Being snowed in...well, at least for Oregon

Oregon's a little strange, at least the Willamette Valley is. Other places get snow a foot deep, and it barely fazes them (at least, as long as the snowplow guys don't pile 12' of snow in Kate's yard, anyway). Salem gets a couple of inches, and people have to stay home. I reconcile it by observing that the people that aren't fazed by snow have never seen Oregonians driving in the rain.

Here's Red, Thing 1, and the Little Pirate headed out for a stroll earlier this afternoon. As I couldn't drive anywhere, I went along with the gang for the photo op.


One of the area middle schools has a hill that is simply awesome for kid-sledding. Red swiped some kid's sled, plunked the little guy on it, and took him for a ride. I think he looks bored....although he was pretty stoked when he got to the bottom and realized that it was fun.

Dinosaur's First Snow

Snow, you say?

RAWR!!!!!!!

Gratuitous baby photos, November edition

I shot both of these yesterday morning. He was sitting on Red's lap right between two picture windows, the light was great, and he was having a great time giggling. I actually had a hard time getting a decent shot of him because he wouldn't quit moving around. :)

Gratuitous baby photos

Two bits of awesome

Two things happened simultaneously.

I read this post. That is the funniest thing I've seen in AGES.

As I was recovering from the hilarity, I looked over and saw the Little Pirate in the baby swing we just got for him, snoozing away. Snuggles (one of the cats) walked up with a very concerned look on his face, and tried to look into the swing as it was going down, but he misjudged it and got smacked in the face when it came back up....and ran away. It was great.

Of Poo and Parenting

My son was less than a full day old when he demonstrated the bare essence to me of what boys are all about. Red and I were giving him a bath (the one right before the picture in the last post, in fact), and Red had put a washcloth across his boy business. I didn't realize immediately that she knew something I didn't, that being that it was not for sanitation, but for protection. I moved the washcloth, intending to scrub down his legs, and before Red could warn me, he whizzed all down the front of me from about 2' away. I was amazed.

And then there was yesterday, the Little Pirate's first day home. He'd had a messy diaper, and I was changing him. I'd gotten just to the point of hoisting feet in the air and cleaning off the butt with a wipe, and with the sort of loud irreverent noise that most teen boys congratulate one another for, he hosed a cone area to my right with a scattershot of flying poo. I was astounded, not just because of the volume, but the pressure. I've got to get him one of these if they still have them in baby sizes.

Red and I took the Little Pirate to see the pediatrician for a weight check this morning, and while in the car on the way, we had a very calm, rational discussion that went something like this:

"I'm hungry."
"Are you? You want to stop & get a latte or something before we get back to the house?"
"Yeah. Oh, hey, don't let me forget to ask the pediatrician when we're in there about the diarrhea (Little Pirate) has been having. I'm wondering if that's why he'd had that weight loss, he seems really gassy."
"Well, when you changed him this morning, was it dark greenish/black, or was it a mustard brownish-yellow? If it's a kind of yellow color, that's just him adjusting to eating breast milk."
"Oh, okay. Oh, here's the coffee stand."
-=laughing=- "You realize you're now officially a parent, right?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, we just talked about getting something to eat and the color and composition of poop in the same conversation,...and you didn't even blink. Congrats, Dad."
"I'm totally blogging that."

End of a long day

Here's my little guy, having had his second bath of the day, a good solid meal, and nice warm Mommy to lie next to. He's been conked out like this most of the day, actually.

World, meet baby. Baby, meet world

I'll have more either later this evening or tomorrow - most of the rest of the photos I've taken so far of the little guy are of him bare-ass nekkid, and nobody needs to see that. :)

This was taken this morning, just after the nurses had cleaned him off a bit. He hadn't been measured, had vitals taken (beyond the first check-everything battery they do), had his first bath or meal yet; they put him in Red's arms for a snack and this was one of the few close-ups I took right then. More to come!