First solid food

Little Lana Lou has started eating big people food! Well, sort of at least.  We gave her some overcooked Japanese rice mixed with breast milk and she had a couple of nibbles before losing interest.  She seems to like mushy bananas a bit more.  Not that I would be super excited about either of those options.

Nadia's going to the New Kids on the Block concert with her high school friend Judy tonight.  The men - Tim and I - are going to baby sit.  Hey, I didn't say that pizza and beer wouldn't be involved!

Squirm'n Vermin on the way

Exciting stuff!!  My dad and I are eeking closer to launching the bug.  I just put up our shell website a couple of days ago, and you can visit it at www.squirmnvermin.com.

We're nearing the final stages to test production in local markets.  If only it were easier to manufacture, but in that case it would be easier to knock off too!

More to come.

"Activity Mat"

This was the first time Lana used her "activity" mat. As you can see it was a very active test drive.

Big Leaps forward

Lana and I have been busy but I really need to make more of an effort to record her 'firsts' on our blog before I forget! Lana has discovered her hands, her feet, and other objects recently so now it's a bit easier to have her entertain herself rolling around on the floor. I do what I'm doing and I look over to find her examining her toes. Crazy thing, toes. It helps when she's in "toe examination mode" to put her in some pants so that she can yank her legs to her face.

What else, she went to a redwood forest recently and was enamored with all the trees. Lana LOVES trees. She loves their trunks, their branches, their leaves. She loves them. If she's having a rough spot I go outside and let her look at a tree.

Yesterday we practiced 'dipping' which is a Waterbabies term for going under water. It's really pretty simple although it might sound scary. You blow in the baby's face and this makes them hold their breath (and in Lana's case, close her eyes). Then you can put them under water. Lana thinks the entire procedure is silly and upon surfacing will look at me like I'm a goofball, as if to say, "Now why on earth did you want me to do that!?"

Lana is just a sweetie. Very easy-going and happy. She's not much of a crier unless the situation calls for it, like for example she bonks her head or I bonk her head. She'll also cry if she's really over-tired which I take more responsibility for than blame on her because I need to be better about putting her down for naps. The other thing that can sometimes cause frustration is a poopy diaper, she thinks they're grody and I do too so I can understand a bit of whining on that account!

Well I've let Lana amuse herself now for close to half an hour which I think for a 4 month old is quite a feat so I'm going to go play with her now.

Over the hill and through the woods to grandmothers house we go!!!

Lana and I (Nadia) decided to skip out of Cupertino and go to Grandma's house this last week (June 30th-July 3rd) because Neil was out of town on business and because Nadia needed a change of scenery. So off we went on Monday morning to Grandma and Grandpa Ahlsten's house. Lana had a great time at her grandparent's house hanging out with Grandma Sarah singing nursery rhymes and chatting. Lana was giggling and smiling more than I've ever seen her giggle and smile. I think those two are going to get along just fine! Grandpa was there too and he gave Lana the BEST head scratch, little Lana was quite the aficionado of the head scratch since birth but this one made her eyes roll back in her head and sigh deeply which gave the rest of us a good laugh. I (Nadia) also got a chance to connect with a good friend Rose Koch briefly while Grandma kindly watched little Lana Lou for a few hours. We headed back this Thursday and found that Lana's new stroller had been delivered while we were away! Neil came back on July 4th, his birthday, and we just had a quiet family birthday party in the back yard.

Adventures of 5 weeks old Lana

Well, Lana went to her first doctor's appointment last Tuesday (June 4). She was officially measured at 23 1/2 inches at her appointment which puts her in the 99th percentile for height-to-age. She's gaining weight just fine; she was 9 lbs 13 oz and eating like a champ, also pooing like a champ, although they don't measure that.

Lana's hair continues to grow and grow and she now like to 'twiddle' it while she's eating or sucking on her pacifier. We broke down and got one because she wanted to suck ALL THE TIME she is a sucking fiend. She tries to put her whole hand in her mouth and her little hands were getting all pruney and dry so we figured, fine fine fine we'll get her a pacifier.

She continues to work on calisthenics with Neil. She can now lift her head up pretty well when on her tummy and actually holds it up for a good smattering of seconds before it topples over when she's being burped. Bear in mind, that we wack her on the back when we're burping her so holding your head up through that is no small feat!

She's working on hand control. She manages to hold her dear pacifier in her mouth about as often as she knocks it out. She also has a tendency of getting excited and whapping herself in the face and then looking at whoever was holding her as if to say, "HOW RUDE!" Obviously not quite connecting that SHE hit herself in the face.

Neil is going to do his first stint of baby sitting tonight while I (Nadia) go off to gospel choir practice. He is armed with a pacifier (and backups), diapers, bottles of breast milk in the fridge and of course his arms to hug and lips to kiss her for when she just needs some cuddles and his ever-expanding songlist for those moments when she looks even the slightest bit sad. Words modified on-demand in a sort of, Dr. Seuss meets Eminem style. :)

She loves her daddy.

The Adventures of Lana - week one

Whoever said that family life is dull? Not with Lana and Nadia around!

Nadia had a great quote today when we were driving up to a Mother's Day rendez-vous in Tiburon at Todd's place with the grandparents. Her milk has really come in, leading to a serious case of engorgement. As a matter of fact, we even had to stop at a grocery store so I could run inside and buy her a head of crispy green leaf cabbage to abate the swelling. I guess it's some sort of an old wives tale that cabbage leaves help reduce swollen breasts. Anyhow, just before I go running in, Nadia says, "Now I know why the cows were mooing so loud at five in the morning when I took my milking class! My gosh this hurts!"

It's amazing how much Lana is already starting to develop. She's moving her hands and fingers in totally new ways every day, even folding her hands once or twice. She seems to understand and recognize things now, like when we change her diaper she relaxes and even smiles while two or three days ago she got upset, and I think it's because she knows that we're going to clean her up and that her bum will feel all dry and refreshed and there's no reason to be upset. But my gosh, during her fist two or three days she just cried and whaled and got all puffy red faced and upset when we tried to change her, and I'm guessing in my own little way of imputing meaning into all of her various actions - and Nadia is much worse at doing that ALL the time than I am - but I'm thinking that Lana just had no idea at first what was going on with the bum wiping and leg lifting but now she GETS IT just a couple of days later. It's amazing.

Oh, and in her first week she has already gone to the mall and acted much more calm and mature than girls who are 1000 times her age (literally). I have also put her on a strict regimen of calisthenics every morning, noon and night and I think she's already starting to hold her head up, but you have to be careful because all of the sudden it will just flop forward real fast and I think her chin would hit her stomach if you didn't catch her (we're not trying to find out).

Lana also has a tendency to eat and eat, burp a bit, eat and eat and then in the blink of an eye she'll pass out and it's over for the next two hours (unless she poops herself).

Good times.

Lana's born!

Nadia and I are soooo excited! Lana was born at 2:57am on Tuesday, May 6th at a whopping 8 pounds 3 oz and 21.5 inches long. She's beautiful, bouncy and in great spirits! Both of the new grandmothers were there with us for the birth, and my father and brother were close by in the waiting room with a box of cigars (which have yet to be smoked). Click here for photos of the delivery.

Nadia was a complete star throughout the process. The labor was over 30 hours, and she has already bounced right back.

Lana has a super fun personality. She's not much of a crier, and her favorite activities so far (besides sleeping) include guzzling breast milk every two hours or so, spitting up on dad's hand when she's burped, and inventing her own form of a cooing, wheezing newborn baby blabber talk.

She's definitely the feisty one, when she's not getting her way though. For such a small little thing she has a super siren setting which she turns on when things do NOT go as she expects. Her most unfavorite thing so far is "the Big Blow Out". We think she doesn't like the feel of food going through her intestines on the way out because she'll start screaming a full minute before anything has "arrived"!

While all three of us have gotten about the same amount of sleep (minimal) we're in great spirits and truly amazed and blessed to have each other.

Almanor weekend with the Chamberlands

We just got back from an amazing trip with Neil's cousin Shireen and her family. Neil's great uncle, Ed, let us use his roomy 4 bedroom cabin alongside the (frozen) lake shore. We got to enjoy some small adventures snowshoeing, sledding, and cooking up everything from gooey brownies and cookies to French toast and cornmeal pancakes.

One lesson learned - baked goods turn out different at 4500'. The half cooked, gooey mound of cookie dough that we scraped into a bowl was yummy, but certainly not presented in a classic style.

Another highlight was playing the board game ImaginIf and learning that Shireen thinks she's most like a Frisbee (among flying objects), that Nadia self ascribes to being a Kola Bear, and that we pretty much all agreed that if my mother were to be a beverage it would be chocolate liquor (classy and fun for entertaining).

You can see the photos at our Flickr account.

Good stuff

We have a couple great things to share.

First (how could it not be?) we're expecting a girl in May! What could be bigger than that? Nadia is 5+ months pregnant and doing very, very well. We're anxiously awaiting and storing up on extra sleep. I think we've registered for half of the Babies R Us store, and have automated feeds from Craigslist for all the new baby postings. Nadia's mother and grandmother have already knitted baby blankets from scratch, and Nadia's planning to hand sew diapers for this poor, spoiled child. The ultra sound technician at Kaiser thinks this girls second toe is bigger than her first, and that's about all we know!

This past November, we also moved back to the Bay Area. We're in Cupertino in an absolutely sweet four bedroom house with a spa out back (thanks Nicole and Taft!). We're close to tons of old friends, there are some beautiful parks nearby, and it's not too far from my very cool new job. Oh, and we have a whole harvest of grapefruit, lemons and oranges falling in our front and back yard right now - give us a holler if you're interested in a bag or two!

And Google! Woohoo! My new job has been a fun, challenging, non-corporate yet bottom line oriented place. I get to work with an amazing group of people and tackle all sorts of new questions and issues.

Life could be a whole lot worse.