daddy and the governor

(Rev. 6/1) VIDEO now available: go here and click on the Cable Franchise Bill story to play the video. (Note: the video may not be available after a couple of days.)

Zuzu's birthday card to Ty said that she likes the exciting stories he tells, he is funny, and that she is proud of the special things he's done. Now we can add "TV appearance with the governor" to the list.

Ty made the 10 o'clock news. Too bad Zuzu was crying at the time so we couldn't tune in, plus our TV antenna doesn't really work these days anyway, but swarms of faithful friends (okay, one person we know of) saw his appearance. Unfortunately, I couldn't find an online broadcast on KGAN, but Ty is quoted in the online summary of the news story.

Text version: http://www.kgan.com/csArticles/articles/000037/003773.htm

p.s. okay, so ty wasn't really with the governor in the interview. but only three people were interviewed and the governor was one and ty was another one, so that's still exciting, right? and just to clarify if you read it -- ty works for the city's community television service, not public access.

can you hear us?

Baby monitors are pretty handy devices. We set up the base unit of Zuzu’s monitor, which has the mic, in our bedroom for now since that’s where her bassinette is. Right off the bat we discovered, at Ty’s expense, that it picks up all the sounds from our adjacent bathroom too, which immediately led to some practical jokes. We also randomly whisper things into the mic to make the other person laugh somewhere else in the house, especially when late night tired silliness kicks in. Oh, and we do use it to hear Zuzu too.

Last week I was perplexed when Zuzu’s baby monitor didn’t pick up the click-click sound of her swing while she was in our bedroom. It turns out I had forgotten to turn on the base unit, but I was still hearing things through the receiver: a child’s muffled voice, the clang of a pan, footsteps running past the mic. We had picked up interference from another baby monitor in the area.

For about the first five seconds after discovering this, we thought the idea of hearing someone else’s monitor was pretty entertaining, especially since we don’t watch much TV these days… until we were mortified by the realization that if we could hear someone else, someone else could hear us.

Needless to say, we’re grateful for good neighbors, who may have been just as flabbergasted as we were upon learning we were capable of picking up each other’s monitors, but were quite gracious about the whole thing. If they heard our bathroom pranks they were kind enough not to share that with us, although I’d have to say one thing: that would make for some great blog material.

On Saturday Zuzu made her first visit to Ames (also her first long car trip) to see Jenn’s family -- Zuzu’s Ama & Poppa, her aunt, uncle, and cousins. Ama and Poppa hadn’t seen Zuzu since mid-April and the Francos hadn’t seen her since she was six days old, so all week leading up to the trip Ty and I were eager for everyone to see how much she’d changed. She was loved, loved, loved every minute of her visit, and neither cuddles nor cameras were in short supply. It was especially exciting to see her two older cousins' adoration for their new little cousin, particularly since they have ample baby experience with their little sister, and both older girls are quite intuitive when it comes to little ones. They were quick to tend to Zuzu’s needs, hold her, play with her, tell her they love her, and provide a commentary of her actions. Even her youngest cousin, who turned one just a few days after Zuzu’s birth, was very curious about the “Ba! Ba!” (baby) and wanted to touch her when they were close.

smile and the world smiles with you

Today was the greatest afternoon with Zuzu. I just love that girl. We sang and bounced, read, explored different textures, practiced tracking objects, cuddled, watched a family of ground squirrels that apparently live in a hole in our front yard, and enjoyed her latest discovery: her fist.

Lately she has been showing more interest in faces and will often respond with smiles, wiggles or wide eyes to the different expressions Ty & I make for her. Since she was pretty alert and happy this afternoon, I put a mirror in front of her to see what she would do. Soon she began to smile and kick her arms and legs in jubilation for the baby in the mirror – herself. Then I grabbed the camera, aimed it at her, and flipped the screen around so she could see herself. The same response: happy, happy, happy. Today when I sang there was Zuzu, looking back at me, mouth gaping open in a huge grin interspersed with drawn out sounds as if she was trying to sing back.

Above is Zuzu’s reaction to seeing herself on the camera screen.

where do you put the baby?

Recently our fridge started to get bare – really bare – and we were desperate for a trip to the grocery store. Since neither of us had tried grocery shopping with Zuzu alone, we waited for a day when all three of us could go together. However, when we grabbed a cart at the store we were perplexed how to go about securely putting Zuzu’s carseat on the cart.

“Um, there are no directions on this cart” said Ty, puzzled, as we jiggled the upper rack. Everything we tried seemed a little precarious. The longer we stood there, the clearer I thought I recalled an episode of 20/20 warning of shopping carts tipping over, baby and all, if the carrier was installed wrong. I pondered asking someone for help but felt a little silly (before Zuzu, if I’d seen another couple fumbling around trying to get their carrier containing an itty bitty baby hooked on the front of the grocery cart, I might have been guilty of thinking they weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed). So we decided to do what most hungry, fridge-bare people lacking shopping cart/baby carrier instructions would do, and simply put the carrier containing Zuzu directly in the cart.

Except she took up the entire cart.

“There’s got to be someone else in here with a carrier on the shopping cart,” one of us muttered thinking we’d simply look to see how it was done, and we set off down the aisle. Hmm, good idea, except everyone’s cart was baby-free.

“Let’s see -- bread, buns, is there anything else we need?”

We quickly envisioned trying to shove a big sweaty gallon of milk and a carton of eggs in the cart, except the only place left to put food was on top of her. Instead we pushed our cart containing two food items and a baby to the checkout line.

(The next day a friend, who is also a new mom, explained how the carseat securely attaches to the shopping cart and affirmed that she initially was mystified too – fortunately we weren’t alone -- after all, how would you know how to do it unless someone showed you?)

say cheese

Well, well – look who’s smiling. Zuzu has been breaking out her grin for a while now and each day it only seems to get bigger. It makes us melt. We’ve only turned on our TV for one show a week since Zuzu was born…now that she’s smiling we may not ever need to again.

mother's day 2007

this year, i am so blessed to be able to celebrate jenn as a the mother of our beloved daughter. i could go on and on naming the many ways in which i’ve already seen her exhibit the qualities one might expect to read within a number of Hallmark cards (the really expensive ones even!) – sacrifice (of time, energy, and her body), commitment, dedication, tenderness, thoughtfulness, love, and many more – but time does not permit me to do so.

one of the things, however, i’ve been most impressed with as i’ve watched her enter into this new role is how she has been able to truly make it her own. she has found fun and creative ways to transform the daily tasks often associated with mothering a new baby into experiences that are uniquely hers… and zuzu’s. here’s one of my favorite examples: often when breastfeeding, which occurs quite often (to reuse the word), jenn will take the opportunity to chat with zuzu, though, not just by way of simple small talk – “oh, you’re just so cute.” or, “well, aren’t you a hungry girl!?” instead, jenn will use the time to tell her little one a story about the summer vacations her family would take to maine when she was growing up, recount a tale about her time in elementary school and the friends she made there, or fill her in on details about individual family members – from parents and grandparents, to siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins. in a way, it’s like zuzu is new in town and jenn has made it her mission to get her up to speed on all the important things she needs to know. like a new buddy showing her the ropes.

another of my favorites is the way in which jenn continually strives to provide top-notch entertainment for her little girl. singing popular songs from the 70s and 80s has often helped to keep zuzu awake during the daylight hours. other hits have included themesongs from some of our favorite childhood TV shows. “you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have… the facts of life! the facts of life!” the brady bunch, three’s company, and the wonder years are others that have made the list.

i could not have asked for a better partner with whom to parent my child. i love you, jenn, and hope your first mother’s day will remain close to your heart forever!

happy birthday daddy...

...to the best daddy a zuzu could ask for!

love,

zuzu

xoxoxoxo

danger zone

When changing a diaper there’s always a moment when disaster can strike -- when the old diaper is removed and the new diaper is replaced. Good technique is a necessity in order to minimize the opportunity for a diapering debacle. I think we all know what can happen if the diaper changer takes too long to place the fresh diaper under the baby’s bottom or fumbles getting the top of the new diaper up quickly enough. (For those still guessing, the correct answer is a huge mess.)

At our house, we call that moment “the danger zone”. “Uh-oh, we’re in the danger zone!” we’ll bellow, chuckling, while one hand holds Zuzu’s legs in the air and the other swiftly glides the clean diaper beneath her rump. Thankfully, we’ve never been able to reminisce about a danger zone disaster – until now.

Let’s just say the other morning my jaw dropped when, entirely without warning, a missile of sorts shot out from the vicinity of a very quiet, bare-bottomed Zuzu. I recall seeing a blur squirt out in an arc, narrowly missing both the lamp and rocker, traveling at a distance that can be measured in feet (feet, not inches). Unfortunately, the target was Zuzu’s laundry pile, innocent victims in the missile’s path which included a changing cover, changing pad, bib, pair of overalls, pants, two rompers, a sweater, one sock, the dresser and the floor.

It was so incredible I took a picture of the mess and emailed it to Ty at work.

Babies are amazing.

zuzu's room

Welcome to Zuzu’s room, a nest of love and creativity for our little chickadee. Lots of late nights were spent transforming the spare bedroom -- from the paint on the ceiling to new flooring, closet doors and trimwork to her “rock star” wall, plus many things in between. We hope the décor will inspire curiosity and imagination as she begins to explore the world around her!

daddy does my hair

Zuzu has her daddy’s hairline and sports the same dark, spiky hair. We love the way it stands up all over the place. Lately, however, her hair has been looking a little different and it took us a few days to figure out that she is (gasp) temporarily losing some of her hair toward the front of her head. Nonetheless, we still find Zuzu’s “Daddy does my hair” shirt amusing since Ty specifically makes sure her hair is styled like his. (Note: moments before this photo was taken, Ty remarked in an exasperated voice, after examining Zuzu’s hair, that it looked like she had been “extracted from a dumpster”. He promptly fetched a wet comb to fix the apparently sub-par styling job that Jenn did. Stylists note: "These things require high standards! By the way, the dumpster look is actually a new style scheduled to be released in late 2007 and is predicted to greatly surpass the currently popular 'bed-head' look.") :)

zuzu's weekend - 2

Over the weekend Zuzu went to her first wedding. She had oodles of fun. (Actually, she slept the whole time). Ty & I were thrilled to be together as our little family unit, and Zuzu’s contented state was an added bonus.

zuzu's weekend - 1

Zuzu has been a good nursling since birth, relishing her lip-smacking meals from mom and sometimes snacking all day. But I will admit that every once in a while, when I’m nursing for the umpteenth time that day and so tired that I can’t think of any more songs to sing to Zuzu, or my water glass is just out of reach, or the phone that I can’t answer rings yet again, or the pile of pending laundry seems to be staring me down, I wish for one thing: that Ty could lactate. Not all the time, but maybe just on occasion -- sort of like a chef’s special for Zuzu.

On Saturday I got my wish (sort of). Ty gave Zuzu her first bottle of expressed milk. About half of it traveled in her mouth, over her tongue, down her chin and onto her “i love mommy” bib, but considering it was the first time in her life that she’d ever encountered a bottle, she (and Ty) did pretty well.

at home with zuzu

I am loving this time at home with Zuzu. Even though some days are easier than others, I feel so honored to be constantly with her during these early days of her life. I don’t want to miss a second of it. Ty’s the same way too, reluctantly leaving for work in the morning and racing up the steps in the evenings, eager to give her kisses and hugs and sing to her and change diapers. And, of course, to snuggle with her.

Ty came down with the flu yesterday and stayed downstairs last night, so I’ve had an extended period of time alone with Zuzu. Ty misses holding her right now (and I look forward to him holding her, too). Here are some shots of Zuzu from today, spit up and all.

happy may day, one month birthday

Today is Zuzu’s first May Day. Last evening our doorbell rang and upon opening it, we discovered a lovely petunia on our front step with a note sending neighborly May Day wishes to the Coleman family. Next to a smiley face was written “nice baby”. Today perched upon the front step was a cup with May Day goodies that said “Zuzu” on it. What wonderful surprises (and it’s been just as much fun to watch the neighborhood kids dart across lawns to deliver their May Day greetings).

Today is also Zuzu’s one month birthday. We’re celebrating it by -- well, let’s see, um -- nursing, diaper changes, yawns, cries, nursing, nursing and why yes, nursing (hopefully there are a couple of naps somewhere in there too). It’s hard to believe a whole month has gone by already. She’s accomplished and experienced quite a bit in just a month’s time: she’s already had over 230 diaper changes in her lifetime (yes, we’ve kept track); she can hold her head up much more these days; she’s grown and gained weight just like she should; she’s napped in her crib twice (yesterday and today); she’s only had one really big “accident” in the baby tub (I won’t go into detail – after all, we’re trying to keep it clean on her blog); she’s smiled more times than we can count; she’s felt the softness of a crabapple blossom brush against her cheek; and she’s managed to wriggle onto her side in her sleep three times.

As I type this she is snuggled in the crook of my left arm trying to eat her wrist as she snoozes..