Uncle Patrick, Aunt Suzette, and Patrick Samuel come to visit Grammy!

Julia's brother and sister-in-law, their son (and daughter due in September!) drove from Columbus (Ohio) to visit Grammy for the week leading up to and including Independence Day.

Of course, we could take the view that Nicholas has already demonstrated great attractive powers across vast distances and he was testing his range limit to Columbus. OK, OK...we know he can at least exert irresistable force at least to Port Orange in Florida for a certain Gramps but we leave it to you to judge! :)

Anywho...this was Nicholas' first exposure to his relatives from Columbus and he seemed happy enough to take whatever attention they wished to dish out. Uncle Patrick seemed to be his focus...not only was Uncle Patrick christened after a particularly satisfying meal but he also took advantage of having a sparring partner including a fairly memorable right hook!

Patrick Samuel also got an opportunity to hang out with someone of the baby persuasion which should be good practice for his sister when she arrives on station later this summer. A word to the wise...never pick a fight with a younger sister! It is a battle that cannot be won...either they're going to win the fight straightaway or use that formidable feminine allure and at that point, it's checkmate!. Just a friendly suggestion from someone who has been there and seen that! :)

Anywho, it was scary seeing how well Nicholas worked that room...ahhh... the power of a little baby! Well, not quite so little anymore...he's getting noticeably larger and longer every day (though we'd hope he might well redirect some to the derierre so we can alleviate the occasional (but totally legal in North Carolina!) plumber's crack situation.

All we had to do was hold him, feed him, occasionally change him...and hang on for the ride!

For all those doubting Thomas' out there who might have been thinking that Nicholas' rolling over trick was a fluke and an artifact of overzealous pride by Mommy and Daddy...we've got him doing it three times on VIDEOTAPE! Nyah, nyah!.

Today was a fun day as Nicholas' got his first laps in on the oooh, ain't he cute circuit...otherwise known as the road outside the house. He didn't have to go far, either...neighbour John (to the left of us as you go out the front door) is the first one who got an up-close-and-personal look at our little guy. And it was pretty much the same reaction as all of the others who have encountered him...weak knees, a bit of the goo-goo look in the eyes, and just that hint of oh darn that says he wishes he had a little one as cute as we do!

Score another one for the little guy! :)

The magical mystery cuteness tour continues with his next stop in Chapel Hill. OK, bringing him into the office to show him off was probably a secondary consideration to raiding A Southern Season and getting some Greek food at Spartacus...but hey, we'll take what we get, eh?

A fair amount of my co-workers weren't satisfied with the pictures now adorning my desk...they wanted the full effect of his cuteness up close and personal. Now, I was a little nervous about this...I had seen their reactions to the brag book that Julia had put together containing his ultrasound pictures and I'd been getting comments about this BLOG...but handling the full effect when we're still getting used to it?

I'm happy to report that no one passed out during his visit but he did impress everyone that came in contact with him (a normal enough reaction!). As I made the circuit round the office, he was turning the charm on MAXIMUM and it WORKED! Unfortunately, Barbara (my boss) and Alan (the CEO) weren't available so I guess that means he'll have to come back another time (when another raid on A Southern Season is in order)!

(Addendum: I've been advised that the entry for 15 Jun has been causing tears amongst several readers. Read that big mushball entry at your own risk! :)

Our little one is only a month old and he's already got his savings account in place thanks to a generous starting donation from Aunt Nadine in Port Orange, Florida. Thanks for getting the account off to a grand start! :)

(And he's well ahead of Daddy in that department as I hadn't graduated from the piggy bank until I was fifteen years old! They're getting so much smarter and fiscally responsible these days...who knows...we might well have the next Alex P. Keaton! :)

Father's Day!

Well, he came into the world on Mother's Day and has now made it to his first Father's Day. It was a relatively peaceful and relaxing day all told, mainly sleeping and feeding and playing and that's about it. And you know what? That's just peachy!

(OK, OK...Julia would never let me post this if I didn't mention that there were presents involved. She's right, I've gotten to like getting presents a lot more since we've met...though I'll always maintain that I prefer being on the giving end of it. A magnet with my wonderful son's picture for the fridge, a larger picture for the growing collection on my desk at work, and the musical table from Leap Frog I've been salivating over for quite a while now...and YES, HE WILL GET HIS TURNS ON IT AS WELL!)

This has been a wonderful day for reflection as well. Nicholas and I spent a good portion of the morning together as he slept off a feeding of the good stuff whilst Mommy was off getting some much needed rest.

This was my first Father's Day and none of the ones that follow will ever be quite the same again. It was sobering to consider just how far we've come along and how much we've changed this past month. But I'm even more surprised at the radical changes I've seen in myself along the way.

First off, I don't think I ever really and truly appreciated Father's Day or what it meant. Oh, there were the cards and the good wishes for the day for my father but I never really considered myself being the target of it until now. I was a bit surprised to find out just how much it's meant to me...the fact that I have a very important role to play and a young son who is trusting me to do just that and to do it right. If I needed more proof of that, all I needed to see was Nicholas laying there on my lap quite peacefully and utterly trusting that someone is looking out for him and will protect him against whatever the world throws at him.

Seeing that changes you in a way that just can't be described until you're there and experiencing it! If that's not a life-altering epiphany, I don't know what is... particularly for a first child of my own where the first month was alternating between feeling utterly incompetent with huge clumsy hands and a little wriggle-worm of a baby during diaper changes and clothing changes and the absolute joy of holding and feeding him.

Which leads me to the second epiphany about how much Father's Day meant to my father. I could hear it in his voice tonight...he's been there and done that and knew without words exactly what I was feeling and experiencing. I knew exactly how much it means to him knowing that he was understood and appreciated even during the times when we didn't see eye-to-eye. And how much it's meant to me especially as new to the job as I am.

The third epiphany was understanding just how much more alike Dad and I are now than we ever were before. In this arena, we're blessed with a unique relationship, one never to be duplicated. Here is one who has already done the job and one who is just starting out and both of us with one mantra in mind: represent yourself honourably or it will cost you!. It was something I understood at the time Nicholas was born but didn't really think about it in those terms until this day. I understand him better now than I ever have before and that's a rather awesome thought, really!

In this month, I've gotten much better at changing diapers and doing feedings and figuring out these clothes that had to be designed by madmen with all of these snaps in weird places. I've gotten better at trying to comfort him when he's feeling less-than-stellar. I've gotten much better at understanding what being a father truly means. I'm not quite the incompetent boob I was when I started this journey and I'm sure I'll get better as the time passes.

But one thing has never changed in that time: I love Nicholas more than he'll likely know and there isn't a thing I wouldn't do for him. And I'm OK with that because I'm pretty sure that's exactly how my father felt every day and especially on Father's Day.

It is with these thoughts and hopes that I continue to walk the path I started several months ago and I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's great work if you can get it!.

And my great hope is that when it's time for Nicholas to read these thoughts and pass them on to his own son or daughter that he'll understand just how special Father's Day is to a father...and what the job really means to those of us who do the job!

(Addendum: Today was the first day Nicholas rolled over from his back on his own power and normally they're not that quick at doing this! Looks like we've got another perfectionist overachiever in the family...WOO HOO!)

1 Month Checkup!

It's hard to believe Nicholas is one month old today but he is! And so we got to go to Garner Pediatrics for the one month baby checkup.

The envelope, if you please! (Drum roll, etc...) The value in parentheses is his relative rank on the full-term newborn growth charts (now that he appears on them...see the four charts to the right!). It's normal for preemies to be off the charts until they catch up!. Even so, that's still a fairly impressive growth spurt for the little guy.

We now know what our little piglet was doing with all of that breast milk and formula! Other than some occasionally explosive flatulence (and it's hardly a knock on Nicholas...Daddy's not much better in that department sometimes!) and persistent gas, he's doing just fine in all respects. The gas we're working on fixing (and no, I don't mean with a steady stream of canaries to determine when it's safe to go into the nursery!). He's averaging about four to five hours between feedings now which is really good for a baby his age.

The changes in him that we've seen over the past month are remarkable...and the changes in us are even more so!

Gramps from Port Orange in Florida (just south of Daytona Beach) came to visit Nicholas today and it didn't take long for Nicholas to wrap him round his little finger. OK, truth be told...that happened quite a long time ago but Nicholas in person is far more powerful presence than Nicholas on a web page.

He's also a lot more responsive than the five-pound bags of sugar that he was experimenting with to get the feel of what holding Nicholas was going to be like.

Of course, Gramps has a little saying...Gramps is my name and spoiling is my game!. Hoo boy...Gramps and Moby Dodge certainly did a bang-up job in that department! That custom van was stuffed with all sorts of nifty baby stuff (and not so baby stuff!). One thing you've got to understand about my father...he has this passionate aversion to paying full price. I thought my Hungarian relatives were fierce hagglers in the marketplace but they have nothing on him and his ubiquitous and clandestine network of informants in pretty much every retail establishment in the Daytona area. Why pay full price when you can work them over so that they're offering you 90% off? So pretty much everything that came for Nicholas today has a story that goes something along the lines of:

He was inordinately pleased when we found out that Nicholas was a boy so if you ever wondered why the Daytona area economy recovered quicker than anywhere else in the United States, you've got your answer! One perceptive clerk at Albertson's pointed out at his latest coup which essentially netted him six nearly free half-gallon bottles of freshly squeezed Indian River orange juice (normally $3/btl.) that they are getting to the point where they're paying him to move product. Why yes, I do believe they've gotten it in one...

Anywho, after the amazing pile o' loot was brought into the house and Nicholas had a nice long nap in Gramp's arms, we decided to pop out for a bit of dinner at Cracker Barrel where we were introduced to the adorable baby gambit for getting ahead in the queue. I'm here to testify that IT WORKS LIKE A CHARM!.

You need to have a really cute baby available (fortunately, we proved we've got a real winner in that department as the gambit worked!). You go up to the gatekeeper, tell them what table and section you want, and then show off the kid. Wouldn't you know...we're now five spots better off than we were ten seconds ago and everyone agrees that Nicholas is an adorable baby! Mind you, make sure you are subtle about it or the people you've just passed in the queue are likely to be a bit put out at you... :)

Tomorrow is the fun get-together day culminating with appropriate sacrifices to the propane gods. He brought along enough marinades that sound really tasty... guess we're finding out tomorrow!

Tonight was Daddy's turn to read me a story before bedtime and I get my first taste of The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. Even though I don't really remember much about the ending as I was in a milk coma at the time, it was still pretty fun sitting in the boppy pillow and seeing the pretty pictures when I was awake.

I am Sam, Sam I am...I DO NOT LIKE GREEN EGGS AND HAM! With these immortal words from Dr. Seuss, my Daddy built a legend of infamy on one really long road trip.

But that's OK, I really like hearing the story read to me by Mommy when I'm in full cute-and-cuddle mode!