Vaccination time :(

Yoni went to the the pediatrician the Monday before last for his monthly exam. He weighed in at 10lbs on the dot and was 21.75 inches long. His noggin got a bit bigger too, but I don't recall the exact figure. To reward him for his voracious appetite which led to this increase in volume, he was given his first set of vaccines (although he got Hep B in the maternity ward; I guess there must be a lot of needle sharing amongst the newborns in the maternity ward).

Yoni got a shot in each pulki (thigh). After each, his mouth opened as if to scream and his face turned bright red, and this was followed by a horrible wail (no biblical allusion intended). Happily, he was consolable with some hand holding, shushing, and breast feeding. In the picture below, if you look closely, you can see a band-aid on each pulki (and in the picture below you can see that Yoni is in his John Wayne outfit).

Yoni went to be early that night, but started stirring around 9pm, when usually he wouldn't get up for a snack until at least midnight. His stirring led to some crankiness, which led to inconsolable crying. The pediatrician had mentioned that muscular knots may form at the injection site, making him uncomfortable, so we checked. Instead of a knot, we found that his left calf was bright red and warm. We paged our ped, who got back to us very quickly. He instructed us to give him some baby Tylenol (which we had on hand from the big snip), and apply a warm compress. Prior to calling our ped, I came up with the idea of putting a cold compress on it (whoops). We marched the crying Yoni around for about 30-45 minutes before he finally started calming down. Yael was very upset (as was I) at Yoni's inconsolable discomfort, and did a little crying of her own (I gave her some Tylenol and put a warm compress on her). The Tylenol had kicked in, and we all breathed a big sigh of relief. Poor little Yonster. This was our first real experience of seeing the little Yoni in real pain; we're not looking forward to the next time.


Below is proof that Yoni really did survive his vaccinations and is a happy little baby again. He's playing in his play-gym with, from left to right, Sally the shy sheep, Penny the porcupine, and Harry the happy horse. The blue homentash looking thing behind the animals contains a pressure sensitive musical player, that will play 3 or 4 different tunes when you hit it. We use it for musical interludes between the stimulating conversations that Sally, Penny, and Harry have.

Yoni also has tummy time on the mat. In addition to building his neck muscles, he likes to lick the mat and see how big of a drool puddle his can make. Right now his record is 8.23 inches in diameter.


I don't know if it was the vaccine or what, but Yoni has gotten very good at smiling recently. Here he is after being told the Aristocrat joke; he has a very warped sense of humor.

From Bath to Binny's

Jonah has been enjoying his baths more and more, although sometime his transitions from dry to wet can be a little disturbing for him. Here you can see Yoni posing and showing off his big belly. In big developmental news, although probably not visible from the photo, Yoni has developed pigment in his nipples. He and we are very proud of his new development.


Below is a picture of Yoni getting ready for a trip outside, I think to Whole Foods to get new wipies, and scour the store for free samples. Although Yoni shows an awful lot of emotion, we suspect he might be part Vulcan (notice his right hand). We've also caught him mind-melding with the cat.

Before heading to Whole Foods we stopped at the latest and greatest liquor store in Chicago: Binny's off Roosevelt. Yoni got pretty excited in one of the beer isles and drank himself into a stupor while we weren't looking. We weren't too upset though, since we didn't realize he had the dexterity to uncap a bottle. Such a crafty kid.

Here's Yael and Yoni after a breast feeding session at Whole Foods, one of Yael's favorite spots to tank up that baby. During Yoni's feeding, I'm sent to forage for free samples for Yael. It all feels so primitive/back to our hunter-gatherer roots.

Yoni's new look; New iBook security device

Recently, Yoni has been enjoying his occasional stays in the bouncy seat more and more. In addition to providing entertainment for him, it also allows us to shower or eat without having to hold Yoni or put him in the bassinet. Thank you bouncy seat! Although he hasn't figured out to pull the little rubber shapes to make the bird spin around and play music or chirping bird sounds, he has been batting them around and making them jingle, which entertains him for minutes (now up to around 10).

During breakfast this morning, Yoni came up with a new facial expression. Others, which perhaps I'll try to photodocument at some point, include parrot, Zoolander (as in Derek ), smile, pout (bottom lip pushed out), and several variations on cry. I'm not sure what this one should be called or why he does it, I think perhaps he is just experimenting; feel free to suggest some names. See below:

The 2008 MacWorld expo has just finished, so I think we'll have to present our new product idea next year. Hopefully we can get all the patent paperwork out of the way by then. We call our new device the CatOnMac protection system. Think of this as a device to take to unsecure places where you use your laptop, such as coffee shops, airports, etc. When you step away from your machine, you place the device on it. The apparent ferocity of the device will deter any would-be thieves. The device is shown below in two of an infinite number of configurations. Using the device with the keyboard open is more difficult; a lighter weight device is being developed to allow for more flexibility.

There have been a couple of suggestions for names for Yoni's expression. Grandma Sandy has thus far come up with the most convincing (Grouper, or more simply, fish), and with the following supporting material. If KC can can demonstrate why shrub is appropriate, we could have a poll. How exciting would that be!

Boppin babe or flash dance fanatic

Yael has been giving Yoni some tummy time each day. She read that they prefer being a bit upright and has started using the boppy to this end. Here are some shots of him looking particularly cute (in our opinion) working on his abs and neck muscles.

Here is evidence that I'm back at work. Yael has dressed Yoni up to try out for the new Flash Dance series on NBC. I'm praying he doesn't get the part -- you know he would be so type cast for the rest of his acting career.

And finally a shot of Yoni doing his marsupial imitation. Pretty convincing I think.

Shake, rattle, and hiccup

Jonah provided some new material for us. First, is him showing off his new found dexterity with the rattle. A video of it can be found here (please forgive our perpetual baby talk voices; we don't recognize how annoying it is until we hear ourselves do it) [note that Yael is on the phone with Serena during this video, and not talking to her imaginary friend]:




Yoni has been hiccuping for a while, starting in utero. We've finally captured him in one of his ex utero bouts of hiccups. Since you probably have better things to do, I've compressed over six minutes worth of hiccups (a single episode) into a 45 second clip. Enjoy!

Fingernails, the many faces of Jonah, and other tidbits

Cutting fingernails can be dangerous!!

Ever since I first tried to cut Jonah's fingernails at the hospital and accidentally cut into his cuticle and made him bleed, Yael has been understanding and has taken over the nail cutting responsibility. However, as can be seen in the photo below, Yael has become even more careless than I had been. Not only did she cut into his cuticle, but completely removed all the tissue from Yoni's hands all the way to his wrist. How this happened twice still befuddles me.

G & Y

Below is evidence of the improving relationship between Yoni and Grendel. Grendel has become much better at tolerating Yoni's bouts of screaming, and is now sharing story time with him as is seen below. Yoni has primarily ignored Grendel; my guess is that Grendel will not be pleased when Yoni takes more notice of him, but we'll see.

Faces

Below are some of my favorite recent pictures of Jonah. All of these expressions occurred within several minutes of each other. He has many other less happy faces, but we don't seem to be inclined to run and get the camera when these occur. That said, when he starts to get upset he puffs out his lower lip, at which we can't help laughing. He rewards our misinterpretation of his cue with a hearty wail (no pun intended).

Napping shots

Here are a couple of nice pics of Yoni and Yael napping together. I have no idea how Yoni got himself into this pose. It sort of looks like he fell asleep reading the pillow, but I don't think that's what happened.


Grendel has a new habit of dressing Yoni up when we aren't around. We had thought Yoni was doing it, but here we caught G in the act (He's also the one who reads the trashy magazines; Yael reads the Economist and the Utne Reader).

Yoni hits the bottle

Below is a picture of Yoni's very first drink from a bottle (other than the Manischewitz from his bris). Given that Yael will be teaching in the spring and that every now and again I will have to do supplemental feeding, we needed to make sure that Yoni would be o.k. drinking from a bottle, and not be a boob snob and turn has nose up to the artificial nipple as can happen. We followed either Sears or the AAPs advise, and I tried to feed Yoni with Yael out of sight. Yoni was crying because he was hungry and when I stuck the bottle's nipple into his mouth, he was not impressed, thinking I was just trying to pacify him. I give him a couple of squirts from the nipple, and he figured out what was going on right away. He polished the bottle off in about 3-4 minutes (~3 oz or so), but was still hungry. I was out of ammo, so Yael took over. The lessons learned were: 1) Yoni likes drinking from the bottle, 2) Yoni probably wants more than 3 oz per feeding, 3) Yoni eats much more quickly from the bottle (a commonly known fact). FYI, did you know nipples come in different speeds --- just like squash balls?, 4) It will probably be very wise for me to make Yoni stop occasionally when bottle feeding, 5) I may not have boobs, but in a pinch, armed with a bottle full of milk, I will suffice come feeding time.

What Yoni will look like in 10 years

As probably all new parents do, Yael and I were dying to know what Yoni would look like in the future. There is an online service which for a small fee of $500 lets you project what your infant will look like in the future. Below is what they extrapolated for Yoni. . . (keep scrolling)




















(keep going. . .)

Yoni has visitors

Yoni had a number of visitors over the holiday weekend. He got to meet Karen and Barry for the first time, and had a very yummy meal with them at Nuevo Leon (although Yoni doesn't get to have that particular meal for several hours later). Below is a picture of Karen holding Yoni. Barry, keeping his distance, seemed to have some sort of psychic ability to predict baby barfs, for several moments later Yoni showed his affection for Karen by covering her arm and leg with a projectile milk kiss. She was an excellent sport about it, and somehow repressed any feeling of disgust.



Kristi, Towi, Ana, and Javi came to visit us and Chicago after spending Christmas with Kristi's mom and her husband, Dee and Marv, in Grand Rapids. It was great seeing and spending time with them again, and introducing them to Yoni. Below are some photos from their weekend stay which includes a visit to the Shedd Aquarium.

(Yael listens intently as Kristi imparts her parenting wisdom [Yoni is napping in the sling, but absorbing everything ])

Kristi and Ana prepare for a nap (although I don't remember either of them napping).

Javi and Towi at the aquarium after watching the sea otters, or maybe it was eating lunch.

Here's Yael and Yoni at the aquarium. Yael's sweater was a bit scratchy, so Yoni requested to rest his head on a barf cloth (admit it, if it was just burping that the cloth was used for, there would be no need for it).


Here's a couple pics of Miki, a 4 month old Beluga whale calf with her Mom. There's another older calf and several other females in the tank. Both calves are still breast feeding, which we observed a couple of times. It was unclear which female was the lactation consultant; although perhaps breast feeding in water reduces the likelihood of chaffing.