Tuesday, January 29, 2013

november to december

The end of November meant the end of Bruce and Bonnie's long visit to San Francisco. They had come for Evan's birth, almost two weeks before his due date, although I ended up going into labor at the end of their second full day here. And they stayed until he was about five and a half weeks old, leaving the week after Thanksgiving. Knowing that this particular Sunday would be their last weekend day in town, I helped orchestrate a photo shoot that morning.

It wasn't ideal timing... Evan was on his third day in a row of waking up twice between the hours of midnight and 7am—as opposed to his then usual once—so we were extra tired and running a little late. But I knew that Bruce and Bonnie would really appreciate getting pictures of themselves with their grandchildren and of all of us together, and it pretty much had to be on a weekend so that Steve and Dan would be home during a bright enough time of day. My original idea had been to go to the Presidio, where we had done Dan and Carmen's Christmas pictures the year before, but I scrapped that when it sounded like way too much time and effort. Instead, we just did it in the park that's next to the house. We got some decent shots, despite the challenges involved in working with Elsa and Evan. Elsa's attention was wandering, and Evan was tired enough to demand his pacifier almost the whole time. For the picture of the day, I chose one of the outtakes that illustrated those challenges.

330/366 family pictures


Monday was the second of the two dates for Steve and me while Bruce and Bonnie were still around to babysit Evan. We finally got to try out Locanda for dinner. A new-ish Italian place, it had been on our list of places to try for quite a while. We each got a cocktail, a starter, a pasta, and a dessert—all really good. My favorite was my pasta: Crescenza Cheese Tortelli with Chantarelles, Mint and Pinenuts. I took pictures, but it was dark enough in there that I didn't really think the results were worth posting. The signage out front became my picture of the day instead.

331/366 locanda


On Tuesday, Bruce and Bonnie's last day in town, Evan decided to start smiling and cooing. We had each thought that maybe we had seen a smile the day or two before, but this was when it became obvious that he was doing it on purpose. The shot below was the best I could do for photographic evidence of it. (He was smiling at Bonnie.)

332/366 first smiles


Evan's 1-month check-up was Wednesday, although he was just shy of 6 weeks old by then. I didn't take any pictures at the pediatrician's office, so I took a couple when we got home. He had gotten his second Hep B shot, and I thought the band-aid was cute. He ended up doing pretty well with it, shrieking when he got the shot, but calming down pretty quickly once I picked him up off the table. 

333/366 peanuts band-aid


Thursday was less exciting. Steve had to fly to L.A. for work insanely early and didn't get back until around midnight, so it was just Evan and me for the entire day. It wouldn't have been a big deal, but it was also raining, and our internet connection wasn't working. I was getting a little stir crazy, which led me to play dress-up with Evan. I wasn't quite ready to do a Christmas photo shoot with him yet, but I at least tried on the outfit I had gotten for him, as well as a sweater from Carmen—just to entertain myself. Again, we needed the pacifier to keep Evan happy.

334/366 playing dress-up


It was still a little drizzly on Friday, but I went out with Evan in the Baby Bjorn that afternoon anyway. (It wasn't quite enough to make an umbrella necessary, although I held a burp cloth over Evan to keep the top of his head dry.) We stopped in at Gypsy Honeymoon, Gabrielle got to meet Evan, and I took a picture of the vintage stuff in her window.

335/366 vintage christmas


And that was end of November; Saturday was December 1. After another walk with Steve and Evan that afternoon, I got out the December calendar page for a picture. I also got out our Christmas decorations, so I included our tiny tree in the shot, taken on Evan's window sill.

336/366 december


Here's the mosaic for November.


Thursday, January 17, 2013

one month down (and two months behind)

Evan turned one month old at the beginning of week 47, which meant that it was time to break out the monthly stickers I had gotten for him. I was hoping for better results than when I had tried using the "Brand New" sticker... That time, at one week old, I stuck it to his onesie, and he proceeded to crumple and claw it before I got very many pictures taken. With this one, I decided to use the chair in the nursery as our backdrop—showing his size better—and Steve suggested I put the sticker on the chair instead. That worked much better, although I still took a few with it stuck to his onesie at the end. Evan mostly cooperated for our photo shoot, but he demanded the pacifier for a lot of it.

323/366 one month


The next day, Monday, Bruce and Bonnie watched Evan in the evening so Steve and I could go out for dinner. (We had already planned to go out the next Monday, but since Bruce and Bonnie offered, we added a second date to take advantage of their babysitting while we still could.) So I met Steve downtown after work, and we walked over to Zero Zero. We had pizza and pasta, and I got to have a fancy cocktail again, since I wasn't pregnant anymore. Because our dinner reservations were early, we walked around downtown for a while after. Unfortunately, it was a little too late in the evening to see the kittens in the Macy's Christmas windows. They were already in boxes, on their way out for the night. And the Shreve & Co. Christmas windows were gated over too (jewelry store). That left me with fewer options for pictures, so my shot of the day ended up being from the portion of the Macy's windows that wasn't intended to feature live animals.

324/366 believe


Evan's birth announcements finally got mailed that Tuesday morning. I had been waiting a while for the Pixar stamps that I had ordered to arrive. I figured if I was going to have to buy a bunch of stamps to send the announcements, I might as well get cute ones. I just didn't think they would take two weeks to get to me. At last, the stamps were delivered to Steve's office that Monday, I stuck them on the envelopes after getting home from dinner that night, and I took a few pictures before sending them off with Steve on Tuesday morning. Mission accomplished.

325/366 announcements


Around this time, I got into the habit of propping Evan up on the Boppy after his morning feeding. He would look around, mostly at the windows, and I would be able to sit on the floor in front of him while eating my breakfast. That Wednesday, I got out my camera for a few pictures of him there. This was actually one of the first pictures of Evan in which he really looked the way I was used to seeing him. So many of the other photos just looked a lot different to me; this was probably closer to the angle I saw while burping him.

326/366 stare fest


Thursday was Thanksgiving, so I got to get out another of the holiday stickers for a picture. I also got to dress Evan in his special Baby Gap outfit, which ended up being a little too big for him. (It was 0-3 month, and he was still borderline newborn size then. It fits great now.) Poor little guy looks a bit splotchy here too... He had some baby acne and cradle cap going on.

After the pictures, Bruce and Bonnie came upstairs for a while. Evan got to take a nap with his grandma while Steve worked on his contributions for the big dinner: mashed potatoes, dressing, gravy, roasted vegetables, and roasted mushrooms. Carmen did the turkey, and we ate downstairs, as is our tradition. This was the first year that Bruce and Bonnie were able to join us, since they had one week left in their long visit (for Evan's birth). Evan got passed around some that day, but he graciously took a nap in Elsa's crib while we all had dinner.

327/366 first thanksgiving


Friday was pretty low-key in comparison. Steve and I took a quick walk to Walgreens with Evan, just to pick up more of the usual supplies that were getting low. It certainly wasn't your typical Black Friday shopping trip. On the way back, I spotted a random tricycle on the sidewalk, and I decided to use that as my picture of the day instead of yet another baby picture.

328/366 red tricycle, black friday


Last, we have some photographic evidence from Evan's first brunch outing. Steve and I wanted to take Bruce and Bonnie to eat at Plow before they left, so Evan got to come along for the ride in the Baby Bjorn (after the ride to Potrero Hill in the car). We killed time by walking over to Big Daddy Antiques for a look around—and a couple pictures—and a table was ready for us by the time we made it back. I shot some of the food again, but I also had Steve pose with Evan on our way out. And that's how Steve got his last profile picture!

329/366 baby's first brunch

Sunday, January 13, 2013

a few more firsts

Almost two weeks into the new year, and I'm finally caught up with posting pictures to Flickr for the first time since Evan was born. This blog is a different story, though... It's still stuck in mid-November, so I should probably chip off another week.

The picture from Sunday, November 11, is of Evan drinking his first bottle of milk. Technically, it wasn't really his first bottle ever. They made me give him about an ounce of formula in the hospital when they were trying to make sure his blood sugar was normalized that first night, after the gestational diabetes. Luckily, he still nursed like a champ, so we didn't really have to worry about the bottle interfering with him learning to latch. Nevertheless, we waited until he was three weeks old before we gave him a bottle again. Now we just do it about once or twice a week so that we always have a usable bottle in the fridge, in case I need to leave Evan with Steve for a few hours.

316/366 first bottle


On Monday afternoon, Bonnie and I took Evan out for a walk to Craftsman and Wolves. I hadn't been there in a while, and I felt like I should get out of the house and take some pictures that didn't feature baby stuff. I got a cute little cube cake, which Steve and I shared after dinner that night, and Bonnie got a couple caramels to share with Bruce when we got home. It was crowded enough in there that we didn't stay, so I took a picture of the jars of pate de fruit on the counter, rather than sitting down and shooting my cube cake for my picture of the day.

317/366 craftsman and wolves


Tuesday's photo was a return to the baby, since he was dressed in one of my favorite outfits: the newborn one with the whales on it. It was one of the first outfits that he outgrew, so I had to take advantage while I could. He was chilling on his blanket on the floor in the nursery, staring at the windows as he liked to do. I learned at his last pediatrician visit that this pose with the arms is actually a reflex to prevent accidental rolling. That explains why he did it so often.

318/366 whaling


We got lots of exercise the next day, with a walk down to the paint store and a walk up to Noe Valley later. We needed more bathroom ceiling paint to cover the spot that Bruce had patched around our heating register, and then we "needed" some frozen yogurt from the place in Noe Valley. Bruce and Bonnie had discovered Easy Breezy while they were house sitting for a friend of Carmen's nearby, and they turned into quite the regulars for a while. This was my first visit, though.

319/366 fro-yo fiends


Feeling less inspired on Thursday, I took a picture of the books on Evan's shelves. Since then, he's gotten several more, including the rest of the Mo Willems Pigeon books.

320/366 evan's books


On Friday, I made my first trip out of the house without Evan. I got a haircut downtown, and Evan got to stay home with his grandparents for his afternoon nap. He slept most of the time I was gone, so they didn't even need to use the bottle that I had left in the fridge. Before heading back, I walked around downtown a little and took some pictures. It was a slightly rainy, but it was a nice outing. Maiden Lane was especially charming with the Christmas lights up already.

321/366 maiden lane


And then there was Evan's first real bath. We actually did it the day before he turned one month old, which was probably kind of late. Between wanting to make sure that Steve and the grandparents were all there to watch and wanting to make sure there would be enough light in the kitchen for pictures of the event, it got put off for a week or two. (We gave him an extra sponge bath in between.)

I took the picture below right after we put Evan in the tub's sling. Then I handed the camera to Steve so that I could do the bathing. Evan was not a big fan of the bath at first, possibly because I started by washing his face. He screamed while I washed the rest of his front, and then he suddenly peed on me and the floor. After that, we decided that another more strategically placed washcloth was a good idea... Once I sat him up to do his back and his hair, he calmed down considerably and looked around.

322/366 first bath


That wraps up week 46, as well as Evan's first month. More to come!