Milestones (Part 1)

This weekend we took Wiggle on his inaugural trip to IKEA. It took more than the usual amount of planning to pull it off, as his carseat, which is located in the middle of the backseat, greatly limits the available space in the car to pack the inevitable mountain of stuff we bring home.
One of the necessary items that prompted the trip was a crib for Wiggle. As of late he has been kicking his Moses basket so much, I fear his tipping it over, plus he just seems unhappy in it, so we decided it was time for a crib.
While checking out assorted baby stuff on the IKEA website before the trip, I came across a folding changing table. Up until now we have been changing Wiggle on the floor, which is great because you can walk away to throw away the diaper, wash your hands, or whatever without worrying he will hurt himself, but our knees were starting to rebel, and it was taking longer and longer to get up and down to change him. Initially, I avoided a changing table because I didn't want yet another piece of baby-only furniture in the room, so a table that can fold up seemed like a great solution. Once we saw it, I was even more convinced that it was the right way to go. Now we have to move him before we wash our hands and such, but he seems to like it, and my knees are already thanking me. Plus the cover zips off for washing, which is awesome.We also acquired our first toy that requires assembly. Wiggle had been seeming a little bored as of late, and we were starting to feel a little ridiculous getting in his face and shaking various toys all of the time in order to keep his attention, so some kind of activity center was in order. We had looked at babies 'r' us, but like so many of the things in that store, their options were prohibitively expensive, huge, ugly, and appear to be created by the makers of Adderall. A toy can apparently never have to many colors, oversized plastic parts, flashing lights, annoying noises, and even smells. Yes, I said smells. We saw a whole line of toys that advertised their ability to stimulate a baby's sense of smell, in addition to sight, sound, and touch. As one might imagine, these toys (all made by Lamaze) smell like various bad air fresheners, but are supposed to smell innocuously like vanilla and lavender. Needless to say, even though some of the toys looked pretty cool (I especially liked Octotunes), we did not buy any.
Digression over, we found a good-looking, reasonably priced, plenty stimulating, but not over-stimulating, toy at IKEA.
Here is C setting it up (notice that Wiggle is overseeing the work).
And here Wiggle is enjoying the finished product.

2 Months

Today Wiggle is two months old!

Yesterday we went to the new fancy Northside pediatrician (fancy compared to the community clinic we had been going to). What a difference a mere seven miles makes!
We were seen promptly by a very nice young doctor whom I liked very much. More importantly Wiggle appeared to like her and flashed her some big smiles. Everything went very well, and Wiggle was amazingly well-behaved, even for his shots. He cried after he was pricked, but once I picked him up again, he settled right down. The experience was so nice, I am not even dreading the next appointment.

A Look Into the Thoughts of Wiggle

Bathtime -
Me - "Wiggle, what do you think about bath time?"
Wiggle - "Hmmm, I need to think about that for a minute."
"Wow, this is a tough one."
"Oh yeah, I remember now, I love taking baths.""I also love to bounce in my bouncer."

Our Little Monster

Even when he's angry, he sure is cute!


The outfit was part of a lovely care package that Aunt K, Uncle B, and Cousin Z sent. Everything was very cute (you can see the fashionable diaper bag in one of the pictures below), but we had to break out the dinosaur fleece post-haste for a walk around the midway. Don't let the above distressed expressions fool you, he was all smiles about five minutes later.

Love at First Stroll

We broke out the Maclaren a few days ago when the weather turned warm so that we could take a walk around the Midway. After a few initial hiccups getting it open (it just needed to loosen up), we got it on the open sidewalk. I really love it. It wheels easily, it is easy to carry (although I may try to make/sew/fashion a shoulder strap for it), and it looks great. Since the first warm day, I have taken it to the doctor's office in the rain, for a walk with the grandparents, to our friend K's apartment for afternoon tea, and today Wiggle and I went to campus to meet C.
It turned out to be colder out than we thought so I had to cover the front to protect Wiggle from the wind.

The Visitation

This weekend C's parents came to see Wiggle for the first time. Although the visit was brief, Grandma R managed to get a lot of good holding time in. Wiggle seemed to enjoy his time with his Grandma immensely.
Grandpa M did less holding, but I was told that he entertained Wiggle with some hits from the 50's, including "Splish Splash." I think it is obvious from the picture below that Wiggle was thoroughly entranced by the experience.
The second night of the visit, we took Wiggle out with us to dinner at Francesca's for his second outing to a restaurant. The first time we went out to eat it was with Uncle B, and Wiggle slept through a leisurely lunch. This time he was up(set) before the appetizers arrived at the table. We took turns holding him and walking him around an empty banquet room, although Grandma R shouldered the bulk of the work. Luckily, the restaurant was crowded enough that you couldn't really hear his crying. In fact both our waiter and the manager were charmed by the little guy, so I have to say it was a good trip.

Overall, I would say the visit was a great success, and we all look forward to the next one.

The Debut

I have finally decided to join the masses and start a blog. The prompting for this change of heart - Wiggle's arrival. This will be a space to document Wiggle's various firsts and our inevitable elations and frustrations as we muddle through the "new parent" thing.