The Best Part of 2008

Markus. :)

Markus' First Christmas

As you can see from the photo, Markus really enjoyed his first Christmas! And mom too! Even though he was wearing his Hanukkah outfit (lol...thank you Elizabeth and Kayur!), Santa Claus was nice to him. He's definitely been nice in the first few weeks of his life. Anyway, thank you ALL for his wonderful gifts.

By the way, Markus is currently 23 1/2 inches long. We don't have a baby scale, so we'll see how much he weighs during his next doctor visit.

Markus - Friendly or Fussy?

Markus is 6 weeks old today! He's getting bigger and changing all the time. He's moved up from the newborn (N) size to "1" size diapers and he's already outgrown some of his newborn shirts. He's eating around 4 ounces every 3-4 hours on average. Sometime he'll put away 6 ounces, and sometimes 2. And sometimes he'll get hungry in two hours. It's crazy trying to figure it all out. One thing is for sure...if he's crying for more than one minute...HE IS HUNGRY.

When he's not hungry, not sleepy, not dirty, not hot/cold, but still fussy, we have come up with several possible solutions/tricks to calm him down:

• Pick him up and walk around with him. This works pretty well, but tiring...especially in the hours between 1:00 - 6:00 a.m.

• Put him in the swing. Hit or miss. He either loves being in the swing or wants right out. When he's in the swing, he looks at the little animated mobile and relaxes. Who wouldn't? It's basically a giant motorized bed that swings back and forth. If they made that for adults, I'd like it too!

• Turn on the ventilation fan in the bathroom (dark). Works, but you have to hold him and rock him too (see bullet #1).

• Hide under the covers. Don't ask me why, but it works! It's like a little cocoon. Only problem is that it gets pretty hot and stuffy quick in there. The good news is that if it works, it works quickly! He'll pass out in a minute and you can then sit back out in the open and watch quality late-night television.

• Car ride. The ultimate weapon. There is no defense. We've never actually used this as a method to get him to sleep at night, but we've gone on car trips and he loves it! We've heard similar results from other parents.
  

Here is a summary of my last overnight experience with Markus: It's around 1:30 in the morning on Saturday and I was informed by Markus' aunts that he had eaten around midnight. He was awake and a little fussy, so I took him and tried the under-the-covers trick. It worked. He was asleep in my arms and I was watching the 2:00 a.m. Sportscenter. I wasn't tired, and I knew he would up to eat around 3:00, so I stayed up. I got a bottle ready around 3:00 and he started waking up at 3:15. I decided to give him the bottle and he ate 1.5 ounces and passed out (no burps). I was sure if I put him to bed that he would wake up any moment with hunger or gas, but I had to try. He slept until 7:00!

Parents 1, Markus 0.

Score YTD - Parents 3, Markus 39.

Here he is in his giant rocking bed (swing):

Our first winter storm

The first big storm hit this past Friday and I wasn't able to get to our home until Sunday, at which point the nice powdery snow had turned into a sheet of ice! I tried my best to shovel it all away (note: ice is much more difficult to shovel than snow), but I couldn't scrape all of the ice around our stairs. I even tried using a crowbar, but I was afraid I would chisel away the actual stairs along with the ice!

I hope the mailman will be okay.

I also found out that salt (the kind that melts snow) sells out pretty quickly around storm time. So when Home Depot/Lowe's/BJ's gets some salt back in stock, I will need to purchase some in advance!

This is quite a different experience than living in Queens, where I would just watch the super shovel the sidewalk and complain that he's doing a crappy job.

At least our horrible overgrown grass and dead lawn is covered up for now.

Yes, the joy of home ownership. Side effects may include backpain, stress, burning sensations in the holes of your pockets and the strange desire to own a Dremel. Some users reported dizziness, vomiting, and nausea. Please consult your doctor before taking home ownership.

Speaking of our home, the kitchen contractor was unable to show up last week to finish up the job and set up inspection, so we are still waiting for this kitchen to be "finished". It's 95% there, and we're looking forward to it being completed. By the way, today is Dec. 22, which is the 10 week anniversary of this project (4-6 week estimate). We're lucky that it's not inconveniencing us too much as we are staying at Sandra's parents, but at the same time we want to finish!

Updates

Quick Updates:

Markus: Markus continues his pattern of eating 4-5 oz every 3-4 hours. He sleeps for 2-3 hours, pees/poops, and continues on his way. He is more attentive and able to focus on objects, which is fun to watch. He also likes his swing! We've also received some more gifts for Markus (and even for us, the parents!), and we're very touched and thankful for them all. Thank you!


Kitchen: Over the weekend we created a punch list (final list of touch-ups) for the contractor for our kitchen, so that should be finished soon and we'll set up final inspections this week. Then it'll be time to paint the hallway and clean up!


Commute: I've been commuting from my in-laws in Congers as we're not moving back to our house until all the construction is complete. Total door-to-door is about 1:45, but it's very peaceful. I drive to the Palisades Mall (about 10 mins) and get on a 6:50 bus. The bus is always standing there, and its never full. And it's very quiet. The bus takes me over the Tappan Zee bridge to the Tarrytown Metro North train station. Then I take a 7:25 express train to Grand Central Terminal (one or two stops), which arrives at 8:00ish. There are considerably more people, but I always get a seat. From Grand Central, I walk 7-8 minutes to work. NO SUBWAY. I didn't realize how stressed out the NYC Subway made me. It's by far the worst part of my previous commute and the one part I am not looking forward to again. I took the subway a few stops after work for drinks the other day and it was hell. Wow.

Sandra texts me a picture of Markus each morning when I get to work. It makes me extremely happy as I miss him (even his crying) during the day. Today's picture is Markus getting ready to go for a car ride:

Markus - 4 weeks

Markus is now 4 weeks old and is now eating around 4 ounces per feeding. Feedings are around 3 hours apart. It usually takes about 20 minutes or so for him to finish the bottle, followed by some burping, diaper changing, and then he'll either fall asleep or want to be held for a little while. The whole process usually takes an hour. So, if you're lucky, you might get 2 hours of rest in between. When he is really tired, he'll fall asleep after feeding right away and he'll be out for over three hours. That's what we hope for at night! Otherwise, he's doing well. I'm curious how much he weighs. We'll find out on his next appointment on Jan. 10 (immunization shots). Anyway, here's a a video update of Markus. This was around 7 in the morning, after I had just fed him. You can see him just staring around and making noises, which is pretty typical. As a bonus, you can hear him poop around the 1:18 mark (I confirmed this afterwords), and pass gas at 1:11 (he does this frequently). You'll be spared my normal cheesy voice commentary because Sandra was asleep next to me and I didn't want to wake her.