Crazy Dancing Foam Pigs

Today Rachel had lunch with her coworkers and they brought gifts for the kids. Ellis got a nerf football (which he is currently snuggling while he goes to sleep). Rachel explained to him what real footballs are made from and when I got home he promptly showed me his football and declared, "Daddy I think it is made of foam pigs!"

Also this week, while riding in the car:

Rachel: Ellis quit kicking my seat.

Ellis: I am dancing.

Rachel: Do you have to dance like that?

Ellis: I am a loud singer, so I have to be a crazy dancer!

Gigant-o-baby!

Skating on Sunday

This weekend we went skating and Ellis finally let me let go of the milk crates. After this video he actually got a little more adventurous. We probably should have him wear a helmet next time.

1 month old!

Maddox was one month old on Saturday and is growing like crazy. At his 1 month check-up he was a whopping 12 pounds- that's 3 pounds in a month, folks. The doctor asked, "So, everything going okay with breast feeding? Oh, uh 12 pounds? I guess it's going well." He's still measuring 22 inches, but the doctor seemed to think that was likely a difference in measuring technique. I certainly hope so, since it doesn't seem quite right to increase mass by 30% and length not at all.

It's pretty amazing how quickly he's rounding out and looking less like a newborn. He seems to be much bigger and stronger than I remember Ellis being at this stage. Trey speculates he's trying to bulk up so he's ready to follow/ fight with Ellis as soon as possible. But I don't really need the kid contingent to be any stronger than it already is around here.

Maddox's personality remains pretty mellow, including lots of quiet alert time throughout the day. And Ellis is still completely in love with him. He's constantly asking "Is the baby awake?" "How 'bout the baby? Is he fine?" "Oooh, can I kiss the baby?"

We're lucky enough to still have Aunt Catherine here, taking care of all of us. And we even manged to get her in a picture:

post-partum

It's been a long few weeks since Maddox arrived, but at the same time it's hard to believe we're coming up on a month already! This time after the baby comes is so weirdly intense and at the same time almost nothing happens everyday. I am just barely starting to feel like my energy is coming back. I lost a liter of blood during the birth, which is apparently kind of a lot. Then I somehow managed to develop mastitis, despite nearly constantly nursing Maddox to help clear his jaundice. Unfair. This came complete with fever and chills that made we want to crawl directly into the fireplace. And this was topped off with raging post-partum hormones. Seriously, what exactly might be the evolutionary advantage of having new mothers go totally nuts?

Fortunately, Maddox has had a very good disposition so far and Catherine flew in much earlier than we'd planned. Thank goodness- she's saved me from changing many diapers, allowed me to get an afternoon nap almost everyday and kept Ellis occupied with activities other than destroying the house. We've also benefited from Mom's hard work stocking the freezer with dinners. Lots to be thankful for.

So, 1 month pediatrician appointment on Friday and then I hope to post some new stats on Maddox, pictures and perhaps even manage to write down his birth story.

One of each

Maddox continues to grow, eat and largely be called Blues. At his midwife appointment last week, his weight was 11 pounds. Calculating that out he is averaging better than an ounce and a half a day. He looks bigger too and continues to get stronger. He is getting a little fussier too.

Scout agreed to be my test subject while I was adjusting the camera settings. I hadn't posted a picture of her in a long time so I thought I would put it up. She and Ellis are starting to get along better. If you look close in person, there is some gray fur in the darker parts of her mask. She likes living out in the hills. I think she spent most of the day outside. Driving in from the store today there were two grouse drumming in the road so we know they are here and at least trying to mate.

We often have picnic dinner on the floor and as you might expect, Ellis often spills something. I thought an extra sturdy TV table type thing might help with this and get him to hang out on the floor more, so I built this over the last few weekends. I don't care to ever build anything out of spruce again, at least not anything for inside the house. When I was deciding what size his table needed to be, he told me it had to hold his putey and assert (dessert to you). I wish all of my customers could figure out what they want so well.

Ellis is actually an enthusiastic customer. When I told him it was done enough to go inside, he put it in the mud room immediately and continued to help me run the planer (I wish I had a picture of that, it was really cute), but when he went inside, he drug the table all of the way upstairs to show Rachel. The handle seems to make it possible for him to carry it around even though it doesn't fold. Folding might have been nice, but my intuition against it was correct: it has already been a landing pad after jumping from the couch and a launch pad for further flight.

It must be Montessori, because this kid loves to oil wood. We were prepping some maple heartwood to make him a little roman bridge toy, and he wanted to make something out of a scrap, so I suggested he put some linseed oil on the wood to see how it changes the color and grain. He insisted on oiling the entire 7 foot strip and then made me take a picture of "what a beautiful job I did." Since we had been on a walk today and he was finally showing interest, we switched gears and started on matching walking sticks for both of us using the maple. He had already helped with the planer and then got to help with cutting the stick down to his size and he got to try paring some of the wood away with a chisel. Since I don't have that many tools, much of these will be hand-shaped with chisels, rasps and sanding.