Bon apetit

Jack just started on his rice cereal about a week ago. Should have been at 5 months exactly, but he had some tummy problems that delayed it. At first he was thoroughly grossed out by it but now he is devouring more than his share, even opening his mouth when he sees the spoon coming -- or when he feels like showing you what he's just ate, as above.

Of course, when ya can't get rice cereal, toes will do. Some garlic butter with those for m'sieur?

Frequent Flier

Just a few hours ago we got back from Albany, New York, where my sister got married to a fine young man named Travis. Snapped this picture this evening in the tunnel between C and D terminals in Cleveland where we connected our Albany flight to an LAX flight. Jack was, simply, amazing. Even the other passengers commented on it. He never cried or was fussy, except at his usual times when he was just about to fall asleep or eat. Literally, didn't make a peep except a bunch of giggles of delight when we played with him or fellow passengers made faces at him. Really unbelievable, and this was both ways to and from Albany, with a long 4 1/2 hour layover in Newark on the way there and a hurried connection in Cleveland on the way back. We are so fortunate to have such a sweet-natured baby.

Jack had quite a weekend! He more or less recovered from his tummy problems, though his teething still produces some, er, alarming results on the changing table. On his voyages he met many many family and friends and admirers (and readers of this blog whom I don't even know, really). Rather overwhelming at times for the little guy -- at the reception it was hard to get through the room without many well-intentioned hugs and grabs -- but he stayed cheerful and happy most of the time, ever-curious and smiling. Only once, at the reception, after about an hour and a half of steadily being passed around, pinched and smooched did he have a mini-meltdown, but after a nap (see below) and some quiet time with Mommy in the cloakroom he was back to his curious self.

I walked my sister Siobhan down the aisle, being her godfather and all. I will post a lenghty update about the wedding and the other fun grown-up times we had on my own blog later but I know what you all really want to see, and that's Jack strutting his stuff. Met a lot of people who read this blog who didn't even notice I had my own -- George Bush supporters and those faint of heart, visit at your own risk.
Jack, dapper as can be and extremely well-behaved at the ceremony.
Jack investigates Rose, due to arrive mid-December courtesy of Aunt Becca and Uncle Teige. Part of what we might call the New Power Generation of Sheehan Cousins.
Jack's cocoon at the wedding. Tried to keep him a little isolated from the music and general hootenanny for a while. Seemed to do the trick. I don't think we'll be bringing Jack to another wedding. Not that he wasn't an angel, but it's hard to really get into the spirit of the thing in the kind of gung-ho, take-no-prisoners style we favor when you have a little baby in the mix. Fortunately our next wedding is in close proximity to Grammy and Grampy Smith (see below).

Here's a snap from Siobhan's house just before the wedding of ALL the Sheehan/Barrett cousins. I think we tried to coerce Becca to include her pregnant tummy but she understandably demurred.
Backtracking one day to the rehearsal dinner, here Jack makes a move on the lovely bride-to-be.
As always, those fingers make for a refreshing delight.
One of the things we'll do if Jack is getting even the tiniest bit crabby is suddenly start applauding and crying, "Yayyyyy!!!" Jack will be confused for a second and then just kind of figure, well, something good must be going on, and then he'll get all excited and start smiling and forget about being crabby. Well, he was a teeny bit overwhelmed and my brother-in-law John was walking him around at the rehearsal dinner and Jack was whining a little when his little cousins -- who had seen Genevieve and me do our "Yay" trick earlier -- did it on their own. It worked, as always.
A variation on the "yay" story is that every morning when I have Jack all changed and dressed for the day I say "You're all dressed! Yay!!" as I pick him up. He gets sooooooo excited -- his eyes get super-wide and he has to cram both hands in his mouth.

Our lovely and sweet niece Nora held Jack for a spell at the rehearsal after-party at my sister's.
Even by Monday, I was pretty beat after all the festivities. So was Jack. Er . . .
Monday, G's folks had driven up from Philly with her sister Elizabeth. We has a nice family afternoon. Mom laid out quite a spread, I made some really good scrambled eggs and everyone communed with Jack-Jack.

Cheating a bit, this picture is actually from this morning, but what the hey.
Jack's Grammy had a swell time playing with the big man.
This was Elizabeth's first time meeting Jack. She's enthused whilst Jack seems skeptical . . .
And finally, Jack with his ladies . . .
And with his posse.

Spoke too soon

Well it seemed as if the tummy bug was passing . . . but then after our visit to the doctor yesterday we were back to . . . well, not square one, more like square four (out of ten) or five. The doc checked Jack out thoroughly; Jack is still gaining weight, maybe an ounce or two off target because of his pooping problems, but the doc says he's OK, it is no big deal, Jack just has an upset digestive system that will take some time to get better and we just have to be patient. It's been almost a month of ill baby now so patience is -- well, not wearing thin, exactly, but harder to muster.

Fortunately it doesn't seem to affect Jack's mood, in the main. After our trip to the doctor I had to bring him to school, because I had a meeting and class, and G drove up to pick him up. I introduced Jack to all the faculty who have been asking after him and he couldn't have been more sweet and jolly and happy. He's like this all the time, with the exception of some late night or early AM crabiness, but as long as he has this tummy problem day care is out of the question. I don't want to bring him back there until he is at 100%, and I don't want to bring him back even then. It's a perfectly fine place as these things go, but it is probably the source of his illnesses just by the nature of the thing. Anyway it is very frustrating because we don't really have a choice -- I have classes and drop-dead responsibilities, and of course G has work. The only blessing is that this semester classes are few for me, so we have the option of keeping him home with me. Next term will not be so easy -- in fact I will not be around much at all, because I will be editing my thesis films. So I dearly hope that having these little illnesses now will strengthen Jack's immune system some and make him less prone to these little bugs.

A long time coming

Hard to believe it has been so many days since this blog was last updated. But, there's good reason for the delay. My school schedule for this first month was absolutely brutal, all day and night for several weeks. On top of everything else, Jack came down with a cold, caught another one just when he was getting over the first, and then got a nasty stomach bug which produced an astonishing array of colorful diapers. He seems to be just now getting over that, but in a few minutes we are going to the doctor to check everything out anyway. We've kept him home from daycare to give his little body a chance to heal up -- especially because we have a major event next week, my sister's wedding, which means Jack's first airplane trip.

I have to add that Jack has been an exceptionally jolly patient. Unless he's been wracked with a cough or drowning in his own boogers, or crabbily waking up mommy and daddy in the middle of the night, you would not have any idea he was ill. Such is Jack's sunny disposition and his insatiable curiosity about anything nearby that's even remotely entertaining.

So there has not been a whole lot to report on, but in the interim we did get some darn cute photos.

Jack has kind of been trying to sit up straight but can't quite manage it. His bobblehead-like imbalance is still too challenging for him, so he manages to do this kind of tripod move if we coax him. He's getting better at it all the time.


Nope, doesn't look sick, does he?

Who can resist a relaxing Sunday loungin' in the lving room watching football? Jack loves to watch sports but is especially entranced with football, Jimbo will be pleased to note. The colorful, high-contrast uniforms and whiz-bang graphics and sound really hold his attention.


Far out, man.

Problems with images

I was going to make a brief update here, but there seems to be a problem woth images hosted on Blogger not showing up. As of this writing, the post below has no images at all. Just awaiting a fix.

Jack has a really bad cold which has been progressively getting worse the last 10 days. It seems to be peaking now and for the first time ever he's been really cranky for hours, poor lad. Hope he feels better in a couple of days. Breaks your heart; you can't really talk to him and he can't tell you where it hurts.

Bath time!

Jack was in an exceptionally good mood today! And good thing too, because it was a big day for Jack. It was his first day at school! Well, daycare anyway. (Dad is back in school this week, of which, more here.) And it was only kind of 3/4 of a day to start him out. G dropped him off this morning and picked him up this afternoon. "He sure does like to roll around a lot!" said the daycare lady. Yep, he does! Apparently Jack was a happy and playful little boy all day and was in a great mood all night. He really responded to the whole thing very well. My turn to drop him off tomorrow. It was bath night so G was getting him ready and he was so cute I grabbed the camera, which was still on the nightstand from earlier, and snapped off this quick shot. Blurry -- didn't use a flash and the ligth's low, heck it's only a point n shoot with limited settings -- but really gets the sense of the moment. Which is, happy baby bathtime!

I really love playing with Jack and getting him laughing. He's my Boo-Boo Bear. If you think that sounds totally wussy or something, you don't have a baby.

This one's for Auntie Fish. 'Nuff said.

Tale of the Tape

By the way, Jack's official weight and height as of his Dr. visit yesterday: 17 lbs, 4 oz, 26 1/4 inches, 90th percentile for both. He's a big fella.

The best baby in the world

Feast your eyes on the very best-behaved baby in the world. As many of you know Jack went in for surgery today at Cedars -- outpatient surgery, a small 90 minute operation, but it invovled a general anaesthetic so one worries a lot. Well, the staff at Cedars are just so wonderful they really put us at ease. But the real star of the show was Jack. By the time these pictures were taken he had not had a bite to eat or drink in almost 7 hours! And yet, he was all smiles and love for the nurses. Just a sweet-natured and jolly little boy. There was a little grousing here and there, but very little. And he was better in the recovery room than I would have been and certainly better than the groaning man in the next bed. Just amazing, a great little guy! The surgery went great and we are back home this afternoon -- Jack and mommy enjoying a well-deserved snooze at this very moment.

Ladies' Man

Well, the nurses were instantly in love with Jack. "We've got to show him around," they said, and before we knew it they had him out in the halls meeting all the nurses, who adored him. And why not? He is adorable!

Have fingers, will travel.

Born free . . .

Jack had to get changed into his hospital outfit at some point, so it was naked baby time. He was so smiley and jolly I tried to grab a quick pic but I had my camera set to small picture size. Still looks cute.

Handsome as ever

So Jack was whisked off to the OR where the ever-brilliant, gifted folks at Cedars had him all ship shape right on schedule. Everything went exactly as planned and when Jack woke up he was a little uncomfortable but soon calmed down and was his old self, just a little blearier. What a brave little man!
A Multi Media Share!, originally uploaded by laughograms.

Quick photo du jour

Yo-ho, yo-ho!

Avast there, ye swabbies! It's Captain Jack's great adventure on the high seas coming at you! But first . . . a few catch-up photos.


Jack's Nanny bought him this neat 4th of July outift on her last visit (on the shirt and matching cap you can see the little ants carrying off the picnic items, and on the back pocket a little ant is waving the flag). He has worn it twice since but unfortunately has managed to horribly soil it on each occasion (in a manner which does not need to be detailed here) before we have been able to get a good photo of him in it. So we made a special point of getting a good snapshot today.

Shot this while home alone with Jack -- trying to further document his patented "Retired Businessman Living on a Pension in South Florida Bodysuit" look which is all the rage here in Southern California. Jack is pretty fascinated by the blinking orange rangefinder on the camera.


What better dessert after a nice dinner with Mommy than rich, delicious fingers? Please note enormous puddle of drool above Jack's left hand. I am reasonably certain we could irrigate certain portions of the Sahara with the amount of drool emanating from Jack these days.


Tummy time . . . always an adventure. It's only so long before being on his tummy will make Jack crazy. Have to shoutout a big thank you to our friends Isaac and Julie for the Boppy pillow seen here . . . it has really helped out with this all-important tummy exercising and made it last much longer for Jack, and makes for cute photos besides. Jack is really getting good at turning over, except he gets one arm pinned under him and has not yet really grasped the function of arms yet (apart from their immense usefulness when it comes to jamming hands into his mouth), so he gets about 2/3 of the way and is just like, ah, to heck with it.

He does make some sort of flapping clutches at his bottle at feeding times and is really good at grabbing the little toys that hang off his gym. It's really cool to watch him slowly pick up new skills . . . but especially to see him flash that absolutely beaming smile which is on his face almost all day long. He really is a very sweet-natured, cheerful little baby who only gets grouchy when he is very, very hungry or sleepy or both.



Today Jack and Mommy and Daddy drove over to San Pedro to take in the LA Tall Ships Festival. Jack really enjoyed getting out and about and really got a kick (for a while) out of his first extended time spent facing front in his Baby Bjorn.

Jack and his enormous chubby jowls cut a fine figure in the Bjorn as you can see.


The Tall Ships event was nice to look at. The lines to get on the ships were incredibly long and the San Pedro seafront complex is just kind of unpleasant and inconvenient for walking around with large numbers of people. So it only took us about 90 minutes to see all the ships as well as we could and enjoy them. Because of the peculiar design of the prosaically named "Ports O' Call" complex it was really hard to get a good angle on any of the ships for photography purposes, but it's neat to see them up close.


After all that seafarin', Jack needed a good old snooze.


After the quick trip home and a delicious meal, it was time once again for a fine dessert of baby arm, that succulent treat.


That's all the photos for now -- see ya later, Dudes!

RAAAARRRR!!!

Sorry for the lack of updates. There really hasn't been much to share. The other day we took Jack to what will be his daycare facility come the end of August, when school starts again. It will be a little traumatic, I think, to be dropping him off there every day. I'm not anxious about it, as it seems like a very kind and loving and well-run place, but I am also not looking forward to it much.

While we were there I managed to get jack actually giggling for the very first time. G was talking to the day care person about the place and Jack was kind of cawing for my attention. I let him grab my two index fingers and then pretended he was shadow-boxing with them as I shook my head back and forth and made a funny noise. Well let it not be said that I am less than the very soul of wit, because this produced a long string of throaty chuckles rising to a giggling shriek. So uplifting to hear!

I repeated it until he finally was like, phew, that's exhausting, I need to suck on my hands for a while to calm down. That's his new favorite activity -- it's what he's trying to do in the pre-bathtime photo above. He often makes such large popping/sucking noises it's hilarious. Sometimes he has his hands crammed so far in there he's gagging on them like Lindsay Lohan.

But not much to report other than that. A nice photo, below, of Jack and Mommy curled up after a long day at the job.

It's good to be the king.

It must be nice to just kind of lie around most of the day, not doing much, pooping your pants. Wait, that's what I did for most of the 80's. Not the pants-pooping part. At least, not often.


Our good friends the Soyes, Paul and Kathleen and George and Maddy, sent us an awesome little rocker/beach chair for Jack. You can't see it, but it's embroidered with his name on the back and a little shamrock. So darn cute!


If you click the link below you will here a kind of toned-down version of what I listen to all day while Jack plays on his little mat. This is the low-key variant of Jack's little coversations with his toys. Sometimes he's really lecturing them in a loud and strident voice, but every time I tried to record that for an audio post, he of course clammed right up.