6 Weeks: Fussmaster General

From his very first day, August had a nickname. He was sitting in his little bassinet, I looked at him and said, "monkey monkey moon!" Poor kid's been saddled with the nickname Monkey Moon ever since. It's Monkey Moon this and Moon Monkey that, and "oh, yes, Monkies Moon all enjoy a nice nap & nibble".

Other nicknames August has "enjoyed" thus far:

• Growler Bear
• Moon Bear
  
• August Bear
• Augs Monster
• Fuss Monster
• Fussmaster General
• The Little Emperor [i.e. Augustus]

Basically, any combination of (or riff on) the words monkey, moon, or bear—or any of the above—can be used to form a handy, instant nickname.

• Moon Bear
• Moon Pie
• Monkey Bear
• Growl Monster
• etc.

There will be hundreds more little nicknames in the coming years. I promise not to enumerate them all. Just know that they exist, and that they are sometimes cute.

Update

I forgot:

• Boob Muncher
• Young Sir
• Monkey Pot Pie
  

6 Weeks: Photo Session

Another set of Mary photos from Tuesday. Click for larger images:

6 Weeks: Smile Again

Photo by Mary, from Monday night.



I guess he looks more amused than smiling, but this was my favorite of the set.

He's nice and smiley in this one, it's just a bit blurry.

6 Weeks: Continuing Changes

When Mary was still only about 3 months pregnant we went for an appointment at the obstetrician and happened to bump into our upstairs neighbors in the waiting room... they too were having a baby. Their baby was due about a month after ours.

It's been fun to compare notes with them, talk about building logistics, etc. We had them over for dinner when both women were in the pregnancy phase. Now both kids have been born, and we were invited up for dinner at their place last night, so August had his first-ever dinner party.

Our neighbors' baby, a beautiful little girl named Neve, with thick dark hair, is 4 weeks younger than August, so she's two weeks old. She was smaller than August - weighs less now than August ever has since he was born. But seeing her brought-back memories of Augusts' first two weeks, and gave us an object reminder of how much he's changed and grown in his six weeks.

Note the difference between a picture at about two weeks, and another, from today:




Maybe these changes seem more exaggerated to us, due to our level of attention - we're definitely tuned in to this kid. But trust me, he has developed!

His appearance isn't all that's changed. We get daily smiling sessions, and sometimes (we're pretty sure!) he tries to imitate the mouth movements he sees when we talk to him. It looks/sounds likes he's experimenting with his voice, sort an opening salvo on speech development.

Fun times!

5 Weeks: Name Game - English Rock Star Edition

One of the criteria we considered when we were choosing a name was: could our kid use this name to front a rock band? Not sure we found that with August (probably he can get away with it), but it forces one to ask oneself: what are rocks star names?

Here, then, is my list of great English rock star names:

• Nigel
• Roger
  
• Mick
  
• Keith
  
• Sid/Syd
• Nick

If I were inventing a fictional six-piece English rock group, these would be their names. Any other suggestions?

5 Weeks: Say Cheese

We get about two or three smile sessions per day now. Here's a good one. Click for gigantic version.

5 Weeks: Longevity

I was thinking this afternoon about how, with good luck and good medicine, August might well live to see the year 2100. That this could reasonably happen sort of blows my mind. If this were the case, the span of time from my birth to his death would be 135 years... that's a far cry from what people might have expected 100 years ago. If I had been in 1865, rather than 1965, my life expectancy might have been less than 45 years, and I'd likely have had kids in my early-to-mid twenties, rather than my early forties. So if I had a child at age 25 and lived to 45, the span of time from my birth to the end of a child's life would be 65 years: less than half the number we're contemplating today.

Is it any wonder there seems to be a widening generation gap when we're waiting longer than ever to have kids, and the rate of societal and technological change is more rapid than ever? Of course, that assumes societal change is more rapid now than it was in, say, the 60's and 70's. That "times are a-changin'" ever more rapidly seems to be a generally accepted notion these days, but hasn't it always been? More importantly, is it true? I don't think August's world will be as alien to me as mine was to my dad's.

On a completely unrelated note, to temper this ambling, ponderous post, here's a photo of me holding a goo baby in the Bjorn. This is a strategy we've been using to calm him down... walking around the apartment this way. More on why this has become necessary in a future post.