Family
Heartfelt updates about family milestones and everyday moments. From taking Mazie to college and annual visits to the Renaissance Festival to Swedish‑pancake breakfasts and VR outings with the kids, this category celebrates togetherness.
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We found John Sumner at the art fair. We totally missed him the first day and we have a giclee of his, Moe, that we got in his gallery in Sonoma, CA.
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We were struck again this year by the photography of Edward Holland. We came really close in previous years to getting one of his items. He’s got an amazing eye and produces these striking, vivid photos.
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I was struck by the work of Liang Wei from Washington. He had a number of pieces that I really liked. Tammy wasn’t quite as taken with him as I. Hope to see more from him.
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We really like the work of Jay Long as well. The art is striking. Unfortunately for us it was all framed in oak, and we really, really don’t like oak.
Two Weddings in Two Days
This is wedding weekend for us! Tammy’s sister Michelle is getting married tonight and we are both in the wedding. Tammy is a bridesmaid and I’m an usher. Luckily my mother is coming to help with Mazie duty but it’s going to be an interesting adventure timing breastfeeding and other parent duties with all the wedding stuff going on.
Then, tomorrow morning I get on a plane to New York for my friend Greg’s wedding. Tammy and Mazie are staying here. The first Northwest flight out is at 10:20am arriving in La Guardia at 2:00pm. The wedding is at 4:00pm in Central Park. And just to make things exciting the Northwest mechanics are expected to go on strike at the end of the day today. Luckily Greg’s wedding is going to be a relaxed affair so I could get there as late as 3:30pm, but it’s tight!
Whew! Hope this all goes smoothly!
Mazie's 2-month Checkup
Mazie had her 2-month checkup today with the pediatrician. I arranged my schedule so that I could go as well. We really liked the pediatrician that we met with. He was recommended by our neighbors who have two kids.
Mazie is doing great. She’s a big girl! She’s 97th percentile for both height and weight, and 75th percentile for head circumference. She’s already 24" long and tipping the scales at 13 lbs 1 oz. (For reference, she was 7 lbs 11 oz and 21" long at birth.)
The hardest part of the visit were the shots. Mazie got 4 different shots, after we confirmed they were single dose vaccines that contained no mercury. The nurse had me hold her hands and talk to her to comfort her. The shots were done in like 5 seconds, but Mazie let out one heck of a yelp when she got poked. I picked her up right away and held her tightly in my arms and she relaxed pretty quickly, and then even fell asleep. I felt really bad for her – poor little girl.
She’s been having a hard time tonight, residual effects from the vaccinations. After a good nights sleep I think she’ll feel better.
Mazie at 8 Weeks
This Tuesday Mazie will be 8 weeks old. It’s time for us to schedule her 2 month appointment. I remember thinking how insane that was. We went from the 2 week appointment and then 6 whole weeks without seeing professional help. How would we do it!? Well, it’s been fine. Mazie is doing great and so are we.
She’s put on a good amount of weight. She’s already well over 12 pounds. This last week in particularly seems to have been a watershed week. She’s been so much more engaging and interactive than ever before. She will smile and play with you for a while. She loves it when you tickle her and play with her while she’s on her changing table. Also, much to the pleasure of Tammy and I she’s actually started to smile at us, instead of randomly at walls and other objects in the house.
She’s been doing well with sleep, although sometimes she puts up a bit of a fuss trying to get to sleep. But once in the bed and snoring away, she does well. She seems to be spitting up a lot more lately than she did at first. I’m guessing that has to do in part with a lot more volume of milk going her way. It’s pretty funny how being a parent pretty much makes all your “eww, gross” reactions go away. A pile of spitup goes all over your shirt, you wipe off the visible stuff and continue on your way, no worries.
She’s a strong girl too. I’ve been holding her up and letting her support her weight with her legs. She can do this for a few seconds at a time and then needs a break. She likes to lean up against me in a standing position for minutes at a time.
That’s all for now. Of course I put up some more photos as well. You’ll notice two pictures of me sleeping with Mazie. This seems to be a not to uncommon occurrence.
Uptown Art Fair Conclusion
Tammy and I returned to the Uptown Art Fair after having previewed yesterday. We brought Mazie with us this time, so we went early to avoid the heat. It was another great day and the crowd was immense even at 10am.
We took a walk through the area we like the most and saw some more artists that we really liked. Tammy also found a custom purse by Laura Maclay that she really liked and decided to get.
Further artist highlights (again in no order):
As I predicted yesterday we returned to Keith Grace to make our annual purchase. We got the dog painting that you see in this post. It’s a great piece and we really liked his technique. He combines collage, acrylics and oils to make these striking, graphic pieces. The collage work also ties back to the subject of the painting as well.
Bicycle Commuting
I’ve been riding into work, bicycle commuting, for about a month now this summer. This is a big part of my plan to get rid of the “sympathy weight” I put on while Tammy was pregnant with Mazie. It’s working, I’ve been able to take off good weight every week without getting completely obsessed about what I’m eating. I’m really lucky when it comes to my commute.
In some ways, I feel like I should be obligated to ride my bike to work. I can get on a bike path after going 3 blocks from my house on residential streets. The path crosses some roads, but mostly it’s just a great trail. I then have two options of trail that I can take going into downtown. So I get to take one trail in the morning, and a second trail in the evening on the way home. There are also a few people that ride into work as well so on the way home I usually have some company as well.
One of the highlights of this commute is when the trail that I take on the way into work crosses over highway 100. This is the same highway that I get onto after a few miles and crawl the rest of the way into work when I drive. Everyday as I ride in I always take a moment to let up on the pedals, look to the left and chuckle a little bit to myself as I look at the hundreds of cars piled up, going very slowly. When I look ahead I see clear trail, trees and fellow riders or walkers out having a good time.
The only part I miss about riding into work is the music. I really like listening to tunes in the morning and there just isn’t any safe way to do that on a bike. The weather has been great, making it even more enjoyable. I find that when I ride into work I show up with a better outlook on things, and in general a more pleasant disposition. On top of all that I’m saving money on the record high gas prices and not paying for the toll-lane on the way home. All this and I get to help the environment, and my body, all at the same time.
Hiking With Baby
I was reading some “evergreen” content on BabyCenter.com tonight. They have some semi-decent content targeted at dad-types. Anyway, they highlighted hiking as an activity to do with your baby. I like hiking so took a gander.
They mentioned this group started in San Francisco called Grateful Dads.
It’s a group of dads that get together once a month on a weekend morning and go for a hike. It’s all dad’s and the kids vary from very young, 2-3 months to about 2 years old or even older. I checked out the site and I like the idea.
I know there are a decent number of dad’s that read my site. Anyone interested in doing some daddy/baby hiking? Mazie is a little young right now, but in a couple of months would be plenty old enough.
Cutest baby ever, at least to her Dad. 🙂
Windows Media Player as Infant Education
I learned a new trick tonight while holding Mazie. We were sitting onthe couch and I had my laptop next to me. I was singing to her and keeping her occupied and decided to put on some classical music. Mozart of course. And then it dawned on me that I had a great infant toy in front of me, so I gave it a shot.
I maximized the WMP visualization window and put it in random rotation with Mozart. I then held Mazie on my lap so she could see the screen. I had always figured these visualizations were only interesting to those on illegal substances, but it turns out 1-month old Mazie really dug it. She was watching the spinning graphics and when the screen would suddenly change to something else she would stop sucking my finger for a moment and check it all out. She particularly liked the flutes in the Mozart selections we were listening to.
Forget the Leap Frog – just grab your laptop!
Not All Fun and Games
Tomorrow Mazie celebrates becoming three weeks old. She is filled with anticipation of exciting “three-week-old” things like having some milk, making some dirty diapers, maybe even taking an extra nap in the afternoon.
In her first three weeks Mazie continues to be amazing and incredible and beautiful and simply the best, or at least according to yours truly, Dad. She’s learned to exercise her lungs more with some mild wailing. I find that it bothers me less if I consider it exercise. She’s gotta learn how to get all that air in and get it out quick after all! She is still being very nice to us and sleeping relatively well. I’ve acquired a very valuable skill – being able to put her to sleep at night. I just talk about computers, telescopes, Road Sign Math, etc. 🙂 In all seriousness, the nightly routine involves me swaddling her real tight, which she hates at first and cries and pushes against but after a few minutes of rocking she settles down. Then we put the “heartbeat” CD on fairly loud which makes a womb-like sound for an hour. Perhaps not surprisingly this puts all of us to sleep pretty quickly as well.
Tammy is obsessed with her being too hot or too cold, still. She’s also obsessed with cleanliness. We changed her diaper for the first time today outside the house, at Eden Prairie center. There was much care taken to make sure nothing was touched. Germs! Everybody had to wipe off with the baby wipes after leaving. I find it all very funny and cute, but it’s really great too.
Happy Independence Day!
We aren’t doing much exciting for the fourth this year. I really like fireworks but with Mazie being just under three weeks old fireworks don’t sound like a good idea. [Hint: Stillwater has the best fireworks around!] We had a classic 4th of July barbecue in it’s place. Barbecued bison burgers and baked beans. Yum!
Some Independence Day moments of Zen to share…
