Dori's First Story

Dori anxiously tries to type whenever he is near a computer. A couple weeks ago, I finally allowed him to use the keyboard...he certainly had a lot to tell us! Unfortunately, I couldn't understand a word. In desperation, I turned to my friends and baby-language readers Anastasia and Emily for assistance. They translated Mather's first words last year so I begged them for their help. They grudgingly obliged:

C >6t
Children are better than 60-year-0lds.

z1"< J:
My onesies are smaller than jammies.

fjjjjj56m yyyyyyyu mn hnb ji 9mlllllllllllllllllll
Snoozing 56 minutes, you may have to bear just nine minutes of crying.

omdnt bdmfra hhhhhhhhhhhxcv fcad
Oh my, don’t be so hella stressed cause family can always deliver. . .

Awzeszd uygbfbvzzzz chhhhhhhhhhhhhh ggg
awesome yoga, breakfast in bed, sleep and chai eggnogg

Dori's New Trick

The Reunion

Yeah, that's my Daddy and I'm proud of him!
Kissy kissy.
So much to talk about!
I'm not so sure about mashed banana.
I like water from my sippy cup though!
Who does this guy think he is? I don't see any milk.
Daddy gives me the best baths!
I can't understand this bloody accent reading my bedtime stories!
Photo Op.
With Mama too.
Aren't I the cutest?

home at last

After 3 weeks, 15 gigs and countless miles we made it back from our tour. Of course, I love playing with the band but towards the end I was really excited to see little D again. I've been checking the blog, phoning and emailing daily and it was starting to seem like he'd grown into a toddler in three weeks! By all accounts he was rolling over, happily lying on his stomach, crawling, saying 'mamma', growing blonde hair and suddenly too big for his clothes and diapers! I'm glad the tour wasn't longer or I might have missed his graduation.

So, when I did return I was so pleased that he looked and acted pretty much exactly as he had when I left. I was even happier that he remembered me. He smiled right at me when I walked through the door and when I took him from Kel he put his hands around my neck and gave me a kiss/ chin suck. My tickling-under-his-chin trick still made him giggle and as soon as I strummed the guitar he looked round and beamed. Bliss.

The main changes I notice are that he can flip himself over and he grabs at things with a real purpose now - toys, computers, chest hair.

Kelly did an amazing job of looking after him solo while I was away. She deserves a break and today she gets it! She's gone to work for the day and is leaving Dorian for by far the longest stretch yet : 11 hours! Kel - if you're reading this at work, Dorian just said 'Dada' and has learnt to moonwalk.

1 more day!

James comes home tomorrow night...YAY!!!!! He's ready. I'm ready. Dorian's ready. It's time. Dorian has a cold right now. I have a very busy week ahead of me. I start a pre-nursing review class tomorrow, which will meet Monday and Tuesdsay afternoons for one month. I still don't know if I have been accepted into nursing school for the fall, but I figure a review class will be good for me either way. I miss school! I will also be working a lot this week, both at home and at the office, to make up for the lack of work I have done over the past few weeks. I tried to get some done in the evenings once Dorian had gone to sleep, but most days I was too wiped out to do so. I will be leaving Dorian with James, my dad, and our friend Cindy this week. One day I will be leaving him for 10 hours!!! This will be the longest Dori and I have ever been separated, by far. I'm terrified! But I think I'll just need to not call home and check in because if I hear him crying, I won't be able to handle it. We also plan to introduce solid foods this week! Lots of new, exciting stuff. James will get right back into teaching and preparing for Tempest's annual music festival, which is in less than 2 weeks. Dori and I will be going too so if anyone wants to go, let me know!

Recap of this past week:

Dori is now pulling his hat off. He is saying not only "Mom" all the time but "Dada!" He said "Hiya" to me the other day. I swear...he took a nap and I heard him wake up. I went into his room and he looked right at me, smiled, and said "Hiya." No one believes me. He is singing! I put our baby CDs on and he sings with them! (More like shouting.) He talks all the time. He keeps grabbing my hair, pulling on it really hard from both sides while chomping down on my chin. Not sure what this is about. He is consistently going about 2-3 hours without food. He has not been sleeping well at night, no long stretches, but he does have a cold. Last night he kept screaming after coughing. Poor little guy. He seemed fine today though.

Anyway, 'nuff talking, here's what you visit the blog for:

I brought the playpen out this week. Dorian loves playing in it.
We took my Grandma to an appointment - any excuse for her to see Dori. She is in love with him.
Of course, Dori is usually more interested in putting things in his mouth than interacting with people. This is changing though. He always gives a big smile to anyone who starts talking to him.
Swinging in the same swings Mama did as a baby!
I lay him down on his back on the far side of the playmat (by the toys). I went into the other room for one minute and he had gotten this far!!! This is like 3 or 4 rolls! Mobile baby.
Loving Grandma's Half-Birthday Present.
Really loving it.
He can now lift his playmat up. He grunts and strains, just like an adult lifting up something really heavy. It's very cute.
Allowing me to take him out in the stroller again now! And napping in it too. Yay!
Chilling in the driveway with the dogs and motorcycles as Grandpa does some work.
Beautiful sleeping boy.
On Saturday, we visited my friend Emily, her husband Dan and their daughter Mather who is 18 months old. It made me very excited for the toddler years. Mather is as cute as they come (visit her here).
Playing music with Grandma. She better not be teaching him bluegrass!Next blog will include sappy-sweet pictures of Dori reunited with his Daddy! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!

A Look Back at Mama & Dori

It's only fair! Sorry for the numerous pictures you've seen before and the pregnancy photos. I still can't find the amount of pictures to show you as you saw in the "A Look Back at Daddy & Dori" post! You can tell who the photographer is in this household. There are not even half the photos of Dori and I as there are of Dori and his Daddy. James, take note. I want more pictures of me and my boy. The hundreds of photos of me with my boobs out over the past 6 months don't count.

Happy Half-Birthday, Dorian!!!

Then & Now.

Chewing/sucking on things at 4 days old.
Chewing/sucking on things now.
Sunbathing at 4 weeks.
Sunbathing now.
Dorian in the bassinet at 3 days old.
Dorian in the bassinet now.
Dorian in the swing at 5 weeks.
Dorian in the swing now.
Dorian in the bath at 1 week old.
Dorian in the bath now.
Dorian in his carseat at 3 weeks.
Dorian in his carsaeat now (well, 2 weeks ago).

Babies' Picnic!

Tummy time for everyone!
The most beautiful baby at the picnic!
Mmmm, tasty!
Also tasty!
I'll take your hat!
You take mine!
Such a cute photo.
Daddy's boy (loving the sun!)

Computers suck, but here are some pictures of Dorian to make it all better

Yeah, lame title, but I am dying to gripe about computers. I don't know if all of you know, but I got a new laptop a couple months ago (because James' old one died and we were sharing my old one). It has caused nothing but headaches since we got it, due to Vista royally sucking. Luckily, James got it all sorted out before he left for tour (he downloaded Windows onto it instead). But now???? My computer has a virus - some spyware got installed on it because apparently, I was looking up "penis toys." Seriously, those words appeared in my Google search dropdown list. Bizarre. Anyway, I was downloading a news video off CNN the other night when all of sudden, I was taken to page that told me I had a virus and now all these boxes keep popping up telling me to install "antimalware software" to get rid of it. Really just a con to get you to buy the software. I can still use the laptop, but it is most annoying because any time I try to change the page or access a different folder on my computer or open a new picture of my sweet boy, the box pops up and I have to close it again! And everything is running a lot slower than normal. James says he can fix it and I'm not going to lose anything or cause any damage by not getting on it right away, but in the meantime, it's driving me mad!

So no headers on these pictures again...I figure you can work them out. The ones with the cell phone are when James and Dori were talking - Dori really knows it's his daddy - he smiles and tries to eat the phone. :) The ones with the other baby (his friend Denali from my moms' group) were at our first music class yesterday - Dorian LOVED it. He smiled the whole time (not for the pictures though, of course). And, he was really starting to interact with the other kids! Although, I think it was just because he thought "Ooh, something new to chew on!" He was really going for Denali's ear!

In Dori news - he is not letting me exercise because he hates his strollers at the moment. All three of them. He'll last about 5 minutes and then start screaming and I end up carrying him AND pushing the stroller. Not the workout I had in mind. He wants to be carried and held ALL THE TIME. Even at home. It's been very difficult to get work done this week because he doesn't even want to hang out in his jumperoo or playmat at the moment. He is a little fussy. Maybe he knows his daddy is gone and everything is "off?" He also says "Mum," "Mom," and "Mummy" all the time...you can see where we got those words from! But it makes it very hard when he's crying while I'm peeing in the other room..."Mum, mum, mum" he says. It's all I can do not to run to him with my pants round my ankles!!! He is sitting up for longer and longer periods of time. He keeps rolling over onto his tummy and then not knowing how to get back. It is very cute. Last night, he kept doing it over and over and over again in his crib. I'd put him on his back and he'd flip onto his stomach and not be able to get back over again and he'd start crying hysterically. But he just didn't learn! I must have gone in there 8 times! He is still waking every 1-3 hours. Although last night I went to bed with him at 7pm because I was so exhausted. He slept until midnight! Maybe he just needs me to sleep with him ALL THE TIME? I don't know. Anyway, we're off to a moms' group picnic at Lake Temescal. The weather is gorgeous and hot here at the moment. Dorian will try out his new shorts, sunglasses and sunscreen today and play with 8 other babies. Pictures to come in a couple days, of course! In the meantime...

A Look Back at Daddy and Dori

I miss my Daddy!

If Daddy were here, he'd play ball with me.My jumperoo isn't as much fun without my Daddy here to make the monkey sounds!I just don't understand, where's he gone?I can't get comfortable in my crib without Daddy.The big bed feels empty without Daddy.Grandma tried to make me happy last night before bed. She's not Daddy.Mama took me to visit Grandma at work today to try to make me forget about missing Daddy. She even let me chew on her sunglasses. I still couldn't forget.Grandpa gave me his keys to suck on but this didn't work.Grandpa also tried to tickle me and make me laugh.This didn't work either.Mama offered me a beer. I don't like beer.The only thing that will work??? Having my Daddy back. Come home soon, Daddy!!!

Big, healthy boy!

Dori has outgrown his old diapers (size 6-12 months, 15-20lbs) but his new ones (size 12-18 months, 20-30lbs) are too big. What to do? I guess we'll just let them be a bit big. I surely don't want to put him in disposables for the next month or two until he grows into them. And there's no way I can stuff him into the old ones...I had to put him in disposables the past couple days anyway until the new diaper covers arrived because the old ones were that tight on him! You know what also sucks? Now his pants don't fit with the new diapers! And he's already in 9-12 month old size pants!!! Did you know he's now over 20 pounds and 28 inches long??? And that's all breastmilk, baby!!! It does make me very proud that I have nourished this boy so well. Do you want to know something super weird??? I am 61 inches tall. Dori is almost half my height!!! He is so healthy. Of course, I get comments from people who think he is too big or that I must be feeding him too much. There always seems to be a critic lurking when there's a new mom nearby! I love my baby boy and think he is perfect. How could anyone think he was fat??? It shows me how OBSESSED this country is with weight. He is not even 6 months old, he is supposed to have baby fat, yet people are already talking to me about reducing his food intake and increasing his exercise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, enough whining about that for now.

We will introduce solid food when he is 6 months old (and James has returned). We gave up on the rice cereal after a couple weeks because it wasn't extending his sleep and he seemed to lose interest in it after a couple days. I was happy anyway, because some research has shown that exclusively breastfeeding a baby for the first 6 months can diminish his chances of developing asthma or allergies, both of which run on both sides of Dorian's family. Plus, I gotta tell you, for all my complaining about being tied down to Dorian, it sure is easy to just whip my boobs out and feed him anywhere, you know? I'm not looking forward to all the diligent shopping for organic food, washing, chopping, blending and heating. I absolutely hate cooking; preparing perfectly chosen, washed, blended, heated food for a baby? Even worse, I imagine. Ugh.

Week-end Update

Dorian has been helping me work this week-end - sitting in his high chair and playing quietly next to my "office." He has been rolling over like crazy! I put him to bed last night in his crib - on his back in the middle of it. He was awake and talking to himself. Several minutes later I heard screaming. I went into his room, and he had somehow managed to roll over onto his stomach perpendicularly in the crib (head and feet against the side rails, not head and foot of the bed). He was stuck! He has done the same thing on his play mat and even rolls off it now. I think it's time to break out the playpen! He had lunch with his Grandma and Gamma (what my Grandma wants to be called) and was the little charmer he always is. He let Stella, my parents' dog, lick his face. He played. He took a bath, after pooping all over himself. I left him on the changing table (strapped in, of course) to air out a bit and look at his hanging mobile. I came back a few minutes later and he had had a massive poop. It was everywhere! Feet, legs, back, hands - luckily not face or hair (or my pristine walls). Little monster. He took a long nap yesterday and has been napping for 45 minutes on average, 2-3 times a day. Much better than 20-30 minutes, 1-2 times a day! He still wakes up every 2 hours at night, but he does not feed every time! This is progress. I just cuddle him or rock him and he goes back to sleep. Anyway, I can't be bothered to write captions and I really need to do some work so here are the best of the pictures from the past two days...

A thrilling post...

Little carseat.
Big carseat.
Infant carseat.
Big boy carseat!
Exciting stuff, I told you.

We have a rolling baby!

Dorian is rolling over!!! Every time I put him on his stomach, he rolls onto his back almost immediately. He's been telling us for months he hates tummy time...now he can actually get out of it! Having said that, he did roll over onto his stomach once today!We visited my Grandma - she got a kick out of Dorian knowing how to use a cup already (there wasn't anything in it).All her friends loved seeing Dorian. We're going to try to visit more often because I realized just how much it makes their day.We visited a friend in San Francisco who has a piano. Dori loves to play the piano. James has been teaching him for months.Mom, do I have to play this piece AGAIN???Dori loves bathtime and misses his daddy. James and Dori have so much fun during bathtime. Somehow I can't create the same splashing games Daddy does! Loads of bathtime pictures for Dori's daddy...


We went to Costco to buy Dori a new car seat - he is only the 2nd baby in my new mom's group to outgrow his infant seat (and remember, he's the youngest)! Pics of him in both carseats to follow in the next couple days. Dori loves riding in the shopping carts the big boy way now.How am I going to get through all that food with James gone? Maybe the big block of cheese won't disappear in 2 days like it normally does!Thumbs up for the Oakland A's! I couldn't resist buying this hat.

Dorian's Day in Pictures

Daddy's Gone!

James has abandoned us. He is living the good life on the road, rock-star style. Playing lots of music and getting paid for it. Getting 21 nights of unbroken sleep (not that I'm counting them or anything). Drinking beer. Eating good food. Girls fawning all over him. Not having to change dirty diapers. So not fair! I want all that. Well, maybe not the girls fawning all over me part. But boys would be okay. ;)

Just for that, I'll post what I think is a very cute, candid shot of my two boys (taken yesterday, the day James left). I know James will hate this picture of himself though so that can be one of his punishments for leaving us.
Hey, who's looking at me???
I told James I'd try to post more blogs while he was away. He wanted me to be sure to send him lots of pictures, and it's just as easy for me to post them here as it is to email him. I may as well make everyone's day with pictures of the boy, right?

I took Dorian to my office for the first time in 2 months and he was a huge hit again...

With my fellow admin assistants and friends Emily, Dorana and Erika
With Dorana and another fellow admin assistant and office jester Kyle.
Dori and I visited my colleague and friend Anastasia at her house on Saturday. Annie introduced us to the Baby Loves Jazz series which Dorian LOVES. She also gave Dorian his super-cute Robeez Crocodile shoes (because he is Crockbaby - get it?) She and her husband John got Dorian to smile loads for the camera on Saturday. Here are some pictures of our visit.

Doesn't he look like a monkey here? His expression is so cute!
Talking with Annie.
More talking.
Standing boy, as usual.
Always eating something, quite often his hand!
Dori loves being tickled!
Dori is also very curious about dogs now. He pulls on their hair and doesn't mind when they lick his face. He does start crying when they bark though. I mean, serious crying. His face just turns into the saddest frown and he usually starts wailing really loudly right away (normally it takes a few minutes of crying to build up to the wail). It's very sweet. I need to get it on video.

I took these pictures of Dori last week in my headband. I know he looks very 80's, but once again, he looks cute in anything, doesn't he?


Dori is so close to sitting up on his own now. He can do it for maybe 10 seconds or so, but then he typically topples over. In the meantime, he loves sitting in his chair.
I love this picture. It really captures Dorian. While he smiles and laughs a lot now, he is often quite serious and reflective. He definitely takes everything in. As my Grandma says, "He doesn't miss a thing!" He also drools constantly. His shirts and bibs get drenched in drool.
Once again, serious, sitting-up boy - so much to learn on his playmat.
In other (minor) news, I purchased a jogging stroller on Craigslist this week-end and got a mani-pedi before James left on Monday. I had my eyes checked out last week and purchased new prescription glasses, hip sunglasses and contact lenses today. I am going to try to focus on me a little more. Does that sound shallow or selfish? Sorry if it does. I am tired of slugging it in track pants and baggy sweatshirts. It's time to make an effort again! Particularly if James is on tour surrounded by groupies!