with it. I'm hearing lots of great things.

As a further gift to you, Dion, I won't post any photos of you.

Not bad, Adam.

Adam's first try at wrapping a present by himself. He picked out Lady (a toy train engine) for Naomi's birthday based on one of her favourite Youtube videos. The beads were his idea, too, although he had been hoping for glitter glue. I think all glue at daycare is glitter glue but we've only got the old-fashioned white school glue.

Bath time!

They were indeed having fun. It's actually a treat for them to bathe together, which usually only happens when I'm on bath duty because Dion is out. Otherwise, the routine is bath in series. Usually Dion bathes and I handle story time.

Naomi, almost two years old.

Really. almost two. It really feels like just the other day that she was born. And yet, it's like we've known each other forever. This feeling may be amplified by just how similar she and I are. She is definitely my child. I don't know if "high-spirited" is exactly the phrase because that seems to be tossed around as a euphemism for bratty these days and that's not at all the case. She's mostly good-natured, cooperative, and low-maintenance. But she is like me, in that she can be very exuberant, affectionate, very focussed, and yes, very independent and strong-minded.

Naomi is very capable and resourceful. For example, she carries the step stool around the apartment to extend her reach. She can and will dress herself with little-to-no assistance. The other day, she persuaded me to take her swimming (our building has a roof-top pool and an indoor whirlpool) because, while I wasn't watching, she got herself completely undressed, and into a swim diaper, bathing suit, and crocs. Not that she's completely averse to being helped; she will ask for help when it's necessary. She's pretty intrepid with physical challenges and joining in with other kids. She was as much a participant in Adam and Clare's dance class as they were sometimes and followed directions (copied motions) quite well. On the other hand, she can be cautious with unfamiliar adults.

Naomi will speak up quite clearly to make herself understood for the most part. At least I understand her well; Norman had trouble understanding her when he was babysitting the other night. Her speech has exploded in the past few months, such that she is now consistently speaking in 3-5 word sentences, often even more. Subject-verb-adjective-object is pretty solid. And also the imperative: "Adam, no pushing!" "Adam no touch Naomi, please!" You get the idea.

Hopefully, her verbal skills will ramp up even more in the next little bit because we do have our misunderstandings and frustration and tantrums do ensue. Trying to talk her down can be counter-productive when the root of the frustration is difficulty with communication (receptive or expressive), though often the frustration is simply about not getting her way. Sorry, I know you don't like it, but you do need to either sit in the stroller or put on shoes. You are not crossing Yonge Street in bare feet. Unfortunately for Naomi, her mother is at least as stubborn as she is.

More of Naomi in a snapshot as she is about to turn two:

LIKES and INTERESTS

• swimming
• brightly coloured and patterned clothing
• shoes and boots
• reading. favourites right now: Green Eggs and Ham, Master of the Railway
  
• noodles, rice, cheese, cereal (especially "purple cereal," aka Raisin Bran, in her blue bowl)
• Thomas and Friends
• ladybugs and bears
• bus and subway rides
• singing, esp: ABCD, If You're Happy and You Know It, Itsy Bitsy Spider, London Bridge, Humpty Dumpty, 5 Little Monkeys, Head and Shoulders
  
• Youtube, or "watching" as she calls it. One favourite: Patti Labelle Sings the Alphabet on Sesame Street
• tidying up
• helping cook
• young children, especially Clare and Julia but also strangers
• high fives
• riding in the stroller, half the time

DISLIKES

• riding in the stroller, the other half of the time. She's rarely indifferent to the idea.
• pyjamas and blankets. just a diaper TYVM
• waking up. Beware the waking bear.
• going to bed at night
• soft drinks "bubble drink"
  

INDIFFERENCES

• the toilet. *le sigh*
• the new baby. She really has no clue. She goes with me to my prenatal checkups and sometimes she'll dance to the baby's heartbeat but otherwise nothing is registering, that I can tell.

SKILLS she's pretty much mastered

• saying and identifying each letter of the alphabet
• counting to 12
  
• chunky board puzzles
• fastening clips, like highchair and carseat clips
  

SKILLS she's working on these days

• counting with her fingers
• counting to 20. I think she usually gets to 17ish without mistakes.
• niceties: please and thank you. Reminders are often required. We've cut out "you're welcome" for the time being because she was starting to take our "you're welcome" as a correction of her "thank you."
• putting in a hair clip
• zippers, buttons, snaps and opening clips
  
• singing. She's doing a half-decent job conveying the melody and meter of familiar songs.
• opening doors and the fridge. grrrr.
• saying her own name. It usually comes out "Omi." pretty cute.
• waking the dead. Honest to God, sometimes the shrieking is just so LOUD and protracted.
  

What am I forgetting?