Monday, April 30, 2007

Whaddaya know? We DO look related!

Finally, I can see that he looks at least a little like me and not so completely like Mark. He's got my eyes, just as I've suspected... but this photo, taken by Mark this morning, shows it. Yay!

Sure do love that little guy.

Oh, but you've heard that before, eh?

This was a pretty fun past weekend. While Mark worked on Saturday morning and early afternoon, Davey and I got to play together. Then Mom came over, I got dressed up, Mark got home and Mom and I left together, leaving Mark and Davey to hang out with each other for the rest of the day and in to the evening. While Mark (successfully) put Davey to bed for the first time (without me), Mom and I went to the Marin Country Day School 50th anniversary celebration. We met up with uncle Doom and aunt Mihoko at the alumni gathering at the beginning and then sat with uncle Tom during the sit down dinner. Tom was there as he's a parent of a current MCDS student, Elena, while Mom, Doom and I were there because we're all alumni of the school. Oh, and it was Mihoko's birthday -- happy birthday again, Mihoko! Mom ran in to a number of alumni from her class ('63) and Doom's class ('61), while I also ran in to a number of classmates of my own ('81). I really enjoyed talking with John McLaughlin and David Evans, both of whom I hadn't seen since graduation day in 1981. John's got two daughters going to MCDS now and said that one of our former teachers is now head of admissions... here's hoping he's still in that position in 5 years, when it's time for Davey to start there. :-) All in all, this being the first time I've got to anything reunion-like, it was really, really fun and I was very happy to have gone.

Yesterday, Sunday, Mark helped Polly and Garrie with moving some furniture and moving things that had been delivered from Grandma's estate. After he was done with that (thank you sweetie!), he went to work at the shop for the rest of the day. Meanwhile, Davey and I went up to Mom and Mick's to have a barbecue and meet Mick's two nieces, Joanna and Emma. This was Joanna and Emma's first trip to the U.S. though they're both quite well traveled. Mick was really giving them a full-blown feast of Northern California living, including mud baths and massages in Calistoga, a sunrise balloon ride over Napa valley, drinks and dining at some of the best establishments in the Napa valley... ending with a small, delicious barbecue around the pool with close glamorous friends and family. Very nice! Perhaps they'll be seduced in to moving here. I must admit that they're really interesting and lovely ladies and we'd be all the richer to have them closer (than England and Saudi Arabia, where they currently reside).

I had planned on taking Davey swimming for the first time yesterday, in Mom and Mick's pool. Unfortunately, it was a bit too cool out to want to go in, myself, much less subject Davey to it. So... perhaps Maui will be the location of his first swim. I'm signing him up for YMCA infant swimming lessons this Summer, too.

Note to anyone hanging with Davey: Please don't feed him eggs.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Working on crawling

He's not quite there yet, but Davey's more and more comfortable playing on his stomach every day, and he gets that he's supposed to move his arms and legs. The movements aren't yet coordinated, but like I said, he's working on it. :-)

Friday, April 27, 2007

Grandma's obituary

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:
Roslyn Goldman Freiberg helped unwed mothers
Social activist loved animals, cooking and travel
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Roslyn Goldman Freiberg helped pregnant, unmarried women at a time when they were largely ostracized by society.

It was typical of the work she did for progressive and Democratic causes throughout her life.

"Dismay and outrage at the consistency of Republican thuggery - that of local scoundrels as well as national mendacious quislings and incompetents like Joseph McCarthy, Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan and Bush - drove her to get involved with the Democratic Party as an antidote to fascism," said her daughter, Susan Freiberg of Wenatchee, Wash.

Mrs. Freiberg, 92, died April 2 at her home in St. Louis Park, Minn.

A lover of the natural world and a believer in civil and human rights, she served as president of the Nature Center and a docent at the Cincinnati Zoo. She was a past president of the International Visitors Center, taught ceramics to children at the United Cerebral Palsy Center and worked with women at the Booth Memorial Home for Unwed Mothers "at a time when they were pretty much pariahs," her daughter said.

Mrs. Freiberg was also president of the Great Rivers Girl Scout Council and was involved with the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Linton Chamber Music Series and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

"She had a knack for witty repartee," her daughter said. "She also was an unrivaled cook and entertainer who loved friends, family, and animals - especially cats of all sizes and wild birds."

Mrs. Freiberg loved to travel to the American West and instilled in her children an appreciation for natural and cultural history, art and classical music.

Born in Cincinnati on Nov. 21, 1914, she was the daughter of Gisela and Bernard Goldman. She graduated from Hughes High School and studied geology at the University of Cincinnati. She married Albert M. Freiberg - an attorney in Cincinnati for more than 50 years - in 1937. He died in 1998, and Mrs. Freiberg moved to St. Louis Park five years ago.

In addition to her daughter, Susan, survivors include three sons, David of Novato, Calif., Daniel of Golden Valley, Minn., and Jonathan of San Rafael, Calif.; six grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

Services have been held. Mrs. Freiberg's remains were cremated.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Alright, I don't know if...


Peas baby, peas - 201 days old
Originally uploaded by jessicafm.
...he's actually eating more (the jar's more empty after meals now) or if he's just spreading it around his body more liberally. All I know is I can't look at this picture without laughing myself to tears.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Perhaps it's just cereal he doesn't like

Organic sweet potatoes seemed to go down more easily, and more plentifully, this evening. We'll try this for a week and see what happens...

Monday, April 16, 2007

Ta da!!! 191 days old


Ta da!!! 191 days old
Originally uploaded by jessicafm.
We're having a surprisingly difficult time getting Davey to start eating. We're working on the second week of cereal now and trying to devise ways to get more food in to him. Last night I fed him a bit of milk first and then I held him on my lap while Mark fed him with the spoon. Davey was happy, didn't fuss and ate a little more than on previous evenings.

Tonight I was on my own with him and pondering what to do. I tried making the cereal really runny and also, as he always wants to drink out of our cups, put a little of my milk in to one of his cups. Then I let him drink a little out of his cup and then tried feeding him some cereal. Initially that worked, for the first couple bites, but then he started turning away. But he really wanted to play with the spoon and cup. So I poured the rest of the cereal in to his cup, let him play with the spoon and then let him try to drink his cereal from his cup (with a little guiding hand from me). He had a blast, got super messy and ate more cereal than any time past. Perhaps this will be our routine for a little while... it was pretty fun!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

A day with grandparents

Mowing the lawn with Grandma Julia - 186 days old
Today Mark needed to be out of town all day and in to the night, so we needed someone to take care of Davey while I conducted a usability test and did other work. Thankfully we were able to enlist my mom to come over and spend the day with us. Yayyyy Mom! Also, with the concern that Mom might not be able to get here in time for the start of my first usability test, at 8am, Dad came over to watch Davey until Mom got here. Lucky that he did, because the rain caused Mom to be running behind by about ten minutes. Davey's sure lucky to have such great grandparents!

Mom and Dad took great care of Davey while I couldn't... thank you both!

Mom decided she wanted to mow the lawn. She says she enjoys it. Bless you Mom, because our lawn really needed it. So she put Davey in the Baby Bjorn and took him with her to mow both the front and the back yards. Most of the time, so long as the electric motor was whirring, Davey sang along. How cute is that?!



Mom took Davey for a walk at one point and couldn't resist going in to a toy store called Five Monkeys. There she found some stacking cups that Davey absolutely had to have. In fact, he really enjoys them:

Saturday, April 7, 2007

6 months old?!

Seriously... I know everyone says that kids grow up so fast, but I had no clue how quickly time would move! Time has gone in to overdrive since Davey was born six months ago. Wow, this time six months ago, the feeling was nearly completely back to my legs and I was "dangling" off the side of the bed and gazing at my little one's face in the bassinette next to me.

Now he's just gone to bed after a fun day. He kept himself company for his first 30 minutes awake today, making some noise, but not crying or fussing. Today we practiced sitting like a tripod, crawling, we danced and sang, we read some books and he got to play with some fun cubes that he got last Christmas (and he's old enough for now). Then we all went for a walk to the bank and on the way, who should we run in to but the Easter Bunny! Apparently, as you can see by his smile, he liked the ol' hopper. Next year I bet he'll really like Mr. Bunny when he's old enough for Easter deliveries!

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Time for a 6 month check up -- and EATING

Today started out nicely, with Davey softly waking up, not crying but making enough noise to get our attention. I got him out of his crib and was greeted with a big smile. Aww, what a wonderful way to wake up. After a change and a meal, he hung out with Mark and I in the living room. I got some work done for the first couple of hours while Mark took care of Davey. Then it was time for Davey's 6 month well-baby visit with Dr. Lee (after a quick sip of infant Tylenol in anticipation of vaccinations).

And no, he's not 6 months old yet... He'll be 6 months old on Saturday.



Dr. Lee said what we already know: that Davey's healthy and looks great. He continues to meet all his developmental marks and we're just so proud of our sweet little guy.

Davey continues to be a skinny boy, but what can we say? Whenever he's hungry, we feed him and he eats well. Mark was a small kid, so it wouldn't be a big surprise if Davey were to turn out the same. At any rate, here are his latest stats:

Weight: 13lbs - 10oz (+1lb 2oz from two months ago) -- 3rd percentile (skinny!)
Length: 26-1/4" (+3/4" from two months ago) -- 50th percentile
Head: 17" (+1/2" from two months ago) -- 45th percentile

After talking with Dr. Lee, in came the nurse with the expected vaccinations: Polio (oral), DTaP (injection), Pneumococcal (injection) and Rotateq (injection). Ouch! He stopped crying pretty quickly however. It may have been because while we waited for the nurse, Davey decided he was hungry and I fed him a fairly good portion and then I was holding him when he got the shots. He was smiling just a minute after the last shot, so... not so bad. Later in the day he got fussy and we gave him more Tylenol. He seemed plenty happy later on.

So the next big development was that we talked with Dr. Lee about how Davey's so interested in everything we're eating. I told him about giving Davey a little egg yolk within the last week and how he had a slight, short allergic reaction. And how he likes to "drink" out of our water glasses. We agreed that it's time for him to start eating, though the doctor doesn't want Davey to be drinking water yet. If he's going to take in liquid, it should have some good caloric and nutrient content at first. He's a proponent of rice cereal being the first food. Yep, that's what he said to do. We're to pick one meal a day to give him rice cereal mixed with breast-milk. Feed him as much as he'll eat of it at the beginning of the meal, and when he stops wanting to eat the cereal, switch over to breastmilk. Do this for the first week. After the first week, we'll introduce another food such as baby veggies. Okay!

So after I finished working this afternoon, Davey and I went to the store and picked up some organic, whole-grain baby rice cereal. Once home and the groceries put away, I made up a small batch of cereal. Here are the results:





Yep, he liked it! He didn't eat all of it (1 tsp cereal mixed with 3 tsp milk) but he ate several spoons full before he wanted to take over and play with the spoon. I'd say it was a good start. :-)

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

First baseball game and FIRST CRAWL!

Most exciting, by far: Davey's really starting to be able to move himself about! This evening he... okay, it's not really a crawl, but he scooted on his stomach, hands and legs about 3 feet from me to Mark on the couch. He's stopped getting upset about being put on his stomach to play and is truly figuring out how to move himself. Excellent!

Alright -- then next... we had a great time at the San Francisco Giants opening day. Even though the Giants LOST, and lost BIG. Oh well. The weather was beautiful, Prescott was with us (he raised his report card to all A's and maintained it for the treat of skipping school and going today), Davey was tricked out in Giants wear (enough to keep the sun off his sensitive skin) and we got to see our seat-mates. Definitely a fun day!

Davey didn't eat as much as usual today; I suspect there was just so much going on that he was too distracted. He did manage to nap a couple of times during the game, as well as in the car on the way there in the morning. But all in all, he didn't nap nearly as much as usual and by 7 o'clock tonight he was very ready for his bath, a short bite to eat (shorter than usual) and immediately falling deeply asleep. Aside from crying when the fly-over happened, he seemed to kinda like the day.

Play ball!

Monday, April 2, 2007

Rest in Peace Roslyn G. Freiberg ~ November 21, 1914 - April 2, 2007

My sweet, wonderful and kind grandmother passed away, peacefully, in her sleep at about 5 o'clock this morning in Minnesota. There's so much to say about her grace and humor throughout the marvelous life she led and the intelligent, kind and goofy children that she raised. At the moment, however, I'm just going to remember her with some favorite photos that I've got on hand.

Dreyer and Freiberg picnic

Family portrait

Grandma

Grandma and her progeny

Great-Grandma and Davey - 117 days old

Great-Grandma, Mom and Davey - 117 days old

Davey with his Great-Grandma - 17 weeks old

Roslyn & Roslyn

Rozzie and Roz