Back in the Saddle

Greetings everybody, from within the bosom of love.  So many visitors and friends and family...so much love!  I arrived a couple days ago after about a week away from Ellen and Safia.  Ellen and her dad had kept me current by sending picture and video updates of Safia, but I was still astonished to see, when I saw here, how much my little girl had changed in the week of my absence.  I know it to be true that babies change so much and so fast in the first few months of life, and that missing one week is just over 8% of her life, and so, yeah… a lot has happened, Dad, keep up.  Anyway, she’s making all sorts of new noises and has perceptively progressed in the use of her various limbs and appendages.  She’s grasping things with more purpose, and her vocalizations are much longer in duration with more consistent purity in tone, and trueness in timbre, with an acoustic richness that is quite remarkable for a person of her age.  Ok, that may be a little much, but our little girl sure is growing up pretty quickly, don’tcha know. 

Yesterday was a busy day with alternating moments of action and inaction; lots of hurry up and chill.  Without going into too many tedious details, our day contained a trip to the Natural History Museum, a baby showing at G-Pa George’s office, a pool-side snooze-fest in the afternoon, and a long-table dinner feast with Great -Fish, fam, and friends.  Us adults were up way past our bedtimes, but Safia took her naps and went to bed regardless of the action around her.  Good girl.  

Family Time

Safia at 12 weeks

Playing Patti-cake with her grandma

Safia and I have had an amazing set of adventures this past week filled with friends and family.  Lots of friends and lots of family.  It’s been great.  Our flight up to DC went smoothly, which I was grateful for, but I had a spent three days freaking out about everything that could go wrong, so it was anti-climatic.  Our friend Mitchell drove us to the airport as Rube headed to North Carolina (Thanks Mitchell!).  Safia slept almost the entire way there.  At the airport, I don’t know if it was my look of terror or the baby strapped to my chest, but everyone, from the Delta agents to the TSA employees were really nice to me and helpful.  It made a world of difference.  Safia was only fussy in short spurts and slept through most of the flight.  Big sigh of relief.  Now we can only hope she’s cooperates on the drive home and the flights we have later on in the summer. 

Sporting her new sweater made by Carol B.

Since we’ve been at my parent’s we’ve had a whirlwind of visitors.  Safia has gotten to meet so many amazing people and we’ve both been showered with love.  Before we left Rube behind, I was worried about having to be responsible for Safia on my own.  Again, all my worrying was for nothing.  We’ve both been spoiled, she’s been passed around and I’ve gotten breaks, lots of breaks.  When she cries I instinctually reach for her, but being surrounded by family, they keep her, which has been good for both of us.  I get time off and she learns that there are other people that can comfort her, not just Rube and I.  That’s not to say I’m not exhausted, I’m looking to Rube getting here (tonight!) so he can share in responsibilities that still fall to me!  The rest of the week is jammed packed with plans (I’ve had to make a calendar to keep track of all the comings and going) and chocked full more family and more friends.  We’re going to need a few weeks to recover from all our visiting!

Safia's spent a lot of time hanging out with her grandparent, doing lots of fun things.

Hanging in the backyard with Grandpa George

Telling her Grandma a Story

Snuggle-time on the porch

Reading Good Night Moon

Parts of the Ossi Clan came over to celebrate my mom's birthday on Saturday, Safia was passed around, and loved all the attention.  All of the kids loved playing with Safia and did great holding her!

Maddie and Safia

Nonno, Chloe, Maddie, and Safia

Jack and Safia

Hope and Safia

Lucy and Safia

Chloe comforting Safia (she didn't want to hold her, but
she wanted to make her happy)

 Lots of Smiles, and I'm sure there are going to be more to come as we see more people!

New Adventures

We are on the brink of some new adventures here.  To be honest, we're a little nervous, but excited for widening our boundaries.  Ellen and Safia will embark on a trip to Washington DC tomorrow morning to be in the bosom of family and friends while me and my bluegrass band hit the road for a mini-tour.  We'll be playing shows for the next 6 days and then I will be driving myself up to DC to join in on the family festivities.  We are anxious to see how Safia handles air travel.  We've gotten some good advice from friends who have travelled with infants, so hopefully things go smoothly.

Uncle Brent on the job

Since I'll be on the road, and Ellen and Safia will be engulfed by familial love, the blog is going to take a little vacation too.  I'll likely make my next post when we're back all together in DC during the last week of June.  Happy summer solstice and may your beginning of summer be pleasant.

Bye! (just for a little while)

A First Father's Day

Safia at 11 weeks 

What a wonderful first father's day.  Ellen carefully and thoughtfully crafted a very special day for me, with many clutch food elements.  Breakfast was huevos rancheros made very much from scratch (sooooo tasty!) and dinner was beer butt chicken on the grill (an homage to my college days that evokes memories of 5-chickens sitting upright on a grill - all with beer cans shoved up their...um...main body cavity).  It turned out fantastically, and we were happy to have friends and family to enjoy it with.  That's right, I said family - my brother, Brent, is here visiting from Boston.  He is Safia's only uncle, and is taking the responsibility seriously.  To tell the truth, we've been laying pretty low and staying indoors as the heat outside continues to be oppressive.

Safia delivering my Father's Day gift.

During dinner last night, Seth asked me if I had anything insights into fatherhood that I had to share, and yes, I did have a few (surprise, surprise).  The gist of it is that I really, really do like being a father.  It's a role that I'm honored to fill.  I am also infinitely thankful for Ellen and her support and patience, and I feel so immensely fortunate to have a daughter that is healthy and happy (most of the time).  I think it's important for me to realize that 98% of the time, Safia is awesome: smiley, squirmy, and snuggly, and it really is only very rarely that she is crying and irritated and gives us any issue at all.  Sure, our life has undergone major shifting and realigning, but it's effort that is well worth it in the end.  I love being a father, and I love watching my daughter grow every step of the way and being a part of her life through the laughter and the tears.

Ninja Parenting

 

Just because she's sleeping doesn't
 mean she can't strike a pose.

So, as new parents, we’re always working hard to refine our skills and fine-tune our precision.  To better illustrate what I mean, may I recount to you our experience from last night.  The hour was 7:00pm, and Safia was giving us the tell tale signs of getting tired: big-time yawns, bouts of hyperactivity, and droopy eyelids.  At this time of night can be a little tricky, though, as we are never certain whether when she goes to sleep if it’ll be for just a quick nap, or if she’s down for the night.  Well, we swaddled her up and just assumed it would be for a quick nap.  However, when three hours passed us by, and she was still snoozing away, we concurred that we had guessed wrong.  All would be fine and dandy, but when she goes down for the night, we put her in a 12-hour overnight diaper (we’ve coined the Robo-diaper).  We needed to change her out of the cloth diaper she was currently snoozing in, and put her in a robo-diaper without perturbing her beyond the zone of sleepiness.  This would take swift action and meticulous execution to accomplish.  We came up with a plan.

 

The next time Safia woke up hungry and ready to feed, Ellen nursed Safia side-lying style.  With Safia dining blissfully, phase 2 of Operation Snoozy Diaper went into motion.  I crept up, undid the bottom half of the swaddle leaving her arms swaddled snugly.  I, then,  removed her dirty diaper, wiped the area clean, and adeptly affixed the robo-diaper, and returned the bottom half of the swaddle to it's original position – all with Safia still chowing down; she didn’t even miss a gulp.  Ellen finished up the feeding, and Safia was back in her bassinet for another sleeping stretch.  We gave each other a high-five, and plopped down to get some sleep for ourselves, too.  Good-night!

Bottle update:  Safia still hates it.  We have one last hope before I lose my mind: the Adiri bottle.  It’s the most boob-like bottle out there and I really hope it’s a winner.

Smiles

Happiness is a smiling baby.  Whether we get one by making a silly face at her, by getting a big burp out of her, or as she trails off to sleep (dreaming of breast milk), a smiling baby makes all of our frustrations and troubles melt away.  We’ve been getting lots of smiles, lately, and we cherish every one.  Those dimples are going to be dangerous one of these days!  I’d like to believe that she smiles as a direct reaction to something pleasing to her, or a genuine sign of happiness, and that’s what I’ll hold on to.  The more smiles we get, the more it seems that things really are getting better.  We’re approaching the famed 3-month mark (the end of the 4^th trimester), where everyone says, like a light switch, things get exponentially better.  I’m not holding my breath, or crossing my fingers, but I’ll accept every smile as a tender gift from this tiny, extraordinary new human being. 

Torpidity

As we look back at our past few days, we wonder if we’ve just become lazy.  With the both of us enjoying time off of our responsibilities for the summer, we’ve sort of settled into a lethargic malaise.  Our days are mostly spent getting Safia to sleep (however trying that may be), feeding her (however trying that may be), and sitting around doing basically nothing.  When I think about it, though, I consider this time to be my vacation – and doing nothing is a perfectly good way of enjoying a vacation.  I feel like I should enjoy the nothingness now, for in a number of weeks, it’ll be back to school time, and the craziness and controlled chaos that is my life will begin again.  And it's not that I'm not doing anything - being given the opportunity to watch Safia develop little by little and being involved as a caretaker is a tremendous fortune that I am incredibly grateful for.  But then again, I think about what Ellen and I used to do whenever we had time off…that’s right, travel and adventure.  We used to plan things and do things and get out there and get into ridiculous predicaments (always our own faults of course).  Maybe we are being lazy.  Have we used the baby as an excuse to be lackadaisical and slothful?  We have tried to be conscious about maintaining our individual identities while bringing a child into the mix.  While we understand that our lives have changed immensely, we have not become different people.  So maybe we should shake off the cobwebs and get off our keisters and go out and do something.  "Baby" steps, right?  Short hikes, routine trips to the Y, mini-field trips here and there – we are Yen-Kohls after all. 

Here’s a 30-second video of Safia being really cute. 

A Little This, A Little That

Double chin fantastic!

Not much to report here.  Just a little of this, and a little of that.  After a rather successful bottle-feeding last week, she has regressed into viewing the bottle as her nemesis.  We took the weekend off from the bottle battles (mostly for my own sanity as I really started thinking that I was being a terrible and inadequate father).  Refreshed and renewed, we are again taking up the cause – one bottle a day.

  

She is sleeping longer and longer these days.  Last night, we were treated to a very nice dinner with friends and Safia slept soundly swaddled up in her car seat for the entire two-and-a-half hours we were there.  Her nighttime slumber is stretching out a bit, as are her daytime naps.  And oh yeah…she is sooooo close to being able to roll over from her back to her stomach.  Below is a video of her valiant attempts. 

Georgia peaches are delectable!

Great book - thanks Cailou and Nonno!

Another Busy Weekend

Safia at 10 weeks

Highlights from an action-packed weekend:

1. We made a big batch of bagels with friends on Saturday morning.  Athens is completely and utterly devoid of any passable bagels (ok, there is one place in town that actually boils them before baking, but they’re like $2.50/each and that’s utterly ridiculous).  We geared up for the project and they turned out fabulously.  I will say they could have been a bit denser, but after consulting with Jesse (our bread baking aficionado friend), I’ve noted some adjustments that might yield a bagel to vie with H&H Bagels and Bethesda Bagel Bakery.  Oh, right….the baby.  Safia was cute as ever. 

2.              We all went to Atlanta Saturday afternoon because the band had a show.  We swaddled Safia up in the car seat, and she slept soundly for the hour-and-a-half drive there.  I don’t think you quite grasp the gravity of this newly realized car-sleep continuum.  Truly miraculous.  At the show, Safia was happily passed from friend to friend and thoroughly enjoyed all the love.  The show went longer than expected and we found ourselves at a crossroads: our favorite Thai restaurant (Panita Thai Kitchen, try it…it’s amazing) was literally right around the corner, but it was about 9pm and way too late to still be in Atlanta.  Alas, we hadn’t eaten dinner yet, and the Thai food is delicious, so we went ahead and strollered little Safia to Thai food heaven.  With the waitress’ expedited service, we were out of there, and after Safia got a quick feeding, we were on the road back home by 10:30.  Now get ready for this: She slept all the way home swaddled in her car seat, when we got home we brought her inside, unswaddled her, changed her diaper, reswaddled her, and put her down in the bassinet…all while she slumbered away peacefully.  She slept that night for five-and-a-half hours.  We were pretty stoked about that.  

Baby Safia and Baby David with
fathers as facilitators

3.  Yesterday was a pretty peaceful day.  We all were tired from the previous day’s adventure.  I did get to go on an early morning bike ride, which was sweet.  Safia had a pretty rough morning, but settled into her day – sleeping through most of it.  Seth and Katie came over for our Sunday evening dinner and card playing get-together, and we actually got to play some cards (euchre y’all!) this time around.  

Green beans are bustin' in the garden