end of the line

At long last, it's the final post for 2012. Took me long enough... It turns out, it's more difficult to catch up on blogging than it is to catch up with posting pictures. The blog just never quite recovered after Evan was born, since I have to be in the right mood to write these things. Add to that a baby who likes to stir and/or wake up 40 minutes after the start of every nap lately, like clockwork, as well as my truly impressive ability to fall asleep on the couch after about 9:30pm, and you have a pretty accurate idea of why it's taken me this long. In any case, this entry finishes the project for last year. I've kept going with the Project 365 pictures since then—and will probably continue trying to catch up with the blog posts for those two-plus months—but for now, we'll call this progress.

So. Sunday, December 23rd. This was the day when I put Evan on his galaxy playmat, and he actually enjoyed it. I had tried it here and there before, turning on the music and seeing if he would like watching the toys moving over his head, but he had been too little to care. Now, he suddenly appreciated it; he smiled and talked to it. I think it was the first time he had done any cooing that wasn't directed at a person. In terms of the picture, I wish I had taken the burp cloth out from under his head or switched it out for a plain white one. It's a little busy. But at least I caught some cute facial expressions.

358/365 ooooooh

Monday was Christmas Eve, and we spent some time hanging out with Dan and Carmen that evening. I ended up just taking a picture of the Christmas tree, which we had all decorated the night before. Most of the ornaments were on the top half this year to keep Elsa from getting them.

And speaking of Elsa, we compared her footprint ornaments from last Christmas (at 6 months old) with Evan's feet (at 2 months old), and Evan's feet were a perfect fit. He will probably be bigger than she is in no time.

359/366 christmas eve

On Christmas morning, we headed back downstairs for presents with Dan, Carmen, and Elsa. A few pictures had to happen first, though. Since it was Christmas, we decided to try to get a picture of Evan and Elsa together—their first, actually. Elsa, at 18 months, was still not to be trusted completely with the baby, but we managed to make it work with Evan in the bouncy seat. We even got Elsa to give Evan a few kisses for the camera. Evan looked a little unsure as she was coming at him, but they both did well with supervision.

During the opening of the Christmas presents, Evan stayed in his bouncy seat and took a short nap. He also spent some time in there while we ate Christmas dinner, cooked by Steve: salad with pears and blue cheese, prime rib, mashed potatoes, and some roasted vegetables. Sadly, there was an incident with the roasted mushrooms seesawing off a tray/counter, and all but a few of them ended up on the floor. The surviving ones were really tasty, so it was especially tragic. That dish (minus the unfortunate end result) is now called "floor mushrooms."

360/366 christmas morning

The next day, I took a picture of a couple of our new stuffed animals. The fox was Evan's Christmas present from Steve and me, pointed out at the store by me and then purchased later by Steve. It felt kind of silly to wrap it and then open it again on Christmas morning, but whatever. At least we ended up getting Evan something for his first Christmas.

The elephant was a gift from Carmen. I had found it online when I was looking at baby stuff while pregnant, but since it didn't fit the woodland theme, I hadn't gotten it. I probably should have gotten it, because I kept thinking about how cute it was. I left it on my Amazon wishlist just in case someone needed a gift idea for me. Then, when I rechecked my wishlist before Christmas, I saw that the elephant was suddenly unavailable. A different website still seemed to have them, but the next time I checked, they were sold out there too. I spent an hour looking around online and came to the conclusion that the only elephants left were in Europe, and Amazon UK wouldn't ship theirs here. I guess it was good that I didn't have the heart to take it off my wishlist, though... Carmen took up the challenge and managed to get one of the British elephants shipped here in time for Christmas! She even had time to wrap it.

361/366 the elephant and the fox

I took a walk with Evan to Noe Valley on Thursday. One of the antique stores still had some ornaments displayed outside for sale, so I took a picture of those for the day.

362/366 old-timey ornaments

That night, a miraculous thing happened: Evan didn't wake up at 4am. He didn't wake up at 5am either. He slept from 11:45pm to about 7:30am. It was the first time that he had skipped an early morning feeding entirely, rather than just waking up at an awkwardly early time when we wouldn't know whether to put him back to bed right away or not. This was the "sleeps through the night" we had been waiting for. I happily stuck the sticker on his calendar and took a picture of it the next day.

363/366 filling in the calendar

On Saturday, I decided to try recreating a picture that I had found of myself at two months sitting in my crib with my various stuffed animals around me. (I scanned that picture and posted it to Flickr too.) I wished I had taken off Evan's bib for the shot, but he probably would have spit up down his front before I was done taking pictures.

364/366 party at evan's crib

Nearing the end now... I took another picture of Evan for day 365, the day before New Year's Eve. I think we had just come back from a walk to get dungeness crabs for the next night's dinner. I had removed most of Elsa's old bear suit, and I thought Evan looked cute with hood still on.

365/366 bear suited down

Last, I had to figure out what to do for day 366—the final shot of the year. The previous two projects had ended with pictures of the "3," "6," and "5," magnets that I bought near the end of the first project. However, I didn't have another "6" to make "366" for this time. Instead, I broke out the chalkboard tags that I had gotten for Christmas from Bruce and Bonnie. I had also ordered some colored chalk from Amazon so I could write numbers on the tags. It was a little tricky to get the picture and avoid Evan knocking the tag off his chest or smearing the chalk, but I got a decent shot. Since 2012 was essentially the Year of the Baby for us, it seemed a fitting end.

366/366 the end (again)

And now for the final mosaic of 2012:

almost there

One more post before the final one from 2012. To start, we have another picture from the window of the Aldea Ninos store. I took a lot of walks down there with Evan—and sometimes Steve—in December, since we were on the hunt for Christmas presents. I think this was the day that we bought Elsa's gifts.

351/366 cigar box mice

That Monday, I took another picture of Evan on the changing table. I had taken similar shots at one week and one month, so I figured I'd take one at two months as well. (Click through to Flickr for links to the others.) I didn't keep up the trend after that, though. I figured the chair portraits each month would be enough, especially since the lighting isn't really the best at the changing table. Evan's also likely to start trying to roll off soon.

352/366 serious business

Speaking of the monthly chair portraits, it was time for the two-month picture on Tuesday. While it was a bit of a balancing act, I was able to get him to sit up much better in the chair than I had the first month. I wasn't able to get him to smile for the camera, though.

353/366 two months

Wednesday was Evan's two-month pediatrician visit, which meant a round of shots to fill in the least fun punch card ever. (Do we get a prize for completing the whole thing?) Like the first time, Evan shrieked and cried right when they gave him the shots, but he calmed down pretty quickly once I picked him up. Then he was okay with his pacifier while I bundled him back up for the walk home. He was also fighting off his first cold—cough and sniffles—so he was a little more subdued for the next day or two.

354/366 least fun punch card ever

On Thursday, my picture of the day was of the fancy pears that my parents sent us for Christmas. They ended up being quite tasty. We used one for the filling of a pasta, we made a salad with them as part of our Christmas dinner, we gave a couple to Dan and Carmen for Elsa, and I ate some as snacks with prosciutto. (I was excited to remember that I could eat prosciutto again after not being able to while pregnant.)

355/366 fancy pears

Friday, the first day of winter (and not the apocalypse), was when I finally got around to doing my follow-up 2-hour glucose test to make sure that the gestational diabetes was gone. I got up before the baby did that morning, left him with Steve and a bottle, and drove over to the hospital's lab. The actual test was much more tolerable than the 3-hour one had been: only two blood draws and no feeling like I was going to pass out. Just for fun, I took along my own testing kit and tested my blood sugar when they did. From the numbers I got, I was actually afraid that I hadn't passed... But my doctor's office called a week or so later and said that everything was normal. Big relief.

Anyway, the picture for that day was the view from the hospital's parking garage, with Sutro Tower in the distance. This is pretty much what "winter" looks like in San Francisco: chilly and rainy.

356/366 first day of winter

And the last picture of the week was from that Saturday, which was when we did most of our present wrapping. I just took a shot of the finished ones on the coffee table, although a few more were added to it later.

357/366 the growing present pile

Next stop: Christmas and the end of 2012. (Finally.)

christmas approaching

Moving on towards Christmas with yet more pictures of Evan and/or Christmas decorations... The first picture of week 50 was of Evan's usual smiley time. Every morning after he ate, I used to prop him up with the Boppy pillow on the floor. I ate my breakfast while sitting in front of him, and he took the opportunity to smile and coo. Of course, it was hard to capture the smiles with the camera.

344/366 smiley time

On Monday, I apparently took a walk to Noe Valley. I had taken note of the Christmas decorations around the Mill store previously, and I finally found the right composition for a picture. The passing firetruck was convenient too.

345/366 noe valley christmas

Tuesday's walk yielded something a bit different. I took a picture of a taxidermied animal in the (fake) snowy window of Paxton Gate.

346/366 snow weasel

And other sorts of animals were the subjects for Wednesday's picture. It started with a change of clothes for Evan. I tried to put him in a Christmas onesie, and he spit up on the collar before I could even get his arms in the sleeves. So then I put him in the knit romper that he wore on Thanksgiving—the one with the very impractical buttons for diaper changes. He hadn't worn it much, and it had been too big on Thanksgiving, but now it fit great. I also crammed his feet into some newborn shoes that we had inherited from Chrissy and Elliott. (No socks... I didn't think they'd fit with socks too.) He had worn those even less than the romper, since they didn't really match many of his early outfits.

Anyway, with the romper and the shoes on, I decided that a photo shoot would be fun. I sat him in the chair in the living room, snapped some pictures, then realized that his stuffed squirrel would help fill the frame. Luckily, I got what I needed before one big spit-up ended our session. (Here's picture that shows the shoes.)

347/366 evan & squirrel

Alyson came to visit after work on Thursday, meeting Evan for the first time. He stayed awake a good long time and stared at her a lot. 

348/366 new friend

For Friday, I took another picture of Evan in his bouncy seat. I was trying for smiles again, but I was a lot more successful with getting concerned looks.

His hair looks darker in these pictures than it does now. I think it's either lightened up or he's lost a fair amount of the darker stuff. Also possible: he needed a bath. His hair does tend to look a little darker when it's nearing bath day.

349/366 concerned look

The final picture of the week features two of the three "official" ornaments for 2012. I previously saw these elves at a shop on Valencia, but I ended up ordering them online later. I got one of each of the three color schemes; the loop on the third elf just didn't fit over the door handle for the picture. These guys kind of remind me of Evan with their round faces and ears that stick out, so they seemed especially fitting to represent the year he was born.

350/366 elves

That wraps up yet another week! Only a couple more to go from 2012...

ornaments & baby stuff

Week 49 of 52, the beginning of December. Steve and I took yet another walk down Valencia that Sunday afternoon, stopping at Craftsman and Wolves for a snack and probably scouting out some Christmas presents on the way. The picture of the day turned out to be of some ornaments in the window of Laku. I liked the mouse and the little house, but the tree was also pretty cool.

337/366 mouse, house

I did my Christmas card photo shoot with Evan on Monday afternoon, setting up the big bean bag and white bed sheet in the box window of the bedroom. I think I lucked out with the pose, though. Evan stayed up in the tummy time position for at least a couple minutes—long enough for me to take a few pictures, position props, and then take some more. I wasn't very good about doing tummy time consistently for a couple weeks after this, so Evan got worse at it for a while. He must have either forgotten how to do it or his head got substantially heavier in that time. Anyway, I got a good Christmas card picture out of this, and Evan's getting way better at tummy time again now.

338/366 christmas pictures

I had fewer ideas for pictures on Tuesday, so I resorted to shooting the Christmas ornaments, lined up on Evan's window sill. Although we don't really have the space for a Christmas tree at this point, I still buy ornaments each year to build our collection. My favorites seem to be the felted wool and woodland themed ones, some of which figured into Tuesday's picture. Here we have the pine cone from 2008, the owl from 2010, a rabbit from 2011, and a mushroom that we found at Paxton Gate's Curiosities for Kids during our walk two days before.

339/366 christmas ornaments

Wednesday was a rough one. Around lunchtime, Evan just wasn't going to sleep. It was nap time, but he apparently decided that he needed to eat yet again and wasn't going to go to sleep until that happened. All the swaddling, unswaddling, changing, re-pacifying, and feeding was really getting to me, since I was hungry and my back was having issues that day. The picture below was actually taken after the long nap that he finally took, but his expression in it summed up my feelings about that day pretty well.

340/366 tough customer

The next day was much better. Evan and I took another walk to Aldea Ninos in the afternoon, and I took pictures of the stuffed animals in their window. They had sprayed some fake snow on the glass, so it was extra challenging to get a decent shot. I had to punch up the contrast quite a bit in Lightroom.

341/366 woodland friends

On Friday, it was time to bid farewell to some of the burp cloths we had been using for Evan. They had belonged to Carmen's cousin Amy, and Evan used them for a little while after Elsa. But Dan and Carmen were going to visit Amy in MI the next week, so the burp cloths needed to be returned for use with baby Mia. It was sad, but we got some new ones for Evan.

342/366 bye bye, burp cloths

Saturday's picture was of some more baby stuff. I went downtown during Evan's afternoon nap that day, since I wanted to do a little shopping, and we weren't taking the baby on BART yet. Some of the windows of the Gap store that I passed on Powell featured Baby Gap clothes. While I resisted going inside to buy more of them, there was no reason to resist taking pictures from outside.

343/366 baby gap bear

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.

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

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!