Week 11- Drools and Valentines

By Dad
Roland is having a lot of growth and this week was full of examples of that.
Sunday he came out to my race, the third biathlon of the three-race series that started the day he was born. It was very cool to have Angela and him there. He was a great boy the whole time, got up fine in the morning and was good with all the people at the race. Lots of friends were run/swimming that morning and of course everyone wanted to say hi and hold him. He's been great getting passed around whenever we've done that. Guess he's a social kid.
After the race we went over to Andy's house, a training partner of mine, for waffles and so Andy and his wife could spend time with Roland. Really, Hiromi, Andy's wife, bribed us over with waffles so she could hold the tiny human. It worked. It'll work again.
The 14th was a big day for Roland. After school I rushed to meet mom and him at Tripler hospital for a doctors appointment. He was born with a condition called hypospadias, which I'm not going to go too deeply into so follow the link if you want to know more. In his case it isn't a serious problem, but we were told to go see a urologist at around two months for more information. After doing his examination the doctor told us that while Roland doesn't absolutely 100% need corrective surgery, based on his experience and what he sees he suggests it. The deformity could cause problems later in life and the easy surgery can fix that. They won't do surgery like this on infants under six months because their tiny size makes the anesthesia tricky and dangerous. So in a few months we will schedule a pre-op and meet his surgeon and then one of the last things we do before moving to the mainland will be taking Roland in for surgery. At the moment, neither of us are too concerned, but that's sure to change as we sit in the waiting room in June. We both agreed easily that surgery was the right choice for a variety of reasons. Other than the hypospadias he's a completely healthy baby, so we don't have anything to complain about.
When we got home from the doctor it was time for Valentine's Day! (Correction- We stopped at Target on the way home from the doctor because it's on the way and it's wife's favorite store and I'm a romantic.) I bought Roland a Valentine's Day card because he should get one and it had a ninja hamster on it and OF COURSE THE TINY BOY NEEDS A CARD WITH A NINJA HAMSTER ON IT! Grammy also sent him a onesie (that is the dumbest looking word and there is no way to spell it correctly) and a card.
We've been noticing he's been making lots of bubbles and drooling in the last week and a half or so. At first we thought, "No, please don't be teething already." But the wife is strong in the Google-fu and found that nope, drools are a normal two month benchmark. The only issue with it is he's not all about the swallowing yet, so sometimes he'll be nearly asleep only to *GASPCHOKEGASP* and wake himself, upset and frustrated.
He continues to go bald, which is pretty funny. The sides of his head and getting thinner and thinner, but not the top. Pretty soon the little cannonball is going to have a mohawk whether he wants one or not.
He's taken to sucking on his fist sometimes when we hold him, which we are trying to gently discourage by giving him his pacifier (sucker) instead. I don't want him being a thumb sucker and we figure the pacifier can be taken away. Rather get him used to using that than his hand.
He's become a flier too. A few times a day, sometimes to calm him down and sometimes just for fun, I'll pick him up and fly him around. He makes the cutest face, looking around while I hold him up in the air making engine noises and zooming sounds. He's not in an airplane, and he's not Superman. Nope, when we fly he's Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, zipping around in his Iron Man suit.  
I still only see him when he's asleep before I go to work and then when he's had a long day of refusing to take a decent nap after school, so I get the fussier boy a lot of the time. Which is ok. Sometimes I pick him up when he's sleepy and his head drops, bonk, right on to my chest and he has a big sigh and relaxes. That makes every frustration with school and the people I work with ok. And sometime I sneeze or blow my nose and it startles him. He's funny, we can watch Breaking Bad and he's fine, but blow you nose and holy crap what was that gaaaaaaahhhh.

Winner: Most Adorable

"Daaaaad, you're gross and salty!"

Hangin' with Anne of Team Bloody Mary

He hates his car seat mostly less now

Hiromi misses having tiny people

Bribed with waffles!

Andy took third place in his age group AND got to hold the cutest baby ever. Good day.

Seriously, he enjoyed holding Roland so much

In the waiting room at Tripler

Blue Steel

El Tigra

My chair...it vibrates!

Bshhhhhhhhrrrrrshhhrrmmmmmwooosh pew pew pew

Position players reported, he needed to support the Blue!

Valentine's Day present!

To Cannonball  (complete with flash-blinded blink)

Ninja hamster because NINJA HAMSTER!!!

Magnum

He's a little ball of snuggle love

"Jarvis, I need more power."

Week 10- Home Alone (with pictures and video)

By Dad
Week ten was Mom and Cannonball's first real week alone together. All of the other weeks had been full of vacations, traveling, or visiting relatives. From what I could tell every day when I came home it went great. Roland is a great little boy and he was having good days. He'd sleep, eat, sleep some more, then be up for a while.
What that meant for me is when I finally got home from work he'd sometimes be a grumpy, tired baby in need of a nap. Naps were once again EVIL and must be stopped. I must admit, it wasn't fun the first time I came home from work and a swim to pick him up and have him start crying right away. I blame the chlorine smell.
Roland got to watch his first Super Bowl. I know it's silly, but it was neat to hang out with the boy during the biggest football game of the year. Yes, it would have been cool if he had been born [FEMALE NAME REDACTED] instead too. It's not a gender thing, it's a We're probably going to do this every year and sometimes it'll be on your mom's birthday and we'll have to do something nice for her too that day tradition thing.
Roland has been getting so much bigger. I think not seeing him all day is making that feeling more intense. He's stronger too, when we do tummy time he hold his head up like a champ. And he likes to stand. We support him upright and he plants his feet. I'm quite sure, said the proud if delusional father, that if he had the proper balance he'd be standing and walking already.
The other funny thing that's happening is to his head. He's going bald. They told us to expect him to start rubbing the hair off with all the time he spends on his back but I didn't really believe it. Nope, hair is definitely disappearing.  But only around the high sides. Soon he's going to be Jean Luc Picard.
Roland is tracking things better every day with his eyes and I think he's going to start reaching soon. He's not yet, but the thought process of what are these things attached to my arms is happening. It's so much fun to stand him up and watch him meercat around (Angela's term, he does it in the Ergo too). I want to know what he sees and what he's thinking.
He's adorable, he's being the best baby, and we couldn't be happier.

By Mom
 This was my first full week on my own as a Mama.  The week started with my birthday, and it ended up being a good thing that for my first full on meal from scratch was something that could wait.  Roland must have spent too much time awake during the day because right around the time my cooking was finishing up he started in on the I-will-never-sleep-again road.  Daddy tried to keep him calm as long as he could, but once my roast was out of the oven to rest I took over to nurse him.  Usually when he gets all worked up he can't eat because he can't cry, breathe, and eat all at the same time.  I knew he was tired so I took him to bed to nurse.  He calmed down for me eventually, then made eye contact while cooing at me.  Poor Doug kept coming in to ask what he should do every time the timer went off.  Once Roland had eaten enough he fell asleep and I left him in bed to go finish my dinner.  We got about an hour to eat with only a couple of interruptions to offer his pacifier so he could go back to sleep.  So far an hour is about all we get if we put Roland down to sleep.

During the work week Doug had to get up on his own, kissing both of us goodbye and making sure to lock the deadbolt before he left.  I would sleep with Roland until he woke up to eat around 8:30.  After that it was out of bed for some playtime.  I found that to ensure at least one good nap during the day I would have to hold him during the nap.  Putting him down or in his swing would mean a 10-15 minute nap, and then awake for a long stretch.  Not really a problem for me, but it tends to make him fussy in the evening, which is frustrating for Doug.  He wanted a chance to hang out with Roland, but Roland was too tired to want to hang out with Daddy.  Our days were pretty tame.  Neither of us had to be anywhere, so we stayed home.

I did start doing some light exercise with him.  I signed up to participate in a study being done at the University of Hawaii.  They sent me a Google TV device and a username and password to use an exercise program online.  The workouts are meant to be done with baby, either holding him or with him nearby so I can still interact with him.  What I've done so far have been chunked into 10-minute sessions.  It works out well, since so far that is all Roland can handle before we need to do something else.  Which means I am also learning to do other things in 10-minute chunks or less.  Sometimes I can rotate laundry and load the dishwasher before he wakes from a cat nap or wants to play again.  Most days longer things, like showering, end up waiting until Doug gets home.  Staying home with Roland is a lot different than teaching Kindergarten, but I can't imagine going back yet.  I like the change.

Wait! A blackout and the Ravens are leading!?!

Hi daddy!

Bonus points for naming the movie

Baby at knitting

Other Angela has got the child!

Yeah, it's been a rough day

Instagram via poor lighting

The two best people ever

He's also started chewing on his fingers

 And now a bunch of videos of him being cute-

Weeks 8&9: Seattle and Shots

By Mom
The first 7 weeks of Roland were full of things to share.  But weeks 8 and 9 seemed especially busy.  As the last post informed you, Roland took his first airplane journey.  There had been some changes in the travel plans of my family and to make sure Roland could still meet all the family members who had planned to come out from Seattle we went there instead.  The added bonus was that Roland was able to meet much more of my family than would have made it to Hawaii.

I didn't seriously start looking for tickets until Sunday.  Surprisingly, I found super cheap tickets leaving Wednesday night.  In 3 days.  Now I've planned travel like this in the past, but back then it was just me.  Luckily Roland is still tiny, so travel including him should still be relatively easy.  No food to pack, he doesn't play with toys yet, and he isn't mobile yet.  I figured the hardest part would be dealing with his car seat.

And I was almost right.  Turns out the car seat was easy too.  I packed it in a rolling duffel bag made specifically for car seats and it checked for free.  Our flight out was a red eye.  Roland has been doing quite well with sleeping at night and I hoped it would be the same on a plane.  It was.  We lucked out and had the two seats next to us open, so he got to sleep in his own seat and I managed some sleep too.  The hardest part of the flight was going to the bathroom.  I couldn't leave him in the seat by himself, and there was no where to put him in the tiny airplane bathroom.  I have managed to get plenty of practice doing things one handed in the last 7 weeks though, so this was just another exercise in one-handed tasks.

We spent a week in Seattle, and it was a wonderful week.  The only thing that would have made it better was if Daddy had come with us.  He decided he would stay home and work, so he could use his sick days for when one of us was actually sick and we needed him to take the day off.  Logical, yes.  Fun, no.

Grandpa Bill picked us up from the airport, dropped us off at his house and then went into work.   Grandma Carmen had classes to get to so she was off too.  I was exhausted from sleeping upright and was happy to take a 4-hour nap.  Roland didn't mind sleeping either; he was only awake to nurse and then right back to sleep.  It wasn't long before Grandpa and Grandma were back home and then they really got a chance to meet the newest addition to the family.

Friday Roland met his Great-Grandma, Auntie Michelle, and Uncle Matt.  Everyone was thrilled to meet the little guy, and he was a great baby through it all.  We went to meet Great-Grandma first.  She was full of smiles and eager to hold him.  He had some smiles to share too.  From Great-Grandma's house we went to Auntie Michelle's.  Roland was not impressed at being in the car again, and cried all the way there.  Auntie Michelle was able to meet us at the door because she could hear him crying as soon as we got out of the car.  As soon as he was out of his car seat and in a clean diaper he was as good as could be, and Michelle got to hold her nephew for the first time. 

While at Michelle's house we got a hold of Matt, who had the weekend free.  Michelle mentioned that she could come back up to Dad's with us, and stay for the weekend.  So instead of visiting with Matt for a little bit that evening we told him to pack a backpack for the weekend and we'd be over as soon as he was ready.  Thus started the weekend of Grandpa and Grandma having the house full with the adult children and the tiny boy.  It was a great weekend.  Everyone had plenty of chances to hold Roland and they did.  He was a great little guy the entire time.  Saturday was a day of the Britz family hanging around and enjoying each others company.  On Sunday we invited over some friends who also wanted to meet Roland.  The little guy is just as social as his Daddy, and loved all the attention showered on him by everyone who came over to visit.  Unless he was hungry, he was perfectly happy not being held by his Mama.

Monday was a day for visiting Great-Grandma again.  On Tuesday Roland and I went to see Auntie Michelle, and then met Grauntie Barb back at Grandpa's house.  I was a bit worried about having Roland in the car by myself for the first time, and found myself wishing I had brought along the car mirror that lets me see him without turning around.  He was a little rockstar though, and slept the entire car ride BOTH ways.  All I heard from him was a few cries of being displeased and then he was right asleep.  Wednesday was another day to visit Auntie Michelle, and then to the local pub with Grandpa and Grandma for fish and chips.  Not only was Roland asleep in the car, but he stayed asleep in the pub too even with all the noise.  When he woke up Grandpa was happy to hold him so Mama could finish her fish.

We flew back to Hawaii on Thursday and Roland was a great little air traveler again.  He spent most of the flight awake, and it was a very full flight so he had to stay in my lap the whole time.  During our week in Seattle he discovered he could straighten his legs and stand so long as someone was holding his body to help him balance.  Which meant lots of standing in my lap during the 6 hour flight.  Daddy picked us up from the airport, excited to see both of us after being alone at home for the week.

Friday morning after our return Roland had his 2-month check up.  Weight gain was good - he was up to 10 pounds, 11 ounces.  He also got taller, almost 22 inches now.  The 2-month check up also meant shots.  Roland had two shots right after he was born, but I was in the OR so I missed them.  This time I got (had) to be there.  The nurse asked that I hold his hands while she stabbed him in the legs.  The poor little guy's face turned bright red before he started screaming.  And that was the first shot.  There were two more to go.  Luckily the nurse was quick, and as soon as she was done I was able to pick him up and he was done crying.  We were asked to wait in the waiting room for 15 minutes to make sure he didn't have a serious reaction, so I used that time to nurse and comfort him.  By the time our 15 minutes were up he was doing just fine.

We spent the rest of Friday and all of Saturday at home, just the three of us.  Roland mostly slept.  He hadn't slept that much since we brought him home from the hospital.  He had a fever, but seemed to enjoy the flavor of the children's Tylenol we were sent home with.  Since Doug and I were expecting fussiness from the shots, the sleeping was a welcome alternative.  Hopefully the next round of shots at 4 months goes just as well for him.

See those heavy eyelids?

Yep, I can fall asleep in the middle of getting dressed!

Look what I found to suck on.

Tummy time with Daddy

Come closer so I can drool on you

If I raise my eyebrows, it'll keep me awake longer

Look Roland, make a face like this

Because babies have to wear whatever we put on them

Chillin' with Daddy

I know. I'm super cute.

I'm excited!

Check out this shark towel

Daddy thinks he can use it too

Meeting Great-Grandma

Feeling tall with Grandpa Bill

Look Mama, I can stand on my own two feet!

If a baby falls asleep on you, you must also sleep

I was put down for tummy time, but I was just too tired.

Auntie Michelle

Still getting bigger

Uncle Matt

Another visit with Great-Grandma

Meeting Beth and Rose

Always full of smiles

I can sit up in this chair!

See that red dot on my leg? That's one of the wounds sustained during 2-month shots.