Sebastian's Quiver

We picked up our bag and went to the doctor today for Sebastian’s one month checkup (his birthday was yesterday).  His official weight is 11 lb 9 oz.  His official length/height is 22-1/2 inches.  That means in the past 6 days he’s gained 6 oz and in the past month he’s gained 2 lb 6 oz from his initial birth weight and he’s grown 1-1/2 inches.  Not too shabby.  Other interesting things:  he’s developed enough motor coordination to get his thumb and/or fingers into his mouth whenever he wants to.  He also has much better control of his head; he can also lift it up for short periods of time.  Twice in the past week he’s slept long enough for Juli and I to actually watch a TV show!  If that doesn’t sound impressive, you need to take a look at our TiVo – we have probably 40 hours of unwatched TV shows recorded in the past month, though we’ve been recording HBO’s In Treatment.  We’ve only watched one episode, but it’s on five nights a week for nine weeks.

Sebastian’s doctor said that the flu is really bad right now so it looks like we’re going to be keeping him out of public places as much as possible.  No more trips to Five Points MARTA Station to buy 10 pairs of socks for $1!

We’re also taking suggestions for storytime.  I was thinking of trying to dig out my book of Walt Whitman poetry and give that a shot. Please, no suggestions of War and Peace or Gravity’s Rainbow.

Sorry about the lack of new photos.  I’ll get some new ones up in the next day or two.

In case you didn’t know, I left Turner Entertainment in November and started working for Nau, an outdoor apparel company that designs, manufactures and sells our clothing in a socially responsible manner. I’ve been telecommuting since November and we’ll be moving to Portland (Nau’s home base) in March. The reason I bring this up is that I haven’t had much hands on experience with our actual product since the closest store (Web Front) is in Chicago, but the products have been given excellent reviews in all types of publications and Nau has received a lot of press for their environmentally friendly, sustainable goals (oh yeah, they also give 5% of every single purchase to a charity of the customer’s choosing). Luckily, all employees had access to a big pre-warehouse sale (there’s a huge warehouse sale in NYC starting soon), so Juli and I ordered a bunch of clothes from them/us. Well, we received the clothes today and DAMN their nice! Even nicer than I had expected, and I expected them to be really really nice. I ordered 3 long sleeve shirts, a cashmere sweater and a jacket. Juli ordered, well, a lot, including this jacket (and some cashmere and a great hiking jacket and a GREAT all-weather jacket). So the morale of the story is go to http://www.nau.com and order some fantastic, environmentally friendly, very stylish, very well designed clothes. (Yes, I know the site is entirely in Flash. That will change soon.)

OK, back to our regularly scheduled program: Sebastian!

Both of those are very low light photos and my 50mm f/1.4 hasn’t come yet, so I did the best I could with what I had. The second photo is the best shot I have of his cute little pucker face that he does.

Shameless plug #2: If you’re interested in more photos (of Sebastian and other things), I started a rudimentary photoblog (it’s a work in progress – it’ll change a bit in the near future). I’m going to try to post more photos there, some more artistic-y in nature, and some probably less so. Please check it out: http://www.literalshore.com/zenphoto

Is that dappled sunlight falling upon Sebastian’s head? Nope. Is it a bald spot? Nope. It’s a blonde streak in his otherwise brown head of hair. I guess he couldn’t decide whether he wanted his dad’s dark curls or his mom’s blonde silk. It will be interesting to see if that streak stays with him or if it changes along with his other hair as he grows older.

A number of people have asked how our feline member of the family is getting along with the newest human member. Well, here you go:

Just as long as Sebastian doesn’t steal Misha’s spot in the sun, they’ll get along just fine.

(Yes, I realize these photos are huge.  I might get around to shrinking them down to a more manageable size, but then again, I might not.)

In case anyone of you missed it, here is my family:

So that’s my wonderful, lovely, super fantastic wife Juliann with my brand new son Sebastian Quinn and our cat Misha.

Quick info on Misha: I found him about 11 years ago or so; he’s quite fluffy; he’s very old (17 or so); he loves to eat baby food; his eyes don’t normally glow like the gates of Hell (they do only on Wednesdays and Fridays after a full moon); he is as much a part of the family as everyone else.

An in case you were wondering about the glow behind Juli, it’s not a fire, and it’s not a lens flare. It’s actually Juli’s natural glow. Ask anyone, she walks around like that all the time.

Also note Yertle the Turtle (thanks Mom!) over on the left trying to read a 115 year old book of Tennyson poetry.

No, not the only place in town to get a Tokyo Teriyaki. I’m talking about this:

OK, he’s not raging there, but you get the idea. Swaddling ROCKS. (Yes, that’s a London Underground cap that he’s wearing. Our friend Julia brought that back from London last time she was there.) Back to swaddling. The thing that I noticed is that Juli’s swaddling is always way better than mine. And I was a little jealous. I thought I was a pretty good swaddler. Then I realized something: I only really swaddle Sebastian after I change a diaper. Diaper changes are definitely not on Sebastian’s Top 10 Things To Do list. So, inevitably, he’s squirming and carrying on and refusing to straighten out his arms. In not time flat, he has the swaddle all screwed up and his arms a flailing about. Juli usually swaddles him after he’s done feeding when he’s virtually comatose. The difference is akin to the difference between trying to apprehend a crackhead hopped up on meth and speed versus trying to apprehend a guy who just smoked a big fattie and ate a bag of Doritos.

That’s why my swaddles tend to have a bit less staying power. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

swaddling

Is the roof on fire? Nah, it’s just Sebastian getting ready to go to the pediatrician for the first time.

He passed the doctor’s visit with flying colors. She was quite impressed with the fact that he’s almost back up to his birth weight. He’s up to 9 lb 1 oz, so he’s ahead of schedule. (For those of you who don’t know, newborns typically lose up to 10% of their initial body weight within the first day or so of being born.)

You can’t see it in the photo, but he’s wearing his mathematical equation filled t-shirt. We’re trying to get him started early on all subjects, not just literature. Speaking of literature, he would NOT sit still this morning for the second half of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I don’t know what he was thinking – we were just getting to the good part last night when we had to cut it short for some reason.

I know, another baby blog. But, really, is there an easier way to keep everyone updated on Sebastian?

So here is the first taste of the blog. The plan is for both Juli and I to post to keep people updated and to help us show off our new son.

Today, Sebastian had his first bath at home. Of course, by bath, we mean a cleaning with a washclothe since his bellybutton crud hasn’t fallen off yet. He wasn’t crazy about the washcloth rubbing all over his body but he really seemed to enjoy getting his hair washed (just like his dad) and rinsed. Here he is after his bath.

Juli and I also took him for his first walk today around the block in his fancy shmancy stroller. We bundled him up in about 4 different layers to make sure he was warm enough. I just wish he hadn’t slept his way through the entire walk, but he seemed to enjoy the all the bumps of our crappy sidewalks here in Oakhurst (City of Decatur, are you listening?).

bathing, Sebastian