Ian Week #1 Battle Report

Ian is now a week old. Comparatively speaking, he is much easier to placate than Maia was at this age -- no tube feedings or all-nighters yet. He wakes up like clockwork every 1 - 3 hours, has an impressive snack (one that even impressed the lactation consultant) as quickly as possible, and then falls right back to sleep.

He doesn't display much personality yet since he only spends a little time alert and awake each day. When we change his diapers he continuously kicks his lanky legs in a effort to cover his ankles in poo like a Nutella-dipped treat.

I've taken 5 weeks off of work this time around (1 fewer than with Maia, but this time I actually get paid for all of it) and spend the days watching Maia while Rebecca recovers from her surgery. Maia and I even made a trip to the grocery store, her first in-store visit since pre-pandemic. She enjoys Ian as much as a three-year-old can before getting distracted by nearby toys or requisitioning his blankets to put on bunnies.

Easy Photos Day

First bath.

Meeting more grandparents.

Maia finds a legit four-leaf clover.

Zonked out.

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Superbloom by Misterwives:
This is the third album from Misterwives, which I like way more than Connect the Dots but not quite as much as their debut, Our Own House. Lots of catchy tunes this time around, and the album is even a whole 60 minutes long without much padding.

Final Grade: B+

Blindspotting (R):
We really enjoyed this Daveed Diggs vehicle which explores prejudice and racism in an interesting way without ever feeling too preachy. Both of the lead actors do a great job with their characters, and there are shades of 8 Mile in the way the story is told.

Final Grade: B+

Half Drunk Under a Full Moon by the Fratellis:
The Fratellis' pandemic album is solid if a little muted. I don't like it as much as Eyes Wide, Tongue-Tied although it does feature Rebecca's third trimester pregnancy anthem, "Find a place and lay your body down".

Final Grade: B

Bad Education:
This movie starring Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney as high school administrators ensnarled in an embezzlement scandal had a promising start -- not hilarious but worth finishing. Unfortunately, renting HBO movies through Amazon only gives you 24 hours to start and finish the movie (unlike the usual 48). We didn't realize this until we sat down the next night with an hour to go but only 20 minutes left on the rental.

Final Grade: Not Rated, but HBO gets a D

Ian Week #2 Battle Report

List of things Ian does in order from most to least:

• Sleeps
• Eats
• Pees
• Poops
• Fusses
• Sucks His Hand
• Cries

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12 pictures of your day on the 12th of every month

6:40 AM: Showered and ready for the day.

6:57 AM: Bagel for breakfast.

7:26 AM: Good morning!

9:23 AM: Off to school.

10:08 AM: Two week check-up.

12:18 PM: Shopping for treats.

12:46 PM: Fine art.

1:00 PM: Applewood-smoked chicken for lunch.

5:10 PM: Finally awake for a bit.

5:24 PM: Dinner from Sweetwater Tavern (with delivery pints).

6:04 PM: Cool enough for a fire.

6:31 PM: Ticket to Ride before bedtime.

Easy Photos Day

We're still doing the whole infant + three-year-old life, so I hope you enjoy pictures as blog updates.

Ian Week #3 Battle Report

It's nice that Ian's weekly milestone is on a Sunday because it makes it much easier to remember to take a picture of him hovering near these concussion-weighted photo blocks. At 3 weeks, Ian is a pound heavier than his birthweight and about the same length. The interpolated trend so far mirrors my own growth pattern from 11th grade through grad school.

Ian's biggest challenge is passing gas and solids (liquids are not a problem). If he's fussing, it's most likely because he's frustrated that his bodily wastes don't know where the exit is. When not gassy, he's probably sleeping.

Infant care this time around is pretty straightforward. When you have two kids, you must make sure the older one doesn't run into traffic, so you don't have hours of free time to theorycraft every single aspect of the infant's life. So, you worry less that Ian got 16.45 hours of sleep instead of 17, and focus on activities that Maia can do in a circle around you while you hold him.

Easy Photos Day

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Shadow and Bone, Season One (Netflix):
Based on young adult fantasy books by Leigh Bardugo, this series is mostly successful in setting up an interesting world that can be easily understood without exposition dumps. The two main characters, Alina and Mal, are easily the weakest links, lacking much in the way of personality, but the supporting "Crow" characters cover the deficit. I liked this less than His Dark Materials and more than The Witcher.

Final Grade: B-

Blackfinn Ameripub - Ashburn:
This restaurant popped up on GrubHub in our ongoing search for ways to use all of the GrubHub gift cards Ian received for being born. It's more pricey (like Burton's) but has a varied menu with lots of food that sounds exciting (unlike Burton's). Rebecca and I were both satisfied with our order -- I never expected a delivered French Dip to taste as good as it did! We'll have to try eating here in person when restaurants are more normalized.

Final Grade: B+, so far

Infinite Things by Paloma Faith:
Paloma's music continues to get less interesting the more she moves away from here original 70s sound. This album is good if you ever want to sit in the basement and pretend you're in a bookstore.

Final Grade: C

Grim Dawn:
I originally reviewed Grim Dawn in 2019. It took the place of Overwatch as a baby-friendly game that I could pause and play in spurts of 10 - 20 minutes while feeling like I had made progress. I picked it back up last month to find that it had continued to receive regular content patches. Even though the core experience is exactly the same, there are several new zones to explore and random monster encounters that make uncovering the whole map fun again. The only downside -- there is so much content in the game now that you'll probably outlevel the 2nd Elite difficulty level. This results in a brain-dead slog to get to Ultimate, which is still very fun and challenging. Thank goodness for the Grim Internals add-on which let me zoom through Elite at 3x speed. More things in life should have speed controls.

Final Grade: B+

Ian Week #4 Battle Report

Someone sent us this nice puzzle of Ian's name, but it came without a card so we have no idea who to thank.

This boy is now 9.8 pounds of Uri (roughly 3.3% of the net family weight). He is the loudest sleeper of all time, continuously grunting or vocalizing about some unseen TV show in his dreams.

Unlike Maia, Ian did not know how to smile at birth, but he has just recently started doing the "side smile" where only half of his mouth curves up.

Rebecca and I are still alive but would prefer a world where we can put the kids into cryostasis for 9 hours at a time to get an uninterrupted sleep cycle.

Time-lapsed Blogography Day: Twenty Five Years Ago Today

Twenty-five years ago today, on May 26, 1996, my crew boat had its final boat party of the year.

The evening started with a barbeque including several parents and the coach. At around 8 PM, the rowers whose parents were there told them that we were all going to see "Primal Fear" at the Bailey's Crossroad movie theater, a movie that had just come out the month before. In reality, we all ended up at the house of another rower whose parents were out of town for the weekend. 7 of 9 boat members immediately started drinking, which was surprising to me as a sheltered 16-year-old whose parties regularly featured trezur hunts, 2 liter Pepsis, and Pizza Hut. My role, as one of the 2 people not drinking that night was to prevent people from alarming the neighbors.

"Cloves" were popular back then, and there was weed as well. One boat member immediately got high and sat in the corner in his own world for the rest of the night. Three others were drunk (or peer-pressure pretending to be) within the first two hours. The first rower passed out at 10:30 with two more to follow by midnight. At least one rower peed in the yard because he couldn't maneuver his way up the stairs to the bathroom. Friends of the host who didn't do crew joined the party throughout the evening, well-stocked with the typical varieties of cheap beer you might see in a movie about a high school party.

I drove home myself around 12:20 AM once the number of people I didn't know well outnumbered my boat in the house -- as every movie and After School special will teach you, that's when the likelihood of cops increases exponentially.

Easy Photos Day

End-of-the-Month Highlights Day

New photos have been added to the Life, 2021 album.

• Events
  • Ian met the Smiths on S 5/1.
  
  
  • Ian met the Whitmers on S 5/8.
  
  
  • Maia and Rebecca resumed their Sunday Farmer's Market outings on S 5/9.
  
  
  • The Smiths visited on S 5/15.
  
  
  • Maia went to Morgan's birthday party on S 5/16.
  
  
  • Went to my company's Advent of Code wrap party on T 5/25. Ian met Ghazaley.
  
  
  • Maia spent a weekend with the Uri grandparents S 5/29 - M 5/31.
  
  
  • Poker Night on S 5/29 (1st: Rebecca, then Chris, Taje, me, Larry, Kathy, and Mike in last place).
  
  
  • I went back to work on M 5/31.


• Projects
  • This baby.


• Consumerism
  • Playing Grim Dawn on my own, and Minecraft with Maia.
  
  
  • No amazing shows or music this month, but currently rewatching The Shield.

May's Final Grade: B+, life is busy but we're figuring it out