familial update
We received very little of the big snow fall that came through the Chicago area. In part because a lot of it was due to lake effect and in part because the storm seems to have tracked further south. But even so, people on the south side of Crystal Lake got more snow than we did, so we must have been right on the edge of a snowy band.
Nate went through a growth spurt not too long ago, where he grew over an inch in just 2.5 weeks. He was hungry all the time (no wonder) but now the appetite is more normal, so I think things have slowed.
I made a ha-ha-lame joke last night about how it's better to be European than Europoopin' and then had to explain the joke to Nate. He loved it and I'm just such a great dad, right? (You should have seen the look 
helloheather gave me...)
Nate's time at his new preschool seems to be going very well. A small class of kids more his age was definitely a good change. Our school-art-on-display collection is growing again, which I love. Having stuff on the cabinets, doors, etc. is so cool. When helloheather cleaned house (we had completely run out of space to display stuff) it felt so empty and naked in the kitchen.
Child number two is rapidly approaching his or her birthday. We've changed doctors (yes, somewhat late in the game) but we're both very glad we have. The previous practice was not being supportive or informative. The new doctor also delivers at the hospital 5 minutes from our house rather than the one 25 minutes away. An added bonus.
My parents (and paternal grandfather) felt the 3.8 earthquake we had in northern Illinois on February 10th. They were only 5 miles away from the epicenter though. People as far away as Madison, WI felt the quake actually, but neither helloheather or I woke up.
We did have an addition to our family, photographically speaking, at Christmas. Thanks to a generous gift, we're now the owners of a Canon T1i Digital Rebel. It's a very good upgrade to the Rebel XT that we've been using since 2006. The auto-focus is faster, the ISO range expanded, a bigger and brighter viewfinder, the shutter is quieter, and it has a big and detailed LCD. Exciting stuff.
Our Second Child
I'm very ashamed that it has taken me this long to post an ultrasound picture of our second child. In fact, I just realized I never posted anything when helloheather made the original announcement. Wow, now I feel even worse.
I had no idea that with a busy life and a busy 3 year-old, time could move so quickly.
Here's the ultrasound from 11/4/2009; a profile shot.
Nate is very excited about being a big brother. He's convinced it's a girl, but mostly I think because he knows almost no one in his peer group who has anything /but/ a little sister. I'm not so certain it's a girl, but we have been concentrating more on picking a girls name than a boys. Or, at least, there have been more...shall we say...spirited discussions of said topic. 
Either way, the baby is coming and two and a half months away is no time at all. The March 29th due-date is really, frighteningly, close.
I am not sure I'm all that ready. But, I am ready to catch up on a lot of this stuff.
Nathan photos – April 2007
Slowly catching up on uploads to our gallery. Here are photos from April 2007
Photos – February and March
Photos of Nathan from February and March have been uploaded and (mostly) captioned.
Memorial Day Weekend 2007
This past weekend was a lot of fun. It started off a little shaky with us needing to drive Nathan around at 4:00 AM on Saturday trying to get him to sleep (thus preventing us from leaving early Saturday morning). He had been up every 45 minutes to an hour since midnight and the lack of sleep pushed us back to a noon departure. But Saturday was very rainy, traffic was light, and Nathan slept much of the way to the lake house.
The weather only improved during the weekend but not really enough to go swimming. We went out on the boat a couple times though and Nathan seemed worried. He didn't really like the life vest and being in the sun so much, so the trips were short. But that's not to say he didn't have any fun out there. He liked the wind blowing in his face and liked looking at people as we went by. Serena and Charlotte came up for a visit on Sunday which was fun. Charlotte is getting so big, it's hard to believe.
On Monday we went to the Wisconsin Rapids Municipal Zoo. It's a small thing with only a few animals, but Nathan was very interested. We first stopped at the petting zoom where he actually became a bit scared at the noises the baby pigs were making. As a result he was a bit unsure of the lambs, the calf, and the goat and her kid. (He would actually clutch very close to me when we'd go near one of the pens.) But he was very interested in the hen and her chicks and all the ducklings. For the rest of the zoo Nathan was happy and very engaged. When we visited the pen with alpaca, donkey, turkeys, and two very large goats, he was most happy. He kept saying "Hey!" or "Eh!!" to the goats (which were laying down near the fence). When the tom turkey would make his call and stomp his feet, Nathan would stare in fascination. Surprisingly, he was also rather interested in the large tortoise sunning itself near the door in another pen.
As the sun was setting, I decided that, even though it was too cool for swimming in the lake, Nathan should at least experience the water a bit, so I rolled up my pants legs and sat down on the steps leading into the water. Nathan loved dangling his feat in the water, kicking and splashing, and wanted to jump in.
Tuesday, on the drive back, we stopped off in Milton to see Aaron and Charlotte where we had lunch at a local diner.
All in all it was a nice respite.
10 minutes
After arriving home last night, with the skies threatening, I started mowing the lawn. (I needed to have it completed before the weekend.) The wind was tremendous and I ended up with face full after face full of grass clippings and dust. This might be a minor annoyance were it not for my allergies. I won't go into any detail, because it's not really important, but suffice it to say, my sinuses and eyes were not doing well by the end of it all.
But that's not the point of this post. The point is what happened after.
Within 10 minutes of me completing the lawn and putting everything away:
- Dinner came out of the oven
- helloheather wrapped up her gardening and moved the car into the garage
- Nathan went to sleep for an evening nap
- It started to rain
It was like some sort of dinner nexus came together and we were able to relax and eat. With the temps dropping by the minute as the rain came through, and the strong winds blowing the trees to and fro, it was really quite wonderful. I love a good spring rain and a cool spring breeze.
Later, Nathan woke up from his nap and all three of us danced in the living room to Eli Paperboy Reed's "Take My Love With You."
It was a really nice evening.
Productivity
We worked in the yard a bit today. Nathan helped quite a bit.
We ended up getting quite a bit done on the back planting bed. It was a great feeling. Nathan was very content to play in the mulch and attempt to stab himself with various gardening implements.
Photos of Nathan – December and January
From the "Better late than never" department....
I have uploaded photos of Nathan (and family) from December (with captions)
http://www.bernhard.us/photos/nathan-122006
and photos of Nathan (and friends and family) from January (currently without captions)
http://www.bernhard.us/photos/nathan-012007
Nathan at 10 months
It's hard to believe the explosive rate of change Nathan has been exhibiting in his tenth month. There have been so many changes and developments that I'm afraid I'm losing track.
After he learned how to crawl he very quickly (within two days) was able to pull himself into a standing position using table legs, couches, coffee tables, our legs, doors, pretty much any surface taller than (or more vertical than) floor level. His proficiency in doing this has become so high that it would appear he's been doing it his whole life. He's working on getting better at moving to a sitting position from standing and already has shown marked improvement.
He's also been letting go of the things he uses to haul himself up with. Last night he stood, unaided, for four or five seconds. This is amazing to us.
Two weeks ago Nathan, with only two attempts, was able to climb a single step up from a sunken living room to the kitchen in the house of helloheather's mom and step-dad. He just crawled over to it, grabbed hold and hauled himself up as though he knew in advance exactly what he was going to do.
At the end of March, we took Nathan to the park and for the first time put him in a swing. It was a cold and damp day but he didn't seem to mind. He had a blast, especially when crazy daddy would "zoom" to him on the downward leg of the swing.
This past weekend he was able to spend time with torapines with whom he seemed completely enamored. He would give her such piercing looks and smiles; I think he was trying to show off in some cases...it was very cute. At one point, torapines raised her hands up and with a big smile said "yaaaaaay!" He immediately mimicked her. Every time she would do this, he would follow with both the same tone of voice and waving his arms around. It was wonderful to see.
Feeding him "solid" food has become a bit of a challenge. He's discovered that making raspberries while eating is a great way to spread his food from mouth to parent, and onto everything in-between. It's as if he's carpet-bombing the area with food droplets. But the interesting thing about this behavior is that he's actually trying to slurp the food off the spoon and that sometimes he just gets confused and blows out instead.
As helloheather pointed out in a recent blog entry, he has experienced the joy of being upside-down and now wants to be upside-down all the time (when picked up). From your arms he will throw himself backwards in an attempt to communicate this desire. But if you're not expecting it it can be very startling. Even though I now have learned to expect it, I still find it a bit stressful. Here's my child trying actively to experience gravity it one of the most abrupt ways available to him...I feel like I should carry him around wrapped in some sort of airbag suit...
In order to bring things full circle, I'll leave you with this: Because pulling himself up to a standing position has replaced jumping as Best. Activity. Ever., he's very excited to have helloheather or I hold his hands and allow him to "walk" all over the house. He walks in that typical "on the toes" baby sort of way, it's very cute. He receives so much joy from this activity and it makes us both very happy to see him so engaged.
a quiet moment
Saturday evening, after Aaron, Serena, and Charlotte had left and after the sun had set, Nathan and I were in the living room playing. As he usually does, he was crawling all over the place, paying particular attention to his little toy piano. Watching him while lying on my stomach on the floor, I was experiencing quite a bit of melancholy.
A rather heartfelt and simple song by Kate Walsh came up on the playlist on the stereo and Nathan paused in his play. He sat calm and quiet for a bit, looking around and looking at me. He sometimes does this when we're listening to music, especially with acoustic songs...just sits and listens. It was during this song that, for whatever reason, I was feeling my lowest.
As if to counter-point my feelings, Nathan did an extraordinary thing. He looked right at me and clapped his hands. Just like that, just at that moment...
I was overwhelmed with emotions. I didn't move a muscle, to see if perhaps I had been mistaken or if I had somehow misinterpreted what he had done...and so he did it again. And again. He just looked at me and clapped in that i-just-learned-how-to-clap sort of way.
As feelings of love, wonderment, and excitement washed over me, I still didn't move. I didn't call for helloheather (who was in the next room) nor did I pick him up and hug him. I didn't want to break the spell, I didn't want the moment to end.
It's truly bizarre how something so small can have such a profound impact on my psyche. As Nathan approaches his tenth month I can only hope to have more of these amazing moments.
Easter Weekend 2007
Easter weekend was generally pretty good. It was far colder than I had hoped, but at least there was no snow or rain.
hilhas1 and gonj came up and stayed with us this weekend, which is always fun. hilhas1, with only a few nuggets of information from helloheather and I, was able to make a number of tremendous discoveries regarding my family tree on both my mom and dad's side. It was quite amazing to see her work through census data and draw these connecting lines.
Saturday evening helloheather's dad and step-mom came over for dinner. Prior to that gonj and I and helloheather's dad tried out gonj's RC craft. It is designed to travel over the ground, fly, and go over water. It was rather difficult to control and we ended up hitting pretty much every tree or bush in the area. In other words, lots of fun.
Easter Sunday was spent at my aunt and uncle's near Rockford. We arrived over an hour late because Nathan was sleeping and we felt he needed the sleep more than he needed to be woken up and hauled around in the car. He might have gone back to sleep in the car, but we didn't want to chance it. As it turns out he was all full of energy for family when we arrived, so hurray for a good decision on our part.
Interestingly, for the first time (that I can remember) he cried because he didn't see either helloheather or I. When we arrived, everyone else was finishing eating, so my mom held Nathan while we load up our plates. But after losing sight of us for a bit (and I'm sure seeing all the unfamiliar faces), he became upset. It breaks my heart to see him sad, but I realized that this is another important step in his development. I'm amazed at how quickly he is growing up.
I know mommy and you sir, are no mommy.
Nathan has slowly but surely started showing a distinct preference for helloheather these past couple weeks. It started off simply as times when he was tired or hungry (or, in most cases, both). But the attitude has spread to other areas of his life. When I was trying to feed him sweet potatoes and apple sauce the other night, he kept looking across the table to helloheather, with imploring and pleading eyes all the while moaning. One morning, when getting ready for work, he was sitting and staring (and yes, smiling) at me from the floor. But as soon as helloheather came back into the room, he scrambled over to her legs, grab on, and try to pull himself up.
Logically I know this was bound to happen. I see him only a few hours a day, while helloheather is with him nearly every waking moment. And he does greet me with gusto when I arrive home from work, which is always a joy. Sometimes he really works himself up into a frenzy of happiness, rolling around or grabbing onto whatever he can and squeezing. His emotional responses are very strong.
There are times that I feel that fatherhood has turned me into a sack of crazy. Other times, though, I think perhaps it's simply thrown the crazy into sharp relief. The worry, the stress, the over-protectiveness is entirely a product of my own mind. I wish I could figure out a way to turn down whatever it is in my subconscious that feels I need this. Because I really don't think I do. However, it comes as naturally to my day as drinking water. "Hey, it's been an hour or so since you've had a worry...why not stress about how Nathan doesn't use you as a jungle-gym?"
I know that, while my brain is wrapped up in this nonsense, I'm not remembering the really important stuff. Like how he looks when he figures something out, or how he used to be when he was just a few months old. How he used to look without teeth (what a strange concept that seems now) or how he used to lay so calm next to me when I read him books. I have all these precious memories being covered with mold and slowly rotting away thanks to the climate of my subconscious.
St. Patrick is the patron saint of crawling
This past weekend, helloheather, Nathan, and I headed to Indianapolis. I took Friday off in order to give us enough time to drive down with frequent (if necessary) stops for Nathan. We both would much rather travel during the day than at night...and it's never, ever fun to try and drive out of Chicago at 5pm on a Friday.
After arriving we headed down to somebodystrange and davesanngel's new house south of Indy for food and seeing both new puppies and everyone who traveled so far to be there. We drove into town with the light fading but it showed me that I would love to head back there in the evening with a camera and a tripod. I think the textures and forms would fit right into the minimalism that seems to be most prevalent in my photography.
Staying with hellohilary and gonj was good, as it always is. They have a really nice place. Gonj and I got in a few games of Project Gotham Racing 3 on the XBOX 360. I was hoping the weather would be a little warmer that I could take Nathan out in the stroller for a bit of a walk, but it remained cool. His napping schedule prevented us from being able to eat and drink at the Broad Ripple Brew Pub (oh scotch eggs how I miss thee) on Saturday, but everyone came over after lunch and visited.
Saturday night was another great St. Patrick's day party at Paul and Sue's. Child-wrangling (as helloheather pointed out in her entry) has certainly changed our parties. Had I not been sick I would have had at least a couple of beverages, but sadly this was not to be. Gone, I fear, are the days of drinking and smoking cigars until 3am on the back porch.
But the big news of the weekend was that Nathan learned how to crawl. He demonstrated it fully that evening when, attracted by St. Patrick's Day beads on a necklace, he scooted across the floor to grab them. Not just once, but many times. It was quite amazing to see and he was clearly happy to do it. I find it very fitting that, surrounded by our friends and our group tradition, Nathan transitioned to another stage in his life. And at the same time, it made me wish we all lived closer together, so that we could more often experience both important and mundane events.
Here, for the first time, we present a Dramatic Reenactment of that very first crawl:
Since then he's only gotten stronger, faster, better...he has the technology...
I just hope I have the energy!