P L U S / L I N U S

We've moved!

2009-07-30T15:13:00.004-05:00

Yes, yes, I know: you KNOW that we've moved. But now the blog has, too! I'm still fiddling with some of the new features/settings/etc, but for the most part, it's rarin' to go. I'll even post things to it sometimes.

The NEW Plus/Linus: A lot like the old Plus/Linus, only toddler-y:

http://pluslinus.wordpress.com

I'm sorry, what? Did you say it's Wednesday??

2009-05-27T21:54:00.004-05:00

I have no idea how it came to be today, today. We've been in a vortex of moving. Until we emerge, please enjoy these unBEARably cute photos of our Linus.

Linus, April 2009

Now is the time for archives: We're goin' stealth.

2009-05-17T17:08:00.005-05:00

We closed on our shiny, stucco-rific new house on Thursday, and just when we collectively sighed with relief at no longer having to find paperwork from three years ago or addresses for the LAST TEN YEARS (I seriously had to go to Google Maps, find the street view of a landmark near my old apartments, and work down the street from there. It was brutal. Also, I've lived in an absurd number of apartments over the past ten years.), we quickly realized that we're now entering into a world of backbreaking labor as we scramble to get everything packed and get the house ready for us to make it our home. Thankfully, there is already a bottle in one of the bathrooms that's labeled in marker as "cleaning" product. Sure, yeah..."cleaning"...I get it...huh.

Point is, we're packing up our computer and TV so that we can get all hooked up tomorrow at our new digs. We're still living in our current place for another week, which means that this will be the last post until next weekend-ish. And oh, what a post it will be (she said, knowing full well that it will be just like every other post. Which is to say: fine).

So while we're tired, the good news is that we lovelovelove our new house and know that the payoff for the work will be worth it. Yippee!

What do polite little 1-year old boys do?

2009-05-12T20:17:00.003-05:00

They drink water from sippy cups. Kind of.

From Video: Gurgle, gurgle, hissssss.

Note: Please excuse the poor video quality. The video is actually very high-quality, but the file is so large that it gets all wonky when I upload it to the web album. So while you may not be able to see QUITE all of the water running down Linus's chin, you'll still get a pretty good idea.

Happy Birthday Dear Beaaaarrrr....

2009-05-11T21:59:00.005-05:00

LINUS IS ONE!

LOTS more photos coming soon--including "after" pictures to go with the one up top. Also, Linus's one-year check-up is this Wednesday, at which point I'll have stats and monkey photos to post. AND we close on our house this Thursday. I find Frank Costanza's "SERENITY NOW, INSANITY LATER!" mantra particularly useful during times like these.

Okay, okay...ONE more photo. I've always been a bit of an ending-spoiler.

Happy Mother's Day to me, Happy Mother's Day to me...

2009-05-10T22:07:00.003-05:00

This is technically my second Mother's Day, as Linus was born on Mother's Day last year. And while Linus was certainly the best gift I ever could have asked for, I would be lying if I said that the whole "sleeping in while Dan makes breakfast and then brings Linus in to wake me up with a very nice card" thing was pretty nice, too.

As promised, here's a short, low-quality (or "artistic," anyone?) video of L-train showing off his crawling prowess. He really books it when he's after something as valuable as a remote control.

From Video: Bear on the Prowl

Tomorrow is the big day! Bear turns one. ONE! Pictures to follow.

Guest blogger: My friend Stephanie's boyfriend, Peter

2009-05-07T19:57:00.007-05:00

Plus/Linus is going global. Today's post comes from the UK, via Colorado. My friend Stephanie's British boyfriend--which is not to say that she ALSO has an American boyfriend, or boyfriends of any other nationality, for that matter--is an independent thinker. When Stephanie told him that he needed to vote for Linus in the cutest baby contest (She's still harping on THAT?? Yes. But only for the sake of this post. Though I will say, if Linus had to lose, I'm glad that this is the baby he lost to. She's freaking adorable.), Peter resisted, because he's a ~~jerk~~ man who can make up his own mind, dammit. Herewith is the picture in question (and the accompanying text that went with it), and Peter's thoughts on the matter.

My husband is a big Minnesota Vikings fan, so I bought this cute Vikings footie outfit for our son Linus at a secondhand store. It became Linus's unofficial Sunday outfit while the Vikings were still playing. Linus loves looking out our front window--which is pretty clear in this picture, judging by his wide-open, 2-toothed smile.

I decided that I couldn’t vote for linus without confirming that he was, in fact, the cutest one there. however, I only got through about 30 or so photos. Talk about faces only a mother could love. unless erin is willing to send me to some vacation home in the carribbean (sic) like a true lobbyist, I can only vote on the issues.

First: Vikings. Thumbs down. I’ve said it a million times: sports and purple should never intertwine.

Second: Getting his outfit from a second hand store. It’s a little bit pandering to the pity crowd…but it’s earnest. I like it.

Third: Looking out of the window? Needs elaboration. What was he looking at? A bus - could he want to be a bus driver when he gets older? The birds – will he revolutionize biology to benefit man? Go noble, I say. My reaction to this as it stands is: old people like to spend time looking out of the window. I don’t see much of a growth curve with this kid.

Fourth: he’s being held up. America – last I heard – wants an independent thinker. A trailblazer. Someone to break free of the shackles and bring us real change and hope for a brighter future. Linus is being controlled by bigger forces behind him…sounds like more of the same to me. If you were to put him next to a fluffy pitbull that had lipstick painted on it, we’d be in business.

Fifth: I do like the Johnny Rotten hairdo, and he’s not covered in slobber like most of the other children.

Let me think on it.

To which I say: Think on THIS, Peter! Ultimately, though, he did vote for the L-train. 'Lotta good that did.

Thank you, Stephanie, for telling me it was okay to post Peter's email. Peter, I look forward to meeting you this fall. And sorry I called you a jerk.

Yowza.

2009-05-04T20:04:00.005-05:00

It's coming up on 2 weeks now of not posting. My excuse is what it always is: I've been pretty tired (actually, that's not ALWAYS my excuse. Sometimes it's "my hands are too sticky to type from eating gas station donuts" or "I really have a lot of celebrity goss to catch up on" or something equally as pathetic-sounding). But this morning I was reading my weekly e-mail update from Babycenter.com, and I've discovered a new excuse to not post as frequently as I'd like to: I'm aging, and fast. Check it out:

How old are you now?

In one short week, your baby will be 1 year old! You, however -- thanks to those nights of not sleeping, making each day equivalent to two days -- will technically be two years older. And when you factor in the bionic aging power of babies, this is really 20 years. Which explains a lot, no?

I'm like the anti-Benjamin Button! Sure, I'm 27 now, but in a mere 5-years from now, I'm gonna be pushing 40. Aging this quickly is not conducive to blogging. And I wish there were some way to convey this to Linus, but a sleep-deprived, super-aging mom is not as good of a mom as a non sleep-deprived, aging-like-a-normal-person mom. This is not to say that I'm the only person in the history of parenting to be sleep-deprived. Far from it. We--parents to infants--are ALL not getting enough sleep. It's just part of the deal, and we knew that going into it (and, of course, Linus is way, waaaay worth the effort). But Linus turns one a week from today, and I'm really hoping he's going to grow out of the waking-up-3x-per-night thing. Y'all know I love drama and thrive on pawning myself off as a martyr, but seriously, Bear: I DO NOT WANT TO BE THE MOM WITH THE CHILD WHO DIDN'T SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT UNTIL HE WAS 3.

Thank you.

In other news, everything is going really, really well--and I should've announced it a couple of weeks ago, but Crawl Watch 09 has ended! Linus is a crawling fiend and getting into everything. He opens drawers and cabinets. He pulls himself up on everything and does the whole "cruising" thing, where he walks while holding onto furniture (he cruises back and forth on the table and from the couch to the ottoman and back around). It's intense. He seems pretty pleased with his new-found mobility, and I think that full-fledged walking is just around the corner. He's able to stand unassisted for a good 20-30 seconds until he realizes Oh shit, I'm not holding onto anything! or flaps his arms too hard because he sees the cat and gets really excited, and then he hits the floor. He'll put it all together soon.

This is getting a bit long--especially since I haven't uploaded any new photos, and therefore have no eye candy with which to entice you to keep reading--so I'll take my leave now.

Still to come this week (I swear!): A special guest-blogger, new photos, and The Proof Is in the Puddin': A Video of Linus Crawling.

Things that are gross: A tale in two nights

2009-04-20T20:59:00.014-05:00

LAST NIGHT
3:00am. Our bed, complete with a Linus in the middle of it.

Dan: My shirt is wet. Either Linus drooled, or it's pee.

And then not another word was spoken.

A FEW NIGHTS BEFORE THAT
4:32am. In the dark, returning from Linus's room after feeding him.

Me: Oh, gross. I just stepped in something squishy. I think maybe Tuffy pooped.

Dan, as I climbed back under the covers: Don't drag it into the bed!

Me: It's okay. It was just the side of my foot.

And then not another word was spoken.

All of this is to say, that when you become a parent--or this has been my experience, anyway--your tolerance for things that may or may not be vile substances infiltrating your space increases drastically. You also wash your sheets a lot more.
__________
After a thorough investigation, it was determined that due to its odorless nature, the wetness on Dan's shirt was either drool or Linus's head sweat.

For those of you keeping score at home, Tuffy did poop on our floor. He never does that, so I think it was an homage to Pippy, and therefore sort of sweet.

RIP, Pippy (1992-2009)

2009-04-17T09:32:00.005-05:00

I am sad to report that Pippy, our beloved and endearingly exasperating family dog, has died. My parents had to make the very difficult decision yesterday to have her put to sleep. We're all very sad, of course, but happy that the old girl enjoyed a perky and healthy 17 years, until she recently became ill and was not expected to get better.

I'm glad that Linus had the chance to meet Pip and exchange hairstyle tips with her. She was a very good dog.

This is not an endorsement of the University of North Carolina.

2009-04-06T19:30:00.007-05:00

Linus is actually rooting for Michigan State to win tonight's NCAA Championship game. He just happened to be wearing this vintage UNC shirt (truly! It was my sister's and mine when we were babies. We were born in North Carolina) and playing basketball. That kid sure has his finger on the pulse of current events, eh?

This IS an endorsement of refried beans.

But wait--there's more! Go forth to view outtakes, Linus's meetings with Kate and Aunt Lori, and what happens when Daddy lets Mommy sleep in, but then gets bored and decides to style Linus's hair and take pictures (here's a hint: Linus Rotten).

Linus, Feb/Mar 2009

94 years old?? I woudn't have guessed a DAY over 35!

2009-04-01T19:27:00.008-05:00

We had our house inspection yesterday, and it went well. We found out that the boiler is original--which means it's been warming fingers and toes (and hearts. aww...) since 19 freaking 15. It's a total work horse. Yesterday was a sort of dreary, haily, and all around gloomy day, so it was good to see the house during non-sunny weather, and even better to find that we still love the house. Linus is going to looooove his new backyard. He can run around with Tuffy while I muck things up in the garden so I can say, "Why yes, I did grow these tomatoes in our backyard, how nice of you to comment" while our guests politely spit their gazpacho into their napkins.

Dan snapped a few photos while we were there. He would've taken more, but the current owner of the house was there (um...?) and he was politely trying to photograph around her (it's a good thing I didn't have the camera). Still, check out the album below to see a few photos--complete with captions!--of our new digs, which will OFFICIALLY become our new digs in mid-May. Not pictured: our bedroom, Linus's bedroom, or the main floor bath. The living room and dining room are really fantastic, but you only get snippets of them here. Still, you're bright. You'll get the idea.

Three cheers for domesticity!
Huzzah!
Huzzah!
Huzzah!

We bought a house!

Crawl Watch 09 continues

2009-03-29T21:05:00.007-05:00

This weekend Linus really started slithering around on the floor to get to his favorite objects, including but not limited to: mini Dasani bottles, remote controls, Stinkaroo (this little giraffe/kangaroo toy whose head smells like Elmer's glue due to always being in Linus's mouth), and Mommy. He did several laps up and down the blanket--it was endlessly amusing to watch him work so hard just to grab something and roll over. In this video, you'll notice that Linus has perfected his army/secret agent crawl, in case he ever needs to go into stealth mode or finds himself temporarily unable to use both of his legs. He also does a killer wookie impression.

From Video: Special Agent Linus

I'm not sure if this means he'll be crawling in one week or one month, but this is certainly a big step (or perhaps "step" is not the appropriate word choice here) towards crawling.

Three other pieces of news, quickly:

1. Linus's surgery went very, very well. More on that in a later post.

2. WE BOUGHT A HOUSE TODAY!! (note: I'm secretly hoping Linus will hold out on the crawling thing until we move in to our new place in mid-May, because we can baby-proof it from the get-go. We'd be playing catch up at our currently place, you know? But, hey--whatever he wants to do developmentally is fine by me.)

3. And finally, big ol' congratulations to my friend Rolph and his family, who welcomed baby Rudy into the world today after what sounds like a ridiculously short labor. RUDY! Lovelovelove that name.

Sabotage! Or, an open letter to the Star Tribune

2009-03-21T12:58:00.009-05:00

Dear Star Tribune,

My really, really adorable son, Linus, did not advance to the semifinals of your Cutest Baby contest (view the winners from Linus's heat). Is it because his name smacks of St Paul due to the Charles Schulz-iness of it? And, you know, people are saying that either you or the St Paul Pioneer Press are going to have to go under, because there can only be one, a la Highlander? Or perhaps Linus's semi-mohawk was a little to "edgy" for your constituents.

In any case, please accept this as my letter of cancellation of our weekend subscription to your paper. We may not have won the $1,000 prize, but we can compensate by saving the $33 fee you charge us for every 13 weeks of service. BAM!

Sincerely,
Erin

P.S. Please don't REALLY accept this cancellation letter. I mean, the first paragraph is true, but we really do like having the weekend paper at a pretty affordable price. Thanks.

But you'll still rue the day you crossed me. RUE!

P.P.S. Thank you to all of you who voted for the little bear!

I just discovered you can vote once...PER HOUR.

2009-03-20T11:15:00.004-05:00

The contest is under way. Click here to go directly to Linus's entry for the Star Tribune's Cutest Baby contest. You might be redirected to a registration page, but it won't take long at all to get up and running.

Polls are open until 9AM tomorrow morning.

And...GO.

Lest Ye Forget

2009-03-19T20:38:00.007-05:00

You have a job to do tomorrow. You need to vote for the little bear in the cutest baby contest, please, and do it like you mean it.

Voting starts at 10AM central standard time and end at 9AM on Saturday morning.

Yes, you'll have to register online to vote, but I'll make it easy by posting a link here tomorrow morning that will go directly to Linus's page so you won't have to sort through the other 199 wee ones to get to the bear. Plus, sometimes babies sort of look a lot alike, and I'd hate for you to vote for the wrong kid. You know?

In other news:

-The ear surgery has been rescheduled (which is perhaps not the correct term to use, since apparently it was never scheduled in the first place...) for next Thursday, March 26th. So THEN you can cross your collective fingers for smooth sailing.

-Linus pulled himself up for the first time today! It was especially great because Dan and I both witnessed it. But then when I was dropping Linus off at daycare, I told one of his teachers the happy news and she said, "Oh, yes! He did that over there [pointing to the wall-mounted bar that's above a wall-mounted mirror, much like a dance studio] YESTERDAY*." Thunder: stolen.

-Dan and I "celebrated" (translation: "I ate lots of Cadbury Creme Eggs while Dan had the stomach flu") our 2-year anniversary on Tuesday.

-My best friend Kate was in town last weekend, and it was glorious. She's undertaken quite the challenge in "So It Goes," her new blog. The goal: one picture, every day, for one year. Linus had the honor of being in three of said pictures. Here's one of the photos from the weekend (used without permission...um...sorry, Kate. Please don't develop a sudden passion for copyright law).

See more of Kate's handiwork here.

The Illinois game has just started! Must try to stay awake for the first half now.

*emphasis added

FAIL.

2009-03-19T10:22:00.002-05:00

Due to a misunderstanding (read: inexplicable incompetence) from the scheduling center, Linus's surgery was NOT this morning. He had a consultation, hearing test, etc, and at the moment I'm waiting to be called back by the surgery schedulers to make an appointment for the real deal. The appointment may not be for another 3-4 weeks, but the doctor said that I can have the schedulers be in touch with him about trying to get Linus in earlier because the OTHER schedulers were not so good about scheduling. Which is their job. Their ONLY job.

Jesus.

Anyway, more to come. Including (wait for it, wait for it...) details about tomorrow's big vote for the cutest baby in all the land (of Minnesota and Wisconsin)!

Vampires are SO in right now.

2009-03-18T20:21:00.005-05:00

On Monday when I picked up Linus at daycare, I was presented with a happy, smelly baby--and an accident report.

Description of accident / Descripcion del accidente:
Kids were playing when another child bit Linus by accident on his left arm.

First aid or staff action / primeros auxilios o accion tomada:
Washed with water and soap and applied an ice pack.

POOR LITTLE BEAR!!

Also: I want names.*

He has a bruise on his forearm that is very distinctly in the shape of a mouth. A perfectly round, tiny baby mouth. It was pretty red for the first couple of days, but it's starting to fade now. He's also been extremely happy, so he must have exacted revenge in the form of stealing a toy or something equally as diabolical. Linus's teachers felt really awful about the bite, but stuff like this is bound to happen in daycare. I just thought it wouldn't happen until he was, you know, in a class where the majority of kids had teeth.

Tomorrow is the big surgery day! Keep your fingers crossed for smooth sailing. An update will be posted tomorrow night.

*Only kidding. I'm pretty sure that the day will come when Linus is the biter and not the bitee.

Pictures!*

2009-03-12T19:20:00.002-05:00

Herewith are some photos from the past couple of months. You will enjoy: lots of bear suit action (we grilled out on Super Bowl Sunday, hence the bear suit), a visit from Grammy and Gramps, 9-month monkey photo outtakes, Baby's First Poetry, and more.

Linus, 8-9 months

While in the bear suit, I introduced Linus to my socked feet, which was apparently really, really funny.

From Video: Linus the Laughing Bear

And then we played the socked foot game again, post-suit. It didn't end well.

From Video: Linus bites it

Remember: Tomorrow is NOT the day to vote for Linus in the Cutest Baby contest. He's in heat 10, which is NEXT Friday.

*Sorry. "Pictures!" was the best I could come up with.

Happy 10-month birthday, Little Bear.

2009-03-11T21:28:00.003-05:00

Linus has been on the outside longer than he's been on the inside. I know people say it all the time, but it's true: kids really do grow so fast. Sigh.

Last night Linus was having some playtime on the floor and while he was on his tummy he started to push his little butt up in the air to move his body forward, which is a precursor to full-on crawling (though I'm sure it will still be a while yet...). It was the first time I'd seen him do it, so I grabbed the camera, set it to the video function, and got this:

From Video: How Not to Crawl

I SWEAR he was pushing his butt in the air, even though Linus is clearly calling me a liar in this video. I'm going to have to invest in some serious spyware if I want to capture all of this stuff (a bow tie that's really a camera won't be conspicuous at all, right? Because I wear a lot of bow ties.). Next step: a live feed, a la the Panda Cam.

Scratch that

2009-03-09T10:36:00.003-05:00

It appears as though Linus will be in Heat 5 of the cutest baby contest, which means you should vote for him on Friday. OR you could go ahead and vote in the other heats and choose the least-cute babies. Just sayin'.

*UPDATE* Linus will actually be in NEXT Friday's heat. It's heat 10, the last and final of the first round of the competition. Here's a preview.

A picture is worth a thousand dollars, Or, I need your vote!

2009-03-09T09:07:00.004-05:00

I WILL NOT BE A PAGEANT MOM. I WILL NOT BE A PAGEANT MOM. I WILL NOT BE A PAGEANT MOM.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit (slash totally excited) that I've entered Linus's photo into the Star Tribune's "Cutest Baby Photo Contest." They only accepted 2,000 submissions; Linus was one of the first 200 because I was all over it (though he ended up being in number 1879 due to the stupid way they decided to make all of the late entries first in line in the contest. But I'm not bitter. Honest. But it's still a stupid way to run things.).

The winner gets $1,000, and the top 10 finalists each get a $100 Visa gift card. We're trying to buy a house right now, so I am shamelessly pimping out our child. He's going to earn his keep, dammit!

Two-thousand baby photos is A LOT of cuteness to behold. As such, I am ever-so-humbly (and maybe ever-so-over-hyphenating?) asking that you go here and cast your vote for Linus. We all know that he should kick all of those other babies' collective asses. Let's make it happen.

To read more about the contest, visit their home page. And please note that there will be a new heat each day to whittle down the crowd (I was going to say "to weed out the fug," but A) That's mean, because all babies are cute, and B) What if Linus doesn't advance?). I'll post progress updates here in case Bear is still in the running. Which, if the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul know what's good for them, he will be.

Voting starts at 10AM.

Thank you and good day.

The (belated) 9-month update, Or, DEAR GOD THIS IS A LONG POST

2009-03-08T21:48:00.001-05:00

Linus had his 9-month check-up a couple of weeks ago. I think Dr. K. was pretty surprised that she had not seen us since mid-December, when we brought Linus in for some sort of respiratory thing. Almost TWO WHOLE MONTHS without a doctor visit! Or prescription drugs! It was glorious.

The appointment went very well. Linus was charming and kind of moody--he's SO going to be an artist or musician (pleasepleaseplease let him not be a musician)--and impressed the good doctor with how sturdy of a stander he is. I'm glad he was all over the standing thing, because I swear I sensed a bit of hesitiant worry in Dr. K's tone when we said that no, Linus is not crawling, and no, he's not even really scooting, and oh Lord no, he's not pulling himself up to standing, are you kidding me? But I know--or I tell myself I know--that all babies develop differently and that just because the average crawling age is 8-months, it does not mean that Linus is behind the curve. Also, Dr. K. was not expressing concern; I was projecting. I've recently become very self-aware of how much I project on other people. Poor Tuffy has been my blank canvas for the past 5 years.

In the past week, though, Linus has started to do lots of pivoting around on his belly (which is a form of scooting, I'm told) and a couple of months ago he started rolling all over the place, so he's headed in the right direction. And he clearly WANTS to be mobile; he's becoming a very efficient fit-pitcher to let us know exactly where he wants to be.

But enough about the crawling or not crawling. I've stopped reading baby development books (even the Bible of them all, The Baby Book by Dr. Sears) because I just over-analyze what Linus is or isn't doing, and then I fixate and panic and feel like an inadequate mother for not singing enough to my child, or not making all of his food from scratch, etc. The books are nice to reference, but our trial-and-error method is also working just fine.

Back to the appointment, which I am going to blow through because I'm tired, even though it's REALLY only 8:20 PM due to daylight savings time. Having children ages your inner clock by about 60 years.

Herewith are Linus's stats and percentiles. In the past I've included ALL of the previous doctor visit stats, but Linus is to the age where that's becoming cumbersome to do--so here's the info from just the 2 most recent visits:

Height: 28.5" (55th percentile) / @ 6-months: 26.75" (62nd percentile)
Weight: 18 lb, 14 oz (20%) / @ 6-months: 16 lb, 15 oz (39%)
Head Circumference: 18.74" (95%) / @ 6-months: 17.99" (93%)

Nice to see that his noggin continues its race to the top! As you can see, his weight dropped nearly 20 percentage points in 3-months, but it's following the proper curve and Dr. K. was pleased with the Bear's growth.

And with every well-child exam comes pictures of Linus with his monkey. Ol' boy is gettin' huge.

six months

nine months

nine months, again

The ONE sort of less-than-great thing about the appointment is that we found out that Linus has to have tubes put in his ears. The doctor looked at his ears and found that his left one was slightly inflamed--which meant that it had been a good 3-4 months since she had seen Linus's ears completely clear of infection. If the ears aren't clearing up with medication and the cloudiness goes on too long, HEARING LOSS (note: I didn't just put that in all caps to be funny, like I was yelling it or something. FYI.) can occur. He's perfectly fine, and healthy, and the tubes will keep him that way. More on the surgery (I can't even stand that word in relation ot our child...) to come in a later post, because, as I mentioned a bajillion paragraphs ago, I'm tired. He's scheduled to have the tubes put in March 19th. At the time of the appointment the procedure sounded scary, painful, etc, but it's really very common--our niece had it done--and should ultimately it should be a very good thing. But, as I said, more to come on that front.

And finally, I would like to mention that Linus is now up to 5 teeth. The top two came in simultaneously (just like the lower two, which were his first) sometime in January, though family legend will insist that they broke through on Christmas day. He WAS teething then. Other cool things he's up to include, but are not limited to: clapping, rolling over on the changing pad, lots of babbling/squealing/testing-of-volume, TURNING BOOK PAGES!!! (he's a mama's boy), eating Cheerios daily, ripping up newspaper ad inserts and any paper, really, and then pitching a mega-fit when you take away said paper. It really is something new every day.

Funny side-puffs of hair are the new black.

2009-03-06T19:42:00.004-06:00

First:

And then:

Dairy Queen wages an assault on my eating-less-ice-cream diet

2009-02-26T09:50:00.001-06:00

Someday (soon, even, once the plague that has befallen our house clears up) I plan to post a massive entry, but first I’m going to go the route of self-indulgent and post this fabulous news so that I may possibly be one of 250 people who get a chance to fan the fires of our collective love affair with Dairy Queen.

What I mean is, the first 250 people to post a blog entry about DQ’s new Sweet Deals menu get a gift card to the Queen. I don’t know if I’ll be one of the first 250; but I’m certainly willing to give it the ol’ college try. I'll do just about anything for a bargain.

Here’s the link to the contest: http://blog.dairyqueen.com/2009/02/25/dq-sweet-deals/

Listen up, Dairy Queen: the deal I’m willing to make with you, as per your request, is that I will cart my blizzard-loving butt out in a real-life blizzard (thanks for that, Twin Cities weather) to visit you. Now that's true devotion.

It's never going to be easy, is it?

2009-02-20T10:06:00.003-06:00

Linus's 9-month check-up was this morning. Vital stats and such will be posted tonight or tomorrow (or AT LEAST on Sunday...I need to stop assigning time lines to forthcoming posts. As my friend Ruth would say, I'm nothing but a pocketful of broken promises. Bless her.). It ended up being a pretty intense appointment, which I will explain later. See what I'm doing here? I'm piquing your interest so that you'll keep checking this blog on a regular to semi-regular--okay, WEEKLY--basis.

Until then.

As if we'd given him a shot of whiskey

2009-02-08T20:36:00.007-06:00

The day after the Cheerios incident post, we decided to give finger foods another try. It had been a few weeks since Linus ceremoniously dismissed the thought of coarser textures, and we wanted to take his pincer grasp skills for a spin (and also discover if he had any pincer grasp skills yet. Furthermore, why is it "pincer" and not "pincher"? And why, then, do we "pinch" things and not "pince" them? These are the things that keep me up at night. Also, "pincer" is a terrible word.). We sprinkled a couple of sweet potato flavored puffs--we opted for the Gerber Graduates route instead of straight-up Cheerios--on Linus's high chair tray and let him have it. Here is the most excellent result. Enjoy.

[Note: This video has been edited for the sake of brevity. The original, uncut version will be released on DVD this fall. Except that it won't.]

From Video: Linus meets texture

Too. Much. Information.

2009-02-01T14:00:00.004-06:00

Poor little bear is sick. Yesterday he projectile vomited in the morning and later in the day he puked up carrots immediately after eating them. Some orange-ish milk came out his nose. If only it had been from laughing so hard...alas. It was a dreamsicle-colored disaster.

I called the nurse line (I'm sure they've missed me. It's been over a month since he's been sick.) because L-train wasn't wetting his diapers and we were concerned that he was getting dehydrated. After my 15-minute warm-up (well, it all started last night when he slept and slept and then wouldn't eat when woke up...GET ON WITH IT, ERIN), the nurse said that if he didn't have a wet diaper in the next few hours, he would need to go to the ER to get an IV. AN IV! Seeing that would've shattered my heart into a bajillion tiny pieces. Luckily the little guy delivered in the next hour.

He also delivered on the other piece of information the nurse provided, which was this: "This sounds like a stomach bug. Today you're dealing with vomit; I'd wager that tomorrow's issue is going to be diarrhea." As if on cue (early, even!), Linus made her an honest woman. Dan took the bear upstairs for a diaper check, and Linus was giggling and smiling--until he switched into grunting/squealing/red-faced mode exactly when Dan pulled down the diaper. What happened next was astounding. It was as if someone had pulled the lever on a soft serve ice cream machine that was attached to Linus's butt. Thankfully it was fairly solid, and other than the sheer volume of it--DEAR LORD, THE VOLUME!--it was not incredibly difficult to manage.

But Linus was not done.

Dan had a new, clean diaper in position and ready to seal it up, when Linus projectile pooped all over Dan's arm. THAT was the promised diarrhea. Well played, sir. I admire your gusto.

It would be remiss of me to not give props to Dan for taking one (or several) for the team yesterday. He was puked on twice, and pooped on once. I merely got a little bile on my shirt and caught some vom remnants in my cupped hands. We can't all be so lucky.

The nice thing is that Linus was still in a pretty good mood all day yesterday. He was more tired than usual and a little less eager to stand or roll around, but in general he was happy. Had that not been the case, we would not have left him with a babysitter last night while we went to see a play. I worried about him (and Anna, the poor, sweet babysitter) while we were gone, but they both did just fine. I knew Linus was in capable hands when Anna didn't get scared away when I said, "And if you need a change of clothes, here's where I keep my t-shirt and pants."

Linus is doing much, much better today. No puking (we're feeding him frequently but for only a few minutes at a time). No diarrhea. Lots of smiles. Lots of snot, too, but I'm only mentioning that because I've already written a very graphic and disgusting post, so I thought I'd throw it in for good measure.

AROUND THE WEB:

* Today's Strib has an article about the recent Facebook ban of women breastfeeding their babies. I started to write a little bit of commentary here, but then it just got way too long and I got way too angry. (Okay, briefly: It's not that I have beef with Facebook; the thing that really bothers me is how unbelievably brutal and hateful people are being about this. Just read a few of the comments on the article and you'll see what I mean.)

* The Rumpus has an excellent post about why Disney needs to get its head out of its ass (and why it's okay to skip ahead when you're reading to your child).

* This is maybe the most wondrous thing I've ever seen. And don't forget about the parodies.

* A list of the 100 most beautiful words in the English language has been compiled. I bet James Lipton knows every single of them.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

Our 5 minutes of fame continues, and Linus gets his second round of Glamour Shots.

2009-01-19T14:58:00.008-06:00

This is a big one.

You might remember that Dan and I were featured in a story on CNN.com a few months ago ("Kottke: I owe my wife and child to Craiglist."). And you probably don't remember that a picture of me in all my pregnant glory (it was taken about 10 days or so before the Bear arrived) was in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on Mother's Day this year--which, as you should remember, was the day Linus was born. So Linus has now appeared, in utero and out, in two national(-ish) publications.

His media assault continues: Dan and I are featured in the February online edition of Reader's Digest, complete with a few pictures of Linus. I think that we were misquoted a little bit--for example, I'm not sure Dan would readily admit to talking to his cat...looking at her in a puzzled sort of way as if seeking consultation/confirmation, sure, but full-on conversing? Questionable. Plus, I wouldn't have married someone who talks to their cat. Or would I? Did I?--and we were under the distinct impression that we were going to be in the actual, physical issue, thus creating a nice keepsake for Linus. Even so, I shouldn't complain. When I was a little girl I used to read Reader's Digest when we'd go to my Grandma's house, so it's kind of awesome to be in it, even virtually.

In other news, Linus and I got a little antsy a couple of weeks ago while I was home with him over my long holiday break, so we decided to take advantage of the JC Penney Portrait Studio's stellar deal: No sitting fee -and- a free 8x10. Why not, right? It. Was. Fantastic. Linus was nice and smiley and sort of sweetly coy. And then things got REALLY awesome: the photographer brought out the tiny bathtub and rubber ducky and bath products and told me to strip Linus down to his diaper. The resulting photos are freaking adorable. I never thought I'd be one of those moms who takes her kid to portrait studios and stages bath time photos, but apparently I am and I've got to come to terms with it. However, I DO draw the line somewhere:

PHOTOGRAPHER: Do you want to do a butt crack shot?

ME: Um. What?

PHOTOGRAPHER: Linus would sit with his back to us and look over his shoulder with his diaper pulled down a little so you can see his butt crack.

ME: Um. No. Thanks.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Some people are really into it.

ME: Huh.

I haven't scanned any of the photos from the shoot yet (I ended up buying a few extra sheets of various poses, of course.), plus it would be illegal for me to do so. Instead, you can view the photos by clicking here, creating a new account (it only takes a minute), and using the album access code "LTPP0308127052JCPSHARE." Last name Kottke, natch. And please ignore the "enhanced" photos; it's just a lot of typos and bad collages that were used when they were trying to make the hard sell. I SO won this round. Lord help us if when we go in for round three.

More pictures! Or, I can't concentrate when the house smells like bacon.

2009-01-17T19:31:00.007-06:00

Dan is currently fixin' up some homemade egg McMuffins (tm) for dinner and the little bear has just gone down for the night, so I'd thought I'd take a moment to post some pictures. The smell of tasty, tasty bacon has impaired my writing abilities, so it's best if I just leave you with mostly images and not words.

First, some random photos from November, including this cute one:

And this one, when Linus tried to go for Dan's comically large beer [note: sparkles were added for dramatic effect. Our dishes really aren't that clean]:

The rest:

November 2008

You've seen the Santa picture. Now see what else went down Christmas week in Springfield, including the awkward moment when our almost 17-year old dog Pippy sat next to Linus and we realized they shared the same hairstyle:

Christmas vacation 2008

[Note: the rocking horse that Linus is sitting on in a few of the photos was made by my dad for me and my sister when we were wee babes. He went through a brief woodworking phase way back when; one of his pieces now hangs on Linus's door.]

The Cheerios incident.

2009-01-15T21:00:00.000-06:00

My parents came to visit over Thanksgiving weekend, and we were all having a perfectly nice time talking, laughing, feeding Linus pureed peas, etc. The usual things you do when Grammy and Gramps come to town to see the baby.

And then my mom mentioned that my cousin's baby, who is 4 days younger than Linus, isn't all that sold on being fed pureed whathaveyous but is really into feeding himself Cheerios. Wait! I thought, or perhaps said. WE have Cheerios! So I got one, held it out to Linus, and he showed no interest in taking it. It's like I, and the piece of cereal, were dead to him. Fine. Let's not force it, right? So I turned to put the Cheerios away, and when I turned back around, Linus was making a really funny face, my parents watching him expectantly.

My dad: "Your mother put a Cheerio in his mouth."

I tried not to go into panic mode and fish it out of his mouth because I'm trying to relax a little and be one of those cool moms who are able to parent their children so effortlessly and without reading any how-to manuals and who definitely don't take a full page of questions to their child's check-ups and then cross off the questions with a pen after each one is patiently answered by the saint-like pediatrician, like it's a grocery list (Green and grainy poop? Check. Funny rash under the neck? Got it. And so on and so forth until you've got a baby stew on).

But then--dramatic pause--Linus started to gag a little. And then a lot. And then there was a really scary second where we thought he was choking. And just when it seemed like it was time to intervene...IT ALL CAME UP.

The "it" I'm referring to is the copious amount of peas L-train had just eaten, and that were now coating Linus and my dad in one bright green velvety mess. The weird thing was that it wasn't projectile vomit. It was more like he burped and quietly threw up ~~a little in his mouth~~ a lot all over the place. He wasn't crying and didn't seem upset. Linus had some peas, and now he has politely returned them to Gramps by gently placing them on his shoulder. It was like that.

I wish we had taken a picture before we wiped most of it up. Alas.

We've haven't tried Cheerios or anything stronger than mashed or pureed foods since the incident, but we have certainly given my mom a lot of grief about it (in jest), and will continue to do so for a long time. We tend to get a lot of mileage out of jokes in our family. Like that ONE time when I was 12 and I said that I really liked the movie It's Pat. Anyway.

Okay: this time I'm serious.

2009-01-14T20:34:00.006-06:00

It's an update! I had nothing but good intentions to posts some pictures and such Saturday, but then we took a family trip to Lens Crafters to get Dan some new glasses, and Saturday night I was trying to ward off some flu-like symptoms. Long story short: we're all fine. No flu. No sickness. No neverending colds. It helps when everyone in the house goes to bed at 8:45 pm or sooner, like we did on Sunday. And Monday. Next stop: 4:30 early-bird special. We. Are. Old.

But I digress! Let's get down to it. Linus went swimming for the first time!...2 months ago. But I have uploaded the pictures at last, and so we'll pretend that this is breaking news. We took a trip in early November to somewhere in Wisconsin (there's Madison, Eau Claire, and then "somewhere in Wisconsin" or "near the Dells") to spend a few nights in a condo/cabin-type place with Dan's family. It also served as a sort of dry run for Linus's first Christmas, because we were celebrating the holiday with Dan's side before his parents migrated south for the winter.

Because this was somewhere in Wisconsin and most likely near the Dells, the resort had a mini- indoor water park, complete with aqua diapers in the vending machines (real diapers explode in the water. We know someone who experienced it. No, seriously! It's a true story.). What was REALLY cool, though, were the little bouncy swings hanging in the expansive kiddie pool area. We were so excited to suit up Linus and let him bounce and splash in the water, and then we sort of bonked his head on the way into the bucket thing and really didn't start things off on the right foot. I think he was a little overstimulated.

And another thing: the water wasn't all that warm. Where are all the kids who pee in the pool and keep the temperature a steady 85 degrees? In any case, we had an excellent time with Dan's parents and siblings (and Linus's cousin Emily, who is exactly three years older than him and incredibly sweet with the little bear). We'll try swimming again another time.

More swimming pictures, Baby's First Basketball Hoop, and fun with Grandma and Grandpa:

Weekend in Wisconsin (Nov 08)

HUZZAH!

2009-01-10T09:32:00.000-06:00

Linus slept from 7-7 last night, with only a couple of squawks at 11pm and 2am. Just to clarify: that's TWELVE HOURS. In fact, I had to wake him up this morning so I could feed him. ANGEL! I am now rejuvenated and motivated, and will post later today. I know you've been holding your breath, dear reader(s?). For now though, coffee and playtime. I love Saturdays.

Santa, baby

2009-01-01T20:06:00.008-06:00

While we were in Illinois last week, Linus experienced the first of what will probably become a possibly yearly tradition of visiting Santa at the nearest shopping mall. The point of it is so that the kid can sit on Santa's lap and tell him what he wants for Christmas. We quickly found out that Linus is NOT telling. As soon as we put him on Santa's lap, Linus went into a zone that he didn't come out of until we got back in the car. The result: the Mona Lisa of baby's first Santa pictures.

poll by twiigs.com

A very belated and very happy Christmas to you.

2008-12-29T15:41:00.004-06:00

I hope your holiday was swell. Pictures and more from our trip to IL coming soon (I'm home with the bear this week, so I WILL update. Promise.).

UGH.

2008-12-23T11:31:00.003-06:00

I don't even want to think about how it's been 2-weeks since I've updated this thing. We are currently in Springfield, IL, land of Grammy, Gramps, and our nearly-17year old and slightly-incontinent dog, Pippy (and Tuffy, too). We visited Santa at the mall yesterday; the picture will be posted once we're able to scan it next week. As per usual, there are plenty more things to blog about, but now is not the time. We do, however, want to take a moment to wish a hearty congratulations to our friends Amy and Mark, who went to the hospital on Sunday and *hopefully* welcomed a healthy baby boy into the world by now--2+ days laboring for a 9+ pound baby is a long, long time. We'll be checking their blog for updates.

It's a Festivus miracle!

2008-12-09T20:38:00.009-06:00

Last night Linus took a giant leap in the direction of sleeping through the night. And for all intents and purposes (or, "intensive purposes," as I said until I was approximately 22), he DID sleep through the night, because he went a solid seven hours straight. Down at 7:45PM, up at midnight, and then not up again until 7:15 in the blissful morning. It. Was. Amazing. I did wake up once at 3AM and felt like something was missing. And then I realized that around that time I should be in Linus's room, feeding him. And then I got a little sad (because it was 3AM and that's when things are the saddest, and also because I was pretty out of it) because I momentarily thought that Linus was all grown up and didn't need me anymore and it's all going so very, very fast and and and... And then I went back to sleep for another 3 1/2 hours. Heavenly.

In two days, Linus will turn 7-months old. Remember when he turned 6-months old and we took pictures of him with his monkey to show you how drastically he's grown and we even posted some numbers and figures to corroborate said photographic evidence? No? Forgive me. It's been here all along; I've just been too lazy to put it together in a nice and tidy post. UNTIL NOW, BITCHES! LOOKOUT!

Linus's 6-month check-up was excellent. Dr. K. commented on how Linus is really starting to fill out (I prefer the term "beef up") and said he looks awesome and is the cutest baby she's ever seen in her 25+ years as a pediatrician (I may have made that last one up. Or maybe I'm just good at deciphering subtext?). Anyway. The stats:

Height: 26.75" (62nd percentile) / @4-months: 25.5" (73%) / @2-months: 24" (82%)
Weight: 16 lb, 15 oz (39%) / 14lb, 6.5oz (40%) / 12lb 5oz (60%)
Head Circumference: 17.99" (93%) / 17.24" (87%) / 16.26" (78%)

His head continues to totally dominate the rest of him. That's our genius boy! We were really happy to learn that his weight-to-height ratio had jumped to around the 35th percentile; prior to this it had been hovering in the 11-13% range.

And now, a boy and his monkey at 2-weeks and 2-, 4-, & 6-months:

And here's a photo of Linus and his monkey acting like zombies in Michael Jackson's "Thriller":

And here are the outtakes from the photo shoot

Linus, 6-months

And here is where the post ends.

Photoshop is calling me...

2008-12-05T09:36:00.003-06:00

I woke up this morning looking like Nick Nolte's mug shot. And that was after Linus had a really great sleeping night--down at 7:45pm, up at 1:45am (SIX HOURS! Longest ever. If only I would've gone to bed before 10:30...), up at 4:45am, and then smiling and up for the day at 7:45am. Dan's high school french teacher used to call him "ma petite ange." Must be genetic.

I want Holyfield! I want Holyfield!

2008-12-02T20:20:00.005-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, Linus was in his first fight--with the floor. Sadly, he was not the victor (he was the Linus. ZING!). Dan went to pick him up at daycare, and when he go there, Linus was being held by one of his care providers and had an ice pack on his forehead. Irma, the head teacher, ran over to Dan and said in her broken English, "Your son, he okay. He was playing--so excited!--and he dahnced for the first time today and then he, he fell forward and hit his head on the floor." We now have the accident report on the fridge ("First aid or staff action: washed & cold pack").

Linus just gets so worked up while he's sitting on your lap and he starts bouncing and rocking and flapping his arms up and down for momentum that it was only a matter of time before he caught someone off-guard and did a face plant. It was sort of heart breaking to see his little strawberry/rug burn, but he bounced back (literally, I suppose). There are pictures of the "incident"--as well as the rest of the Halloween pictures, Linus as a baseball player, and more from his first foray into the delicious world of solids--in this set:

Linus, Sept, Oct, first solids, Halloween 2008

I just remembered, though, that Linus WAS in a fight prior to this one. He (accidentally?) kicked a kid in the head while we were at baby story time at the library. True, the kid was a month younger than him so it was sort of a sucker shot, but this kid also had like, 2 pounds and 2 inches on Linus.*

*No one was harmed in the incident and Linus and the other little boy remain friends to this day. True story.

Coming soon: Linus's very belated 6-month stats, Linus pukes peas all over Gramps, and so much more!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T11:44:00.005-06:00

Linus will have to wait until next year for turkey and all the fixins', but I do see sweet potatoes in his future. And--accordingly--a very smelly diapered baby in mine.

Wishing all of you the very best. There's a lot to be thankful for this year (including the wonders of Photoshop!).

Two cute pictures to retain your interest in this blog:

2008-11-17T21:00:00.005-06:00

New posts coming soon, once I regain my strength (the bear has been relentless with his "no sleeping through the night" policy as of late).

Happy 6-month birthday, Little Bear!

2008-11-11T07:27:00.002-06:00

Dear Linus,

This photo collage would've made really great wrapping paper, had we bought you a present (sorry).

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Cute picture of the day

2008-11-08T15:18:00.003-06:00

And to think, this is only ONE of an entire photo shoot. Solid gold!

In Which Linus Is All Grown Up

2008-11-07T09:46:00.003-06:00

We're borrowing an exersaucer (yet another one of the great baby product names, along with "My Brest Friend," which is a nursing pillow) from Dan's sister. I've heard that these things are lifesavers when you're trying to take a shower, make dinner, or watch a violent and sexually explicit movie (um...what? Only kidding. He's barred from "R" movies AT LEAST until he's four.). You just plop the kid in the seat, and he's instantly surrounded by toys that he can smack, tug, and chew. We decided that Linus is strong/big enough to try to it, so we've been putting him in it for a few minutes every night to get him acclimated. This is from a couple of nights ago:

Video: Linus in the Exersaucer

I think we're (okay, I'M) a little more pumped about the toys than he is--they're so bright and spring-loaded! And they make NOISES!!!--but he really seems to enjoy it, or least not NOT enjoy it. It's really bizarre/cool to see him playing with toys, because he seems like a real, live boy, not just a tiny baby.

But then he pooped through his first outfit this morning, and onto my pants, and I was quickly reminded that Linus is definitely still a baby. Our little boy is all grown up! (If I were into emoting using asterisks, here is where I would put "*sob*." But I'm not.)

I hear a cry from upstairs--the beast awakens from his nap! Must go.

The Sweetpea and the Fire Chief

2008-11-05T20:48:00.012-06:00

Linus was a ~~fireman~~ fire chief for Halloween. We borrowed the costume from our friends who live down the street and who have a little girl, Kiri, who is about 5-weeks older than our bear. Kiri and her parents stopped by for a quick photo shoot.

It was hilarious--as soon as we set the babies on the couch and got out the cameras, Kiri started smiling and cooing and totally hamming it up for the camera, while Mr. Serious Pants over there was zoning out. I think he was just in character--fighting fires is serious business, people. Or maybe he was trying to play it cool for Kiri and didn't want to show how hilarious he thinks his mom and dad are when they make funny noises. In any case, they both looked ADORABLE.

We didn't take Linus trick-or-treating, mostly because he can't eat any candy and it would be painfully obvious that we were only out to steal his loot, which would be shameful (but delicious). Instead, we had Dan's brother over for dinner, ate an absurd amount of candy, and watched "Shaun of the Dead." Linus didn't join us for the movie.

Hopefully Linus will look back on these uber-reflective pictures from his first Halloween and be happy with his costume. Of course, he might go through a fireman stage when he gets a little older. I think this article from the Onion just about sums it up.

How did I not know this existed until today??

2008-11-05T07:58:00.001-06:00

A missed opportunity to see a "Linus for President" button made:

http://www.peanutsrocksthevote.com/

I hope you all voted today.

2008-11-04T20:21:00.004-06:00

It's a tooth-for-one special!

2008-11-03T20:18:00.007-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, Linus got very, very cranky. And bitey. And drooly. And because he was drooly, he got rashy. And then, after a couple of days--lo and behold!--the ridge of a tooth popped through his bottom gums. Not to be outdone, the little neighbor tooth popped up a couple of days later. They're adorable--they're like little peg teeth, like a baby hippo. A really human-like baby hippo. And a hungry hungry one at that.

Having teeth is not really a prerequisite for starting solids, but it's certainly timed out nicely because...wait for it...wait for it...and you probably already know what's coming because it was a very obvious intro...Linus started solids on Saturday! "Solids" isn't exactly an accurate word for baby's first food. It's more like "mush" or "breast milk that seems like maybe it's beginning to curdle because it's getting a little on the thick side." The main idea is to introduce Linus to a spoon and the act of swallowing food. And here, for your viewing pleasure, is a video of Linus's first foray into the world of adult food: rice cereal (NOT Rice Crispies...) mixed with breast milk to a perfectly runny consistency:

From Video: first solids!

It was AWESOME. The next day we gave him some baby oatmeal, and then the same again today. He's really getting the hang of it. In a couple of weeks we'll introduce things like sweet potatoes and squash and creepy mashed meat (for breakfast....WEIRD). Things are going to get a lot messier, meals are going to take a lot longer, and Linus's poops are going to get a lot ranker, but I think it's going to be fun. Plus, we'll get to make good use of our fabu blender by pureeing everything in sight.

CAN'T. WAIT.

Still to come: Halloween! Baby story time! The bizarre world of mommy culture! And so much more. Stay tuned.

Linus has discovered his feet and is getting very good at tummy time.

2008-10-23T20:01:00.002-05:00

Please refer to these pictures for more details.

Linus, early-October 2008

Connection: Made! Or, How I Met Linus's Father

2008-10-21T19:21:00.006-05:00

Holidays have always been important in Dan's and my relationship. We started dating on my half-birthday (yes, it's a holiday. I celebrate it.). The first time we dropped the L-bomb was on Halloween. We got married on St. Patrick's Day. I was living with someone named Jaime Christmas, whose birthday is on Groundhog's Day, when we met. And I'm sure there's more, but now there's this (and maybe I'm stretching a little bit, but...): today, on my first-friend-ever Paige's birthday, Dan and I have become almost famous.

The story of how I met Linus's father is a good one, and CNN.com has chronicled part of it here (and, for the time being, it's also on the homepage). It even has a photo--so now Linus's mug has been on CNN.com and in the St. Paul Pioneer Press (he was in utero, and the picture ran on the day he was born...which was MOTHER'S DAY. Aw, snap!). Not too shabby for a 5-month old.

But the best picture of all has to be the one that resulted from our most recent visit to Babies R Us, when a photo studio employee approached us and offered us a free 5x7 photo, no strings attached. What's even better is that it was a photo of Linus. Also, it's totally a Glamour Shot(tm). Check it:

This is the other photo that came out of the shoot, though we chose the previous one for our complimentary 5x7:

It's been a good couple of weeks for the Kottkes. There has been teething--oh yes, there has been teething--but that story can wait until next time.

Also: Happy birthday, Paige!

Point Break II: Surf's Up, Bitches!

2008-10-17T09:13:00.004-05:00

I have the day off and need to clean the house--oh, domesticity, how you have taken a stranglehold of my life!--but I wanted to update this here blog. Problem is, I don't have the time to do it at the moment. So I shall leave you with this:

Fingers crossed that Linus will some day have a mane like that.

The bear suit stays!

2008-10-12T14:33:00.004-05:00

Thanks to all who voted. It was a close one, but common sense (it's WARM, people) and Linus's ridiculous cuteness won out.

Next: Linus gets a 100% free portrait sitting at Kiddie Kandids (sic) and a free 5x7. The result: awesome.

Our little bear is really becoming a little bear.

2008-10-06T19:19:00.005-05:00

The other day Dan made the mistake of not joining me on a trip to Babies 'R Us, because apparently "warm hat, diapers, and some sort of jacket," turns into "awesome aviator coat, hoodie, 228 diapers, fuzzy hat with puppy ears, bathtub accessory, and giant bear suit for cold weather" when I go by myself. I'll admit that I got a little carried away, and we've sorted out what we actually need versus what I'm going to return this Friday (damn this new budget with goals!). There IS one thing, though, that we're torn on: the bear suit. We had a brief photo shoot earlier tonight and now we'll leave it up to you, dear reader(s?). Cast your vote. The bear suit's fate is in your hands.

poll by twiigs.com

NEW PICTURES! And not much else.

2008-10-05T20:46:00.011-05:00

I've dropped the updating-this-blog-2-3x/week-ball lately, so I'm going to attempt to make up for it by posting some pictures of a cute baby. More specifically, pictures of Linus. Also included in this batch are photos from ~~Homecoming 2008: Underwater Wonderland~~ Dan's office's anniversary party. We got all dolled up and hired a babysitter (okay, okay so it was my best friend Kate's little sister, but it was still our first non-family member babysitter EVER, which was kind of a big deal. For me.) and went to swanksville.

There's also a photo shoot of Linus in the Bumbo. I sit him on the kitchen table in the morning and he watches me eat cereal. While drooling:

Wait, wait, there's more!! There are pictures from the Twin Cities Marathon, which my brother-in-law (pending April 2010) Todd, and a bunch of other idiots, ran today in the cold rain. Linus was there to cheer him on, complete with fan gear:

And finally, while we waited for Todd post-marathon, Linus shared with us, ever-so-subtly, how he felt about being schlepped around in the Bjorn in the cold weather:

View all of these and more, here:

Linus, Sept 08 part II, Oct 08 part I

Linus and the Neverending Cold

2008-09-23T20:13:00.006-05:00

Remember that awesome movie "The Neverending Story"? And how it was supposedly neverending but then it actually DID end, after the third movie and a couple of failed attempts at a TV show? And how maybe it should have actually been called "The Neverending Story: The Trilogy" so as not to raise ~~my hopes~~ the hopes of children everywhere that a new movie would come out every year forever and ever amen?

My point is, (other than I [heart] Jonathan Brandis) even something that was supposed to be neverending ended, so I have hope that Linus's stubborn-ass cold will eventually make like the Emptiness and GO AWAY. Linus has had the sniffles for 2-weeks now--and by "sniffles" I mean "I can't believe how much snot he must be packing to be able to snort like that when he breathes." And then a cough kicked in the last few days. We feel so bad for the kid. Linus has actually been very happy and chipper through it all. He's not eating or sleeping quite as well, but it's nothing too bad. But I can't help but think that he's getting more than a little frustrated by having obstructed nasal passages. Or, more to the point, he's getting sick of me shoving a nasal aspirator in his nostrils all the damn time so I can go digging for some man-size boogs. And to top it off, the little bear has an ear infection which can't feel good (according to babycenter.com, one sign of an ear infection is "a foul odor emanating from the ear." Gross. And yes, I read that and did immediately smell Linus's ear. It smelled like baby.).

Other than the cold Linus has which may have been mixed with the flu which I then got for a day and gave to Dan in a much worse incarnation ("The Flu 2: Electric Boogaloo!"), plus teething pains, Linus is doing very well. He's all smiles and loveloveloves to hold his head up. And--MILESTONE!!!--he rolled over from his tummy to his back last weekend. Dan and I clapped and cheered and generally freaked Linus out when he did it, so I don't know if we'll be seeing that trick again soon.

This is beginning to turn into a neverending post (SWISH!), so that means it's time for me to have some chocolate milk. The end.

...OR IS IT???...

Vital Stats: Four Months

2008-09-13T21:10:00.012-05:00

Linus turned 4-months old last Thursday and had his check-up on Friday. As per usual, there is much to elaborate on (like how the Bear had his first--and second, and third--projectile vomits, and how he had to go to Urgent Care this morning for what we thought was an adverse reaction to his vaccinations but turned out to be an ear infection that developed sometime after his appointment, etc), but for now I'm just going to post Linus's vital stats because, well, because I'm feeling a little zombie-fied right now and am going to split a Sam Adams Octoberfest with Dan and stare at the TV. Aahhh.

Height: 25.5" (73rd percentile) / at 2-months: 24" (82%)
Weight: 14lb, 6.5oz (40%) / 12lb 5oz (60%)
Head Circumference: 17.24" (87%) / 16.26" (78%)

Martin, the nurse who works with our pediatrician, told us that Linus has a "HUGE melon." We already knew this, but it turns out that Linus is a real string bean in the weight-for-height category; he's in the 13th percentile. But he's still growing along nicely and Dr. K. was very impressed with his "trunk strength." She was probably just impressed because you'd have to be pretty damn strong to hold up a noggin like the one our kid is packin'. He really is getting strong--we just need to pump up the tummy time and he'll be sitting unassisted like it's his job.

And now, the monkey-turned-growth-marker has made another appearance. The first photo is at 1-week, the second is at 2-months, and the third is at 4-months (he's even sitting up). Wowza, right? I know. It's incredible.

To see more photos from the latest monkey shoot some cute ones of Dan and Linus, view the following:

Linus the Purple

2008-09-07T19:50:00.008-05:00

Tomorrow night the Minnesota Vikings will play their first game of the season. Dan is very excited. So is Linus:

I'm just sort of meh about it. I do tend to get caught up in it all as the season progresses. And the Fox broadcast team that includes Jimmy Johnson is awesome in a "It's funny. It's stupid. It's amusing. It's tedious. I want to stop watching. But I can't." sort of way. I love/hate the whole "lead dog" bit. God bless those grumpy old coaches.

Anyway.

My mom was in town over Labor Day weekend. It was so nice to have extra help with Linus (and it was nice to see her, too). Dan and I went on a date on Saturday night. We weren't sure what we were going to do, but then Dan suggested that we go downtown because "it makes me feel young." It's already come to this. But we did feel young, and managed to talk about things other than Linus, though he did make it into the conversation a time or two and was never far from our thoughts. We also went to a matinee of "Pineapple Express" while Grammy was in town. Love. That. Movie.

Right now little bear is starting to fuss because he's all stuffed up and needs to be aspirated which is REALLY going to piss him off and make him fussier. It's an ordeal, so I must go and prepare. I need my strength.

Photos! (note: for some reason I couldn't do the normal link feature that I use, so this slideshow link will have to do):

In Which Erin Displays Her Cluelessness

2008-09-06T09:59:00.007-05:00

For about a week-and-a-half now, Linus has been sleeping like crap. He's up 4-5 times a night, sometimes to eat, sometimes just to squirm around and be all smiley (it's hard to be frustrated when he's like that), sometimes because he wants his pacifier. This constant waking is particularly frustrating because we had about a week or two of awesomeness before this. He would go to sleep at 8:30pm, wake up to eat around 1am, sleep until around 4:30 when he would get up for an early breakfast, and then sleep again until it was time to get ready to visit his Spanish-speaking mommies. Dan and I woke up refreshed and not mean. Yesterday I had a check-up with our midwife and was telling her our woes, and she suggested I call our pediatrician, who is also her friend, because she said that Dr. K. is a pro and will know just what to do. So I called. Dr. K. was out, so I spoke with a nurse who said she had a pretty good idea of what Dr. K. would say. She said that it sounds like Linus isn't waking up because he's needy/lonely/missing his pacifer, he's waking up because he's hungry (which immediately made me feel bad about calling him a liar). She suggested that we give him a "weighted" bottle when he wakes up for the first time post-bedtime--which, these days, is around 11/11:30. It went like this:

Nurse: Try giving him a weighted bottle. Mix about 2 teaspoons of rice cereal with 4 ounces of breast milk. Make the hole in the nipple bigger by inserting a hot needle. This should help fill him up a little more and make him sleep better.

Me: Sooo...what, like, Rice Crispies? I should just go out and buy a box of Rice Crispies?

Nurse: Um, no. Rice cereal is specially made for infants. It's in the infant aisle.

Me: OH GOD. You must think I'm an idiot.

Nurse: No! Not at all. It's an understandable assumption for a first-time mom.

I swear she hesitated.

The thing is, I really don't want to start Linus on solids until he's 6-months old. He's still 5-days shy of 4-months. I also don't want to think that I'm not giving him enough food--and I know that I'm producing enough. So I made the terrible mistake of going online and researching this weighted bottle business. There are all these bully moms on message boards who are all, "DO NOT PUT RICE CEREAL IN A BOTTLE. YOUR CHILD WILL CHOKE AND DIE." And "They won't sleep better. It's an old wives tale." And "There's no nutritional value in rice cereal. You're just stuffing your child with something because you care more about your own sleep than his health."

I HATE THE INTERNET.

And, of course, there are the moms who are pro- weighted bottle and have had no problems with it. Some of these same moms started their respective children on solids at 6-weeks. "He just loves meat! Started eating it at one-month." Judging by Sarah Palin's intense affinity for moose burgers and moose stew, I can only assume these children are from Alaska. Or Montana. They love their beef in Montana.

Anyway, now we're torn. I didn't receive the advice directly from Dr. K.--if I had, Linus would have had a rice bottle last night. We want sleep, but we don't want to mess up Linus's digestive system. Or deal with smelly diapers (once they start solids, all hell breaks loose...breast-fed babies' poo smells a little like buttered popcorn). But we also don't want him to starve.

Last night was a little better. I also picked my friend Natalie's brain about her child's sleeping experience, and got some good, non-hysterical advice. There are a bajillion different parenting styles out there, but Natalie made the point that consistency is key. Do we Ferberize? Babywise? Healthy Sleep Happy Baby-ize? I think we kind of fall somewhere in the middle of all of those. Or maybe not close to any of them. I don't know. The good news is that Linus is pretty awesome in every department except for the sleep one, but this too shall pass. Or so says the internet.

Here's one picture for you. Linus gave Dan a hickey--in under 5 seconds. Seriously. The fact that Linus tried to extract milk from Dan's neck was our first clue that he was hungry. We're brilliant!

NEW! Collector's item: Linus bobblehead!

2008-09-01T21:23:00.009-05:00

My apologies for the severe posting drought. Quite a lot has happened since this thing was last in business. Here's the rundown: Linus had his first illness (and, subsequently, his first trip to Urgent Care), Dan officiated (ministered?) his first wedding, Grammy came to visit, and Linus rolled from his back to his tummy, all by himself. Perhaps I'll give a more detailed account of said events in the next few days. For the time being, however, it's time to show off our son's badass head-holding-up skills to the tune of another child prodigy's theme:

Video: Linus Kottke, M.D.

Famous Linuses, both real and fictional, OR, The Once and Future Linus

2008-08-20T22:13:00.002-05:00

We get a lot of, "Linus? Huh. That's a name you don't hear very often." Our midwife, who has been delivering (I think they actually use the term "catching," because I'm the one doing the delivering) babies for over 25 years, said that Linus is her "favorite and only Linus." Her only Linus! I view that as a point of pride, though I hope it doesn't give Linus any trouble down the road for having a less-than-common name. If we would've gone with with the middle name that Dan was [only sort of jokingly] pushing for, we would've had Linus Crimefighter Kottke. So really, the kid's got it easy.

Also, why NOT Linus? It's more classic than you might think, and it's high time it spent some time in the spotlight. As a friend of mine put it, Linus is "wry, intellectual, St. Paulish." It will never be an Aiden or a Jacob or one of those other perennial top 10-ers, but it does have a certain something going for it. And he's not alone. Herewith is a list of other Linuses of note:

Linus Van Pelt
Scholar. Theologian. Optimist. Unerringly loyal. Pitching ace (the baseball team only wins when Linus and his unhittable blanket take the mound). What's not to love about Charlie Brown's best friend? He's the rock of the Peanuts crew and preternaturally intelligent.

And there's this:

Ridicule of the habit [the ever-present security blanket] is not a major concern for him [Linus] as shown when one friend warned him at summer camp that he would be viciously teased for it. In response, Linus uses his blanket like a whip and shears off a tree branch with intimidating power and notes "They never tease me more than once."

All I'm sayin' is, you mess with the bull, you're gonna get the horns. Or something.

Linus Torvalds
This one gives our Linus some street cred amongst geeks. Torvalds is the Finnish software engineer who created the Linux operating system. I like to tell people that I know what that is.

Pope Linus
The second Pope ever. EVER!

Linus Roache
This is the actor who played the elder Mr. Wayne in Batman Begins, and now he plays a D.A. on Law and Order: SVU (which is the superior L&O series). Those are two awesome things in my book, so any associations to this Linus would be happy ones. Plus he just seems like a nice man--because, you know, I totally get his personality through his acting. That's how I know that Colin Firth and John Cusack and Paul Rudd and I would all get along really well.

Linus Pauling (who looks a lot like tennis great John McEnroe)
I was going to write something clever here about this American scientist, peace activist, and author, but I'll just let Wikipedia explain to you that this is one smart mofo:

Pauling was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists in any field of the 20th century. [He] was among the first scientists to work in the fields of quantum chemistry, molecular biology and orthomolecular medicine. He is one of a small number of individuals to have been awarded more than one Nobel Prize, one of only two people to receive them in different fields (the other was Marie Curie) and the only person in that group to have been awarded each of his prizes without having to share it with another recipient.

SWISH!

Linus (in Greek, Linos)
This one is confusing. Apparently in Greek mythology, Linus may refer to any of three sons of Apollo. One of them was torn apart by dogs when he reached adulthood, causing Apollo to send a child-killing plague to Argos. Another one was killed by Apollo during a contest. And the third one was a musician who was killed with his own lyre by Hercules. On the plus side, he was the inventor of melody and rhythm.

Linus Caldwell
Matt Damon's character in the Ocean's film series. And, truthfully, the impetus for our naming of our Linus. We were watching Ocean's 12 last November and we were in high "let's find the best name EVER for our unborn child" mode, and Linus Caldwell came along. I wasn't sold at first, and I was actually still waffling in the last two months pre-baby. But then, as these things always go in charming anecdotes, when we saw our baby, we knew that he was our Linus.

As for the middle name, Michael, it was a no-brainer. My Grandma said to my dad, "Aren't you just tickled that they named his middle name after you?" and my dad replied with, "Well, they named him after some Michael." While I do love the Michaels Jordan, J. Fox, Bluth, and etc, let's be honest and give my dad two points for modesty. Well played, Mr. T.

Note: All of this information came from a search for "Linus" on Wikipedia. I am a very thorough researcher.

Linus Michael Phelps*

2008-08-16T22:15:00.006-05:00

It appears as though we might have a future Olympic athlete on our hands. If wearing only half of your one-piece suit is any sort of qualifier.

*See what I did there? Linus's middle name is Michael, Phelps's first name is Michael...combine the two into one seamless chain, and BAM!...we've got a little Jeopardy!-style "Before & After" on our hands.

Videos!

2008-08-14T13:11:00.005-05:00

Video #1:

This was taken a couple of weeks ago. There's not much to it. It's just Linus trying to fit his fist in his mouth.

Video: [almost a] thumbsucker

Video #2:

Dan found a new game that Linus really likes. Apparently the L-train was giving a big, gummy, gurgly smile before I came over with the camera, but this is still pretty darn cute (if you ignore my snorty laugh). I'm not tech savvy enough to figure out how to rotate the video, so if you have a laptop, rotate it clockwise. If you have a desktop monitor, rotate your head counterclockwise. Go on, do it. No one's watching.

Video: Hands up

And here are a few pictures, many of them multiples of the same pose. We tend to have in-depth photo shoots 'round here.

Linus, early-mid August

I went to the doctor this morning to follow-up on my illness. The good news is that it's not strep. The other good news is that I'm feeling a lot better, other than a very stubborn sore throat that's causing me to drink a lot of my meals (I'm lookin' at you, Carnation Instant Breakfast). She told me to stay home from work today because my heart rate was still a bit fast and my muscle weakness--like, holding Linus for more than 5 minutes is exhausting--is still present. If I'm still feeling as weak/fatigued next week and I don't think it's related to being a new mom, I'm supposed to come back and be tested for mono. At this point I'm not contagious. Huzzah!

Because my milk supply started to seem a little low yesterday, I started taking fenugreek, a galactagogue (lactation-inducer/increaser/awesome word) recommended by Linus's pediatrician. This led to the following conversation at this morning's appointment:

Me: I started taking fenugreek to up my milk supply.
Doctor: Does your urine smell like maple syrup now?
Me: No. It smells like curried chicken broth.
[elongated silence]
I think the capsules smell like curry.
Doctor: Huh.

And then I went home.

A plague on both your houses. Or just ours.

2008-08-12T13:13:00.008-05:00

Some ill fortune has struck the Kottke home. In only my second week back at work, I have come down with either strep or mono. When I went to WebMD yesterday to check my symptoms (sore throat, chills, fever, weakness, headache), I was told that I had one of these possible things:

flu, viral pharyngitis, strep throat, common cold, bacterial pneumonia, tonsilitis, acute sinusitis, anthrax (inhaled), mononucleosis, heat exhaustion, lyme disease, mumps, thalassemia, tuberculosis, west nile virus, diabetes-type 2, malaria, sunburn, plague, tick bite.

That's right: the Plague. Not to mention TB and malaria. But, as I said, we've got it narrowed down to strep or mono. And thankfully, Linus is still in great health.

The doctor I went to seemed to have a flair for drama, which I always enjoy and appreciate. She looked at the back of my throat and said, "Oh, that's bad. That's really bad." After she took my pulse several times and it kept coming back abnormally fast, she said, "I don't normally tell this to people your age, but your heart rate is too high. I mean, I don't tell people that." And finally, she asked me how long I'm planning on breastfeeding Linus (one year), and she said that we're in "crisis mode" in terms of my milk supply--which started to get me worried. I'm pretty dehydrated, and that combined with my other symptoms can lead to a decreased supply. Dan can attest to the fact that I'm hypersensitive about all things supply related. I think it's probably a little annoying, actually. Worrying and stressing about it doesn't help, you know? She's essentially quarantined me to our home, which is really frustrating--but getting sicker by overdoing it isn't going to do anyone any favors.

Anyhoo. I'm at home now, trying to sleep as much as possible and sanitizing my hands before I touch anything. The doctor said I am not allowed to kiss Dan or Linus, but that neither one will suffer any long-term emotional damage from a few days of neglect. Poor Dan (who celebrated his birthday on Sunday) has stepped it up a notch and is being a genuine SuperDad. Or a SuperDan, if you will.

Enough now. I'm off to nap, but first, here are two/too cute pictures of Linus, who turned 3-months old yesterday:

The Bear Cub Learns Spanish: Week One

2008-08-09T16:16:00.004-05:00

Last Monday, Linus began his stint at daycare.

DAY ONE: As expected, the first day was really, really hard (on me, at least). When I walked into the infant room, I passed him off to one of his teachers so I could fill out some paperwork and go over the daily drop-off routine. In the meantime, the teacher holding Linus walked away to attend to some of the other children, so I think she was a little surprised when I came over and tapped her on the shoulder and asked if I could have him back. I can't really communicate with his teachers all that well because I don't speak much Spanish and they speak limited English, but the sight of me crying all over Linus's head was a pretty clear declaration of why I asked to hold him again. Once I got to work, though, I was very under control. I was really happy to see my co-workers (one of whom welcomed a baby boy to his family on the Friday before I returned) and I was so focused on digging right in to my new responsibilities (I got a promotion right before I left) that it made it easier to not fixate on Linus. That night, Linus slept amazingly well and only woke up once or twice. Awesome. Apparently he was NOT happy to take the bottle, though,--which secretly made me a little happy, because it goes to show that he prefers his mama--and we were told to give him one that night to help get him used to it.

DAY TWO: MUCH easier. Silvia and Yovanni gave Linus kisses when I passed him off to them and kept talking to him and calling him "precioso." I'm happy that they like him there. Slept like an angel again.

DAY THREE: Starting to get a little tired, and happy that I only work 4 days a week now. Linus left the house wearing a cute little romper with an octopus on it, and came home wearing a onesie and pants. I wonder if the volume of Linus's blowouts is comparable to the other babies. He's pretty impressive. More good sleep. God bless daycare and the amount of stimulation Linus receives.

DAY FOUR: The drop-off was harder again, for some reason. He's started to take the bottle better and ate a full 7oz today. Evenutally he should get up to 10-12, I think. Linus didn't sleep well at night and I considered taking him in to daycare on Friday, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I was happy to spend the day with him, even though it left me exhausted. Also, we think he's started to pre-teeth, which makes him fussy. I mean, teeth are pushing their way through his gums. I feel for the guy.

So there's that. One week done, and it's only going to get easier from here.

Rush Hour 4 or the Beijing Police?

2008-08-08T18:06:00.004-05:00

It's the latter. Happy Olympics Day! Here is a photo of Linus keeping the streets of Beijing safe with the police. Enjoy.

Next: Linus's first week at daycare, and Erin's first week as a working mother.

BatLinus. Or Linusman. Batnus?

2008-08-05T22:35:00.004-05:00

On Sunday, Dan and I left Linus with Dan's sister and went to an early showing of "The Dark Knight." For the sake of brevity, and because it's late, I will just say this: it was every bit as awesome as I had heard. I'm a little flummoxed (yes, flummoxed) by the fact that it's rated PG-13, though, because there were parts of the movie that were absolutely terrifying. This wasn't one of them:

Later: more. Now: bedtime.

Someone please control me and my hormones. Thank you.

2008-08-01T18:29:00.007-05:00

Yesterday I took Linus to my office so everyone could see him again--they first met him about 6 weeks ago--and so I could pick up a couple of things before returning to work this Monday. I called Dan after the visit.

Dan: How'd it go?
Me: Okay. Good. I cried.
Dan: At what point?
Me: When my boss asked me if I'm excited to come back to work.

Yikes.

I did elaborate, though, that I have mixed emotions. Sometimes (fussy times), I think that it will be nice to have a little break from Linus, to be around adults (though sometimes authors behave like little children), to be able to eat lunch uninterrupted and at a normal time every day. But other times (most of the time), I dread giving Linus up to daycare. I know it's not as dramatic as all that, because millions of people have babies and work. And truth be told, I don't think I could be a stay-at-home mom for 5 days a week. Three or four, definitely, but five would be pushing it. I like that I get to be creative at my job, and I like my coworkers. But I really really like my son. The good news is that I'm only going back to work for four days a week, so I'll still have every Friday--plus the weekends, of course--to spend lots of quality time with Linus. And I'm sure that after the first couple of weeks of dropping him off at daycare, I'll be able to make it through the day without crying. I am just. So. Sensitive. Oh, the drama! Dan reminded me that this is one of those, "Our little boy is all grown up" moments, and there will be many more of those to come.

On Tuesday I took Linus by his daycare so he could meet his teachers and I could ask my bajillion questions (What do I need to bring? How should I store his milk? How much should I bring? Do you have a swing that he can sleep in? Because he really likes swings. And so on and so forth ad infinitum.) The place we're taking him to is so, so wonderful. It's bilingual (Spanish/English) and very eco-friendly--they use cloth diapers, serve homemade, organic food, and they use the same type of sort of expensive bottles that we use that are BPA-free. Linus's teacher is a Baby Whisperer. The infants are all infatuated with her, and Linus smiled at her (I, however, got teary. But I'm so happy he's in good hands.). It was naptime in the infant room and they all started crying in unison when we walked in. The teacher went into the nap room and within 30 seconds, there was total silence. It was incredible.

The point is, we can't imagine a better daycare for Linus. He'll make little baby friends and eventually he'll be able to speak Spanish (and English too, if we hold up our side of the bargain). And what's more is that I warned the director of the daycare that I will probably be a sobbing wreck on Monday when I leave, and she assured me that most people are on the first (and second and third and...) day, and that I am always welcome to call and see how he's doing, or come by over lunch. She said that this is a "team effort," and I like that. There's no "you're abandoning your boy" in team.

The Bear Cave

2008-07-30T14:29:00.007-05:00

Today is a photos-only day because it's also bath day and bath time is nigh. Hence, I now present to you: Linus's nursery. We didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, so we went with bright blue walls in the nursery to be mildly gender unspecific. Dan painted a seriesof colorful birdie paintings, we bought some cloud and plane wall decals from Blik, used my childhood crib and dresser, and painted the awesome bookshelf that I found in the dumpster by my first apartment in Minneapolis. Only the best for our kid! All in all, I think we did a pretty good job on a shoestring budget. You make the call:

Nursery

Hanging over the changing station is a mobile that I got while on Spring Break with Kate and Kate during--sophomore year, was it?--college.

We drove down to Kate J's (now H's) house in Texas, and went to Mexico for a day, which is where I purchased said mobile. It just seems strange to me, looking back and knowing what I know now, that the souvenir I bought when I was 20 would later become the thing that my future child loves to smile at unfailingly. Same with the bookshelf--when I was lugging it up the stairs to my one-bedroom apartment and I was still a year away from meeting Dan, I was thinking "With a deep scrub, this will be a great place to store my CDs," not, "I can really see a mound of stuffed animals sitting on top of this in a couple of years." And the rug Dan got for a mis-priced bargain while he was still in Kansas. And just about every other item in the room. All of it bought earlier during some completely different life stage peopled with formerly significant characters, now neatly converged into a room for our son. It's bizarre, really. Everything serves its purpose, you know?

So much for just photos. I can't help it--I've been told I'm a talker. Now, off to clean our smelly little baby.

Busy, busy times here at the Kottke abode

2008-07-29T18:31:00.001-05:00

Hence the lack of updates. My goal is to post something tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Frank Gehry and his new pavillion for London's Serpentine Gallery:

2008-07-24T10:09:00.004-05:00

Well played, Mr. Gehry. Well played, indeed.

The answer is a resounding "no."

2008-07-23T11:27:00.003-05:00

One of the questions I get most frequently when discussing Linus is, "Is he sleeping through the night?" In short, Linus likes to party. This was last night:

Dan gets Linus to sleep at 11:30pm.

Linus wakes up to eat and visit from 2:15am to 2:45am.

Linus wakes up at 3:30am and I pretend he doesn't. Dan tells me that Linus is awake and might be hungry. I inform Dan that Linus just ate 1 hour and 15 minutes ago, so there's no way he's hungry (that's not true, by the way. Sometimes babies do what are called "cluster feedings" and eat several times in a small period of time and then go for a longer stretch, say, 4-5 hours, without eating.). I [ever so gently, and with great maternal-ness] shove a pacifier in the child's mouth.

I keep putting the pacifier back into Linus's mouth every 10 minutes until 4:15am when I decide that, yes, he must be hungry.

Linus eats and visits from 4:15am to 4:30am.

And the rest is all a blur. I think he woke up again at 7am, which is when Dan gets up. Then our routine is that I take Linus out of the bassinet and lay him on my chest (this is my favorite part of the morning) and we sleep for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. There is a direct correlation between how long we sleep like that and how good of a mother and person I am that day.

Right now Linus is sitting in his vibrating chair and looking around and kicking and punching his way out of the swaddle I put him in. I used to feel bad about setting him down and not entertaining him every minute he was awake and unfussy, but then I read in Parents magazine that it's okay to do that if you want a break (like to update your blog while drinking a cup of coffee, for example). And if they say it's okay, then I'm going to go ahead and take their word for it that our child will not lose IQ points because of my momentary negligence.

So no, Linus is not sleeping through the night like one of those miracle babies you hear about but never meet (they're like the Yeti of infants). But he's getting better at it, and some days I even wake up feeling pretty refreshed. We'll get there.

The most photographed baby on the block.

2008-07-22T14:48:00.005-05:00

Here is the latest batch of Linus photos:

"He's one long, lean drink of water."

2008-07-21T13:30:00.007-05:00

Linus had his 2-month check-up last week, and it went very well. It was hard to watch him get his first vaccinations--oh, the pain! What a brave little boy--but he's in overall very good health. Here are the stats:

Height: 24" (82nd percentile)
Weight: 12lb 5oz (60%)
Head circumference: 16.26" (78%)

As his pediatrician put it, "he's one long, lean drink of water." 'Atta boy.

Linus's Uncle Nate gave him a fuzzy, stuffed monkey when he was born, and we decided to use it for a growth marker.

Here they are around week 1:

And here they are approximately 2 months later:

I can't get over how much he's already changed in such a short amount of time. And now I have to go back to work in 2 weeks. Le sigh...

2008-07-15T14:03:00.004-05:00

This morning Linus and I went to the doctor's office for a visit with Mary Jane, the lactation consultant we've seen a few times. I've been having concerns that perhaps my milk supply is getting low (breastfeeding is seriously more complicated than you'd think...that, and I'm a nervous nelly of a first-time parent who over analyzes everything because I don't know what I'm doing). Visiting with an LC is a very reassuring experience--and it's covered by my insurance plan. The way it works is that you bring in your hungry, and quite possibly fussy, baby, the nurse weighs him pre-feeding, the LC watches you feed him to make sure you have a proper latcher and all of that, and then the baby gets weighed again so you know exactly how much milk he just ate. It's really pretty incredible (and while we're on the subject of incredible things, let me just throw in there that breastfeeding is pretty awesome. I mean, I'm feeding a human being with my breasts. And it's the perfect food for him, and it's free--and anyone who knows me knows I loves me a bargain. Ask me where I got this shirt and I'll tell you, and then mention that I only paid $5 for it. I can't help myself. The best deal I ever got was a Timbuk2 bag, which retails for something like $60-70, for one dollar at a flea market. ONE DOLLAR!! It had a small stain on it, but a little soap took it right out. I've been basking in my bargainville coup for about three years now. But I digress.).

Anyway, Linus only ate 1.2 oz, which isn't very good (he should be eating between 2.5 and 4 oz). BUT, he has gained a pound in the past two weeks, so that puts him at gaining an ounce a day, which is very good. So we concluded that his meal-on-demand was, in fact, merely a snack, and that perhaps the Linus is not a fan of having my attention divided while he is eating, as evidenced by the fit he pitched mid-meal. Or maybe he just wasn't hungry. In any case, everything seems to be okay. But because I am still that nervous nelly of a first-time parent who over analyzes everything because I don't know what I'm doing that I mentioned earlier, I will continue to drink my Mother's Milk tea for peace of mind.

Since I've last given an update, Linus has taken four plane rides (two to IL, two back to MN). He did very, very well. He sat on my or Dan's lap and pretty much slept the whole way. Dan had to fly back early to go to work, so Linus and I were flying solo (ha! We were literally flying! I love it when things just work out.). It wasn't easy to wrangle a little baby and a large stroller and a diaper bag by myself, but the kindness of a few strangers and a mostly-angelic baby made it a lot easier. And for the record, I'm getting pretty damn good at discreetly breastfeeding in public. Right now my list of places includes the Metrodome, several planes, and three airports. The trip home was great. Linus met his second cousin Owen, who was born 4 days after the bear cub. He also met his Great Grandmas and Great Aunts (and his Great GREAT Aunts, and his Aunt Linda the Great), all of my cousins and their children, and Pippy, the mangy mutt we've had since I was 10. Linus also made his first visit to the University of Illinois. I think it brought a tear to my parents' collective orange and blue eye.

Here are approximately one bajillion photos (or maybe 80...I've never been good with numbers) from the trip:

4th of July (and a few before)

Linus Chevalier, Or, I am the next Wes Anderson.

2008-07-12T19:45:00.001-05:00

No time for an update at the moment, but I will post this video to fend off any baby cravings you may be having (I'm lookin' at you, Grammy). There's not much to see here. It's just Linus, laying on the couch, making the rock star sign with his hand, and sucking on his Soothie (TM) pacifier. I love watching him suck on that thing because you can see his little mouth moving inside. My handy camera work tries to capture said movement--to the tune of "Where Do You Go to (My Lovely)."

Videos!

Linuspalooza 2008

2008-07-08T17:32:00.002-05:00

Right now Linus and I are in Illinois on a whirlwind trip across the cornfields. We fly back to Minnesota tomorrow night, so look for an update in the next couple of days, complete with pictures (and video! Wowza!).

The Great Smile Watch of 2008 has ended. Kind of.

2008-07-02T11:44:00.004-05:00

The first several weeks of living with a newborn are all givegivegive without much feedback. Babies don't give a social smile until sometime between 5 and 8 weeks, on average. Up until then, they smile reflexively while they're sleeping and Linus smiles when he passes gas. It can be a little frustrating to coo and tickle and sing to the baby and not get the reaction you want, which is a great big grin (and we've seen Linus's grin in his sleep, and it's freaking adorable). You start wondering if you're nothing but a pair of ta-tas to the kid. The good thing is that he appears to know my voice. Also, it's not like he doesn't make quite a few other expressions.

Anyway, Linus is 7 and a half weeks old now, and for the past couple of weeks I've been pleading with him at least once every day to give me a smile. Yesterday morning I was playing with him, trying to engage him, etc, and then Dan comes home from lunch, and BAM! Linus smiles at him. Twice! I was so happy that we were both there to see it, but because I'm emotional and competitive, I got all teary because A). It was a great moment, and B.) I'm convinced that Linus hates me. All in good time, I'm sure. But really, it was amazing to see him smile. It makes all of the late nights and fussiness worth it. Now that he's given a social smile, I'm not sure what happens next: does he smile regularly? Is it going to be a few more days before it happens again? I suppose it doesn't really matter, because we've already received that gratification we've been waiting for. But it should've been for me. But I'm over it now. (But it should've been.).

Only kidding. Kind of.

[EDIT: Oh! And what's more is that when Dan got home from work last night, we both swear that Linus said "Da" (as in "Dad," when the second D is silent). Granted, he was probably just going through a list of noises, but still...the kid is a total Daddy's boy.]

Our boy is a champ!

2008-06-30T16:42:00.003-05:00

I took Linus in for a weight check today, and the little guy is up to 11 pounds 8 ounces (he was 7lb9oz at birth). ELEVEN AND A HALF POUNDS! The dude is a beast. His whole "I'm really hungry every 2 hours, sometimes less" is clearly part of his master plan to become a flame-throwing lefty for the Twins.

"This guy! I love this guy! Can you believe this guy?!"

2008-06-27T19:03:00.005-05:00

Linus sends his love from Hollywood. We're starting to question the company he's keeping...

2008-06-26T15:14:00.001-05:00

When caring for a newborn all by yourself (that is, while Dan's at work), you are forced to count basic tasks as victories. Unload the dishwasher? Awesome! Take a shower? Great! Put on deodorant and brush your teeth? Bonus points! Eat more than a Fiber One bar? Now you're cookin'! The problem comes when you are forced to make choices and prioritize. Let's say Linus has gone down for a nap. A "nap" can last anywhere between 5 minutes and 2 hours. It all depends on how smooth the transition from sleeping in my arms to sleeping in the bassinet goes. The 5 minute nap usually happens when he wakes up and realizes that he's alone and no longer nuzzled in mama's bosom (his favorite place to be at this age). He screams, I pick him up, he falls back asleep on me, and the whole process starts over. The 2 hour nap happens when he's really and truly tired. I'm still trying to figure out when that is (and how it happens). SO. When given baby-free time of 5 minutes to 2 hours, one is faced with options of how to spend that time. The options look something like this:

1. Eat, but be tired and smelly.
2. Nap, but be hungry and smelly.
3. Shower, but be tired and hungry.
4. Update this blog, and kick yourself later when you are tired, hungry, and smelly (note: at the moment, Linus is sleeping on my chest, so items 1-3 are currently out of the question. For the record.).

Yesterday I managed to eat, nap, and shower, and let me tell you, I was very, very impressed with myself. Inevitably, today was not quite as successful. I should've guessed that it could only go downhill from there. But I have--at last, and after a solid hour+ of crying (I won't say by who)--a happily drooling baby, and that in and of itself is quite a victory.

***No pictures today, I'm afraid. Linus went to his first kickball game the other night (Dan plays in a rec league), but I didn't take any pictures because Linus isn't very good at kickball yet (maybe next Tuesday! His fielding skills could really use some work). Also, I didn't bring the camera.

Firsts. But not the cool kind, like first smiles or first steps.

2008-06-22T21:03:00.006-05:00

Linus and I shared a very special moment the other day. I was changing his very poo-filled diaper and was just lifting up his legs and sliding the new, clean diaper under him when it hit me: projectile poop. It hit my hand. It hit the changing pad like like a paint splatter. And the crib that sits a few feet back. And the floor vent near the crib. In short, it was disastrous. The damage wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't been holding up Linus's legs and inadvertently pointing his bum like a cannon. I was able to snap a quick (and crude) photo before Linus started fussing:

The picture doesn't really do the scene justice, but I assure you: it was glorious.

Other highlights from the past week include Linus's first Twins game and Aunt Melissa's graduation from her MBA program. He wore a tuxedo for the latter engagement. That makes TWO public appearances, not counting things like doctor appointments and trips to Target and such. I think we're starting to get the hang of things. Photos:

Linus, week 6

Aunt Lori and Uncle Todd on the scene

2008-06-16T13:46:00.004-05:00

Lori and Todd are here! Here's proof, plus Tuffy and Linus' first picture together (if you exclude the one I took with my phone where Tuffy happened to be sleeping on the floor in the background). Brothers!

Linus, week 5

I have a sleeping baby in one arm (which is a really nice feeling, both because he is nice and cuddly but also because he is sleeping), so I'm typing all of this one-handed. I won't say how long it's taken. Point is, this will be the extent of the update at this time.

Guest blogger: Linus K.

2008-06-15T10:08:00.003-05:00

This week from the L-train...

2008-06-07T19:09:00.007-05:00

My grand attempt to update this blog frequently with Linus updates has been thwarted by the fact that Linus is a newborn and demands most of my time. Somehow I didn't see that one coming.

At the moment, Dan has the situation under control (Linus is sleeping), but it could be eatin' time at any minute, so I'll be brief. Yesterday was bath day at the Kottke house--Dan and I try to bathe/shower daily, but Linus is on the 3-4 day plan--and a miracle happened: Linus didn't pitch a fit during his bath and almost seemed to enjoy the whole ordeal. We've been giving him sponge baths up to this point because he was so little that he was sliding down in the infant tub, but he's bulked up considerably in the past couple of weeks, so we gave it another try. This was the result:

To see the rest of the photos from the past week, including pictures of Linus in the awesome Kangaroo Korner (www.kangarookorner.com) baby carrier I bought for him, click on the thumbnail below. That's all for now!

Linus, week 4

Linus is here! Or, the Best Mother's Day Ever

2008-05-25T16:55:00.003-05:00

Dan and I welcomed our adorable and squirmy little son, Linus, into the world on Mother's Day. He was10 days early, which was particularly unexpected seeing as I had just been to see the midwife a few days earlier and was still 0 cm dilated and 0% effaced. I suppose that's why all of the pregnancy books tell you that numbers don't really matter when it comes to things like these (I beg to differ, though: when it comes to being 9cm or 10cm, numbers definitely matter...like, painfully matter). Originally we had planned on having an unmedicated birth, but that went out the window after I had been in labor for a solid 15 hours and was only at 4cm. I'm happy that I attempted it, but equally happy that I gave in to the sweet siren song of the epidural. The pain relief allowed me to take a nap and relax a little bit before the Big Push (which was still a solid 8 hours away). I always thought that an epidural would be completely incapacitating--which it is, sort of, but not nearly to the degree I imagined. I was still able to move my legs around and the medication was perfectly measured so that I could still feel the urge to push when the time came. That was the thing I was most worried about, because I was afraid that being unable to feel while pushing would inevitably lead to a c-section. Instead, I started pushing at about 7:20 on Sunday night and little Linus sprung forth (um...sprung forth? Just go with it.) at 9 PM sharp, complete with his tiny hand next to his head the entire way. Thanks, little man.

So now the little bear (we've also taken to calling him "little chicken" because he clucks when he hiccups) is 14-days old and has miraculously survived being at home with his inexperienced Mommy and Daddy.

Click on the freaking adorable picture below to see some pictures from the first 2 weeks of Linus' life. He met a lot of people, including Grammy and Grandpa Tuttle, Grandma and Grandpa Brown, cousin Emily (who shares the same birthday, only three years earlier), and lots of other friends and family. He also took a couple of baths, peed on a lot of cute outfits, and donned his first ever University of Illinois garb.

Linus! The first 2 weeks.