Outta Touch

Just a quick note to those not in the know. We have moved off the Hillside in Anchorage, down to Mid-town we are getting settled in to the new place with some minor trials. Justine will not be online for a few weeks, as the phone company is not able to get to our house Until the 8TH of August. I am trying to get Justine the important messages, but bear with us. Thanks. More to come as it happens.

Hawthorn's Soothing Sounds

Wondering what is working for baby? How about this beautiful piece by Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni, Adagio in G Minor. 
Next week, who knows? Babies can be fickle. For now, enjoy!

Primitive Fishing

Hawthorn Update

Baby Hawthorn had his 4 month follow-up appointment with Dr. Tappel yesterday & made his marks with flying colors! He weighed in at 10 lbs 8 oz & 23 1/4 inches long at 4 months, 9 days (subtract 5 weeks to figure gestational age). This puts him still at or below the 3rd percentile for measurements, but his growth curve showed a sharper shift upward than we have seen so far.
The really good news is that he made all his developmental indicators for a 4 month old, even though he is technically quite a bit younger than that. He is sitting upright when held, engaging socially, tracking people & conversations, grasping objects, responding verbally to speech, laughing, etc. (He can also bring a bottle to his mouth, albeit spaztically, as shown in the photos.)
Hawthorn will be starting on solid foods a little early, to help him get some of the minerals he missed not staying for the latter part of gestation. Dr. Tappel said he thinks we can begin now, so we will do a bit of research & choose a first food. Very exciting for baby who really enjoys sitting with family at meal time & has a keen interest in sucking on strawberries, mangoes & other fruits!
Thorn got some vaccinations -- oh the myriad of shots they give them these days. Too bad for baby, he screamed for an hour straight last night. Ambivalent as we are about them, the thought of a polio outbreak like they had in SLC this past spring makes us want to err on the safe side, especially with a baby who has had so many medical hardships already. 
So, that's the news on the most wee one. We follow up again in a month. Baby never ceases to amaze -- I was just looking at NICU photos yesterday & marveling at the strength & resilience of this tiny little being. How miraculous.

Party Pants

For those of you who know Barnabas, it won't be a surprise that he got dreddy again this spring & with all the chaos of birth & whatnot, it got totally out of control. Chris & I decided the best plan of action was to get him professionally groomed & he returned home with a nifty "lion cut." It's so puffy & fancy & altogether silly. (It looked more so when the clipped areas were shorter, but it still has a certain festive quality.) He has always been known to us as "Fat Pants, Slow Dance." However, he lost some poundage with the stress of this Spring's events & this, combined with his new "do" warranted a new name. Thus, Barnabas has now been dubbed "Party Pants, Lap Dance." The photo below was taken today, so not nearly as humourous as it could have been, but still, any opportunity to laugh at the cat's expense...

Science!

Last Sunday we had the pleasure of having Howard (my "godfather") to visit on his way back to Escalante. He was in AK for two weeks on an expedition courtesy of NSF funding. I am actually uncertain what the purpose of the expedition was this time (maybe Paleontological?), but I happen to know -- whatever the official purpose -- he looked for SNAILS. We took him to Campbell Creek for a hike where he collected more DUFF. "What is this duff and what is the purpose of gathering it?" you might ask. The top soil, leaf litter and debris on the insert-your-biome-here floor is duff. Duff is where you can find many surprising things, like Howard's coveted snails and snail shells which he carefully examines, identifies, describes, logs, documents and sometimes even publishes. Below is a photo of Howard and our intrepid explorer Rowan, sifting duff in preparation for the return flight to the lower 48.

4 Months Old!

Happy 4 Month Birthday Hawthorn! You've come a long way baby!

July 4th -- Kite Flying on the Coast

This Independence Day we kept it simple with a quiet day, mostly at home, ALL of us together ALL day. (First time since we arrived in AK.) Knowing that we would not be staying up for the fireworks (which are very late in order for it to be dark enough to see them) we decided to think of another special activity. We opted to go out to one of the bluffs along the Cook Inlet and try out the kite David and Marianne left for us to use. The kite flying part of the adventure was not so successful (read: we broke the kite), but we had a wonderful (and beautiful) time wandering along the mud flats, making mud sculpture (Rowan believed he had found the largest expanse of "mud playdough" on Earth.) and collecting driftwood.

COSHIN WET FLOR

Rowan mopped the bathroom floor with a washrag tonight. He thought we might slip, so he left us a warning:

Shhhh...

Return to the Zoo

On July 3rd, we went to the Alaska Zoo for the first time since we returned to Anchorage. We love the zoo here and will miss being close enough to walk. We had heard rumor that there was a baby polar bear in residence this year, so we searched high and low -- the entire zoo. No baby polar bears were to be found, but we're hoping it was just being kept indoors. A summer mystery to be solved!

Hawthorn Update

 

On June 28th, Hawthorn visited Dr. Tappel, our AK pediatrician. We had taken him in  with a fever (just being cautious) but Dr. Tappel was not concerned. He said, "What I see here is a very robust baby." Hooray for robust babies! Hawthhorn weighed in at 9 lbs 2 oz and he was approximately 3 months 2 weeks old. We are scheduled for another weigh-in on July 19.