Merry Christmas and Happy New Baby!

Here's the highlight of December - the arrival of Lucie Suzanne! (it's one of her rare eyes open moments above) My "scheduled" induction turned out to be less of an appointment and more of a "we'll see" sort of situation - apparently, I wasn't the only pregnant lady in San Francisco trying to avoid going into labor on Christmas. Thanks to the tireless nagging of my doctor, the hospital admitted me around 9 pm, and I spent the night hooked up various tubes and wires. In the morning, I was serenaded by the sounds of a natural childbirth happening across the hall, followed by a visit from my doctor, who said I looked ready to have a baby. Lucie made a relatively speedy arrival after that, at 7:31 am on Dec. 22, weighing 7 lbs 13 oz. The delivery nurse measured her height at 22 inches, but her doctor didn't believe it and rechecked her that afternoon, so her official height was actually 20.5 inches.

Of course, there were lots of other great moments this month - like Brennan's first visit to Santa ("Senden" or "Senden Clothes" in Brennanese). We drove down to San Mateo so Daddy could come, too. We arrived just as Santa was leaving! Daddy asked the surly teenage elf where Santa went, and was told that Santa took his lunch break at that time. Daddy tried to point out that people with jobs come to visit Santa at the very same time, but it degenerated quickly, and ended with the words "clown show" and a walk down to the California Pizza Kitchen. We returned after lunch, and almost had to wait in line behind roughly 25 adults who had all been at some group outing to Build-a-Bear (I am making none of this up, by the way) who were kind enough to let Brennan go in front of them. He was very excited to see Santa, up until the moment he actually had to see Santa. Then he was scared. We tried to have Daddy sit with him, since Daddy had on nice work clothes, had showered that day, and wasn't 9 months pregnant, but NO. It had to be Mommy. So I got to have my picture taken with Santa, too.
There's been a lot of rain this month, so on rare dry days we try to get outside - one of the best places to go is our neighborhood playground. The swings and slides seem to dry quickly, and as long as you stay out of the soccer field, there's no mud. Bren's getting really good at climbing (with a spotter) and going down all the slides by himself, and his frog-driving skills have improved to the point that he can ride it to the playground without reducing his parents to profanity & despair.

Also he looks very handsome in his new navy blue sweater.
Here is Lucie on 12/23 in the hospital, looking a lot like her brother did as a brand new baby. I had a better room this time, overlooking the hospital entrance and California street, instead of the decaying parking garage. We even had sun that morning - I snapped a photo for Lucie, since she won't remember her first sunrise:
She sleeps a lot - not that I'm complaining, although I wish she would do more of it at night. But it's not too bad - the worst time generally is 9-11, while we try to catch up on TV shows on our Netflix stream. After 5 episodes of The Tudors, I can kind of sum up the experience:

8:35 Lucie sleeps, King Henry puts the moves on various women at court, Catherine of Aragorn prays & cries

8:40 Lucie's eyes flutter, Cardinal Woolsey schemes, King Henry removes shirt

8:45 Lucie looks around, stretches, and some foppish Eurotrash monarch arrives to sign a treaty that will dissolve by the end of the next episode

8:50 Can no longer watch due to baby cries

9:00 4 out of 5 "S's" from Happiest Baby on the Block prove ineffective, enter hair dryer on "HIGH"

9:01 Lucie's eyes close, face relaxes

9:02 Hair dryer on low, pretend we can hear dialogue, but basic gist seems to be "intrigue intrigue betrayal intrigue"

9:04 Hair dryer off, repeat above
Brennan seems to be handling this usurper pretty well - the worst tears were at our departure from the hospital, when we put her in the car seat and he insisted she was in "Brennan's seat". Which is completely not the case, as we had to toss his infant car seat due to unfortunate mold growth after we stored it in the garage at our old place. Lucie is using cousin Ian's old car seat, which Bren has never been in. Jeez.

One unexpected benefit of the near-xmas baby is that Bren has had plenty of distraction in the form of new toys - trucks, trains, helicopters, books, cars...

...and the aftermath:

Somehow in the last week, Bren has learned that his trains have names. He's not watching Thomas the Tank Engine at home - I'm hoping to avoid the show for as long as possible, given its off-putting combination of plotlessness and creepy-faced trains. While Bren is pushing "Thomas One" around, Lucie does things like cry through a bath and sleep on Mommy. I'd forgotten how nice it is to have a warm baby sleep on me. Like a cat, but a lot more work.

After a few days at home, we were ready to brave the outside world - the day after Christmas we went to see the Garden Railway at the Conservatory of Flowers.

For years I wondered why botanical gardens always set up trains for the holidays - and then I had a little boy.

I still don't really see the connection between toy trains and plants, but I have to admit it was kind of cool. They built all the miniature San Francisco landmarks out of recycled materials, like rulers for the windmill blades, and the seven sisters built from cereal boxes.

Brennan was pretty excited to see the trains:

We survived our first field trip - Lucie slept the entire time, Bren got to see trains and ride the carousel, Roux got to chase a ball and play with other dogs, and Mommy & Daddy got to split a soft pretzel.

Happy Thanksgiving

Brennan has stayed busy this November, even though his mommy is really slowing down (something about gaining 20 pounds and a watermelonish abdomen makes me very tired). Here's some of his artwork from school - I particularly like the Dali-esque eye placement on the bear.
On Woobie Bath Day, Brennan decided that Replacement Woobie and Original Woobie like to hang out and chat.
He and his sidekick keep a look out for trucks and doggies.

When the weather allows, we hit the Discovery Museum. The Tot Spot is pretty much old hat at this point - he just wants to go straight to the Ramp of Impending Dental Injuries and run up and down it with a metal dump truck. I did manage to get him interested in the fishing boat on this trip.


Exploring in his dresser is another fun activity. When he's playing with his toys or his iPod, there's usually a steady stream of commentary, along with the crash of plastic or the tinny sounds of "The Aristocats" coming from tiny speakers. But when it's quiet, that usually means I better hustle if I don't feel like re-folding a mound of t-shirts and PJs. Or worse. However, Daddy may have missed that memo. This is what happened to Thanksgiving Day Outfit #1, while I was at the gym:

So we changed to Outfit #2, otherwise known as "tiny accountant", and went over to Cousin Ian's house to stuff our cheeks with crackers and ruin our appetite for Thanksgiving dinner -

knock down the "brick" (cardboard) wall as quickly as Uncle David could build it-
play with trains and plot a way past the fireplace barrier -
& crawl all over Grandpa -
The next day, we took "Grambo" to the Discovery Museum. "Grambo" is what he calls both his grandpa and grandma, along with some of the gifts they brought him.
Brennan hadn't seen Grandma Lorna and Grandpa Uwe in a long time - he missed their last visit, because of a trip to Florida - but he settled right in & had lots of fun with them. In fact, the night they baby-sat he somehow swindled a 45 minute bath and 10 bedtime stories out of them. I'm sure he can't wait for them to come back!

Halloween

Time again for the annual Belvedere Street Halloween Extravaganza! It's great to live just blocks away - there are so many kids, so many cool costumes, great decorations, and a TON of candy.

Luckily, I carved out jack-o-lantern before I saw this one. After seeing this sort of thing, you have to wonder why you should even bother.

Ian came over to help Brennan shake down the neighborhood for tiny candy bars.

Bren was a little uncertain at first, but once he got the hang of things, he took it all very seriously. Especially hanging onto his pumpkin. We got his lion hood up briefly, but since it was kind of warm and his costume was like the skin of a stuffed animal, it seemed unfair to force it.

This year's go-go dancers at the modern house with the big windows (they do a different movie every year):

Lots of people dress up with their kids, but this was by far my favorite father-son duo:

These two little flowers holding hands were pretty cute, too.

"Trick or treat" was kind of a mouthful for Bren, so his daddy coached him to just say "treat", since that was what he wanted. He loved getting the candy and seeing all the people, but I think he enjoyed stomping on this wooden hatch most of all.

Happy Halloween!!

Harvest to Halloween

We started off the month with a pretty cool trip - we were invited out to help with a wine harvest in Alamo. Kind of a long story, but we got to spend the day with family (Bruce & Cindy Lower), get a hands-on introduction to wine-making, and see a beautiful house and little vineyard. Our hosts were gracious enough to put up with a two year old AND a puppy, and on top of that, we have 2 bottles of their wine to enjoy. Above is Brennan admiring the grapes. He's not actually about to swim in them. I wish I could say the same for the pool I let him "wade" in.

We've stayed in San Francisco for the rest of the month - the weather is best this time of year, and someone in the household has a grueling schedule of MLB playoff games to watch. We managed to turn Roux's puppy school into an excuse to go out to dinner, since we had a sitter for class. Puppy school is a strange lead-in to "date night" but I'll take what I can get. I also signed up for an online "photo class", which wasn't much of a class so much as a bunch of ladies with cameras complimenting each other, but I did pick up a few things. Mostly it was good to get a daily email "assignment" and have a push to get out and use my good camera (almost) every day for a month. All of the photos in this post were from the EOS, not my usual pocket camera or iPhone shots.

Here's Brennan illustrating "get cozy" - the favorite spot in the house to curl up with a blanket and a book or movie-

and a falling leaf -
This one didn't make the cut for "class" - I think it had something to do with fading the color or converting to black and white, but I like how Bren is smothering Roux in the bed neither of them is technically supposed be in. They are really warming up to each other - he likes to squeeze her around the neck and announce "HUG", and, well, she puts up with it, because it's attention.
It's interesting what you come up with for subject matter, when you're supposed to shoot every day -

Woobie (who scared us with a brief disappearance this month)

The last of the summer peaches at the neighborhood farmer's market

Little trucks and trains (the prompt was: find a new way to photograph a pumpkin)

Like every other kid in the age of digital photography, Brennan is a pretty willing subject. I don't think he quite gets what I'm doing yet, but he LOOOVES to look at pictures of himself on my laptop. It's a reliable way to stop a tantrum, although then I'm stuck with demands for "more baby" if I shut the screen. This series from the playground is his current favorite - he laughs every time he sees the second one. Every time.

Another thing he loves: candy. Any kind, really. So the approach of Halloween has been a banner week for that. I let him eat almost this whole chocolate lollipop, because I was trying to get a photo to show what was great about candy for my little class. I almost used either of these, but ultimately went with one with more chocolate smeared on his face.

Finally, a Halloween preview - I actually have a bunch of pics from today to edit, but have this one from Friday, the day of his preschool parade. I couldn't actually take photos during the parade, since after I showed up, he became teary at the prospect that I might leave again, and was only happy if I held his hand. Since I normally get about as much hand-holding as it takes to cross the street, I was happy to let the photo op slide...