Bath time update

Conor has fully gotten over his distaste for the bath.  Bathtime is now an enjoyable nightly ritual.  As soon as his hits the warm water, he goes into full vegetation mode, lounging and enjoying the relaxation.  In fact, his new thing is that he gets so relaxed in the tub that not only does he pee in the water but he's taken to also pooping in the water!  It's really rather disgusting, but he hasn't seemed to grasp that concept yet.  It also makes for a complicated process of trying to keep him clean by either scooping the poop or replacing the water (or just trying to wash him quick enough to prevent the pooping, which is not often successful).  Even despite this, we much prefer the happy pooping in the water to the screaming that used to characterize bath time.  Now, rather than screaming in the bath, Conor has taken to screaming when we take him out.  We've begun popping his towel in the dryer while he's in the bath to help ease the transition from the warm water to the cold air.  So far, that seems to be helping some.  As you can see in the photos below, Conor was as happy as a clam when he got out of the bath last night.  He let out a few small cries and then realized that the towel was nice and cozy warm so he cuddled into it and enjoyed the warmth!  Perhaps we'll soon have completely cry-free bathing!

Smile!

Conor has been smiling for a while now, but they've been so quick and fleeting that I've had trouble catching them on film.  (My cause is also not assisted by my aging, faltering camera, which seems to always tweak out at the most inopportune times.)  Yet, as he ages, Conor is smiling much, much more often, and the smiles are more prolonged and pronounced.  Finally, I've managed to capture the smile on camera!  In fact, we've caught it on camera a couple of times.  Here's one of my favorites.  You can enjoy others in the Picasa photo gallery.

The 2 month stats

Conor on his 2-month birthday

Yesterday, we had Conor's two month appointment.  First off, let me say that getting shots is no fun!  I'm sure it's even less fun for Conor, as his screams let anyone within a mile's distance know.  Despite the pain and tears, we made it through our first round of immunizations and are well on our way to a future free of polio, diptheria, tetanus, pertussis, pneumonia, rotovirus, and a few other nasty diseases.  Conor was a trooper through all three shots and one oral vaccine.  We also got all of his updated measurements.  He weighed in at 12 lbs even, which puts him in the 53rd percentile for weight.  It seems that while he's nice and plump, he's on the short side.  His length was 22 inches, which places him in the 13th percentile.  They said they actually don't really pay a whole lot of attention to the length measurement since it's very unscientific.  Whereas weight is measured on a scale, and therefore pretty accurate, length is measured by placing the baby down on a piece of paper and then marking where their head and feet are with a pen.  Needless to say, when the baby is thrashing around and screaming, as Conor was, it makes it pretty difficult to get  a good measurement.  In any case, he has some growing to do to get on the track to beat his tall daddy someday.    Finally, his head measured 15.5 inches, putting him in the 31st percentile.  Other than that, his development seems right on track.  She said he looks fabulous, and we'd have to agree!  

As for the sleeping issues we've been facing lately, she said that the most important things are to have a consistent bedtime routine (which we do) and to put him down to sleep drowsy but awake (which we do).  As long as we're doing those things, she said his sleep will even out and regulate itself in time.  Some babies just take longer than others, and he seems to be one of those who takes a bit longer.  And in fact, the last two nights have been better.  Each night, Conor slept 2 to 3 hours at a stretch rather than 30 to 60 minutes.  So perhaps we're on the road to more restful nights!  We're keeping our fingers crossed!  

Birth Announcement 2

The Landmark also published Conor's birth announcement this past week on March 19.  It's visible online here: http://www.thelandmark.com/news/2009/0319/people/092.html

Did anyone manage to get a print version that could be saved for us?

Birth Announcement

Conor's birth announcement appeared in The Foxboro Reporter this past Thursday, March 12, 2009.

A close-up of the write-up: 

Videos

Videos will be hosted on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/dotzenlabs. The first three are embedded below!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Today, the high was 50 degrees, and we took advantage by taking a walk around the neighborhood.  We've taken Conor out for a walk on pretty much any day when the high is above 40.  However, he's always slept when we've gone for walks.  (He almost without failure falls asleep within 60 seconds on being put in his carrier.)  This is so reliable that Mike even said that eventually we'd take him for a walk when he was 3-years-old, and he'd love it so much that he'd ask why we'd never taken him for a walk before, not realizing that we'd taken him on hundreds of walks already.  However, all of that changed today!  Today, he was very much awake for our walk!  He took in his surroundings, checking out the trees, the sky, Mommy and Daddy, and when he wiggled the right way, the inside of his hat.  He very much enjoyed the walk, and we're looking forward to many more this week, as the weather is supposed to stay nice and warm throughout the week.

The Many Faces of Conor

I have to admit that I could spend all day just sitting and staring at Conor's face.  He has become so expressive, and it's so much fun to watch all of the faces that he makes and wonder what he's thinking as he makes them.  The other day, I sat with him with a camera trained on him for a while, capturing as many of the faces as I could.  Below is a sample.

He's smiling much more now - nice, big, full smiles.  This is the best he'd let me capture on camera, though it doesn't show the full smile.  Of course, whenever I took the camera away, that's when he would flash his best, most charming smile!

I think it's absolutely hilarious that he can raise one eyebrow so deftly.  I don't have that ability, so I wonder if he'll hang on to it or if it's one of those things that fades away as they grow older.  I hope he hangs on to it because it's absolutely adorable!

Photo Albums

We can't fit all of our photos in just the one album, so I'm splitting up the albums based on Conor's age. If you go here now: http://picasaweb.google.com/dotzenlabs, you will see "Conor: 2nd Month" with the new photos. I will keep adding photos and albums to this page.

Coming Soon: Videos!

Conor is 6-weeks-old!

What a big boy!  Growing up so fast!

Who Does Conor Look Like?

One of the first things people try to figure out when a baby is born is who he or she looks like.  Things are no different with our little Conor.  Everyone has an opinion.  At first, many people thought he looked like me.  Some people thought he looked like my brother, Jimmy.  No one thought he looked like Mike.  Over time, people have said that they've come to see some of Mike in him.  And yet, everyone also acknowledges that babies change so much that it's difficult to say at this point.  Nevertheless, I thought it would be interesting to compare photos.  Below you can make your own judgement.  So far, who does Conor look like?  Who does he get his eyes from?  Who does he get his nose from?  Who does he get his mouth from?  Mommy, Daddy, or Uncle Jimmy?

Conor

Mommy

Daddy

Uncle Jimmy