Being a baby is so busy!  But it's time to catch up.  The last adventure I added here was my second trip to Long Island.  And after coming back from Long Island, it was time for my first Christmas! 

 

Grandma Roz and Grandpa Dave came from Ohio, and Aunt Kathy and Uncle-to-be-Dave came too.  Christmas seemed different from some other times because I heard new music and smelled new scents like gingerbread cookies and fresh pine needles.  And Daddy even made a fruitcake, which really smelled different! 

Once things smelled and sounded a little more like usual, I started figuring out some new things.  If I lift my legs up and twist sideways, the whole world turns on its side!  I like to make the world turn sideways a lot of times in a row.  And Mommy and Daddy started feeding me right before they go to bed, so I can finally sleep through the night with them.  Oh, and I have a new friend to help me sleep: a little soft doggie and an even softer little blanket.  I like to rub my face with the blanket and suck on it sometimes if my binky disappears.  So now I can even take naps without Mommy or Daddy next to me, because you're never alone if you've got your doggie blanket!

This weekend we went to Long Island again.  On Friday, Daddy had this clever plan.  He waited for me to go to sleep for the night, around 7:30 PM, and then loaded me into the car seat and tried to drive all the way from Foxboro, MA to Jericho, NY.  He hoped I wouldn't wake up because once I go to sleep for the night, usually I sleep until at least 1-2 AM.  Well, I showed him.  I started crying in the Bronx, just around the exit on I-95 for the Throgs Neck Bridge.  Thankfully Mommy came to the rescue and soothed me until we could reach Grandma Carol and Grandpa Willis's house.

 

You gotta hand it to Daddy, though: he made the trip door-to-door in 3 hours 15 minutes flat, in driving rain, without getting pulled over or rolling over the car into a ditch or anything like that.  Mapquest says 3:33!

 

On Saturday, aside from pooping and playing with my crib gym and smiling and eating and peeing and sleeping and all that stuff, I went to the grocery store and the pharmacy with Daddy and Uncle Ryan.  These were treats as usual, with lots of bright colors and faces and interesting smells.  CVS was easy because my car seat hooks nicely into the little shopping carts. For the grocery store, I had to be moved to my stroller, but that was cool too.

 

Saturday night we lit candles for the fifth night of Chanukah and then exchanged lots of presents!  I got a ton of stuff including three books, a floor gym, some snap-lock beads, some stacking rings, a toy school bus with letters and numbers on it, and a really cool red-and-black snowsuit.  Daddy read me all three books and everyone was impressed at how I stared at them while he turned the pages.  Probably I was just attracted to the bright colors, but hey, I'd rather be lucky than good.

 

Sunday I went shopping with Grandma Carol, Mommy and Daddy.  We went shopping for a wool coat for Daddy, and then we tried to buy bagels but the line was too long so we went home and had leftovers (I had my usual, of course).

 

On the way home I fussed because I got wet, or hungry, or maybe both, who cares.  Mommy and Daddy decided that as long as they were going to stop, they may as well find a restaurant.  They wandered around, I dunno, like Clinton, CT or something, and suddenly found themselves at Hanami Japanese Restaurant, which they said was incredibly good!  (I again had my usual.)  I got to see an onion volcano, which, if you've never seen before, is worth a trip to your local hibachi grill.  Other than that, the best part was how I peed in a fresh diaper seconds after Daddy, kneeling on the floor of the men's room, had put it on me.

 

What else.  Recent achievements include finding my voice over Thanksgiving weekend and figuring out how to laugh in the middle of last week.  And managing to pee on the leg of my sleeper without getting the underlying onesie.

 

Oh, no new pictures today, it was enough of a headache to fix some of the problems with the old ones.

Last week I added more states to my Life List, and saw the ocean!  I drove with Mommy and Daddy through Rhode Island to Connecticut, and then took a ferry to Long Island.  I liked all the rocking, except when Mommy was changing my diaper.  Then I spent Thanksgiving with Grandma Carol, Grandpa Willis, Uncle Ryan, Uncle Jared, and Brian Erskine.  I showed them how I can smile and move my arms around, but that made me so tired I slept all through the night.

 

My next adventure was taking a train to New York City, and getting pushed in my stroller through crowds of shoppers.  Just watching all those people got me sleepy again, so I napped while Mommy and Daddy had lunch with their friends.  Then I couldn't help pooping so much that Mommy had to change my outfit, but I didn't mind since I got to show off my Boston Red Sox onesie in what Daddy calls "Yankee territory." 

 

Then we went to a coffee shop and met more friends.  Finally Daddy put me in my cozy front carrier, zipped me up inside his jacket, and we all walked back to the train, where Daddy was brave enough to change my diaper on his lap during the ride home.  

 

The next day I took everyone for a walk through the neighborhood where Daddy grew up, and met more of Daddy's and Grandma Carol's friends.  Also, Mommy ate a treat for me: fresh, warm cinnamon bread from a special bakery. 

 

Mommy, Daddy and I all learned something on the trip.  Mommy and Daddy learned not to try out a new brand of diapers while travelling, and I discovered that I can make sounds!  So now I spend a lot of time practicing with my voice, until I get tired and have to suck on my hands to calm down.  I know that my hands can also do things like grabbing and holding, but it could take me a while to really do that on purpose.

I've been finding out about all kinds of places to go.  I went dancing with Mommy and Daddy at Andrea Humez and Jan-Willem Maessen's wedding.  I like dancing because I get to hear music and move around a lot, which are two of my favorite things!

 

Then the "Red Sox" won something called the "World Series."  So Mommy and Daddy dressed me up for a party and introduced me as "Nathaniel who is called Cursebreaker."

 

I also went to Temple Sinai.  Daddy and Mommy held me up in front of everyone who came to services and Rabbi Sherman told them my name and said a lot of nice things in English and Hebrew.  I don't think he said anything about breaking curses, though.

 

It's a lot of work to go to all these places.  I have to make sure I'm all clean, and that Mommy and Daddy bring lots of diapers, since wearing a wet diaper is just about my least favorite thing in the world.  But it sure is fun to meet all those people.  They all have a certain expression on their faces, so I learned to make the same face back at them.  Here it is!

 

I put pictures of everything else in my photo album so you can see all my adventures there.  ()

 

You may notice that some of my pictures are no longer here and have been replaced with the text "[picture archived]."  I had to take some down to make room for new ones, which you can see in my photo album.  That way, you can always see what I'm up to!  If you want to see any of the archived pictures, you can pester Mommy and Daddy.  But only if they're not already busy taking care of me.  Anyway, here are the (non-archived) pictures.

 

I had a Bris. [picture archived]

 

I taught Uncle Jared to hold me [picture archived].

 

I took a couple baths [pictures archived].

 

I met the Amazing Giraffe-O-Matic [picture archived].  This was Daddy's mobile when he was an infant in 1975!

 

Pete Gast [picture classified] brought my parents lasagna.

 

I learned the Top Ten Reasons to Become A Doctor. [picture archived]

 

Allanna Chung (http://allanna.net) visited today with her mommy.  She does all kinds of neat things like standing with help and social smiling.  I can't wait to do these things.  I gave Mommy and Daddy separate big smiles today but, truth be told, it was probably kind of random.

 

This evening I was very wakeful.  I did tummy time twice with Daddy and lifted my head up a few times.  I also got to dance with Daddy to the Nutcracker Suite by Tchiakovsky (http://tinyurl.com/6wj7c).  Later we all listened to the Red Sox game together on the radio (http://www.weei.com/).  It was "8-8 in the bottom of the tenth" when I fell asleep.

 

I finally put a picture of myself with Grandma Carol on my homepage.  Check us out.

 

I saw the pediatrician today!  He was a big nice goofy guy (kind of like Daddy!) named Dr. Giuliano(www.pediatricspec.com).  We had to wait in the waiting room while Mommy filled out a lot of paperwork.  That made me fussy but Mommy and Daddy sang to me, stuff like "Hey Jude" (http://www.beatles.com/html/heyjude/) and "When I'm Sixty-Four" (http://tinyurl.com/57sy3) That helped me to sleep.  Daddy's finally noticed that I prefer my parents singing rather than shushing --  I mean, duh, everyone else certainly prefers music to "SSSSHHHHHH," why wouldn't I?

 

A lot of nurses also hovered over me and told me I was cute.  I don't want to brag, but this may in fact be true.  Here's a picture Grandpa Willis took of me last week:

Come to mention it, Grandpa Willis is a little funny.  I've never actually seen his face because it's always behind a camera.  Maybe he's like the Phantom of the Opera!( or www.ykphantom.8k.com/)

 

Now, that's an alarming thought.  I'll have to make a grab for that camera, so I can get a better look at him.  Although it'll have to wait until my frontal cortex develops enough that I can find my darn hands.

 

So, the pediatrician's office.  They put me on the scale and I was 9 pounds, 2 ounces!  That's 7 ounces more than birth weight, and I'm only 10 days old!  I was a little concerned about putting on weight so fast, but Mommy and Daddy assured me that this was in fact good news.  They said that I won't have to worry about watching my weight until later.  Maybe they meant, like, my next visit?  I'll have to keep an eye on this issue.

 

Dr. Giuliano examined me, which made me cry, because I was cold.  But at the end, he said I was a perfect baby (yay!), and than Daddy dressed me and swaddled me nice and warm.  I didn't like being put in the car seat (http://tinyurl.com/58hjr), but I conked out almost immediately once the car started moving.  Boy, I like that car!  (http://tinyurl.com/6hfoe)

 

Mommy and Daddy got milkshakes(http://tinyurl.com/3mzfz), but I didn't get to have any.  That's OK, though.  Mommy assures me that her milkshake will go through her to me, and that eventually I'll be part milkshake.  That sounds kind of cool.  (No pun intended!)

I have to tell you, my favorite thing to do is to soil clean diapers the moment they are put on me.  Here are two of my favorite recent accomplishments.

 

A few day ago, I woke up hungry.  Mommy and Daddy noticed that poop was leaking out one of the legs of my diaper, so Daddy changed me into a clean diaper.  While he was fastening it, the unmistakeable smell of pee suddenly appeared and so he changed my second (wet) diaper.  He then brought me to Mommy, where I started nursing, and immediately pooped again.  That had to be, like, three diapers in three minutes.  I'm wondering what the world record is -- I checked www.guinnessworldrecords.com/ but it wasn't there:

 

YOU SEARCHED FOR: diaper
WE FOUND : 0 records.

 

Oh well.  I guess I'll just have to look at it from a personal self-improvement standpoint:  Today,  I woke up crying.  I was hungry but Daddy thought the problem was my wet diaper.  Hey, it was only slightly moist!  He put on a new diaper anyway.  Remember this takes extra time, because of the Vaseline (www.vaseline.com) and gauze he has to put on my circumcision site.

 

You'd think Daddy would have learned not to change me until after I feed, but apparently he's a slow learner or something:  While he was re-fastening my onesie, I pooped -- one, two times.  Daddy waited me out, and I let out a third poop, which made him feel clever.  Figuring he had out-smarted me, he took off the diaper.

 

Surprisingly, I found out that Daddy's never seen a stream of poop fly through the air before.

 

He started laughing and calling for help.  Mommy came in to help Vaseline up new gauze and hand him supplies.  I figured this was a good time to pee through the air, so I did.  Then Mommy started laughing, so hard that her incision hurt.  Oops, I didn't mean it!

 

They finally got me cleaned up and stuff, throwing out the second soiled diaper, and putting my onesie, the diaper cloth and the changing pad cover under it (I was particularly proud of this) in the hamper.  Mommy started nursing, and just to finish off the accomplishment, I pooped again.

 

I'm glad they weren't angry.  But then, how could you get mad at a face like this?

 

 

Anyway, enough about poop.  I guess I should tell you about the Bris and family visit and stuff but I'm kind of wiped out -- instead I'll just put a bunch of family pictures into my photo album.  'Till next time!

 

Oh, one other thing.  These "Red Sox" (www.bostonredsox.com) proceeded to lose their next two games to the "Yankees," which seemed to make Mommy and Daddy upset.  I don't get it.  Why would you spend so much emotional effort on something that made you unhappy half the time?  Hmm.  Well, I understand the "playoffs" are coming, where the "Red Sox" have a chance to "win it all" -- presumably that will make Mommy and Daddy VERY happy and make up for all the preceding angst.  Bye!

Baby Hiccups.

Last night we were still in the hospital.  My mommy and daddy watched something called "the Red Sox game."  They got very excited when "the Red Sox won 3-2" and it seemed to make them very happy.  Tonight, "the Red Sox won" again and Mommy and Daddy again seemed very happy.  I'm not sure who these "Red Sox" are or what they're doing, but I look forward to them "winning" a lot and making Mommy and Daddy happy all the time while I'm growing up.

 

So much else happened between those two Red Sox games!  I learned to wink:

 

Aren't I cute?  Yeah, I know, there wasn't enough light, but Daddy was afraid that if he used the flash I'd close my other eye or even start crying.  Later that night they weighed me -- I'm up to 3750 grams!  I hope to catch up to my birth weight by Friday.  (Unfortunately, I don't think anyone's going to weigh me again until Monday.  Oh, well.)

 

Friday is also the day of my Bris: on my eighth day, I enter into the covenant that God made with Abraham.  I'm only a little nervous: I understand that Dr. Fraser (www.bostonmohel.com) uses Novocaine, and if I start crying anyway, I'm told that my brain isn't yet complex enough to remember being sad later.  Also, I get to drink wine.  Not bad for a seven-day-old.

 

Anyway, this morning we LEFT THE HOSPITAL - yay!  I got those awful tight hospital tags cut off my ankles.  Then I went outside and met the sun for the first time.  Then I tried on the car seat for the first time -- Daddy worked really hard to make sure the snaps were snug.  The car was scary at first but Mommy put a finger in my mouth and eventually I fell asleep.  On the way home, I also got to smell my first skunk.  Daddy says it's impossible to drive anywhere in the Foxboro area without smelling at least one.

 

When I got home, I discovered that Mommy and Daddy had these awesome stretchy receiving blankets that they could use to snuggle me.  They're much better than those hospital white ones with the blue-and-pink stripes.  Somebody needs to teach those people a little fashion sense!  My favorite blanket is a stretchy lime green one that Grandma Carol bought me.  I liked it so much that I accidentally let poop get on it!  Grandma Roz assures me that it will come out in the wash.

 

Well, I'm pretty sleepy, so I'll sign off.  Looking forward to all the new things that tomorrow brings.

Phew.  What a busy day.  The day started at when my crying awoke my parents.  Mommy had last fed me at 11:00 PM, so you can imagine my parents' surprise when they looked at the clock and it said 6:30 AM.  Imagine a four-day-old sleeping for seven hours!  Daddy was sure that they had somehow neglected me and rushed me to the nursery (we're still in the hospital, http://www.brighamandwomens.org).  There, the clock only said 2:30 AM.  Turned out the clock had somehow sped up in the middle or the night!  I'm sure Mommy and Daddy will look back on this and laugh.  Anyway, they weighed me and found that my weight had stabilized -- 3645 grams today, 3650 grams yesterday.  I look forward to gaining weight tomorrow.

 

What was I saying?  Oh yeah, today was so busy!  At last count, I had pooped five times and peed seven times yesterday.  Also, I usually eat every 1.5-3.5 hours.  Sometimes I'm uncomfortable afterward and need to be burped.  Finally, sometimes I am lonely and Mommy and Daddy (and Grandma Roz) pick me up and sing to me.  I like that.

 

Problem is that I only know one way to talk to Mommy and Daddy right now, which is crying.  My nervous system is still very immature and I'm not really capable of any goal-directed activity yet.  In fact, sometimes I get confused by the movement of my arms and legs or by the sensations of being dressed and undressed, and when I try to talk about it, I just end up crying.  Note to self: work on that.

 

Here's a good picture of me today:

 

Finally, Daddy informed me that I may soon have my very own email address.  Will keep you posted!